Metastable face-centered cubic ruthenium-based binary alloy for efficient alkaline hydrogen oxidation electrocatalysis

Metastable nanostructured electrocatalyst with a completely different surface environment compared to conventional phase-based electrocatalyst often shows distinctive catalytic property.Although Ru-based electrocatalysts have been widely investigated toward hydrogen oxidation reaction(HOR)under alkaline electrolytes,these studies are mostly limited to conventional hexagonal-close-packed(hcp)phase,mainly arising from the lack of sufficient synthesis strategies.In this study,we report the precise synthesis of metastable binary RuW alloy with face-centered-cubic(fcc)phase.We find that the introduction of W can serve as fcc phase seeds and reduce the formation energy of metastable fcc-RuW alloy.Impressively,fcc-RuW exhibits remarkable alkaline HOR performance and stability with the activity of 0.67 mA cm_(Ru)^(-2)which is almost five and three times higher than that of hcp-Ru and commercial Pt/C,respectively,which is attributed to the optimized binding strength of adsorbed hydroxide intermediate derived from tailored electronic structure through W doping and phase engineering.Moreover,this strategy can also be applied to synthesize other metastable fcc-RuCr and fcc-RuMo alloys with enhanced HOR performances.

Instantaneous Creep in Face-centered Cubic Metals at Ultra- low Strain Rates by a High-resolution Strain Measurement

Instantaneous creep in face-centered cubic metals, 5N Al（99.999%）, 2N Al （99%） and 4N Cu （99.99%） with different grain sizes, was firstly investigated by sudden stress-change experiments at ultra- low strain rates ε ≤10-10 s-1 and temperature T 〈 0.32 Tn. The experimental results indicate that the observed instantaneous creep is strongly dependent on grain size, the concentration of impurity, and stacking fault energy. Creep in high-purity aluminum, 5N Al, with a very large grain size, d 〉 1600μm, shows non-viscous behavior, and is controlled by the recovery of dislocations in the boundary of dislocation cells. On the other hand, for 5N A1 with a small grain size, d=30μm, and low-purity aluminum, 2N A1, with d8= 25μm, creep shows viscous behavior and may be related to ＇low temperature grain boundary sliding＇. For high-purity copper, 4N Cu, with d= 40 grn and lower stacking fault energy, creep shows a non-viscous behavior, and is controlled by the recovery process of dislocations. For all of the samples, creep shows anelastic behavior.

Metastable Face-Centered Cubic Structure and Structural Transition of Sn on 2H-NbSe2(0001)

Surface structures and properties of Sn islands grown on superconducting substrate 2H-NbSe2（0001）are studied using low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy or spectroscopy.The pure face-centered cubic（fee）structure of Sn surface is obtained.Superconductivity is also detected on the fcc-Sn（111）surface,and the size of superconducting gap on the Sn surface is nearly the same as that on the superconducting substrate.Furthermore,phase transition occurs from fcc-Sn（111）toβ-Sn（001）by keeping the sample at room temperature for a certain time.Due to the strain relaxation on theβ-Sn islands,both the in-plane unit cell and out-of-plane structures distort,and the height of surface atoms varies periodically to form a universal ripple structure.

The Even-Odd and the Isoelectronicity Rules Applied to Single Covalent Bonds in Ionic, Double-Face-Centered Cubic and Diamond-Like Crystals

Although atom configuration in crystals is precisely known thanks to imaging techniques, there is no experimental way to know the exact location of bonds or charges. Many different representations have been proposed, yet no theory to unify conceptions. The present paper describes methods to derive bonds and charge location in double-face-centered cubic crystals with 4 and 6 atoms per unit cell using two novel rules introduced in earlier works: the even-odd and the isoelectronicity rules. Both of these rules were previously applied to ions, molecules and some solids, and the even-odd rule was also tested on two covalent crystal structures: centered-cubic and single-face-centered cubic crystals. In the present study, the diamond-like structure was subjected to the isoelectronicity rule in order to derive Zinc-blende structures. Rock-salt-like crystals were derived from each other using both rules. These structures represent together more than 230 different crystals. Findings for these structures are threefold: both rules describe a very sure method to obtain valid single covalent-bonded structures;single covalent structures can be used in every case instead of the classical ionic model;covalent bonds and charges positions do not have any relation with the valence number given in the periodic table.

