In this work we have investigated the role of a porous carbon material used as photocatalyst itself, and catalyst support in a carbon/titania composite towards the photodegradation of phenol, and compared the results to that of bare titanium oxide. The immobilization of titania on an activated carbon provoked an acceleration of the degradation rate under UV irradiation, which is likely attribut...

Nanostructured carbon-based materials, such as nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube arrays, Co3O4/nitrogen-doped graphene hybrids and carbon nanotube-graphene complexes have shown respectable oxygen reduction reaction activity in alkaline media. Although certainly promising, the performance of these materials does not yet warrant implementation in the energy conversion/storage devices utilizing basic...

Fuel cell is a promising choice for clean energy because of its eco-friendly system, high energy conversion efficiency and high power density. Recently, much of the research work is focused on the system of combining metal oxides to increase the durability and surface area and to reduce the cost. In this study, among the various fabrication methods, we used the precipitation method to synthesis...

Commercialization of materials utilizing patterned carbon nanotube (CNT) forests, such as hierarchical composite structures, dry adhesives, and contact probe arrays, will require catalyst patterning techniques that do not rely on cleanroom photolithography. We demonstrate the large scale patterning of CNT growth catalyst via adaptation of a laser-based electrostatic printing process that uses m...

A nitrogen ligand, i.e. 1,3-di-(o-aminophenoxy)-2-propyl propargyl ether (DPPE), has been synthesized and characterized. Magnetic mesoporous silica composite (MNP@SiO2-SBA) was obtained via embedding magnetite nano-particles (MNPs) between SBA-15 channels. DPPE palladium dichloride (MNP@SiO2-SBA-DPPE-Pd(II)) then prepared click chemistry fully The Hiyama reaction conditions including solvent, a...

Cadmium selenide nanoparticles, prepared by known methods, were stabilized with functional phosphine oxide 1, then used to support the polymerization of cyclic olefins radially outward from the surface by ruthenium-catalyzed ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). The conversion of compound 1 into the new metathesis catalyst 3 by carbene exchange and the subsequent polymerization of cycl...

The oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds in a clean fashion (i.e., with water as a solvent or under solvent-free conditions, and using O2 or H2O2 as the primary oxidant) is the subject of considerable research efforts. A new approach for the selective oxidation of soluble aromatic alcohols in water under mild conditions via a novel composite photocatalyst has been developed. The catalyst...

The rational design and preparation of hierarchical nanoarchitectures are critical for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, well-integrated hollow ZnO@TiO2 heterojunctions were obtained by a simple hydrothermal method. This unique hierarchical heterostructure not only caused multiple reflections which enhances the light absorption but also improved the lifetime and...

Merging nanoparticles with different functions into a single microsphere can exhibit profound impact on various applications. However, retaining the unique properties of each component after integration has proven to be a significant challenge. Our previous research demonstrated a facile method to incorporate magnetic nanoparticles into porous silica microspheres. Here, we report the fabricatio...