Abstract: Over the past decade, graphene oxide (GO) has emerged as a promising membrane material with superior separation performance and intriguing mechanical/chemical stability. However, its practical implementation remains very challenging primarily because of its undesirable swelling in an aqueous environment. Here, we demonstrated that dissociation of water molecules into H3O+ and OH- ions inside the interlayer gallery of a layered GO membrane can strongly affect its stability and performance. We reveal that H3O+ and OH- ions form clusters inside the GO laminates that impede the permeance of water and salt ions through the membrane. Dynamics of those clusters is sensitive to an external ac electric field, which can be used to tailor the membrane performance. The presence of H3O+ and OH- ions also leads to increased stability of the hydrogen bond (H-bond) network among the water molecules and the GO layers, which further reduces water permeance through the membrane, while crucially imparting stability to the layered GO membrane against undesirable swelling. KEYWORDS: layered graphene-oxide membrane, aqueous stability, H3O+ and OH- ions, external electric field, molecular dynamics

Abstract: A periodic spatial modulation, as created by a moire pattern, has been extensively studied with the view to engineer and tune the properties of graphene. Graphene encapsulated by hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) when slightly misaligned with the top and bottom hBN layers experiences two interfering moire patterns, resulting in a so-called supermoire (SM). This leads to a lattice and electronic spectrum reconstruction. A geometrical construction of the nonrelaxed SM patterns allows us to indicate qualitatively the induced changes in the electronic properties and to locate the SM features in the density of states and in the conductivity. To emphasize the effect of lattice relaxation, we report band gaps at all Dirac-like points in the hole doped part of the reconstructed spectrum, which are expected to be enhanced when including interaction effects. Our result is able to distinguish effects due to lattice relaxation and due to the interfering SM and provides a clear picture on the origin of recently experimentally observed effects in such trilayer heterostuctures.

Abstract: We demonstrate the possibility of engineering the optical properties of transition metal dichalcogenide heterobilayers when one of the constitutive layers has a Janus structure. We investigate different MoS2@Janus layer combinations using first-principles methods including excitons and exciton-phonon coupling. The direction of the intrinsic electric field from the Janus layer modifies the electronic band alignments and, consequently, the energy separation between dark interlayer exciton states and bright in-plane excitons. We find that in-plane lattice vibrations strongly couple the two states, so that exciton-phonon scattering may be a viable generation mechanism for interlayer excitons upon light absorption. In particular, in the case of MoS2@WSSe, the energy separation of the low-lying interlayer exciton from the in-plane exciton is resonant with the transverse optical phonon modes (40 meV). We thus identify this heterobilayer as a prime candidate for efficient generation of charge-separated electron-hole pairs.

Abstract: We investigated the valley Zeeman splitting of excitonic peaks in the microphotoluminescence (mu PL) spectra of high-quality hBN/WS2/MoSe2/hBN heterostructures under perpendicular magnetic fields up to 20 T. We identify two neutral exciton peaks in the mu PL spectra; the lower-energy peak exhibits a reduced g-factor relative to that of the higher energy peak and much lower than the recently reported values for interlayer excitons in other van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures. We provide evidence that such a discernible g-factor stems from the spatial confinement of the exciton in the potential landscape created by the moire pattern due to lattice mismatch or interlayer twist in heterobilayers. This renders magneto-mu PL an important tool to reach a deeper understanding of the effect of moire patterns on excitonic confinement in vdW heterostructures.

Abstract: We report the formation of nanobubbles on graphene with a radius of the order of 1 nm, using ultralow energy implantation of noble gas ions (He, Ne, Ar) into graphene grown on a Pt(111) surface. We show that the universal scaling of the aspect ratio, which has previously been established for larger bubbles, breaks down when the bubble radius approaches 1 nm, resulting in much larger aspect ratios. Moreover, we observe that the bubble stability and aspect ratio depend on the substrate onto which the graphene is grown (bubbles are stable for Pt but not for Cu) and trapped element. We interpret these dependencies in terms of the atomic compressibility of the noble gas as well as of the adhesion energies between graphene, the substrate, and trapped atoms.