Direct observation of metastable face-centered cubic Sb2Te3 crystal

Although phase change memory technology has developed drastically in the past two decades, the cognition of the key switching materials still ignores an important member, the face-centered cubic Sb2Te3. Apart from the well-known equilibrium hexagonal Sb2Te3 crystal, we prove the metastable face-centered cubic Sb2Te3 phase does exist. Such a metastable crystal contains a large concentration of vacancies randomly occupying the cationic lattice sites. The face-centered cubic to hexagonal phase transformation of Sb2Te3, accompanied by vacancy aggregation, occurs at a quite lower temperature compared to that of Ge2Sb2Te5 alloy. We prove that the covalent-like bonds prevail in the metastable Sb2Te3 crystal, deviating from the ideal resonant features. If a proper doping technique is adopted, the metastable Sb2Te3 phase could be promising for realizing reversibly swift and low-energy phase change memory applications. Our study may offer a new insight into commercialized Ge-Sb-Te systems and help in the design of novel phase change materials to boost the performances of the phase change memorv device.

Face-centered cubic structured RuCu hollow urchin-like nanospheres enable remarkable hydrogen evolution catalysis

Ruthenium(Ru)is one of the most promising metals for its versatility in driving a wide range of catalytic reactions.However,owing to the intrinsic preference of hexagonal close-packed(hcp)phase for bulk Ru,currently,it is still challenging to construct Ru-based nanomaterials with face-centered-cubic(fcc)phase for optimizing their performance towards potential applications.Herein,we report a facile wet-chemical method to directly create unconventional fcc-structured Ru-copper hollow urchin-like nanospheres(fcc-RuCu HUNSs)as a class of efficient pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)electrocatalyst.Interestingly,this synthetic strategy can be expanded to prepare other fcc-Ru-based alloy nanomaterials.Significantly,the novel fcc-RuCu HUNSs exhibit superior HER performance with the overpotential of only 25,34,40,and 26 m V to reach the current density of 10 mA cm^(-2)in 0.5 M H_(2)SO_(4),0.05 M H_(2)SO_(4),0.1 M KOH,and 1 M KOH,respectively,much lower than those of hcpRuCu HUNSs and commercial Pt/C.Density functional theory(DFT)calculations further indicate that their excellent pH-universal HER performance results from the optimized adsorption free energy of H and work functions.Our work highlights the importance of phase control to design high-efficiency nanocatalysts for relevant catalytic reactions in energy conversion.

Effective Stacking Fault Energy in Face-Centered Cubic Metals

As a typical configuration in plastic deformations, dislocation arrays possess a large variation of the separation of the partial dislocation pairs in face-centered cubic（fcc） metals. This can be manifested conveniently by an effective stacking fault energy（SFE）. The effective SFE of dislocation arrays is described within the elastic theory of dislocations and verified by atomistic simulations. The atomistic modeling results reveal that the general formulae of the effective SFE can give a reasonably satisfactory prediction for all dislocation types, especially for edge dislocation arrays. Furthermore, the predicted variation of the effective SFE is consistent with several previous experiments, in which the measured SFE is not definite, changing with dislocation density. Our approach could provide better understandings of cross-slip and the competition between slip and twinning during plastic deformations in fcc metals.

Consistent Analytic Embedded Atom Potential for Face-Centered Cubic Metals and Alloys

A consistent empirical embedded-atom potential that includes a long range force was developed for fcc （face-centered cubic） metals and alloys. The proposed potential for pure metals does not require modification of the initial function form when being applied to alloy systems. The potential parameters of this model were determined by fitting lattice constant, three elastic constants, cohesive energy, and vacancy formation energies of the pure metals and the heats of solution of the binary alloys via an optimization technique. Parameters for Ag, AI, Au, Cu, Ni, Pd and Pt were obtained. The obtained parameters were used to calculate the bulk modulus, divacancy formation energy, crystal stability, stacking fault energy, vacancy migration energy, and melting point for each pure metal and the heats of formation and lattice constants for binary alloys. The predicted values were in good agreement with experimental results.

