Blog
- 25/01/2022 In situ ion-exchange preparation methods developed for efficient electrocatalytic water oxidation Using a simple redox-precipitation approach, a research team has recently reported their synthesis of ultrathin NiCoFe-NDA (NDA=2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid) nanosheets for high efficiency oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in anion exchange membrane electrolysis (AEMWE). Related results were published on Energy & Environmental Science.
- 20/01/2022 A room-temperature gate-tunable bipolar valley Hall effect in molybdenum disulfide/tungsten diselenide heterostructures Two-dimensional semiconductors have a valley degree of freedom that could be used as a platform for future optoelectronic devices. The valley Hall effect, caused by electrons in different valleys having opposite Berry curvatures, is important for making such devices, but has only been reported with plasmonic structures or at cryogenic temperatures, limiting practical application. Here we report the observation of the valley Hall effect at room temperature in a molybdenum disulfide/tungsten diselenide van der Waals heterostructure. We show that the magnitude and polarity of the valley Hall effect in the heterostructure are gate tunable, which can be attributed to the contribution of the opposite valley Hall effect from electrons and holes in different layers. We use this gate tunability to create a bipolar valleytronic transistor.
- 18/01/2022 Researchers probe the performance of high-temperature superconductor The next generation of superconducting magnets has the potential to revolutionize fields such as energy storage, particle accelerators and medicine. The magic behind these tools lies in the high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires that power them.
- 13/01/2022 Changing the properties of ferroelectric materials by vacating a single oxygen atom Researchers in the Technion Department of Materials Science and Engineering have succeeded in changing a material's electrical properties by vacating an oxygen atom from the original structure. Possible applications include electronic-device miniaturization and radiation detection.
- 11/01/2022 Tuning a magnetic fluid with an electric field creates controllable dissipative patterns Researchers at Aalto University have shown that a nanoparticle suspension can serve as a simple model for studying the formation of patterns and structures in more complicated non-equilibrium systems, such as living cells. The new system will not only be a valuable tool for studying patterning processes but also has a wide range of potential technological applications.
- 06/01/2022 Quest to deliver ultra-fast and energy efficient magnetic recording moves step closer The quest to deliver ultra-fast and energy efficient magnetic recording could be a step closer to fruition, due to pioneering new research on all-optical switching of magnetization.
- 04/01/2022 Toward achieving megatesla magnetic fields in the laboratory Recently, a research team at Osaka University has successfully demonstrated the generation of megatesla (MT)-order magnetic fields via three-dimensional particle simulations on laser-matter interaction. The strength of MT magnetic fields is 1–10 billion times stronger than geomagnetism (0.3–0.5 G), and these fields are expected to be observed only in the close vicinity of celestial bodies such as neutron stars or black holes. This result should facilitate an ambitious experiment to achieve MT-order magnetic fields in the laboratory, which is now in progress.
- 30/12/2021 'Magic wand' reveals a colorful nano-world Researchers describe a revolutionary imaging technology that compresses lamp light into a nanometer-sized spot. It holds that light at the end of a silver nanowire like a Hogwarts student practicing the 'Lumos' spell, and uses it to reveal previously invisible details, including colors, in nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes.
- 28/12/2021 New layer-by-layer built inorganic-organic material enables optical switching of magnetic properties Materials chemists have developed a facile process for piling ultrathin inorganic and organic layers in a pre-designed manner into flexible room-temperature thin-film magnets, whose magnetic properties can be controlled with successive external light illuminations.
- 23/12/2021 Quantum confinement discovered in porous nano-photocatalyst Green hydrogen production from solar water splitting has attracted a great deal of interest in recent years because hydrogen is a fuel of high energy density. A research team discovered the quantum confinement effect in a photocatalyst of a 3D-ordered macroporous structure. The quantum confinement effect was found to enable hydrogen production under visible light. The findings offer an option for addressing energy and environmental challenges.