Ultrathin Fe nanowire (about 5 nm in diameter) arrays have been fabricated by electrodeposition using anodic porous alumina templates. These ultrathin nanowires exhibited uniaxial anisotropy and a quite large coercivity (4190 Oe) at 5 K. In addition, the field needed to saturate the magnetization, when the field was applied perpendicularly to the easy axis, was much larger than the shape anisotropy field (2πMS). This saturation field increased with decreasing temperature. We believed that this enhanced saturation field was mainly due to the contribution of the surface spins.

In this paper, we use applied mathematical modelling to investigate the storage of hydrogen molecules inside graphene-oxide frameworks, which comprise two parallel graphenes rigidly separated by perpendicular ligands. Hydrogen uptake is calculated for graphene-oxide frameworks using the continuous approximation and an equation of state for both the bulk and adsorption gas phases. We first validate our approach by obtaining results for two parallel graphene sheets. This result agrees well with an existing theoretical result, namely 1.85 wt% from our calculations, and 2 wt% arising from an ab initio and grand canonical Monte Carlo calculation. This provides confidence to the determination of the hydrogen uptake for the four graphene-oxide frameworks, GOF-120, GOF-66, GOF-28 and GOF-6, and we obtain 1.68, 2, 6.33 and 0 wt%, respectively. The high value obtained for GOF-28 may be partly explained by the fact that the benzenediboronic acid pillars between graphene sheets not only provide mechanical support and porous spaces for the molecular structure but also provide the higher binding energy to enhance the hydrogen storage inside graphene-oxide frameworks. For the other three structures, this binding energy is not as large in comparison to that of GOF-28 and this effect diminishes as the ligand density decreases. In the absence of conflicting data, the present work indicates GOF-28 as a likely contender for practical hydrogen storage.

Using trimesic acid (TMA) as a model system by means of scanning tunneling microscope (STM) equipped with a temperature controller, here, we report a temperature-assisted method to cooperatively control electric-field-induced supramolecular phase transitions at the liquid/solid interface. Octanoic acid is used as a solvent due to its good solubility for TMA and its less complicated pattern formed under negative STM bias (e.g., only chicken-wire polymorphs existing). At positive substrate bias, STM revealed that TMA assembly based on temperature modulations underwent phase transitions from a porous (22 °C) to a flower (45 °C) and further to a zigzag (68 °C) structure. The transitions are ascribed to the partial deprotonation of the carboxyl groups of TMA. Both the temperature and electrical polarity of the substrate are crucial, i.e., the transitions only take place at positive substrate bias and elevated temperatures. Molecular mechanics simulations were carried out to calculate the temperature and electric field dependence of the adsorption enthalpy and free energy of the chicken-wire assembly of TMA on the two layers of graphene surface. The calculated decrease in adsorption enthalpy with the increase of temperature and electric field values that causes the TMA chicken-wire assembly to be less stable is proposed to promote the occurrence of the phase transition observed by STM. This study paves the way toward program-controlled supramolecular phase switching via the synergic effect of electrical and thermal stimuli.

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In this Letter, the authors inve´stigate the interaction of various atoms/ions with a graphene sheet and two parallel graphene sheets using the continuous approximation and the 6-12 Lennard-Jones potential. The authors assume that the carbon atoms are smeared across the surface of the graphene sheet so that the total interaction between the single atom/ion and the graphene sheet can be approximated by a surface integration over the graphene sheet. They determine the equilibrium position for the atom/ion on the surface of the graphene sheet and the minimum intermolecular spacing between two graphene sheets. This minimum spacing is by symmetry twice the value for the equilibrium positions for a single graphene sheet and is such that the atom/ion undergoes no net force. The same methodology together with basic statistical mechanics are also employed to investigate the diffusion of the atom/ion from a central location to the edge of the graphene sheet at different temperatures. The results presented in this Letter are consistent with a similar study adopting a molecular dynamics simulation approach. Possible applications of the present study might include the development of future drug delivery systems and future high-performance alkali battery design using nanomaterials as components. In this Letter, the authors invéstigate the interaction of various atoms/ions with a graphene sheet and two parallel graphene sheets using the continuous approximation and the 6-12 Lennard-Jones potential. The authors assume that the carbon atoms are smeared across the surface of the graphene sheet so that the total interaction between the single atom/ion and the graphene sheet can be approximated by a surface integration over the graphene sheet. They determine the equilibrium position for the atom/ion on the surface of the graphene sheet and the minimum intermolecular spacing between two graphene sheets. This minimum spacing is by symmetry twice the value for the equilibrium positions for a single graphene sheet and is such that the atom/ion undergoes no net force. The same methodology together with basic statistical mechanics are also employed to investigate the diffusion of the atom/ion from a central location to the edge of the graphene sheet at different temperatures. The results presented in this Letter are consistent with a similar study adopting a molecular dynamics simulation approach. Possible applications of the present study might include the development of future drug delivery systems and future high-performance alkali battery design using nanomaterials as components.

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PDMS–MWCNTs/TiO2 microparticles made by microfluidics can achieve 85% removal efficiency of RhB pollutant in wastewater via synergetic treatment.