Radiative Cooling Properties of Portlandite and Tobermorite: Two Cementitious Minerals of Great Relevance in Concrete Science and Technology.

Although concrete and cement-based materials are the most engineered materials employed by mankind, their potential for use in daytime radiative cooling applications has yet to be fully explored. Due to its complex structure, which is composed of multiple phases and textural details, fine-tuning of concrete is impossible without first analyzing its most important ingredients. Here, the radiative cooling properties of Portlandite (Ca(OH)) and Tobermorite (CaSiO(OH)·4HO) are studied due to their crucial relevance in cement and concrete science and technology.

Low density phases of TiO by cluster self-assembly.

The interest in titanium dioxide (TiO ) phases is growing due to the number of applications in cosmetics, food industry and photocatalysis, an increase that is driven by its exceptional properties when engineered at the nanoscale like in the form of nanoparticles. Our goal is to discover unknown low-density phases of TiO , with potential for applications in various fields. We then use well-known TiO clusters as fundamental building blocks to be self-assembled into unique structures to study their distinct characteristics.

Dimerization Effects and Negative Strain Energy in Silicon Monosulfide Nanotubes.

We report on the construction and characterization of silicon monosulfide nanotubes that were obtained by rolling up two-dimensional materials isoelectronic to phosphorene in the recently discovered layered and β phases. We relaxed and studied the nanotube structures using computational methods within density functional theory (DFT). We found that the nanotubes with a thick layer remain stable at room temperature, and their electronic properties depend on their diameters.

Tuning Magnetoconductivity in LaMnO NPs through Cationic Vacancy Control.

The inclusion of La-Mn vacancies in LaMnO nanoparticles leads to a noticeable change in conductivity behavior. The sample retains its overall insulator characteristic, with a typical thermal activation mechanism at high temperatures, but it presents high magnetoconductivity below 200 K. The activation energy decreases linearly with the square of the reduced magnetization and vanishes when the sample is magnetized at saturation.

Magnetic order and magnetic anisotropy in two-dimensional ilmenenes.

Iron ilmenene is a new two-dimensional material that has recently been exfoliated from the naturally occurring iron titanate found in ilmenite ore, a material that is abundant on the earth's surface. In this work, we theoretically investigate the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of 2D transition-metal-based ilmenene-like titanates. The study of magnetic order reveals that these ilmenenes usually present intrinsic antiferromagnetic coupling between the 3d magnetic metals decorating both sides of the Ti-O layer.