Structural and electronic transition of layered PtSe into non-layered PtSe.

Research into novel two-dimensional (2D) materials has boomed over the past decade, with a bewildering diversity of distinct properties being discovered. In this work, layered PtSe, grown by chemical vapor deposition and thermally converted to non-layered tetragonal PtSe, is experimentally and theoretically investigated. Notably, the resultant PtSe is distinctly metallic, which highlights the significance of sub-stoichiometric phases within transition metal dichalcogenide films.

Unveiling Chirality in MoS Nanosheets: A Breakthrough in Phase Engineering for Enhanced Chiroptical Properties.

The development of new synthetic strategies to introduce and control chirality in inorganic nanostructures has been highly stimulated by the broad spectrum of potential applications of these exiting nanomaterials. Molybdenum disulfide is among the most investigated transition metal dichalcogenides due to its promising properties for applications that spread from optoelectronic to spintronic. Herein, we report a new two-step approach for the production of chiroptically active semiconductor 2H MoS nanosheets with chiral morphology based on the manipulation of their crystallographic structure.

Investigating the Local Bonding Structure of Amorphous Zinc Tin Oxide to Elucidate the Effect of Altering the Intercation Ratio.

In this paper, the local bonding structure in amorphous zinc tin oxide (a-ZTO) is probed using a combination of XANES and EXAFS techniques at the Zn and Sn K-edges to gain insight into charge carrier generation in the material. a-ZTO is prepared using two growth methods; spray pyrolysis and magnetron sputtering. It is seen that a-ZTO grown by magnetron sputtering shows no changes in the chemical environment as the cation ratio is varied; meanwhile, XANES analysis of spray pyrolysis grown samples shows alterations to spectra likely due to the effects caused by different precursors.

Examining the Desirable Properties of ZnSnO by Annealing Treatment with a Real-Time Observation of Resistivity.

In this report, 38 nm-thick amorphous zinc-tin oxide (a-ZTO) films were deposited by radio frequency magnetron cosputtering. a-ZTO films were annealed by in situ monitoring of the sheet resistance improvements during the annealing process. A sharp drop in the slope of the sheet resistance curve was observed.

Variation in the Bandgap of Amorphous Zinc Tin Oxide: Investigating the Thickness Dependence STS.

Amorphous transparent conducting oxides (a-TCOs) have seen substantial interest in recent years due to the significant benefits that they can bring to transparent electronic devices. One such material of promise is amorphous ZnSnO (a-ZTO). a-ZTO possesses many attractive properties for a TCO such as high transparency in the visible range, tunable charge carrier concentration, electron mobility, and only being composed of common and abundant elements.

The topological soliton in Peierls semimetal Sb.

Sb is a three-dimensional Peierls insulator. The Peierls instability gives rise to doubling of the translational period along the [111] direction and alternating van der Waals and covalent bonding between (111) atomic planes. At the (111) surface of Sb, the Peierls condition is violated, which in theory can give rise to properties differing from the bulk.

Miniaturized spectrometer with intrinsic long-term image memory.

Miniaturized spectrometers have great potential for use in portable optoelectronics and wearable sensors. However, current strategies for miniaturization rely on von Neumann architectures, which separate the spectral sensing, storage, and processing modules spatially, resulting in high energy consumption and limited processing speeds due to the storage-wall problem. Here, we present a miniaturized spectrometer that utilizes a single SnS/ReSe van der Waals heterostructure, providing photodetection, spectrum reconstruction, spectral imaging, long-term image memory, and signal processing capabilities.

High-performance p-type VO films by spray pyrolysis for transparent conducting oxide applications.

High-quality epitaxial p-type VO thin films have been synthesized by spray pyrolysis. The films exhibited excellent electrical performance, with measurable mobility and high carrier concentration. The conductivity of the films varied between 115 and 1079 Scm while the optical transparency of the films ranged from 32 to 65% in the visible region.

