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Jiannian Yao

Publications and source records attributed to Jiannian Yao.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Controllable assembly of WO3 nanorods/nanowires into hierarchical nanostructures.

The controlled synthesis of two novel h-WO3 hierarchical structures made of nanorods/nanowires has been successfully realized in a large scale via a simple hydrothermal method. It is demonstrated that the morphology of the final products is significantly influenced by adding different sulfates. The urchinlike and ribbonlike structures of WO3 can be selectively prepared by adding Rb2SO4 and K2SO4, respectively. The morphology evolvement and the growth mechanism were studied carefully. The sulfate-induced oriented attachment growth mechanism has been proposed for the possible formation mechanism of the ribbonlike sample. For urchinlike products, two growing stages are believed to be involved in the growth process. The current understanding of the growth mechanism of these nanostructures may be potentially applied for designing other oriented or hierarchical nanostructures based on 1D nanoscale building blocks through the direct solution-growth.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

A simple hydrothermal method for the large-scale synthesis of single-crystal potassium tungsten bronze nanowires.

The large-scale synthesis of single-crystal K(x)WO(3) tungsten bronze nanowires has been successfully realized by a hydrothermal method under mild conditions. Uniform K(0.33)WO(3) nanowires with diameters of 5-25 nm and lengths of up to several micrometers are obtained. It is found that the morphology and crystallographic forms of the final products are strongly dependent on the sulfate and citric acid, which may act as structure-directing and soft-reducing agent, respectively. Some other influential factors on the growth of tungsten bronze nanowires, such as temperature and reaction time, are also discussed. It is worth noting that other alkali metal tungsten bronzes such as (NH(4))(x)WO(3), Rb(x)WO(3), and Cs(x)WO(3) could also be selectively synthesized by a similar route. Thus, this novel and efficient method could provide a potential mild route to selectively synthesize various tungsten bronze on-dimensional nanomaterials.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

Temperature-dependent ratiometric fluorescence from an organic aggregates system.

The aggregates of 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl)benzoxazole (HBO), a typical molecule exhibiting excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), were prepared and the photophysical properties of the aqueous dispersion of aggregates were investigated. It is found that the aggregates and the solvated enols coexist in the aqueous dispersion system. Furthermore, the aggregates undergo ESIPT to give rise to keto for green emission, while the solvated enols give rise to blue emission. The temperature effects on the aqueous dispersion of the HBO aggregates system were also explored. It shows a fluorescent ratiometric change in a range of temperature from 15 to 60 degrees C. A mechanism of a temperature-dependent equilibrium between the aggregates and the solvated enols is proposed for the fluorescence change. The reversibility and robustness as well as the stability of the aqueous dispersion of aggregates show very good performances, which may be useful in the applications of molecular fluorescent temperature sensors or molecular thermometers.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

Great enhancement of photocatalytic activity of nitrogen-doped titania by coupling with tungsten oxide.

The TiO2-N-x%WO3 composite photocatalysts were prepared by introducing WO3 into nitrogen-doped TiO2. The composite catalysts present much higher photocatalytic activity than TiO2 and nitrogen-doped TiO2 under both ultraviolet and visible light irradiation. Diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectra, XPS analysis, and IR spectra show that the coordinated nitrogen species (or N-metal-O linkages) may contribute to the visible light photocatalytic activity. WO3 coupling increases the active nitrogen species and thus enhances the visible light activity of the composite photocatalysts. The superior activity of TiO2-N-x%WO3 composite photocatalysts upon UV light irradiation can be rationalized in terms of efficient charge separation and high adsorption affinity of WO3.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

Evidence of a unique electron donor-acceptor property for platinum nanoparticles as studied by XPS.

In the interaction of PVP with Pt nanoparticles <7 nm in size, charge transfer is from carbonyl groups in PVP to Pt nanoparticles, whereas in the interaction of PVP with bulk Pt or Pt nanoparticles >25 nm in size, charge transfer is from Pt metal to the polymer side chain of PVP. There exists a critical nanoparticle size between 7 and 25 nm that would lead to a switch in the electron donor-acceptor property.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Nanotubes from isomeric dibenzoylmethane molecules.

Organic nanotubes of various diameters were fabricated from the isomeric molecule dibenzoylmethane (DBM) by using an immersing technique with ordered porous alumina membrane as the template. The ratio of the enol isomers of DBM increased as the diameters of the nanotubes decreased. In addition, although almost no fluorescence could be detected for the DBM monomer, a striking enhancement in the fluorescence emission intensity of the nanotubes was observed as the diameters decreased. This is due to the increased ratio of the enol isomers.

