Coherent potential approximation study of impurity effect on monolayer hexagonal boron phosphide.

Impurity doping is a necessary technology for the application of semiconductor materials in microelectronic devices. The quantification of doping effects is crucial for controlling the transport properties of semiconductors. Here, taking two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal boron phosphide semiconductor as an example, we employ coherent potential approximation method to investigate the electronic properties of 2D semiconductor materials at low doping concentrations, which cannot be exploited with conventional density function theory. The results demonstrate that the positive or negative impurity potential in 2D semiconductors determines whether it is p-type or n-type doping, while the impurity potential strength decides whether it is shallow-level or deep-level doping. Impurity concentration has important impacts on not only the intensity but also the broadening of impurity peak in band gap. Importantly, we provide the operating temperature range of hexagonal boron phosphide as a semiconductor device under different impurity concentrations and impurity potentials. The methodology of this study can be applied to other 2D semiconductors, which is of great significance for quantitative research on the application of 2D semiconductors for electronic devices.

The Effect of Different Induction Methods on the Structure and Physicochemical Properties of Glycosylated Soybean Isolate Gels.

Soybean protein isolate (SPI), as a full-valued protein, is rich in nutrients, such as amino acids. However, the isolated structure of soybeans makes it difficult to react and thus prepare good gels. In order to further improve the properties of SPIs and to prepare plant-based gels with good performance, this experiment was conducted to prepare maltodextrin glycosylated soybean isolate (MGSI) by the glycosylation of SPI and maltodextrin (MD), and the gels were prepared by thermal induction, transglutaminase (TGase) induction, and TG-MgCl2 co-induction of this glycosylated protein to investigate the effects of different induction methods on the structure and properties of the gels produced by MGSIs. Moreover, the effects of different induction methods on the structure and properties of the gels produced by MGSI were investigated. SDS-PAGE protein electrophoresis, FTIR spectroscopy, and endogenous fluorescence spectroscopy revealed that all three inductions result in the covalent bond cross-linking of MGSI during the gel formation process. Compared with thermal induction, the TGase-induced MGSI secondary structure had a higher content of ß-folded structures, increased fluorescence intensity of tertiary structures, and produced a red shift. The gel induced by TGase in collaboration with MgCl2 contains a more ß-folded structure and irregular curl and increases the ß-turned angle and α-helix content further, the endogenous fluorescence λmax is significantly red-shifted, and the fluorescence intensity increases, demonstrating that the tertiary structure of MGSI unfolds the most, forming multilayered gels with the tightest structures. The three gels were analyzed by rheology and SEM, showing that the TGase-MgCl2 synergistically induced gel had the highest energy-storage modulus G', viscoelasticity, and water-holding capacity, as well as the densest gel structure. In conclusion, the combined treatment of enzyme and MgCl2 might be an effective way of improving the structure and gel properties of SPI. This study helps to promote the high-value utilization of SPI and the development of plant protein gels.

Ultrasensitive Chemiresistive Gas Sensor Can Diagnose Asthma and Monitor Its Severity by Analyzing Its Biomarker H2S: An Experimental, Clinical, and Theoretical Study.

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing, which vary in severity and frequency from person to person. H2S is considered as the biomarker of asthma. Here, an ultrasensitive chemiresistive H2S gas sensor based on a γ-Bi2MoO6-CuO heterostructure with a detection limit of 5 ppb has been fabricated. It can distinguish asthmatic patients from healthy people roughly by analyzing the exhaled breaths of 28 asthmatic patients and 28 healthy people, suggesting that the sensor can be used to assist physicians in the diagnosis of asthma. Pathologically, it is discovered by this sensor that with the relief of asthma, the concentration of H2S in one's exhaled breath gradually increases. This subtle concentration variation of H2S can be accurately detected, indicating that this sensor can be used in the asthma severity monitoring too. Physical models have been built by first-principles calculation to reveal the causes of the sensor's ultrasensitivity. The stable adsorption of H2S on the surface of CuO results in massive charge transferring and the appearance of the defect states, which play the major role in the ultrasensitivity of the sensor. Upon integrating this sensor with circuits, the cheap, smart, and portable H2S sensing device can be obtained, which can make asthmatic patients' access to this device easy and make the severity monitoring of asthma convenient, especially for children and the aged.

Tight-binding model for electronic structure of hexagonal boron phosphide monolayer and bilayer.

Graphene-like hexagonal boron phosphide with its moderate band gap and high carrier mobility is considered to be a high potential material for electronics and optoelectronics. In this work, the tight-binding Hamiltonian of hexagonal boron phosphide monolayer and bilayer with two stacking orders are derived in detail. Including up to fifth-nearest-neighbor in plane and next-nearest-neighbor interlayer hoppings, the tight-binding approximated band structure can well reproduce the first-principle calculations based on the screened Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof hybrid functional level over the entire Brillouin zone. The band gap deviations for monolayer and bilayer between our tight-binding and first-principle results are only 2 meV. The low-energy effective Hamiltonian matrix and band structure are obtained by expanding the full band structure close to the K point. The results show that the iso-energetic lines of maximum valence band in the vicinity of K point undergo a pseudo-Lifshitz transition from h-BP monolayer to AB_B-P or AB_B-B bilayer. The mechanism of pseudo-Lifshitz transition can be attributed to two interlayer hoppings rather than one.

Synthesis and magnetic properties of manganite multiple heterostructure nanoribbons.

The fabrication and applications of two-dimensional complex oxide heterostructures have gained great attention. However, the achievement of these materials in one-dimensional form with multiple interfaces is still elusive. Here, we report the growth of manganite CaMn(3)O(6)/CaMn(2)O(4) heterostructure nanoribbons via the use of CaMnO(3) powders as the precursor for the molten-salt process. In contrast with the antiferromagnetism in CaMn(3)O(6) and CaMn(2)O(4) in the bulk, magnetization measurements indicate the coexistence of a ferromagnetic phase with a spin-glass-like component in CaMn(3)O(6)/CaMn(2)O(4) heterostructure nanoribbons. An asymmetric magnetization hysteresis loop observed in the applied magnetic field H≤ 3 T is attributed to the coupling between the antiferromagnetic phase and the ferromagnetic or spin-glass-like phase in CaMn(3)O(6)/CaMn(2)O(4) heterostructure nanoribbons.

Molten salt synthesis of single-crystalline K2Ti6O13 annular nanostructures.

Single-crystalline K2Ti6O13 ring-like structures have been synthesized via a simple molten salt method without any templates and surfactants. The annular structures have several different types, such as nanoring, wheel-like and diskette-like ring. Each type of rings was characterized individually by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). These annular structures are formed by the loop-by-loop self-coiling of K2Ti6O13 nanobelts in the ring plane. The driving force of self-coiling is suggested to minimize the local electrostatic energy introduced by spontaneous polarization.