Effect of Rapid Thermal Annealing on Si-Based Dielectric Films Grown by ICP-CVD.

Silicon nitride, silicon oxide, and silicon oxynitride thin films were deposited on the Si substrate by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition and annealed at 1100 °C for 3 min in an Ar environment. Silicon nitride and silicon oxide films deposited at ratios of the reactant flow rates of SiH/N = 1.875 and SiH/NO = 3, respectively, were Si-rich, while Si excess for the oxynitride film (SiH/N/NO = 3:2:2) was not found.

Nitrate removal in iron sulfide-driven autotrophic denitrification biofilter: Biochemical and chemical transformation pathways and its underlying microbial mechanism.

Iron sulfides-based autotrophic denitrification (IAD) is effective for treating nitrate-contaminated wastewater. However, the complex nitrate transformation pathways coupled with sulfur and iron cycles in IADs are still unclear. In this study, two columns (abiotic vs biotic) with iron sulfides (FeS) as the packing materials were constructed and operated continuously.

Modeling of Coke Distribution in a Dry Quenching Zone.

Herein, a method for the coke dry quenching (CDQ) process has been proposed and its optimization has been carried out, which will minimize the disadvantages of this process. This optimization was carried out to develop a technology for uniform coke distribution in the quenching chamber. A model of the real charging device for quenching coke from the Ukrainian enterprise PrJSC "Avdiivka Coke" was developed, and several shortcomings of its operation were shown.

Terbium-doped carbon dots (Tb-CDs) as a novel contrast agent for efficient X-ray attenuation.

Metal-doped carbon dots have attracted considerable attention in nanomedicine over the last decade owing to their high biocompatibility and great potential for bioimaging, photothermal therapy, and photodynamic therapy. In this study, we prepared, and for the first time, examined terbium-doped CDs (Tb-CDs) as a novel contrast agent for computed tomography. A detailed physicochemical analysis revealed that the prepared Tb-CDs have small sizes (∼2-3 nm), contain relatively high terbium concentration (∼13.

High-rate iron sulfide and sulfur-coupled autotrophic denitrification system: Nutrients removal performance and microbial characterization.

Iron sulfides-based autotrophic denitrification (IAD) is a promising technology for nitrate and phosphate removal from low C:N ratio wastewater due to its cost-effectiveness and low sludge production. However, the slow kinetics of IAD, compared to other sulfur-based autotrophic denitrification (SAD) processes, limits its engineering application. This study constructed a co-electron-donor (FeS and S with a volume ratio of 2:1) iron sulfur autotrophic denitrification (ISAD) biofilter and operated at as short as 1 hr hydraulic retention time (HRT).

4D printing of MXene hydrogels for high-efficiency pseudocapacitive energy storage.

2D material hydrogels have recently sparked tremendous interest owing to their potential in diverse applications. However, research on the emerging 2D MXene hydrogels is still in its infancy. Herein, we show a universal 4D printing technology for manufacturing MXene hydrogels with customizable geometries, which suits a family of MXenes such as NbCT, TiCT, and MoTiCT.

VO Phase Mixture of Reduced Single Crystalline VO: VO Resistive Switching.

The strongly correlated electron material, vanadium dioxide (VO2), has seen considerable attention and research application in metal-oxide electronics due to its metal-to-insulator transition close to room temperature. Vacuum annealing a V2O5(010) single crystal results in Wadsley phases (VnO2n+1, n > 1) and VO2. The resistance changes by a factor of 20 at 342 K, corresponding to the metal-to-insulator phase transition of VO2.

Role of iron(II) sulfide in autotrophic denitrification under tetracycline stress: Substrate and detoxification effect.

Autotrophic denitrification using inorganic compounds as electron donors has gained increasing attention in the field of wastewater treatment due to its numerous advantages, such as no need for exogenous organic carbon, low energy input, and low sludge production. Tetracycline (TC), a refractory contaminant, is often found coexisting with nutrients (NO and PO) in wastewater, which can negatively affect the biological nutrient removal process because of its biological toxicity. However, the performance of autotrophic denitrification under TC stress has rarely been reported.

