Researchers are developing thin films, the elements for biomolecular electronics. Scientists believe that biological macromolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, amino acids can become a promising material for modern electronics. It obtains several unique properties, for example, the self-organization ability, which is why the molecules can be assembled into certain structures, for example, into biomolecular films.
Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) discover a new electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in electrochemical water splitting: CaFe2O4. This inexpensive, non-toxic, and easy-to-synthesize material outperforms other bimetallic OER electrocatalysts and even surpasses the benchmark set by iridium oxide, paving the way to accessible hydrogen generation for upcoming hydrogen societies.
Researchers from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nanjing Normal University recently reported a strategy for boosting the electrocatalytic performance of palladium (Pd) in ethanol oxidation reaction, thus propelling the development of direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs).
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IMAGE: Transition metals stitched into graphene with an electron beam form promising quantum building blocks. view more
Credit: Ondrej Dyck, Andrew Lupini and Jacob Swett/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Materials - Quantum building blocks
Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists demonstrated that an electron microscope can be used to selectively remove carbon atoms from graphene s atomically thin lattice and stitch transition-metal dopant atoms in their place.
This method could open the door to making quantum building blocks that can interact to produce exotic electronic, magnetic and topological properties.
This is the first precision positioning of transition-metal dopants in graphene. The produced graphene-dopant complexes can exhibit atomic-like behavior, inducing desired properties in the graphene.