Honeycomb silicon: a review of silicene

Silicene, a new allotrope of silicon in a twodimensional honeycomb structure, has attracted intensive research interest due to its novel physical and chemical properties. Unlike carbon atoms in graphene, silicon atoms prefer to adopt sp2/sp3-hybridized state in silicene,enhancing chemical activity on the surface and allowing tunable electronic states by chemical functionalization. The silicene monolayers epitaxially grown on Ag(111) surfaces demonstrate various reconstructions with different electronic structures. In this article, the structure, phonon modes, electronic properties, and chemical properties of silicene are reviewed based on theoretical and experimental works in recent years.

Application of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy in Electrocatalysis and Electrochemistry

Scanning tunneling microscopy(STM)has gained increasing attention in the field of electrocatalysis due to its ability to reveal electrocatalyst surface structures down to the atomic level in either ultra-high-vacuum(UHV)or harsh electrochemical conditions.The detailed knowledge of surface structures,surface electronic structures,surface active sites as well as the interaction between surface adsorbates and electrocatalysts is highly beneficial in the study of electrocatalytic mechanisms and for the rational design of electrocatalysts.Based on this,this review will discuss the application of STM in the characterization of electrocatalyst surfaces and the investigation of electrochemical interfaces between electrocatalyst surfaces and reactants.Based on different operating conditions,UHV-STM and STM in electrochemical environments(EC-STM)are discussed separately.This review will also present emerging techniques including high-speed EC-STM,scanning noise microscopy and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Bi_(24)O_(31)Br_(10): Constructing Heterojunction with BiOI

Bismuth-based compounds have been regarded as an important class of visible-light photocatalysts due to their special electronic structures. In this paper, iodide ions are introduced to modify bismuth-based compound, Bi（24）O（31）Br（10）, forming a Bi（24）O（31）Br（10）/BiOI heterojunction structure. A significant enhancement of photocatalytic activity compared to the parent compounds is observed in de-coloration of rhodamine B（Rh.B） solution. The improved photocatalytic property of Bi（24）O（31）Br（10）/BiOI heterojunction is ascribed to the unique electronic structure consisting of complementary band structures of BiOI and Bi（24）O（31）Br（10）.Iodide ions are regarded as an effective reagent to construct bismuth-based photocatalytic heterojunctions with improved photocatalytic activity.

Theoretical insights into nitrogen oxide activation on halogen defect-rich{001}facets of bismuth oxyhalide

Surface vacancies,serving as the activation centers for surface-adsorbed species,have been widely applied in catalysts to improve their activity and selectivity.In the case of ternary compound semiconductors,there is some controversy about exposed atoms and surface defects.Two-dimensional layered BiOCl is an important photocatalyst,which has had numerous studies focused on its oxygen vacancy(O_V)and bismuth vacancy(Bi_V).It has been realized that its(001)surface can consist of exposed halogen atoms rather than oxygen atoms,which thus needs a new explanation for its surface defect engineering mechanism.Using first-principles calculations,the activation behavior of NO_X(NO_(2),NO,N_(2)O)at a chlorine vacancy(Cl_V)on the BiOCl(001)surface is systematically studied.It is found that after introducing Cl_V on BiOCl(001)surfaces,NO_X molecules all show excellent activities with longer chemical bonds by capturing electrons from the catalyst.Our work furnishes fundamental insight into the activation of small molecules on defect-rich surfaces of ternary compound catalysts.

A novel splicing variant in the TMC1 gene causes non-syndromic hearing loss in a Chinese family

To the Editor:Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder in humans.There is one case of congenital deafness among every 1000 newborns,and in 50%of cases,the deafness is hereditary.Deafness exhibits high genetic heterogeneity.To date,over 110 non-syndromic deafness genes have been identified(https://hereditaryhearingloss.org/).Lots of those genes can cause both autosomaldominant hearing loss(ADNSHL)and autosomal-recessive non-syndromic hearing loss(ARNSHL)andTMC1(encoding the transmembrane channel-like 1)is one of them.TMC1(OMIM:606706)is a member of the TMC family located at 9q21.13.The protein contains 760 amino acids and has six transmembrane regions.TMC1 is expressed in the inner and outer hair cells of the cochlea.A TMC1 mutation was first shown to cause deafness in 2002.[1]The prevalence of TMC1 variants ranged from 3.4%(19/557)among Pakistani ARNSHL families to 8.1%(7/86)in Turkish families.To date,around 20 hearing loss families associated withTMC1 variants have been reported in China.