Magnetic nanocomposites, annealed under stress, are investigated for application in inductive devices. Stress annealed Co-based metal/amorphous nanocomposites (MANCs) previously demonstrated induced magnetic anisotropies greater than an order of magnitude larger than field annealed Co-based MANCs and response to applied stress twice that of Fe-based MANCs. Transverse magnetic anisotropies and switching by rotational processes impact anomalous eddy current losses at high frequencies. Here we review induced anisotropies in soft magnetic materials and show new Co-based MANCs having seven times the response to stress annealing as compared to Fe-based MANC systems. This response correlates with the alloying of early transition metal elements (TE) that affect both induced anisotropies and resistivities. At optimal alloy compositions, these alloys exhibit a nearly linear B–H loop, with tunable permeabilities. The electrical resistivity is not a function of processing stress but trends in electrical resistivity and induced anisotropy with choice and concentration of TE content are clearly resolved. Previously reported and record-level induced anisotropies, K u, ∼20 kJ/m3 (anisotropy fields, H K ∼ 500 Oe), in stress annealed Co-rich MANCs are increased to K u ∼ 70 kJ/m3 (H K > 1800 Oe) in new systems.

Due to gravitational self-compression, the pressure in planetary interiors can reach millions of times the atmospheric pressure. Such high pressure has a significant influence on their rheology. In the present paper, we focus on how pressure in the range of the Earth's lower mantle may influence the structure of a MgO {310}/[001] tilt boundary. The defected structure of the grain boundary (GB) will be described through its dislocation, disclination, and generalized-disclination (g-disclination) density fields. At first, the strain and rotation fields in the boundary area at different pressures are derived from the discrete atomic positions simulated by first-principles calculations. For each pressure, the discontinuities of displacement, rotation, and strain in the boundary area are continuously rendered by dislocation, disclination, and g-disclination density fields, respectively. These density fields measured at different pressures are compared to provide understanding on how pressure does influence the GB structures in Earth materials.

GeTe–Sb2Te3 superlattices have attracted major interest in the field of phase-change memories due to their improved properties compared with their mixed counterparts. However, their crystal structure and resistance-switching mechanism are currently not clearly understood. In this work epitaxial GeTe–Sb2Te3 superlattices have been grown with different techniques and were thoroughly investigated to unravel the structure of their crystalline state with particular focus on atomic stacking and van-der-Waals bonding. It is found that, due to the bonding anisotropy of GeTe and Sb2Te3, the materials intermix to form van-der-Waals heterostructures of Sb2Te3 and stable GeSbTe. Moreover, it is found through annealing experiments that intermixing is stronger for higher temperatures. The resulting ground state structure contradicts the dominant ab-initio results in the literature, requiring revisions of the proposed switching mechanisms. Overall, these findings shed light on the bonding nature of GeTe–Sb2Te3 superlattices and open a way to the understanding of their functionality.

A magnesium–lithium (Mg–Li) hybrid battery consists of an Mg metal anode, a Li+ intercalation cathode, and a dual-salt electrolyte with both Mg2+ and Li+ ions. The demonstration of this technology has appeared in literature for few years and great advances have been achieved in terms of electrolytes, various Li cathodes, and cell architectures. Despite excellent battery performances including long cycle life, fast charge/discharge rate, and high Coulombic efficiency, the overall research of Mg–Li hybrid battery technology is still in its early stage, and also raised some debates on its practical applications. In this regard, we focus on a comprehensive overview of Mg–Li hybrid battery technologies developed in recent years. Detailed discussion of Mg–Li hybrid operating mechanism based on experimental results from literature helps to identify the current status and technical challenges for further improving the performance of Mg–Li hybrid batteries. Finally, a perspective for Mg–Li hybrid battery technologies is presented to address strategic approaches for existing technical barriers that need to be overcome in future research direction.

The structure changes and lithium intercalation properties in the surface region of Li4Ti5O12 were investigated using epitaxial Li4Ti5O12(111) film model electrodes. The discharge–charge measurements, which were conducted with 1 mol/dm3 LiPF6-containing propylene carbonate, revealed that a 23.8 nm-thick film exhibited a small capacity of 115 mA h/g compared to the theoretical value of 175 mA h/g. In situ neutron reflectometry and ex situ x-ray diffractometry and reflectometry indicated that an irreversible phase change had occurred in the 10-nm surface region of Li4Ti5O12 during the initial reaction processes. The level of deterioration of the surface structure was significantly reduced by decreasing the LiPF6 concentration; in addition, side reactions of the cell components with the electrolyte species, and their products, may be associated with the deterioration of the Li4Ti5O12 surface. The surface reactions have a significant impact on the capacity of lithium intercalation in nano-sized Li4Ti5O12.

