Yuhua Yang^1,2, Ke Xu¹, Bo Zhao¹, Nana Liu¹, Jun Zhou^3,4,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.5, pp. 855-865, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.014525

Abstract Traditional carbon layer enwrapping active materials cannot easily realize perfect cladding. Therefore, it still cannot prevent the pulverization of active materials during the course of charging/discharging. In this paper, we utilize natural bacteria to absorb nickel acetate, the active materials Ni₃P nanoparticles are well enwrapped, as a natural organisms surviving for billions of years, their cell walls have a perfect carbon structure, and the cell walls become carbon layer through high annealing temperature. Based on this, the yolk-shell Ni₃P–carbon @ reduced graphene oxides paper is prepared, through a proper annealing temperature, the Ni₃P particles disperse in the inner surface or… More >

C. González-Guisasola¹, O. Gil-Castell^1,2, R. Teruel-Juanes¹, A. Ribes-Greus^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.9, pp. 1171-1180, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.04399

Abstract Composite polymer electrolyte membranes were prepared with poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Two different molecular weight (M_w), 67·10³ and 130·10³ g·mol⁻¹ were selected, cross-linked with sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) and doped graphene oxide (GO). The effects on the membranes obtained from these polymers were characterized in order to evaluate the fuel cell performance. Electron microscopy showed a proper nanoparticle distribution in the polymer matrix. The chemical structure was evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The absence of a crystalline structure and the enhancement on the thermal stability with the addition of 1% of GO was demonstrated by thermal characterization. Total transference number… More >

Weiming Zhang¹, Muhammad Wasim Khan¹, Xueqin Zuo¹, Qun Yang¹, Huaibao Tang^1,2, Shaowei Jin^1,2, Guang Li^1,2,3,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.4, pp. 431-446, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09158

Abstract A novel sunflower-like nanocomposite of SrCo₂S₄ nanoflakes and functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNTs) entanglement enveloped in nitrogen-reduced graphene oxide (N-RGO) is prepared by a cheap process. The unique entanglement structure of the material exhibits higher specific surface area, better electrical conductivity and other properties. This helps to reduce the transfer resistance in the photoelectric process of the battery and improve the electrochemical activity, thus increasing the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the battery. The new ternary cobalt-based sulfide material can replace platinum as the counter electrode (CE) material loaded on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). DSSCs with SrCo₂S₄@f-MWCNTs@N-RGO (SCS@f-M@N-R) as CE material… More >

Zhi Xu, Yoshio Bando, Lei Liu, Wenlong Wang, Xuedong Bai, Dmitri Golberg

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 41-42, 2011, DOI:10.3970/icces.2011.017.041

Abstract A specially designed suspended graphene oxide (GO) device has been fabricated and investigated in a transmission electron microscope (TEM)-scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) based setup. The detailed study of step-by-step slow reduction of an individual GO sheet under current flow and thereby Joule heating, while in-parallel performing conductivity measurements, atomic structure imaging, chemical composition, and bonding alternations tracing have been performed. As monitored by electron energy core loss spectroscopy, the oxygen content is tuned from that peculiar to a pristine GO, i.e. 23.8 at.%, to oxygen-free pure graphene. Six orders of magnitude conductance rise is achieved during this process with the… More >

O. Gil-Castell^1,2, R. Cerveró¹, R. Teruel-Juanes¹, J. D. Badia^1,2, A. Ribes-Greus^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.7, No.7, pp. 655-665, 2019, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2019.04401

Abstract Crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) based composite films were prepared as polyelectrolyte membranes for low temperature direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFC). The membranes were functionalised by means of the addition of graphene oxide (GO) and sulfonated graphene oxide (SGO) and crosslinked with sulfosuccinic acid (SSA). The chemical structure was corroborated and suitable thermal properties were found. Although the addition of GO and SGO slightly decreased the proton conductivity of the membranes, a significant reduction of the ethanol solution swelling and crossover was encountered, more relevant for those functionalised with SGO. In general, the composite membranes were stable under simulated service conditions.… More >

N. Selvakumar^1,2, Uday Pradhan¹, S.B. Krupanidhi², Harish C. Barshilia^1,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.52, No.3, pp. 175-185, 2016, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2016.052.173

Abstract Graphene oxide was synthesized from graphite flakes using modified Hummers’ method. The interlayer spacings of graphite, graphite oxide and graphene oxide were measured using X-ray diffraction technique. The C/O atomic ratios of graphite oxide and graphene oxide were calculated from XPS measurements. The transformation of graphite to graphite oxide and finally to graphene oxide was clearly observed from the micro-Raman spectroscopy data and was confirmed from the FESEM micrographs. UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer was used to study the absorbance of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide samples. Finally, the chemically reduced graphene oxide was heat-treated in air to obtain chemically modified graphene. More >