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Author Shekarforoush, S.; Jalali, H.; Yagmurcukardes, M.; Milošević, M.V.; Neek-Amal, M.
Title Optoelectronic properties of confined water in angstrom-scale slits Type A1 Journal article
Year 2020 Publication Physical Review B Abbreviated Journal Phys Rev B
Volume 102 Issue 23 Pages 235406
Keywords A1 Journal article; Condensed Matter Theory (CMT)
Abstract The optoelectronic properties of confined water form one of the most active research areas in the past few years. Here we present the multiscale methodology to discern the out-of-plane electronic and dipolar dielectric constants (epsilon(el)(perpendicular to) and epsilon(diP)(perpendicular to)) of strongly confined water. We reveal that epsilon(perpendicular to el) and epsilon(diP)(perpendicular to) become comparable for water confined in angstrom-scale channels (with a height of less than 15 angstrom) within graphene (GE) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) bilayers. Channel height (h) associated with a minimum in both epsilon(e)(l)(perpendicular to) and epsilon(dip)(perpendicular to) is linked to the formation of the ordered structure of ice for h approximate to (7 -7.5) angstrom. The recently measured total dielectric constant epsilon(T)(perpendicular to) of nanoconfined water [L. Fumagalli et al., Science 360, 1339 (2018)] is corroborated by our results. Furthermore, we evaluate the contribution from the encapsulating membranes to the dielectric properties, as a function of the interlayer spacing, i.e., the height of the confining channel for water. Finally, we conduct analysis of the optical properties of both confined water and GE membranes, and show that the electron energy loss function of confined water strongly differs from that of bulk water.
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Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Wos 000595856100004 Publication Date 2020-12-04
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 2469-9969; 2469-9950 ISBN Additional Links UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
Impact Factor 3.7 Times cited 1 Open Access
Notes (up) ; This work was supported by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). M.Y. gratefully acknowledges his FWO postdoctoral mandate. ; Approved Most recent IF: 3.7; 2020 IF: 3.836
Call Number UA @ admin @ c:irua:175051 Serial 6695
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Author Zhou, Y.; Che, F.; Liu, M.; Zou, C.; Liang, Z.; De Luna, P.; Yuan, H.; Li, J.; Wang, Z.; Xie, H.; Li, H.; Chen, P.; Bladt, E.; Quintero-Bermudez, R.; Sham, T.-K.; Bals, S.; Hofkens, J.; Sinton, D.; Chen, G.; Sargent, E.H.
Title Dopant-induced electron localization drives CO2 reduction to C2 hydrocarbons Type A1 Journal article
Year 2018 Publication Nature chemistry Abbreviated Journal Nat Chem
Volume 10 Issue 10 Pages 974-980
Keywords A1 Journal article; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Abstract The electrochemical reduction of CO2 to multi-carbon products has attracted much attention because it provides an avenue to the synthesis of value-added carbon-based fuels and feedstocks using renewable electricity. Unfortunately, the efficiency of CO2 conversion to C-2 products remains below that necessary for its implementation at scale. Modifying the local electronic structure of copper with positive valence sites has been predicted to boost conversion to C-2 products. Here, we use boron to tune the ratio of Cu delta+ to Cu-0 active sites and improve both stability and C-2-product generation. Simulations show that the ability to tune the average oxidation state of copper enables control over CO adsorption and dimerization, and makes it possible to implement a preference for the electrosynthesis of C-2 products. We report experimentally a C-2 Faradaic efficiency of 79 +/- 2% on boron-doped copper catalysts and further show that boron doping leads to catalysts that are stable for in excess of similar to 40 hours while electrochemically reducing CO2 to multi-carbon hydrocarbons.
