Chemical vapor deposition of uniform bilayer PtS flakes for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

Two-dimensional (2D) 1T-PtS has been drawing considerable attention due to its highly layer-dependent bandgap, high carrier mobility, superior air stability, However, the growth of 2D PtS with uniform thickness and controllable shape remains an immense challenge. Herein, the uniform bilayer (2L) 1T-PtS single crystals are controllably grown on mica using chemical vapor deposition for the first time. The variable morphology from triangular to hexagonal can be obtained by regulating growth temperature.

Magnetic Skyrmions with Unconventional Helicity Polarization in a Van Der Waals Ferromagnet.

Skyrmion helicity, which defines the spin swirling direction, is a fundamental parameter that may be utilized to encode data bits in future memory devices. Generally, in centrosymmetric ferromagnets, dipole skyrmions with helicity of -π/2 and π/2 are degenerate in energy, leading to equal populations of both helicities. On the other hand, in chiral materials where the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) prevails and the dipolar interaction is negligible, only a preferred helicity is selected by the type of DMI.

Chiral Helimagnetism and One-Dimensional Magnetic Solitons in a Cr-Intercalated Transition Metal Dichalcogenide.

Chiral magnets endowed with topological spin textures are expected to have promising applications in next-generation magnetic memories. In contrast to the well-studied 2D or 3D magnetic skyrmions, the authors report the discovery of 1D nontrivial magnetic solitons in a transition metal dichalcogenide 2H-TaS via precise intercalation of Cr elements. In the synthetic Cr TaS (CTS) single crystal, the coupling of the strong spin-orbit interaction from TaS and the chiral arrangement of the magnetic Cr ions evoke a robust Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction.

Gut Escherichia coli expressing Pb-adsorption protein reduces lead accumulation in grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idellus.

Lead (Pb) is easy to accumulate in fish which become a major source of Pb exposure to humans. In this study, a recombinant Escherichia coli strain expressing Pb-specific surface-binding protein anchored by the ice nucleation protein was introduced into grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) gut to investigate its protective effect against dietary Pb exposure. Pb mostly precipitated on the surface of the engineered strain through Pb-specific surface-binding protein, with a maximum adsorption efficiency of 73% and an adsorption capacity of 163 μmol/g dry cells.

Porous nanotube networks of SnO/MoO@Graphene as anodes for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

We successfully fabricated composite porous nanotube networks of SnO/MoO@Graphene through electrospinning and used it as lithium-ion battery anodes. When the ratio of SnO to MoO is 1:1, the composite of SnO/MoO delivers a high capacity of 560 mAh g at 1 A g after 300 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance was attributed to the unique 3D porous nanotube network structure which could provide more transmission channels for Li ions and electrons, and provide more electrochemical reaction sites.

Electric bicycle cost calculation models and analysis based on the social perspective in China.

Electric bicycles (EBs) are increasingly popular around the world. In April 2014, EB ownership in China reached 181 million. While some aspects of the impact of EBs have been studied, most of the literature analyzing the cost of EBs has been conducted from the buyer's point of view and the perspective of social cost has not been covered, which is therefore the focus of this paper.