Abstract: WO3 isa 5d compound that undergoes severalstructuraltransitions in its bulk form. Its versatility is well-documented,with a wide range of applications, such as flexopiezoelectricity,electrochromism, gating-induced phase transitions, and its abilityto improve the performance of Li-based batteries. The synthesis ofWO(3) thin films holds promise in stabilizing electronicphases for practical applications. However, despite its potential,the electronic structure of this material remains experimentally unexplored.Furthermore, its thermal instability limits its use in certain technologicaldevices. Here, we employ tensile strain to stabilize WO3 thin films, which we call the pseudotetragonal phase, and investigateits electronic structure using a combination of photoelectron spectroscopyand density functional theory calculations. This study reveals theFermiology of the system, notably identifying significant energy splittingsbetween different orbital manifolds arising from atomic distortions.These splittings, along with the system's thermal stability,offer a potential avenue for controlling inter- and intraband scatteringfor electronic applications.

Abstract: We present a first-principles investigation on the stability, electronic structure, and mechanical response of ultrathin heterostructures composed of single layers of InSe and SiGe. First, by performing total energy optimization and phonon calculations, we show that single layers of InSe and SiGe can form dynamically stable heterostructures in 12 different stacking types. Valence and conduction band edges of the heterobilayers form a type-I heterojunction having a tiny band gap ranging between 0.09 and 0.48 eV. Calculations on elastic-stiffness tensor reveal that two mechanically soft single layers form a heterostructure which is stiffer than the constituent layers because of relatively strong interlayer interaction. Moreover, phonon analysis shows that the bilayer heterostructure has highly Raman active modes at 205.3 and 43.7 cm(-1), stemming from the out-of-plane interlayer mode and layer breathing mode, respectively. Our results show that, as a stable type-I heterojunction, ultrathin heterobilayer of InSe/SiGe holds promise for nanoscale device applications.

Abstract: Ultrathin two-dimensional Janus-type platinum dichalcogenide crystals formed by two different atoms at opposite surfaces are investigated by performing state-of-the-art density functional theory calculations. First, it is shown that single-layer PtX2 structures (where X = S, Se, or Te) crystallize into the dynamically stable IT phase and are indirect band gap semiconductors. It is also found that the substitutional chalcogen doping in all PtX2 structures is favorable via replacement of surface atoms with a smaller chalcogen atom, and such a process leads to the formation of Janus-type platinum dichalcogenides (XPtY, where X and Y stand for S, Se, or Te) which are novel single-layer crystals. While all Janus structures are indirect band gap semiconductors as their binary analogues, their Raman spectra show distinctive features that stem from the broken out-of-plane symmetry. In addition, it is revealed that the construction of Janus crystals enhances the piezoelectric constants of PtX2 crystals significantly both in the in plane and in the out-of-plane directions. Moreover, it is shown that vertically stacked van der Waals heterostructures of binary and ternary (Janus) platinum dichalcogenides offer a wide range of electronic features by forming bilayer heterojunctions of type-I, type-II, and type-III, respectively. Our findings reveal that Janus-type ultrathin platinum dichalcogenide crystals are quite promising materials for optoelectronic device applications.

Abstract: Anatase nanosheets with exposed {001} facets
have gained increasing interest for photocatalytic applications. To
fully understand the structure-to-activity relation, combined
experimental and computational methods have been exploited.
Anatase nanosheets were prepared under hydrothermal conditions
in the presence of fluorine ions. High resolution scanning
transmission electron microscopy was used to fully characterize
the synthesized material, confirming the TiO2 nanosheet
morphology. Moreover, the surface structure and composition
of a single nanosheet could be determined by annular bright-field
scanning transmission electron microscopy (ABF-STEM) and
STEM electron energy loss spectroscopy (STEM-EELS). The photocatalytic activity was tested for the decomposition of organic
dyes rhodamine 6G and methyl orange and compared to a reference TiO2 anatase sample. The anatase nanosheets with exposed
{001} facets revealed a significantly lower photocatalytic activity compared to the reference. In order to understand the
mechanism for the catalytic performance, and to investigate the role of the presence of F−, light-induced electron paramagnetic
resonance (EPR) experiments were performed. The EPR results are in agreement with TEM, proving the presence of Ti3+
species close to the surface of the sample and allowing the analysis of the photoinduced formation of paramagnetic species.
Further, ab initio calculations of the anisotropic effective mass of electrons and electron holes in anatase show a very high effective
mass of electrons in the [001] direction, having a negative impact on the mobility of electrons toward the {001} surface and thus
the photocatalysis. Finally, motivated by the experimental results that indicate the presence of fluorine atoms at the surface, we
performed ab initio calculations to determine the position of the band edges in anatase slabs with different terminations of the
{001} surface. The presence of fluorine atoms near the surface is shown to strongly shift down the band edges, which indicates
another reason why it can be expected that the prepared samples with a large amount of {001} surface, but with fluorine atoms
near the surface, show only a low photocatalytic activity.

