Ultra-thin MgO nanosheets obtained by a sol-gel method were found to have cubic crystal structure with a space group of Fm-3m. The thickness of the sheets for the 600°C and 5 h annealing condition sample is 2 nm. Although the MgO sheets are two-dimensional and ultra-thin, unlike graphene, they are polycrystalline. Their bandgap energies are dependent on the thermal annealing conditions (which affect the thickness of the MgO nanosheets). It is found that there was bandgap narrowing of the MgO nanosheets with respect to the bulk values. UV-visible spectroscopy and X-Ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) enables us to identify the shifts of the valence and conduction bands causing the bandgap narrowing.

No abstract

Al substitute into Ni site increase Li–O and reduce M–O atomic distance lead to excellent cycleability with high energy density.

Pure, single-phase and layered LiCo 1− Ni O 2 materials with good cation ordering are not easy to synthesize. In this work, solid solutions of LiCo 1− Ni O 2 (x = 0, 0.1, . . ., 0.9) are synthesized using a self-propagating combustion route and characterized. All the materials are observed to be phase pure giving materials of hexagonal crystal system with R-3m space group. The RIR and R factor values of stoichiometries of LiCo 1− Ni O 2 (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5) show good cation ordering. Their electrochemical properties are investigated by a series of charge-discharge cycling in the voltage range of 3.0 to 4.3 V. It is found that some of the stoichiometries exhibit specific capacities comparable or better than those of LiCoO 2 , but the voltage plateau is slightly more slopping than that for the LiCoO 2 reference material.

The photochemical synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) nanostructured from semiconductor materials is unique and challenging. We report, for the first time, the photochemical synthesis of 2D tin di/sulfide (PS-SnS2-x, x = 0 or 1) from thioacetamide (TAA) and tin (IV) chloride in an aqueous system. The synthesized PS-SnS2-x were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a particle size distribution analyzer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal analysis, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DR UV–Vis), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. In this study, the PS-SnS2-x showed hexagonally closed-packed crystals having nanosheets morphology with the average size of 870 nm. Furthermore, the nanosheets PS-SnS2-x demonstrated reusable photo-degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye as a water pollutant, owing to the stable electronic conducting properties with estimated bandgap (Eg) at ~2.5 eV. Importantly, the study provides a green protocol by using photochemical synthesis to produce 2D nanosheets of semiconductor materials showing photo-degradation activity under sunlight response.

Pure, layered compounds of overlithiated Li 1+x Ni 0.8 Co 0.2 O 2 (x = 0.05 and 0.1) were successfully prepared by a modified combustion method. XRD studies showed that cell parameters of the material decreased with increasing the lithium content. SEM revealed that the morphology of particles changed from rounded polyhedral-like crystallites to sharp-edged polyhedral crystals with more doped lithium. EDX showed that the stoichiometries of Ni and Co agrees with calculated synthesized values. Electrochemical studies revealed the overlithiated samples have improved capacities as well as cycling behavior. The sample with x = 0.05 shows the best performance with a specific capacity of 113.29 mA•h•g -1 and the best capacity retention of 92.2% over 10 cycles. XPS results showed that the binding energy of Li 1s is decreased for the Li doped samples with the smallest value for the x = 0.05 sample, implying that Li + ions can be extracted more easily from Li 1.05 Ni 0.8 Co 0.2 O 2 than the other stoichiometries accounting for the improved performance of the material. Considerations of core level XPS peaks for transition metals reveal the existence in several oxidation states. However, the percentage of the +3 oxidation state of transition metals for the when x = 0.1 is the highest and the availability for charge transition from the +3 to +4 state of the transition metal during deintercalation is more readily available.

LiCoO2 is a well-known cathode material used in commercial Li-ion batteries but it has its own limitations in terms of cost and toxicity. Improvement of the material by partial substitution of Co with other transition metals is one of the alternative and effective ways to overcome the limitations and improve the electrochemical performance of cathode materials. The transition metal element used for the substitution has to be cheaper and non-toxic thus Mn is chosen here. LiCo(1-x)MnxO2 (x= 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) we synthesized by a novel route using a self-propagating combustion (SPC) method. The samples are analyzed using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) for phase purity and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) for morphology and particle size studies. The materials obtained are phase pure. In terms of electrochemical activity, though it does not show better first cycle discharge capacity, the Mn doped materials have improved capacity retention. Results showed that LiCo0.9Mn0.1O2 and LiCo0.8Mn0.2O2 exhibited less than 8 % capacity loss in the 20th cycle compared to 12 % for LiCoO2.

Doping of the materials with other metals or transition metals will modify the properties of the nanomaterials. In this work, MgO and Cu doped MgO which are Mg0.95Cu0.05O and Mg0.90Cu0.10O nanomaterials are synthesized using a self-propagating combustion method. The samples are annealed at 900 °C for 24 hours. The phase and purity of the synthesized samples are studied using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and the result revealed that the samples are pure and single phase. The morphology and crystallite size of the pure samples are examined using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). The result shows polyhedral morphology with agglomeration of crystallite and average crystallite size of the samples is between 40 to 210 nm. The band gap obtained for MgO nanostructures is 6.38 eV which is lower than bulk MgO of 7.8 eV. The presence of Cu causes the narrowing the band gap energy of Mg0.95Cu0.05O and Mg0.90Cu0.10O samples to 4.28 eV and 3.35 eV respectively.