In this article, we report on the preparation of few-layered MoS2/graphene nanocomposite (MoS2/GNS-G) with enlarged interlayer distance as the lithium-ion battery anode via a facile hydrothermal method followed by glucose-assisted thermal annealing. During the synthesis, glucose serving as a small organic molecule can interlay into MoS2 nanosheets, which effectively hinder the aggregation and restacking of MoS2 during the process of heat treatment, retaining a sandwich structure of the composite. The enlarged interlayer distance (approximately 0.98 nm), along with the inserted amorphous carbon, could promote efficient lithium migration into active sites, buffer the volume change and stabilize the electrode structure effectively during the lithium insertion/extraction cycling. Electrochemical tests demonstrate that the MoS2/GNS-G delivers a high discharge capacity of 1583.0 mA h/g in the initial cycle at current density of 100 mA/g. The specific capacity remained at the relative high value of 673.5 mA h/g even at a current density of 1000 mA/g.

A bilayer film deposition process for synthesizing ultrathin amorphous carbon (a-C) films with structure and properties dominated by those of the sp3-rich bulk layer was developed in this study. This was accomplished by incorporating in conventional filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) deposition a low-ion-energy pre-deposition step (no substrate biasing) leading to the formation of an ultrathin (<1 nm) carbon layer and a post-deposition step of high-energy Ar+ ion sputtering resulting in film thinning. The thickness and cross-sectional structure of hydrogen-free a-C ultrathin films synthesized by this multistep FCVA process under optimum substrate bias conditions (−100 V pulsed bias voltage) were examined by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. The bilayer a-C films synthesized under these conditions exhibit slightly higher sp3 fractions and interface and bulk layers significantly thinner and thicker, respectively, compared with single-layer a-C films of similar thickness deposited under the same FCVA conditions.

The aim of this study was to obtain a tridimensional electrode with an even greater specific surface area (a s), using the electrodeposition of PbO2 films onto 45, 60, and 80 ppi RVC substrates applying different current densities. The kinetics and efficiency of decolorization of Reactive Blue 19 (RB19) dye achieved with the 60 ppi RVC/PbO2 were higher than obtained with a flat PbO2 electrode and 45 ppi RVC/PbO2, due not only to a greater electrochemically active area, but also especially due to the substantial increase in mass transfer caused by the turbulence generated by the porous matrix. It was found that the coating and the formation of β-PbO2 was only possible on the 60 ppi substrate applying 3.5 mA/cm2; in the case of the 80 ppi substrate, the uneven distribution of potential and current within the porous electrode did not allow establishment of suitable operational conditions that permitted complete and uniform coating of the substrate.

Phosphorene is a new-emerging two-dimensional material with many fascinating electronic and thermal properties. Using nonequilibrium Green's function technique, we investigate the thermoelectric transport properties of phosphorene in the ballistic transport regime. We find that while the electronic conductance and thermal conductance of phosphorene are highly anisotropic, the Seebeck coefficient is isotropic. The maximum predicted thermopower reaches 2500 μV/K. We also find that the Wiedemann–Franz law is valid only when the chemical potential is inside valence band or conduction band. When the chemical potential is near the valence band maximum or conduction band minimum; however, the Wiedemann–Franz law becomes invalid, and interestingly, the figure of merit ZT reaches its maximum value. We also find that figure of merit ZT increases with the increase of temperature, and ZT in the armchair direction is much higher than that in the zigzag direction. By analyzing the various effects on ZT, we discuss the possible routines to enhance figure of merit ZT.

This paper presents the results of an experimental study of the effects of pressure on polymer chain alignments in poly(3-hexylthiophene) and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) blends that are used in bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). The P3HT:PCBM blends on glass were subjected to pressure and annealing at 140 °C. The surface morphologies, nano-/micro-structures and the chain alignments were analyzed using atomic force microscopy techniques and grazing incidence x-ray scattering. The current–voltage characteristics of the resulting devices are also shown to change significantly with changes in the nano-/micro-structures. The polymer chains were aligned in the direction of the applied pressure (edge-on), which reduced the lamellae spacing between the polymer units and increased the degree of crystallinity. The increased crystallinity plays significant role in the current–voltage enhancements. The implications of the study are discussed for the design and control of the nano/microstructures of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells.

