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As the Mn doping level ( x ) increases in cubic (Ga 0.7 Cu 0.3 ) 1- x Mn x NMn 3 ( x ≤ 0.4) compounds, the temperature window of negative thermal expansion (NTE) is shifted to lower temperatures and broadened due to the strengthening of ferromagnetism. Large coefficient of linear thermal expansion ( α ~ − 22.8 ppm/K) is observed for x = 0.25 and 0.3 at cryogenic temperatures ( x = 0.3 powders, the thermal expansion of epoxy resin is effectively reduced. Nearly zero thermal expansion ( α ~ 1 ppm/K) and remarkably improved thermal conductivity are achieved at cryogenic temperatures in the composite with 50 vol.% addition of the NTE filler.

First principle calculations are performed to study the interfacial photoelectric properties of Ag n /Bi 2 WO 6 (0 0 1) ( n = 1, 2, 3, 4) hybrid photocatalyst. The parallel adsorption of Ag cluster leads to more energetic favorable structures due to stronger interfacial interactions. The positive charged Ag cluster may act as excited electron traps and facilitate the electron⿿hole separation. In particular, hybridization between Ag 5s and O 2p leads to the formation of isolated energy levels above the valence bands, and they become more dispersed with broader bandwidth with the increment of silver cluster size, which is responsible for the enhanced absorption in visible-light region. In the deep valence region, Ag 4d orbital turns more delocalized and hybrid with O 2p states as the cluster size increases, which contributes to more covalent bond feature of Ag⿿O. Moreover, optical spectra demonstrate obvious red-shifts of the absorption edge with the increment of silver content, which enhances efficiently the visible-light photocatalytic activities of Bi 2 WO 6 (0 0 1). The study provides insights into the enhanced photocatalyic mechanism of Ag/Bi 2 WO 6 (0 0 1) and aids in the design of noble metal loaded visible-light plasmonic photocatalyst.

Herein, β-Bi2O3 nanosheets exposed with active {001} facets were facilely prepared through annealing Bi2O2CO3 with thermally stable {001} facets. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of β-Bi2O3 was ascribed to the high energy of {001} facets and the efficient charge separation. This 2D surface transformation strategy could shed new light on the fabrication of energetic facets and the development of highly active photocatalysts.

Wood is a highly sophisticated and multihierarchical material. The nanoscale structures in natural cell walls of red pine, American pine, and white ash specimens were investigated using the small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) technique. A tangent-by-tangent method was used to analyze the SAXS data. The results demonstrate that the multihierarchical scatterers in the three specimens can be divided into two dominant components, i.e., a sharp component and a wide component. The sharp component mainly corresponds to the contribution of cellulose microfibrils, and its size is almost unaffected by the water content. However, the wide component includes voids or microcracks and cellulose microfibril aggregates; its size changes, reflecting swelling and water accumulation in the voids or microcracks. Because of the different morphological features of the cell walls, softwood (red pine and American pine) displays different tendencies from hardwood (white ash) in terms of changes in the wide component with water content: the average scatterer size of the wide component has an incremental tendency with the water content in softwood, but it has a descending tendency in hardwood. Fractal analysis further revealed that in white ash the surface of scatterers is coarser and the scatterers form more compact nanostructures than in the two pine woods. All this nanostructural information can be used to explain well the difference of swelling behaviors between the two pines and the white ash.

Ni–Cu alloy nanowire array, with uniform length and diameter, was well fabricated by using alternating current electrodeposition. Both X-ray diffraction and in situ heating extended X-ray absorption fine structure technique were employed to characterize its structural change with temperature. As expected, a weak concentration fluctuation of Ni and Cu atoms was found in the as-prepared nanowires. However, this concentration fluctuation can be easily eliminated by heating the as-prepared sample at 200 °C, which resulting in an approximately homogeneous Ni–Cu solid solution. From the nanostructural point of view, the serviceability temperature of Ni–Cu alloy nanowire array in magnetism could not exceed 200 °C. The Ni–Ni, Ni–Cu and Cu–Cu bonds were found to have different thermal expansion behaviors, causing the distortion of the crystal cell. An average thermal expansion coefficient (1.1 × 10 −5 K −1 ) was obtained. The structural change of Ni–Cu alloy nanowires with temperature was discussed.

In this paper, the Co@SiO2 core-shell nanoparticles were prepared by the sol-gel method. The oxidization of Co core nanoparticles was studied by the synchrotron radiation-based techniques including in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) up to 800°C in air and N2 protection conditions, respectively. It was found that the oxidization of Co cores is undergoing three steps regardless of being in air or in N2 protection condition. In the first step ranging from room temperature to 200°C, the Co cores were dominated by Co(0) state as well as small amount of Co(2+) ions. When temperature was above 300°C, the interface between Co cores and SiO2 shells was gradually oxidized into Co(2+), and the CoO layer was observed. As the temperature increasing to 800°C, the Co cores were oxidized to Co3O4 or Co3O4/CoO. Nevertheless, the oxidization kinetics of Co cores is different for the Co@SiO2 in air and N2 gas conditions. Generally, the O2 in the air could get through the SiO2 shells easily onto the Co core surface and induce the oxidization of the Co cores due to the mesoporous nature of the SiO2 shells. However, in N2 gas condition, the O atoms can only be from the SiO2 shells, so the diffusion effect of O atoms in the interface between Co core and SiO2 shell plays a key role.

