Board Independence and Firm Performance in China

We provide the first comprehensive and robust evidence on the relationship between board independence and firm performance in China. We find that independent directors have an overall positive effect on firm operating performance in China. Our findings are robust to a battery of tests, including endogeneity checks using instrumental variables, the dynamic generalized method of moments estimator, and the difference-in-differences method. The positive relationship between board independence and firm performance is stronger in government-controlled firms and in firms with lower information acquisition costs. We also document that Chinese independent directors play an important role in constraining insider self-dealing and improving investment efficiency

Superior B‑Doped SiC Nanowire Flexible Field Emitters: Ultra-Low Turn-On Fields and Robust Stabilities against Harsh Environments

Low turn-on fields together with boosted stabilities are recognized as two key factors for pushing forward the implementations of the field emitters in electronic units. In current work, we explored superior flexible field emitters based on single-crystalline 3C-SiC nanowires, which had numbers of sharp edges, as well as corners surrounding the wire body and B dopants. The as-constructed field emitters behaved exceptional field emission (FE) behaviors with ultralow turn-on fields (<i>E</i>_to) of 0.94–0.68 V/μm and current emission fluctuations of ±1.0–3.4%, when subjected to harsh working conditions under different bending cycles, various bending configurations, as well as elevated temperature environments. The sharp edges together with the edges were able to significantly increase the electron emission sites, and the incorporated B dopants could bring a more localized state close to the Fermi level, which rendered the SiC nanowire emitters with low <i>E</i>_to, large field enhancement factor as well as robust current emission stabilities. Current B-doped SiC nanowires could meet all essential requirements for an ideal flexible emitters, which exhibit their promising prospect to be applied in flexible electronic units

Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution in Ternary Hybrid TiO₂/CuO/Cu Thoroughly Mesoporous Nanofibers

Development of novel hybrid photocatalysts with high efficiency and durability for photocatalytic hydrogen generation is highly desired but still remains a grand challenge currently. In the present work, we reported the exploration of ternary hybrid TiO₂/CuO/Cu thoroughly mesoporous nanofibers via a foaming-assisted electrospinning technique. It is found that by adjusting the Cu contents in the solutions, the unitary (TiO₂), binary (TiO₂/CuO, TiO₂/Cu), and ternary (TiO₂/CuO/Cu) mesoporous products can be obtained, enabling the growth of TiO₂/CuO/Cu ternary hybrids in a tailored manner. The photocatalytic behavior of the as-synthesized products as well as P25 was evaluated in terms of their hydrogen evolution efficiency for the photodecomposition water under Xe lamp irradiation. The results showed that the ternary TiO₂/CuO/Cu thoroughly mesoporous nanofibers exhibit a robust stability and the most efficient photocatalytic H₂ evolution with the highest release rate of ∼851.3 μmol g^–1 h^–1, which was profoundly enhanced for more than 3.5 times with respect to those of the pristine TiO₂ counterparts and commercial P25, suggesting their promising applications in clean energy production

Enhancing the Performance of Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes Using Room-Temperature-Processed Ga-Doped ZnO Nanoparticles as the Electron Transport Layer

Colloidal ZnO nanoparticle (NP) films are recognized as efficient electron transport layers (ETLs) for quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) with good stability and high efficiency. However, because of the inherently high work function of such films, spontaneous charge transfer occurs at the QD/ZnO interface in such a QD-LED, thus leading to reduced performance. Here, to improve the QD-LED performance, we prepared Ga-doped ZnO NPs with low work functions and tailored band structures via a room-temperature (RT) solution process without the use of bulky organic ligands. We found that the charge transfer at the interface between the CdSe/ZnS QDs and the doped ZnO NPs was significantly weakened because of the incorporated Ga dopants. Remarkably, the as-assembled QD-LEDs, with Ga-doped ZnO NPs as the ETLs, exhibited superior luminances of up to 44 000 cd/m² and efficiencies of up to 15 cd/A, placing them among the most efficient red-light QD-LEDs ever reported. This discovery provides a new strategy for fabricating high-performance QD-LEDs by using RT-processed Ga-doped ZnO NPs as the ETLs, which could be generalized to improve the efficiency of other optoelectronic devices

Superior Photodetectors Based on All-Inorganic Perovskite CsPbI₃ Nanorods with Ultrafast Response and High Stability

Currently, one-dimensional all-inorganic CsPbX₃ (X = Br, Cl, and I) perovskites have attracted great attention, owning to their promising and exciting applications in optoelectronic devices. Herein, we reported the exploration of superior photodetectors (PDs) based on a single CsPbI₃ nanorod. The as-constructed PDs had a totally excellent performance with a responsivity of 2.92 × 10³ A·W^–1 and an ultrafast response time of 0.05 ms, respectively, which were both comparable to the best ones ever reported for all-inorganic perovskite PDs. Furthermore, the detectivity of the PDs approached up to 5.17 × 10¹³ Jones, which was more than 5 times the best one ever reported. More importantly, the as-constructed PDs showed a high stability when maintained under ambient conditions