Self-Healing Microcapsule-Thickened Oil Barrier Coatings.

Low-viscosity oils could potentially act as self-healing barrier coatings because they can readily flow and reconnect to heal minor damage. For the same reason, however, they typically do not form stable coatings on metal surfaces. Increasing viscosity helps to stabilize the oil coating, but it also slows down the healing process.

Binder-free graphene oxide doughs.

Graphene oxide (GO) sheets have been used to construct various bulk forms of GO and graphene-based materials through solution-based processing techniques. Here, we report a highly cohesive dough state of GO with tens of weight percent loading in water without binder-like additives. The dough state can be diluted to obtain gels or dispersions, and dried to yield hard solids.

Photoelectron spectroscopy of the aluminum hydride anions: AlH2(-), AlH3(-), Al2H6(-), Al3H9(-), and Al4H12(-).

We report measurements of the negative ion photoelectron spectra of the simple aluminum hydride anions: AlH2(-), AlH3(-), Al2H6(-), Al3H9(-), and Al4H12(-). From these spectra, we measured the vertical detachment energies of the anions, and we estimated the electron affinities of their neutral counterparts. Our results for AlH2(-), AlH3(-), and Al2H6(-) were also compared with previous predictions by theory.

On the existence of designer magnetic superatoms.

The quantum states in small, compact metal clusters are bunched into electronic shells with electronic orbitals resembling those in atoms, enabling classification of stable clusters as superatoms. The filling of superatomic orbitals, however, does not generally follow Hund's rule, and it has been proposed that magnetic superatoms can be stabilized by doping simple metal clusters with magnetic atoms. Here, we present evidence of the existence of a magnetic superatom and the determination of its spin moment.