Ultrahard magnetism from mixed-valence dilanthanide complexes with metal-metal bonding

Magnetic effects of lanthanide bonding Lanthanide coordination compounds have attracted attention for their persistent magnetic properties near liquid nitrogen temperature, well above alternative molecular magnets. Gould et al . report that introducing metal-metal bonding can enhance coercivity. Reduction of iodide-bridged terbium or dysprosium dimers resulted in a single electron bond between the metals, which enforced alignment of the other valence electrons. The resultant coercive fields exceeded 14 tesla below 50 and 60 kelvin for the terbium and dysprosium compounds, respectively. —JSY

Highly Active and Stable Co (Co3O4)_Sm2O3 Nano-crystallites Derived from Sm2Co7 and SmCo5 Intermetallic Compounds in NH3 Synthesis and CO2 Conversion

Intermetallic compounds (IMCs) are interesting materials in the field of heterogeneous catalysis due to their ordered structure and tunable electronic properties. These IMCs can act as precursor to synthesize metal/metal...

Sensitive Metal-Semiconductor Nanothermocouple Fabricated by FIB to Investigate Laser Beams with Nanometer Spatial Resolution

The focused ion beam (FIB) technique was used to fabricate a nanothermocouple (with a 90 nm wide nanojunction) based on a metal–semiconductor (Pt–Si) structure, which showed a sensitivity up to 10 times larger (with Seebeck coefficient up to 140 µV/K) than typical metal–metal nanothermocouples. In contrast to the fabrication of nanothermocouples which requires a high-tech semiconductor manufacturing line with sophisticated fabrication techniques, environment, and advanced equipment, FIB systems are available in many research laboratories without the need for a high-tech environment, and the described processing is performed relatively quickly by a single operator. The linear response of the manufactured nanothermocouple enabled sensitive measurements even with small changes of temperature when heated with a stream of hot air. A nonlinear response of the nanothermocouple (up to 83.85 mV) was observed during the exposition to an argon-laser beam with a high optical power density (up to 17.4 Wcm−2), which was also used for the laser annealing of metal–semiconductor interfaces. The analysis of the results implies the application of such nanothermocouples, especially for the characterization of laser beams with nanometer spatial resolution. Improvements of the FIB processing should lead to an even higher Seebeck coefficient of the nanothermocouples; e.g., in case of the availability of other suitable metal sources (e.g., Cr).

Starch-Based Hybrid Nanomaterials for Environmental Remediation

Environmental pollution is becoming a major global issue with increasing anthropogenic activities that release massive toxic pollutants into the land, air, and water. Nanomaterials have gained the most popularity in the last decades over conventional methods because of their high surface area to volume ratio and higher reactivity. Nanomaterials including metal, metal oxide, zero-valent ions, carbonaceous nanomaterials, and polymers function as adsorbents, catalysts, photocatalysts, membrane (filtration), disinfectants, and sensors in the detection and removal of various pollutants such as heavy metals, organic pollutants, dyes, industrial effluents, and pathogenic microbial. Polymer-inorganic hybrid materials or nanocomposites are highly studied for the removal of various contaminants. Starch, a heteropolysaccharide, is a natural biopolymer generally incorporated with other metal, metal oxide, and other polymeric nanoparticles and has been reported in various environmental remediation applications as a low-cost alternative for petroleum-based polymers. Therefore, this chapter mainly highlights the various nanomaterials used in environmental remediation, starch-based hybrid nanomaterials, and their application and limitations.

Doped Ceria Catalyst System: Catalyzing Carbon Monoxide Transformation (A-Review)

As ceria chemistry broadens, it is needed to generalize the behavior of ceria surfaces towards molecules for carrying out a reaction. The endowing capacity of mobile oxygen due to rapid redox switching between Ce+4/Ce+3 is a key point for ceria containing surfaces. Herein we have presented a review which is broadly divided into two parts. First part focuses on surface property as how electronic structure, vacancy and surface energy would be modified after interaction of ceria with dopant (noble metal, metal of variable oxidation state, higher valent metal and lower valent metal). The second part focuses on catalysis as how the doped ceria surface influences the carbon monoxide transformations (CO oxidation, CO and H2O reaction, CO and NO reaction, CO and H2 reaction). This through study will be helpful to predict the ceria surface for a designed reaction.