Enhancement of Ti3C2 MXene on Au@Ag/TiO2 for the visible-light-driven photoreduction of nitroaromatics

The hot electrons produced by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of plasmonic metal offer an efficient and sustainable strategy for traditional catalysis. However, the low generation rate and easy recombination...

Alcohol Sensor Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance of ZnO Nanoflowers/Au Structure

Alcohol detection plays a key role in food processing and monitoring. Therefore, we present a fast, high reproducibility and label-free characteristics alcohol photochemical sensor based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect. By growing ZnO nanoflowers on Au film, the SPR signal red-shifted in the visible region as the alcohol concentration increased. More interestingly, the sensitivity improved to 127 nm/%, which is attributed to the ZnO nanoflowers/Au structure. The goodness of the linear fit was more than 0.99 at a range from 0 vol% to 95 vol% which ensures detection resolution. Finally, a practical application for distinguishing five kinds of alcoholic drinks has been demonstrated. The excellent sensing characteristics also indicate the potential of the device for applications in the direction of food processing and monitoring, and the simple structure fabrication and economic environmental protection make it more attractive.

Imaging-based optical barcoding for relative humidity sensing based on meta-tip

In a wide range of applications such as healthcare treatment, environmental monitoring, food processing and storage, and semiconductor chip manufacturing, relative humidity (RH) sensing is required. However, traditional fiber-optic humidity sensors face the challenges of miniaturization and indirectly obtaining humidity values. Here, we propose and demonstrate an optical barcode technique by cooperating with RH meta-tip, which can predict the humidity values directly. Such RH meta-tip is composed of fiber-optic sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect and graphene oxide film as humidity sensitizer. While SPR sensor is composed of multimode fiber (MMF) integrated with metallic metasurface. Dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm is used to obtain the warp path distance (WPD) sequence between the measured reflection spectrum and the spectra of the precalibrated database. The distance sequence is transformed into a pseudo-color barcode, and the humidity value is corresponded to the lowest distance, which can be read by human eyes. The RH measurement depends on the collective changes of the reflection spectrum rather than tracking a single specific resonance peak/dip. This work can open up new doors to the development of a humidity sensor with direct RH recognition by human eyes.

Simple Fabrication of Visible Light-Responsive Bi-BiOBr/BiPO4 Heterostructure with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

A Bi-BiOBr/BiPO4 heterojunction structure was successfully synthesized via a two-step solvothermal method with ethylene glycol as a reducer. Little BiPO4 irregular polyhedrons and little metal Bi spherical nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed on the surface of BiOBr nanosheets with intimate contact and formed a heterojunction structure between BiPO4 and BiOBr. It was found that Bi-BiOBr/BiPO4 had a significant improvement in photocatalytic performance for RhB degradation compared to bare BiOBr and BiPO4. The photocatalytic degradation rate constant of 0.2-Bi/BiOBr/BiPO4 was 1.44 h-1, which was 3.8 times and 14.2 times more than that of bare BiOBr and BiPO4, respectively. This is attributed to the formation of a ternary heterojunction, which benefits the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Furthermore, with the introduction of metal Bi, the SPR effect of metal Bi can effectively improve the absorption ability of Bi-BiOBr/BiPO4 photocatalyst, resulting in enhanced photoactivity. In this work, the mechanism of photocatalytic degradation was studied by using the photochemical technique and the capture experiment of active species, and it was revealed that h+ and ⋅O2- played a major role in the photocatalytic process.

Design of a Surface Plasmon Resonance Temperature Sensor with Multi-Wavebands Based on Conjoined-Tubular Anti-Resonance Fiber

In this work, a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) temperature sensor based on a con-joined-tubular anti-resonance optical fiber (CTF) was theoretically designed and analyzed using the finite element method. The CTF cladding was composed of eight pairs of conjoined tubes, and one or two holes of the tubes were selectively coated with gold to generate the SPR effect. Alcohol was injected into the core of the CTF to work as the sensing medium using vapor deposition. The proposed sensing structure exhibited excellent birefringence and produced more than six resonant peaks in different wavebands of the X and Y polarization. The positions of those resonant peaks were sensitive to temperature change, and the simulated sensitivity was about 3.2–3.6 nm/°C. The multiple working wavebands of the proposed sensing structure could be used for self-verification. Moreover, the influence of structural parameters on sensing performance was analyzed in detail. Possessing features of high sensitivity, good birefringence, multiple measuring wavebands, and self-verification, the proposed CTF-based SPR sensor has great potential in practical applications such as biological research and chemical sensing.

Recent Progress on Metal-Enhanced Photocatalysis: A Review on the Mechanism

Metal-enhanced photocatalysis has recently received increasing interest, mainly due to the ability of metal to directly or indirectly degrade pollutants. In this review, we briefly review the recent breakthroughs in metal-enhanced photocatalysis. We discussed the recent progress of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect and small size effect of metal nanoparticles on photocatalysis; in particular, we focus on elucidating the mechanism of energy transfer and hot electron injection/transfer effect of metal nanoparticles and clusters while as photocatalysts or as cophotocatalysts. Finally, we discuss the potential applications of metal-enhanced photocatalysis, and we also offer some perspectives for further investigations.

Construction of Au@Metal-organic framework for sensitive determination of creatinine in urine

Creatinine level in urine is an important biomarker for renal function diseases, such as renal failure, glomerulonephritis, and chronic nephritis. The Au@MIL-101(Fe) was prepared by in situ growth of Au nanoparticles in MIL-101(Fe) as a selective SERS substrate. The Au@MIL-101(Fe) offers the great local surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect due to gold nanoparticles aggregation inside metal-organic frameworks. The framework structure could enrich trace target samples and drag them into SPR hot spots. The optimal Au@MIL-101(Fe) composite substrate is used for analyzing creatinine in urine and the limit of detection is down to 0.1[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mol/L and a linear relationship is ranging from 1[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mol/L to 100[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mol/L.