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Covalency-Driven Preservation of Local Charge Densities in a Metal-to-Ligand Charge-Transfer Excited Iron Photosensitizer
2019, Jay, Raphael M., Eckert, Sebastian, Vaz da Cruz, Vinicius, Fondell, Mattis, Mitzner, Rolf, Föhlisch, Alexander
Covalency is found to even out charge separation after photo-oxidation of the metal center in the metal-to-ligand charge-transfer state of an iron photosensitizer. The σ-donation ability of the ligands compensates for the loss of iron 3d electronic charge, thereby upholding the initial metal charge density and preserving the local noble-gas configuration. These findings are enabled through element-specific and orbital-selective time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the iron L-edge. Thus, valence orbital populations around the central metal are directly accessible. In conjunction with density functional theory we conclude that the picture of a localized charge-separation is inadequate. However, the unpaired spin density provides a suitable representation of the electron–hole pair associated with the electron-transfer process. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
Strong and ductile high temperature soft magnets through Widmanstätten precipitates
2023, Han, Liuliu, Maccari, Fernando, Soldatov, Ivan, Peter, Nicolas J., Souza Filho, Isnaldi R., Schäfer, Rudolf, Gutfleisch, Oliver, Li, Zhiming, Raabe, Dierk
Fast growth of sustainable energy production requires massive electrification of transport, industry and households, with electrical motors as key components. These need soft magnets with high saturation magnetization, mechanical strength, and thermal stability to operate efficiently and safely. Reconciling these properties in one material is challenging because thermally-stable microstructures for strength increase conflict with magnetic performance. Here, we present a material concept that combines thermal stability, soft magnetic response, and high mechanical strength. The strong and ductile soft ferromagnet is realized as a multicomponent alloy in which precipitates with a large aspect ratio form a Widmanstätten pattern. The material shows excellent magnetic and mechanical properties at high temperatures while the reference alloy with identical composition devoid of precipitates significantly loses its magnetization and strength at identical temperatures. The work provides a new avenue to develop soft magnets for high-temperature applications, enabling efficient use of sustainable electrical energy under harsh operating conditions.
Amorphous martensite in β-Ti alloys
2018, Zhang, L., Zhang, H., Ren, X., Eckert, J., Wang, Y., Zhu, Z., Gemming, T., Pauly, S.
Martensitic transformations originate from a rigidity instability, which causes a crystal to change its lattice in a displacive manner. Here, we report that the martensitic transformation on cooling in Ti-Zr-Cu-Fe alloys yields an amorphous phase instead. Metastable β-Ti partially transforms into an intragranular amorphous phase due to local lattice shear and distortion. The lenticular amorphous plates, which very much resemble α′/α″ martensite in conventional Ti alloys, have a well-defined orientation relationship with the surrounding β-Ti crystal. The present solid-state amorphization process is reversible, largely cooling rate independent and constitutes a rare case of congruent inverse melting. The observed combination of elastic softening and local lattice shear, thus, is the unifying mechanism underlying both martensitic transformations and catastrophic (inverse) melting. Not only do we reveal an alternative mechanism for solid-state amorphization but also establish an explicit experimental link between martensitic transformations and catastrophic melting.
Dehydropolymerisation of Methylamine Borane and an N-Substituted Primary Amine Borane Using a PNP Fe Catalyst
2020, Anke, Felix, Boye, Susanne, Spannenberg, Anke, Lederer, Albena, Heller, Detlef, Beweries, Torsten
Dehydropolymerisation of methylamine borane (H3B⋅NMeH2) using the well-known iron amido complex [(PNP)Fe(H)(CO)] (PNP=N(CH2CH2PiPr2)2) (1) gives poly(aminoborane)s by a chain-growth mechanism. In toluene, rapid dehydrogenation of H3B⋅NMeH2 following first-order behaviour as a limiting case of a more general underlying Michaelis–Menten kinetics is observed, forming aminoborane H2B=NMeH, which selectively couples to give high-molecular-weight poly(aminoborane)s (H2BNMeH)n and only traces of borazine (HBNMe)3 by depolymerisation after full conversion. Based on a series of comparative experiments using structurally related Fe catalysts and dimethylamine borane (H3B⋅NMe2H) polymer formation is proposed to occur by nucleophilic chain growth as reported earlier computationally and experimentally. A silyl functionalised primary borane H3B⋅N(CH2SiMe3)H2 was studied in homo- and co-dehydropolymerisation reactions to give the first examples for Si containing poly(aminoborane)s. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
Engineering new limits to magnetostriction through metastability in iron-gallium alloys
2021, Meisenheimer, P.B., Steinhardt, R.A., Sung, S.H., Williams, L.D., Zhuang, S., Nowakowski, M.E., Novakov, S., Torunbalci, M.M., Prasad, B., Zollner, C. J., Wang, Z., Dawley, N.M., Schubert, J., Hunter, A.H., Manipatruni, S., Nikonov, D.E., Young, I.A., Chen, L.Q., Bokor, J., Bhave, S.A., Ramesh, R., Hu, J.-M., Kioupakis, E., Hovden, R., Schlom, D.G., Heron, J.T.
