Electron Transfer Mediator Effects in the Oxidative Activation of a Ruthenium Dicarboxylate Water Oxidation Catalyst
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Palladium nanotubes (PdNTs) were synthesized by templated vapor deposition and investigated for formic acid electrooxidation. Annealed PdNTs are 2.4 times more active (2.19 mA/cm 2 ) than commercial carbon-supported palladium (0.91 mA/cm 2 ) at 0.3 V vs RHE. Bismuth modification improved nanotube performance over 4 times (3.75 mA/cm 2 ) vs Pd/C and nearly 2 times vs unmodified PdNTs. A surface Bi coverage of 80% results in optimal site-specific activity by drastically reducing surface-poisoning CO generation during formic acid electrooxidation. The Bi-modified PdNTs are exceptionally stable, maintaining 2 times the area-normalized current density as Pd/C after 24 h at 0.2 V vs RHE. As a result, we attribute the enhanced activity and stability of the nanotube catalysts to the presence of highly coordinated surfaces, mimicking a flat polycrystal while retaining high surface area geometry.
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Nonadiabatic quantum molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study photoexcited charge transfer (CT) and charge recombination (CR) at an interface between a conjugated oligomer donor, quaterthiophene (QT), and an inorganic acceptor (ZnO). Simulations reveal a detrimental effect of static disorder in QT conformation on the efficiency of hybrid QT/ZnO solar cells due to increased CR. On the contrary, dynamic disorder (i.e., fluctuation of carbon-hydrogen bonds in QT) is essential for high efficiency by assisting CT. The separate controllability of CT and CR at the molecular level has impacts on molecular design for efficient solar cells and explains recent experimental observations.
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The production of gas phase atomic and ionic line spectra accompanying the high laser fluence irradiation of solid surfaces is well known and is most often due to the production and interaction of high densities of atoms, ions, and electrons generated from laser-induced breakdown. The resulting plasma expands and moves rapidly away from the irradiated spot and is accompanied by intense emission of light. This type of “plume” is well studied and is frequently exploited in the technique of chemical analysis known as laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. Here, we describe a similar but weaker emission of light generated in vacuum by the laser irradiation of single crystal ZnO at fluences well below breakdown; this emission consists entirely of optical line emission from excited atomic Zn. We compare the properties of the resulting laser-generated gas-phase light emission (above and below breakdown) and describe a mechanism for the production of the low-fluence optical emission resulting from a fortuitous choice of material and laser wavelength.
An unexpected, strong deterioration of crystal quality is observed in epitaxial perovskite BiFeO{sub 3} films in which microscale features have been patterned by focused-ion-beam (FIB) milling. Specifically, synchrotron x-ray microdiffraction shows that the damaged region extends to tens of μm, but does not result in measureable changes to morphology or stoichiometry. Therefore, this change would go undetected with standard laboratory equipment, but can significantly influence local material properties and must be taken into account when using a FIB to manufacture nanostructures. The damage is significantly reduced when a thin metallic layer is present on top of the film during the milling process, clearly indicating that the reduced crystallinity is caused by ion beam induced charging.
In past studies, we have observed copious emissions of ionic and atomic Zn from single-crystal ZnO accompanying irradiation of single-crystal ZnO with 193-nm excimer laser irradiation at fluences below the onset of optical breakdown. The Zn{sup +} and ground state Zn° are studied using time-of-flight techniques and are mass selected using a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Simultaneously, we have observed emitted particles that are detectable with a Channeltron electron multiplier but cannot be mass selected. It is a reasonable hypothesis that these particles correspond to a neutral atom or molecule in highly excited long lived states. We provide strong evidence that they correspond to high lying Rydberg states of atomic Zn. We propose a production mechanism involving laser excitation via a two photon resonance excitation of Zn°.
During layer-by-layer homoepitaxial growth, both the Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) intensity and the x-ray reflection intensity will oscillate, and each complete oscillation indicates the addition of one monolayer of material. However, it is well documented, but not well understood, that the phase of the RHEED oscillations varies from growth to growth and thus the maxima in the RHEED intensity oscillations do not necessarily occur at the completion of a layer. Here, we demonstrate this by using simultaneous in situ x-ray reflectivity and RHEED to characterize layer-by-layer growth of SrTiO 3 . We show that we can control the RHEED oscillation phase by changing the pre-growth substrate annealing conditions, changing the RHEED oscillation phase by as much as 137°. In addition, during growth via pulsed laser deposition, the relaxation times between each laser pulse can be used to determine when a layer is complete, independent of the phase of the RHEED oscillation.
The paper describes the reasons for the greater difficulty in the passivation of interface defects of III–V semiconductors like GaAs. These include the more complex reconstructions of the starting surface which already possess defect configurations, the possibility of injecting As antisites into the substrate which give rise to gap states, and the need to avoid As-As bonds and As dangling bonds which give rise to gap states. The nature of likely defect configurations in terms of their electronic structure is described. The benefits of diffusion barriers and surface nitridation are discussed.
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The thermal conductivity of amorphous TaO x memristive films having variable oxygen content is measured using time domain thermoreflectance. Furthermore, the thermal transport is described by a two-partmodel where the electrical contribution is quantified via the Wiedemann-Franz relation and the vibrational contribution by the minimum thermal conductivity limit for amorphous solids. Additionally, the vibrational contribution remains constant near 0.9 W/mK regardless of oxygen concentration, while the electrical contribution varies from 0 to 3.3 W/mK. Thus, the dominant thermal carrier in TaO x switches between vibrations and charge carriers and is controllable either by oxygen content during deposition, or dynamically by field-induced charge state migration.
We present a many-body diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC) study of the bulk and defect properties of NiO. We find excellent agreement with experimental values, within 0.3%, 0.6%, and 3.5% for the lattice constant, cohesive energy, and bulk modulus, respectively. The quasiparticle bandgap was also computed, and the DMC result of 4.72 (0.17) eV compares well with the experimental value of 4.3 eV. Furthermore, DMC calculations of excited states at the L, Z, and the gamma point of the Brillouin zone reveal a flat upper valence band for NiO, in good agreement with Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy results. To study defect properties, we evaluated the formation energies of the neutral and charged vacancies of oxygen and nickel in NiO. A formation energy of 7.2 (0.15) eV was found for the oxygen vacancy under oxygen rich conditions. For the Ni vacancy, we obtained a formation energy of 3.2 (0.15) eV under Ni rich conditions. These results confirm that NiO occurs as a p-type material with the dominant intrinsic vacancy defect being Ni vacancy.