Morphological characteristics and atomic evolution behavior of nanojoints in Ag nanowire interconnect network

Ag nanowires(AgNWs)have shown great application value in the field of flexible electronics due to their excellent optical and electrical properties,and the quality of its joints of AgNWs in the thin film network directly plays a key role in its performance.In order to further improve the joint quality of AgNWs under thermal excitation,the thermal welding process and atomic evolution behavior of AgNWs were investigated through a combination of in situ experimental and molecular dynamics simulations.The influence of processing time,temperature,and stress distribution due to spatial arrangement on nanojoints was systematically explored.What is more,the failure mechanisms and their atomic interface behavior of the nanojoints were also investigated.

Diverse atomic structure configurations of metal-doped transition metal dichalcogenides for enhancing hydrogen evolution

Doping foreign metal atoms into the substrate of transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs)enables the formation of diverse atomic structure configurations,including isolated atoms,chains,and clusters.Therefore,it is very important to reasonably control the atomic structure and determine the structure-activity relationship between the atomic configurations and the hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)performance.Although numerous studies have indicated that doping can yield diverse atomic structure configurations,there remains an incomplete understanding of the relationship between atomic configurations within the lattice of TMDs and their performance.Here,diverse atomic structure configurations of adsorptive doping,substitutional doping,and TMDs alloys are summarized.The structure-activity relationship between different atomic configurations and HER performance can be determined by micro-nanostructure devices and density functional theory(DFT)calculations.These diverse atomic structure configurations are of great significance for activating the inert basal plane of TMDs and improving the catalytic activity of HER.Finally,we have summarized the current challenges and future opportunities,offering new perspectives for the design of highly active and stable metal-doped TMDs catalysts.

Atomically dispersed dual Fe centers on nitrogen-doped bamboo-like carbon nanotubes for efficient oxygen reduction

Interfacial atomic configuration between dual-metal active species and nitrogen-carbon substrates is of great importance for improving the intrinsic activity of catalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction(ORR).Thus,from the atomic-scale engineering we develop a high intrinsic activity ORR catalyst in terms of incorporating atomically dispersed dual Fe centers(single Fe atoms and ultra-small Fe atomic clusters)into bamboo-like N-doped carbon nanotubes.Benefiting from atomically dispersed dual-Fe centers on the atomic interface of Fe-Nx/carbon nanotubes,the fabricated dual Fe centers catalyst exhibits an extremely high ORR activity(E_(onset)=1.006 V;E_(1/2)=0.90 V),beyond state-of-the-art Pt/C.Remarkably,this catalyst also shows a superior kinetic current density of 19.690 mA·cm^(−2),which is 7 times that of state-of-the-art Pt/C.Additionally,based on the excellent catalyst,the primary Zn-air battery reveals a high power density up to 137 mW·cm^(−2) and sufficient potential cycling stability(at least 25 h).Undoubtedly,given the unique structure–activity relationship of dual-Fe active species and metal-nitrogen-carbon substrates,the catalyst will show great prospects in highly efficient electrochemical energy conversion devices.

Universal Pseudo-PT-Antisymmetry on One-Dimensional Atomic Optical Lattices

We present the interesting result that under sinusoidal field detuning setting along the propagation direction of 1D atomic lattices, the probe susceptibility response of the lattices, regardless of atomic configuration, uniformly demonstrates pseudo-PT-antisymmetry, which by our definition corresponds to n(z)=-n*(-z), the complex refractive index antisymmetry along propagation axis, and when being cast back to quantum mechanical side, corresponds to V (x, t)=-V*(x,-t), the conjugate time-reversal antisymmetry of complex potential. We define this as the pseudoPT-antisymmetry, and prove the reason for this phenomenon to be the quantum-mechanical nature described by master equation under weak field approximation for any configuration of 1D atomic lattices. This work will help to deepen the understanding of origin of optical response features of atomic lattices, and will certainly open up the gate to a more rigorous, durable and flexible method of atomic optical lattice design.

Role of grain boundary character on Bi segregation-induced embrittlement in ultrahigh-purity copper

Bismuth(Bi),as an impurity element in copper and copper-based alloys,usually has a strong tendency of grain boundary(GB)segregation,which depends on the GB characters.However,the influence of such a segregation on the properties of ultrahigh-purity copper has been rarely reported and the exact structural arrangements of Bi atoms at different GBs remain largely unclear.In this study,we investigated the influ-ence of trace amounts of Bi(50-300 wt ppm)on the ductility of an ultrahigh-purity copper(99.99999%)in the range of room temperature to 900°C.The tensile results show that the addition of Bi seriously damages the ductility of the ultrahigh-purity copper at temperatures of 450-900°C,which is due to the GB segregation of Bi.On this basis,such a segregation behavior at different types of GBs,including high and low angle GBs(HAGBs/LAGBs),and twin boundaries(TBs),via the scanning electron microscope-electron backscattered diffraction(SEM-EBSD)and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope(AC-STEM)investigations,combined with the first-principles calculations were systematically studied.The atomistic characterizations demonstrate an anisotropic Bi segregation,where severe enrich-ment of Bi atoms typically occurs at the HAGBs,while the absence of Bi adsorption prevails at LAGBs or TBs.In particular,the segregated Bi at random HAGBs exhibited the directional bilayer adsorption,while the special symmetrical7 HAGB presented a unique Bi-rich cluster superstructure.Our findings pro-vide a comprehensive experimental and computational understanding on the atomic-scale segregation of impurities in metallic materials.

Composition-specific granulation characteristics of molten slag at improved throughput and high temperature of 1,723 K

Centrifugal granulation is one key step to enable waste heat recovery from the molten slag in the iron and steel industry.Yet,it remains unknown about the granulation characteristics of molten slag with different chemical compositions,especially at high throughput.In this work,we provided an experimental study on centrifugal granulation with four types of molten slags.The stage-specific centrifugal granulation was recorded and analyzed at first.Both effects of atomizer configuration and chemical compositions on granulation were investigated in detail.The cup-type atomizer favors film-mode disintegration and possesses better anti-adhesion capacity although the final granule size was not strongly affected by the atomizer configuration.Most importantly,centrifugal granulation has been demonstrated with appreciable adaptability to composition-specific blast furnace(BF)slag with binary basicity of 0.9-1.3.The present study not only sheds light on the modest effect of the chemical composition of molten slag on centrifugal granulation characteristics,but also gains credit for the adaptivity of CGATER.

Talbot effect in nonparaxial self- accelerating beams with electromagnetically induced transparency

In this study,we report on the fractional Talbot ffect of nonpar axial self-accelerating beams in a multilevel electromagnetically induced transparency(EIT)atomic configuration,which,to the best of our knowledge,is the first study on this subject.The Tallbot ffect originates from superposed eigenmodes of the Helmholtz equation and forms in the EIT window in the presence of both linear and cubic susceptibilities.The Talbot ffect can be realized by appropriately selecting the cofficients of the beam components.Our results indicate that the larger the radial difference between beam components,the stronger the interference between them,the smaller the Tallbot angle is.The results of this study can be useful when studying optical imaging.optical measurements,and optical computing.