Porous mullite-based ceramics have been developed using a mixture of zeolite-poor rock and alumina through mechanical activation and reactive sintering. The experimental findings demonstrate that the in-situ mullite growth may develop in a variety of shapes, including whiskers, nanofiber, nanonetwork and diamond-like particles. The XRD examination indicates that the samples sintered at 1500 °C are mostly made of the mullite phase. The SEM photographs show that as the sintering temperature increases, the mullitization process takes place first in zeolite-poor rock particles, and subsequently, alumina combines with the silica-containing phase via a liquid-phase sintering mechanism to produce an interlocking network of extended secondary mullite. The effects of mullite formation and the sintering temperature on various properties of the sintered samples, such as their density, apparent porosity, thermal conductivity, strength, wear resistance, composition, morphologies, and microstructural characteristics of the sintered samples were studied. Increasing the sintering temperature from 1100 to 1500 °C improved the different properties. The density increased from 1.9 to 2.1 g/cm³, thermal conductivity rose from 0.9 to 1.6 W/m.K, compressive strength escalated from 18.9 to 92.1 MPa, and worn material volume decreased from 2444 to 36.9 mm³ after a 5-min abrasion test.

Ultra-sensitive greenhouse gas sensors for CO₂, N₂O, and CH₄ gases based on Fano resonance modes have been observed through periodic and quasi-periodic phononic crystal structures. We introduced a novel composite based on metal/2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), namely; platinum/platinum disulfide (Pt/PtS₂) composite materials. Our gas sensors were built based on the periodic and quasi-periodic phononic crystal structures of simple Fibonacci (F(5)) and generalized Fibonacci (FC(7, 1)) quasi-periodic phononic crystal structures. The FC(7, 1) structure represented the highest sensitivity for CO₂, N₂O, and CH₄ gases compared to periodic and F(5) phononic crystal structures. Moreover, very sharp Fano resonance modes were observed for the first time in the investigated gas sensor structures, resulting in high Fano resonance frequency, novel sensitivity, quality factor, and figure of merit values for all gases. The FC(7, 1) quasi-periodic structure introduced the best layer sequences for ultra-sensitive phononic crystal greenhouse gas sensors. The highest sensitivity was introduced by FC(7, 1) quasiperiodic structure for the CH₄ with a value of 2.059 (GHz/m.s⁻¹). Further, the temperature effect on the position of Fano resonance modes introduced by FC(7, 1) quasi-periodic PhC gas sensor towards CH₄ gas has been introduced in detail. The results show the highest sensitivity at 70 °C with a value of 13.3 (GHz/°C). Moreover, the highest Q and FOM recorded towards CH₄ have values of 7809 and 78.1 (m.s⁻¹)⁻¹ respectively at 100 °C.

Gold (Au) nanoparticles trapped within Cu₂SnS₃ (CTS) thin films were effectively deposited on a low-cost glass substrate using a simple pulsed laser deposition of 15 mJ for 5 ns at a 10 Hz repetition rate. The film's structural, morphological, topography, optical, and optoelectronic properties were investigated. Highly crystalline ternary chalcogenide CTS with tetragonal symmetry and 17 nm grain size is prepared. The 110 Ω resistivity of the thin film increases up to 125 Ω indicating a negative photoresponse under visible light excitation. The decrease in the photocurrent is also observed with Cu₂SnS₃/Au/Cu₂SnS₃ sandwich ternary chalcogenide structure at resistivities values from 31 to 35 Ω and a Joule effect influence the presence of plasmonic Au nanoparticle interlayers involved a lower phonon disorder given a higher photoresponse effect as predicted from Urbach energy.

Agriculture and industrial wastes (AIWs) have attracted much attention because of their huge environmental, economic, and social impacts. AIWs have been considered a crucial link of a closed-loop for the fabrication of nanomaterials and composites wherein they replace traditional resources with sustainable waste in waste management. In this context, the proper disposal of AIWs is required. This review aims to investigate the technical feasibility of using innovative AIW resources and various strategies for the fabrication of nanomaterials for improving energy applications. First, the utilization of AIWs is classified comprehensively. Second, key technologies to produce nanomaterials are summarized. In addition, this review discusses the potential applications of the fabricated nanomaterials in energy storage and energy conversion.

