500 nm induced tunable syngas synthesis from CO2 photoreduction by controlling heterojunction concentration.

A heterostructured CoAl-layered double hydroxide/MoS2 nanocomposite photocatalyst (CoAl-LDH/MoS2) for CO2 photoreduction was prepared by simple electrostatic interactions. The syngas ratio (H2 : CO) was precisely tuned from 1.3 : 1 to 15 : 1 by altering only the catalyst concentration in the photocatalytic CO2 reduction system under visible light (λ > 400 nm). Interestingly, a rather high evolution rate can be obtained from CO2 photoreduction to CO up to 4575 µmol g-1 h-1 even under irradiation above 500 nm.

Highly Selective Photoreduction of CO2 with Suppressing H2 Evolution over Monolayer Layered Double Hydroxide under Irradiation above 600†nm.

Although progress has been made to improve photocatalytic CO2 reduction under visible light (λ>400 nm), the development of photocatalysts that can work under a longer wavelength (λ>600 nm) remains a challenge. Now, a heterogeneous photocatalyst system consisting of a ruthenium complex and a monolayer nickel-alumina layered double hydroxide (NiAl-LDH), which act as light-harvesting and catalytic units for selective photoreduction of CO2 and H2 O into CH4 and CO under irradiation with λ>400 nm. By precisely tuning the irradiation wavelength, the selectivity of CH4 can be improved to 70.3 %, and the H2 evolution reaction can be completely suppressed under irradiation with λ>600 nm. The photogenerated electrons matching the energy levels of photosensitizer and m-NiAl-LDH only localized at the defect state, providing a driving force of 0.313 eV to overcome the Gibbs free energy barrier of CO2 reduction to CH4 (0.127 eV), rather than that for H2 evolution (0.425 eV).

Giant spin-torque diode sensitivity in the absence of bias magnetic field.

Microwave detectors based on the spin-torque diode effect are among the key emerging spintronic devices. By utilizing the spin of electrons in addition to charge, they have the potential to overcome the theoretical performance limits of their semiconductor (Schottky) counterparts. However, so far, practical implementations of spin-diode microwave detectors have been limited by the necessity to apply a magnetic field. Here, we demonstrate nanoscale magnetic tunnel junction microwave detectors, exhibiting high-detection sensitivity of 75,400 mV mW(-1) at room temperature without any external bias fields, and for low-input power (micro-Watts or lower). This sensitivity is significantly larger than both state-of-the-art Schottky diode detectors and existing spintronic diodes. Micromagnetic simulations and measurements reveal the essential role of injection locking to achieve this sensitivity performance. This mechanism may provide a pathway to enable further performance improvement of spin-torque diode microwave detectors.

Characterization of protein expression of Platanus pollen following exposure to gaseous pollutants and vehicle exhaust particles.

Being major ornamental street trees, species of Platanus are widely planted in the Shanghai urban area. A great deal of allergenic Platanus pollen is released from the trees and suspended in the atmosphere during its flowering season, ultimately causing allergic respiratory diseases. Few papers have focused on the distribution of this type of pollen and its expression of allergenic proteins. In order to investigate any differences in protein expression in Platanus pollen following exposure to gaseous and particulate pollutants, a special apparatus was designed. Exposure condition (such as temperature, humidity, and exposure time) of Platanus pollen and gaseous pollutants can be simulated using of this apparatus. Fresh Platanus orientalis pollen, pollutant gases (NO2, SO2, NH3), and typical urban ambient particles (vehicle exhaust particles, VEPs) were mixed in this device to examine possible changes that might occur in ambient airborne urban pollen following exposure to such pollutants. Our results showed that the fresh P. orientalis pollen became swollen, and new kinds of particles could be found on the surface of the pollen grains after exposure to the pollutants. The results of SDS-PAGE showed that five protein bands with molecular weights of 17-19, 34, 61, 82, and 144 kDa, respectively, were detected and gray scale of these brands increased after the pollen exposure to gaseous pollutants. The two-dimensional gel electrophoresis analysis demonstrated that a Platanus pollen allergenic protein (Pla a1, with a molecular weight of 18 kDa) increased in abundance following exposure to pollutant gases and VEPs, implying that air pollutants may exacerbate the allergenicity of pollen.

Electron spin resonance and spin-valley physics in a silicon double quantum dot.

Silicon quantum dots are a leading approach for solid-state quantum bits. However, developing this technology is complicated by the multi-valley nature of silicon. Here we observe transport of individual electrons in a silicon CMOS-based double quantum dot under electron spin resonance. An anticrossing of the driven dot energy levels is observed when the Zeeman and valley splittings coincide. A detected anticrossing splitting of 60 MHz is interpreted as a direct measure of spin and valley mixing, facilitated by spin-orbit interaction in the presence of non-ideal interfaces. A lower bound of spin dephasing time of 63 ns is extracted. We also describe a possible experimental evidence of an unconventional spin-valley blockade, despite the assumption of non-ideal interfaces. This understanding of silicon spin-valley physics should enable better control and read-out techniques for the spin qubits in an all CMOS silicon approach.

Strong and tunable spin--orbit coupling of one-dimensional holes in Ge/Si core/shell nanowires.

We investigate the low-temperature magneto-transport properties of individual Ge/Si core/shell nanowires. Negative magneto-conductance was observed, which is a signature of one-dimensional weak antilocalization of holes in the presence of strong spin--orbit coupling. The temperature and back gate dependences of phase coherence length, spin--orbit relaxation time, and background conductance were studied. Specifically, we show that the spin--orbit coupling strength can be modulated by more than five folds with an external electric field. These results suggest the Ge/Si nanowire system possesses strong and tunable spin--orbit interactions and may serve as a candidate for spintronics applications.

Phase diagram of a quantum Hall pseudospin ferromagnet in a two-subband electron system.

We employ the self-consistent local density approximation and the microscopic Hartree-Fock theory to investigate the quantum Hall pseudospin ferromagnets at the Landau levels degenerate regime of a single quantum well with two-subbands filled. We carry out a detailed calculation of the pseudospin anisotropy energy using real experimental parameters and obtain the phase diagrams that would be accessed experimentally by changing the electron density and the bias voltage. We find that an easy-plane and easy-axis quantum Hall pseudospin ferromagnet can form at total filling factors ν = 3 and ν = 4, respectively, which are consistent with experimental observation. Our study provides some insight into the symmetry of the ground state and may help in understanding the underlying mechanism.