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Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Wos 000442395200013 Publication Date 2018-07-13
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1755-4330; 1755-4349 ISBN Additional Links UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
Impact Factor 25.87 Times cited 700 Open Access OpenAccess
Notes (up) ; This work was supported financially by funding from TOTAL S.A., the Ontario Research Fund: Research Excellence Program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the CIFAR Bio-Inspired Solar Energy programme, a University of Toronto Connaught grant, the Ministry of Science, Natural Science Foundation of China (21471040, 21271055 and 21501035), the Innovation-Driven Plan in Central South University project (2017CX003), a project from State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy in Central South University, the Thousand Youth Talents Plan of China and Hundred Youth Talents Program of Hunan and the China Scholarship Council programme. This work benefited from the soft X-ray microcharacterization beamline at CLS, sector 20BM at the APS and the Ontario Centre for the Characterisation of Advanced Materials at the University of Toronto. H.Y. acknowledges financial support from the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO postdoctoral fellowship). C.Z. acknowledges support from the International Academic Exchange Fund for Joint PhD Students from Tianjin University. P.D.L. acknowledges financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council in the form of the Canada Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral award. S.B. and E.B. acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant # 335078-COLOURATOMS). The authors thank B. Zhang, N. Wang, C. T. Dinh, T. Zhuang, J. Li and Y. Zhao for fruitful discussions, as well as Y. Hu and Q. Xiao from CLS, and Z. Finfrock and M. Ward from APS for their help during the course of study. Computations were performed on the SOSCIP Consortium's Blue Gene/Q computing platform. SOSCIP is funded by the Federal Economic Development Agency of Southern Ontario, the Province of Ontario, IBM Canada, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Mitacs and 15 Ontario academic member institutions. ; ecas_sara Approved Most recent IF: 25.87
Call Number UA @ lucian @ c:irua:153693UA @ admin @ c:irua:153693 Serial 5091
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Author Grimaud, A.; Iadecola, A.; Batuk, D.; Saubanere, M.; Abakumov, A.M.; Freeland, J.W.; Cabana, J.; Li, H.; Doublet, M.-L.; Rousse, G.; Tarascon, J.-M.
Title Chemical activity of the peroxide/oxide redox couple : case study of Ba5Ru2O11 in aqueous and organic solvents Type A1 Journal article
Year 2018 Publication Chemistry of materials Abbreviated Journal Chem Mater
Volume 30 Issue 11 Pages 3882-3893
Keywords A1 Journal article; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Abstract The finding that triggering the redox activity of oxygen ions within the lattice of transition metal oxides can boost the performances of materials used in energy storage and conversion devices such as Li-ion batteries or oxygen evolution electrocatalysts has recently spurred intensive and innovative research in the field of energy. While experimental and theoretical efforts have been critical in understanding the role of oxygen nonbonding states in the redox activity of oxygen ions, a clear picture of the redox chemistry of the oxygen species formed upon this oxidation process is still missing. This can be, in part, explained by the complexity in stabilizing and studying these species once electrochemically formed. In this work, we alleviate this difficulty by studying the phase Ba5Ru2O11, which contains peroxide O-2(2-) groups, as oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst and Li-ion battery material. Combining physical characterization and electrochemical measurements, we demonstrate that peroxide groups can easily be oxidized at relatively low potential, leading to the formation of gaseous dioxygen and to the instability of the oxide. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, owing to the stabilization at high energy of peroxide, the high-lying energy of the empty sigma* antibonding O-O states limits the reversibility of the electrochemical reactions when the O-2(2-)/O2- redox couple is used as redox center for Li-ion battery materials or as OER redox active sites. Overall, this work suggests that the formation of true peroxide O-2(2-) states are detrimental for transition metal oxides used as OER catalysts and Li-ion battery materials. Rather, oxygen species with O-O bond order lower than 1 would be preferred for these applications.
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Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher American Chemical Society Place of Publication Washington, D.C Editor
Language Wos 000435416600038 Publication Date 2018-05-21
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0897-4756 ISBN Additional Links UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
Impact Factor 9.466 Times cited 2 Open Access Not_Open_Access
Notes (up) ; We thank S. Belin of the ROCK beamline (financed by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as a part of the “Investissements d'Avenir” program, reference: ANR-10-EQPX-45; proposal no. 20160095) of synchrotron SOLEIL for her assistance during XAS measurements. Authors would also like to thank V. Nassif for her assistance on the D1B beamline. A.G, G.R, and J.-M.T. acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) (FP/2014)/ERC Grant Project 670116-ARPEMA. ; Approved Most recent IF: 9.466
Call Number UA @ lucian @ c:irua:151980 Serial 5016
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Author Jalali, H.; Khoeini, F.; Peeters, F.M.; Neek-Amal, M.
