Hydroxyl group/fluorine disorder in deuterated magnesium hydroxyfluoride and behaviors of hydrogen bonds under high pressure

He, X.*; Kagi, Hiroyuki*; Komatsu, Kazuki*; Iizuka, Riko*; Okajima, Hajime*; Hattori, Takanori; Sano, Asami; Machida, Shinichi*; Abe, Jun*; Goto, Hirotada*; et al.

Journal of Molecular Structure, 1310, p.138271_1 - 138271_8, 2024/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molstruc.2024.138271

High-pressure responses of the O-DF hydrogen bonds in deuterated magnesium hydroxyfluoride were investigated using neutron powder diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The Rietveld analysis at ambient conditions revealed a chemical formula of Mg(OD)F and hydroxyl group/fluorine disorder (OD/F disorder) in the crystal structure, which gave rise to two hydrogen-bonding configurations. The Rietveld analysis showed the hydrogen-bonding geometries remains up to 9.8 GPa, indicating no pressure-induced strengthening of hydrogen bonds. The Raman spectra at ambient conditions showed three hydroxyl stretching bands at 2613, 2694, and 2718 cm. The high frequencies of the O-D stretching modes indicated that the hydroxyls should be involved in weak or none hydrogen-bonding interactions. Up to 20.2 GPa, the mode initially centered at 2694 cm displayed a pressure-induced blue shift, revealing no strengthening of hydrogen bonds under compression. We discuss the existence of hydrogen bonds and the causes of the blue-shifting hydroxyls at ambient and at high pressures.

A Colossal barocaloric effect induced by the creation of a high-pressure phase

Jiang, X.*; Hattori, Takanori; Xu, X.*; Li, M.*; Yu, C.*; Yu, D.*; Mole, R.*; Yano, Shinichiro*; Chen, J.*; He, L.*; et al.

Materials Horizons, 10(3), p.977 - 982, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1039/d2mh00905f

As a promising environment-friendly alternative to current vapor-compression refrigeration, solid-state refrigeration based on the barocaloric effect has been attracting world wide attention. Generally, both phases in which a barocaloric effect occurs are present at ambient pressure. Here, instead, we demonstrate that KPF exhibits a colossal barocaloric effect due to the creation of a high-pressure rhombohedral phase. The phase diagram is constructed based on pressure-dependent calorimetric, Raman scattering, and neutron diffraction measurements. The present study is expected to provide an alternative routine to colossal barocaloric effects through the creation of a high-pressure phase.

Temperature-dependent hardening contributions in CrFeCoNi high-entropy alloy

Naeem, M.*; He, H.*; Harjo, S.; Kawasaki, Takuro; Lin, W.*; Kai, J.-J.*; Wu, Z.*; Lan, S.*; Wang, X.-L.*

Acta Materialia, 221, p.117371_1 - 117371_18, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2021.117371

Martensitic transformation in CrCoNi medium-entropy alloy at cryogenic temperature

Naeem, M.*; Zhou, H.*; He, H.*; Harjo, S.; Kawasaki, Takuro; Lan, S.*; Wu, Z.*; Zhu, Y.*; Wang, X.-L.*

Applied Physics Letters, 119(13), p.131901_1 - 131901_7, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0067268

Deexcitation dynamics of muonic atoms revealed by high-precision spectroscopy of electronic X rays

Okumura, Takuma*; Azuma, Toshiyuki*; Bennet, D. A.*; Caradonna, P.*; Chiu, I. H.*; Doriese, W. B.*; Durkin, M. S.*; Fowler, J. W.*; Gard, J. D.*; Hashimoto, Tadashi; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 127(5), p.053001_1 - 053001_7, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.053001

We observed electronic X rays emitted from muonic iron atoms using a superconducting transition-edge-type sensor microcalorimeter. The energy resolution of 5.2 eV in FWHM allowed us to observe the asymmetric broad profile of the electronic characteristic and X rays together with the hypersatellite X rays around 6 keV. This signature reflects the time-dependent screening of the nuclear charge by the negative muon and the -shell electrons, accompanied by electron side-feeding. Assisted by a simulation, this data clearly reveals the electronic - and -shell hole production and their temporal evolution during the muon cascade process.

Groundwater are metabolically diverse compared to gut microbiome and some have a novel nitrogenase paralog

Mheust, R.*; Castelle, C. J.*; Matheus Carnevali, P. B.*; Farag, I. F.*; He, C.*; Chen, L.-X.*; Amano, Yuki; Hug, L. A.*; Banfield, J. F.*

ISME Journal, 14(12), p.2907 - 2922, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-0716-1

Extremely high dislocation density and deformation pathway of CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy at ultralow temperature

Naeem, M.*; He, H.*; Harjo, S.; Kawasaki, Takuro; Zhang, F.*; Wang, B.*; Lan, S.*; Wu, Z.*; Wu, Y.*; Lu, Z.*; et al.

Scripta Materialia, 188, p.21 - 25, 2020/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2020.07.004

Magnetic-field and composition tuned antiferromagnetic instability in the quantum spin-liquid candidate NaYbO

Guo, J.*; Zhao, X.*; Kawamura, Seiko; Ling, L.*; Wang, J.*; He, L.*; Nakajima, Kenji; Li, B.*; Zhang, Z.*

Physical Review Materials (Internet), 4(6), p.064410_1 - 064410_7, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.064410

Cooperative deformation in high-entropy alloys at ultralow temperatures

Naeem, M.*; He, H.*; Zhang, F.*; Huang, H.*; Harjo, S.; Kawasaki, Takuro; Wang, B.*; Lan, S.*; Wu, Z.*; Wang, F.*; et al.

Science Advances (Internet), 6(13), p.eaax4002_1 - eaax4002_8, 2020/03

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax4002

Ultralow thermal conductivity from transverse acoustic phonon suppression in distorted crystalline -MgAgSb

Li, X.*; Liu, P.-F.*; Zhao, E.*; Zhang, Z.*; Guide, T.*; Le, M. D.*; Avdeev, M.*; Ikeda, Kazutaka*; Otomo, Toshiya*; Kofu, Maiko; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 11, p.942_1 - 942_9, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14772-5

In high-performance thermoelectric materials, there are two main low thermal conductivity mechanisms: the phonon anharmonic and phonon scattering resulting from the dynamic disorder, which have been successfully revealed by inelastic neutron scattering. Using neutron scattering and ab initio calculations, we report here a mechanism of static local structure distortion combined with phonon-anharmonic-induced ultralow lattice thermal conductivity in -MgAgSb. Since the transverse acoustic phonons are almost fully scattered by the intrinsic distorted rocksalt sublattice in this compound, the heat is mainly transported by the longitudinal acoustic phonons. The ultralow thermal conductivity in -MgAgSb is attributed to its atomic dynamics being altered by the structure distortion, which presents a possible microscopic route to enhance the performance of similar thermoelectric materials.