Band convergence is a common technique for enhancing the power factor of thermoelectric (TE) materials. This is usually achieved by solid solution formation in compounds having specific electronic band features. In this work, we show that a similar band convergence effect can be achieved in Mg2Sn by doping with small amounts of Bi. To identify this effect and the possible reason behind it, a detailed

With the increasing application of electromagnetic waves (EMWs), issues related to electromagnetic (EM) radiation and interference have become more prominent, rendering research on EMW absorbers a highly topical subject. 2D MXenes have emerged as up-and-coming EM-absorbing materials due to their inherent characteristics. These include high electrical conductivity-induced strong dielectric loss, abundant

A strategy to split bright exciton bands is proposed to achieve broad-spectrum absorption in two-dimensional semiconductors. Based on ab initio many-body perturbation theory and Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations, we predict that post-transition-metal chalcogenides monolayers can realize broadband absorption under biaxial tensile strains. We find that top valence bands responsible for the strongly

The van-der-Waals antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 is one of the few materials that realize the sought-after quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state and quantized surface charge transport. To assess the relevance of its isostructural analog MnSb2Te4 as a potential QAH candidate, the roles of Mn/Sb site mixing and cationic vacancies need to be clarified. Recent findings have shown that non-stoichiometry

Windows have widespread applications in our everyday life, such as in buildings and automobiles, primarily fulfilling roles of light management, aesthetic enhancement, thermal insulation, and isolation from the ambient surroundings. Nevertheless, it is imperative to acknowledge that the extensive utilization of transparent enclosures may entail a concomitant surge in energy consumption. To address

Magnetic order-induced time reversal symmetry breaking in the kagome lattice is predicted to generate Weyl semimetal and Chern insulating phases. The two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattices with spin orbit coupling (SOC) and ferromagnetism are also known to host the Chern insulating phase. Here, we study the transport properties of the ferromagnetic topological material LaCo5 crystals with TC = 840 K

Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) is an ultrawide-bandgap semiconductor material that has gained attention in recent years owing to its potential applications in optoelectronic devices. Ga2O3 has become a potential material for high-performance solar-blind ultraviolet (UV–C) photodetectors in the wavelength range of 200–280 nm. One of its emerging applications as a photodetector is as an image sensor. It has been

Developing high-efficiency electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption materials is urgently demanded but challenging to tackle the increasingly serious electromagnetic radiation pollution. In this regard, a novel multi-heterostructure hybrid consisting of two-dimensional MXene nanosheets and zero-dimensional CoFe2O4 nanoparticles was successfully constructed by facile solvothermal approach. Benefiting from

Flexible thermoelectric generators hold great potential for powering wearable electronics. Herein, we employ a novel encapsulation technology to fabricate a Ag2Se-based composite film, which possesses a remarkable room-temperature power factor (PF) of 25.6 μW cm−1 K−2 and a peak PF of ∼27 μW cm−1 K−2 at 380 K. The microscopic origin of the above performance is attributed to the appearance of CuAgSe

Metalens, a two-dimensional planar system composed of strategically engineered subwavelength structures, facilitates precise manipulation in the process of both light and sound. Benefiting from the synergy between theoretical exploration and cutting-edge fabrication in the past decade, metalenses have attracted considerable attention owing to their thin structure and large number of degrees of freedom

Nanostructured GaN semiconductors, including 0D quantum wells and 1D nanowires (NWs), as well as 3D nanoporous structures, have the potential to enhance the efficiency of photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells due to their shorter charge carrier transfer paths, accelerated separation of photogenerated carriers, and enhanced sunlight absorption. However, their practical applicability is limited due to poor

The development of MoS2-based devices presents a significant challenge due to the poor interfacial thermal transport of metal-MoS2-dielectric structures, which results in severe thermal dissipation issues. This work aims to investigate the effects of various strategies, including modifying metal electrodes, adjusting the number of MoS2 layers, and incorporating van der Waals heterostructures, on the

Capillary force has been extensively investigated to drive the construction of complex microstructures, though most of those previous self-assembled microstructures were on flat surfaces. In this study, we propose a capillary-force-driven self-assembly strategy working for bionic three-dimensional (3D) functional surfaces. Precisely printed micropillar arrays with an extremely large format using projection

Computational science has facilitated significant improvement in identifying stable crystal systems that are good thermoelectric materials with a high figure-of-merit (ZT). One approach for further discontinuous improvement is to explore the metastable phase of the crystals, particularly because there is an increasing need for thermoelectric materials operating at room temperature in energy harvesting

We report on the pressure-induced metallization of a van der Waals cluster Mott insulator Nb3Cl8 by employing the resistivity measurements under high pressure. Upon compression, its resistance and energy gap are suppressed gradually with exhibiting the fully metallic state at a critical pressure of Pc ≈ 70 GPa. Hall resistance measurements revealed a significant band-structure reconstruction around

The quest for pragmatic room-temperature (RT) magnetic semiconductors (MSs) with a suitable bandgap constitutes one of the contemporary opportunities to be exploited. This may provide a materials platform for to bring new-generation ideal information device technologies into real-world applications where the otherwise conventionally separately utilized charge and spin are simultaneously exploited.

