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Pyroelectric energy conversion in a thin-film relaxor ferroelectric is studied under an electric field, resulting in high energy and power densities. Performance is equivalent to a ZT = 1.16 thermoelectric, competitive for low-grade thermal harvesting.
Metallic zinc is an ideal anode material for aqueous batteries but suffers from irreversibility issues. An aqueous electrolyte based on Zn and lithium salts using either LiMn2O4 or O2 cathodes now brings unprecedented flexibility and reversibility to Zn batteries.
Electrostrain, an important value for actuators, larger than 1% is only achieved in single crystals. Here, a pseudo-ternary polycrystalline ferroelectric with spontaneous lattice strain has 1.3% electrostrain, which may enable cheaper piezoelectrics.
Inorganic α-Ag2S semiconductor, which has preferential slip planes in the crystal structure and irregularly distributed bonds of silver atoms preventing cleavage, demonstrates metal-like ductility at room temperature.
Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with nanometre spatial resolution and low-energy electron microscopy/diffraction reveal that interaction with the Cu substrate can induce up to 7.5% lattice expansion in graphene adlayers.
Pump–probe, time-resolved ARPES experiments with underdoped cuprates reveal the transient enhancement of the density of phase fluctuations, eventually leading to the collapse of superconductivity.
Measurements of the chemical potential in a monolayer of WSe2 using a single electron transistor sensing scheme allows for the exact mapping of the level spacing of Landau levels of monolayer WSe2 in the conductance and valence bands.
Spin–orbit torques are reported in ferromagnetic trilayers that lead to the switching of perpendicular magnetizations without an external magnetic field.
The ionic conductivity of methylammonium lead iodide is enhanced up to two orders of magnitude when the material is exposed to light. This effect may also have implications for the photostability of perovskites.
Simulations were used to investigate the effects of local structural heterogeneity on piezoelectricity in ceramics. From this, a Sm-doped PMN–PT composition was designed with an extremely high piezoelectric coefficient for polycrystalline systems.
The application of electric fields enables reversible switching of the magnetic order of CrI3 bilayers between antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic states.
Foot-long continuous single-crystal-like monolayer graphene films were fabricated on polycrystalline substrates by evolutionary selection growth, which resembles the Czochralski process in 2D geometry.
TiO2 and other metal oxides were interfaced with molecular boron clusters to form a hybrid material. This modifies the electrochemical and photocatalytic properties, enabling fast electron transfer and dye degradation under red light.
A strategy to enhance antigen immunogenicity is shown using polyethyleneimine adsorbed on mesoporous silica microrod vaccine as a platform for neoantigens, supporting potent humoral immune response and inhibition of tumour growth following vaccination.
Gas-filled vesicles derived from photosynthetic microbes are shown to elicit magnetic resonance imaging contrast in vitro and in vivo with the potential for acoustically modulated multiplexing and molecular sensing.
The doping efficiency of n-type molecular dopants in organic semiconductors is shown to depend on the energy difference between the electron affinity of the host and the ionization potential of the doped system.
The accurate structure of the platelet defects in diamond is now resolved by transmission electron microscopy, and, out of all the proposed models, it agrees well with the zigzag atomic model.
It is shown that Ohmic contacts for the injection of hole carriers into organic semiconductors with high ionization energy can be formed by adding ultrathin interlayers with higher ionization energy.