Graphite oxide （GO） is an important material of wide applications. Owing to its good mechanical property, the GO sheet is always expected to be stable and remains flat on various substrates. Here we demonstrate for the first time an unexpected behavior of the GO sheet on oxygen deficient ZnO film, namely the spontaneous cracking of the entire GO sheet into many small pieces. This unusual behavior has been carefully investigated by a series of control experiments and SEM, XPS and PL measurements. It is anticipated that the oxygen vacancies in the oxygen deficient ZnO film can annihilate epoxy groups of the GO sheet, resulting in the unzipping of the aligned epoxy groups on GO sheet. A prototype of the white light detector made from the cracked GO sheet is fabricated and the device demonstrates high stability and good reproducibility.
Conversion of biomass to chemicals or fuels under mild condition is still a challenge. As a platform molecule for chemicals and fuels, levulinic acid （LA） has been prepared by lique-faction of biomass at high pressure. In order to carry out the conversion from wheat straw to LA at atmosphere pressure, continuous extraction of the reactive system by an organic solvent with a higher density than that of water was utilized for degradation of pretreated biomass. Yields of LA were measured by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance. The results revealed that a maximum yield of 30.66% of LA can be obtained from wheat straw. In addition, the effects of biomass pretreated conditions on the LA conversion have been studied. The study provides a new route to convert biomass to valuable chemicals at atmosphere pressure.
ZnO nanosheets with thickness of a few nanometers are prepared by vapor transport and condensation method, and their structure and optical properties are well characterized. Field effect transistor （FET） and ultraviolet （UV） sensors are fabricated based on the ZnO nanosheets. Due to the peculiar structure of nanosheet, the FET shows n-type enhanced mode behavior and high electrical performance, and its field-effect mobility and on/off cur- rent ratio can reach 256 cm2/（V.s） and ~10^8, respectively. Moreover, the response of UV sensors can also be remarkably improved to ~3 × 10^8. The results make the ZnO nanosheets be a good material for the applications in nanoelectronic and optoelectronic devices.
The conversion of cellulose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural （HMF） has been investigated by a one-pot consecutive reaction. At first, cellulose was depolymerised into glucose via a fast degradation of cellulose in molten ZnCI~ in the presence of hydrochloric acid, and the yield of glucose is 75% in 120 s at reaction temperature of 95 ℃. Then, DMSO was used as solvent and different kinds of metal chloride were added as catalysts, and the conversion was carried out continuously at 110-130 ℃ for 0.5-4 h. The yield of HMF was 53% when CrC13 were used as catalyst. The one-pot two steps conversion was carried out at atmosphere pressure, and it is a simple route to prepare HMF from lignocellulosic feedstock on a large scale.
ZnO bicrystalline nanosheets have been synthesized by using Ax=AU1-x alloy catalyst via the vapor transport and condensation method at 650 ℃. High resolution transmission electron microscopy characterization reveals a twin boundary with {01-13} plane existing in the bicrystalline. A series of control experiments show that both AgxAu1-x alloy catalyst and high supersaturation of Zn vapor are prerequisites for the formation of ZnO bicrystalline nanosheet. Moreover, it is found that the density of ZnO bicrytalline nanosheets can be tuned through varying the ratio of Ag to Au in the alloy catalyst. The result demonstrates that new complicated nanostructures can be produced controllably with appropriate alloy catalyst.
