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At least 127 records · Page 7

Design of radiation resistant metallic multilayers for advanced nuclear systems

Helium implantation from transmutation reactions is a major cause of embrittlement and dimensional instability of structural components in nuclear energy systems. Development of novel materials with improved radiation resistance, which is of the utmost importance for progress in nuclear energy, requires guidelines to arrive at favorable parameters more efficiently. Here, we present a methodology that can be used for the design of radiation tolerant materials. We used synchrotron X-ray reflectivity to nondestructively study radiation effects at buried interfaces and measure swelling induced by He implantation in Cu/Nb multilayers. The results, supported by transmission electron microscopy, show a direct correlation between reduced swelling in nanoscale multilayers and increased interface area per unit volume, consistent with helium storage in Cu/Nb interfaces in forms that minimize dimensional changes. In addition, for Cu/Nb layers, a linear relationship is demonstrated between the measured depth-dependent swelling and implanted He density from simulations, making the reflectivity technique a powerful tool for heuristic material design.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Dirac metal to topological metal transition at a structural phase change in Au 2 Pb and prediction of Z 2 topology for the superconductor

Three-dimensionalDirac semimetals (DSMs) arematerials that have masslessDirac electrons and exhibit exotic physical properties. It has been suggested that structurally distorting a DSM can create a topological insulator but this has not yet been experimentally verified. Furthermore, Majorana fermions have been theoretically proposed to exist inmaterials that exhibit both superconductivity and topological surface states. Herewe showthat the cubic Laves phase Au2Pb has a bulk Dirac cone that is predicted to gap on cooling through a structural phase transition at 100 K. The low temperature phase can be assigned a Z(2) = -1 topological index, and this phase becomes superconducting below 1.2 K. These characteristics make Au2Pb a unique platform for studying the transition between bulk Dirac electrons and topological surface states as well as studying the interaction of superconductivity with topological surface states, combining many different properties of emergent materials-superconductivity, bulk Dirac electrons, and a topologically nontrivial Z(2) invariant.

Schoop, Leslie M.↗

Effects of van der Waals density functional corrections on trends in furfural adsorption and hydrogenation on close-packed transition metal surfaces

The hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol on Pd(111), Cu(111) and Pt(111) is studied with both standard Density Functional Theory (DFT)-GGA functionals and with van der Waals-corrected density functionals. VdW-DF functionals, including optPBE, optB88, optB86b, and Grimme's method, are used to optimize the adsorption configurations of furfural, furfuryl alcohol, and related intermediates resulting from hydrogenation of furfural, and the results are compared to corresponding values determined with GGA functionals, including PW91 and PBE. On Pd(111) and Pt(111), the adsorption geometries of the intermediates are not noticeably different between the two classes of funcfionals, while on Cu(111), modest changes are seen in both the perpendicular distance and the orientation of the aromatic ring with respect to the planar surface. In general, the binding energies increase substantially in magnitude as a result of van der Waals contributions on all metals. In contrast, however, dispersion effects on the kinetics of hydrogenation are relatively small. It is found that activation barriers are not significantly affected by the inclusion of dispersion effects, and a Brensted-Evans-Polanyi relationship developed solely from PW91 calculations on Pd(111) is capable of describing corresponding results on Cu(111) and Pt(111), even when the dispersion effects are included. Finally, the reaction energies and barriers derived from the dispersion-corrected and pure GGA calculations are used to plot simple potential energy profiles for furfural hydrogenation to furfulyl alcohol on the three considered metals, and an approximately constant downshift of the energetics due to the dispersion corrections is observed.

Liu, Bin↗

From Transition Metals to Lanthanides to Actinides: Metal-Mediated Tuning of Electronic Properties of Isostructural Metal–Organic Frameworks

In this study, isostructural metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been prepared from a variety of metal-oxide clusters, including transition metals, lanthanides, and actinides. Experimental and calculated shifts in O–H stretching frequencies for hydroxyl groups associated with the metal-oxide nodes reveal varying electronic properties for these units, thereby offering opportunities to tune support effects for other materials deposited onto these nodes.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