Single crystal zinc oxide nanocombs were synthesized in bulk quantity by vapor phase transport. A glucose biosensor was constructed using these nanocombs as supporting materials for glucose oxidase ͑GO x ͒ loading. The zinc oxide nanocomb glucose biosensor showed a high sensitivity ͑15.33 A/cm 2 mM͒ for glucose detection and high affinity of GO x to glucose ͑the apparent Michaelis-Menten constant K M app = 2.19 mM͒. The detection limit measured was 0.02 mM. These results demonstrate that zinc oxide nanostructures have potential applications in biosensors.

We report herein a glucose biosensor based on glucose oxidase (GOx) immobilized on ZnO nanorod array grown by hydrothermal decomposition. In a phosphate buffer solution with a pH value of 7.4, negatively charged GOx was immobilized on positively charged ZnO nanorods through electrostatic interaction. At an applied potential of +0.8V versus Ag∕AgCl reference electrode, ZnO nanorods based biosensor presented a high and reproducible sensitivity of 23.1μAcm−2mM−1 with a response time of less than 5s. The biosensor shows a linear range from 0.01to3.45mM and an experiment limit of detection of 0.01mM. An apparent Michaelis-Menten constant of 2.9mM shows a high affinity between glucose and GOx immobilized on ZnO nanorods.

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Zinc oxide nanotube arrays were prepared by hydrothermal reaction in ammonia and zinc chloride solutions, and the field emission properties were tested. The turn-on field of the field emission was extrapolated to be about 7.0 V / m at a current density of 0.1 A/cm 2 . Meanwhile, the emission current densities reached 1 mA/ cm 2 at a bias field of 17.8 V / m. The field enhancement factor ␤ was estimated to be 910. The field emission of the zinc oxide nanotubes showed good stability. The variation of emission current density was less than 10% during a 24 h test under a field of 15 V / m.

Tubular ZnO microstructural arrays were fabricated by a hydrothermal decomposition method. The dependence of the morphologies on the growth time and temperature was investigated in detail. An experiment was carried out to determine the mechanism of tubular ZnO formation. Our results showed that ZnO microtubes originated from an ageing process from ZnO microrods at a lower temperature (compared to the temperature when hydrothermal deposition of ZnO microrods was dominant) due to the preferential chemical dissolution of the metastable Zn-rich (0001) polar surfaces. A growth model was proposed based on the coexistence of hydrothermal deposition and dissolution of ZnO in the fabrication process.

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Localization is a fundamental issue for many applications in wireless sensor networks. Without the need of additional ranging devices, the range-free localization technology is a cost-effective solution for low-cost indoor and outdoor wireless sensor networks. Among range-free algorithms, DV-hop (Distance Vector-hop) has the advantage to localize the mobile nodes which has less than three neighbour anchors. Based on the original DV-hop algorithm, this paper presents two improved algorithms (Checkout DV-hop and Selective 3-Anchor DV-hop). Checkout DV-hop algorithm estimates the mobile node position by using the nearest anchor, while Selective 3-Anchor DV-hop algorithm chooses the best 3 anchors to improve localization accuracy. Then, in order to implement these DV-hop based algorithms in network scenarios, a novel DV-hop localization protocol is proposed. This new protocol is presented in detail in this paper, including the format of data payloads, the improved collision reduction method E-CSMA/CA, as well as parameters used in deciding the end of each DV-hop step. Finally, using our localization protocol, we investigate the performance of typical DV-hop based algorithms in terms of localization accuracy, mobility, synchronization and overhead. Simulation results prove that Selective 3-Anchor DV-hop algorithm offers the best performance compared to Checkout DV-hop and the original DV-hop algorithm.

Solar energy represents a robust and natural form of resource for environment remediation via photocatalytic pollutant degradation with minimum associated costs. However, due to the complexity of the photodegradation process, it has been a long-standing challenge to develop reliable photocatalytic systems with low recombination rates, excellent recyclability, and high utilization rates of solar energy, especially in the visible light range. In this work, a ternary hetero-nanostructured Ag-CuO-ZnO nanotube (NT) composite is fabricated via facile and low-temperature chemical and photochemical deposition methods. Under visible light irradiation, the as-synthesized ZnO NT based ternary composite exhibits a greater enhancement (∼300%) of photocatalytic activity than its counterpart, Ag-CuO-ZnO nanorods (NRs), in pollutant degradation. The enhanced photocatalytic capability is primarily attributed to the intensified visible light harvesting, efficient charge carrier separation and much larger surface area. Furthermore, our as-synthesised hybrid ternary Ag-CuO-ZnO NT composite demonstrates much higher photostability and retains ∼98% of degradation efficiency even after 20 usage cycles, which can be mainly ascribed to the more stable polar planes of ZnO NTs than those of ZnO NRs. These results afford a new route to construct ternary heterostructured composites with perdurable performance in sewage treatment and photocorrosion suppression.