Lixin Song

This work involves the introduction of niobium oxide into lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO₃) via a conventional solid-state reaction technique to yield LaAlO₃:Nb (LaNb_xAl_1−xO_3+δ) samples with Nb⁵⁺ doping levels ranging from 0.00 to 0.25 mol%. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of the effects of niobium doping on the phase evolution, defect control, and reflectance of LaNb_xAl_1−xO_3+δ powder. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirms the perovskite structure in all powders, and XRD and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveal successful doping of Nb⁵⁺ into LaNb_xAl_1−xO_3+δ. The surface morphology was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the results show that increasing the doping concentration of niobium leads to fewer microstructural defects. Oxygen vacancy defects in different compositions are analyzed at 300 K, and as the doping level increases, a clear trend of defect reduction is observed. Notably, LaNb_xAl_1−xO_3+δ with 0.15 mol% Nb⁵⁺ exhibits excellent reflectance properties, with a maximum infrared reflectance of 99.7%. This study shows that LaNb_xAl_1−xO_3+δ powder materials have wide application potential in the field of high reflectivity coating materials due to their extremely low microstructural defects and oxygen vacancy defects.

Perfect broadband absorbers have increasingly been considered as important components for controllable thermal emission, energy harvesting, modulators, etc. However, perfect absorbers which can operate over a wide optical regime is still a big challenge to achieve. Here, we propose and numerically investigate a perfect broadband near-infrared absorber based on periodic array of four isosceles trapezoid prism (FITP) unit cell made of titanium (Ti) over a continuous silver film. The structure operates with low quality (Q) factor of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) because of the intrinsic high loss, which is the foundation of the broadband absorption. The high absorption of metal nanostructures mainly comes from the power loss caused by the continuous electron transition excited by the incident light inside the metal, and the resistance loss depends on the enhanced localized electric field caused by the FITP structure. Under normal incidence, the simulated absorption is over 90% in the spectrum ranging from 895 nm to 2269 nm. The absorber is polarization-independent at normal incidence, and has more than 80% high absorption persisting up to the incident angle of ~45° at TM polarization.

TiO₂/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposites with two different TiO₂ particle sizes were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method using two different source materials of Ti: tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) and commercial TiO₂ powder (P25). For respective series with the same source materials, we investigated additions that optimized the nonlinear optical properties (NLO) and optical limiting (OL) performances, and we explored the relationships between structural diversity and performance. Several characterization techniques, including X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, and diffuse reflectance ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) were conducted to confirm the microstructures and chemical states of as-prepared materials. This indicated the existence of the Ti–O–C bond between rGO sheets and TiO₂ particles and the reduction from precursor graphene oxide (GO) to rGO. The results of UV-Vis spectra revealed that the TiO₂/rGO nanocomposites showed smaller band gaps than bare TiO₂. A nanosecond open-aperture Z-scan technique at 1064 nm was applied to investigate NLO and OL properties. TiO₂/rGO nanocomposites exhibited enhanced NLO and OL performances, arising from synergistic effects, compared to individual components. The TBT series samples performed better than the P25 series, presumably relevant to dimensional effects.

Thermal control materials are employed to adjust the temperature of a spacecraft operating in deep space. The spectral emissivity is a crucial factor in evaluating the thermal radiative properties of such materials. An apparatus, composed of a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), a sample cooling chamber and a mechanical modulation system was demonstrated to measure low temperature infrared spectral emissivity under vacuum. The mechanical modulation system, which includes a chopper and a lock-in amplifier, is employed to reduce the interference of background radiation during measurements. The limitation of the Fourier transform frequency on the chopper frequency can be eliminated by setting the FTIR on step-scan mode. The apparatus is separated into two parts and evacuated by different pumps. In this study, a high quality emission spectrum of a sample is measured by the apparatus. The spectral emissivity of thermal control materials are obtained in the wavelength range of 8 to 14 μm at 173 and 213 K. The combined standard uncertainty of the apparatus is 3.30% at 213 K.

Because of the technical importance of organosilicon materials, insight into the related synthetic processes is significantly essential. In this paper, the amine-catalyzed polymerization of silanol has been investigated by the density functional theory (DFT) method. Our data have shown that amines can catalytically promote the hydrogen transfer process by substantially reducing the energy barrier. The activation barrier via hydrogen transfer with catalysis is 38.32 kJ/mol, much lower than that of catalysis-free process (120.88 kJ/mol). The lower energy barrier is in agreement with the much more intense polymerization of silanols with amine catalysts. Based on the above results, amines and other catalysts capable of assisting hydrogen transfer are expected to be used as catalysts for silanol polymerization.

Optically Transparent Microwave Metamaterial Absorber (OTMMA) is of significant use in both civil and military field. In this paper, equivalent circuit model is adopted as springboard to navigate the design of OTMMA. The physical model and absorption mechanisms of ideal lightweight ultrathin OTMMA are comprehensively researched. Both the theoretical value of equivalent resistance and the quantitative relation between the equivalent inductance and equivalent capacitance are derived for design. Frequency-dependent characteristics of theoretical equivalent resistance are also investigated. Based on these theoretical works, an effective and controllable design approach is proposed. To validate the approach, a wideband OTMMA is designed, fabricated, analyzed and tested. The results reveal that high absorption more than 90% can be achieved in the whole 6~18 GHz band. The fabricated OTMMA also has an optical transparency up to 78% at 600 nm and is much thinner and lighter than its counterparts.

A graphene coated hexagonal ZnO (HZO@Gr) with enhanced activity in photocatalysis was synthesized. However, the photoinduced charge transfer behavior and the beneficial role of graphene in promoting photocatalytic reactions have not been sufficiently investigated experimentally. In this paper, the surface potentials of the ±(0001)-polar plane of HZO (Zn-polar plane and O-polar plane), graphene, graphene/Zn-polar plane and graphene/O-polar plane were measured using Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). On the basis of the KPFM results, the respective Fermi levels were calculated and the internal electric field (IEF) of HZO was confirmed. Taking the IEF of HZO into consideration, the three-dimensional band diagrams of the HZO@Gr composites in methyl blue (MB) solution in the dark and under UV-visible irradiation after equilibrium were proposed. Accordingly, it is found that there could emerge different interactions between graphene and HZO at the ±(0001)-polar plane of HZO. Furthermore, the photogenerated holes and electrons tend to migrate to opposite directions. With the participation of graphene and IEF, the composites show a decrease in possibility of charge recombination. As a result, the active groups, namely ˙OH and ˙O₂ ⁻ radicals, could be mainly generated at/near the O-polar plane and Zn-polar plane, respectively. This work can serve as a supplemental explanation of the charge transfer during the photocatalytic process at the polar ZnO/graphene composite surface.