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At least 883 records · Page 49

Synergistic ruthenium single-atom and nanoparticles in nickel as cooperative catalysts for the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts that reduce the use of noble metals and can be synthesized on a large scale are essential for advancing anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) toward commercialization. Herein, we present a composite catalyst in which Ru nanoparticles coexist with Ru single-atom alloys (SAAs) dispersed within Ni nanoparticles (Ru-SAA/Ni), creating a highly active HER electrocatalyst. Using a one-pot and scalable synthesis method, we can tune the material composition from SAA, i.e. materials containing atomically dispersed Ru atoms (with ≤0.4 at% Ru) to composite structures in which SAAs coexist with Ru NPs. Comprehensive characterization using XPS, XAS, and TEM confirms Ru-SAA formation at a low Ru content and composite structures at higher contents. Electrochemical evaluations conducted in a three-electrode setup reveal that Ru-SAA/Ni composites achieve HER performance on par with that of Pt/C. Computational insights suggest that water dissociation is significantly faster at the Ru/Ni interface compared with that on extended surfaces. These active sites are thermodynamically as active as basal planes, preventing the excessive accumulation of reaction intermediates (H*, OH*). All these results highlight the synergistic interaction between Ru SAAs and Ru nanoparticles and their potential for large-scale applications with minimal use of precious metals. Finally, the materials are processed and tested in AEMWEs, achieving 1.85 V at 0.5 A cm −2 with a total noble metal loading of only 0.1 mg cm −2 .

Khalil, Gaëlle [Université de Paris (France)]↗

Elastically Cooperative Activated Hopping Theory of Relaxation in Viscous Liquids. I. General Formulation and Application to Hard Sphere Fluids.

We generalize the force-level nonlinear Langevin equation theory of single particle hopping to includecollective effects associated with long range elastic distortion of the liquid. The activated alpharelaxation event is of a mixed spatial character, involving two distinct, but inter-related, local and collectivebarriers. There are no divergences at volume fractions below jamming or temperatures abovezero Kelvin. The ideas are first developed and implemented analytically and numerically in the contextof hard sphere fluids. In an intermediate volume fraction crossover regime, the local cage processis dominant in a manner consistent with an apparent Arrhenius behavior. The super-Arrhenius collectivebarrier is more strongly dependent on volume fraction, dominates the highly viscous regime,and is well described by a nonsingular law below jamming. The increase of the collective barrieris determined by the amplitude of thermal density fluctuations, dynamic shear modulus or transientlocalization length, and a growing microscopic jump length. Alpha relaxation time calculations arein good agreement with recent experiments and simulations on dense fluids and suspensions of hardspheres. Comparisons of the theory with elastic models and entropy crisis ideas are explored. Thepresent work provides a foundation for constructing a quasi-universal, fit-parameter-free theory forrelaxation in thermal molecular liquids over 14 orders of magnitude in time.

Mirigian, Stephen↗

On magnon mediated Cooper pair formation in ferromagnetic superconductors

Identification of pairing mechanism leading to ferromagnetic superconductivity is one of the most challenging issues in condensed matter physics. Although different models have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, a quantitative understanding about this pairing is yet to be achieved. Using the localized-itinerant model, we find that in ferromagnetic superconducting materials both triplet pairing and singlet pairing of electrons are possible through magnon exchange depending upon whether the Debye cut off frequency of magnons is greater or lesser than the Hund's coupling (J) multiplied by average spin (S) per site. Taking into account the repulsive interaction due to the existence of paramagnons, we also find an expression for effective interaction potential between a pair of electrons with opposite spins. We apply the developed formalism in case of UGe{sub 2} and URhGe. The condition of singlet pairing is found to be fulfilled in these cases, as was previously envisaged by Suhl [Suhl, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 167007 (2001)]. We compute the critical temperatures of URhGe at ambient pressure and of UGe{sub 2} under different pressures for the first time through BCS equation. Thus, this work outlines a very simple way to evaluate critical temperature in case of a superconducting system. A close match with the available experimental results strongly supports our theoretical treatment.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Cooperative spin freezing and the pinning assisted thermoremanent magnetization in Ni{sub 2.04}Mn{sub 1.36}Sn{sub 0.6} alloy

Detailed investigation on the ground-state magnetic properties of Ni{sub 2.04}Mn{sub 1.36}Sn{sub 0.6} alloy is reported. The sample undergoes martensitic type structural transformation from a cubic austenite phase to an orthorhombic martensite phase on cooling around T{sub M} = 220 K. It orders ferromagnetically just above room temperature with T{sub C} = 310 K. The phases above and below T{sub M} are predominantly ferromagnetic, although incipient antiferromagnetic correlations have been mooted between the Mn atoms sitting at two different crystallographic sites. The zero-field-cooled magnetic state shows a step like anomaly around T{sub B} = 100 K, and the sample is found to show clear signature of spin glass like behaviour below this point. It is also associated with considerable exchange bias effect below T{sub B}, where horizontal shift of isothermal magnetization loop is observed in the field-cooled state. Apart from exchange bias, there exists large thermoremanent magnetization. Interestingly, the thermoremanent magnetization obtained by cooling the sample from above and just below the first order martensitic transition failed to show any sizable change, which rules out any major role of field induced arrest across the first order transition. The observed thermoremanent magnetization is presumably due to the effect of pinning of uncompensated spins in this magnetically inhomogeneous system with random ferromagnetic as well as antiferromagnetic bonds on field cooling through the onset point (T{sub B}) of the spin-glass like state.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Emergence of dynamic cooperativity in the stochastic kinetics of fluctuating enzymes

