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Low-cost, efficient and stable electrocatalysts are required for large-scale production of hydrogen by industrial scale water electrolysis. We report here a hybrid bifunctional electrocatalyst, composed of amorphous NiFe LDH nanosheets and metallic Ni3N microsheet arrays grown on Ni foam for water splitting in alkaline electrolyte. This electrocatalyst possesses a typical 3D hierarchical heterostructure architecture and affords abundant exposed active sites. The strong coupling and synergistic effects between the NiFe LDH nanosheets and the Ni3N microsheet arrays provide a robust integrated structure and fast electron transfer. The superhydrophilic/superaerophobic properties of the electrocatalyst promote the mass transfer particularly at a large current density. By employing the NiFe LDH@Ni3N/NF as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting, an alkaline aqueous electrolyzer exhibits a low cell voltage of 1.80 V at a current density of 500 mA cm−2 with a remarkable durability of 100 h. The bifunctional NiFe LDH@Ni3N/NF electrocatalyst is a very promising candidate for scale-up industrial implementation of hydrogen production due to its excellent catalysis activity and high stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a novel environmentally friendly approach to deposit TiO2 films via an aqueous process is developed. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurement indicates that water-dispersed TiO2 nanocrystals (NCs) show excellent film-forming properties on an ITO-coated glass substrate. In addition, the femtosecond transient absorption (TA) and conductivity measurements suggest that the aqueous-processed TiO2 film shows excellent electron extraction ability and good conductivity. The aqueous-processed polymer/NC hybrid solar cells based on the aqueous-processed TiO2 electron extraction layer present superior photovoltaic performance and a PCE of 5.53% is achieved, which is the highest for hybrid solar cells fabricated via an aqueous process. Finally, the solar cells with the aqueous-processed TiO2 electron extraction layer exhibit better humidity resistance compared to the TiO2 film deposited via a sol–gel method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiconductor gas sensors play important roles in detecting toxic gases in various workplaces for human safety. The gas-sensing characteristics of highly orientational CdS dendrite (HOCSD) sensors were investigated. The results showed that the HOCSD sensors exhibited an excellent response and high response speed to HCOOH and N2H4, compared to HCHO and n-BuNH2. The high performance of the HOCSD sensors towards HCOOH and N2H4 detection could be attributed to two factors: the improved diffusion and adsorption/desorption ability of the CdS dendrites, and the synergistic effect of the reduction ability and hydrogen bonds of detected gases. Moreover, it is believed that the HOCSD sensors could be potentially applied to detect the HCOOH and N2H4 with high response, fast response speed and good repeatability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]