Comprising abundant interfaces, multicomponent heterostructures can integrate distinct building blocks into single entities and yield exceptional functionalities enabled by the synergistic components. Here we report an efficient approach to construct one-dimensional metal/sulfide heterostructures by directly sulfuring highly composition-segregated platinum-nickel nanowires. The heterostructures possess a high density of interfaces between platinum-nickel and nickel sulfide components, which cooperate synergistically towards alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction. The platinum-nickel/nickel sulfide heterostructures can deliver a current density of 37.2 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 70 mV, which is 9.7 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C. The heterostructures also offer enhanced stability revealed by long-term chronopotentiometry measurements. The present work highlights a potentially powerful interface-engineering strategy for designing multicomponent heterostructures with advanced performance in hydrogen evolution reaction and beyond.

Electrostriction plays an important role in the electromechanical behavior of ferroelectrics and describes a phenomenon in dielectrics where the strain varies proportional to the square of the electric field/ polarization. Perovskite ferroelectrics demonstrating high piezoelectric performance, including BaTiO3, Pb(Zr1-xTix)O3, and relaxor-PbTiO3 materials, have been widely used in various electromechanical devices. To improve the piezoelectric activity of these materials, efforts have been focused on the ferroelectric phase transition regions, including shift the composition to the morphotropic phase boundary or shift polymorphic phase transition to room temperature. However, there is not much room left to further enhance the piezoelectric response in perovskite solid solutions using this approach. With the purpose of exploring alternative approaches, the electrostrictive effect is systematically surveyed in this paper. Initially, the techniques for measuring the electrostrictive effect are given and compared. Second, the origin of electrostriction is discussed. Then, the relationship between the electrostriction and the microstructure and macroscopic properties is surveyed. The electrostrictive properties of ferroelectric materials are investigated with respect to temperature, composition, phase, and orientation. The relationship between electrostriction and piezoelectric activity is discussed in detail for perovskite ferroelectrics to achieve new possibilities for piezoelectric enhancement. Finally, future perspectives for electrostriction studies are proposed. 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

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Solid-state dielectric energy storage is the most attractive and feasible way to store and release high power energy compared to chemical batteries and electrochemical super-capacitors.

Samarium supersensors Piezoelectric materials produce electric charge in response to changes in stress and are thus good sensor materials. One challenge has been growing single-crystal piezoelectrics with uniform properties. As of now, much of the crystal is discarded because of compositional variations. Li et al. synthesized single crystals of samarium-doped Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 that have uniform and extremely high piezoelectric properties (see the Perspective by Hlinka). These crystals are ideal for a variety of sensing applications and could reduce cost by eliminating waste. Science , this issue p. 264 ; see also p. 228

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We propose to realize ultra-wideband polarization conversion metasurfaces in microwave regime through multiple plasmon resonances. An ultra-wideband polarization conversion metasurface is designed using a double-head arrow structure and is further demonstrated both numerically and experimentally. Four plasmon resonances are generated by electric and magnetic resonances, which lead to bandwidth expansion of cross-polarization reflection. The simulated results show that the maximum conversion efficiency is nearly 100% at the four plasmon resonance frequencies and a 1:4 3 dB bandwidth can be achieved for both normally incident x- and y-polarized waves. Experimental results agree well with simulation ones.