Mechanism transition of cross slip with stress and temperature in face-centered cubic metals

A<110>/2 screw dislocation is commonly dissociated into two <112>/6 Shockley partial dislocations on{111} planes in face-centered cubic metals.As the two partials are not purely screw,different mechanisms of cross-slip could take place,depending on the stacking fault energy,applied stress and tempe rature.It is crucial to classify the mechanisms of cross-slip because each mechanism possesses its own reaction path with a special activation process.In this work,molecular dynamics simulations have been performed systematically to explore the cross-slip mechanism under different stresses and temperatures in three different metals Ag,Cu and Ni that have different stacking fault energies of 17.8,44.4 and 126.8 mJ/m^2,re spectively.In Ag and Cu with low stacking fault energy,it is observed that the cross-slip mechanism of screw dislocations changes from the Fleischer obtuse angle(FLOA),to the Friedel-Escaig(FE),and then to the FL acute angle(FLAA) at low temperatures,with increasing the applied stress.However,when the temperature increases,the FE mechanism gradually becomes dominant,while the FLAA only occurs at the high stress region.In particular,the FLOA has not been observed in Ni because of its high stacking fault energy.

Chemical Bonds between Charged Atoms in the Even-Odd Rule and a Limitation to Eight Covalent Bonds per Atom in Centered-Cubic and Single Face-Centered-Cubic Crystals

A crystal is a highly organized arrangement of atoms in a solid, wherein a unit cell is periodically repeated to form the crystal pattern. A unit cell is composed of atoms that are connected to some of their first neighbors by chemical bonds. A recent rule, entitled the even-odd rule, introduced a new way to calculate the number of covalent bonds around an atom. It states that around an uncharged atom, the number of bonds and the number of electrons have the same parity. In the case of a charged atom on the contrary, both numbers have different parity. The aim of the present paper is to challenge the even-odd rule on chemical bonds in well-known crystal structures. According to the rule, atoms are supposed to be bonded exclusively through single-covalent bonds. A distinctive criterion, only applicable to crystals, states that atoms cannot build more than 8 chemical bonds, as opposed to the classical model, where each atom in a crystal is connected to every first neighbor without limitation. Electrical charges can be assigned to specific atoms in order to compensate for extra or missing bonds. More specifically the article considers di-atomic body-centered-cubic, tetra-atomic and dodeca-atomic single-face-centered-cubic crystals. In body-centered crystals, atoms are interconnected by 8 covalent bonds. In face-centered crystal, the unit cell contains 4 or 12 atoms. For di-element crystals, the total number of bonds for both elements is found to be identical. The neutrality of the unit cell is obtained with an opposite charge on the nearest or second-nearest neighbor. To conclude, the even-odd rule is applicable to a wide number of compounds in known cubic structures and the number of chemical bonds per atom is not related to the valence of the elements in the periodic table.

A novel rapid cooling assembly design in a high-pressure cubic press apparatus

In traditional high-pressure–temperature assembly design, priority has been given to temperature insulation and retention at high pressures.This limits the efficiency of cooling of samples at the end of experiments, with a negative impact on many studies in high-pressure Earth andplanetary science. Inefficient cooling of experiments containing molten phases at high temperature leads to the formation of quench textures,which makes it impossible to quantify key compositional parameters of the original molten phase, such as their volatile contents. Here,we present a new low-cost experimental assembly for rapid cooling in a six-anvil cubic press. This assembly not only retains high heatingefficiency and thermal insulation, but also enables a very high cooling rate (∼600 ℃/s from 1900 ℃ to the glass transition temperature).Without using expensive materials or external modification of the press, the cooling rate in an assembly (∼600 ℃/s) with cube lengths of38.5 mm is about ten times faster than that in the traditional assembly (∼60 ℃/s). Experiments yielding inhomogeneous quenched melttextures when the traditional assembly is used are shown to yield homogeneous silicate glass without quench textures when the rapid coolingassembly is used.

Synthesizing active and durable cubic ceria catalysts(<6 nm)for fast dehydrogenation of bio-polyols to carboxylic acids coproducing green H_(2)