Abstract: Piezoelectricity is a unique material property that allows one to convert mechanical energy into electrical one or vice versa. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) and transition metal dioxides (TMDO) are expected to have great potential for piezoelectric device applications due to their noncentrosymmetric and two-dimensional crystal structure. A detailed theoretical investigation of the piezoelectric stress (e 11 ) and piezoelectric strain (d 11 ) coefficients of single layer TMDCs and TMDOs with chemical formula MX 2 (where M= Cr, Mo, W, Ti, Zr, Hf, Sn and X = O, S, Se, Te) is presented by using first-principles calculations based on density func- tional theory. We predict that not only the Mo- and W-based members of this family but also the other materials with M= Cr, Ti, Zr and Sn exhibit highly promising piezoelectric properties. CrTe 2 has the largest e 11 and d 11 coefficients among the group VI elements (i.e., Cr, Mo, and W). In addition, the relaxed-ion e 11 and d 11 coefficients of SnS 2 are almost the same as those of CrTe 2 . Furthermore, TiO 2 and ZrO 2 pose comparable or even larger e 11 coefficients as compared to Mo- and W-based TMDCs and TMDOs. Our calculations reveal that TMDC and TMDO structures are strong candidates for future atomically thin piezoelectric applications such as transducers, sensors, and energy harvesting devices due to their piezoelectric coefficients that are comparable (even larger) to currently used bulk piezoelectric materials.

Abstract: Semiconductor monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have brought a new paradigm by introducing optically addressable valley degree of freedom. Concomitantly, their high flexibility constitutes a unique platform that links optics to mechanics via valleytronics. With the intention to expedite the research in this direction, we investigated ten TMDs, namely MoS2, MoSe2, MoTe2, WS2, WSe2, WTe2, MoSSe, MoSeTe, WSSe, and WSeTe, which particularly includes their so-called janus types (JTMDs). First, we obtained their electronic band structures using regular and hybrid density functional theory (DFT) calculations in the presence of the spin-orbit coupling and biaxial or uniaxial strain. Our DFT results indicated that against the expectations based on their reported piezoelectric behavior, JTMDs typically interpolated between the standard band properties of the constituent TMDs without producing a novel feature. Next, by fitting to our DFT data we generated both spinless and spinful k center dot p parameter sets which are quite accurate over the K valley where the optical activity occurs. As an important application of this parametrization, we considered the circular and linear dichroism under strain. Among the studied (J)TMDs, WTe2 stood out with its largest linear dichroism under uniaxial strain because of its narrower band gap and large K valley uniaxial deformation potential. This led us to suggest WTe2 monolayer membranes for optical polarization-based strain measurements, or conversely, as strain tunable optical polarizers.

Abstract: The quantum electrostatic heterostructure (QEH) model allows for efficient computation of the dielectric screening properties of layered van der Waals (vdW)-bonded heterostructures in terms of the dielectric functions of the individual two-dimensional (2D) layers. Here, we extend the QEH model by including (1) contributions to the dielectric function from infrared active phonons in the 2D layers, (2) screening from homogeneous bulk substrates, and (3) intraband screening from free carriers in doped 2D semiconductor layers. We demonstrate the potential of the extended QEH model by calculating the dispersion of coupled phonons in multilayer stacks of hexagonal boron-nitride (hBN), the strong hybridization of plasmons and optical phonons in graphene/hBN heterostructures, the effect of substrate screening on the exciton series of monolayer MoS2, and the properties of hyperbolic plasmons in a doped phosphorene sheet. The new QEH code is distributed as a Python package with a simple command line interface and a comprehensive library of dielectric building blocks for the most common 2D materials, providing an efficient open platform for dielectric modeling of realistic vdW heterostructures.

