Bio-Inspired Micro- and Nano-Scale Surface Features Produced by Femtosecond Laser-Texturing Enhance TiZr-Implant Osseointegration.

Surface design plays a critical role in determining the integration of dental implants with bone tissue. Femtosecond laser-texturing has emerged as a breakthrough technology offering excellent uniformity and reproducibility in implant surface features. However, when compared to state-of-the-art sandblasted and acid-etched surfaces, laser-textured surface designs typically underperform in terms of osseointegration.

The thermal stability and degradation mechanism of Cu/Mo nanomultilayers.

The microstructural evolution of Cu/Mo nanomultilayers upon annealing was investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The isothermal annealing process in the temperature ranges of 300-850°C was conducted to understand the thermal behavior of the sample and follow the transformation into a nanocomposite. Annealing at 600°C led to the initiation of grain grooving in the investigated nanomultilayer, and it degraded into a spheroidized nanocomposite structure at 800°C.

Intrinsic Formamidinium Tin Iodide Nanocrystals by Suppressing the Sn(IV) Impurities.

The long search for nontoxic alternatives to lead halide perovskites (LHPs) has shown that some compelling properties of LHPs, such as low effective masses of carriers, can only be attained in their closest Sn(II) and Ge(II) analogues, despite their tendency toward oxidation. Judicious choice of chemistry allowed formamidinium tin iodide (FASnI) to reach a power conversion efficiency of 14.81% in photovoltaic devices.

Bilayer Dense-Porous Li La Zr O Membranes for High-Performance Li-Garnet Solid-State Batteries.

Li dendrites form in Li La Zr O (LLZO) solid electrolytes due to intrinsic volume changes of Li and the appearance of voids at the Li metal/LLZO interface. Bilayer dense-porous LLZO membranes make for a compelling solution of this pertinent challenge in the field of Li-garnet solid-state batteries (SSB). Lithium is thus stored in the pores of the LLZO, thereby avoiding i) dynamic changes of the anode volume and ii) the formation of voids during Li stripping due to increased surface area of the Li/LLZO interface.

Fluorinated ether electrolyte with controlled solvation structure for high voltage lithium metal batteries.

The development of new solvents is imperative in lithium metal batteries due to the incompatibility of conventional carbonate and narrow electrochemical windows of ether-based electrolytes. Whereas the fluorinated ethers showed improved electrochemical stabilities, they can hardly solvate lithium ions. Thus, the challenge in electrolyte chemistry is to combine the high voltage stability of fluorinated ethers with high lithium ion solvation ability of ethers in a single molecule.

Microstructure-Property Control in Functional Materials by Multilayer Design.

Smart microstructure and interface design in nanomultilayers allows to tailor physical properties like thermal stability, thermal conductivity and directional metal outflow for targeted applications. In this work, selected examples of nanomultilayer systems, constituted of alternating nanolayers of metals and/or nitrides, as precisely fabricated with variable textures, microstructures, grain sizes and internal stresses are presented. The role of the microstructure and stress state on selected functional properties is shown.

Impact of Electrolyte Incorporation in Anodized Niobium on Its Resistive Switching.

The aim of this study was to develop memristors based on NbO grown by a simple and inexpensive electrochemical anodization process. It was confirmed that the electrolyte selection plays a crucial role in resistive switching due to electrolyte species incorporation in oxide, thus influencing the formation of conductive filaments. Anodic memristors grown in phosphate buffer showed improved electrical characteristics, while those formed in citrated buffer exhibited excellent memory capabilities.

Hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy: a snapshot of the state-of-the-art in 2020.

Hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) is establishing itself as an essential technique for the characterisation of materials. The number of specialised photoelectron spectroscopy techniques making use of hard x-rays is steadily increasing and ever more complex experimental designs enable truly transformative insights into the chemical, electronic, magnetic, and structural nature of materials. This paper begins with a short historic perspective of HAXPES and spans from developments in the early days of photoelectron spectroscopy to provide an understanding of the origin and initial development of the technique to state-of-the-art instrumentation and experimental capabilities.

Cost-effective sol-gel synthesis of porous CuO nanoparticle aggregates with tunable specific surface area.

CuO nanoparticles (NPs) are applied in various key technologies, such as catalysis, energy conversion, printable electronics and nanojoining. In this study, an economic, green and easy-scalable sol-gel synthesis method was adopted to produce submicron-sized nanoporous CuO NP aggregates with a specific surface area > 18 m²/g. To this end, a copper-carbonate containing precursor was precipitated from a mixed solution of copper acetate and ammonia carbonate and subsequently calcinated at T ≥ 250 °C.

Structural properties of ultrathin SrO film deposited on SrTiO.

The role of epitaxial strain and chemical termination in selected interfaces of perovskite oxide heterostructures is under intensive investigation because of emerging novel electronic properties. SrTiO (STO) is one of the most used substrates for these compounds, and along its direction allows for two nonpolar chemical terminations: TiO and SrO. In this paper, we investigate the surface morphology and crystal structure of SrO epitaxial ultrathin films: from 1 to about 25 layers grown onto TiO -terminated STO substrates.

Anodizing of Self-Passivating W Ti Precursors for W TiO Oxide Alloys with Tailored Stability.

TiO and WO are two of the most important, industrially relevant earth-abundant oxides. Although both materials show complementary functionality and are promising candidates for similar types of applications such as catalysis, sensor technology, and energy conversion, their chemical stability in reactive environments differs remarkably. In this study, anodic barrier oxides are grown on solid-solution W Ti alloy precursors covering a wide compositional range (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) with the goal of creating functional oxides with tailored stability.

Tailoring Fast Directional Mass Transport of Nano-Confined Ag-Cu Alloys upon Heating: Effect of the AlN Barrier Thickness.

This study addresses the phase stability and atomic mobility of Ag-Cu nano-alloys confined by AlN in a nanomultilayered configuration during thermal treatment. To this end, nanomultilayers (NMLs) with a fixed Ag-Cu nanolayer thickness of 8 nm and a AlN barrier nanolayer with variable thickness of 4, 8, or 10 nm were deposited by magnetron sputtering on sapphire substrates and subsequently isothermally annealed for 5 or 20 min in air in the range of 200-500 °C. The microstructure of the as-deposited and heat-treated NMLs was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy.

Orbital Ordering of the Mobile and Localized Electrons at Oxygen-Deficient LaAlO/SrTiO Interfaces.

Interfacing different transition-metal oxides opens a route to functionalizing their rich interplay of electron, spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom for electronic and spintronic devices. Electronic and magnetic properties of SrTiO-based interfaces hosting a mobile two-dimensional electron system (2DES) are strongly influenced by oxygen vacancies, which form an electronic dichotomy, where strongly correlated localized electrons in the in-gap states (IGSs) coexist with noncorrelated delocalized 2DES. Here, we use resonant soft-X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to prove the e character of the IGSs, as opposed to the t character of the 2DES in the paradigmatic LaAlO/SrTiO interface.

Modeling of Interface and Internal Disorder Applied to XRD Analysis of Ag-Based Nano-Multilayers.

Multilayered structures are a promising route to tailor electronic, magnetic, optical, and/or mechanical properties and durability of functional materials. Sputter deposition at room temperature, being an out-of-equilibrium process, introduces structural defects and confers to these nanosystems an intrinsic thermodynamical instability. As-deposited materials exhibit a large amount of internal atomic displacements within each constituent block as well as severe interface roughness between different layers.