Telluriums (Te) with various nanostructures, including particles, wires, and sheets, are controllably synthesized by adjusting the content of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) in a facile solvothermal reaction. Te nanostructures all have complete grain sizes with excellent crystallinity and mesopore structures. Further, the formation mechanisms of Te nanostructures are proposed to be that the primary nuclei of Te are released from the reduction of TeO₃²⁻ using N₂H₄·H₂O, and then grow into various nanostructures depending on the different content of PVP. These nanostructures of Te all exhibit the photocatalytic activities for the degradation of MB and H₂ production under visible light irradiation, especially Te nanosheets, which have the highest efficiencies of degradation (99.8%) and mineralization (65.5%) at 120 min. In addition, compared with pure Te nanosheets, the rate of H₂ production increases from 412 to 795 μmol∙h⁻¹∙g⁻¹ after the introduction of Pt, which increases the output by nearly two times. The above investigations indicate that Te with various nanostructures is a potential photocatalyst in the field of degradation of organic pollutants and H₂ fuel cells.

A high-performance ZnSnO (ZTO) thin-film transistor (TFT) was fabricated, with ZTO deposited by rf magnetron sputtering. XPS was used to analyze and study the effects of different annealing temperatures on the element composition and valence state of ZTO films. Then, the influence mechanism of annealing treatment on the electrical properties of ZTO thin films was analyzed. The results show that, with an increase in annealing temperature, the amount of metal bonding with oxygen increases first and then decreases, while the oxygen vacancy decreases first and then increases. Further analysis on the ratio of Sn²⁺ is presented. Electrical results show that the TFT annealed at 600 °C exhibits the best performance. It exhibits high saturation mobilities (μ_SAT) up to 12.64 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹, a threshold voltage (V_TH) of −6.61 V, a large on/off current ratio (I_on/I_off) of 1.87 × 10⁹, and an excellent subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.79 V/Decade.

A Cu(OH)₂/Ni₃S₂ composite has been designed and in situ constructed on Cu foam substrate by facile two-step electrodeposition. Cu(OH)₂ is achieved on Cu foam by galvanostatic electrodeposition, and the subsequent coating of Ni₃S₂ is realized by cyclic voltammetric (CV) electrodeposition. The introduction of Cu(OH)₂ provides skeleton support and a large specific surface area for the Ni₃S₂ electrodeposition. Benefiting from the selection of different components and preparation technology, the Cu(OH)₂/Ni₃S₂ composite exhibits enhanced electrochemical properties with a high specific capacitance of 4.85 F cm⁻² at 2 mA cm⁻² and long-term cyclic stability at 80.84% (4000 cycles).

Developing efficient catalysts to produce clean fuel by using solar energy has long been the goal to mitigate the issue of traditional fossil fuel scarcity. In this work, we design a heterostructure photocatalyst by employing two green components, Ni(OH)₂ and ZnIn₂S₄, for efficient photocatalytic H₂ evolution under the illumination of visible light. After optimization, the obtained photocatalyst exhibits an H₂ evolution rate at 0.52 mL h⁻¹ (5 mg) (i.e., 4640 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹) under visible light illumination. Further investigations reveal that such superior activity is originated from the efficient charge separation due to the two-dimensional (2D) structure of ZnIn₂S₄ and existing high-quality heterojunction.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBH) has gained significant attention because of its biodegradability and sustainability. However, its expanded application in some fields is limited by the brittleness and low melt viscoelasticity. In this work, poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) was introduced into PHBH/poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) blends via melt compounding with the aim of obtaining a good balance of properties. Dynamic mechanical analysis results suggested that PPC and PHBH were immiscible. PVAc was miscible with both a PHBH matrix and PPC phase, while it showed better miscibility with PHBH than with PPC. Therefore, PVAc was selectively localized in a PHBH matrix, reducing interfacial tension and refining dispersed phase morphology. The crystallization rate of PHBH slowed down, and the degree of crystallinity decreased with the introduction of PPC and PVAc. Moreover, the PVAc phase significantly improved the melt viscoelasticity of ternary blends. The most interesting result was that the remarkable enhancement of toughness for PHBH/PPC blends was obtained by adding PVAc without sacrificing the strength markedly. Compared with the PHBH/PPC blend, the elongation at the break and yield strength of the PHBH/PPC/10PVAc blend increased by 1145% and 7.9%, respectively. The combination of high melt viscoelasticity, toughness and strength is important for the promotion of the practical application of biological PHBH.