By employing mixed inorganic precursors and finely tuning the ageing conditions, crack-free surfactant-templated mesoporous titania films of thickness up to 4 µm have been obtained efficiently. Low angle XRD and TEM show that the mesostructure of the multilayered films was maintained when calcined at the developed temperature of 350 °C, but those films developed crystallinity. A novel type of mesoporous structure featuring highly crystallized anatase framework was produced by a two-step sintering process. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated from these films. The short circuit photocurrent (I_sc), open circuit voltage (V_oc), and thus the performance of the cell was greatly enhanced when adopting a two-step sintering process, confirming that high crystallinity of the TiO₂ electrode is required for high efficiency conversion.

Three novel hemicyanine derivatives bearing different electron donors, 2-[4-N, N-dimethylaminostyryl]-β-naphthothiazolium propylsulfonate (dye 1), 2-[4-N, N-diethylaminostyryl]-β-naphthothiazolium propylsulfonate (dye 2) and 2-[2-hydroxyl-4-N, N-diethylaminostyryl]-β-naphthothiazolium propylsulfonate (dye 3), were designed and synthesized for use in dye-sensitized mesoporous TiO2 solar cells. Their visible light absorption, luminescence emission, electrochemical properties, and photoelectrochemical properties were systematically studied. Upon comparison, dye 3 was found to be the best sensitizer. Experimental data show that introduction of a hydroxyl group can greatly enhance the electron injection efficiency, moreover, this enhancement can greatly override the unfavourable factor originated from the decrease of the adsorption amount of dye 3. Additionally bearing the hydroxyl group, the dye 3 sensitized solar cell gained remarkably high photoelectric conversion yield of 6.3% under illumination of 80.0 mW cm−2 white light from a Xe lamp.

A multisignaling chemosensor for Hg²⁺ based on the iridium(III) complex Ir(thq)₂(acac) was realized through UV-Vis absorption, phosphorescent emission and electrochemical measurements. Upon addition of Hg²⁺, an obvious blue-shift in absorption spectra and a strong decrease of emission intensity were measured for Ir(thq)₂(acac), which could be observed by the naked eye. Hg²⁺ is coordinated to Ir(thq)₂(acac), forming a 1 : 1 complex. Because Hg²⁺ is a thiophilic metal ion, the interaction between Hg²⁺ and the sulfur atom of cyclometalated ligands is responsible for the significant variations in optical and electrochemical signals.