Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Bisphenol A in Aqueous Solution by Ag-Doping ZnO

The metal-doping into the photocatalyst was evaluated for the photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A in aqueous solution with ZnO powder. Au/ZnO, Ag/ZnO and Cu/ZnO were tested in the present work. Ag-doping ZnO was effective for the improvement of efficiency for the photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A in water. The optimum doping concentration of silver was found to be 3 wt%. The pseudo first-order rate constant with 3 wt% Ag/ZnO was 1.3 times better compared with bare ZnO. The photocatalytic degradation of treatment for the wastewater containing bisphenol A is simple, easy handling and low cost.

Ag-doped CNT/HAP nanohybrids in a PLLA bone scaffold show significant antibacterial activity

Bacterial infection is a major problem following bone implant surgery.Moreover,poly-l-lactic acid/carbon nanotube/hydroxyapatite(PLLA/CNT/HAP)bone scaffolds possess enhanced mechanical properties and show good bioactiv-ityregardingbonedefectregeneration.Inthisstudy,wesynthesizedsilver(Ag)-dopedCNT/HAP(CNT/Ag-HAP)nanohybrids via the partial replacing of calcium ions(Ca2+)in the HAP lattice with silver ions(Ag+)using an ion doping technique under hydrothermal conditions.Specifically,the doping process was induced using the special lattice structure of HAP and the abundant surface oxygenic functional groups of CNT,and involved the partial replacement of Ca2+in the HAP lattice by doped Ag+as well as the in situ synthesis of Ag-HAP nanoparticles on CNT in a hydrothermal environment.The result-ing CNT/Ag-HAP nanohybrids were then introduced into a PLLA matrix via laser-based powder bed fusion(PBF-LB)to fabricate PLLA/CNT/Ag-HAP scaffolds that showed sustained antibacterial activity.We then found that Ag+,which pos-sesses broad-spectrum antibacterial activity,endowed PLLA/CNT/Ag-HAP scaffolds with this activity,with an antibacterial effectiveness of 92.65%.This antibacterial effect is due to the powerful effect of Ag+against bacterial structure and genetic material,as well as the physical destruction of bacterial structures due to the sharp edge structure of CNT.In addition,the scaffold possessed enhanced mechanical properties,showing tensile and compressive strengths of 8.49 MPa and 19.72 MPa,respectively.Finally,the scaffold also exhibited good bioactivity and cytocompatibility,including the ability to form apatite layers and to promote the adhesion and proliferation of human osteoblast-like cells(MG63 cells).

Electronic and thermal properties of Ag-doped single crystal zinc oxide via laser-induced technique

The doping of ZnO has attracted lots of attention because it is an important way to tune the properties of ZnO.Postdoping after growth is one of the efficient strategies.Here,we report a unique approach to successfully dope the single crystalline ZnO with Ag by the laser-induced method,which can effectively further post-treat grown samples.Magnetron sputtering was used to coat the Ag film with a thickness of about 50 nm on the single crystalline ZnO.Neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet(Nd:YAG)laser was chosen to irradiate the Ag-capped ZnO samples,followed by annealing at700℃for two hours to form ZnO:Ag.The three-dimensional(3D)information of the elemental distribution of Ag in ZnO was obtained through time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry(TOF-SIMS).TOF-SIMS and core-level x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS)demonstrated that the Ag impurities could be effectively doped into single crystalline ZnO samples as deep as several hundred nanometers.Obvious broadening of core level XPS profiles of Ag from the surface to depths of hundred nms was observed,indicating the variance of chemical state changes in laser-induced Ag-doped ZnO.Interesting features of electronic mixing states were detected in the valence band XPS of ZnO:Ag,suggesting the strong coupling or interaction of Ag and ZnO in the sample rather than their simple mixture.The Ag-doped ZnO also showed a narrower bandgap and a decrease in thermal diffusion coefficient compared to the pure ZnO,which would be beneficial to thermoelectric performance.

