Nonaqueous Contact-Electro-Chemistry via Triboelectric Charge.

Mechanochemistry revolutionizes traditional reactions through mechanical stimulation, but its reaction efficiency is limited. Recent advancements in utilizing triboelectric charge from liquid-solid contact electrification (CE) have demonstrated significant potential in improving the reaction efficiency. However, its efficacy remains constrained by interfacial electrical double-layer screening in aqueous solutions.

Horizontal Transport in TiCT MXene for Highly Efficient Osmotic Energy Conversion from Saline-Alkali Environments.

Osmotic energy from the ocean has been thoroughly studied, but that from saline-alkali lakes is constrained by the ion-exchange membranes due to the trade-off between permeability and selectivity, stemming from the unfavorable structure of nanoconfined channels, pH tolerance, and chemical stability of the membranes. Inspired by the rapid water transport in xylem conduit structures, we propose a horizontal transport MXene (H-MXene) with ionic sequential transport nanochannels, designed to endure extreme saline-alkali conditions while enhancing ion selectivity and permeability. The H-MXene demonstrates superior ion conductivity of 20.

Understanding Contact Electrification at Water/Polymer Interface.

Contact electrification (CE) involves a complex interplay of physical interactions in realistic material systems. For this reason, scientific consensus on the qualitative and quantitative importance of different physical mechanisms on CE remains a formidable task. The CE mechanism at a water/polymer interface is a crucial challenge owing to the poor understanding of charge transfer at the atomic level.

On chain models for contact electrification.

An exact analytical model of charge dynamics for a chain of atoms with asymmetric hopping terms is presented. Analytic and numeric results are shown to give rise to similar dynamics in both the absence and presence of electron interactions. The chain model is further extended to the case of two atoms per cell (a perfect alloy system).

Resonance photogeneration of hot electrons through Tamm surface states.

Internal surface photoemission of electrons from 1D crystal into a barrier with participation of Tamm state (TS) at the interface crystal barrier is considered theoretically for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. It is shown that resonant tunneling of electrons through a TS could lead to substantial enhancement of the quantum efficiency and lowering the red border to a value defined by the TS. In contrast to the Fowler quadratic law, the photocurrent scales linearly with photon energy near the red border.

Anomalous Topological Edge States in Non-Hermitian Piezophononic Media.

The bulk-boundary or bulk-edge correspondence is a principle relating surface confined states to the topological classification of the bulk. By marrying non-Hermitian ingredients in terms of gain or loss with media that violate reciprocity, an unconventional non-Bloch bulk-boundary correspondence leads to unusual localization of bulk states at boundaries-a phenomenon coined non-Hermitian skin effect. Here, we numerically employ the acoustoelectric effect in electrically biased and layered piezophononic media as a solid framework for non-Hermitian and nonreciprocal topological mechanics in the MHz regime.

Shape- and size dependent piezoelectric properties of monolayer hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets.

We use molecular dynamics simulations (MD) to study piezoelectric properties of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) and reveal how piezoelectric properties depend on size and shape. We first analyze how the macroscopic shape affects the full 2D structure symmetry and its piezoelectric tensor. In particular, we demonstrate that a hexagonal (rectangular)-shaped BNNS belongs to the hexagonal 6̄2 (monoclinic ) point group.

Contact Electrification by Quantum-Mechanical Tunneling.

A simple model of charge transfer by loss-less quantum-mechanical tunneling between two solids is proposed. The model is applicable to electron transport and contact electrification between e.g.

3D continuum phonon model for group-IV 2D materials.

A general three-dimensional continuum model of phonons in two-dimensional materials is developed. Our first-principles derivation includes full consideration of the lattice anisotropy and flexural modes perpendicular to the layers and can thus be applied to any two-dimensional material. In this paper, we use the model to not only compare the phonon spectra among the group-IV materials but also to study whether these phonons differ from those of a compound material such as molybdenum disulfide.

A theory of generalized Bloch oscillations.

Bloch oscillations of electrons are shown to occur for cases when the energy spectrum does not consist of the traditional evenly-spaced ladders and the potential gradient does not result from an external electric field. A theory of such generalized Bloch oscillations is presented and an exact calculation is given to confirm this phenomenon. Our results allow for a greater freedom of design for experimentally observing Bloch oscillations.

Maximum absorption by homogeneous magneto-dielectric sphere.

In order to obtain a benchmark for electromagnetic energy harvesting, we investigate the maximum absorption efficiency by a magneto-dielectric homogeneous sphere illuminated by a plane wave, and we arrive at several novel results. For electrically small spheres we show that the optimal relative permeability and permeability of materials where ϵ(r)', μ(r)'≥1 is (1+i3) independent of sphere size, while that of metamaterials is (-2+iδ), where the imaginary part δ decreases strongly with decreasing sphere size. For larger spheres we show that while maximum absorption efficiency occurs at the resonances of the spherical modes, there exists a wide plateau of high absorption efficiency when material intrinsic impedance is constant; in the case of free-space intrinsic impedance and electrical radius κ=1, the absorption efficiency becomes 2.

̀Spatial impulse response of a rectangular double curved transducer.

Calculation of the pressure field from transducers with both a convex and a concave surface geometry is a complicated assignment that often is accomplished by subdividing the transducer surface into smaller flat elements of which the spatial impulse response is known. This method is often applied to curved transducers because an analytical solution is unknown. In this work a semi-analytical algorithm for the exact solution to a first order in diffraction effect of the spatial impulse response of rectangular-shaped double curved transducers is presented.

Plasmonic metamaterial wave retarders in reflection by orthogonally oriented detuned electrical dipoles.

We demonstrate that a pair of perpendicular electrical dipolar scatterers resonating at different frequencies can be used as a metamaterial unit cell to construct a nanometer-thin retarder in reflection, designing nanocross and nanobrick plasmonic configurations to function as reflecting quarter-wave plates at ~1520 and 770 nm, respectively. The design is corroborated experimentally with a monolayer of gold nanobricks, transforming linearly polarized incident radiation into circularly polarized radiation at ~780 nm.

Modeling transducer impulse responses for predicting calibrated pressure pulses with the ultrasound simulation program Field II.

Field II is a simulation software capable of predicting the field pressure in front of transducers having any complicated geometry. A calibrated prediction with this program is, however, dependent on an exact voltage-to-surface acceleration impulse response of the transducer. Such impulse response is not calculated by Field II.

Detuned electrical dipoles for plasmonic sensing.

We demonstrate that a pair of electrical dipolar scatterers resonating at different frequencies, i.e., detuned electrical dipoles, can be advantageously employed for plasmonic sensing of the environment, both as an individual subwavelength-sized sensor and as a unit cell of a periodic array.

Modeling of nonlinear responses for reciprocal transducers involving polarization switching.

Nonlinearities and hysteresis effects in a reciprocal PZT transducer are examined by use of a dynamical mathematical model on the basis of phase-transition theory. In particular, we consider the perovskite piezoelectric ceramic in which the polarization process in the material can be modeled by Landau theory for the first-order phase transformation, in which each polarization state is associated with a minimum of the Landau free-energy function. Nonlinear constitutive laws are obtained by using thermodynamical equilibrium conditions, and hysteretic behavior of the material can be modeled intrinsically.

Vibration of piezoelectric elements surrounded by fluid media.

In this paper we analyse vibrational characteristics of piezoceramic shells surrounded by acoustic media. Main results are presented for radially polarized piezoceramic PZT5 elements of hollow cylindrical shapes. The coupling in the radial direction between the solid and the acoustic media is accounted for indirectly, via impedance boundary conditions.