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The morphology of TiO2 nanotubes with nanowires directly formed on top (designed as TiO2 NTWs) would be a promising nanostructure in fabricating photoelectrochemical solar cells for its advantages in charge separation, electronic transport, and light harvesting. In this study, a TiO2 NTWs array film was prepared by a simple anodization method. The formation of CdS, CdSe, and ZnS quantum dots (QDs) sensitized TiO2 NTWs photoelectrode was carried out by successive ionic layer adsorption. The as-prepared materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Our results indicate that the nanocrystals have effectively covered both inner and outer surfaces of TiO2 NTWs array. The interfacial structure of QDs/TiO2 was also investigated for the first time in our experiment, and the growth interface when annealed to 300 °C was verified. Under AM 1.5G illumination, we found the photoelectrodes have an optimum short-circuit photocurrent density of 4.30 mA/cm2 and corresponding energy conversation efficiency of 2.408%, which is 28 times higher than that of a bare TiO2 NTWs array. The excellent photoelectrochemical properties of our photoanodes suggest that the TiO2 NTWs array films (2.6–2.8 μm) cosensitized by CdS, CdSe, and ZnS nanoclusters have potential applications in solar cells.

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One dimensional (1D), self-organized TiO2 nanotube arrays are known to have excellent charge transport properties and a NiO/TiO2 junction is efficient in separating electron–hole pairs. This paper describes the synthesis of a NiO/TiO2 junction electrode constructed using self-organized TiO2 nanotube arrays combining the above two properties. The self-organized TiO2 nanotube arrays used in this study were prepared by anodizing titanium films, which resulted in closely packed n-type TiO2 tubes with an inner pore diameter of 60–90 nm, a wall thickness of approximately 15 nm and a length of 600 nm. The NiO/TiO2 junction was synthesized by electroless plating and annealing which resulted in TiO2 nanotube arrays coated with a layer (about 200 nm in thickness) of NiO particles (20–40 nm). The resulting NiO/TiO2 junction electrode enabled us to obtain an enhanced photocurrent (3.05 mA cm−2) as compared with a TiO2 electrode based on TiO2 nanotube arrays (0.92 mA cm−2) under AM 1.5 G (100 mw cm−2) at a bias of 0.65 V.

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Design and preparation structure/function integrated polymer composites with high thermal conductivities and ideal mechanical properties have attracted widespread attention. Nanoscale graphene were employed to fabricate the thermal-structural integration graphene/carbon fiber/copoly (phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone) composites via solution prepreg followed by hotcompression method. The thermal conductivity (λ) and mechanical properties were all improved with the formation of graphene thermally conductive selfreinforced network. The thermal conductivity was increased to 1.057 W/(m K) by 89.8% higher than the pure carbon fiber composites. Moreover, the flexural strength (1878 MPa), compressive strength (907 MPa) and interlaminar shear strength (66 MPa) of graphene-modified composites improved with 22.1%, 51.9%, and 24.5% than the conventional composites, respectively. Dynamic mechanical analysis has proved that graphene/carbon fiber/copoly (phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone) composites had excellent high temperature mechanical properties, which presented a great potential for structure/ function integrated composites. K E Y W O R D Scarbon fiber composite, structure/function integrated, thermal conductivity | INTRODUCTIONCarbon fiber (CF) reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPs) have become the crucial materials via excellent performance in multiple fields. The optimized combination of high-performance CF and various resin matrix (polyetherimide, polyphenylene sulfide, polyetherketoneketone, etc.) can meet the development requirements of aerospace, military, general aviation, satellite, energy, automobile and electronics industry for advanced materials with lightweight, high strength, high impact resistance and high temperature resistance. [1][2][3][4][5][6] As a new type of high-performance engineering plastic, copoly (phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone)