In the synthesis of inorganic materials, reactions often yield non-equilibrium kinetic byproducts instead of the thermodynamic equilibrium phase. Understanding the competition between thermodynamics and kinetics is a fundamental step towards the rational synthesis of target materials. Here, we use in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction to investigat...
Membranes synthesized by stacking two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO) hold great promise for applications in organic solvent nanofiltration. However, the performance of a layer-stacked GO membrane in organic solvent nanofiltration can be significantly affected by its swelling and interlayer spacing, which have not been systematically characterized....
Structuring materials with atomic precision is the ultimate goal of nanotechnology and is becoming increasingly relevant as an enabling technology for quantum electronics/spintronics and quantum photonics. Here, we create atomic defects in monolayer MoS2 by helium ion (He-ion) beam lithography with a spatial fidelity approaching the single-atom lim...
The impact of liquid electrolyte soaking on the interfacial resistance between the garnet-structured Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) solid electrolyte and metallic lithium has been studied. Lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) formed by inadvertent exposure of LLZO to ambient conditions is generally known to increase interfacial impedance and decrease lithium wettabilit...
The electron beam (e-beam) in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) provides an appealing mobile heating source for thermal metrology with spatial resolution of ∼1 nm, but the lack of systematic quantification of the e-beam heating power limits such application development. Here, we systemically study e-beam heating in LPCVD silicon nitride (SiNx)...
Industrial processes prominently feature π-acidic gases, and an adsorbent capable of selectively interacting with these molecules could enable important chemical separations1-4. Biological systems use accessible, reducing metal centres to bind and activate weakly π-acidic species, such as N2, through backbonding interactions5-7, and incorporating a...
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd One great advantage of graphene-polyelectrolyte multilayer (GPM) membranes is their tunable structure and internal charge for improved separation performance. In this study, we synthesized GO-dominant GPM membrane with internal negatively-charged domains, polyethyleneimine (PEI)-dominant GPM membrane with internal positively-cha...
Dendrite formation during electrodeposition while charging lithium metal batteries compromises their safety. Although high-shear-modulus (Gs) solid-ion conductors (SICs) have been prioritized to resolve the pressure-driven instabilities that lead to dendrite propagation and cell shorting, it is unclear whether these or alternatives are needed to gu...
DNA origami has been widely investigated as a template for the organization of various functional elements, leading to potential applications in many fields such as biosensing, nanoelectronics, and nanophotonics. However, the synthesis of inorganic nonmetallic nanomaterials with predesigned patterns using DNA origami templates has seldom been explo...
DNA origami has been widely investigated as a template for the organization of various functional elements, leading to potential applications in many fields such as biosensing, nanoelectronics, and nanophotonics. However, the synthesis of inorganic nonmetallic nanomaterials with predesigned patterns using DNA origami templates has seldom been explo...