Abstract: Chrome yellow refers to a group of synthetic inorganic pigments that became popular as an artists material from the second quarter of the 19th century. The color of the pigment, in which the chromate ion acts as a chromophore, is related to its chemical composition (PbCr1-xSxO4, with 0≤x≤0.8) and crystalline structure (monoclinic/orthorhombic). Their shades range from the yellow-orange to the paler yellow tones with increasing sulfate amount. These pigments show remarkable signs of degradation after limited time periods. Pure PbCrO4 (crocoite in its natural form) has a deep yellow color and is relatively stable, while the co-precipitate with lead sulfate (PbCr1-xSxO4) has a paler shade and seems to degrade faster. This degradation is assumed to be related to the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III). We show that on increasing the sulfur(S)-content in chrome yellow, the band gap increases. Typically, when increasing the band gap, one might assume that a decrease in photo activity is the result. However, the photo activity relative to the Cr content, and thus Cr reduction, of sulfur-rich PbCr1-xSxO4 is found to be much higher compared to the sulfur-poor or non-doped lead chromates. This discrepancy can be explained by the evolution of the crystal and electronic structure as function of the sulfur content: first-principles density functional theory calculations show that both the absorption coefficient and reflection coefficients of the lead chromates change as a result of the sulfate doping in such a way that the generation of electron-hole pairs under illumination relative to the total Cr content increases. These changes in the material properties explain why paler shade yellow colors of this pigment are more prone to discoloration. The electronic structure calculations also demonstrate that lead chromate and its co-precipitates are p-type semiconductors, which explains the observed reduction reaction. As understanding this phenomenon is valuable in the field of cultural heritage, this study is the first joint action of photo-electrochemical measurements and first-principles calculations to approve the higher tendency of sulfur-rich lead chromates to darken.

Abstract: Structural, electronic, optic and vibrational properties of Zinc antimonide (ZnSb) monolayers and their func-tionalized (semi-fluorinated and fully chlorinated) structures are investigated by means of the first-principles calculations. The phonon dispersion curves reveal the presence of imaginary frequencies and thus confirm the dynamical instability of ZnSb monolayer. The calculated electronic band structure corroborates the metallic character with fully-relativistic calculations. Moreover, we analyze the surface functionalization effect on the structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of the pristine ZnSb monolayer. The semi-fluorinated and fully-chlorinated ZnSb monolayers are shown to be dynamically stable in contrast to the ZnSb monolayer. At the same time, semi-fluorination and fully-chlorination of ZnSb monolayer could effectively modulate the metallic elec-tronic properties of pristine ZnSb. In addition, a magnetic metal to a nonmagnetic semiconductor transition with a band gap of 1 eV is achieved via fluorination, whereas a transition to a semiconducting state with 1.4 eV band gap is found via chlorination of the ZnSb monolayer. According to the optical properties analysis, the first ab-sorption peaks of the fluorinated-and chlorinated-ZnSb monolayers along the in-plane polarization are placed in the infrared range of spectrum, while they are in the middle ultraviolet for the out-of-plane polarization. Interestingly, the optically anisotropic behavior of these novel monolayers along the in-plane polarizations is highly desirable for design of polarization-sensitive photodetectors. The results of the calculations clearly proved that the tunable electronic properties of the ZnSb monolayer can be realized by chemical functionalization for application in the next generation nanoelectronic devices.

Abstract: A novel two-dimensional (2D) structurally stable carbon allotrope is proposed using first-principles calculations, which is a promising material for water purification and for electronic devices due to its unique porous structure and electronic properties. Rectangular and hexagonal rings are connected with acetylenic linkages, forming a nanoporous structure with a pore size of 6.41 angstrom, which is known as T-4,T-4,T-4-graphyne. This 2D sheet exhibits a direct bandgap of 0.63 eV at the M point, which originates from the p(z)( )atomic orbitals of carbon atoms as confirmed by a tight-binding model. Importantly, T-4,T-4,T-4-graphyne is found to be energetically more preferable than the experimentally realized beta-graphdiyne, it is dynamically stable and can withstand temperatures up to 1500 K.