0000000000217560
AUTHOR
Jaume Noguera-gomez
Solution-Processed Ni-Based Nanocomposite Electrocatalysts: An Approach to Highly Efficient Electrochemical Water Splitting
In this study, we report an up-scalable and low-cost solution-processed method to in situ synthesize an earth-abundant non-stoichiometric NiOx-based electrocatalytic film for water oxidation. The catalytic activity was found to be inversely proportional to the baking temperature, which varied from 50 to 500 °C. We found the formation of a hybrid nanocomposite thin film of NiOx nanocrystals (<2 nm size) inside an acetate-based organic matrix at low temperatures (<200 °C). The defective and short-range structural order of the NiOx-based nanocomposite electrocatalysts, compatible with lattice stress, low electrical conductivity, and high density of catalytically active surface species, and hig…
Au–NiOx nanocomposite for hot electron-assisted plasmonic photocatalysis
Nanocomposites of metal–oxide semiconductors containing Au nanoparticles are emerging multifunctional materials for sunlight-driven highly efficient photocatalysis. Here we report a solution-processed nanocomposite synthesis of Au–NiOx nanocomposite films by slot-die coating and plotter printing in a straightforward in situ synthesis approach. Our study demonstrated a significantly enhanced photocatalytic decomposition reaction of MO upon exposure of Au–NiOx films to a sunlight simulator. The excellent photocatalytic activity is ascribed to the generation of hot carriers after LSPR excitation in Au NPs. Suitable band alignment between the valence band of NiOx and the Fermi level of Au NPs l…
In Situ Synthesis of Conducting Polymers: A Novel Approach toward Polymer Thermoelectrics
The efficient conversion of thermal energy into electricity by means of durable and scalable solid-state thermoelectric devices has been a well stablished aim. Electrically conducting polymers have...
Two-Dimensional Indium Selenide for Sulphur Vapour Sensing Applications
Surface-to-volume ratio in two-dimensional (2D) materials highlights among their characteristics as an inherent and intrinsic advantage taking into account their strong sensitivity to surface effects. For this reason, we have proposed in this work micromechanically exfoliated 2D nanosheets of InSe as an optical vapour sensor. As a proof of concept, we used 2-mercaptoethanol as the chemical analyte in vapour phase to monitor the change of the InSe photoluminescence (PL) before and after exposure to the analyte. For short vapour exposure times (at low analyte concentration), we found a PL enhancement of InSe nanosheets attributed to the surface localization of Se defects. For long vapour expo…