Dynamic co-operativity in monomeric enzymes is characterized in terms of a non-Michaelis-Menten kinetic behaviour. The latter is believed to be associated with mechanisms that include multiple reaction pathways due to enzymatic conformational fluctuations. Recent advances in single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy have provided new fundamental insights on the possible mechanisms underlying reactions catalyzed by fluctuating enzymes. Here, we present a bottom-up approach to understand enzyme turnover kinetics at physiologically relevant mesoscopic concentrations informed by mechanisms extracted from single-molecule stochastic trajectories. The stochastic approach, presented here, shows the emergence of dynamic co-operativity in terms of a slowing down of the Michaelis-Menten (MM) kinetics resulting in negative co-operativity. For fewer enzymes, dynamic co-operativity emerges due to the combined effects of enzymatic conformational fluctuations and molecular discreteness. The increase in the number of enzymes, however, suppresses the effect of enzymatic conformational fluctuations such that dynamic co-operativity emerges solely due to the discrete changes in the number of reacting species. These results confirm that the turnover kinetics of fluctuating enzyme based on the parallel-pathway MM mechanism switches over to the single-pathway MM mechanism with the increase in the number of enzymes. For large enzyme numbers, convergence to the exact MM equation occurs in the limit of very high substrate concentration as the stochastic kinetics approaches the deterministic behaviour.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Cooperative formation of porous silica and peptides on the prebiotic Earth

Significance Although catalysis by mineral surfaces has been considered to be important in prebiotic chemistry, the role of porous silica phases, with reactions taking place within specific confined environments, has not been explored. This paper proposes that structure direction through interaction of dissolved silica with organic species in aqueous solution produces porous silica catalysts for prebiotic organic reactions to form larger polymerized molecules, with possible control of chirality. This process may involve feedback and amplification if the organics produced by catalysis can also act as structure-directing agents for enhanced synthesis of the catalytic silica structures. To our knowledge, such structure direction and catalysis, though well known in materials science, have not been considered previously in the context of prebiotic chemistry.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

LDIP cooperates with SEIPIN and LDAP to facilitate lipid droplet biogenesis in Arabidopsis

Cytoplasmic lipid droplets (LDs) are evolutionarily conserved organelles that store neutral lipids and play critical roles in plant growth, development, and stress responses. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying their biogenesis at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) remain obscure. Here we show that a recently identified protein termed LD-associated protein [LDAP]-interacting protein (LDIP) works together with both endoplasmic reticulum-localized SEIPIN and the LD-coat protein LDAP to facilitate LD formation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Heterologous expression in insect cells demonstrated that LDAP is required for the targeting of LDIP to the LD surface, and both proteins are required for the production of normal numbers and sizes of LDs in plant cells. LDIP also interacts with SEIPIN via a conserved hydrophobic helix in SEIPIN and LDIP functions together with SEIPIN to modulate LD numbers and sizes in plants. Further, the co-expression of both proteins is required to restore normal LD production in SEIPIN-deficient yeast cells. These data, combined with the analogous function of LDIP to a mammalian protein called LD Assembly Factor 1, are discussed in the context of a new model for LD biogenesis in plant cells with evolutionary connections to LD biogenesis in other eukaryotes.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Realistic simulations of spin squeezing and cooperative coupling effects in large ensembles of interacting two-level systems

We describe an efficient numerical method for simulating the dynamics of interacting spin ensembles in the presence of dephasing and decay. The method builds on the discrete truncated Wigner approximation for isolated systems, which combines the mean-field dynamics of a spin ensemble with a Monte Carlo sampling of discrete initial spin values to account for quantum correlations. Here we show how this approach can be generalized for dissipative spin systems by replacing the deterministic mean-field evolution by a stochastic process, which describes the decay of coherences and populations while preserving the length of each spin. We demonstrate the application of this technique for simulating nonclassical spin-squeezing effects or the dynamics and steady states of cavity QED models with 10 5 interacting two-level systems. This opens up the possibility to perform accurate real-scale simulations of a diverse range of experiments in quantum optics or with solid-state spin ensembles under realistic laboratory conditions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Optimized geometries for cooperative photon storage in an impurity coupled to a two-dimensional atomic array

The collective modes of two-dimensional ordered atomic arrays can modify the radiative environment of embedded atomic impurities. We analyze the role of the lattice geometry on the impurity's emission linewidth by comparing the effective impurity decay rate obtained for all noncentered Bravais lattices and an additional honeycomb lattice. We demonstrate that the lattice geometry plays a crucial role in determining the effective decay rate for the impurity. In particular, we find that the minimal effective decay rate appears in lattices where the number of the impurity's nearest neighbors is maximal and the number of distinct distances among nearest neighbors is minimal. Here we further show that, in the choice between interstitial and substitutional placement of the impurity, the former always wins by exhibiting a lower decay rate and longer photon storage. For interstitial placements, we determine the optimal impurity position in the lattice plane, which is not necessarily found in the center of the lattice plaquette.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Implicit renormalization approach to the problem of Cooper instability

In the vast majority of cases, superconducting transition takes place at exponentially low temperature T c out of the Fermi liquid regime. We discuss the problem of determining T c from known system properties at temperatures T >> T c , and stress that this cannot be done reliably by following the standard protocol of solving for the largest eigenvalue of the original gap-function equation. However, within the implicit renormalization approach, the gap-function equation can be used to formulate an alternative eigenvalue problem, where solving leads to an accurate prediction for both T c and the gap function immediately below T c . Furthermore, with diagrammatic Monte Carlo techniques, this eigenvalue problem can be solved without invoking the matrix inversion or even explicitly calculating the four-point vertex function.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