Chalcones↗
PubMed2004

Size-dependent exciton chirality in (R)-(+)-1,1'-bi-2-naphthol dimethyl ether nanoparticles.

Organic nanoparticles from a chiral auxiliary, (R)-(+)-1,1'-bi-2-naphthol dimethyl ether (BNDE), with a range of particle sizes from 25 to 100 nm were fabricated through the reprecipitation method. It is found that BNDE nanoparticles exhibit positive exciton chirality in 200-260 nm region in circular dichroism (CD) spectra, which are completely opposite to CD spectra of the dilute solution. The exciton chirality of the particles displays size-dependent behavior; that is, the exciton chirality peaks evolve to the low-energy side with increase in particles size. CD spectra accompanied with UV, fluorescence spectra, lifetime measurements of the excited states, and quantum mechanical calculations reveal that the chirality inversion results from intermolecular exciton coupling between two adjacent BNDE molecules in the nanoparticles, and the bathochromic shift of the peaks is attributed to the increased intermolecular interaction with increasing particle size.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Comparison between the effects of TiO2 synthesized by photoassisted and conventional sol-gel methods on the photochromism of WO3 colloids.

WO3 colloids can exhibit a blue color under UV-light irradiation due to the absorption of electrons trapped at the energy levels within the forbidden gap and this coloration performance can be improved by TiO2 nanoparticles. In this work, it is found that TiO2 prepared by the photoassisted method (TiO2-P) exhibits stronger enhancement effects than that prepared by the conventional sol-gel method (TiO2-C). Several possible mechanisms have been proposed to account for this phenomenon. The migration of charge carriers toward different directions is promoted since the flat-band potential of TiO2-P colloids is more negative than that of TiO2-C and the contact between WO3 and TiO2 particles is improved in the WO3/TiO2-P system; there are more efficient TiO2 and hole scavengers (i.e., Ti3+ and/or TiO2-O2*- species) in the system containing TiO2-P; the bandgap of TiO2-P becomes narrowed, and so on. In addition, the potential applications of this process are also discussed briefly.

Absorption↗
PubMed2004

Photochromism of novel molybdate/alkylamine composite thin films.

Novel inorganic/organic composite films of molybdates with photochromic properties have been prepared by self-assembly using alkylammonium ions as a supramolecular template. Both 1-hexadecylammonium/polyoxomolybdate (C16-Mo) and 1-octadecylammonium/polyoxomolybdate (C18-Mo) composite films have been successfully fabricated. The elemental analysis and thermal gravimetric analysis show that the main product in the C16-Mo film was (C16H33NH3)4Mo8O26. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicate that the composite films were lamellar in nature. The IR, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that the polyoxomolybdate anions present as MoO6 octahedra and that the Mo species exists as Mo6+ in the freshly prepared films. The alkyl chains in the 1-hexadecylammonium chains were linear and the alkyl groups are an all-trans configuration. Upon UV irradiation of the C16-Mo films, some Mo6+ was reduced to Mo5+, some -NH3+ became -NH2 with a concomitant increase in the concentration of -OH groups on the molybdate moieties, and the films were colored. Thus, the photochromism of the films involves the reduction of Mo6+ to Mo5+, coupled with a proton transfer from 1-hexadecylammonium ions to an oxygen atom at the Mo site. In contrast to thin films of transition-metal oxides, which all show photochromism in the blue region of the electromagnetic spectrum, these composite films show photochromism in the violet region with the greatest absorbance change at 472 nm.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Size-tunable emission from 1,3-diphenyl-5-(2-anthryl)-2-pyrazoline nanoparticles.

Organic nanoparticles of 1,3-diphenyl-5-(2-anthryl)-2- pyrazoline (DAP) ranging in average diameters from 40 to 160 nm were prepared through the reprecipitation method. The average diameters of the particles were controlled by variation of the aging time. We found that DAP nanoparticles exhibit the size-dependent optical properties. The absorption transitions of the nanoparticles at the lower-energy side experience a bathochromic shift with an increase in the particle size as a result of the increased intermolecular interactions, while the higher-energy bands of anthracene split possibly due to the electronic coupling between the pyrazoline ring of one molecule and the anthracene moiety of the neighboring molecule. Most interestingly, the nanoparticle emission in the blue light region from pyrazoline chromophore shifts to shorter wavelengths with an increase in the particle size, accompanied with a relatively gradual dominance of the emission at about 540 nm from an exciplex between the pyrazoline ring of one molecule and the anthracene moiety of the neighboring molecule. The hypsochromic shift in the emission of DAP nanoparticles was identified as originating from the pronounced decrease in the Stokes shift due to the restraint of vibronic relaxation and the configuration reorganization induced by the increased intermolecular interaction.

Journal Article↗