•Carbon-coated silicon nanotube arrays on carbon cloth have been fabricated.•The hybrid electrodes show high specific capacity and good cycling stability.•The influence of the thickness of silicon shell has been studied.Silicon hollow nanostructure has been considered as one of the most promising material for commercial application in lithium-ion batteries due to its significant improvement of cycling stability. The fabricated hybrid structures, carbon-coated silicon nanotube arrays on carbon cloth substrate, with a high surface area and short electron collection pathway have been directly used as anode electrodes without any additional binder. The electrodes exhibit high capacity, excellent rate capability and good cycling stability. The discharge capacity of the hybrid electrode (the deposition time of silicon shell: 5 min) keeps stable, and after 100 cycles, the discharge capacities still remain 3654 mAh g−1 at the rate of 0.5 C.

Black phosphorus, a promising two-dimensional material to be widely used in many areas of electronics and optoelectronics, can be prepared traditionally by high pressure or fast low-pressure transport routes. However, there lacks a general understanding of the growth mechanism, and it often suffers from poor yield and high cost. In this paper, we report a facile method to synthesize large-scale black phosphorus microribbons, significantly decreasing its cost and increasing its yield, and then it can commercially produce black phosphorus. The growth process of black phosphorus microribbons has been investigated systematically, and its growth mechanism has been speculated, which opens up the possible opportunity to directly grow black phosphorus microbelts and even few-layered nanobelts by adjusting the growth conditions. In addition, ribbon-like few-layered black phosphorus with large areas can be easily exfoliated from the grown microribbons because of their smooth and large area of the cleavage plane. The ribbon-like few-layered phosphorus is beneficial to investigate the anisotropic properties of black phosphorus.

•SiC@Si core–shell nanowires on carbon paper.•The fabricated electrodes show high specific capacity and good cycling stability.•The influence of the growth parameters on the electrode performances has been studied.Silicon has been considered as one of the most promising anode materials for the next generation lithium-ion battery due to its high theoretical capacity, but large volume changes during the electrochemical cycling limit its commercial application. In this study, we report the synthesis of silicon carbide @ silicon core–shell nanowires on carbon paper and their application in lithium-ion batteries. The hybrid nano-structures are fabricated via a two-step chemical vapor deposition method and directly used as the working electrode without any additional binder, exhibiting high specific capacity, high coulombic efficiency and good cycling stability. After 50 cycles, the discharge capacities still remain 2837 and 1809 mAh g−1 at the rates of 0.1C and 0.5C, respectively. Furthermore, we also study the influence of the growth time of SiC NWs and the thickness of Si film on the lithium-ion batteries' performance, and propose the possible method to further improve the battery performance.

The response current of Ni foam in alkaline solutions can be reduced significantly by high-temperature annealing, making it more suitable for current collectors, and a porous NiO(OH) film deposited on the passivated 3D Ni foam by anodic electrodeposition shows an ultrahigh specific capacitance of 2302 F g−1 at 1 A g−1.

Stability is an important issue of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. In this paper, a highly stable three-dimensional (3D)-SERS substrate has been prepared by surface migration of silver on the surface of silicon nanowires (SiNWs). Along with the formation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), a thin layer of compact SiO2 caps is formed on AgNPs, protecting the silver from aggregation effectively and guaranteeing the stability of the SERS substrates. Their shelf life can be improved greatly. The thin SiO2 layer, which protects the silver from degradation, can be easily and quickly removed just prior to analysis of optimal SERS performance. This work introduces a creative technique to produce highly stable and efficient 3D-SERS substrates for trace detection of chemical and biological molecules.

SnO2 nanoparticles (NPs)@carbon nanofibers as anode materials for lithium-ion battery are synthesized by a novel facile route using the commercial filter paper and tin dichloride dehydrate (SnCl2·2H2O). The weight ratio between carbon nanofibers and SnO2 NPs, which seriously affects the battery performance, has been demonstrated to be easily tuned by adjusting the sintering temperature. The electrochemical investigations show that the SnO2 NPs@carbon nanofibers with 9 wt% carbon have the best performance with the highest capacity of 383 mAh g−1 after 30 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g−1. The method introduced in this study provides an easy strategy for the controlled introduction of carbon to optimize the performance of lithium-ion battery using SnO2 NPs@carbon nanofibers as anode materials.Highlights► A simple process to fabricate SnO2 NPs@carbon nanofibers as anode materials. ► Controlled introduction of carbon to optimize the lithium-ion battery performance. ► This method is easy preparation, low cost, and non-toxic source materials.

