Nickel and indium core-shell co-catalysts loaded silicon nanowire arrays for efficient photoelectrocatalytic reduction of CO_(2) to formate

Developing an efficient artificial photosynthetic system for transforming carbon dioxide and storing solar energy in the form of chemical bonds is one of the greatest challenges in modern chemistry.However,the limited choice of catalysts with wide light absorption range,long-term stability and excellent selectivity for CO_(2) reduction makes the process sluggish.Here,a core-shell-structured nonnoble-metal Ni@In co-catalyst loaded p-type silicon nanowire arrays(SiNWs)for efficient CO_(2) reduction to formate is demonstrated.The formation rate and Faradaic efficiency of formate over the Ni@In/SiNWs catalyst reach 58μmol h^(-1) cm^(-2) and 87% under the irradiation of one simulated sunlight(AM 1.5 G,100 mW cm^(-2)),respectively,which are about 24 and 12 times those over the pristine SiNWs.The enhanced photoelectrocatalytic performance for CO_(2) reduction is attributed to the rational combination of Ni capable of effectively extracting the photogenerated electrons and In responsible for the selective activation of CO_(2).

Molecular ferroelectric/semiconductor interfacial memristors for artificial synapses

With the burgeoning developments in artificial intelligence,hardware implementation of artificial neural network is also gaining pace.In this pursuit,ferroelectric devices(i.e.,tunneling junctions and transistors)with voltage thresholds were recently proposed as suitable candidates.However,their development is hindered by the inherent integration issues of inorganic ferroelectrics,as well as poor properties of conventional organic ferroelectrics.In contrast to the conventional ferroelectric synapses,here we demonstrated a two-terminal ferroelectric synaptic device using a molecular ferroelectric(MF)/semiconductor interface.The interfacial resistance can be tuned via the polarization-controlled blocking effect of the semiconductor,owing to the high ferroelectricity and field amplification effect of the MF.Typical synaptic features including spike timing-dependent plasticity are substantiated.The introduction of the semiconductor also enables the attributes of optoelectronic synapse and in-sensor computing with high image recognition accuracies.Such interfaces may pave the way for the hardware implementation of multifunctional neuromorphic devices.