Dehydrogenation is considered as one of the most important industrial applications for renewable energy.Cubic ceria-based catalysts are known to display promising dehydrogenation performances in this area.Large particle size(>20 nm)and less surface defects,however,hinder further application of ceria materials.Herein,an alternative strategy involving lactic acid(LA)assisted hydrothermal method was developed to synthesize active,selective and durable cubic ceria of<6 nm for dehydrogenation reactions.Detailed studies of growth mechanism revealed that,the carboxyl and hydroxyl groups in LA molecule synergistically manipulate the morphological evolution of ceria precursors.Carboxyl groups determine the cubic shape and particle size,while hydroxyl groups promote compositional transformation of ceria precursors into CeO_(2) phases.Moreover,enhanced oxygen vacancies(Vo)on the surface of CeO_(2) were obtained owing to continuous removal of O species under reductive atmosphere.Cubic CeO_(2) catalysts synthesized by the LA-assisted method,immobilized with bimetallic PtCo clusters,exhibit a record high activity(TOF:29,241 h^(-1))and Vo-dependent synergism for dehydrogenation of bio-derived polyols at 200℃.We also found that quenching Vo defects at air atmosphere causes activity loss of PtCo/CeO_(2) catalysts.To regenerate Vo defects,a simple strategy was developed by irradiating deactivated catalysts using hernia lamp.The outcome of this work will provide new insights into manufacturing durable catalyst materials for aqueous phase dehydrogenation applications.

Formation of face-centered cubic titanium in laser surface re-melted commercially pure titanium plate

Micron-scale face-centered cubic titanium phase（named as δ phase） were noticed in the re-melted zone of laser surface re-melted commercially pure titanium plate.The morphology,sub-structure,orientation and distribution of δ phase were investigated by scanning electron microscopy,electron back-scattered diffraction and transmission electron microscopy.Three kind formation processes of δ phase were put forward based on the investigation.The first one is α＇→δ transformation which takes place in single α＇grains and leads to the orientation relationship {001}δ//{0001}α＇〈 110 〉 δ//〈 112^-0 〉α＇.The second one is β→α＇＋ δ transformation which takes place at α＇/α＇interfaces and leads to the orientation relationship{001}δ//{11^-0}β〈110〉 δ//〈111〉β.The third one is another kind of β→α＇＋ δ transformation that takes place at α＇/α＇interfaces and leads to the orientation relationship{11^-1}δ//{11^-0}β〈 110 〉 δ//〈 111 〈 β.It is believed that the transformations of δ phase are stress assistant ones and in the present investigation,the phase transformation stress of β→α＇transformation acts as the assistant driving force for the formation of δ phase.

ANovel Non-Isolated Cubic DC-DC Converter with High Voltage Gain for Renewable Energy Power Generation System

In recent years,switched inductor(SL)technology,switched capacitor(SC)technology,and switched inductor-capacitor(SL-SC)technology have been widely applied to optimize and improve DC-DC boost converters,which can effectively enhance voltage gain and reduce device stress.To address the issue of low output voltage in current renewable energy power generation systems,this study proposes a novel non-isolated cubic high-gain DC-DC converter based on the traditional quadratic DC-DC boost converter by incorporating a SC and a SL-SC unit.Firstly,the proposed converter’s details are elaborated,including its topology structure,operating mode,voltage gain,device stress,and power loss.Subsequently,a comparative analysis is conducted on the voltage gain and device stress between the proposed converter and other high-gain converters.Then,a closed-loop simulation system is constructed to obtain simulation waveforms of various devices and explore the dynamic performance.Finally,an experimental prototype is built,experimental waveforms are obtained,and the experimental dynamic performance and conversion efficiency are analyzed.The theoretical analysis’s correctness is verified through simulation and experimental results.The proposed converter has advantages such as high voltage gain,low device stress,high conversion efficiency,simple control,and wide input voltage range,achieving a good balance between voltage gain,device stress,and power loss.The proposed converter is well-suited for renewable energy systems and holds theoretical significance and practical value in renewable energy applications.It provides an effective solution to the issue of low output voltage in renewable energy power generation systems.

Analysis for twinning and slip in face-centered cubic crystals under axisymmetric co-deformation

The maximum work principle of Bishop-Hill was developed to analyze the axisymmetric co-deformation in face-centered cubic crystals (f.c.c.) for twinning on {111} 112 and slip on {111} 110 systems. The influence of ξ , the ratio of critical re- solved shear stress for twinning to slip, on the yield stress states and corresponding active slip or/and twinning systems for orientations in the standard stereographic triangle of cubic crystal was investigated systematically. The Taylor factors and the anisotropy of yield strength for three important orientations [100], [110] and [111] in orientation space were analyzed. It is found that the yield strength asymmetry for the case of axisymmetric de- formation of tension and compression can be explained based on the microscopic theory of crystal plasticity. The concept of orientation factor for twinning ability was proposed and the deformation mechanism map in the orientation space was established for the case of axisymmetric deformation. The deformation texture formation and development of f.c.c. crystals with low stacking fault energy for axisymmetric tension can be explained qualita- tively on the basis of analyzed results.