Studying the mechanical properties mismatching of SnSe₂/ZrS₂ 2D materials with Voigt-Reuss-Hill (VRH) schemes promise a novel structure for sensing applications. For the first time, we studied the effect of mechanical mismatching properties of SnSe₂/ZrS₂ multilayers with VRH schemes on the acoustic wave's propagation through acoustic superlattice (AS). We proposed [(SnSe₂/ZrS₂)⁴] superlattice with VRH schemes as a new THz multichannel sensor for acetonitrile sensing. The [(SnSe₂/ZrS₂)⁴] with Voigt scheme introduced several resonant peaks for acetonitrile inside the superlattice bandgap compared to Hill and Reuss schemes. The appropriate relation between resonance frequency shift and resonance bandwidth is the key to improving the multichannel sensor's sensitivity to liquid characteristics. Further, we studied the effect of low and high temperatures on our multichannel sensor. Furthermore, the highest sensitivity and resonance frequency were recorded by our AS with the Voigt scheme towards acetonitrile having values of 0.287 (GHz/(kg/m³)) and 0.237 THz at 0 °C. The results show a novel sensitivity of acetonitrile for low-temperature environments.

Artificial periodic structures drew a lot of attention because of their ability to be built with novel acoustic features. A novel nanostructured phononic superlattice (NPhS) based two-dimensional multilayer structure as a high-sensitive multichannel liquid sensor that provided bright multichannel band gap windows has been introduced. Theoretically, the designed structure is composed of [(MoS₂/PtSe₂)⁴] NPhS with a cavity filled with different concentrations of Ethylene Glycol at room temperature toward acoustic bandgap engineering multichannel sensor. We examined the interaction of acoustic waves with nano and bulk phononic superlattice (PhS) structures. In addition, we studied the effect of using different analyte layer thicknesses on the resonance peaks that appeared inside the band gaps. Many sharp resonance peaks appeared in multi-band gaps, which introduced high sensitivity, Q-factor, and figure of merit (FOM) values for each concentration of Ethylene Glycol. Furthermore, the effect of resonance peaks' full width at half maximum (FWHM) on the Q-factor of the NPhS multichannel sensor has been studied. From our results, the relation between the sensitivity of our multichannel sensor and the resonance frequency of each concentration shows a linear behavior. The highest sensitivity was obtained for a 1.00 m% concentration of 0.21 (GHz/(kg/m³)) at a resonance frequency value of 0.21 THz. In addition, the NPhS multichannel sensor recorded the highest Q-factor for 0.8069 m% with a value of 1744 and the highest FOM for 0.3819 m% with a value of 0.05988 (m³/kg). Moreover, we studied the effect of temperature on the sensitivity of the NPhS multichannel sensor. We showed the highest sensitivity value of 1.79 (GHz/^o C) at 10 °C towards Ethylene Glycol. Further, the dispersion relation of an acoustic wave propagating inside perfect and defected nano and bulk PhS structures has been introduced. Our proposed multichannel liquid sensor can introduce a novel sensitivity at Terahertz frequency ranges.

Vanadium oxide (VO₂) is considered a Peierls–Mott insulator with a metal–insulator transition (MIT) at T_c = 68^◦ C. The tuning of MIT parameters is a crucial point to use VO₂ within thermoelectric, electrochromic, or thermochromic applications. In this study, the effect of oxygen deficiencies, strain engineering, and metal tungsten doping are combined to tune the MIT with a low phase transition of 20^◦C in the air without capsulation. Narrow hysteresis phase transition devices based on multilayer VO₂, WO₃, Mo_0.2W_0.8O_3, and/or MoO₃ oxide thin films deposited through a high vacuum sputtering are investigated. The deposited films are structurally, chemically, electrically, and optically characterized. Different conductivity behaviour was observed, with the highest value towards VO_1.75/WO_2.94 and the lowest VO_1.75 on FTO glass. VO_1.75/WO_2.94 showed a narrow hysteresis curve with a single-phase transition. Thanks to the role of oxygen vacancies, the MIT temperature decreased to 35^◦C, while the lowest value (T_c = 20^◦C) was reached with Mo_0.2W_0.8O₃/VO₂/MoO₃ structure. In this former sample, Mo_0.2W_0.8O₃ was used for the first time as an anti-reflective and anti-oxidative layer. The results showed that the MoO₃ bottom layer is more suitable than WO₃ to enhance the electrical properties of VO₂ thin films. This work is applied to fast phase transition devices.

