Article
Energy & Fuels
Daming Zhao, Yiqing Wang, Chung-Li Dong, Yu-Cheng Huang, Jie Chen, Fei Xue, Shaohua Shen, Liejin Guo
Summary: Researchers have successfully used doped carbon nitride-based Z-scheme heterostructures to split water and produce hydrogen, but coupling suitable H-2 and O-2 evolution components remains challenging.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Lili Zhang, Yuanting Lei, Wenjing Xu, Dan Wang, Yafei Zhao, Wenxing Chen, Xu Xiang, Xinchang Pang, Bing Zhang, Huishan Shang
Summary: In this study, a highly active and durable N-CoP/CeO2 nanowire heterostructure electrocatalyst was developed, showing excellent catalytic activity for both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The N-CoP/CeO2 catalyst exhibited low overpotentials of 215 and 74 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M KOH. The assembled water electrolyzer with N-CoP/CeO2 displayed super stability, maintaining 95.9% catalytic activity over 42 days at 1.52 V@10 mA cm-2. Theoretical calculations revealed that the metallic heterostructure interfaces of N-CoP/CeO2 enhanced the electrocatalytic activity through fast electron transfer and optimized adsorption/desorption processes.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Wei Xia, Xiaoxu Luan, Wei Zhang, Dengfeng Wu
Summary: A bifunctional electrocatalyst, hierarchical Mn-doped NiCo LDH heterostructures (Mn-NiCoS2/NF), is constructed for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) through a facile hydrothermal-annealing strategy. Mn-NiCoS2/NF exhibits low overpotentials of 310 mV at 50 mA cm-2 for OER and 100 mV at 10 mA cm-2 for HER in 1.0 M KOH. Moreover, the overall water splitting requires only 1.496 V@10 mA cm-2 using Mn-NiCoS2/NF as catalyst dual electrodes in a two-electrode system. The excellent performance is attributed to the modification of the electronic structure of NiCo basal plane by Mn-doping and the acceleration of water dissociation steps via rich delocalized electrons inside sulfur vacancies.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yang Wang, Xiaopeng Li, Mengmeng Zhang, Jinfeng Zhang, Zelin Chen, Xuerong Zheng, Zhangliu Tian, Naiqin Zhao, Xiaopeng Han, Karim Zaghib, Yuesheng Wang, Yida Deng, Wenbin Hu
Summary: A highly active and durable single-atom W-doped electrocatalyst for the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions has been successfully developed, exhibiting excellent catalytic activity and long-term stability, surpassing commercial precious-metal catalysts and previously reported transition-metal-based compounds.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Yongzheng Zhang, Xinyue Song, Xu Guo, Xin Li
Summary: Nitrogen-doped nickel-cobalt phosphide and molybdenum phosphide heterostructures were prepared on nickel foam through high-temperature annealing and low-temperature phosphorylation. The heteroatomic N doping and heterostructures construction synergistically promoted electron transfer and improved catalytic performance. The modified MoP@N-NiCoP showed low overpotentials and satisfactory stability for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions.
JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Abdullah M. Asiri, Dan Ren, Hong Zhang, Sher Bahadar Khan, Khalid A. Alamry, Hadi M. Marwani, Mohammad Sherjeel Javed Khan, Waheed A. Adeosun, Shaik M. Zakeeruddin, Michael Graetzel
Summary: Splitting water using renewable energy is a promising strategy for hydrogen production. This study investigated the use of earth-abundant catalysts and low-cost perovskite solar cells for efficient water splitting. The developed catalysts showed high activities for hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions, enabling a remarkable solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 12.67% in an alkaline electrolyzer.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Sanjeev Kumar, Bhawna, Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, Akanksha Gupta, Ravinder Kumar, Jahangeer Ahmed, Monika Chaudhary, Suhas, Vinod Kumar
Summary: Boron-doped SnO2 (B:SnO2) nanoparticles were synthesized via a facile wet chemical method, and their excellent photocatalytic performance and dye degradation ability were confirmed.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mingze He, Joseph R. Matson, Mingyu Yu, Angela Cleri, Sai S. Sunku, Eli Janzen, Stefan Mastel, Thomas G. Folland, James H. Edgar, D. N. Basov, Jon-Paul Maria, Stephanie Law, Joshua D. Caldwell
Summary: Doped semiconductor substrates, such as InAs and CdO, enable significant tuning and dynamic modulation of hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs). By altering the photo-injected carriers in the substrate, HPhPs can be tuned with a maximum difference of 8.3 times. This study presents an important advancement in manipulating HPhPs.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Quan Kong, Nanyu Fan, Siyi Chen, Xiaofen Wu, Lihua Liu, Ruifeng Lang, Zeyuan Gao, Hongtao Guan, Chengjun Dong, Gang Chen
Summary: The N-Ni3S2/CoS2/NF bifunctional catalyst with abundant interface, high conductivity and large electrochemical surface area exhibits excellent activity for both HER and OER, achieving efficient water splitting at a low cell voltage.
