Surface-Assisted Passivation Growth of 2D Ultrathin β-BiO Crystals for High-Performance Polarization-Sensitive Photodetectors.

2D nonlayered materials (NLMs) have garnered considerable attention due to unique surface structure and bright application prospect. However, owing to the strong interatomic forces caused by intrinsic isotropic chemical bonds in all directions, the direct synthesis of ultrathin and large area 2D NLMs remains a tremendous challenge. Here, the surface-assisted passivation growth strategy is designed to synthesize ultrathin and large size β-BiO crystals with the thickness down to 0.

Unconventional Near-Equilibrium Nucleation of Graphene on Si-Terminated SiC(0001) Surface.

The transfer-free character of graphene growth on Silicon Carbide (SiC) makes it compatible with state-of-the-art Si semiconductor technologies for directly fabricating high-end electronics. Although significant progress has been achieved in epitaxial growth of graphene on SiC recently, the underlying nucleation mechanism remains elusive. Here, we present a theoretical study to elucidate graphene near-equilibrium nucleation on Si-terminated hexagonal-SiC(0001) surface.

Steric effects in the hydrogen evolution reaction based on the TMX active center: Fe-BHT as a case study.

In this work, Fe-BHT is identified as the most efficient catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) among the TM-BHTs (TM = Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni), with an overpotential as low as 0.09 V. It is found that Fe d orbitals do not participate in the bonding with surrounding S/N atoms in the FeX active center but are bonding states for hydrogen adsorption.

Predicted stable LiP and LiP at ambient pressure: novel high-performance anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-rich phosphides have recently attracted considerable attention due to their potential application as high-capacity and high-rate anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, there is still short of the promising candidate thus far because of the poor electrical conductivity or huge volume change in the already known Li-P compounds. In this work, we report two novel Li-P states, LiP and LiP, stabilized under high pressures that are predicted to be quenchable down to ambient conditions by first-principles swarm structure calculations.

Ag@SiO2/LaF3:Eu3+ Composite Nanostructure and Its Surface Enhanced Luminescence Effect.

Ag@SiO2/LaF3:Eu3+ core-shell nanostructure was synthesized with a wet chemical method in which the SiO2 layer functioned as a separation layer between Ag-core and LaF3:Eu3+ luminescence material. With this system, surface enhanced luminescene of LaF3:Eu3+ with Ag substrate was investigated, and an obvious enhancement effect was observed. The dependence of the luminescence enhancement on the distance between the luminescence shell and the metallic core was studied too.

Preparation of Ag/Au bimetallic nanostructures and their application in surface-enhanced fluorescence.

An effective substrate for surface-enhanced fluorescence, which consists of cluster Ag/Au bimetallic nanostructures on a copper surface, was synthesized via a multi-stage galvanic replacement reaction of a Ag cluster in a chlorauric acid (HAuCl4) solution at room temperature. The fabricated silver/gold bimetallic cluster were found to yield large surface-enhanced fluorescence (SEF) enhancement factors for rhodamine 6G probe molecules deposited on the substrate, and also the fluorescence efficiency is critically dependent on the period of nanostructure growth. With the help of proper control reaction conditions, such as the reaction time, and concentration of reaction solutions, the maximum fluorescence enhanced effect was obtained.