A simple and cost-effective chemical method was introduced to assemble gold (Au) nanoparticles on smooth silver (Ag) spheres for realizing surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement by the replacement reaction between chloroauric acid and Ag spheres. In addition, the Ag–Au core–shell spheres were fabricated when a certain amount of chloroauric acid was used in the reaction solution. We found that the Ag particles decorated with small Au nanoparticles demonstrated the strongest SERS enhancement, while Ag–Au core–shell spheres showed the weakest enhancement.

In this paper, thermogravimetric analyses, Fourier transform infrared spectra, X-ray powder diffraction, photoluminescence, electron paramagnetic resonance, and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer are applied to observe the thermal decomposition of Zn5(OH)8Ac2·2H2O to ZnO for understanding the origin of room temperature ferromagnetism in ZnO porous microspheres. The results show that both zinc vacancies and shallow donors induced by hydrogen may play an important role in triggering magnetic order in ZnO samples fabricated by annealing the precursor Zn5(OH)8Ac2·2H2O at temperature above 400 °C.

Novel and extended ZnO/Zn5(OH)8Ac2·2H2O architectures are desirable for many applications. Here we report on the design and growth of the novel ZnO/Zn5(OH)8Ac2·2H2O architectures by a hydrothermal synthesis approach. ZnO microrods and/or columnar film are grown in the aqueous solution containing Zn(Ac)2·2H2O and hexamethylenetetramine, while Zn5(OH)8Ac2·2H2O microspheres and/or porous film are formed when enough citrate anions are added into the solution. The citrate anions not only modify the morphology but also decide the phase of the grown zinc compounds. The ZnO thin layer coated on glass substrate is used to control the nucleation event and finally modifies the morphology of the grown ZnO. Our work provides an effective and facile approach to design and selectively grow the novel ZnO/Zn5(OH)8Ac2·2H2O architectures at a low temperature of 95 °C.

Si nanowires (SiNWs) have been synthesized facilely from products in the thermal decomposition of copper oxalate in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system by the vapor–solid–solid (VSS) mechanism. Raman investigations showed that the phonon confinement appeared in the grown SiNWs. We found the mechanism of catalyst formation to be that the initial copper oxalate micro balls were thermally decomposed to fabricate Cu and Cu2O nanoparticles, which reacted with silane sequentially to form Cu3Si, serving as the nuclei for the sequential VSS growth of SiNWs.

The photoluminescence (PL) property and growth mechanism of ZnO nanowires, which are essential to both fundamental and applied studies, are not yet well understood. Here extensive investigations have been carried out to deeply understand the two issues. At first, ZnO nanowire arrays are fabricated on bare glass substrate via a noncatalytic thermal evaporation method. Afterward, the PL measurements reveal that the emission peaks located at 405 and 616 nm are related to the Zn vacancy defect, and the red peak located in the region between 750 and 800 nm has relations with the interaction between the Zn vacancy and Zn interstitial defects. Detailed experiments show that the oxygen flux plays a very important role in the morphology evolution of the as-grown products, which change from nanoflakes to nanowires and finally to nanonails with the increase of oxygen flow rate. The competition between the axial growth and the radial growth results in the morphology evolution. Finally, a two-stage vapor−solid (VS) growth model is proposed to interpret the growth behavior of the ZnO nanowires. Our results have made a positive progress toward the PL property and growth mechanism of ZnO nanowires.

The response current of Ni foam in alkaline solutions can be reduced significantly by high-temperature annealing, making it more suitable for current collectors, and a porous NiO(OH) film deposited on the passivated 3D Ni foam by anodic electrodeposition shows an ultrahigh specific capacitance of 2302 F g−1 at 1 A g−1.