JOURNAL OF ELECTROANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Biophysics
Kanako Ishii, Genki Ogata, Yasuaki Einaga
Summary: In this study, an electrochemical method using boron-doped diamond electrodes was developed for the rapid and low-cost detection of triamterene in urine samples. The method showed good sensitivity and selectivity, with a low limit of detection. This method could be useful for screening athletes for the use of diuretics.
BIOSENSORS & BIOELECTRONICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Liang Wu, Xinghong Liu, Xiang Yu, Shijue Xu, Shengxiang Zhang, Shiman Guo
Summary: This study aimed to fabricate a boron-doped diamond electrode for detecting trace amounts of lead in drinking water. By optimizing the stripping parameters, the electrode exhibited good detection performance with a low detection limit and good anti-interference ability. This research is of great significance for addressing lead contamination in drinking water.
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Robert Bogdanowicz, Jacek Ryl
Summary: This brief review focuses on the recent progress in studies of the heterogeneous electrochemical behavior of various boron-doped materials, extending from zero-dimensional particles to three-dimensional surfaces. Boron-doped diamond exhibits large heterogeneities induced by factors like multifaceted crystallinity, uneven boron concentration, carbon ratio, surface terminations, and grain size distribution. Nanostructured diamond surfaces allow for high areas and large aspect ratios, showing highly heterogeneous charge-transfer performance for various applications.
CURRENT OPINION IN ELECTROCHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Jerome A. Cuenca, Thomas Brien, Soumen Mandal, Scott Manifold, Simon Doyle, Adrian Porch, Georgina M. Klemencic, Oliver A. Williams
Summary: This study presents a coplanar waveguide resonator (CPR) for measuring kinetic inductance (L-k) and penetration depth (lambda(L)) of superconducting boron doped nanocrystalline diamond (B-NCD) at microwave frequencies. The results show that thin granular B-NCD films on Si have a large penetration depth and high kinetic inductance. These values are much larger than those typically obtained for films on single crystal diamond. The calculated surface resistance in the 0.4-1.2 GHz range at temperatures below 2 K demonstrates the potential of granular B-NCD for high quality factor superconducting microwave resonators and highly sensitive kinetic inductance detectors.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yilong Yang, Wantong Niu, Liyun Dang, Yanli Mao, Junshu Wu, Kaidong Xu
Summary: This review provides an overview of the latest progress in modifying g-C3N4 through doping strategies to enhance the efficiency of photocatalytic water splitting. The challenges and future research directions of g-C3N4 photocatalysts are also highlighted.
FRONTIERS IN CHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Carol Sigcha-Pallo, Juan M. Peralta-Hernandez, Paulina Alulema-Pullupaxi, Patricio Carrera, Lenys Fernandez, Pablo Pozo, Patricio J. Espinoza-Montero
Summary: This study investigates the use of electrophoretic deposition to produce a TiO2/BDD photoanode for the degradation and mineralization of sodium diclofenac. The results show that the TiO2/BDD photoanode has superior degradation and mineralization capacity under UVC illumination compared to a bare BDD electrode.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
V. Mortet, A. Taylor, M. Davydova, J. Jiranek, L. Fekete, L. Klimsa, D. Simek, N. Lambert, S. Sedlakavo, J. Kopecek, P. Hazdra
Summary: This study reports on the effect of substrate crystalline orientation on the morphology, growth rate, and boron incorporation in epitaxial diamond layers deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition.
