The influence of water permeates almost all areas including biochemistry,chemistry,physics and is particularly evident in phenomena occurring at the interfaces of solid surface such as SiC nanocrystals,which are promising nanomaterials and exhibit unique surface chemical properties.In this paper,the quantum confinement effect and stability of 3C-SiC nanocrystals in aqueous solution as well as photoluminescence properties in water suspensions with different pH values are reviewed based on design and analysis of surface structures.On this basis,the significant progress of 3C-SiC nanocrystals in efficiently splitting water into usable hydrogen is summarized and the relative mechanisms are described.In addition,the water-soluble 3C-SiC quantum dots as robust and nontoxic biological probes and labels also are introduced as well as future prospects given.
We survey the magnetocaloric effect in perovskite-type oxides （including doped ABO3-type manganese oxides, A3B2OT-type two-layered perovskite oxides, and A2B＇B＇＇O6-type ordered double-perovskite oxides）. Magnetic entropy changes larger than those of gadolinium can be observed in polycrystalline La1-xCaxMnO3 and alkali-metal （Na or K） doped La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 perovskite-type manganese oxides. The large magnetic entropy change produced by an abrupt reduction of magnetization is attributed to the anomalous thermal expansion at the Curie temperature. Considerable mag- netic entropy changes can also be observed in two-layered perovskites Lal.6Cal.4Mn207 and La2.5-xK0.5＋xMn2O7＋6 （0 〈 x 〈 0.5）, and double-perovskite Ba2Fe1＋xMol-xO6 （0 〈 x 〈 0.3） near their respective Curie temperatures. Com- pared with rare earth metals and their alloys, the perovskite-type oxides are lower in cost, and they exhibit higher chemical stability and higher electrical resistivity, which together favor lower eddy-current heating. They are potential magnetic refrigerants at high temperatures, especially near room temperature.
Novel hollow ZnxCdl xS spheres that are uniform in size are synthesized through the one-step thermal evaporation of a mixture of Zn and CdS powder. From an X-ray diffraction （XRD） study, the hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnxCdl_xS is verified, and the Zn mole fraction （x） is determined to be 0.09. According to the experimental results, we propose a mechanism for the growth of Zn0.09Cd0.91S hollow spheres. The results of the cathodoluminescence investigation indicate uniform Zn, Cd, and S distribution of alloyed Zn0.09Cd0.91S, instead of separate CdS, ZnS, or nanocrystals of a core- shell structure. To the best of our knowledge, the fabrication of ZnxCd1-xS hollow spheres of this kind by one-step thermal evaporation has never been reported. This work would present a new method of growing and applying hollow spheres on Si substrates, and the discovery of the Zn0.09Cd0.91S hollow spheres would make the investigation of ZnxCd1-xS micro/nanostructures more interesting and intriguing.
The photoluminescence （PL） characteristics of hybrid β-FeSi2/Si and pure β-FeSi2 films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition at 20 K are investigated. The intensity of the 1.54-μm PL from the former is enhanced, but the enhancement vanishes when the excitation wavelength is larger than the widened band gap of Si nanocrystal. Time-resolved PL decay measurements reveal that the lifetime of the photo-excited carriers in the hybrid β-FeSi2/Si film is longer than that in the pure β-FeSi2 film, providing evidence that the PL enhancement results from the resonant charge transfer from nanocrystalline Si to β-FeSi2.
