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    Lifshitz transition in titanium carbide driven by a graphene overlayer
    (College Park, MD : APS, 2023) Krivenkov, M.; Marchenko, D.; Golias, E.; Sajedi, M.; Frolov, A.S.; Sánchez-Barriga, J.; Fedorov, A.; Yashina, L.V.; Rader, O.; Varykhalov, A.
    Two-dimensional (2D) Dirac materials are electronically and structurally very sensitive to proximity effects. We demonstrate, however, the opposite effect: that the deposition of a monolayer 2D material could exercise a substantial influence on the substrate electronic structure. Here we investigate TiC(111) and show that a graphene overlayer produces a proximity effect, changing the Fermi surface topology of the TiC from six electron pockets to one hole pocket on the depth of several atomic layers inside the substrate. In addition, the graphene electronic structure undergoes an extreme modification as well. While the Dirac cone remains gapless, it experiences an energy shift of 1.0 eV beyond what was recently achieved for the Lifshitz transition of overdoped graphene. Due to this shift, the antibonding π∗ band at the M¯ point becomes occupied and observable by photoemission.
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    Electrospinning of ultrafine metal oxide/carbon and metal carbide/carbon nanocomposite fibers
    (London : RSC Publishing, 2015) Atchison, Jennifer S.; Zeiger, Marco; Tolosa, Aura; Funke, Lena M.; Jäckel, Nicolas; Presser, Volker
    Electrospinning has emerged as a facile technology for the synthesis of ultrafine fibers and even nanofibers of various materials. While carbon nanofibers have been extensively investigated, there have also been studies reported on metal oxide and metal carbide fibers. Yet, comparative studies, especially following the same general synthesis approach, are lacking. In our comprehensive study, we use a sol gel process by which a carrier polymer (cellulose acetate or polyvinylpyrrolidone) is mixed with titanium butoxide, zirconium(IV) acetylacetonate, or niobium n-butoxide to yield nanotextured titania/carbon, zirconia/carbon, or niobia/carbon nonwoven textiles. Carbothermal reduction between 1300 °C and 1700 °C effectively transforms the metal oxide/carbon fibers to metal carbide/carbon nanocomposite while preserving the fiber integrity. As a beneficial effect, the fiber diameter decreases compared to the as-spun state and we obtained ultrafine fibers: 294 ± 108 nm for ZrC/C, 122 ± 28 nm for TiC/C, and 65 ± 36 nm for NbC/C. The highly disordered and porous nature of the carbon matrix engulfing the metal carbide nanocrystals enables a high specific surface area of up to 450 m2 g−1 (TiC/C) after carbothermal reduction.
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    Construction of cost-effective bimetallic nanoparticles on titanium carbides as a superb catalyst for promoting hydrolysis of ammonia borane
    (London : RSC Publishing, 2018) Guo, Zhangwei; Liu, Tong; Wang, Qingtao; Gao, Guanhui
    Bimetallic cost-effective CoNi nanoparticles (NPs) are conveniently supported on titanium carbides (MXene) by a simple one-step wet-chemical method. The synthesized CoNi/MXene catalysts are characterized by XPS, TEM, STEM-HAADF and ICP-AES. The as-prepared CoNi NPs with a size of 2.8 nm are well dispersed on the MXene surface. It is found that among the CoNi bimetallic system, Co0.7Ni0.3 shows the best performance toward catalyzing ammonia borane (AB) decomposition with a turnover frequency value of 87.6 molH2 molcat−1 min−1 at 50 °C. The remarkable catalytic performance is attributed to the mild affiliation of MXene to NPs, which not only stabilizes NPs to maintain a good dispersion but also leaves sufficient surface active sites to facilitate the catalytic reaction.