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In this study, tin oxide (SnO2) films are prepared by using plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) with tetrakis(dimethylamino)tin(IV) (TDMA-Sn) as the Sn metal source and O2/Ar mixture as the oxidant. The plasma power is varied from 1000 to 3000 W to investigate its influence of oxygen vacancies and defects on the SnO2 film properties. The experimental results show that the plasma power plays an important role in the deposition of SnO2 films. Unwanted Sn3O4 formation is observed at both of low and high powers. The optical emission spectra of the plasma with different power are analyzed to obtain the insight of the mechanism of the PEALD SnO2 films growth. The optimal plasma power of 1500 W is found to be very close to the threshold where the oxygen radical intensity starts to sharply increase. Lower and higher powers can lead to insufficient oxidation and strong ion bombardment, respectively, resulting in reduced SnO2 film quality.

CsPbBr3 is a promising light-emitting material due to its wet solution processability, high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), narrow color spectrum, and cost-effectiveness. Despite such advantages, the morphological defects, unsatisfactory carrier injection, and stability issues retard its widespread applications in light-emitting devices (LEDs). In this work, we demonstrated a facile and cost-effective method to improve the morphology, efficiency, and stability of the CsPbBr3 emissive layer using a dual polymeric encapsulation governed by an interface-assisted grain control process (IAGCP). An eco-friendly low-cost hydrophilic polymer poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) was blended into the CsPbBr3 precursor solution, which endows the prepared film with a better surface coverage with a smoothened surface. Furthermore, it is revealed that inserting a thin PVP nanothick interlayer at the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)/emissive layer interface further promotes the film quality and the performance of the derived LED. It is mainly attributed to three major consequences: (i) reduced grain size of the emissive layer, which facilitates charge recombination, (ii) reduced current leakage due to the enhanced electron-blocking effect, and (iii) improved color purity and air stability owing to better defect passivation. As a result, the optimized composite emissive film can retain the luminescence properties even on exposure to ambient conditions for 80 days and ∼62% of its initial PL intensity can be preserved after 30 days of storage without any encapsulation.

Indium oxide (In2O3) film has excellent optical and electrical properties, which makes it useful for a multitude of applications. The preparation of In2O3 film via atomic layer deposition (ALD) method remains an issue as most of the available In-precursors are inactive and thermally unstable. In this work, In2O3 film was prepared by ALD using a remote O2 plasma as oxidant, which provides highly reactive oxygen radicals, and hence significantly enhancing the film growth. The substrate temperature that determines the adsorption state on the substrate and reaction energy of the precursor was investigated. At low substrate temperature (100–150 °C), the ratio of chemically adsorbed precursors is low, leading to a low growth rate and amorphous structure of the films. An amorphous-to-crystalline transition was observed at 150–200 °C. An ALD window with self-limiting reaction and a reasonable film growth rate was observed in the intermediate temperature range of 225–275 °C. At high substrate temperature (300–350 °C), the film growth rate further increases due to the decomposition of the precursors. The resulting film exhibits a rough surface which consists of coarse grains and obvious grain boundaries. The growth mode and properties of the In2O3 films prepared by plasma-enhanced ALD can be efficiently tuned by varying the substrate temperature.

In this study, silicon oxide (SiO2) films were deposited by remote plasma atomic layer deposition with Bis(diethylamino)silane (BDEAS) and an oxygen/argon mixture as the precursors. Oxygen plasma powers play a key role in the quality of SiO2 films. Post-annealing was performed in the air at different temperatures for 1 h. The effects of oxygen plasma powers from 1000 W to 3000 W on the properties of the SiO2 thin films were investigated. The experimental results demonstrated that the SiO2 thin film growth per cycle was greatly affected by the O2 plasma power. Atomic force microscope (AFM) and conductive AFM tests show that the surface of the SiO2 thin films, with different O2 plasma powers, is relatively smooth and the films all present favorable insulation properties. The water contact angle (WCA) of the SiO2 thin film deposited at the power of 1500 W is higher than that of other WCAs of SiO2 films deposited at other plasma powers, indicating that it is less hydrophilic. This phenomenon is more likely to be associated with a smaller bonding energy, which is consistent with the result obtained by Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy. In addition, the influence of post-annealing temperature on the quality of the SiO2 thin films was also investigated. As the annealing temperature increases, the SiO2 thin film becomes denser, leading to a higher refractive index and a lower etch rate.

