Ordered graphane nanoribbons synthesized via high-pressure diels-alder polymerization of 2,2'-bipyrazine

Li, F.*; Tang, X.*; Fei, Y.*; Zhang, J.*; Liu, J.*; Lang, P.*; Che, G.*; Zhao, Z.*; Zheng, Y.*; Fang, Y.*; et al.

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 147(17), p.14054 - 14059, 2025/04

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c03116

We synthesized a crystalline graphane nanoribbon (GANR) via pressure-induced polymerization of 2,2'-bipyrazine (BPZ). By performing Rietveld refinement of in situ neutron diffraction data, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, infrared spectra, and theoretical calculation, we found that BPZ experienced Diels-Alder polymerization between the stacked aromatic rings, and formed extended boat-GANR structures with exceptional long-range order. The unreacted -C=N- groups bridge the two ends of the boat, and ready for further functionalization. The GANR has a bandgap of 2.25 eV, with booming photoelectric response (/ =18.8). Our work highlights that the high-pressure topochemical polymerization is a promising method for the precise synthesis of graphane with specific structure and desired properties.

Dual nanoprecipitation and nanoscale chemical heterogeneity in a secondary hardening steel for ultrahigh strength and large uniform elongation

Wang, S.*; Wang, J.*; Zhang, S.*; Wei, D.*; Chen, Y.*; Rong, X.*; Gong, W.; Harjo, S.; Liu, X.*; Jiao, Z.*; et al.

Journal of Materials Science & Technology, 185, p.245 - 258, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2023.10.048

Atomic structure and dynamics of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite formamidinium lead iodide

Yu, C.*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Kofu, Maiko*; Honda, Takashi*; Zhang, Z.*; Zhang, Z.*; Liu, Y.*; Liu, S. F.*; Li, B.*

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (Internet), 15(1), p.329 - 338, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c02498

Pressure-modulated magnetism and negative thermal expansion in the HoFe intermetallic compound

Cao, Y.*; Zhou, H.*; Khmelevskyi, S.*; Lin, K.*; Avdeev, M.*; Wang, C.-W.*; Wang, B.*; Hu, F.*; Kato, Kenichi*; Hattori, Takanori; et al.

Chemistry of Materials, 35(8), p.3249 - 3255, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c00158

Hydrostatic and chemical pressure are efficient stimuli to alter the crystal structure and are commonly used for tuning electronic and magnetic properties in materials science. However, chemical pressure is difficult to quantify and a clear correspondence between these two types of pressure is still lacking. Here, we study intermetallic candidates for a permanent magnet with a negative thermal expansion (NTE). Based on in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction, negative chemical pressure is revealed in HoFe on Al doping and quantitatively evaluated by using temperature and pressure dependence of unit cell volume. A combination of magnetization and neutron diffraction measurements also allowed one to compare the effect of chemical pressure on magnetic ordering with that of hydrostatic pressure. Intriguingly, pressure can be used to control suppression and enhancement of NTE. Electronic structure calculations indicate that pressure affected the top of the majority band with respect to the Fermi level, which has implications for the magnetic stability, which in turn plays a critical role in modulating magnetism and NTE. This work presents a good example of understanding the effect of pressure and utilizing it to control properties of functional materials.

Hybridized propagation of spin waves and surface acoustic waves in a multiferroic-ferromagnetic heterostructure

Chen, J.*; Yamamoto, Kei; Zhang, J.*; Ma, J.*; Wang, H.*; Sun, Y.*; Chen, M.*; Liu, S.*; Gao, P.*; Yu, D.*; et al.

Physical Review Applied (Internet), 19(2), p.024046_1 - 024046_9, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.024046

First observation of the decay of the 13/2 isomer in Hg and (2) systematics of neutron transitions across the nuclear chart

Huang, H.*; Zhang, W. Q.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Liu, Z.*; Seweryniak, D.*; Li, Z. H.*; Guo, C. Y.*; Barzakh, A. E.*; Van Duppen, P.*; Andel, B.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 833, p.137345_1 - 137345_8, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2022.137345

Effect of particle size on the colonization of biofilms and the potential of biofilm-covered microplastics as metal carriers

Wu, C.*; Tanaka, Kazuya; Tani, Yukinori*; Bi, X.*; Liu, J.*; Yu, Q.*

Science of the Total Environment, 821, p.153265_1 - 153265_9, 2022/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153265

Microplastics (MPs) with different particle sizes were co-cultured with a model freshwater fungus, strain KR21-2, to form biofilms on their surface. We also determined the changes in surface physicochemical properties of the biofilm-covered MPs (BMPs) and the heavy metal adsorption capacity of the original MPs and BMPs. The results revealed that the biofilms improve the adsorption of heavy metals on MPs, and the particle size of MPs plays a crucial role in biofilm colonization and adsorption of heavy metals by BMPs.

Mechanisms responsible for adsorption of molybdate ions on alumina for the production of medical radioisotopes

Fujita, Yoshitaka; Niizeki, Tomotake*; Fukumitsu, Nobuyoshi*; Ariga, Katsuhiko*; Yamauchi, Yusuke*; Malgras, V.*; Kaneti, Y. V.*; Liu, C.-H.*; Hatano, Kentaro*; Suematsu, Hisayuki*; et al.

Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan, 95(1), p.129 - 137, 2022/01

https://doi.org/10.1246/bcsj.20210249

In this work, the mechanisms responsible for the adsorption of molybdate ions on alumina are investigated using in-depth surface analyses carried out on alumina specimens immersed in solutions containing different molybdate ions at different pH values. The obtained results reveal that when alumina is immersed in an acidic solution containing molybdate ions, the hydroxyl groups present on the surface are removed to generate positively charged sites, and molybdate ions (MoO or AlMoOH) are adsorbed by electrostatic interaction. Alumina dissolves slightly in an acidic solution to form AlMoOH, which is more easily desorbed than MoO. Furthermore, the enhancement in the Mo adsorption or desorption property may be achieved by enriching the surface of the alumina adsorbent with many -OH groups and optimizing Mo solution to adsorb molybdate ions on alumina as MoO ions. These findings will assist researchers in engineering more efficient and stable alumina-based adsorbents for molybdenum adsorption used in medical radioisotope (Mo/Tc) generators.

General synthesis of single-atom catalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions and room-temperature Na-S batteries

Lai, W.-H.*; Wang, H.*; Zheng, L.*; Jiang, Q.*; Yan, Z.-C.*; Wang, L.*; Yoshikawa, Hirofumi*; Matsumura, Daiju; Sun, Q.*; Wang, Y.-X.*; et al.

Angewandte Chemie; International Edition, 59(49), p.22171 - 22178, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202009400

Dirac surface state-modulated spin dynamics in a ferrimagnetic insulator at room temperature

Tang, C.*; Song, Q.*; Chang, C.-Z.*; Xu, Y.*; Onuma, Yuichi; Matsuo, Mamoru*; Liu, Y.*; Yuan, W.*; Yao, Y.*; Moodera, J. S.*; et al.

Science Advances (Internet), 4(6), p.eaas8660_1 - eaas8660_6, 2018/06

AA2018-0166.pdf:0.7MB

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aas8660