Congratulations to Zhou Qian for publishing a journal paper in the well-known journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

Congratulations to Zhou Qian for publishing a journal paper entitled "Eco-Friendly, Highly Efficient Ethanol-Assisted Supercritical Preparation of an Ultrathin ZnO Nanotube" in the international journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

Article web link：https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c04875

Introduction to the article:

Nanotubes, which are widely used in the field of advanced semiconductor manufacturing, have complicated time- and energy-consuming synthesis processes, thus requiring an efficient preparation method. In this study, ethanol-assisted supercritical treatment (SC-EA), a sustainable method with less environmental hazards, has been applied to efficiently synthesize ZnO nanotubes. Materials that do not have any harmful effects on the environment are used in the proposed ethanol-water mixed supercritical fluid technique to achieve nanotube growth. SC-EA achieves high synthetic efficiency, environmentally friendly processing, and an ultrafacile procedure at low temperature and low preparation cost. The analysis results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) jointly confirmed the successful synthesis of ZnO nanotubes with ultrathin crystal walls of only 3 nm. A chemical reaction model was established to better understand the SC-EA process, in which ethanol molecules acted as surfactants to help ZnO nanotubes grow by forming nanocells. This green supercritical approach enables CO2 reuse and recycling through an eco-friendly synthetic system, offering a bright future for modulating various nanostructured materials in a facile and efficient manner.