Enhanced Magnetism and Anomalous Hall Transport through Two-Dimensional Tungsten Disulfide Interfaces.

The magnetic proximity effect (MPE) has recently been explored to manipulate interfacial properties of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD)/ferromagnet heterostructures for use in spintronics and valleytronics. However, a full understanding of the MPE and its temperature and magnetic field evolution in these systems is lacking. In this study, the MPE has been probed in Pt/WS2/BPIO (biphase iron oxide, Fe3O4 and α-Fe2O3) heterostructures through a comprehensive investigation of their magnetic and transport properties using magnetometry, four-probe resistivity, and anomalous Hall effect (AHE) measurements. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to complement the experimental findings. We found that the presence of monolayer WS2 flakes reduces the magnetization of BPIO and hence the total magnetization of Pt/WS2/BPIO at T > ~120 K-the Verwey transition temperature of Fe3O4 (TV). However, an enhanced magnetization is achieved at T < TV. In the latter case, a comparative analysis of the transport properties of Pt/WS2/BPIO and Pt/BPIO from AHE measurements reveals ferromagnetic coupling at the WS2/BPIO interface. Our study forms the foundation for understanding MPE-mediated interfacial properties and paves a new pathway for designing 2D TMD/magnet heterostructures for applications in spintronics, opto-spincaloritronics, and valleytronics.

Effect of axial molecules and linker length on CO2 adsorption and selectivity of CAU-8: a combined DFT and GCMC simulation study.

Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) calculations are performed to study the structures and carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorption properties of the newly designed metal-organic framework based on the CAU-8 (CAU stands for Christian-Albrechts Universität) prototype. In the new MOFs, the 4,4'-benzophenonedicarboxylic acid (H2BPDC) linker of CAU-8 is substituted by 4,4'-oxalylbis(azanediyl)dibenzoic acid (H2ODA) and 4,4'-teraphthaloylbis(azanediyl)dibenzoic acid (H2TDA) containing amide groups (-CO-NH- motif). Furthermore, MgO6 octahedral chains where dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) decorating the axial position bridged two Mg2+ ions are considered. The formation energies indicate that modified CAU-8 is thermodynamically stable. The reaction mechanisms between the metal clusters and the linkers to form the materials are also proposed. GCMC calculations show that CO2 adsorptions and selectivities of Al-based MOFs are better than those of Mg-based MOFs, which is due to DMSO. Amide groups made CO2 molecules more intensively distributed besides organic linkers. CO2 uptakes and selectivities of MOFs containing H2TDA linkers are better in comparison with those of MOFs containing H2BPDC linkers or H2ODA linkers.

Mechano-chemical stability and water effect on gas selectivity in mixed-metal zeolitic imidazolate frameworks: a systematic investigation from van der Waals corrected density functional theory.

A series of Zn/Cu Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIFs) ZIF-202, -203, and -204 are systematically investigated by Density Functional Theory (DFT) with and without van der Waals (vdW) corrections. The elastic constants for non-solvent structures indicate that ZIF-202 and -204 are mechanically stable while ZIF-203 is unstable, which arises from the stiffness along the x-axis under a uniaxial strain in the PBE-D3 method. By considering the presence of solvents in ZIF-203, a structural phase transformation from a monoclinic to a triclinic structure is found which could be explained by the Jahn-Teller distortion. From the chemical bonding point of view, it is found that vdW interactions and hybridization between d-orbitals (copper) and p-orbitals (imidazolate) are the main-driving forces in stabilizing ZIF-202 and -204, respectively. The electronic structure calculations predict the presence of two optical transitions in the visible region in agreement with the experimental observation for ZIF-204 both without and with water. The DFT simulations reveal that CO2 molecules prefer to locate near imidazolate and water in dry and hydrated ZIF-204, respectively. The analysis of Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations reveals that Coulomb interaction between CO2 and H2O molecules is mainly responsible for the enhanced CO2 uptake and selectivity under humid conditions compared to dry ones.

The electronic structures and magnetic properties of mixed-valence Fe-based metal-organic VNU-15 frameworks: a theoretical study from linear response DFT+U calculations.

The crystal symmetries, electronic structures, and magnetic properties of metal-organic VNU-15 frameworks (VNU = Vietnam National University) were investigated using density functional calculations (DFT) with an on-site Coulomb repulsion approximation, U eff, of 4.30 eV, determined via the linear response method. Two different orientations of dimethylammonium (DMA+) cations in VNU-15 were investigated. Antiferromagnetic configurations were predicted to be the ground states, with Fe ions in high-spin states for both phases. Furthermore, VNU-15 had intrinsic semiconductor electronic behavior with a small band gap of about 1.20 eV. The change in the orientation of DMA+ led to changes in the dispersion of the band structure, the band gap, and the Fe contributions to the valence band and conduction band. A fascinating feature was found involving exchange of oxidation numbers between two adjacent Fe atoms in the two phases. Our results revealed that VNU-15 has strong oxidation activity and predicted the important role of an anisotropic effect on the hole and electron effective masses. The findings presented that the electronic and magnetic properties could be controlled via hydrogen bonds and proved VNU-15 to be a prospective material for photocatalytic applications.