In this study, the effect of radical intensity on the deposition mechanism, optical, and electrical properties of tin oxide (SnO2) thin films is investigated. The SnO2 thin films are prepared by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition with different plasma power from 1000 to 3000 W. The experimental results show that plasma contains different amount of argon radicals (Ar*) and oxygen radicals (O*) with the increased power. The three deposition mechanisms are indicated by the variation of Ar* and O* intensities evidenced by optical emission spectroscopy. The adequate intensities of Ar* and O* are obtained by the power of 1500 W, inducing the highest oxygen vacancies (OV) ratio, the narrowest band gap, and the densest film structure. The refractive index and optical loss increase with the plasma power, possibly owing to the increased film density. According to the Hall effect measurement results, the improved plasma power from 1000 to 1500 W enhances the carrier concentration due to the enlargement of OV ratio, while the plasma powers higher than 1500 W further cause the removal of OV and the significant bombardment from Ar*, leading to the increase of resistivity.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has drawn much attention due to its excellent optical and electrical properties. In this study, ZnO film was prepared by a high-deposition-rate spatial atomic layer deposition (ALD) and subjected to a post-annealing process to suppress the intrinsic defects and improve the crystallinity and film properties. The results show that the film thickness increases with annealing temperature owing to the increment of oxide layer caused by the suppression of oxygen vacancy defects as indicated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra. The film transmittance is seldom influenced by annealing. The refractive index increases with annealing temperature at 300&ndash, 700 &deg, C, possibly due to higher density and crystallinity of the film. The band gap decreases after annealing, which should be ascribed to the decrease in carrier concentration according to Burstein&ndash, Moss model. The carrier concentration decreases with increasing annealing temperature at 300&ndash, C since the oxygen vacancy defects are suppressed, then it increases at 800 &deg, C possibly due to the out-diffusion of oxygen atoms from the film. Meanwhile, the carrier mobility increases with temperature due to higher crystallinity and larger crystallite size. The film resistivity increases at 300&ndash, C then decreases at 800 &deg, C, which should be ascribed primarily to the variation of carrier concentration.

In this paper, indium oxide (In2O3) thin films are prepared by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) using cyclopentadienylindium(I) (InCp) as the metal precursor and O2 plasma as the oxidant. The mechanism and effects of annealing temperature under the air atmosphere on optical, structural, and electrical properties of the films are investigated. The experimental results show that both of the as-deposited and annealed films are polycrystalline bixbyite-cubic structure. No significant influences on the optical properties are observed when the annealing temperature increases from 300 to 600 °C. However, it is confirmed the filling of oxygen vacancy defects by the in-diffused oxygen atoms from the annealing ambient. The carbon impurities resulting from the incompletely reacted InCp are found to be at the interstitial sites in the In2O3 lattice, which can be greatly removed by the annealing treatment. As a consequence, the electrical resistivity increases with increasing annealing temperature mainly related to the reduced carrier concentration. This paper is helpful for PEALD In2O3 films to be applied to optoelectronic devices where the suppression of the oxygen defects, carrier concentration, and carbon impurities are required.

Low-dimensional perovskites have been widely studied as a promising candidate for realizing stable light-emitting diodes (LEDs). However, blue-light-emitting devices generally possess low stability associated with gradually red-shifted emission. To overcome this issue, the effect of zinc bromide (ZnBr2) addition on the regulation of the crystal structures of phenethylammonium and bromine-chlorine mixed inorganic perovskites (PEA-CsPbBrxCl3-x) is investigated. With the ZnBr2 addition, low-dimensional perovskite structures undergo morphological changes, such as thickening of their crystal structures and higher degree of crystal arrangement. Stoichiometric selective characterization reveals that perovskite bonding forces changed from Van der Waals with PEA to ionic with ZnBr2. Meanwhile, ZnBr2 can effectively address the ion defect filling and dimensional structure property switching. Consequently, the optimized ZnBr2-assisted PEA-CsPbBrxCl3-x LED is shown to deliver a high luminance of 1245 cd/m2 along with a high external quantum efficiency of 1.30%. Furthermore, this blue LED exhibits excellent spectral stability, for which only 3-nm red-shift on external excitation (0.1 to 5.0 mA) is observed. Our result clearly shows that ZnBr2 addition effectively improves the stability of blue light-emitting perovskites.

