Enhanced Property of Thin Cuprous Oxide Film Prepared through Green Synthetic Route

Thin cuprous oxide films have been prepared by chemical vapor deposition(pulsed spray evaporation-chemical vapor deposition)method without post-treatment.The synthesis of cuprous oxide was produced by applying a water strategy effect.Then,the effect of water on the morphology,topology,structure,optical properties and surface composition of the obtained films has been comprehensively investigated.The results reveal that a pure phase of Cu2O was obtained.The introduction of a small quantity of water in the liquid feedstock lowers the band gap energy from 2.16 eV to 2.04 eV.This finding was mainly related to the decrease of crystallite size due to the effect of water.The topology analyses,by using atomic force microscope,also revealed that surface roughness decreases with water addition,namely more uniform covered surface.Moreover,theoretical calculations based on density functional theory method were performed to understand the adsorption and reaction behaviors of water and ethanol on the Cu2O thin film surface.Formation mechanism of the Cu2O thin film was also suggested and discussed.

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of herbicide resistance in creeping bentgrass and colonial bentgrass

Embryogenic calli were induced from the seeds of creeping bentgrass ( Agrostis palustris Huds.) cv. Regent and colonial bentgrass ( Agrostis Tenuis Sibth. Fl. Oxen.) cv. Tiger. The embryogenic calli were precultured on fresh medium for 4-7 days and then co cultivated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens , LBA4404, which contains plasmid vector pSBGM harboring bar coding region, synthetic green fluorescent protein (sGFP) coding region and matrix attachment region (MAR). After 3 days of co cultivation, the calli were washed thoroughly and transferred to MS medium containing 2 mg/L of 2, 4 D, 12-15 mg/L phosphinothricin (PPT) and 250 mg/L of cefotaxime. After 2-3 months of selection, the actively growing calli of 'Regent' and 'Tiger' were transferred to MS medium with 12-15 mg/L PPT and 250 mg/L cefotaxime for regeneration. The putative transformants were maintained on MS medium with 3 mg/L PPT for long period but control died within 1 month. After establishing in greenhouse, the transformants also showed strong resistance to 0.4% of herbicide Basta but control plants died within 2 weeks. Under confocal microscope, both young leaves and roots showed significant GFP expression. PCR analysis revealed the presence of a DNA fragment of GFP gene at the expected size (380 bp) in the transformants and its absence in a randomly selected control plant.

Oxygen self-doping pyrolyzed polyacrylic acid as sulfur host with physical/chemical adsorption dual function for lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur(Li-S)batteries with high theoretical capacity and energy density need to solve problems such as the high decomposition energy barrier of Li_(2)S and large volume change of sulfur in the charging process caused by the shuttle effect before practical application.Herein,a green synthesis method is used to prepare polyacrylic acid(PAA)superabsorbent material,and then the pyrolyzed PAA(P/PAA)material is obtained as the positive electrode of Li-S battery.Density functional calculation reveals that the oxygen self-doping pyrolyzed polyacrylic acid(P/PAA)delivered stronger binding energy toward Li2S species in carbonyl C=O than that of graphite powder(GP)which are-1.58 eV and-1.02 eV,respectively.Coupled with the distribution of relaxation time analysis and the in-situ electrochemical impedance approach,it is further demonstrated that the designed P/PAA as sulfur host plays a physical/chemical adsorption dual function in maintaining the stability and rate performance of batteries.With an initial discharge capacity of 1258 mAh/g at 0.1 C and a minimal capacity decline of 0.05%per cycle even after 800 cycles at 0.5 C,the produced cathode demonstrated outstanding electrochemical performance.The average Coulombic efficiency is nearly 100%.The P/PAA electrodes may typically retain 96%of their capacity while declining on average only 0.033%per cycle after 130 cycles at 3 C.This effort provides a new method for the future development of heteroatomic self-doping superabsorbent with promising adsorption properties for polysulfides as cathode materials of Li-S batteries.