DIAMOND AND RELATED MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Physics, Applied
Stefan A. Irimiciuc, Sergii Chertopalov, Jiri Bulir, Martin Vondracek, Ladislav Fekete, Petr Jiricek, Michal Novotny, Valentin Craciun, Jan Lancok
Summary: The study investigated the dynamics of transient plasmas generated by ns laser ablation of Ag targets under various O-2 gas pressures, exploring the effects of O-2 atmosphere on silver oxide formation, ionic kinetics, and overall plasma energy. The properties of thin films deposited were found to be influenced by plasma properties, with the formation of different phases of silver oxides observed at higher O-2 pressures.
PLASMA PROCESSES AND POLYMERS
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
J. More-Chevalier, S. A. Irimiciuc, L. Volfova, L. Fekete, S. Chertopalov, M. Poupon, E. Duverger-Nedellec, L. Herve, M. Novotny, O. Perez, J. Lancok
Summary: Phosphorus-doped WOx films were deposited under different O-2 pressures and substrate temperatures to study the effects on film properties and stoichiometries. In situ optical emission spectroscopy was used to analyze the plasma composition changes with varying oxygen pressure. Increasing O-2 pressure led to the formation of a complex plasma environment, affecting film properties and composition.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Andrew Taylor, Simona Baluchova, Ladislav Fekete, Ladislav Klimsa, Jaromir Kopecek, Daniel Simek, Martin Vondracek, Ludek Mika, Jan Fischer, Karolina Schwarzova-Peckova, Vincent Mortet
Summary: In this study, the use of {113}, {118}, and {115} oriented single crystal diamond substrates for CVD growth of high-quality boron doped diamond layers was investigated. It was found that the crystallographic orientation affects the boron incorporation, with orientations containing a higher density of {100}/{111} steps and risers exhibiting higher boron incorporation.
DIAMOND AND RELATED MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Martin Cerveny, Valerie Tothova, Lukas Novotny, Inka Kratochvilova, Vera Hellerova, Andrej Toth
Summary: This study provides a historical analysis of the education of national minorities in non-medical professions during the First Czechoslovak Republic. It reveals that the new Czechoslovak Republic allowed national minority members to receive training in midwifery and nursing in their native language, ensuring linguistic access to healthcare services.
KONTAKT-JOURNAL OF NURSING AND SOCIAL SCIENCES RELATED TO HEALTH AND ILLNESS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Stanislav Cichon, Vaclav Drchal, Katerina Horakova, Vladimir Chab, Irena Kratochvilova, Frantisek Maca, Patrik Cermak, Katerina Cermak Sraitrova, Jiri Navratil, Jan Lancok
Summary: In this study, we investigated the doping effects on a Bi2Te3 single crystal by using angle-resolved photoemission and ab initio electronic structure calculations. It was found that the typical bulk p-type conductivity was transformed into n-type conductivity at the surface. Dopants from the VIII B column (Fe, Ru, and Os) resulted in a shift of the surface Dirac cone towards the conductivity band minimum from the valence band maximum. The rearrangement of the surface electronic structure of Bi2Te3 caused by doping was linked to the pinning of the Fermi level within the bulk gap, and it was determined that the dopants substitute Bi atoms rather than occupying interstitial positions.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
(2022)
Review
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Martin Cerveny, Inka Kratochvilova, Vera Hellerova, Valerie Tothova
Summary: The development of cultural competence for nurses is often neglected in professional training, however, demographic changes and cultural diversity among patients require nurses to acquire the necessary cultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes to provide high-quality healthcare.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
History & Philosophy Of Science
Andrej Toth, Inka Kratochvilova, Jakub Drabek, Lukas Novotny, Vera Hellerova, Martin Cerveny, Valerie Tothova
Summary: This paper summarizes the impact of Spanish influenza on the Czechoslovak Republic, examines the spread of the flu, and analyzes its impact on population mortality. Despite the attention paid to the healthcare system by the new state, official data does not provide enough information to determine the consequences of the pandemic on mortality rates.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH HISTORY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
M. Zelensky, J. Fischer, S. Baluchova, L. Klimsa, J. Kopeck, M. Vondracek, L. Fekete, J. Eidenschink, F. -M Matysik, S. Mandal, O. A. Williams, M. Hromadova, V. Mortet, K. Schwarzova-Peckova, A. Taylor
