Effect of pressure on the low-temperature reaction of ethylene with N2O4

Calorimetric monitoring of the autoclave reaction N₂O₄ + C₂H₄ at –85 to +10 °C under argon pressure 10–30 bar revealed that the exothermic chemical reaction started at temperatures above –52 °C at 10 bar, whereas an intensive exothermic reaction started at –85 °C and pressure of 30 bar. IR study showed that oligo/polynitroethylene was formed at 30 bar, while carbonyl and hydroxy compound as well as nitrate R–ONO₂ formation occurred upon processing at 10 bar.     

Orientation dependence in high harmonics of ZnO with polarization corrections to counteract the birefringent effect

We investigate the influence of the birefringence on the high-order harmonics in an a-cut Zn O crystal with midinfrared laser pulses. The high harmonics exhibit strong dependence on the alignment of the crystal with respect to the laser polarization. We introduce the Jones calculus to counteract the birefringent effect and obtain the harmonics with polarization corrections in Zn O. We show that the birefringent effect plays an important role in the orientation dependence of HHG.     

Alkaline oxygen evolution: exploring synergy between fcc and hcp cobalt nanoparticles entrapped in N-doped graphene

Herein, we report a Mott-Schottky catalyst by entrapping cobalt nanoparticles inside the N-doped graphene shell (Co@NC). The Co@NC delivered excellent oxygen evolution activity with an overpotential of merely 248 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^–2 with promising long-term stability. The importance of Co encapsulated in NC has further been demonstrated by synthesizing Co nanoparticles without NC shell. The synergy between the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) and face-centered cubic (fcc) Co plays a major role to improve the OER activity, whereas the NC shell optimizes the electronic structure, improves the electron conductivity, and offers a large number of active sites in Co@NC. The density functional theory calculations have revealed that the hcp Co has a dominant role in the surface reaction of electrocatalytic oxygen evolution, whereas the fcc phase induces the built-in electric field at the interfaces with N-doped graphene to accelerate the H⁺ ion transport.     

Photothermal Oxidation of Cinnamyl Alcohol with Hydrogen Peroxide Catalyzed by Gold Nanoparticle/Antimony-Doped Tin Oxide Nanocrystals

Gold nanoparticles with different mean sizes were formed on antimony-doped tin oxide nanocrystals by the temperature-varied deposition-precipitation method (Au/ATO NCs). Au/ATO NCs possess strong absorption in the near-infrared region due to Drude excitation in addition to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of AuNPs around 530 nm. Au/ATO NCs show thermally activated catalytic activity for the oxidation of cinnamyl alcohol to cinnamaldehyde by hydrogen peroxide. The catalytic activity increases with a decrease in the mean Au particle size (d_Au) at 5.3 nm≤d_Au≤8.2 nm. Light irradiation (λ_ex >660 nm, ∼0.5 sun) of Au/ATO NCs increases the rate of reaction by more than twice with ∼95 % selectivity. Kinetic analyses indicated that the striking enhancement of the reaction stems from the rise in the temperature near the catalyst surface of ∼30 K due to the photothermal effect of the ATO NCs.     

Skyrmion transport driven by pure voltage generated strain gradient

The magnetic skyrmion transport driven by pure voltage-induced strain gradient is proposed and studied via micromagnetic simulation. Through combining the skyrmion with multiferroic heterojunction, a voltage-induced uniaxial strain gradient is adjusted to move skyrmions. In the system, a pair of short-circuited trapezoidal top electrodes can generate the symmetric strain. Due to the symmetry of strain, the magnetic skyrmion can be driven with a linear motion in the middle of the nanostrip without deviation. We calculate the strain distribution generated by the trapezoidal top electrodes pair, and further investigate the influence of the strain intensity as well as the strain gradient on the skyrmion velocity. Our findings provide a stable and low-energy regulation method for skyrmion transport.     

Microwave‐assisted polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with dibromoarylene

The Pd‐catalyzed polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with various dibromoarylenes was carried out under microwave heating. Microwave heating led to a decrease in the reaction time and an increase in the molecular weight of the polymers as compared to conventional heating. Microwave heating also allowed the catalyst loading to be reduced to 1 mol %, yielding polymerization results that were comparable to those under conventional heating and 5 mol % catalyst. Investigations regarding field‐effect transistors and organic photovoltaic cells using the obtained poly(arylamine) with azobenzene units revealed that increasing the molecular weight of the polymer led to improved device performance, including hole mobility and power conversion efficiency. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 536–542     

Strain effects on multiferroic BiFeO3 films

The field of multiferroics has experienced a rapid progress resulting in the discovery of many new physical phenomena. BiFeO₃ (BFO) compound, which is one of the few room-temperature single-phase multiferroics, has contributed subsequently to this progress. As a result, significant review articles have been devoted specifically to this famous system. This chapter is dedicated to the strain effects on the structure stability and property changes of BFO thin films. It is a short and non-exhaustive topical overview that may be seen as an invitation for interested readers to go beyond. There is a very active and prolific research in this field and we apologize to the authors whose relevant work is not cited here. After a short introduction, we will thus review the effect of strain on BFO films by describing the consequences on the structure and the phase transitions as well as on polar, magnetic and magnetoelectric properties.