Nankai University

About: Nankai University is a education organization based out in Tianjin, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Enantioselective synthesis. The organization has 42964 authors who have published 51866 publications receiving 1127896 citations. The organization is also known as: Nánkāi Dàxué.

One‐Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of 2D Hexagonal Nanoplates of α‐Fe2O3/Graphene Composites with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract: There has been significant progress in the field of semiconductor photocatalysis, but it is still a challenge to fabricate low-cost and high-activity photocatalysts because of safety issues and nonsecondary pollution to the environment. Here, 2D hexagonal nanoplates of -Fe2O3/graphene composites with relatively good distribution are synthesized for the first time using a simple, one-step, template-free, hydrothermal method that achieves the effective reduction of the graphene oxide (GO) to graphene and intimate and large contact interfaces of the -Fe2O3 nanoplates with graphene. The - Fe2O3/graphene composites showed significantly enhancement in the photocatalytic activity compared with the pure -Fe2O3 nanoplates. At an optimal ratio of 5 wt% graphene, 98% of Rhodamine (RhB) is decomposed with 20 min of irradiation, and the rate constant of the composites is almost four times higher than that of pure -Fe2O3 nanoplates. The decisive factors in improving the photocatalytic performance are the intimate and large contact interfaces between 2D hexagonal -Fe2O3 nanoplates and graphene, in addition to the high electron withdrawing/storing ability and the highconductivity of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) formed during the hydrothermal reaction. The effective charge transfer from -Fe2O3 nanoplates to graphene sheets is demonstrated by the significant weakening of photoluminescence in -Fe2O3/graphene composites.

Conjugation of glucose oxidase onto Mn-doped ZnS quantum dots for phosphorescent sensing of glucose in biological fluids.

Abstract: Integrating various enzymes with nanomaterials provides various nanohybrids with new possibilities in biosensor applications. Furthermore, the enzymatic activity and stability are also improved due to the large surface area of nanomaterials. Here we report the conjugation of glucose oxidase (GOD) onto phosphorescent Mn-doped ZnS quantum dots (QDs) using 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropy)carbodiimide (EDC)/N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) as coupling reagents for glucose biosensing based on the effective quenching of the room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) of Mn-doped ZnS QDs by the H2O2 generated from GOD-catalyzed oxidation of glucose. The obtained bioconjugate not only provided improved enzymatic performance with Michaelis−Menten constant of 0.70 mM but also favored biological applications because the phosphorescent detection mode avoided the interference from autofluorescence and scattering light from the biological matrix. In addition, the GOD-conjugated Mn-doped ZnS QDs showed better thermal stability in ...

New Triphenylamine-Based Dyes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract: A series of new conjugated metal−free organic dyes (TC1, TC2, TC3, and TC4) comprising triphenylamine (TPA) moieties as the electron donor and cyanoacetic acid moieties as the electron acceptor/anchoring groups were designed at the molecular level and developed for the use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Quantum chemical calculations have been performed to gain insight into structural, electronic, and optical properties of the as-synthesized sensitizers. The time-dependent density functional theory calculations allowed assignment of the experimental spectroscopic data. It is found that the photovoltaic performance of the DSCs with the as-synthesized dyes can be improved by enhancing the electron-donor ability and extending the π-conjugated bridge of the dyes. In particular, the DSCs based on 2-cyano-5-(4-(phenyl(4-vinylphenyl)amino)phenyl) penta-2,4-dienoic acid dye (TC4) showed an open circuit voltage of 652 mV, a short circuit photocurrent density of 11.5 mA cm-2, and a fill factor of 0.64, corres...

Activating cobalt(II) oxide nanorods for efficient electrocatalysis by strain engineering

Abstract: Designing high-performance and cost-effective electrocatalysts toward oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions in water-alkali electrolyzers is pivotal for large-scale and sustainable hydrogen production. Earth-abundant transition metal oxide-based catalysts are particularly active for oxygen evolution reaction; however, they are generally considered inactive toward hydrogen evolution reaction. Here, we show that strain engineering of the outermost surface of cobalt(II) oxide nanorods can turn them into efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. They are competitive with the best electrocatalysts for this reaction in alkaline media so far. Our theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the tensile strain strongly couples the atomic, electronic structure properties and the activity of the cobalt(II) oxide surface, which results in the creation of a large quantity of oxygen vacancies that facilitate water dissociation, and fine tunes the electronic structure to weaken hydrogen adsorption toward the optimum region.