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prominent members being molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) and tungsten disulfide (WS 2 ). [2] In addition to graphene-and TMD-based nanomaterials, new 2D nanomaterials [3] such as silicenes, [4] hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), [5] black phosphorous (BP), [6,7] halide structures, [8] metal-organic framework nanosheets, [9] and MXenes [10,11] are currently optimized regarding their synthesis methods and expectable yield. The coupling of excellent electrical and thermal conductivity with great mechanical properties, high surface-to-volume ratios, and the existence of surface terminations, which enable their chemical functionalization, has made these 2D nanomaterials promising candidates to be used in different applications such as energy storage devices and supercapacitors, [12] (photo)-catalysis, [13] water purification, [14] and tribological systems. [15][16][17][18] In the tribological context, 2D layered structures showed their great potential in improving friction and wear of various substrate materials under dry and lubricated conditions. With respect to the lubricated conditions, 2D materials are typically used as lubricant additives in base oils with the overall purpose to fulfill different functions in the contact area. During sliding, nanomaterials may act both as shearing films and nano-roller bearings, thus potentially changing the friction mode from sliding to rolling friction and regulating the resulting lubricant flow, thus reducing frictional losses. [19] Irrespective of the prevalence of dry or lubricated conditions, 2D materials may be capable of initiating tribo-chemical reactions in the contact area Recent advances in 2D nanomaterials, such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, boron nitride, MXenes, allow not only to discover several new nanoscale phenomena but also to address the scientific and industrial challenges associated with the design of systems with desired physical properties. One of the great challenges for mechanical systems is associated with addressing friction and wear problems in machine elements. In this review, the beneficial properties of layered 2D materials that enable the control of their tribological behavior and make them excellent candidates for efficient friction and wear reduction in dry-running and boundary lubricated machine components are summarized. The recent studies highlighting the successful implementation of 2D structures when used as solid lubricant coatings or reinforcement phases in composites for various machine components including sliding and rolling bearings, gears, and seals are overviewed. The examples presented in the studies demonstrate the great potential for 2D materials to address the energy-saving needs by friction and wear reduction.

We have tested the concept of image charge screening as a new approach to enhance magnetic ordering temperatures and superexchange interactions in ultra thin films. Using a 3 monolayer NiO(100) film grown on Ag(100) and an identically thin film on MgO(100) as model systems, we observed that the Néel temperature of the NiO film on the highly polarizable metal substrate is 390 K while that of the film on the poorly polarizable insulator substrate is below 40 K. This demonstrates that screening by highly polarizable media may point to a practical way towards designing strongly correlated oxide nanostructures with greatly improved magnetic properties.PACS numbers: 75.30.Et, 78.70.Dm Transition metal oxides exhibit many spectacular magnetic and electrical properties including high temperature superconductivity and colossal magnetoresistance [1] making them particularly promising for nanoscience technology applications. An acute issue in the field of nanoscience, however, is the strong reduction of the relevant critical or ordering temperatures due to well known finite size effects [2,3,4,5]. If ways could be found to compensate for these reductions, one would immediately enlarge the materials basis for nano-technology. Current approaches to overcome these problems include the use of chemical doping, pressure, and strain [6,7,8,9,10,11].Here we propose to exploit image charge screening as a new method to compensate finite size phenomena and to enhance magnetic ordering temperatures well beyond the capability of conventional methods [6,7,8,9,10,11]. The basic idea is to bring the material in the close proximity of a strongly polarizable medium. The relevant exchange and superexchange interactions, and thus the related magnetic ordering temperatures, can then be substantially amplified by reducing the energies of the underlying virtual charge excitations as a result of the image-charge-like screening by the polarizable medium [12,13,14].To prove this concept we have chosen to measure the Néel temperature T N of a 3 monolayer (ML) NiO film epitaxially grown on a MgO(100) substrate and of an equally thin film on Ag(100). NiO on MgO and on Ag are ideal model systems for this study because of their simple crystal structure and well characterized growth properties. They have a rock-salt crystal structure with lattice constant a M gO = 4.212Å and a N iO = 4.176Å, respectively, corresponding to a lattice misfit of about 1%. This ensures a perfect layer-by-layer epitaxial growth of NiO(100) on MgO(100), with a NiO(100) film surface roughness of about 0.1Å [15]. Silver has a cubic fcc structure with a lattice constant a Ag = 4.086Å and a mismatch with respect to NiO of about 2%. When misfit dislocations are avoided by keeping the film thickness below the critical thickness for strain relaxation (about 30 ML for NiO/Ag [16]) as done in the present work, then NiO(100) films grow on Ag(100) in a nicely layered and coherent mode with a sharp interface. This was already demonstrated by Kado [17,18], but it has also been verified ...

We present the results of a study on the morphology and magnetic properties of size-selected Ni nanoparticles films grown on Si/SiOx substrates. The films were produced by deposition of preformed Ni nanoparticles, using a gas aggregation nanocluster source and an electric quadrupole mass filter. The diameter d of the produced particles ranged between 3 and 10 nm. The morphology of the films, with average thickness t varying from t = 0.5 up to t = 7nm, was studied with Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy, combining in this way information about height and lateral topography. We observed the presence of some small aggregates made of 2 o 3 particles at the early stage of film formation, probably due to some degree of cluster diffusion on the substrate, and particle average flattening. For increasing values of t, large agglomerates are formed in the films, resulting in a porous structure. Information about the magnetic properties was obtained with Field Cooled-Zero Field Cooled (FC/ZFC) magnetization curves. We observed a reversibility-irreversibility transition at temperatures 70 K < TI < 80 K, and a significant deviation from the superparamagnetic behavior at T>TI, even for the lowest coverage studied (t = 2 nm for ZFC/FC measurements, = 5.5 nm). A comparison with Montecarlo simulations of the FC/ZFC curves reveals the concurrence between inter-particle exchange interaction and single particle random anisotropy

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