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is well known to disrupt normal functionality of endothelium, which plays a prominent role in endothelial dysfunction in many cardiovascular diseases. CO-releasing molecule 2 (CORM-2) is a promising candidate for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, it has not been defined whether CORM-2 might improve endothelial injury induced by ox-LDL. The present study was undertaken to determine the regulatory role of CORM-2 in cell injury of ox-LDL-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Our results showed that ox-LDL inhibited the cell proliferation, but promoted apoptosis and release of cytochrome c (cytc) from mitochondrion into cytoplasm, stimulated the cleavage of caspase-3 and mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) opening. In addition, ox-LDL-incubated HUVECs exhibited excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), increased protein levels of NADPH oxidase subunits p22phox, p47phox, NOX-2 and activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. However, pretreatment with CORM-2 significantly reduced cell apoptosis, release of cytc from mitochondrion into cytoplasm, MPTP opening and cleavage of caspase-3, suppressed the superoxide anion generation and Wnt/β-catenin pathway activation in HUVECs response to ox-LDL. Collectively, we provide the evidence that CORM-2 attenuated ox-LDL-mediated endothelial apoptosis and oxidative stress by recovering the mitochondrial function and blocking Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

The pathophysiological mechanisms for vascular lesions in diabetes mellitus (DM) are complex, among which endothelial dysfunction plays a vital role. Therapeutic target against endothelial injury may provide critical venues for treatment of diabetic vascular diseases. We recently identified that salusin-β contributed to high glucose-induced endothelial cell apoptosis. However, the roles of salusin-β in DM-induced endothelial dysfunction remain largely elusive. Male C57BL/6J mice were used to induce type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) model. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured in high glucose/high fat (HG/HF) medium. We demonstrated increased expression of salusin-β in diabetic aortic tissues and high-glucose/high-fat- (HG/HF-) incubated HUVECs. Disruption of salusin-β by shRNA abrogated the reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, inflammation, and nitrotyrosine content of HUVECs cultured in HG/HF medium. The HG/HF-mediated decrease in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) expression was restored by salusin-β shRNA, and PPARγ inhibitor T0070907 abolished the protective actions of salusin-β shRNA on endothelial injury in HG/HF-treated HUVECs. Salusin-β silencing obviously improved endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and nitrative stress in diabetic aorta. Taken together, our results highlighted the essential role of salusin-β in pathological endothelial dysfunction, and salusin-β may be a promising target in treatment of vascular complications of DM.

In this paper, two fly ash samples from a popular of circulating fluidized bed (CFB) incinerators operated in spring and winter were detected. The organic pollutants of PAHs and Dioxins were 8.647 mg/kg and 778.859 pgI-TEQ/g respectively for the sample in spring, 11.008 mg/kg and 888.318 pgI-TEQ/g for the sample in winter. The distribution of Dioxins was analyzed, 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF,2,3,7,8-TCDF and 2,3,7,8-TCDD were found to gave the great contribution to the total I-TEQ.

The properties of slag and ash generated from a biomass power plant were analyzed by various characterization methods and the sulfur was tracked. The results showed that the slag and ash contain major elements like Si, S, K and Ca etc and primary substances like SiO2, CaCO3etc. Sulfur is in the form of amorphous soluble salts and insoluble materials in residual carbon.

In this paper, the energy balance of black liquor gasification (BLG) and coal-water slurry (CWS) gasification was analyzed. The results showed that the conversion efficiency of BLG (43.71%) process was slightly lower than that of CWS gasification (44.71%). Meanwhile, the material cost of BLG to synthesis gas was 0.36 Yuan/ m3 while CWS gasification was 0.69 Yuan/ m3. On account of above analysis, BLG was expected to have similar industrial applied prospect like CWS gasification