Southwest University of Science and Technology

About: Southwest University of Science and Technology is a education organization based out in Mianyang, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Adsorption & Graphene. The organization has 10017 authors who have published 8923 publications receiving 94850 citations. The organization is also known as: Xīnán Kējìdàxué.

Well-Defined Cobalt Catalyst with N-Doped Carbon Layers Enwrapping: The Correlation between Surface Atomic Structure and Electrocatalytic Property

Abstract: Admittedly, the surface atomic structure of heterogenous catalysts toward the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are accepted as the important features that can tune catalytic activity and even catalytic pathway. Herein, a surface engineering strategy to controllably synthesize a carbon-layer-wrapped cobalt-catalyst from 2D cobalt-based metal-organic frameworks is elaborately demonstrated. Combined with synchrotron radiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the soft X-ray absorption near-edge structure results confirmed that rich covalent interfacial CoNC bonds are efficiently formed between cobalt nanoparticles and wrapped carbon-layers during the polydopamine-assisted pyrolysis process. The X-ray absorption fine structure and corresponding extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra further reveal that the wrapped cobalt with Co-N coordinations shows distinct surface distortion and atomic environmental change of Co-based active sites. In contrast to the control sample without coating layers, the 800 °C-annealed cobalt catalyst with N-doped carbon layers enwrapping achieves significantly enhanced ORR activity with onset and half-wave potentials of 0.923 and 0.816 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode), highlighting the important correlation between surface atomic structure and catalytic property.

Protein-Affinitive Polydopamine Nanoparticles as an Efficient Surface Modification Strategy for Versatile Porous Scaffolds Enhancing Tissue Regeneration

Abstract: Porous scaffolds for tissue regeneration are often functionalized with extracellular matrix proteins to enhance surface/cell interactions and tissue regeneration. However, continuous coatings produced by commonly used surface modification strategies may preclude cells from contacting and sensing the chemical and physical cues of the scaffold. Here, it is shown that polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA-NPs) tightly adhere on various scaffolds to form nanostructures, and the coverage can be finely tuned. Furthermore, the PDA-NPs have good affinity to a variety of proteins and peptides. Thus, the PDA-NPs act as an anchor to immobilize signal biomolecules on scaffolds, and consequently promote cell activity and tissue regeneration. β-Tricalcium phosphate (TCP) scaffolds decorated with PDA-NPs demonstrate excellent osteoinductivity and bone-regeneration performance due to the protein affinity of PDA-NPs and the intrinsic bioactive characteristics of TCP scaffolds. In summary, PDA-NPs with excellent affinity for protein adhesion represent a versatile platform to modify porous scaffolds while not compromising the biological functions of the scaffolds, and might have potential applications in tissue regeneration.

Ultrasensitive Flexible Solar-Blind Photodetectors Based on Graphene/Amorphous Ga2O3 van der Waals Heterojunctions.

Abstract: Flexible photodetectors (PDs) have become the latest research interest owing to their potential applications in future implantable sensors and foldable/wearable optoelectronics. Ga2O3, an emerging ultrawide band gap semiconductor, is considered as the native photosensitive material for solar-blind PDs. The reported fabrication temperature of Ga2O3 films is usually above 600 °C, which hinders its practical application for flexible devices. In this work, flexible PDs based on graphene/amorphous Ga2O3 van der Waals heterojunctions are fabricated, which demonstrate promising photoresponse to solar-blind ultraviolet light. The device yields a high photo-to-dark current ratio (∼105) and large responsivity (22.75 A/W) under 254 nm light illumination, which could be ascribed to the efficient photogenerated electron-hole pair separation by the strong built-in field. Moreover, flexible PDs also show long-term environmental stability and outstanding mechanical flexibility without any encapsulation. Our work provides a new potential candidate for realizing cost-effective high-performance flexible optoelectronic applications.