Effect of Anodic Aluminium Oxide Structure on the Electroless Ni-P Distribution into Nanopores.

The anodization of aluminium/aluminium alloys is widely used to produce anodic nanoporous networks for metal layered structures, with applications in energy harvesting technologies and sensor systems. Anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) with thickness of ~10 μm and average pore diameter of 13, 33, and 95 nm is prepared by tuning acids and voltages, being further used for electroless nickel deposition, performed for 10 min using conventional electrolyte with sodium hypophosphite reductor and pH 4.5.

Ceramics and Nanostructures for Energy Harvesting and Storage.

In recent years, the worldwide research in the field of energy harvesting and storage has focused on the development of clean and sustainable methods that can respond to the rising energy demands of humankind [...

Current Achievements in Flexible Piezoelectric Nanogenerators Based on Barium Titanate.

Harvesting ambient mechanical energy at the nanometric scale holds great promise for powering small electronics and achieving self-powered electronic devices. The current review is focused on kinetic energy harvesters, particularly on flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators (p-NGs) based on barium titanate (BaTiO) nanomaterials. p-NGs based on nanotubes, nanowires, nanofibres, nanoplatelets, nanocubes or nanoparticles of BaTiO fabricated in vertical or lateral orientation, as well as mixed composite structures, are overviewed here.

Synergetic Effect of Polyaniline and Graphene in Their Composite Supercapacitor Electrodes: Impact of Components and Parameters of Chemical Oxidative Polymerization.

The current development of clean and high efficiency energy sources such as solar or wind energy sources has to be supported by the design and fabrication of energy storage systems. Electrochemical capacitors (or supercapacitors (SCs)) are promising devices for energy storage thanks to their highly efficient power management and possible small size. However, in comparison to commercial batteries, SCs do not have very high energy densities that significantly limit their applications.

Low-Temperature Dielectric Response of Strontium Titanate Thin Films Manipulated by Zn Doping.

The voltage dependence of the dielectric permittivity ' and the low dielectric loss tan of incipient ferroelectrics have drawn vast attention to the use of these materials for the development of tuning elements in electronics and telecommunications. Here, we study the DC electric field dependence of low-temperature ' in ~320 nm thick sol-gel-derived SrTiZnO thin films with x = 0.01 and 0.

Polar Phonon Behaviour in Polycrystalline Bi-Doped Strontium Titanate Thin Films.

Strontium titanate-based materials with ferroelectric or relaxor-like properties have drawn vast attention as polar dielectrics for electronics and telecommunications. Here, we study the lattice dynamics in sol-gel-derived SrBiTiO thin films with x = 0.0053 and 0.

Graphene/Reduced Graphene Oxide-Carbon Nanotubes Composite Electrodes: From Capacitive to Battery-Type Behaviour.

Thanks to the advanced technologies for energy generation such as solar cells and thermo- or piezo-generators the amount of electricity transformed from light, heat or mechanical pressure sources can be significantly enhanced. However, there is still a demand for effective storage devices to conserve electrical energy which addresses the wide range of large stationary applications from electric vehicles to small portable devices. Among the large variety of energy-storage systems available today, electrochemical energy sources and, in particular, supercapacitors (SC), are rather promising in terms of cost, scaling, power management, life cycle and safety.

Effect of Solution Conditions on the Properties of Sol-Gel Derived Potassium Sodium Niobate Thin Films on Platinized Sapphire Substrates.

If piezoelectric micro-devices based on KNaNbO (KNN) thin films are to achieve commercialization, it is critical to optimize the films' performance using low-cost scalable processing conditions. Here, sol-gel derived KNN thin films are deposited using 0.2 and 0.