Bioinspired Hollow/Hollow Architecture with Flourishing Dielectric Properties for Efficient Electromagnetic Energy Reclamation Device

The exploitation of advanced electromagnetic functional devices is perceived as the effective prescription to deal with environmental contamination and energy deficiency. From the perspective of observing and imitating nature, pine branch-like zirconium dioxide/cobalt nanotubes@nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes are synthesized victoriously through maneuverable electrospinning process and follow-up thermal treatments. In particular, introducing carbon nanotubes on the surface of hollow nanofibers to construct hierarchical architecture vastly promoted the material's dielectric properties by significantly augmenting specific surface area, generating abundant heterogeneous interfaces, and inducing the formation of defects. Supplemented by the synergistic effect between each constituent, ultra-strong attenuation capacity and perfect impedance matching characteristics are implemented simultaneously, and jointly made contributions to the splendid microwave absorption performance with a minimum reflection loss of -67.9 dB at 1.5 mm. Moreover, this fibrous absorber also exhibited promising potential to be utilized as a green and efficient electromagnetic interference shielding material when the filler loading is enhanced. Therefore, this design philosophy is destined to inspire the future development of energy conversion and storage devices, and provide theoretical direction for the creation of sophisticated electromagnetic functional materials.

Highly Efficient NO2 Sensors Based on Al-ZnOHF under UV Assistance

Zinc hydroxyfluoride (ZnOHF) is a newly found resistive semiconductor used as a gas-sensing material with excellent selectivity to NO₂ because of its unique energy band structure. In this paper, Al³⁺ doping and UV radiation were used to further improve the gas-sensing performance of ZnOHF. The optimized 0.5 at.% Al-ZnOHF sample exhibits improved sensitivity to 10 ppm NO₂ at a lower temperature (100 °C) under UV assistance, as well as a short response/recovery time (35 s/96 s). The gas-sensing mechanism demonstrates that Al³⁺ doping increases electron concentration and promotes electron transfer of the nanorods by reducing the bandgap of ZnOHF, and the photogenerated electrons and holes with high activity under UV irradiation provide new reaction routes in the gas adsorption and desorption process, effectively promoting the gas-sensing process. The synergistic effect of Al³⁺ and UV radiation contribute to the enhanced performance of Al-ZnOHF.

Ir-CoO Active Centers Supported on Porous Al2 O3 Nanosheets as Efficient and Durable Photo-Thermal Catalysts for CO2 Conversion

Photo-thermal catalytic CO₂ hydrogenation is currently extensively studied as one of the most promising approaches for the conversion of CO₂ into value-added chemicals under mild conditions; however, achieving desirable conversion efficiency and target product selectivity remains challenging. Herein, the fabrication of Ir-CoO/Al₂ O₃ catalysts derived from Ir/CoAl LDH composites is reported for photo-thermal CO₂ methanation, which consist of Ir-CoO ensembles as active centers that are evenly anchored on amorphous Al₂ O₃ nanosheets. A CH₄ production rate of 128.9 mmol g_cat⁻ ¹ h⁻¹  is achieved at 250 °C under ambient pressure and visible light irradiation, outperforming most reported metal-based catalysts. Mechanism studies based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations and numerical simulations reveal that the CoO nanoparticles function as photocatalysts to donate electrons for Ir nanoparticles and meanwhile act as "nanoheaters" to effectively elevate the local temperature around Ir active sites, thus promoting the adsorption, activation, and conversion of reactant molecules. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (in situ DRIFTS) demonstrates that illumination also efficiently boosts the conversion of formate intermediates. The mechanism of dual functions of photothermal semiconductors as photocatalysts for electron donation and as nano-heaters for local temperature enhancement provides new insight in the exploration for efficient photo-thermal catalysts.