Atomic-scale structure of ZrO: Formation of metastable polymorphs.

Metastable phases can exist within local minima in the potential energy landscape when they are kinetically "trapped" by various processing routes, such as thermal treatment, grain size reduction, chemical doping, interfacial stress, or irradiation. Despite the importance of metastable materials for many technological applications, little is known about the underlying structural mechanisms of the stabilization process and atomic-scale nature of the resulting defective metastable phase. Investigating ion-irradiated and nanocrystalline zirconia with neutron total scattering experiments, we show that metastable tetragonal ZrO consists of an underlying structure of ferroelastic, orthorhombic nanoscale domains stabilized by a network of domain walls.

Tailoring the Coordination Micro-Environment in Nanotraps for Efficient Platinum/Palladium Separation.

Recovering platinum group metals from secondary resources is crucial to meet the growing demand for high-tech applications. Various techniques are explored, and adsorption using porous materials has emerged as a promising technology due to its efficient performance and environmental beingness. However, the challenge lies in effectively recovering and separating individual platinum group metals (PGMs) given their similar chemical properties.

Gold(I)-Thiolate Coordination Polymers as Multifunctional Materials: The Case of Au(I)--Fluorothiophenolate.

Gold-sulfur interaction has vital importance in nanotechnologies and material chemistry to design functional nanoparticles, self-assembled monolayers, or molecular complexes. In this paper, a mixture of only two basic precursors, such as the chloroauric acid (HAu(III)Cl) and a thiol molecule (-fluorothiophenol (-HSPhF)), are used for the synthesis of gold(I)-thiolate coordination polymers. Under different conditions of synthesis and external stimuli, five different functional materials with different states of [Au(I)(-SPhF)] can be afforded.

Tailoring the d-band center on RuCu single-atom alloy nanotubes for boosting electrochemical non-enzymatic glucose sensing.

The development of cost-effective and highly efficient electrocatalysts is critical to help electrochemical non-enzymatic sensors achieve high performance. Here, a new class of catalyst, Ru single atoms confined on Cu nanotubes as a single-atom alloy (RuCu NTs), with a unique electronic structure and property, was developed to construct a novel electrochemical non-enzymatic glucose sensor for the first time. The RuCu NTs with a diameter of about 24.

Toward High-Performance Metal-Organic-Framework-Based Quasi-Solid-State Electrolytes: Tunable Structures and Electrochemical Properties.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been reported as promising materials for electrochemical applications owing to their tunable porous structures and ion-sieving capability. However, it remains challenging to rationally design MOF-based electrolytes for high-energy lithium batteries. In this work, by combining advanced characterization and modeling tools, a series of nanocrystalline MOFs is designed, and the effects of pore apertures and open metal sites on ion-transport properties and electrochemical stability of MOF quasi-solid-state electrolytes are systematically studied.

A modulated fingerprint assisted machine learning method for retrieving elastic moduli from resonant ultrasound spectroscopy.

We used deep-learning-based models to automatically obtain elastic moduli from resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) spectra, which conventionally require user intervention of published analysis codes. By strategically converting theoretical RUS spectra into their modulated fingerprints and using them as a dataset to train neural network models, we obtained models that successfully predicted both elastic moduli from theoretical test spectra of an isotropic material and from a measured steel RUS spectrum with up to 9.6% missing resonances.

Boosting Electrochemical Catalysis and Nonenzymatic Sensing Toward Glucose by Single-Atom Pt Supported on Cu@CuO Core-Shell Nanowires.

It is critical to develop high-performance electrocatalyst for electrochemical nonenzymatic glucose sensing. In this work, a single-atom Pt supported on Cu@CuO core-shell nanowires (Pt /Cu@CuO NWs) for electrochemical nonenzymatic glucose sensor is designed. Pt /Cu@CuO NWs exhibit excellent electrocatalytic oxidation toward glucose with 70 mV lower onset potential (0.

Single-Atom Pt Boosting Electrochemical Nonenzymatic Glucose Sensing on Ni(OH)/N-Doped Graphene.

Conventional nanomaterials in electrochemical nonenzymatic sensing face huge challenge due to their complex size-, surface-, and composition-dependent catalytic properties and low active site density. In this work, we designed a single-atom Pt supported on Ni(OH) nanoplates/nitrogen-doped graphene (Pt/Ni(OH)/NG) as the first example for constructing a single-atom catalyst based electrochemical nonenzymatic glucose sensor. The resulting Pt/Ni(OH)/NG exhibited a low anode peak potential of 0.

Building bimodal structures by a wettability difference-driven strategy for high-performance protein air-filters.

Building bimodal structures for air-filters is promising to reduce the airflow resistance without sacrificing the filtration efficiency. To do so, multi-jet electrospinning is among the most broadly used methods, yet the interplay between single fibers in electrospinning, which is significant to their morphologies, is overlooked. In this study, we report a wettability difference-driven strategy to fabricate a bimodal protein fabric with superior filtration performance.

A Bimodal Protein Fabric Enabled via In Situ Diffusion for High-Performance Air Filtration.

Design and fabrication of bimodal structures are essential for successful development of advanced air filters with ultralow airflow resistance. To realize this goal, simplified processing procedures are necessary for meeting the practical needs. Here, a bimodal protein fabric with high-performance air filtration, and effectively lowered airflow resistance is reported.

A Super-breathable "Woven-like" Protein Nanofabric.

Nanofabrics made from abundant natural protein that possesses enormous amounts of functional groups may have important applications such as air filtration. However, protein nanofabrics with randomly distributed nanofibers have very low mechanical properties and high airflow resistance, both of which seriously reduce the breathability. Here, a super-breathable zein (corn protein) fabric having a unique "woven-like" nanofibrous structure (w-PNF) via the accumulation effect between the charged nanofibers and the collector during electrospinning is reported.