This study was on the optoelectronic properties of multilayered two-dimensional MoS₂ and WS₂ materials on a silicon substrate using sputtering physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques. For the first time, we report ultraviolet (UV) photoresponses under air, CO₂, and O₂ environments at different flow rates. The electrical Hall effect measurement showed the existence of MoS₂ (n-type)/Si (p-type) and WS₂ (P-type)/Si (p-type) heterojunctions with a higher sheet carrier concentration of 5.50 × 10⁵ cm⁻² for WS₂ thin film. The IV electrical results revealed that WS₂ is more reactive than MoS₂ film under different gas stimuli. WS₂ film showed high stability under different bias voltages, even at zero bias voltage, due to the noticeably good carrier mobility of 29.8 × 10² cm²/V. WS₂ film indicated a fast rise/decay time of 0.23/0.21 s under air while a faster response of 0.190/0.10 s under a CO₂ environment was observed. Additionally, the external quantum efficiency of WS₂ revealed a remarkable enhancement in the CO₂ environment of 1.62 × 10⁸ compared to MoS₂ film with 6.74 × 10⁶. According to our findings, the presence of CO₂ on the surface of WS₂ improves such optoelectronic properties as photocurrent gain, photoresponsivity, external quantum efficiency, and detectivity. These results indicate potential applications of WS₂ as a photodetector under gas stimuli for future optoelectronic applications.

In this study, using a numerical method within the effective mass approximation, we theoretically investigated the effects of temperature and electric field on the binding energy of an on-centre hydrogenic impurity in (Al,Ga)N/AlN double quantum wells. For rectangular, parabolic, and triangular finite potential confinements, the ground and the two lowest excited states binding energies are investigated. Regardless of the shape, our findings show that the size, temperature, and applied electric field induce huge impacts on the binding energy. It reveals that the binding energy (1) is higher in rectangular shape than for other forms, (2) is reduced as the temperature and/or electric field are increased, and (3) is less sensitive to temperature and applied electric field in rectangular confinement compared to other profiles. The results we obtained are very consistent with the literature findings.

To study the structural, electronic, and optical properties of lead-free Barium titanate BaTiO₃ (BT) ferroelectric material in its tetragonal structure, a combination of experimental and theoretical studies has been used and the obtained results were discussed. The studied BT compound was prepared via the sol–gel technique. The calculated bandgap energy (E_g) and structural parameters of BT are determined using four types of exchange–correlation functionals (PBE, PBEsol, LDA, and PW91) in the perspective of the density functional theory (DFT). XRD and Raman analysis have shown that BT ceramic exhibits a tetragonal phase structure without any trace of impurity phases. The UV–vis investigation showed that BT has a bandgap energy of 3.19 eV, which is larger than the theoretically calculated values. The computed lattice parameter c is overestimated (as large as ~1% deviation) when using the LDA approximation. In contrast, PBEsol proved that those lattice constants were close to the experimental values (a deviation of less than 1%).

The application of the photonic superlattice in advanced photonics has become a demanding field, especially for two-dimensional and strongly correlated oxides. Because it experiences an abrupt metal-insulator transition near ambient temperature, where the electrical resistivity varies by orders of magnitude, vanadium oxide (VO2) shows potential as a building block for infrared switching and sensing devices. We reported a first principle study of superlattice structures of VO2 as a strongly correlated phase transition material and tungsten diselenide (WSe2) as a two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide layer. Based on first-principles calculations, we exploit the effect of semiconductor monoclinic and metallic tetragonal state of VO2 with WSe2 in a photonic superlattices structure through the near and mid-infrared (NIR-MIR) thermochromic phase transition regions. By increasing the thickness of the VO2 layer, the photonic bandgap (PhB) gets red-shifted. We observed linear dependence of the PhB width on the VO2 thickness. For the monoclinic case of VO2, the number of the forbidden bands increase with the number of layers of WSe2. New forbidden gaps are preferred to appear at a slight angle of incidence, and the wider one can predominate at larger angles. We presented an efficient way to control the flow of the NIR-MIR in both summer and winter environments for phase transition and photonic thermochromic applications. This study's findings may help understand vanadium oxide's role in tunable photonic superlattice for infrared switchable devices and optical filters.

The negative charge trapped in the oxygen species present in metal oxides like Tin Oxide (SnO₂) caused an upward band bending and makes these materials as promising sensing materials for CO₂ detection. However, sensors based on pure SnO₂ may only detect CO₂ at high temperature making them un-sensitive at room temperature (RT) (20 °C). In this study, SnO₂ and Cobalt doped SnO₂ (Co:SnO₂) thin films of varying thickness were successfully synthesized by sol-gel spin coating technique, followed by annealing. The highly active surface due to high number of divided layers has been determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) for neat and doped SnO₂ deposition. Moreover, the effect of increasing the annealing from 400 to 500 °C has been evaluated. The calculated band gap of the multilayer sample annealed at 500 °C blue shifted from 3.55 to 3.81 eV with the Co doping. Therefore, the Co doped SnO₂ can detect CO₂ as low as 30 vol% in atmosphere at RT, meanwhile the un-doped SnO₂ coating shows a weak response. Moreover, at high CO₂ concentration the recovery time decreases due to the high desorption kinetic. The obtained results illustrate the control of the film's properties gives the opportunity to manage the sensing and optoelectronic performance.

