Novel materials for photo‐luminescent LCD technology

Photoluminescent Liquid Crystal Displays (PLLCDs) combine the viewing angle and brightness of a cathode ray tube (CRT) with the flat panel format of an LCD. Manufacture should be possible on existing LCD facilities without major alterations. Here we explain the PLLCD concept, describe some practical implementation issues and report on various architectures being considered. Results are presented for a number of key components used in our demonstration displays. The opportunities that exist for the development of new components are highlighted.     

Spatial-confinement induced electroreduction of CO and CO2 to diols on densely-arrayed Cu nanopyramids

The electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) to liquid alcohol is of significant research interest. This is because of a high mass-energy density, readiness for transportation and established utilization infrastructure. Current success is mainly around monohydric alcohols, such as methanol and ethanol. There exist few reports on converting CO₂ or CO to higher-valued diols such as ethylene glycol (EG; (CH₂OH)₂). The challenge to producing diols lies in the requirement to retain two oxygen atoms in the compound. Here for the first time, we demonstrate that densely-arrayed Cu nanopyramids (Cu-DAN) are able to retain two oxygen atoms for hydroxyl formation. This results in selective electroreduction of CO₂ or CO to diols. Density Functional Theory (DFT) computations highlight that the unique spatial-confinement induced by Cu-DAN is crucial to selectively generating EG through a new reaction pathway. This structure promotes C–C coupling with a decreased reaction barrier. Following C–C coupling the structure facilitates EG production by (1) retaining oxygen and promoting the *COH–CHO pathway, which is a newly identified pathway toward ethylene glycol production; and, (2) suppressing the carbon–oxygen bond breaking in intermediate *CH₂OH–CH₂O and boosting hydrogenation to EG. Our findings will be of immediate interest to researchers in the design of highly active and selective CO₂ and CO electroreduction to diols.

Densely-arrayed Cu nanopyramids have spatial confinement induced by the additional Cu–O bond. This promotes C–C coupling, regulates post-C–C coupling, and retains both oxygen atoms in an alternative pathway toward ethylene glycol formation from CO.     

A numerical and experimental investigation into residual stress in thermally sprayed coatings

This paper is concerned with an investigation into the thermal spray process and is particularly concerned with the residual stresses that arise when a steel-alloy coating is sprayed onto a copper-alloy substrate. This material combination was used recently to enhance the thermal and mechanical efficiency of the pressure die casting process. A difficulty with the spraying of steel on copper is the attainment of appreciable thickness of the coating due to debonding during the thermal spraying process. Prominent among possible causes of debonding is residual stress, which is the focus of the research presented in the paper. An investigation into the thermal spray process is performed using experimentation, simplified numerical modelling and finite element modelling. The development of residual stress for a range of process parameters, i.e. deposited layer thickness, interval of layer deposition and the number of layers in a coating (i.e. block deposition versus multilayer deposition for a desired coating thickness) is recorded. The results from the three investigation methods agreeably indicate a progressive change in average interfacial residual stress from compressive towards tensile with increase in thickness of deposited layer; and a tensile interfacial stress in a two-layer coating, which increases with increase in interval of deposition between the two layers. On the whole, the observations from the results suggest an increase in potential for coating debonding with increase in both deposited layer thickness and layer deposition interval. The results further suggest higher potential for coating debonding with block deposition compared to multilayer deposition for a desired coating thickness.     

Monolithic Phosphate Interphase for Highly Reversible and Stable Zn Metal Anode

Zinc metal battery (ZMB) is promising as the next generation of energy storage system, but challenges relating to dendrites and corrosion of the zinc anode are restricting its practical application. Here, to stabilize Zn anode, we report a controlled electrolytic method for a monolithic solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) via a high dipole moment solvent dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP). The DMMP-based electrolytes can generate a homogeneous and robust phosphate SEI (Zn₃(PO₄)₂ and ZnP₂O₆). Benefiting from the protecting impact of this in situ monolithic SEI, the zinc electrode exhibits long-term cycling of 4700 h and a high Coulombic efficiency 99.89 % in Zn|Zn and Zn|Cu cell, respectively. The full V₂O₅|Zn battery with DMMP-H₂O hybrid electrolyte exhibits a high capacity retention of 82.2 % following 4000 cycles under 5 A g⁻¹. The first success in constructing the monolithic phosphate SEI will open a new avenue in electrolyte design for highly reversible and stable Zn metal anodes.     

The isolation of a metastable conglomerate using a combined computational and controlled crystallization approach

While the use of additives to control the crystallization of polymorphs is well known, similar methodology to promote the crystallization of a metastable conglomerate over a stable racemic compound in enantiomeric systems has not been reported. Here we demonstrate this phenomenon in the case of 2-chloromandelic acid.     

Crystallography Aided by Atomic Core-Level Binding Energies: Proton Transfer versus Hydrogen Bonding in Organic Crystal Structures

Ionic bond or hydrogen bridge? Br?nsted proton transfer to nitrogen acceptors in organic crystals causes strong N1s core-level binding energy shifts. A study of 15 organic cocrystal and salt systems shows that standard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) can be used as a complementary method to X-ray crystallography for distinguishing proton transfer from H-bonding in organic condensed matter.