Polyaniline (PANI)-decorated {001} facets of Bi2O2CO3 nanosheets were synthesized by a low-temperature chemical method. We demonstrate that the strong interfacial interactions between Bi2O2CO3 {001} facets and PANI could promote in situ formation of oxygen vacancy at the interface confirmed by both density functional theory calculations and electron spin resonance experiments, which is due to the high oxygen density characteristic of Bi2O2CO3 {001} facets. In addition, such interfacial interaction also leads to a 0.38 eV positive shifting of the valence band of Bi2O2CO3. Importantly, the decorated PANI can stabilize these interfacial oxygen vacancies. Therefore, the migration and separation of photogenerated carriers have been improved significantly evidenced by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and nanosecond time-resolved fluorescence-decay spectra, resulting in a 4.5 times higher activity toward photodegradation of Rhodamine B and a 6 times higher photocurrent density compared to their corresponding bare Bi2O2CO3. The finding of the in situ oxygen vacancy formation at the interface could provide some hints for the deep understanding of the interactions between PANI and crystal facets of semiconductors to develop highly efficient photocatalysts.

The macromolecular crystallography beamlines at third-generation synchrotron facilities play a central role in solving macromolecular crystal structures and also in understanding the biological function at molecular levels. The MX beamline BL17U at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility is a typical standard MX beamline with a focused beam size (H × V) of FWHM around 80 μm × 45 μm. However the protein samples brought to the beamline are down to 5-10 m from the important and challenging science project now. These samples require smaller size beam. In order to achieve the mini-size beamline, two mini-beam modes have been developed on BL17U: the pinhole-based mini-beam and the focused mini-beam by compound refractive lens (CRL). Compared to the pinhole-based mode, three times increase in flux is obtained by the CRL mode at a similar beam size. The flux gain obtained by the CRL needs to be considered for data collection strategies. It takes few minutes to switch the beamline from the normal to CRL mini-beam mode.

Normal magnetostriction (MS), which comes from the gradual rotation of magnetic domains in ferromagnets, is anisotropic and smoothly dependent on the applied magnetic field. In cubic antiperovskite compound GaCMn3, a sharp shrink of lattice volume takes place at the antiferromagnetic (AFM) to intermediate magnetic (IM) phase transition. Below the Neel temperature (∼143 K), the AFM-IM transformation can be driven by external magnetic field, leading to a giant isotropic MS of ∼1700 ppm comparable to that of commercial Terfenol-D. In contrast to normal MS, the field-induced magnetostrain exhibits a rapid switch behavior at the critical field. Furthermore, good reversibility and stability were demonstrated for the giant MS of GaCMn3 compound.

Mesostructured germanium oxide has been well-synthesized by using a surfactant-templated approach under basic hydrothermal conditions. The cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) has formed nanotubes with uniform diameter of about 3.2 nm. Blanket-like morphology of the as-prepared sample has been observed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). High-resolution TEM image reveals that the nanotubes are connected with inorganic germanium oxide and have self-assembled into periodic mesostructure. In-situ heating X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirm that the germanium oxide is in amorphous phase in the temperature range from room temperature (RT) to 700 degrees C. In-situ heating small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) presents the mesostructural change with temperature. The local atomic structures around germanium atom have been obtained with in-situ heating X-ray adsorption fine structure (XAFS) techniques. The stability of this mesostructure has been determined to be correlated with the cationic surfactant CTAB. The structural evolution from the GeO 2/NaOH aqueous solution, the as-prepared sample to the sample heated at 700 degrees C, has been described, and the formation mechanism of mesostructured germanium oxide has been discussed.

Electrical transport properties of La2/3Sr1/3VO3 (LSVO) thin films grown on LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO) substrates have been investigated. It is found that the LSVO/LAO show metal-insulator transition when decreasing the temperature, while the LSVO/STO exhibit metallic behavior. The difference in transport properties of LSVO thin films has been discussed based on the variation of oxygen content and can be attributed to different oxygen substrate-to-film transfer. These results highlight the crucial role of oxygen stoichiometry in determining the physical properties of LSVO and the importance of oxygen-substrate contribution in LSVO thin films.

A furnace with a water-cooled outside shell has been assembled to do in situ x-ray diffraction (XRD), small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), and x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) experiments. The details of the furnace are described in this paper. The in situ XRD, SAXS, and XAFS experiments during the heating process demonstrate that the available temperature range of this furnace is from room temperature to 1200 K with a temperature accuracy of +/-0.1 K. By using this furnace, in situ XRD, SAXS, and XAFS experimental techniques with temperature change can be easily combined together.

In situ x-ray diffraction and x-ray absorption fine structure techniques were used to study the structural change of ordered Co nanowire array with temperature. The results show that the Co nanowires are polycrystalline with hexagonal close packed structure without phase change up until 700 °C. A nonlinear thermal expansion behavior has been found and can be well described by a quadratic equation with the first-order thermal expansion coefficient of 4.3×10−6/°C and the second-order thermal expansion coefficient of 5.9×10−9/°C. The mechanism of this nonlinear thermal expansion behavior is discussed.