• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2013

Visible light-sensitive $TiO_2$ and ZnO nanostructure materials have attracted great attention as the promising material for solar energy conversion systems such as photocatalysts for water splitting and environmental purification as well as nano-biosensors. Success of their applications relies on how to control their surface state behaviors related to the exciton dynamics and optoelectronic properties. In this paper, we briefly review some recent works on single nanoparticle photoluminescence (PL) technique and its application to observation of their surface state behaviors which are raveled by the conventional ensemble-averaged spectroscopic techniques. This review provides an opportunity to understand the temporal and spatial heterogeneities within an individual nanostructure, allowing for the potential use of single-nanoparticle approaches in studies of their photoenergy conversion and nano-scale optical biosensing.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.453-461
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• 2022

A chemically sintered and binder-free paste of TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) was prepared using a binary-liquid mixture of 1-octanol and CCl₄. The 1:1 (v/v) complex of CCl₄ and 1-octanol easily interacted chemically with the TiO₂ NPs and induced the formation of a highly viscous paste. The as-prepared binary-liquid paste (P_BL)-based TiO₂ film exhibited the complete removal of the binary-liquid and residuals with the subsequent low-temperature sintering (~150℃) and UV-O₃ treatment. This facilitated the fabrication of TiO₂ photoanodes for flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (f-DSSCs). For comparison purposes, pure 1-octanol-based TiO₂ paste (P_O) with moderate viscosity was prepared. The P_BL-based TiO₂ film exhibited strong adhesion and high mechanical stability with the conducting oxide coated glass and plastic substrates compared to the P_O-based film. The corresponding low-temperature sintered P_BL-based f-DSSC showed a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.5%, while it was 2.0% for P_O-based f-DSSC. The P_BL-based low- and high-temperature (500℃) sintered glass-based rigid DSSCs exhibited the PCE of 6.0 and 6.3%, respectively, while this value was 7.1% for a 500℃ sintered rigid DSSC based on a commercial (or conventional) paste.

• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.52-55
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• 2013

Proteorhodopsin (PR) is a photoinduced proton pump found abundantly in ocean and fresh water habitat, and has an important role in photoenergy conversion to bioenergy in the living cells. Numerous sequences that encode PR protein variants were discovered by environmental genome sequencing and they indicated the high sequence similarity. A new-type of PR (YS-PR) which had been discovered from the surface of Yellow Sea was found to have only 5 amino acid differences from the previously known green-light absorbing PR (GPR) protein, but showed different photochemical properties. This YS-PR showed a 10 nm red-shifted absorption maximum, when compared with GPR. It also showed slower photocycling rate than GPR. However, the photoconversion rate of YS-PR was fast enough to pump protons. Four different amino acids out of 5 were similar to Blue-light absorbing PR (BPR), suggesting that those residues might be responsible for the observed spectral and photoconverting properties.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.185-195
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• 2019

The large surface area and the high electrical conductivity of graphene (GP) allow it to act as an "electron wire" between the redox center of biomolecules and an electrode surface. The faster electron transfer kinetics and excellent catalytic activity of GP facilitate the accurate and selective electrochemical detection of biomolecules. This mini-review provides an overview of the recent developments and progress of GP, functionalized or doped GP, and GP-composites based sensors for the selective and interference-free detection of dopamine (DA). The electrochemical principles and future perspective and challenges of DA sensors were also discussed based on GP.