The characterization of nanostructured samples with at least one restricted dimension like thin films or nanowires is challenging but important to understand their structure and transport mechanism and to improve current industrial products and production processes. We report on the development of a chip-based platform to simultaneously measure the in-plane electrical and thermal conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient as well as the Hall constant of a thin film in the temperature range from 120 K up to 450 K and in a magnetic field of up to 1 T. Due to the design of the setup, time consuming preparation steps can be omitted and a nearly simultaneous measurement of the sample properties is achieved. Typical errors caused by different sample compositions, varying sample geometries, and different heat profiles are avoided with the presented measurement method. As a showcase study displaying the validity and accuracy of our system, we present measurements of the thermoelectric properties of a 110 nm Bi87Sb13 thin film in the temperature range from 120 K up to 450 K.

A semitransparent CuO film was applied for photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell to produce the record-high photocurrent (6.4 mA/cm2) for nanocrystalline monoclinic CuO photocathode. Large-scale affordable reactive-sputtering method was effectively formed Cu oxide films and sequential thermal processes efficiently controlled the Cu oxide phases with enhanced optical-transparency of Cu oxide films. Structural, physical, optical, and electrical properties of various Cu oxide films (CuO, Cu4O3, and Cu2O) were systematically investigated according to the sputtering condition and thermal processes. It was found that the energy band gap of CuO can be tuned from 1.7 to 1.9 eV by modulating the oxygen flow for reactive sputtering. Mott–Schottky analyses revealed the flat band potential close to the 0.96 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode and energy band edges of Cu oxide films. This state-of-the-art CuO photocathode would provide a strong potential for wide applications of the transparent PEC system of on-site energy generation.

In this paper we have reported analysis on activation energy and humidity sensing studies of Cu-doped ZnO thin films. Thin Films of undoped and Cu-doped ZnO nanomaterials were prepared. Undoped and Cu-doped ZnO thin films annealed at 600 °C showed the best results with sensitivity of 20.63 MΩ/%RH and 39.14 MΩ/%RH respectively in the 15–95% RH range. Low value of activation energy indicated that this sensing element had low operating temperature and could be used at room temperature. Other parameters like response time, recovery time, hysteresis, and aging effects were also studied. The crystallite size for the sensing element of pure ZnO annealed at 600 °C calculated from Scherrer's formula is in the 24–38 nm range. For the sensing element of 7% Cu doped ZnO the range of crystallite size is 25–41 nm. The average grain size as measured from SEM micrograph for 7% Cu doped ZnO and pure ZnO sensing elements were 36 and 42 nm, respectively.

Dilute magnetic semiconductors are attractive due to their potential in spintronic devices. In this work, vanadium doped ZnO system has been studied to see its future as a dilute magnetic semiconductor. Vanadium doped ZnO thin films where vanadium percentage is 2, 3, and 5% are deposited by pulsed laser technique (PLD). The lattice parameter c derived from the (002) diffraction peak increases as vanadium content increases, suggesting vanadium substitution for Zn in ZnO lattice. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements at low temperature shows the emission peak at 3.30 eV which hint toward p-type doping in ZnO. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that vanadium exists in V2+ and V4+ valence state, which is in agreement with the XRD and PL results and support the vanadium doped ZnO phase. The ferromagnetic behavior also supports the formation of vanadium doped ZnO phase in thin film samples.

Iron (Fe)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited using two techniques: (i) radio-frequency (RF) sputtering of Fe-doped ZnO targets, and (ii) co-sputtering, where ZnO was RF-sputtered and iron was direct-current (DC)-sputtered. The as-deposited films were polycrystalline, with predominant growth along the (002) direction of hexagonal ZnO, and possessed a considerable concentration of oxygen vacancies. From an optoelectronic point of view, the films were highly transparent, with a band gap of 3.25 eV, and had electrical resistivity values in the range of 100–103 Ω cm. To improve the electrical conductivity of the films, they were annealed in a vacuum and in a hydrogen atmosphere. The annealing process did not affect the optical properties of the films. However, there were substantial structural and chemical changes in the films. Moreover, the electrical conductivity of the films was enhanced drastically upon annealing in hydrogen, where the electrical resistivity was reduced to 3.2 × 10−3 Ω cm.