Effect of in-/ex-situ annealing on the structure, optical, photoluminescence, electrical characterization and gas sensing dynamics on CdS thin films are presented. Raman characterizations showed an increase in the peak intensity with increasing the annealing temperature under ex-situ, while a lower peak intensity observed through the in-situ annealing condition. No shift was observed in the Photoluminescence peaks through the yellow band peaks of in-situ annealed samples, however, a slightly blue shift was observed through the ex-situ annealed samples. High conductivity was observed for all samples, while in the case of in-situ RT, in-situ 100 °C, ex-situ 200 °C and ex-situ 300 °C, a CO₂ and O₂ gas sensing activity have been tested. The ex-situ 300 °C sample shows a higher response towards CO₂ compared with the ex-situ 200 °C film. While, both in-situ RT and 100 °C sensors show the same response towards CO₂ with a high gas response. However, the in-situ 100 °C sensor has the highest response compared to in-situ RT film with a high response of 25% at 50 sccm towards O₂.

The distinctive properties of strongly correlated oxides provide a variety of possibilities for modulating the properties of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides semiconductors; which represent a new class of superior optical and optoelectronic interfacing semiconductors. We report a novel approach to scaling-up molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) by combining the techniques of chemical and physical vapor deposition (CVD and PVD) and interfacing with a thin layer of monoclinic VO₂. MoWO₃/VO₂/MoS₂ photodetectors were manufactured at different sputtering times by depositing molybdenum oxide layers using a PVD technique on p-type silicon substrates followed by a sulphurization process in the CVD chamber. The high quality and the excellent structural and absorption properties of MoWO₃/VO₂/MoS₂/Si with MoS₂ deposited for 60 s enables its use as an efficient UV photodetector. The electronically coupled monoclinic VO₂ layer on MoS₂/Si causes a redshift and intensive MoS₂ Raman peaks. Interestingly, the incorporation of VO₂ dramatically changes the ratio between A-exciton (ground state exciton) and trion photoluminescence intensities of VO₂/(30 s)MoS₂/Si from < 1 to > 1. By increasing the deposition time of MoS₂ from 60 to 180 s, the relative intensity of the B-exciton/A-exciton increases, whereas the lowest ratio at deposition time of 60 s refers to the high quality and low defect densities of the VO₂/(60 s)MoS₂/Si structure. Both the VO₂/(60 s)MoS₂/Si trion and A-exciton peaks have higher intensities compared with (60 s) MoS₂/Si structure. The MoWO₃/VO₂/(60 s)MoS₂/Si photodetector displays the highest photocurrent gain of 1.6, 4.32 × 10⁸ Jones detectivity, and ~ 1.0 × 10¹⁰ quantum efficiency at 365 nm. Moreover, the surface roughness and grains mapping are studied and a low semiconducting-metallic phase transition is observed at ~ 40 °C.

Molybdenum - tungsten oxide (Mo_1-xW_xO₃, x = 1, 0.8, and 0.6) nanostructured thin films-based room temperture (RT) gas sensors are prepared by means of reactive RF magnetron co-sputtering at 400 °C. The structural, morphology, topography, optical, and electrical characterizations of the prepared sensors are carried out by XRD Rietveld structure refinement analyses, SEM, AFM, UV-VIS spectrophotometer, and source meter. By controlling the deposition temperture of 400 °C, a co-existing phase of MoO₃ and MoO₂ in WO₃ matrix is presented with high oxygen vacancies concentration as calculated from the XRD Rietveld Refinement analyses. By increasing the Mo content, the calculated oxygen vacancies concentration increases by factor of 1.36. The optical characterization of Mo_0.2W_0.8O₃ thin film shows a high transparent of 99.6% at 500 nm. The prepared thin films have successfully tested to detect carbon dioxide (CO₂) at RT (20 °C) with high selectivity and repeatability. The Mo_0.4W_0.6O₃ sensor film shows an electrical Schottky contact with fast response and recovery times towards CO₂ under UV light activation. Mo_0.4W_0.6O₃ thin film under dark and UV conditions were able to detect low CO₂ concentration of 2 and 0.5 sccm CO₂ at RT, respectively. Under UV illumination, Mo_0.4W_0.6O₃ film shows a fast response and recovery time of 6.53 and 8.05 s at 0.5 sccm with sensitivity of 29.19%. Under UV photonic activation, higher electron concentration is presented in the oxide surface, which leads to high probability for reaction with CO₂ molecules, and consequently enhanced the chemisorption of CO₂. The enhanced CO₂ gas sensitivity and fast response may refer to the high oxygen vacancies concentration and the active role of the grain boundaries in MoO₂, MoO₃ and WO₃ mixed-valence nanostructured under UV activation.

