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.

Strong low-energy rattling modes enabled liquid-like ultralow thermal conductivity in a well-ordered solid

Liu, P.-F.*; Li, X.*; Li, J.*; Zhu, J.*; Tong, Z.*; Kofu, Maiko*; Nirei, Masami; Xu, J.*; Yin, W.*; Wang, F.*; et al.

National Science Review, 11(12), p.nwae216_1 - nwae216_10, 2024/12

https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwae216

Giant barocaloric effects in sodium hexafluorophosphate and hexafluoroarsenate

Zhang, Z.*; Hattori, Takanori; Song, R.*; Yu, D.*; Mole, R.*; Chen, J.*; He, L.*; Zhang, Z.*; Li, B.*

Journal of Applied Physics, 136(3), p.035105_1 - 035105_8, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0211085

Solid-state refrigeration using barocaloric materials is environmentally friendly and highly efficient, making it a subject of global interest over the past decade. Here, we report giant barocaloric effects in sodium hexafluorophosphate (NaPF) and sodium hexafluoroarsenate (NaAsF) that both undergo a cubic-to-rhombohedral phase transition near room temperature. We have determined that the low-temperature phase structure of NaPF is a rhombohedral structure with space group R and NaAsF, i.e., F, E, and A. The phase transition temperature varies with pressure at a rate of dT/dP = 250 and 310 K/GPa for NaPF and NaAsF. The pressure-induced entropy changes of NaPF and NaAsF are determined to be around 45.2 and 35.6J kgK, respectively. The saturation driving pressure is about 40 MPa. The pressure-dependent neutron powder diffraction suggests that the barocaloric effects are related to the pressure-induced cubic-to-rhombohedral phase transitions.

Spin and lattice dynamics in the van der Waals antiferromagnet MnPSe

Liao, J.*; Huang, Z.*; Shangguan, Y.*; Zhang, B.*; Cheng, S.*; Xu, H.*; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Kamazawa, Kazuya*; Bao, S.*; Wen, J.*

Physical Review B, 109(22), p.224411_1 - 224411_10, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.224411

Direct observations of dynamic and reverse transformation of Ti-6Al-4V alloy and pure titanium

Guo, B.*; Chen, H.*; Chong, Y.*; Mao, W.; Harjo, S.; Gong, W.; Zhang, Z.*; Jonas, J. J.*; Tsuji, Nobuhiro*

Acta Materialia, 268, p.119780_1 - 119780_11, 2024/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2024.119780

Probing deformation behavior of a refractory high-entropy alloy using neutron diffraction

Zhou, Y.*; Song, W.*; Zhang, F.*; Wu, Y.*; Lei, Z.*; Jiao, M.*; Zhang, X.*; Dong, J.*; Zhang, Y.*; Yang, M.*; et al.

Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 971, p.172635_1 - 172635_7, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2023.172635

Colossal barocaloric plastic crystals

Lloveras, P.*; Zhang, Z.*; Zeng, M.*; Barrio, M.*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Yu, D.*; Lin, S.*; Li, K.*; Moya, X.*; Tamarit, J.-L.*; et al.

Barocaloric Effects in the Solid State; Materials and methods, p.7_1 - 7_30, 2023/10

https://iopscience.iop.org/book/edit/978-0-7503-4690-0.pdf

As Chapter 1 of the ebook entitled as "Barocaloric Effects in the Solid State", various plastic crystals (PC) showing colossal barocaloric (BC) effect are introduced. A method to determine the BC response in PCs, thermodynamic origin of BC effects, spectroscopic insights from quasi-elastic neutron scattering and application of PCs are explained.

A One-third magnetization plateau phase as evidence for the Kitaev interaction in a honeycomb-lattice antiferromagnet

Shangguan, Y.*; Bao, S.*; Dong, Z.-Y.*; Xi, N.*; Gao, Y.-P.*; Ma, Z.*; Wang, W.*; Qi, Z.*; Zhang, S.*; Huang, Z.*; et al.

Nature Physics, 19(12), p.1883 - 1889, 2023/09

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02212-2

Ten years of warming increased plant-derived carbon accumulation in an East Asian monsoon forest

Zhang, J.*; Kuang, L.*; Mou, Z.*; Kondo, Toshiaki*; Koarashi, Jun; Atarashi-Andoh, Mariko; Li, Y.*; Tang, X.*; Wang, Y.-P.*; Peuelas, J.*; et al.

Plant and Soil, 481(1-2), p.349 - 365, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05642-8

Transport model comparison studies of intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions

Walter, H.*; Colonna, M.*; Cozma, D.*; Danielewicz, P.*; Ko, C. M.*; Kumar, R.*; Ono, Akira*; Tsang, M. Y. B*; Xu, J.*; Zhang, Y.-X.*; et al.

Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, 125, p.103962_1 - 103962_90, 2022/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppnp.2022.103962

Transport models are the main method to obtain physics information on the nuclear equation of state and in-medium properties of particles from low to relativistic-energy heavy-ion collisions. The Transport Model Evaluation Project (TMEP) has been pursued to test the robustness of transport model predictions to reach consistent conclusions from the same type of physical model. To this end, calculations under controlled conditions of physical input and set-up were performed by the various participating codes. These included both calculations of nuclear matter in a periodic box, which test individual ingredients of a transport code, and calculations of complete collisions of heavy ions. Over the years, five studies were performed within this project. They show, on one hand, that in box calculations the differences between the codes can be well understood and a convergence of the results can be reached. These studies also highlight the systematic differences between the two families of transport codes, known under the names of Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) and Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) type codes. On the other hand, there still exist substantial differences when these codes are applied to real heavy-ion collisions. The results of transport simulations of heavy-ion collisions will have more significance if codes demonstrate that they can verify benchmark calculations such as the ones studied in these evaluations.