Physical properties of In0.5(ZrMg)0.75Mo3O12, including the coefficient of thermal expansion, phase stability, hygroscopicity, and decomposition temperature have been thoroughly studied by in situ x-ray powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and thermal methods. These investigations show that In0.5(ZrMg)0.75Mo3O12 exists in a monoclinic phase (P21/a) at room temperature and transforms to an orthorhombic (Pbcn) phase at ∼82 °C. In the orthorhombic form this material presents intrinsic near-zero thermal expansion (−0.16 × 10−6 K−1) in the range between 100 and 500 °C. The phase is not hygroscopic, but starts to decompose into its constituent oxides at temperatures higher than 700 °C. In comparison to the end member phase ZrMgMo3O12 in the In2Mo3O12–ZrMgMo3O12 solid solution, In0.5(ZrMg)0.75Mo3O12 is less promising for near room-temperature applications due to the phase transition from monoclinic to orthorhombic slightly above room temperature. However, the orthorhombic phase of In0.5(ZrMg)0.75Mo3O12 has potential for applications that require zero thermal expansion at temperatures higher than 100 °C.

SrZrO3 ceramic with perovskite-type structure was synthesized by a conventional solid-state reaction method at 1500 °C for 3 h. The crystal structures were studied by x-ray diffraction (XRD), and lattice vibrational modes were obtained by Raman and Fourier transform far-infrared (FTIR) reflection spectroscopy. The dielectric properties of the samples were also measured. According to XRD data, the SrZrO3 ceramic displayed the orthorhombic structure Pbnm (62). The Raman spectrum with ten active vibrators can be fitted by the Lorentzian function, and the vibrators were assigned. Far-infrared spectrum with six infrared active modes was fitted by the four-parameter semiquantum models. Consequently, the modes were assigned as F1u (1) (102 cm−1), F2u (2) (120 cm−1), F1u (3) (140 cm−1), F3u (4)′ (228 cm−1), F3u (4)″ (287 cm−1), F1u (5) (326 cm−1), and F1u (6) (527 cm−1). The infrared mode F1u (1), that can be represented as the Sr–ZrO6 inverted translational vibration, has the highest contribution to the dielectric properties (permittivity and dielectric loss). The calculated data agree well with the measured values.

The polycrystalline Nd3+-doped rare earth orthotantalate LuTaO4 was synthesized with high temperature solid-state reaction method, and the structure was determined by applying the Rietveld refinement to its x-ray diffraction. Also, the emission and excitation spectra at 7.6 K have been analyzed. The free-ions and crystal-field parameters were fitted to the experimental energy levels with the root mean square deviation of 14.6 cm−1. According to the crystal-field calculations, 152 Stark energy levels of Nd3+ were assigned. Finally, the fitting results of free-ions and crystal-field parameters were compared with those already reported for Nd3+:YAlO3. The results indicate that the free-ions parameters are similar to those of the Nd3+ in LuTaO4 and YAlO3 hosts except for the values of two-body electrostatic parameter γ, and the 2-rank crystal-field parameters of two hosts have relatively large differences while other crystal-field parameters have been similar to each other. Moreover, the crystal-field interaction of Nd3+ in LuTaO4 is stronger than that in YAlO3.

Ni-based composites with in situ formed Al2O3 and TiC ceramic phases were fabricated by hot pressing technology and that with directly added Al2O3 and TiC particles (ex situ) were also fabricated for comparison. The antioxygenic property and tribological properties of the composites were comparatively studied. The results show that the high-temperature oxidation resistance of the composite with in situ formed Al2O3 and TiC ceramic is superior to that of ex situ composite, and the friction coefficient of in situ composite is lower than that of ex situ composite in the wide temperature range from 400 °C to 1000 °C. The lowest friction coefficient was about 0.19 at 1000 °C and the wear rate of the composites are in the order of magnitude of 10−6 mm3/(N m) at high temperatures. The differences in tribological properties of in situ/ex situ composites are attributed to the formation of the glaze layer composed of MoO3, TiO2, Al2TiO5, NiAl2O4, and NiO on the worn surfaces and the difference of the distribution of the ceramics in the matrix.