We fabricated titanium dioxide (TiO2)-silica (SiO2) nanocomposite structures with controlled morphology by a simple synthetic approach using cooperative sol-gel chemistry and block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly. Mixed TiO2-SiO2 sol-gel precursors were blended with amphiphilic poly(styrene-block-ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) BCPs where the precursors were selectively incorporated into the hydrophil...

Vertically aligned TiO2 nanotubes have been fabricated on the indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) by a simple and versatile technique using the lectrochemically deposited ZnO nanorods, oriented along the c-axis, as a template in the spin-on based sol–gel reaction of a Ti precursor. The iameter, length, and shape of TiO2 nanotubes were controlled by changing the initial ZnO nanorod template and the spi...

We report on efficient ZnO nanocrystal (ZnO-NC) emission in the near-UV region. We show that luminescence from ZnO nanocrystals embedded in a SiO2 matrix can vary significantly as a function of the annealing temperature from 450°C to 700°C. We manage to correlate the emission of the ZnO nanocrystals embedded in SiO2 thin films with transmission electron microscopy images in order to optimize th...

This work shows the effect of 2 and 5 wt% TiO2 nanoparticles (modified by fluorocarbons and not) and of 1, 3 and 5 wt% ZnO particles on PLA degradation evaluated under UV irradiation, hydrolytical 1N NaOH solution, enzymatical proteinase K solution, and isothermal condition. The presence of TiO2 nanoparticles and ZnO particles decreases the degradation processes of PLA under UV light exposure a...

Five percent of Fe-doped ZnO (ZnO:Fe) thin films were deposited on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates by a spin-coating method. The films were annealed without (ZnO:Fe-0T) and with a pulsed magnetic field of 4 T (ZnO:Fe-4TP) to investigate the magnetic annealing effect on the resistance switching (RS) behavior of the Pt/ZnO:Fe/Pt structures. Compared with the ZnO:Fe-0T film, the ZnO:Fe-4TP film showed ...

Nanocrystalline n type ZnO thin films were deposited on SiO2-coated (0.4 μm) p-Si substrates (10-20Ω-cm, 400 μm) by a low cost chemical deposition technique to fabricate ZnO-based resistive sensors for methane detection. The nanocrystalline ZnO needle like structures were grown on RCA cleaned p-Si substrates by successive immersion (100-200 times) into a Sodium

Narrow-band-gap semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are considered as next-generation sensitizers for solar cells because of their extraordinary optical and electrical properties in terms of tuneable band gap, high molar extinction coefficient, and large intrinsic dipole moment, which may facilitate charge separation in solar cells. Moreover, theoretical photovoltaic conversion efficiency of QDs-s...

High performance is expected in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) that utilize one-dimensional (1-D) TiO2 nanostructures owing to the effective electron transport. However, due to the low dye adsorption, mainly because of their smooth surfaces, 1-D TiO2 DSSCs show relatively lower efficiencies than nanoparticle-based ones. Herein, we demonstrate a very simple approach using thick TiO2 electros...