Multislip-enabled morphing of all-inorganic perovskites.

All-inorganic lead halide perovskites (CsPbX3, X = Cl, Br or I) are becoming increasingly important for energy conversion and optoelectronics because of their outstanding performance and enhanced environmental stability. Morphing perovskites into specific shapes and geometries without damaging their intrinsic functional properties is attractive for designing devices and manufacturing. However, inorganic semiconductors are often intrinsically brittle at room temperature, except for some recently reported layered or van der Waals semiconductors. Here, by in situ compression, we demonstrate that single-crystal CsPbX3 micropillars can be substantially morphed into distinct shapes (cubic, L and Z shapes, rectangular arches and so on) without localized cleavage or cracks. Such exceptional plasticity is enabled by successive slips of partial dislocations on multiple [Formula: see text] systems, as evidenced by atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy and first-principles and atomistic simulations. The optoelectronic performance and bandgap of the devices were unchanged. Thus, our results suggest that CsPbX3 perovskites, as potential deformable inorganic semiconductors, may have profound implications for the manufacture of advanced optoelectronics and energy systems.

Topotactically transformable antiphase boundaries with enhanced ionic conductivity.

Engineering lattice defects have emerged as a promising approach to effectively modulate the functionality of devices. Particularly, antiphase boundaries (APBs) as planar defects have been considered major obstacles to optimizing the ionic conductivity of mixed ionic-electronic conductors (MIECs) in solid oxide fuel applications. Here our study identifies topotactically transformable APBs (tt-APBs) at the atomic level and demonstrates that they exhibit higher ionic conductivity at elevated temperatures as compared to perfect domains. In-situ observation at the atomic scale tracks dynamic oxygen migration across these tt-APBs, where the abundant interstitial sites between tetrahedrons facilitate the ionic migration. Furthermore, annealing in an oxidized atmosphere can lead to the formation of interstitial oxygen at these APBs. These pieces of evidence clearly clarify that the tt-APBs can contribute to oxygen conductivity as anion diffusion channels, while the topotactically non-transformable APBs cannot. The topotactic transformability opens the way of defect engineering strategies for improving ionic transportation in MIECs.

Dynamic information for cardiotoxin protein desorption from a methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayer using steered molecular dynamics simulation.

Dynamic information, such as force, structural change, interaction energy, and potential of mean force (PMF), about the desorption of a single cardiotoxin (CTX) protein from a methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayer (SAM) surface was investigated by means of steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations. The simulation results indicated that Loop I is the first loop to depart from the SAM surface, which is in good agreement with the results of the nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy experiment. The free energy landscape and the thermodynamic force of the CTX desorption process was represented by the PMF and by the derivative of PMF with respect to distance, respectively. By applying Jarzynski's equality, the PMF can be reconstructed from the SMD simulation. The PMFs, calculated by different estimators based upon Jarzynski's equality, were compared with the conventional umbrella sampling method. The best estimation was obtained by using the fluctuation-dissipation estimator with a pulling velocity of v = 0.25 nm/ns for the present study.

Modulation of Interfacial Thermal Transport between Fumed Silica Nanoparticles by Surface Chemical Functionalization for Advanced Thermal Insulation.

Since solid-state heat transport in a highly porous nanocomposite strongly depends on the thermal boundary conductance (TBC) between constituent nanomaterials, further suppression of the TBC is important for improving performance of thermal insulators. Here, targeting a nanocomposite fabricated by stamping fumed silica nanoparticles, we perform a wide variety of surface functionalizations on fumed silica nanoparticles by a silane coupling method and investigate the impact on the thermal conductivity (Km). The Km of the silica nanocomposite is approximately 20 and 9 mW/m/K under atmospheric and vacuum conditions at the material density of 0.2 g/cm3 without surface functionalization, respectively, and the experimental results indicate that the Km can be modulated depending on the chemical structure of molecules. The surface modification with a linear alkyl chain of optimal length significantly suppresses Km by approximately 30%, and the suppression can be further enhanced to approximately 50% with an infrared opacifier. The magnitude of suppression was found to sensitively depend on the length of the terminal chain. The magnitude is also related to the number of reactive silanol groups in the chemical structure, where the surface modification with fluorocarbon gives the largest suppression. The surface hydrophobization merits thermal insulation through significant suppression of the TBC, presumably by reducing the water molecules that otherwise would serve as heat conduction channels at the interface. On the other hand, when the chain length is long, the suppression is counteracted by the enhanced phonon transmission through the silane coupling molecules that grow with the chain length. This is supported by the analytical model and present simulation results, leading to prediction of the optimal chemical structure for better thermal insulation.

