Page 13 - Solid State Physics News Today

 E-Mail Credit: XU Yingsheng Recently, the researchers from Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, by using valence engineering, developed three manganese oxides as electrodes with different Mn valences for high-performance capacitive desalination. Reverse osmosis and thermal distillation are widely used to treat salt water with high salt concentration, but they have disadvantages including high energy consumption and ...

Different from small molecules, polymer will fold into lamellar crystals during crystallization and further assemble into lamellar stacks.

Chinese Academy of Sciences Recently, the research team led by Prof. KONG Lingtao from Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) prepared a highly active single iron atom catalyst (Fe-ISAs@CN) which can activate H 2O 2 to generate free radicals, achieving rapid removal of sulfadiazine pollutants in aqueous. The relevant results were published in Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. Sulfadiazine (SDZ), a kind of synthetic sulfadiazine antibiotic, is wide...

A new semimetal has been found, showing remarkable properties: It is a quantum critical material, which means that it has phase transitions at absolute zero temperature. Usually, quantum criticality can only be created under very specific environmental conditions -- a certain pressure or an electromagnetic field. But the new material is quantum critical on its own.

Today’s scientists and engineers are envisioning a future powered by renewable energy. It will take transformative technological solutions across both solar and energy storage technologies to meet the energy demands of a growing global population. These new technologies will help realize vibrant, sustainable cities and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change.

Date Time A material-keyboard made of graphene Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in turning specially prepared graphene flakes either into insulators or into superconductors by applying an electric voltage. This technique even works locally, meaning that in the same graphene flake regions with completely different physical properties can be realized side by side. The material keyboard realized by the ETH Zurich researchers. By applying electric voltages (“keys”) at different points, ...

Hydrodeoxygenation is a common way to reduce the oxygen content of biomass fuel. Compared with direct hydrogenation, transfer hydrogenation is safer and...

Chinese Academy of Sciences Recently, a research group led by Prof. ZHANG Haimin from the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Hefei Institute of Physical Science (HFIPS) reported a highly efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction by in situ generation and systematically illustrated the origin of its excellent performance, which provided a new method for exploiting excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. “This is an efficient and low-cost transition metal phosphi...

Credit: Wikipedia.org The energy source of the Sun and other stars is determined by the fusion reaction between two hydrogen nuclei. Imitating this process in a reactor would enable to produce so much energy that satisfy the worlds energy needs forever. It would not cause hazardous environmental pollution and the fuel supply would be unlimited. The downside, however, is that the level of radiation in such a fusion reactor would be so high that currently known materials would not tolerate it. Th...

Credit: TU Wien We all have a clear picture in mind when we think of metals: We think of solid, unbreakable objects that conduct electricity and exhibit a typical metallic sheen. The behaviour of classical metals, for example their electrical conductivity, can be explained with well-known, well-tested physical theories. But there are also more exotic metallic compounds that pose riddles: Some alloys are hard and brittle, special metal oxides can be transparent. There are even materials right a...