Magnetostrictive materials transduce magnetic and mechanical energies and when combined with piezoelectric elements, evoke magnetoelectric transduction for high-sensitivity magnetic field sensors and energy-efficient beyond-CMOS technologies. The dearth of ductile, rare-earth-free materials with high magnetostrictive coefficients motivates the discovery of superior materials. Fe1−xGax alloys are amongst the highest performing rare-earth-free magnetostrictive materials; however, magnetostriction becomes sharply suppressed beyond x = 19% due to the formation of a parasitic ordered intermetallic phase. Here, we harness epitaxy to extend the stability of the BCC Fe1−xGax alloy to gallium compositions as high as x = 30% and in so doing dramatically boost the magnetostriction by as much as 10x relative to the bulk and 2x larger than canonical rare-earth based magnetostrictors. A Fe1−xGax − [Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]0.7−[PbTiO3]0.3 (PMN-PT) composite magnetoelectric shows robust 90° electrical switching of magnetic anisotropy and a converse magnetoelectric coefficient of 2.0 × 10−5 s m−1. When optimally scaled, this high coefficient implies stable switching at ~80 aJ per bit.
Earth-abundant photocatalytic systems for the visible-light-driven reduction of CO2 to CO
2017, Rosas-Hernández, Alonso, Steinlechner, Christoph, Junge, Henrik, Beller, Matthias
Herein, we report a highly selective photocatalytic system, based on an in situ copper photosensitizer and an iron catalyst, for the reduction of CO2 to CO. Turnover numbers (TON) up to 487 (5 h) with selectivities up to 99% and ΦCO = 13.3% were observed. Stern-Volmer analysis allowed us to establish a reductive quenching mechanism between the Cu PS and electron donor.
Promoting abnormal grain growth in Fe-based shape memory alloys through compositional adjustments
2019, Vollmer, M., Arold, T., Kriegel, M.J., Klemm, V., Degener, S., Freudenberger, J., Niendorf, T.
Iron-based shape memory alloys are promising candidates for large-scale structural applications due to their cost efficiency and the possibility of using conventional processing routes from the steel industry. However, recently developed alloy systems like Fe–Mn–Al–Ni suffer from low recoverability if the grains do not completely cover the sample cross-section. To overcome this issue, here we show that small amounts of titanium added to Fe–Mn–Al–Ni significantly enhance abnormal grain growth due to a considerable refinement of the subgrain sizes, whereas small amounts of chromium lead to a strong inhibition of abnormal grain growth. By tailoring and promoting abnormal grain growth it is possible to obtain very large single crystalline bars. We expect that the findings of the present study regarding the elementary mechanisms of abnormal grain growth and the role of chemical composition can be applied to tailor other alloy systems with similar microstructural features.
Selective catalytic two-step process for ethylene glycol from carbon monoxide
2016, Dong, Kaiwu, Elangovan, Saravanakumar, Sang, Rui, Spannenberg, Anke, Jackstell, Ralf, Junge, Kathrin, Li, Yuehui, Beller, Matthias
Upgrading C1 chemicals (for example, CO, CO/H2, MeOH and CO2) with C-C bond formation is essential for the synthesis of bulk chemicals. In general, these industrially important processes (for example, Fischer Tropsch) proceed at drastic reaction conditions (>250 °C; high pressure) and suffer from low selectivity, which makes high capital investment necessary and requires additional purifications. Here, a different strategy for the preparation of ethylene glycol (EG) via initial oxidative coupling and subsequent reduction is presented. Separating coupling and reduction steps allows for a completely selective formation of EG (99%) from CO. This two-step catalytic procedure makes use of a Pd-catalysed oxycarbonylation of amines to oxamides at room temperature (RT) and subsequent Ru- or Fe-catalysed hydrogenation to EG. Notably, in the first step the required amines can be efficiently reused. The presented stepwise oxamide-mediated coupling provides the basis for a new strategy for selective upgrading of C1 chemicals.
Strongly correlated superconductor with polytypic 3D Dirac points
2020, Borisenko, Sergey, Bezguba, Volodymyr, Fedorov, Alexander, Kushnirenko, Yevhen, Voroshin, Vladimir, Sturza, Mihai, Aswartham, Saicharan
Topological superconductors should be able to provide essential ingredients for quantum computing, but are very challenging to realize. Spin–orbit interaction in iron-based superconductors opens the energy gap between the p-states of pnictogen and d-states of iron very close to the Fermi level, and such p-states have been recently experimentally detected. Density-functional theory predicts existence of topological surface states within this gap in FeTe1−xSex making it an attractive candidate material. Here we use synchrotron-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and band structure calculations to demonstrate that FeTe1−xSex (x = 0.45) is a superconducting 3D Dirac semimetal hosting type-I and type-II Dirac points and that its electronic structure remains topologically trivial. We show that the inverted band gap in FeTe1−xSex can possibly be realized by further increase of Te content, but strong correlations reduce it to a sub-meV size, making the experimental detection of this gap and corresponding topological surface states very challenging, not to mention exact matching with the Fermi level. On the other hand, the p–d and d–d interactions are responsible for the formation of extremely flat band at the Fermi level pointing to its intimate relation with the mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity in IBS.