Multifunctional oxide thin films exhibit a broad palette of properties, such as ferroelectricity, piezoelectricity, dielectricity, superconductivity, and metal-insulator transition (MIT); therefore, they have long been a research focus in both condensed matter physics and materials science communities. Recently, ion beam irradiation emerges as an effective approach to modify the properties of oxide thin films by introducing defects, strains, structural transitions, etc., and many interesting works have been published. A timely review of those works is therefore urgently needed. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the applications of ion beam irradiation in tailoring oxide thin film functionalities, including ferroelectric properties, dielectric and piezoelectric properties, multilevel MIT process, gas sensitivity, memristive behavior, and magnetic characters, which may be useful for developing capacitors, sensors, memories, and optical devices with enhanced performances. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future perspectives for the usage of ion beam irradiation for tuning the performance of oxide materials and devices.
The complexes of metal center and nitrogen ligands are the most representative systems for catalyzing hydrogenation reactions in small molecule conversion. Developing heterogeneous catalysts with similar active metal‐nitrogen functional centers, nevertheless, still remains challenging. In this work, we demonstrate that the metal‐nitrogen coupling in anti‐perovskite Co4N can be effective modulated by Cu doping to form Co3CuN, leading to strongly promoted hydrogenation process during electrochemical reduction of nitrate (NO3−RR) to ammonia. The combination of advanced spectroscopic techniques and density functional theory calculations reveal that Cu dopants strengthen the Co−N bond and upshifted the metal d‐band towards the Fermi level, promoting the adsorption of NO3− and *H and facilitating the transition from *NO2/*NO to *NO2H/*NOH. Consequently, the Co3CuN delivers noticeably better NO3−RR activity than the pristine Co4N, with optimal Faradaic efficiency of 97 % and ammonia yield of 455.3 mmol h−1 cm−2 at −0.3 V vs. RHE. This work provides an effective strategy for developing high‐performance heterogeneous catalyst for electrochemical synthesis.
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