Boosting Dimethyl Carbonate Production from CO and Methanol using Ceria-Ionic Liquid Catalyst.

As a crucial strategy towards a sustainable chemical industry, the direct synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from renewable carbon dioxide (CO) and methanol (MeOH) is studied using CeO nanoparticles modified with 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen carbonate ([BMIm][HCO]) devoid of stoichiometric dehydrating agents. The synthesized CeO@[BMIm][HCO] catalyst having high thermal stability harnesses the unique physicochemical properties of CeO and the ionic liquid to exhibit a DMC yield of 10.4 % and a methanol conversion of 16.

Realization of a Hole-Doped Mott Insulator on a Triangular Silicon Lattice.

The physics of doped Mott insulators is at the heart of some of the most exotic physical phenomena in materials research including insulator-metal transitions, colossal magnetoresistance, and high-temperature superconductivity in layered perovskite compounds. Advances in this field would greatly benefit from the availability of new material systems with a similar richness of physical phenomena but with fewer chemical and structural complications in comparison to oxides. Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we show that such a system can be realized on a silicon platform.

Hidden phase in a two-dimensional Sn layer stabilized by modulation hole doping.

Semiconductor surfaces and ultrathin interfaces exhibit an interesting variety of two-dimensional quantum matter phases, such as charge density waves, spin density waves and superconducting condensates. Yet, the electronic properties of these broken symmetry phases are extremely difficult to control due to the inherent difficulty of doping a strictly two-dimensional material without introducing chemical disorder. Here we successfully exploit a modulation doping scheme to uncover, in conjunction with a scanning tunnelling microscope tip-assist, a hidden equilibrium phase in a hole-doped bilayer of Sn on Si(111).

Substrate influence for the Zn-tetraphenyl-porphyrin adsorption geometry and the interface-induced electron transfer.

In molecular devices, the importance of interfaces cannot be neglected as they determine charge injection and charge flow and, therefore, the device performance. Herein we report on the interaction of one single layer of Zn-tetraphenyl-porphyrin with Ag(110) and Si(111). Photoemission, near-edge X-ray absorption, and resonant photoemission are used to study the bonding nature, the adsorption geometry as well as the dynamics of electron transfer between the molecules and the metal or semiconductor surfaces.

Growth of dome-shaped carbon nanoislands on Ir(111): the intermediate between carbidic clusters and quasi-free-standing graphene.

By combining high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations, we show that carbon nanoislands formed during the growth of a long-range ordered graphene layer on Ir(111) assume a peculiar domelike shape. The understanding of the unusual growth mechanism of these C clusters, which represent an intermediate phase between the strongly coupled carbidic carbon and a quasi-free-standing graphene layer, can provide information for a rational design of graphenelike systems at the nanoscale.

Mesoscopic donor-acceptor multilayer by ultrahigh-vacuum codeposition of Zn-tetraphenyl-porphyrin and C70.

The peculiar electrochemical and photophysical properties of porphyrin and fullerene molecules make them promising candidates for the construction of two- and three-dimensional organic-based materials. An important question is how pristine fullerene and porphyrin will organize when deposited on surfaces via in vacuum molecular beam evaporation. Here we show that codeposition of C(70) and Zn-tetraphenyl-porphyrin (ZnTPP) induces the self-assembly of electron-rich flat aromatic molecules at the curved surface of C(70), thus enhancing the chromophore interaction and forming a supramolecular multilayer donor-acceptor structure.