Title Hydration effects and negative dielectric constant of nano-confined water between cation intercalated MXenes Type A1 Journal article
Year 2021 Publication Nanoscale Abbreviated Journal Nanoscale
Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 922-929
Keywords A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Condensed Matter Theory (CMT)
Abstract Using electrochemical methods a profound enhancement of the capacitance of electric double layer capacitor electrodes was reported when water molecules are strongly confined into the two-dimensional slits of titanium carbide MXene nanosheets [A. Sugahara et al., Nat. Commun., 2019, 10, 850]. We study the effects of hydration on the dielectric properties of nanoconfined water and supercapacitance properties of the cation intercalated MXene. A model for the electric double layer capacitor is constructed where water molecules are strongly confined in two-dimensional slits of MXene. We report an abnormal dielectric constant and polarization of nano-confined water between MXene layers. We found that by decreasing the ionic radius of the intercalated cations and in a critical hydration shell radius the capacitance of the system increases significantly (similar or equal to 200 F g(-1)) which can be interpreted as a negative permittivity. This study builds a bridge between the fundamental understanding of the dielectric properties of nanoconfined water and the capability of using MXene films for supercapacitor technology, and in doing so provides a solid theoretical support for recent experiments.
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Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Wos 000610368100035 Publication Date 2020-12-08
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 2040-3364 ISBN Additional Links UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
Impact Factor 7.367 Times cited 7 Open Access Not_Open_Access
Notes (up) ; ; Approved Most recent IF: 7.367
Call Number UA @ admin @ c:irua:176141 Serial 6690
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Author Abdullah, H.M.; Zarenia, M.; Bahlouli, H.; Peeters, F.M.; Van Duppen, B.
Title Gate tunable layer selectivity of transport in bilayer graphene nanostructures Type A1 Journal article
Year 2016 Publication Europhysics letters Abbreviated Journal Epl-Europhys Lett
Volume 113 Issue 113 Pages 17006
Keywords A1 Journal article; Condensed Matter Theory (CMT)
Abstract Recently it was found that bilayer graphene may exhibit regions with and without van der Waals coupling between the two layers. We show that such structures can exhibit a strong layer selectivity when current flows through the coupled region and that this selectivity can be tuned by means of electrostatic gating. Analysing how this effect depends on the type of bilayer stacking, the potential on the gates and the smoothness of the boundary between the coupled and decoupled regions, we show that nearly perfect layer selectivity is achievable in these systems. This effect can be further used to realise a tunable layer switch.
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Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Wos 000371479500024 Publication Date 2016-01-28
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0295-5075 ISBN Additional Links UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
Impact Factor 1.957 Times cited 15 Open Access
Notes (up) HMA and HB acknowledge the support of the Saudi Center for Theoretical Physics (SCTP) for their generous support and the support of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals under physics research group projects RG1306-1 and RG01306-2. This work is supported by the Flemish Science Foundation (FWO-Vl) by a PhD grant (BVD) and a post-doctoral fellowship (MZ). Approved Most recent IF: 1.957
Call Number c:irua:131909 c:irua:131909 Serial 4037
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Author Sa, J.; Hu, N.; Heyvaert, W.; Van Gordon, K.; Li, H.; Wang, L.; Bals, S.; Liz-Marzán, L.M.; Ni, W.
Title Spontaneous Chirality Evolved at the Au–Ag Interface in Plasmonic Nanorods Type A1 Journal article
Year 2023 Publication Chemistry of materials Abbreviated Journal Chem. Mater.