An Study of Precursor Decomposition via Refractive Index Sensing in p-Type Transparent Copper Chromium Oxide.

Oxide semiconductors are penetrating into a wide range of energy, environmental, and electronic applications, possessing a potential to outrun currently employed semiconductors. However, an insufficient development of p-type oxides is a major obstacle against complete oxide electronics. Quite often oxide deposition is performed by the spray pyrolysis method, inexpensive to implement and therefore accessible to a large number of laboratories.

Surface Modification and Subsequent Fermi Density Enhancement of Bi(111).

Defects introduced to the surface of Bi(111) break the translational symmetry and modify the surface states locally. We present a theoretical and experimental study of the 2D defects on the surface of Bi(111) and the states that they induce. Bi crystals cleaved in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) at low temperature (110 K) and the resulting ion-etched surface are investigated by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) as well as spectroscopy (STS) techniques in combination with density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Nanodomain structure of single crystalline nickel oxide.

In this work we present a comprehensive study of the domain structure of a nickel oxide single crystal grown by floating zone melting and suggest a correlation between point defects and the observed domain structure. The properties and structure of domains dictate the dynamics of resistive switching, water splitting and gas sensing, to name but a few. Investigating the correlation between point defects and domain structure can provide a deeper understanding of their formation and structure, which potentially allows one to tailor domain structure and the dynamics of the aforementioned applications.

Electronic and structural characterisation of polycrystalline platinum disulfide thin films.

We employ a combination of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and scanning tunnelling spectroscopy (STS) to investigate the properties of layered PtS, synthesised thermally assisted conversion (TAC) of a metallic Pt thin film. STM measurements reveal the 1T crystal structure of PtS, and the lattice constant is determined to be 3.58 ± 0.

Atomic and Electronic Structure of a Multidomain GeTe Crystal.

Renewed interest in the ferroelectric semiconductor germanium telluride was recently triggered by the direct observation of a giant Rashba effect and a 30-year-old dream about a functional spin field-effect transistor. In this respect, all-electrical control of the spin texture in this material in combination with ferroelectric properties at the nanoscale would create advanced functionalities in spintronics and data information processing. Here, we investigate the atomic and electronic properties of GeTe bulk single crystals and their (111) surfaces.

Low-Cost, High-Performance Spray Pyrolysis-Grown Amorphous Zinc Tin Oxide: The Challenge of a Complex Growth Process.

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) are important materials for a wide range of optoelectronic devices. Amorphous zinc tin oxide (a-ZTO) is a TCO and one of the best nontoxic, low-cost replacements for more expensive amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide. Here, we employ spray pyrolysis (SP), an inexpensive and versatile chemical vapor deposition-based technique, to synthesize a-ZTO with an as-deposited conductivity of ≈300 S/cm-the highest value hitherto among the reported solution-processed films.

Deformation and fracture of crystalline tungsten and fabrication of composite STM probes.

Fracturing microscale constrictions in metallic wires, such as tungsten, platinum, or platinum-iridium, is a common fabrication method used to produce atomically sharp tips for scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), field-emission microscopy and field ion microscopy. Typically, a commercial polycrystalline drawn wire is locally thinned and then fractured by means of a dislocation slip inside the constriction. We examine a special case where a dislocation-free microscale constriction is created and fractured in a single crystal tungsten rod with a long side parallel to the [100] direction.

Solution-Based Deposition of Transparent Eu-Doped Titanium Oxide Thin Films for Potential Security Labeling and UV Screening.

Transparent titanium oxide thin films attract enormous attention from the scientific community because of their prominent properties, such as low-cost, chemical stability, and optical transparency in the visible region. In this study, we developed an easy and scalable solution-based process for the deposition of transparent TiOx thin films on glass substrates. We showed that the proposed method is also suitable for the fabrication of metal-doped TiOx thin films.