Summary: In this study, complex characterization and comparison of as-grown and chemical-mechanical polished ultra-thin boron doped diamond electrodes were performed. The results showed that chemical-mechanical polishing reduced the roughness of the electrode surface to below 2 nm and improved the precision of electron backscatter diffraction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed an increase in boron content on the surface of highly doped boron doped diamond electrodes. Additionally, chemical-mechanical polished BDD electrodes exhibited a uniform distribution of conductivity, faster heterogeneous electron transfer kinetics, and higher double layer capacitance compared to as-grown electrodes. The electroanalytical performance of chemical-mechanical polished BDD electrodes for dopamine detection was superior.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Olga Tepla, Zinovij Topurko, Simona Jirsova, Martina Moosova, Eva Fajmonova, Radek Cabela, Katerina Komrskova, Irena Kratochvilova, Jaromir Masata
Summary: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of using meiotic spindle (MS) visibility and relative position to the polar body (PB) as indicators of oocyte maturation in order to optimize intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) timing. The visualization of MS influenced the pregnancy rate (PR) for patients over 35 years, but did not affect PR for patients under 35 years. Visualization of MS appears to be a useful parameter for assessment of oocyte maturity and ICSI timing for patients older than 35.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
J. More-Chevalier, U. D. Wdowik, D. Legut, S. Cichon, E. de Prado, I. Gregora, J. Bulir, M. Novotny, L. Fekete, J. Lancok
Summary: We investigated the effects of oxygen impurities on the microstructure, surface morphology, optical absorption, and vibrational properties of scandium nitride thin films. The thin films were deposited onto magnesium oxide substrate by reactive magnetron sputtering and under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Two different deposition temperatures were used to control the level of oxygen contamination. Various spectroscopic methods were used to characterize the thin films, including X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and optical microscopy. The results showed that increasing the amount of oxygen impurities resulted in higher defect content, disorientation, twin domains, and suppressed adatom mobility in the ScN films. The oxygen impurities also increased the direct energy gap and affected the phonon dynamics in the films.
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Irena Kratochvilova, Lucie Celbova, Petr Ashcheulov, Jaromir Kopecek, Ladislav Klimsa, Esther de Prado, Katerina Aubrechtova Dragounova, Jakub Lustinec, Jan Macak, Petr Sajdl, Radek Skoda, Jiri Bulir
Summary: Controlling the hot steam corrosion of nuclear fuel tubes is crucial for power plant efficiency and safety. We demonstrate an effective method of protecting ZIRLO (R) (ZIRLO) fuel tubes against corrosion at accident temperatures in a water-cooled nuclear reactor environment. The order of the layers in the coatings strongly affects the ability of the double layer coating consisting of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and magnetron-sputtered Cr to protect ZIRLO fuel tubes against hot steam corrosion.
JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Lucie Prazakova, Jan Fischer, Andrew Taylor, Anna Kubickova
Summary: A novel electrochemical approach using platinum and boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes was employed to study the oxidative stability of the drug abacavir. The results showed that electrochemical oxidation led to faster degradation of abacavir compared to traditional chemical oxidation using hydrogen peroxide. The rate of degradation and the composition of degradation products were found to be pH-dependent.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Zdenek Weiss, Petr Ashcheulov, Nicolas Lambert, Andrew Taylor, Jan Lorincik, Kil-dong Sung, Marina Davydova, Vincent Mortet
Summary: Boron- and phosphorus-doped diamond layers were analyzed using glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy. A methodology for quantitative depth profiling based on multi-matrix calibration was developed, assuming matrix-independent emission yields. The accuracy and sensitivity of the analysis were discussed. The analysis of boron showed satisfactory performance using the B I line at 208.959 nm. However, the analysis of phosphorus was affected by an argon-related interference, which could be eliminated by using neon discharge, resulting in an eightfold improvement in the phosphorus detection limit. The analysis also revealed a light interference effect in transparent layers, indicating their transparency in the ultraviolet region.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Tomas Zikmund, Jiri Bulir, Michal Novotny, Ladislav Fekete, Sergii Chertopalov, Stefan Andrei Irimiciuc, Mariana Klementova, Jarmila Balogova, Jan Lancok
Summary: This study reports on the formation of silver nanoparticles by gas aggregation in a reaction chamber at room temperature. The size distribution of the nanoparticles was analyzed using atomic force microscopy, while their physical shape and optical properties were characterized using scanning and transmission electron microscopy and spectral ellipsometry. The nanoparticles were then incorporated into various materials to study their influence on emission spectra and transmittance at different annealing temperatures.
