Template-directed nucleation and growth of CdS nanocrystal: the role of helical and nonhelical nanofibers on their shape and size

This study describes the use of chiral nature of synthetic self-assembled nanofibers for nucleation and growth of Cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanocrystals with different sizes and shapes in room temperature. The templates are built by immobilizing a peptide capping agent on the surface of synthetic self-assembled helical or nonhelical nanofibers and CdS nanocrystals were allowed to grow on them. It is observed that there are differences in shapes and sizes of the nanocrystals depending on the chiral nature of the nanofibers on which they were growing. Even the CdS nanocrystals grown on different chiral and achiral nanofibers differ markedly in their photoluminescence properties. Thus, here we introduce a new way of using chirality of nanofibers to nucleate and grow CdS nanocrystals of different shape, size, and optical property.     

Motion of bound domain walls in a spin ladder

The elementary excitation spectrum of the spin- \frac12\frac{1}{2} antiferromagnetic (AFM) Heisenberg chain is described in terms of a pair of freely propagating spinons. In the case of the Ising-like Heisenberg Hamiltonian spinons can be interpreted as domain walls (DWs) separating degenerate ground states. In dimension d > 1, the issue of spinons as elementary excitations is still unsettled. In this paper, we study two spin- \frac12\frac{1}{2} AFM ladder models in which the individual chains are described by the Ising-like Heisenberg Hamiltonian. The rung exchange interactions are assumed to be pure Ising-type in one case and Ising-like Heisenberg in the other. Using the low-energy effective Hamiltonian approach in a perturbative formulation, we show that the spinons are coupled in bound pairs. In the first model, the bound pairs are delocalized due to a four-spin ring exchange term in the effective Hamiltonian. The appropriate dynamic structure factor is calculated and the associated lineshape is found to be almost symmetric in contrast to the 1d case. In the case of the second model, the bound pair of spinons lowers its kinetic energy by propagating between chains. The results obtained are consistent with recent theoretical studies and experimental observations on ladder-like materials.     

Ligand-Mediated Revival of Degraded α-CsPbI3 to Stable Highly Luminescent Perovskite

Although α-CsPbI₃ is regarded as an attractive optical luminophore, it is readily degraded to the optically inactive δ-phase under ambient conditions. Here, we present a simple approach to revive degraded (“optically sick”) α-CsPbI₃ through “medication” with thiol-containing ligands. The effect of different types of thiols is systematically studied through optical spectroscopy. The structural reconstruction of degraded α-CsPbI₃ nanocrystals to cubic crystals in the presence of thiol-containing ligands is visualized through high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and supported by X-ray diffraction analysis. We found that 1-dodecanethiol (DSH) effectively revives degraded CsPbI₃ and results in high immunity towards moisture and oxygen, hitherto unreported. DSH facilitates the passivation of surface defects and etching of degraded Cs₄PbI₆ phase, thus reverting them back to the cubic CsPbI₃ phase, leading to enhanced PL and environmental stability.