Aiming
to improve the electrochemical catalytic performance of
the spinel NiCo2O4 as water oxidation catalyst,
solvothermal method was employed in this work to fabricate NiCo2O4 directly on conductive substrate FTO as integrated
anode. By simply altering the solvent in the precursor solution, NiCo2O4 with different morphology was obtained. The
electrocatalytic water oxidation behavior of both NiCo2O4 nanoneedles (NNs) and NiCo2O4 nanosheets (NSs) were investigated in analytical scale, and the
results showed that NiCo2O4 NNs exhibited enhanced
catalytic performance with lower onset potential, larger current density,
and faster kinetics in water oxidation process compared with NiCo2O4 NSs. Meanwhile, both the anodes presented excellent
stability in the basic conditions which favored oxygen evolution.
The reasons for the superior catalytic activity of NiCo2O4 NNs were also discussed in depth by investigating the
surface elements composition and distribution, as well as the different
chemical state of the surface adsorbed oxygen. It suggested that the
NiCo2O4 NNs anode surface which was better hydroxylated
and had more physic- and chemisorbed water was beneficial for enhanced
water oxidation performance. It was believed that the present work
may provide valuable experimental foundation and an exemplary method
for improving the activity of water oxidation catalyst.
Driven by the urgent demand of determining low level of 17β-estradiol (E2) present in environment, a novel and ultrasensitive photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing platform based on anti-E2 aptamer as the biorecognition element was developed onto CdSe nanoparticles-modified TiO2 nanotube arrays. The designed PEC aptasensor exhibits excellent performances in determination of E2 with a wide linear range of 0.05-15 pM. The detection limit of 33 fM is lower than the previous reports. The aptasensor manifests outstanding selectivity to E2 while used to detect seven other endocrine disrupting compounds that have similar structure or coexist with E2. The superior sensing behavior toward E2 can be attributed to the appropriate PEC sensing interface resulting from the preponderant tubular microstructure and excellent photoelectrical activity, the large packing density of aptamer on the sensing interface, as well as the high affinity of the aptamer to E2. The PEC aptasensor was applied successfully to determine E2 in environmental water samples without complicate sample pretreatments, and the analytical results showed good agreement with that determined by HPLC. Thus, a simple and rapid PEC technique for detection low level of E2 was established, having promising potential in monitoring environmental water pollution.
A solar-driven dual photoelectrode photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) based on n-type semiconductor photoanode and p-type semiconductor photocathode is reported for wastewater treatment with simultaneous hydrogen production.
Electrocatalytic water oxidation by in situ grown iron-cobalt-nickel ternary alloy amorphous oxides is reported. This catalytic material was prepared by simple anodization of an alloy plate followed by low-temperature annealing, which shows superior electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen evolution reaction with an overpotential of only 170 mV and a low Tafel slope.
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