The cost‐effective, robust, and efficient electrocatalysts for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water‐splitting has been extensively studied over the past decade to address a solution for the energy crisis. The interesting physicochemical properties of CuO have introduced this promising photocathodic material among the few photocatalysts with a narrow bandgap. This photocatalyst has a high activity for the PEC hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) under simulated sunlight irradiation. Here, the recent advancements of CuO‐based photoelectrodes, including undoped CuO, doped CuO, and CuO composites, in the PEC water‐splitting field, are comprehensively studied. Moreover, the synthesis methods, characterization, and fundamental factors of each classification are discussed in detail. Apart from the exclusive characteristics of CuO‐based photoelectrodes, the PEC properties of CuO/2D materials, as groups of the growing nanocomposites in photocurrent‐generating devices, are discussed in separate sections. Regarding the particular attention paid to the CuO heterostructure photocathodes, the PEC water splitting application is reviewed and the properties of each group such as electronic structures, defects, bandgap, and hierarchical structures are critically assessed.
Although Graphene oxide (GO)-based materials is known as a favorable candidate for supercapacitors, its conductivity needs to be increased. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the performance of GO-based supercapicitor with new methods. In this work, an ammonia solution has been used to remove the oxygen functional groups of GO. In addition, a facile precipitation method was performed to synthesis a NiMoO4/3D-rGO electrode with purpose of using synergistic effects of rGO conductivity properties as well as NiMoO4 pseudocapacitive behavior. The phase structure, chemical bands and morphology of the synthesized powders were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and field emission secondary electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The electrochemical results showed that the NiMoO4/3D-rGO(II) electrode, where ammonia has been used during the synthesis, has a capacitive performance of 932 Fg−1. This is higher capacitance than NiMoO4/3D-rGO(I) without using ammonia. Furthermore, the NiMoO4/3D-rGO(II) electrode exhibited a power density of up to 17.5 kW kg−1 and an energy density of 32.36 Wh kg−1. These results showed that ammonia addition has increased the conductivity of rGO sheets, and thus it can be suggested as a new technique to improve the capacitance.
The low erosion resistance of titanium and its alloys has prevented their widespread application as joint implants. In addition, one essential requirement for the implants to bond with the living bone is the formation of a bone-like apatite on their surfaces in the host body. To enhance the erosion resistance of the surface, a diffused layer of TiB 2 was formed at 1000uC on the commercial pure titanium. Hydroxyapatite was then coated on the boronised titanium by means of dip coating in a sol-gel solution. In order to confirm the biocompatibility of the specimens, they were soaked in a simulated body fluid for several days. The surface morphology of the specimens after exposure was studied by scanning electron microscopy, whereas X-ray diffraction patterns clearly revealed the growth of a calcium phosphate phase on top of the surface. Results showed that both wear resistance and biocompatibility of the hydroxyapatite coated samples on boronised films were improved.
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