Discrete gap breathers in a two-dimensional diatomic face-centered square lattice

In this paper we study the existence and stability of two-dimensional discrete gap breathers in a two-dimensional diatomic face-centered square lattice consisting of alternating light and heavy atoms, with on-site potential and coupling potential. This study is focused on two-dimensional breathers with their frequency in the gap that separates the acoustic and optical bands of the phonon spectrum. We demonstrate the possibility of the existence of two-dimensional gap breathers by using a numerical method. Six types of two-dimensional gap breathers are obtained, i.e., symmetric, mirror-symmetric and asymmetric, whether the center of the breather is on a light or a heavy atom. The difference between one-dimensional discrete gap breathers and two-dimensional discrete gap breathers is also discussed. We use Aubry＇s theory to analyze the stability of discrete gap breathers in the two-dimensional diatomic face-centered square lattice.

Transformation of Hexagonal Lu to Cubic LuH_(2+x)Single-Crystalline Films

With the recent report of near ambient superconductivity at room temperature in the N-doped lutetium hydride(Lu-H-N)system,the understanding of cubic Lu-H compounds has attracted worldwide attention.Generally,compared to polycrystals with non-negligible impurities,the single-crystalline form of materials with high purity can provide an opportunity to show their hidden properties.However,the experimental synthesis of single-crystalline cubic Lu-H compounds has not been reported so far.Here,we develop an easy way to synthesize highly pure LuH_(2+x)single-crystalline films by the post-annealing of Lu single-crystalline films(purity of 99.99%)in H_(2)atmosphere.The crystal and electronic structures of films were characterized by x-ray diffraction,Raman spectroscopy,and electrical transport.Interestingly,Lu films are silver-white and metallic,whereas their transformed LuH_(2+x)films become purple-red and insulating,indicating the possible formation of an unreported electronic state of Lu-H compounds.Our work provides a novel route to synthesize and explore more singlecrystalline Lu-H compounds.

Cubic Ice Captured by In Situ Transmission Electron Microscope

Nearly a hundred years ago,the Nobel laureate Linus Pauling proposed based on the'ice rule'[1]and residual entropy theory that the structural entropy of ice is the same for common hexagonal ice(Ih)with tetrahedrally coordinated water molecules assembling into a hexagonal close-packing manner and cubic ice(ice Ic)in a cubic closepacking manner.[2]

CONFORMALLY FLAT AFFINE HYPERSURFACES WITH SEMI-PARALLEL CUBIC FORM

In this paper,we study locally strongly convex affine hypersurfaces with the vanishing Weyl curvature tensor and semi-parallel cubic form relative to the Levi-Civita connection of the affine metric.As a main result,we classify these hypersurfaces as not being of a flat affine metric.In particular,2 and 3-dimensional locally strongly convex affine hypersurfaces with semi-parallel cubic forms are completely determined.

Coupled CUBIC Congestion Control for MPTCP in Broadband Networks

Recently,multipath transmission control protocol(MPTCP)was standardized so that data can be transmitted through multiple paths to utilize all available path bandwidths.However,when high-speed long-distance networks are included in MPTCP paths,the traffic transmission performance of MPTCP is severely deteriorated,especially in case the multiple paths’characteristics are heavily asymmetric.In order to alleviate this problem,we propose a“Coupled CUBIC congestion control”that adopts TCP CUBIC on a large bandwidth-delay product(BDP)path in a linked increase manner for maintaining fairness with an ordinary TCP traversing the same bottleneck path.To verify the performance excellence of the proposed algorithm,we implemented the Coupled CUBIC Congestion Control into Linux kernels by modifying the legacy MPTCP linked-increases algorithm(LIA)congestion control source code.We constructed asymmetric heterogeneous network testbeds mixed with large and small BDP paths and compared the performances of LIA and Coupled CUBIC by experiments.Experimental results show that the proposed Coupled CUBIC utilizes almost over 80%of the bandwidth resource in the high BDP path,while the LIA utilizes only less than 20%of the bandwidth for the same path.It was confirmed that the resource utilization and traffic transmission performance have been greatly improved by using the proposed Coupled CUBIC in high-speed multipath networks,as well as maintaining MPTCP fairness with competing single-path CUBIC or Reno TCP flows.