No abstract

Artificial molecular switches and machines that enable the directional movements of molecular components by external stimuli have undergone rapid advances over the past several decades. Particularly, overcrowded alkene-based artificial molecular motors are highly attractive from the viewpoint of chirality switching during rotational steps. However, the integration of these molecular switches into solid-state devices is still challenging. Herein, we present an example of a solid-state spin-filtering device that can switch the spin polarization direction by light irradiation or thermal treatment. This device utilizes the chirality inversion of molecular motors as a light-driven reconfigurable spin filter owing to the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect. Through this device, we found that the flexibility at the molecular scale is essential for the electrodes in solid-state devices using molecular machines. The present results are beneficial to the development of solid-state functionalities emerging from nanosized motions of molecular switches.

This paper reports the synthesis of platelike CeO 2 nanoparticles by a simple, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly method using cerium(III) acetate hydrate and freshly extracted egg white (ovalbumin) in an aqueous medium. A platelike structure of CeO 2 nanoparticles having the particle size of 6-30 nm was obtained by calcining the precursors in air at 400, 500, and 600 °C, for 2 h. Results from XRD, Raman spectroscopy, and SAED analysis indicated that the synthesized CeO 2 nanoparticles have the fluorite structure of the bulk CeO 2 . All samples show a strong UV-vis absorption below 400 nm (3.10 eV) with a welldefined absorbance peak at around 284 nm (4.37 eV). The estimated direct band gaps are 3.61, 3.59, and 3.57 eV for the samples calcined at 400, 500, and 600 °C, respectively. These band gaps are 0.42, 0.40, and 0.38 eV higher than that of bulk CeO 2 , indicating the quantum confinement effect of the nanosize particles. The 400 and 500 °C calcined samples exhibited similar emission peaks of room-temperature photoluminescence. However, the sample calcined at 600 °C exhibited the strongest UV emission band at 392 nm (3.17 eV) because of its better-defined crystallinity compared to the other two samples calcined at 400 and 500 °C.