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Nanoparticles and their ordered arrays have many important applications in fields such as electronic, optical, memory storage devices and sensors. Herein, a simple method was used for fabricating three-dimensional ordered gold nanoparticle arrays with template technique. Gold films were deposited onto anodic aluminum oxide by using electron beam evaporation. After thermal annealing, interestingly, order arrays of gold nanoparticles were obtained by a thermodynamically driven self-assembled process. The spectrum taken by UV-Vis spectrophotometer demonstrates clear surface plasmon resonance at around 500 nm, which appears blue-shift compared with usual gold nanoparticles.

We reported a facile synthesis route for size controlled preparation of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) by controlling concentration of the reducing agent and temperature. Nearly monodisperse Au NPs with mean diameters of 2-6 nm are acquired via the reduction of HAuCl4by NaBH4in the presence of tri-n-octyl amine and dodecanethiol in solvent of toluene. Results indicate that concentration of the reducing agent and temperature are key factors to tune the particle size and uniformity in the synthesis of Au NPs. The as-synthesized Au NPs show size dependent surface plasmonic properties between 510 and 525 nm, while Au NPs with size smaller than 3 nm do not clearly show the property.

The piezoelectric potential generated in a bent ZnO nanorod cantilever is analyzed by means of the first piezoelectric effect approximation. The results show that the piezoelectric potential in the nanorod is proportional to lateral force but is independent along the longitudinal direction. And the electric potential in the tensile area and that of compressive area are antisymmetric in cross section of the nanorod, which makes the nanorod become a "parallel plated capacitor" for piezoelectric nanodevices, such as nanogenerator. The investigation of the carriers influence on the piezoelectric potential in a bent ZnO nanorod reveals that the positive piezoelectric potential in stretched side of the bent nanorod is significantly screened by the carriers and the negative potential in compressed side is well preserved when considering a moderate carrier concentration of

The Au/SiO2nanocomposite was produced using surface active agent P123, and its optical absorption spectra was measured by spectrophotometer. It was found that the intensity of absorption peak was strengthened and underwent a red-shift as the neutralization reaction time extended. The variation of optical extinction property of one gold particle (GP) with different size had been investigated by Mie theory. It was found that the extinction property of the single spherical GP possessed an obvious size effect. The extinction property of Au/SiO2nanocomposite had been analyzed by Maxwell-Garnett (MG) theory. It showed that the extinction peak underwent a red-shift and the extinction intensity was strengthened when the size of gold nanoparticles (GNs) increased. The theoretical and the experimental results show that the extinction property of Au/SiO2nanocomposite changes because the scattering effect of GNs are strengthened when their sizes increased by controlling the neutralization reaction time.

Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) grown on metal substrates are of great importance for their applications in thermal and electrical devices. However, synthesizing better quality and long CNTs on metal substrates is still a big challenge. We have synthesized vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on different metal substrates (i.e. copper and iron)by chemical vapor deposition and vertically aligned CNTs with lengths ranging from 2 to 400 µmwere obtained. Moreover, the length of CNT on iron substrate has reached over 1mm,whichis relatively high CNT arrays using CVD on metal substrate to date.

For the first time, novel β-C3N4/CuO composites with superior photocatalytic activity are successfully fabricated via a facile reflux method followed by a thermal process. The morphologies, particle size and microstructure of the synthesized β-C3N4/CuO composites largely depended upon copper chloride and the volume ratio of V water:V ethanol in the mixed precursors. The fabricated β-C3N4/CuO nanoflakes exhibited obviously enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) with an ~3.4 and 1.9 fold increase in efficiency over that of pure g-C3N4 and commercial P25, respectively. The β-C3N4/CuO composite photocatalyst also showed photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl orange (MO). Moreover, the β-C3N4/CuO nanoflakes showed almost no loss of photocatalytic activity after three recycles of the degradation of the MB. A multiple synergetic mechanism in β-C3N4/CuO nanoflakes, which is featured by the highly reactive {0 0 2} facets, exposed many active sites of nanoflakes and the efficient charge separation are proposed to account for the distinguished photocatalytic activity. This work provides a facile and cost-effective strategy for designing novel β-C3N4/CuO photocatalysts for application in environmental purification.

Non-uniform photocurrent is usually generated at the overlapped region of the heterostructures, and its potential applications may be hindered by the spatial uniformity issue of the device photoresponse. Here, nearly a uniform photoresponse at the overlapped region of the thermally oxidized Ni and molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) heterostructures is obtained. Further characterizations reveal that several nanometers Ni is rightly under the NiOx layer formed at the surface of the film in the oxidation process. The heterostructures based on layered MoS2/NiOx/Ni with highly conductive bottom Ni show a high uniform photoresponse with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 1.4% at 532 nm. Moreover, successful integration of multiple devices suggests a great priority for such a structure for highly integrated uniform photodetectors.

A simply and reproducible way is proposed to significantly suppress the nucleation density of graphene on the copper foil during the chemical vapor deposition process. By inserting a copper foil into a tube with one close end, the nucleation density on the copper foils can be reduced by more than five orders of magnitude and an ultra-low nucleation density of ~10 nucleus/cm(2) has been achieved. The structural analyses demonstrate that single crystal monolayer graphene with a lateral size of 1.9 mm can be grown on the copper foils under the optimized growth condition. The electrical transport studies show that the mobility of such single crystal graphene is around 2400 cm(2)/Vs.

Metal nanoparticles or nanoclusters have been widely used to functionalize semiconductor metal oxide nanostructures-based gas sensors or photodetectors to significantly enhance the device performance. It is crucial to reach a thorough understanding of the interfacial coupling between the metal nanoclusters and the metal oxide nanostructures. Here, in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) have been used to investigate the interfacial interactions between metals (Au and Co) and molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) films. In spite of the high work function ([Formula: see text]6.8[Formula: see text]eV) of the thermally evaporated MoO3 films, only weak interaction is observed at the Au/MoO3 interface. Au clusters or films can remain their neutral and nonchemically reacted state on MoO3 film. In contrast, the interfacial chemical reaction between Co and MoO3 is significantly strong. A band-bending in MoO3 and two interface states have been observed at the Co/MoO3 interface.

Two kinds of mesoporous silica thin films (MSTFs), embedded with gold nanocrystals (GNCs), are synthesized using different surfactants. The MSTFs are composed of well-ordered mesostructures and the GNCs are well crystallized in the pores of the thin films. Optical absorption peaks, due to the surface plasmon resonance of the GNCs, are observed. Both classical and semi-classical methods are used to describe the dielectric function of the GNCs in the analysis, which showed that the particle size, particle shape, particle filling ratio and the matrix structure determine the absorption properties of the GNC/MSTF nanocomposite. Third-order optical nonlinearity of the nanocomposite was studied by the z-scan technique. The GNC/MSTF nanocomposites exhibited large optical nonlinearities.