High efficiency CZTSSe solar cells enabled by dual Ag-passivation approach via aqueous solution process

Ag substitution in Cu_(2)ZnSn(S,Se)_(4)(CZTSSe)is a promising way to mitigate Cu/Zn related defects,electrostatic fluctuations and Shockley-Read-Hall(SRH)recombination centers.However,high performance ACZTSSe solar cells are generally demonstrated with more Ag amounts and strenuous fabrication processes,which are not ideal when using cheap constituent materials CZTSSe.To reduce the Ag amount(2%-3%),local Ag substitutions into CZTSSe at front(F),back(B)and dual front/back(FB)were proposed.Experimental results revealed that F-passivation effectively reduced the Cu/Zn related defects and further limits the interface/bulk recombination whereas B-passivation improved the grain growth at the back interface and further allows enhanced transport of charge carriers.By employing the dual Agpassivation approach,the final ACZTSSe device parameters were significantly improved and remarkable power conversion efficiency(PCE)of 12.43%was achieved with eco-friendly aqueous solution process.

Fast joining YBCO bulks with melt Ag doped Y-Ba-Cu-O solder

Y-Ba-Cu-O is a promising high temperature superconductor material because of its good electrical and magnetic properties. However, large and complex bulks cannot be made directly, and joining is a good way to solve this problem. Joining Y-Ba-Cu-O with filler material was widely used and reported, but sliced melt solder was rarely reported, especially the one that required relatively short time. In this paper, sliced melt Ag doped Y-Ba-Cu-O was used as filler material and the joining time is relatively shorter compared with mast of the published paper. The melt solder was fabricated and tested, the melting temperature is 975℃and there is much less pores found in the solder compared with the sintered solder. The bonding result is very encouraging： the superconductivity recovery ratio is 97.3%, which is about 5% higher than as sintered filler material. The microstructure in the bonding zone is very similar to that in the base material, no Y2BaCuO5 （ Y211 ） phase accumulated during the joining process, which reveals that high quality superconductive bonding was achieved.

Catalytic ozonation treatment of papermaking wastewater by Ag-doped NiFe2O4 : Performance and mechanism

The catalytic ozonation treatment of secondary biochemical effluent for papermaking wastewater by Ag-doped nickel ferrite was investigated.Ag-doped catalysts prepared by sol-gel method were characterized,illustrating that Ag entirely entered the crystalline of Ni Fe2O4 and changed the surface properties.The addition of catalyst enhanced the removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon.The results of gas chromatography-mass spectrometer,ultraviolet light absorbance at 254 nm and threedimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrix suggested that aromatic compounds were efficiently degraded and toxic substances,such as dibutyl phthalate.In addition,the radical scavenging experiments confirmed the hydroxyl radicals acted as the main reactive oxygen species and the surface properties of catalysts played an important role in the reaction.Overall,this work validated potential applications of Ag-doped Ni Fe2O4 catalyzed ozonation process of biologically recalcitrant wastewater.

Corrosion Behavior ofAg-doped TiO2 Coatings on Commercially Pure Tita- nium in Simulated Body Fluid Solution

TiO2 films including different amounts of Ag obtained by sol-gel method on commercially pure titanium （CP-Ti） and the corrosion properties of Ag-doped TiO2 films were investigated by potentiodynamic polarisation and Electrochemical ImpedanceSpectroscopy （EIS） tests in Simulated Body Fluid （SBF） solution. The results were compared with untreated and un-doped samples. Surface characterizations before and after the corrosion tests were performed by the Scanning Electron Microscopy （SEM） and X-ray Diffraction （XRD） analysis. It was observed that Ag-doping for TiO2 films improved the corrosion resistance when compared with untreated and un-doped TiO2 film coated samples. The highest corrosion resistance was obtained from Ag-doped samples coated with a solution of 0.05 M Ag.

Preparation of Ag2O modified silica abrasives and their chemical mechanical polishing performances on sapphire

The chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process has become a widely accepted global planarization technology.The abrasive material is one of the key elements in CMP.In the presented paper,an Ag-doped colloidal SiO2 abrasive is synthesized by a seed-induced growth method.It is characterized by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy to analyze the composition and morphology.The CMP performance of the Ag-doped colloidal silica abrasives on sapphire substrates is investigated.Experiment results show the material removal rate (MRR) of Ag-doped colloidal silica abrasives is obviously higher than that of pure colloidal silica abrasives under the same testing conditions.The surfaces that are polished by composite colloidal abrasives exhibit lower surface roughness (Ra) than those polished by pure colloidal silica abrasives.Furthermore,the acting mechanism of Ag-doped colloidal SiO2 composite abrasives in sapphire CMP is analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,and analytical results show that element Ag forms Ag2O which acts as a catalyst to promote the chemical effect in CMP and leads to the increasing of MRR.