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In Situ Fabrication of Freestanding Single-Atom-Thick 2D Metal/Metallene and 2D Metal/ Metallene Oxide Membranes: Recent Developments
2021, Ta, Huy Q., Mendes, Rafael G., Liu, Yu, Yang, Xiaoqin, Luo, Jingping, Bachmatiuk, Alicja, Gemming, Thomas, Zeng, Mengqi, Fu, Lei, Liu, Lijun, Rümmeli, Mark H.
In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted a lot of research interest as they exhibit several fascinating properties. However, outside of 2D materials derived from van der Waals layered bulk materials only a few other such materials are realized, and it remains difficult to confirm their 2D freestanding structure. Despite that, many metals are predicted to exist as 2D systems. In this review, the authors summarize the recent progress made in the synthesis and characterization of these 2D metals, so called metallenes, and their oxide forms, metallene oxides as free standing 2D structures formed in situ through the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning TEM (STEM) to synthesize these materials. Two primary approaches for forming freestanding monoatomic metallic membranes are identified. In the first, graphene pores as a means to suspend the metallene or metallene oxide and in the second, electron-beam sputtering for the selective etching of metal alloys or thick complex initial materials is employed to obtain freestanding single-atom-thick 2D metal. The data show a growing number of 2D metals/metallenes and 2D metal/ metallene oxides having been confirmed and point to a bright future for further discoveries of these 2D materials.
Charge‐Compensated N‐Doped π ‐Conjugated Polymers: Toward both Thermodynamic Stability of N‐Doped States in Water and High Electron Conductivity
2022, Borrmann, Fabian, Tsuda, Takuya, Guskova, Olga, Kiriy, Nataliya, Hoffmann, Cedric, Neusser, David, Ludwigs, Sabine, Lappan, Uwe, Simon, Frank, Geisler, Martin, Debnath, Bipasha, Krupskaya, Yulia, Al‐Hussein, Mahmoud, Kiriy, Anton
The understanding and applications of electron-conducting π-conjugated polymers with naphtalene diimide (NDI) blocks show remarkable progress in recent years. Such polymers demonstrate a facilitated n-doping due to the strong electron deficiency of the main polymer chain and the presence of the positively charged side groups stabilizing a negative charge of the n-doped backbone. Here, the n-type conducting NDI polymer with enhanced stability of its n-doped states for prospective “in-water” applications is developed. A combined experimental–theoretical approach is used to identify critical features and parameters that control the doping and electron transport process. The facilitated polymer reduction ability and the thermodynamic stability in water are confirmed by electrochemical measurements and doping studies. This material also demonstrates a high conductivity of 10−2 S cm−1 under ambient conditions and 10−1 S cm−1 in vacuum. The modeling explains the stabilizing effects for various dopants. The simulations show a significant doping-induced “collapse” of the positively charged side chains on the core bearing a partial negative charge. This explains a decrease in the lamellar spacing observed in experiments. This study fundamentally enables a novel pathway for achieving both thermodynamic stability of the n-doped states in water and the high electron conductivity of polymers.
Intermixing-Driven Surface and Bulk Ferromagnetism in the Quantum Anomalous Hall Candidate MnBi6Te10
2023, Tcakaev, Abdul‐Vakhab, Rubrecht, Bastian, Facio, Jorge I., Zabolotnyy, Volodymyr B., Corredor, Laura T., Folkers, Laura C., Kochetkova, Ekaterina, Peixoto, Thiago R. F., Kagerer, Philipp, Heinze, Simon, Bentmann, Hendrik, Green, Robert J., Gargiani, Pierluigi, Valvidares, Manuel, Weschke, Eugen, Haverkort, Maurits W., Reinert, Friedrich, van den Brink, Jeroen, Büchner, Bernd, Wolter, Anja U. B., Isaeva, Anna, Hinkov, Vladimir
The recent realizations of the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) in MnBi2Te4 and MnBi4Te7 benchmark the (MnBi2Te4)(Bi2Te3)n family as a promising hotbed for further QAHE improvements. The family owes its potential to its ferromagnetically (FM) ordered MnBi2Te4 septuple layers (SLs). However, the QAHE realization is complicated in MnBi2Te4 and MnBi4Te7 due to the substantial antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling between the SLs. An FM state, advantageous for the QAHE, can be stabilized by interlacing the SLs with an increasing number n of Bi2Te3 quintuple layers (QLs). However, the mechanisms driving the FM state and the number of necessary QLs are not understood, and the surface magnetism remains obscure. Here, robust FM properties in MnBi6Te10 (n = 2) with Tc ≈ 12 K are demonstrated and their origin is established in the Mn/Bi intermixing phenomenon by a combined experimental and theoretical study. The measurements reveal a magnetically intact surface with a large magnetic moment, and with FM properties similar to the bulk. This investigation thus consolidates the MnBi6Te10 system as perspective for the QAHE at elevated temperatures.