Volume Issue Pages
Keywords A1 Journal article; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Abstract Chiral ligands are considered a required ingredient during the synthesis of dissymmetric plasmonic metal nanocrystals. The mechanism behind the generation of chiral structures involves the formation of high Miller index chiral facets, induced by the adsorption of such chiral ligands. We found however that, chirality can also evolve spontaneously, without the involvement of any chiral ligands, during the co-deposition of Au and Ag on Au nanorods. When using a specific Au/Ag ratio, phase segregation of the two metals leads to an interface within the obtained AuAg shell, which can be exposed by removing the Ag component via oxidative etching. Although a close-to-racemic mixture of chiral Au nanorods with right and left handedness is found in solution, electron tomography analysis evidences left- and righthanded helicities, both at the Au-Ag interface and at the exposed surface of Au NRs after Ag etching. The helicity profile of the NRs indicates dominating inclination angles in a range from 30° to 60°. Single-particle optical characterization also reveals random handedness in the plasmonic response of individual nanorods. We hypothesize that, the origin of chirality is related with symmetry breaking during the co-deposition of Au and Ag, through an initial perturbation in a small region on the Au-Ag interface that eventually leads to chiral segregation throughout the nanocrystal.
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Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Wos 001052093300001 Publication Date 2023-08-21
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0897-4756 ISBN Additional Links UA library record; WoS full record
Impact Factor 8.6 Times cited Open Access OpenAccess
Notes (up) The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 22074102). LMLM acknowledges funding from 26 MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ESF Investing in your future” (Grant PID2020- 117779RB-I00). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 823717 – ESTEEM3.; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci?n, PID2020-117779RB-I00 ; H2020 Research Infrastructures, 823717 ; European Social Fund, PID2020-117779RB-I00 ; National Natural Science Foundation of China, 22074102 ; Approved Most recent IF: 8.6; 2023 IF: 9.466
Call Number EMAT @ emat @c:irua:198151 Serial 8810
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Author Bertoni, G.; Grillo, V.; Brescia, R.; Ke, X.; Bals, S.; Catellani, A.; Li, H.; Manna, L.
Title Direct determination of polarity, faceting, and core location in colloidal core/shell wurtzite semiconductor nanocrystals Type A1 Journal article
Year 2012 Publication ACS nano Abbreviated Journal Acs Nano
Volume 6 Issue 7 Pages 6453-6461
Keywords A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Abstract The ability to determine the atomic arrangement and termination of various facets of surfactant-coated nanocrystals is of great importance for understanding their growth mechanism and their surface properties and represents a critical piece of information that can be coupled to other experimental techniques and to calculations. This is especially appealing in the study of nanocrystals that can be grown in strongly anisotropic shapes, for which the relative growth rates of various facets can be influenced under varying reaction conditions. Here we show that in two representative cases of rod-shaped nanocrystals in the wurtzite phase (CdSe(core)/CdS(shell) and ZnSe(core)/ZnS(shell) nanorods) the terminations of the polar facets can be resolved unambiguously by combining advanced electron microscopy techniques, such as aberration-corrected HRTEM with exit wave reconstruction or aberration-corrected HAADF-STEM. The [0001] and [000-1] polar directions of these rods, which grow preferentially along their c-axis, are revealed clearly, with one side consisting of the Cd (or Zn)-terminated (0001) facet and the other side with a pronounced faceting due to Cd (or Zn)-terminated {10-1-1} facets. The lateral faceting of the rods is instead dominated by three nonpolar {10-10} facets. The core buried in the nanostructure can be localized in both the exit wave phase and HAADF-STEM images.
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Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Wos 000306673800079 Publication Date 2012-06-18
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1936-0851;1936-086X; ISBN Additional Links UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
Impact Factor 13.942 Times cited 63 Open Access
Notes (up) The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under grant number 240111 (NANO-ARCH) and the financial support from the Flemish Hercules 3 Programme for large infrastructures. G.B. and V.G. thank E. Rotunno for his help with STEM_CELL and IWFR. Approved Most recent IF: 13.942; 2012 IF: 12.062
Call Number UA @ lucian @ c:irua:101138 Serial 710
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