As a highly potential environmental-friendly medium-temperature thermoelectric material, pure SnTe exhibits relatively poor performance due to its intrinsic high carrier concentration and large energy offset between the two valence bands. In the present work, dilute Sc/Y doping is innovatively adopted to synergistically decrease carrier concentration and achieve strong band convergence. The Hall measurement

The half Heusler alloys are potential mid-to-high temperature range thermoelectrics due to their high power factor, solid structural stability and high mechanical strength. However, the high lattice thermal conductivity inherent to these materials reduces the zT, rendering them less useful for practical applications. The ‘defective’ half-Heuslers provide an attractive alternative to mitigate these

By employing first-principles calculations, we theoretically propose that α- and β-beryllenes are two dimensional superconductors with Dirac bands at ambient pressure. Be-p orbitals dominate the electronic structure near the Fermi level, with two-band and three-band Fermi surfaces for α- and β-beryllene, respectively. α-beryllene hosts intrinsic type-I Dirac Fermions with the existence of nontrivial

The formation of bulk metallic glass requires the constituent elements to have a negative heat of mixing but has no restrictions on its magnitude. An understanding of this issue is lacking due to the absence of a valid method for describing chemical ordering of metallic glasses. For example, the radial distribution function is ineffective in identifying the elemental preferences of packed atoms. Here

Multicomponent systems based on liquid crystals are of great interest both in the field of scientific research and in the field of practical application. To date, one of the most studied systems are liquid crystal/nanoparticles and liquid crystal/polymer systems. Each system individually has its own advantages and disadvantages which limit their field of application. The way to circumvent the drawbacks

Tessellation of the Euclidean plane by congruent pentagons has long been of great interest. However, periodic pentagonal patterns realized in crystallography reported so far are limited to type-2 or type-4 tiling in typical square lattices. Based on the recently synthesized N18 macrocycles together with Hückel aromaticity and 18-electron rules, we design a family of pentagonal metal polynitrides, penta-MN8

Ionic-liquid-based electrolytes emerge as a viable alternative to commercial carbonate electrolytes due to their superior stability and safety, especially at high temperatures. However, their affinity to the currently widely used polyolefin-based separators is poor. Herein, an economical and environmentally friendly separator composed of hydroxyapatite and cellulose nanofibers is designed and fabricated

Due to the exceptionally low lattice thermal conductivity, AgSbTe2 has emerged as a promising thermoelectric material. However, unlike other IV-VI compounds, most reported AgSbTe2 samples exhibit relatively poor electrical performance due to low carrier concentration. Herein, an unusually strategy of introducing dopants and vacancies on the same site of Sb is adopted, which significantly improves the

Seawater electrolysis offers significant potential for green hydrogen production, the presence of harmful chlorine species, nevertheless, can cause severe anode corrosion. Here, we present our recent finding that selenate anions adsorbed nickel selenide nanosheet array with an amorphous NiOOH layer on Ni foam (NiSe2@NiOOH/NF) serves as a high-efficiency and durable electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution

In the future landscape of sustainable energies and in combating global climate challenges, hydrogen plays a crucial role in both stationary and portable energy systems that currently supply 18 % of the total energy demand. High-capacity, safe, and cost-effective hydrogen storage is critical for advancing the hydrogen economy but remains a dauting challenge. A range of advanced material systems including

Color-preserving radiative cooling (CRC) is widely studied as a sustainable technology for outdoor structures due to its energy-saving and aesthetic capacities. Direct sunlight can cause outdoor structures to become extremely hot, leading to high energy consumption for cooling. To address this issue, CRC has been explored as a means to lower the temperature of outdoor structures. However, preserving

Liquid metal (LM), particularly Gallium-based alloy, has emerged as an indispensable material for artificial skins, offering vast potential in wearable prophylactic medicine, AI-based human-machine interfaces, bodily-kinesthetic monitoring, etc. Nanosized LM has been adopted to facilitate its processability in various LM-elastomer interfaces, stretchable circuits, and dynamic self-healing devices.

AgBiSe2 is a lead-free thermoelectric (TE) material that demonstrates excellent TE performance in its high-temperature cubic phase. However, the known order-disorder transition at around 580 K induces internal stress caused by the sudden change in thermal expansion coefficient, negatively impacting TE device operation. In this study, we heavily alloyed AgBiSe2 with SnTe to increase configurational

CO2 reduction plays a vital role in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), whereas electroreduction method has attracted considerable attention because of its high selectivity, safety, and energy efficiency. Solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) have exhibited significant advantages in CO2 reduction and utilization. Among all the components of SOEC, the cathode materials are crucial due to

Under constant electric and magnetic fields, the potential profile of the honeycomb quantum well wire (HQWW) is studied for varying intense laser fields to trigger and optimize high harmonics (nonlinear optical rectification, second and third harmonic generation coefficients). The finite element method has been used to simulate wavefunctions and their corresponding energy levels under effective mass