Transparent and conductive film based electronics have attracted substantial research interest in various wearable and integrated display devices in recent years. The breakdown of transparent electronics prompts the development of transparent electronics integrated with healability. A healable transparent chemical gas sensor device is assembled from layer-by-layer-assembled transparent healable polyelectrolyte multilayer films by developing effective methods to cast transparent carbon nanotube (CNT) networks on healable substrates. The healable CNT network-containing film with transparency and superior network structures on self-healing substrate is obtained by the lateral movement of the underlying self-healing layer to bring the separated areas of the CNT layer back into contact. The as-prepared healable transparent film is assembled into healable transparent chemical gas sensor device for flexible, healable gas sensing at room temperature, due to the 1D confined network structure, relatively high carrier mobility, and large surface-to-volume ratio. The healable transparent chemical gas sensor demonstrates excellent sensing performance, robust healability, reliable flexibility, and good transparency, providing promising opportunities for developing flexible, healable transparent optoelectronic devices with the reduced raw material consumption, decreased maintenance costs, improved lifetime, and robust functional reliability.

Transparent chemical gas sensors are assembled from a transparent conducting film of hierarchically nanostructured polyaniline (PANI) networks fabricated on a flexible PET substrate, by coating silver nanowires (Ag NWs) followed by the in situ polymerization of aniline near the sacrificial Ag NW template. The sensor exhibits enhanced gas sensing performance at room temperature in both sensitivity and selectivity to NH3 compared to pure PANI film.

Combining semiconductor heterojunction and cocatalyst is an important strategy to improve photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting efficiency. Here, a photoanode of WO3/Fe2O3 heterojunction decorated by NiFe-layered double hydroxide (LDH) was fabricated by two-step hydrothermal methods. As expected, the photocurrent density of the ternary photoanode reaches up to 3.0 mA·cm–2, which respectively are 5 times and 7 times of WO3 and α-Fe2O3. The improvement benefits from the extending absorption of visible light, the effective separation of photogenerated charge carriers, and acceleration of water oxidizing reaction, which is caused by narrowing band gap and electron directionally flowing of heterojunction as well as catalyst timely consuming of holes accumulated at the electrode surface. The electron lifetime and the steady-state carrier density for four photoanodes were estimated from electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) and were further confirmed by the intensity modulated photocurrent spectra (IMPS). The work provides a demonstration to develop a high efficiency and low-cost photoanode for application in solar energy PEC water splitting.

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The response of ZnO nanofibers is significantly enhanced via Cd doping, which can be attributed to the change of defects in ZnO and has been confirmed by PL and XPS analysis.

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A Cu2O/BiVO4 p-n heterojunction based photoanode in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is fabricated by a two-step electrodeposition method on an FTO substrate followed by annealing treatment. The structures and properties of the samples are characterized by XRD, FESEM, HRTEM, XPS and UV-visible spectra. The photoelectrochemical activity of the photoanode in water oxidation has been investigated and measured in a three electrode quartz cell system; the obtained maximum photocurrent density of 1.72 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE is 4.5 times higher than that of pristine BiVO4 thin films (∼0.38 mA cm-2). The heterojunction based photoanode also exhibits a tremendous cathodic shift of the onset potential (∼420 mV) and enhancement in the IPCE value by more than 4-fold. The enhanced photoelectrochemical properties of the Cu2O/BiVO4 photoelectrode are attributed to the efficient separation of the photoexcited electron-hole pairs caused by the inner electronic field (IEF) of the p-n heterojunction.

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