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In this paper we prepared titania nanotubes which was doped with erbium ions in ethylene glycol organic electrolyte through ions doping method. We found that the unit cell's parameters of the titania nanotubes increased when the titania nanotubes was doped with erbium ions. The Er 3+ doped titania nanotubes has a strong absorption ability of infrared light, and the doping Er 3+ has a characteristic peak when the wave number is 2341 cm −1 . When the concentration of the doping Er 3+ is 2.61 mmol/L, the titania nanotubes’ photo-degradation rate of the methylene blue can be reached to 95.2% which is larger than the titania nanotubes without doping with erbium ions. So, the titania nanotubes doped with Er 3+ is extremely suitable for using as photocatalytic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monoclinic nanostructured CuO films with star-like morphology on indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrates were successfully synthesized by electrodeposition method in acidic solution with the pH of 5.7. The as-synthesized films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV–vis. The influence of different electrodeposition parameters and annealing temperature on the growth of CuO films were investigated. The results showed that the nanostructured CuO film was well-crystallized and electrodeposition voltage is the main factor to control its morphology. Moreover, good photocatalytic activity was exhibited and photo-degradation rate to methylene blue can reach 95%. Its optical energy band gap is 3.3 eV. The plausible growth mechanism for the formation of CuO film with star-like structure is also proposed for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • ZnO/PDMS was successfully synthesized via a two-step method and the influence of process parameters was studied in detail. • ZnO/PDMS possessed excellent photocatalytic and superhydrophobic properties. • The synergistic effect of the photocatalytic and superhydrophobic properties enhanced the antibacterial performance against E. coli. The combination of photocatalysis and superhydrophobic has attracted much attention because of its great prospect. In this work, ZnO/PDMS composites were synthesized by electrodeposition-grafting modification method. The effects of process parameters on the structure and properties of the composite structures were studied, and the composite structures were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), UV-visible spectroscopy and contact angle measurement. The results showed that the samples obtained under the optimal conditions have superhydrophobic property and remained excellent photocatalytic performance. In the self-cleaning experiment, the simulated pollutants can be effectively removed from the surface. Compared with ZnO, ZnO/PDMS possessed better resistance to Escherichia coli, which was due to the synergistic antibacterial mechanism of photocatalytic activity and superhydrophobic interaction. Furthermore, we also discussed the mechanism in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]