The greenhouse effect is involving global heating and climate change within the world. Carbon dioxide (CO₂)is one of the major gas at the origin of this effect, but also the byproduct of human activity. Therefore, monitoring the indoor/outdoor CO₂ emission by gas sensors is one of the priorities for environmental preservation. In this paper, the sensing performance of CO₂ towards two different O-rich films have been studied; graphene oxide (GO)and vanadium dioxide (VO₂). The preparation of GO film has been carried out by spray pyrolysis on fluorine tin oxide (FTO)prepared by the modified Hummers method. While the VO2 film has been sol-gel spin-coated on a glass substrate. Both films have been characterized using XRD, SEM and electrical properties. The CO₂ gas sensing mechanism and the role of oxygen vacancies in VO₂ are addressing. The oxygen functional groups in GO play a main role in the CO₂ gas the sensitivity level and response time. Their gas sensing performances have been investigated based on measuring the response vs recovery time, dynamic response curve analysis and sensitivity. In order to better understand the sensing mechanism, characterization has been done with different gas concentrations. Both GO and VO₂ based CO₂-sensors are acted as an n-type sensor. Sensing behavior of GO at RT has explained to be mainly mediated by the oxygen functional groups and a wide range of active sites. In the other hand, VO₂ contains oxygen vacancies and more defect sites which play a main role in the RT sensing activity and low recovery time.

The study of the plasmonic coupling between metallic nanorods (NRs) is essential for many modern applications. In this paper, we present theoretical studies of scattering cross sections for Au-Au, Au-Ag, and Ag-Ag dimers based on the finite element method (FEM) through COMSOL Multiphysics software. Hybridization model has proposed to explain the plasmon coupling in the different dimers configurations. The single Au nanorod (Au NR) exhibits only a single plasmon resonance, which is red-shifted with increasing the NR length because intra-rod restoring forces are reduced. For asymmetric Au-Au and Au-Ag with end-to-end configuration, two peaks are appearing in the spectrum corresponding to bright (low energy) and dark (high energy) modes. The bright mode interacts strongly with the incident field compared to weak interaction of the dark mode. The bright mode is progressively blue shifted while the dark mode is slightly red-shifted as the gap between NRs increases. In the case of Ag-Ag asymmetric configuration, the two NRs are placed perpendicular to each other; the transverse and longitudinal surface plasmon modes are observed. Also, many dark plasmon hybridization coupling modes are illustrated in the range from 100 to 400 nm and ascribed to higher order plasmonic modes due to the dipole-dipole interaction. The coupling interactions between two metallic NRs can lead to significant plasmon shifts and enormous electric field enhancements. These are very useful for environmental detections, nanoantenna, Raman spectroscopy and solar cell. Also, the results of asymmetric Ag-Ag plasmonic produce new plasmon modes in the UV region that open up new opportunities for designing plasmonic devices.

In this report, the structures, morphologies, optical, electrical and gas sensing properties of ZnO and ZnO: Na spin-coated films are studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results reveal that the films are of a single phase wurtzite ZnO with a preferential orientation along (002) direction parallel to c-axis. Na doping reduces the crystalline quality of the films. The plane surface of ZnO film turned to be wrinkle net-work structure after doping. The reflectance and the optical band gap of the ZnO film decreased after Na doping. The wrinkle net-work nanostructured Na-doped film shows an unusually sensitivity, 81.9% @ 50 sccm, for CO₂ gas at room temperature compared to 1.0% for the pure ZnO film. The signals to noise ratio (SNR) and detection limit of Na-doped ZnO sensor are 0.24 and 0.42 sccm, respectively. These enhanced sensing properties are ascribed to high surface-to-volume ratio, hoping effect, and the increase of O-vacancies density according to Kroger VinK effect. The response time increased from 179 to 240 s by the incorporation of Na atoms @50 sccm. This response time increased as the CO₂ concentration increased. The recovery time is increased from 122 to 472 s by the incorporation of Na atoms @50 sccm.