Weaker bonding can give larger thermal conductance at highly mismatched interfaces.

Thermal boundary conductance is typically positively correlated with interfacial adhesion at the interface. Here, we demonstrate a counterintuitive experimental result in which a weak van der Waals interface can give a higher thermal boundary conductance than a strong covalently bonded interface. This occurs in a system with highly mismatched vibrational frequencies (copper/diamond) modified by a self-assembled monolayer. Using finely controlled fabrication and detailed characterization, complemented by molecular simulation, the effects of bridging the vibrational spectrum mismatch and bonding at the interface are systematically varied and understood from a molecular dynamics viewpoint. The results reveal that the bridging and binding effects have a trade-off relationship and, consequently, that the bridging can overwhelm the binding effect at a highly mismatched interface. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of phonon transport at interfaces, unifying physical and chemical understandings, and allowing interfacial tailoring of the thermal transport in various material systems.

Enhanced thermal conductivity of nanofluids diagnosis by molecular dynamics simulations.

Molecular Dynamics simulations are performed to calculate the thermal conductivity of nanofluids, and to understand the fundamental physics of the enhancement of thermal conductivity observed in experiments. Based on the analysis, intermolecular interactions between copper-copper atoms, layer structure surrounding nanoparticles, convection effect induced by the Brownian motion of copper atoms, as well as particle-particle interactions are identified and confirmed on the enhancement using Green-Kubo method in thermal conductivity.

Thermodynamic investigations using molecular dynamics simulations with potential of mean force calculations for cardiotoxin protein adsorption on mixed self-assembled monolayers.

Understanding protein adsorption onto solid surfaces is of critical importance in the field of bioengineering, especially for applications such as medical implants, diagnostic biosensors, drug delivery systems, and tissue engineering. This study proposed the use of molecular dynamics simulations with potential of mean force (PMF) calculations to identify and characterize the mechanisms of adsorption of a protein molecule on a designed surface. A set of model systems consisting of a cardiotoxin (CTX) protein and mixed self-assembled monolayer (SAM) surfaces were used as examples. The set of mixed SAM surfaces with varying topographies were created by mixing alkanethiol chains of different lengths. The results revealed that CTX proteins underwent similar conformal changes upon adsorption onto the various mixed SAMs but showed distinctive characteristics in free energy profiles. Enhancement of the adsorption affinity, i.e., the change in free energy of adsorption, for mixed SAMs was demonstrated by using atomic force microscopic measurements. A component analysis conducted to quantify the physical mechanisms that promoted CTX adsorption revealed contributions from both SAMs and the solvent. Further component analyses of thermodynamic properties, such as the free energy, enthalpy, and entropy, indicated that the contribution from SAMs was driven by enthalpy, and the contribution from the solvent was driven by entropy. The results indicated that CTX adsorption was an entropy-driven process, and the entropic component from the solvent, i.e., the hydrophobic interaction, was the major driving force for CTX adsorption onto SAMs. The study also concluded that the surfaces composed of mixtures of SAMs with different chain lengths promoted the adsorption of CTX protein.

Mixed-SAM surfaces monitoring CTX-protein, part II: Analysis using molecular dynamics simulations.

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the physical mechanism of cobra cardiotoxin (CTX) proteins adsorption on alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) composed of S(CH(2))(5)CH(3) and S(CH(2))(9)CH(3). The binding energy of the CTX protein to the SAM surface of different mixing ratios of alkanethiol chains is calculated. The results show that the affinity of CTX to SAM reaches a maximum value when the ratio S(CH(2))(5)CH(3):S(CH(2))(9)CH(3) is 1:1, which agrees with the measurements of atomic force microscope obtained in Part I of our dual paper. Moreover, the binding energy is found to be linearly proportional to the CTX-SAM contact area. The hydrophobicity on CTX residues, the flexibility of SAMs and the behavior of water molecules near the SAM surface are examined to understand how these parameters affect the adsorption of a CTX protein on SAM surfaces. In addition, the importance of modeling water molecules explicitly in the study of protein adsorption is demonstrated by applying different solvent models.

Molecular dynamics simulation of the enhancement of cobra cardiotoxin and E6 protein binding on mixed self-assembled monolayer molecules.

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed on n-alkinethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and their mixture on a gold surface so that the orientations of the binding of cobra cardiotoxin and E6 protein molecules can be selected using the mixing ratio of CH3-terminated SAMs with different chain lengths. The simulations suggest that a SAM surface with different mixing ratios may provide a possible platform for aligning protein molecules with a desired orientation and for enhancing the binding energy of the protein on the designed surface.