We discuss a recently proposed novel photonic approach for enhancing the fluorescence of extremely thin chemosensing polymer layers. We present theoretical and experimental results demonstrating the concept of gain-assisted waveguided energy transfer (G-WET) on a very thin polymer nanolayer spincoated on an active ZnO thin film. The G-WET approach is shown to result in an 8-fold increase in pol...

The nanostructured ZnO/copper oxide (Cu2O) photovoltaic devices based on electrospun ZnO nanofibrous network and electrodeposited Cu2O layer have been fabricated. The effects of the pH value of electrodeposition solution and the Cu2O layer thickness on the photovoltaic performances have been investigated. It is revealed that the pH value influences the morphology and structure of the Cu2O layer...

Aligned ZnO nanorod arrays films were grown on LiNbO3 substrates by aqueous growth, and subsequently rendered superhydrophobic with RF sputtered coated Teflon. The as-prepared surface exhibits superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle (CA) of 154.5. After 2 hours of UV irradiation on the surface, the surface wettability was approaching hydrophilic state; CA was measured to be 113. This stu...

Scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) was proven to be a prospective microfabrication method for the in situ synthesis and multiscale assembly of functional nanomaterials into microdevices. Nanostructured ZnO thin film was synthesized and assembled by SECCM, which has excellent electrochemical capacitance and electronic I-V properties.

Nanostructured zinc oxide is intensively studied semiconductor showing photocatalytical activity. There are several precursors which can be used for the preparation of nanostructured zinc oxide like zinc acetate, zinc sulphate and many others. Zinc chloride is another compound which can serve as a zinc source for zinc oxide preparation. Nowadays the environmental aspects connected to applicatio...

A new approach for developing solid-state dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) on glass/ITO and plastic substrates (PEN/ITO) is presented in this manuscript. A two step electrodeposition technique has been employed to realize the ZnO photoelectrodes. First a ZnO thin film is deposited on the ITO substrate and subsequently on this buffer layer 650 nm long ZnO nanowires are grown. The different nan...

Although generally ascribed to the presence of defects, an ultimate assignment of the different contributions to the emission spectrum in terms of surface states and deep levels in ZnO nanostructures is still lacking. In this work we unambiguously give first evidence that zinc vacancies at the (1010) nonpolar surfaces are responsible for the green luminescence of ZnO nanostructures. The result ...

Using first principles calculations based on density functional theory and a coupled finite-fields/finite-differences approach, we study the dielectric properties, phonon dispersions and Raman spectra of ZnO, a material whose internal polarization fields require special treatment to correctly reproduce the ground state electronic structure and the coupling with external fields. Our results are ...