Stabilizing Ti3C2Tx MXene flakes in air by removing confined water.

MXenes have demonstrated potential for various applications owing to their tunable surface chemistry and metallic conductivity. However, high temperatures can accelerate MXene film oxidation in air. Understanding the mechanisms of MXene oxidation at elevated temperatures, which is still limited, is critical in improving their thermal stability for high-temperature applications. Here, we demonstrate that Ti[Formula: see text]C[Formula: see text]T[Formula: see text] MXene monoflakes have exceptional thermal stability at temperatures up to 600[Formula: see text]C in air, while multiflakes readily oxidize in air at 300[Formula: see text]C. Density functional theory calculations indicate that confined water between Ti[Formula: see text]C[Formula: see text]T[Formula: see text] flakes has higher removal energy than surface water and can thus persist to higher temperatures, leading to oxidation. We demonstrate that the amount of confined water correlates with the degree of oxidation in stacked flakes. Confined water can be fully removed by vacuum annealing Ti[Formula: see text]C[Formula: see text]T[Formula: see text] films at 600[Formula: see text]C, resulting in substantial stability improvement in multiflake films (can withstand 600[Formula: see text]C in air). These findings provide fundamental insights into the kinetics of confined water and its role in Ti[Formula: see text]C[Formula: see text]T[Formula: see text] oxidation. This work enables the use of stable monoflake MXenes in high-temperature applications and provides guidelines for proper vacuum annealing of multiflake films to enhance their stability.

High-density stable glasses formed on soft substrates.

Enabled by surface-mediated equilibration, physical vapour deposition can create high-density stable glasses comparable with liquid-quenched glasses aged for millions of years. Deposition is often performed at various rates and temperatures on rigid substrates to control the glass properties. Here we demonstrate that on soft, rubbery substrates, surface-mediated equilibration is enhanced up to 170 nm away from the interface, forming stable glasses with densities up to 2.5% higher than liquid-quenched glasses within 2.5 h of deposition. Gaining similar properties on rigid substrates would require 10 million times slower deposition, taking ~3,000 years. Controlling the modulus of the rubbery substrate provides control over the glass structure and density at constant deposition conditions. These results underscore the significance of substrate elasticity in manipulating the properties of the mobile surface layer and thus the glass structure and properties, allowing access to deeper states of the energy landscape without prohibitively slow deposition rates.

Surface-Mediated Formation of Stable Glasses.

Surfaces mediate the formation of stable glasses (SGs) upon physical vapor deposition (PVD) for a wide range of glass formers. The thermodynamic and kinetic stability of SGs and their anisotropic packing structures are controlled through the deposition parameters (deposition temperature and rate) as well as the chemical structure and composition of the glass former. The resulting PVD glass properties can therefore be related to the structure and dynamics of the glass surface, which can have oriented packing, enhanced surface diffusion, and a lower glass transition temperature, and can facilitate an enhanced aging rate of the interfacial region. We review our current understanding of the details of this surface-mediated SG formation process and discuss key gaps in our knowledge of glass surface dynamics and their effect on this process.

Glasses denser than the supercooled liquid.

When aged below the glass transition temperature, [Formula: see text], the density of a glass cannot exceed that of the metastable supercooled liquid (SCL) state, unless crystals are nucleated. The only exception is when another polyamorphic SCL state exists, with a density higher than that of the ordinary SCL. Experimentally, such polyamorphic states and their corresponding liquid-liquid phase transitions have only been observed in network-forming systems or those with polymorphic crystalline states. In otherwise simple liquids, such phase transitions have not been observed, either in aged or vapor-deposited stable glasses, even near the Kauzmann temperature. Here, we report that the density of thin vapor-deposited films of N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD) can exceed their corresponding SCL density by as much as 3.5% and can even exceed the crystal density under certain deposition conditions. We identify a previously unidentified high-density supercooled liquid (HD-SCL) phase with a liquid-liquid phase transition temperature ([Formula: see text]) ∼35 K below the nominal glass transition temperature of the ordinary SCL. The HD-SCL state is observed in glasses deposited in the thickness range of 25 to 55 nm, where thin films of the ordinary SCL have exceptionally enhanced surface mobility with large mobility gradients. The enhanced mobility enables vapor-deposited thin films to overcome kinetic barriers for relaxation and access the HD-SCL state. The HD-SCL state is only thermodynamically favored in thin films and transforms rapidly to the ordinary SCL when the vapor deposition is continued to form films with thicknesses more than 60 nm.

Pulsed Force Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy through Integration of Lock-In Detection.

Kelvin probe force microscopy measures surface potential and delivers insights into nanoscale electronic properties, including work function, doping levels, and localized charges. Recently developed pulsed force Kelvin probe force microscopy (PF-KPFM) provides sub-10 nm spatial resolution under ambient conditions, but its original implementation is hampered by instrument complexity and limited operational speed. Here, we introduce a solution for overcoming these two limitations: a lock-in amplifier-based PF-KPFM. Our method involves phase-synchronized switching of a field effect transistor to mediate the Coulombic force between the probe and the sample. We validate its efficacy on two-dimensional material MXene and aged perovskite photovoltaic films. Lock-in-based PF-KPFM successfully identifies the contact potential difference (CPD) of stacked flakes and finds that the CPDs of monoflake MXene are different from those of their multiflake counterparts, which are otherwise similar in value. In perovskite films, we uncover electrical degradation that remains elusive with surface topography.

Polyamorphism of vapor-deposited amorphous selenium in response to light.

Enhanced surface mobility is critical in producing stable glasses during physical vapor deposition. In amorphous selenium (a-Se) both the structure and dynamics of the surface can be altered when exposed to above-bandgap light. Here we investigate the effect of light on the properties of vapor-deposited a-Se glasses at a range of substrate temperatures and deposition rates. We demonstrate that deposition both under white light illumination and in the dark results in thermally and kinetically stable glasses. Compared to glasses deposited in the dark, stable a-Se glasses formed under white light have reduced thermal stability, as measured by lower density change, but show significantly improved kinetic stability, measured as higher onset temperature for transformation. While light induces enhanced mobility that penetrates deep into the surface, resulting in lower density during vapor deposition, it also acts to form more networked structures at the surface, which results in a state that is kinetically more stable with larger optical birefringence. We demonstrate that the structure formed during deposition with light is a state that is not accessible through liquid quenching, aging, or vapor deposition in the dark, indicating the formation of a unique amorphous solid state.

The role of intramolecular relaxations on the structure and stability of vapor-deposited glasses.

Stable glasses (SGs) are formed through surface-mediated equilibration (SME) during physical vapor deposition (PVD). Unlike intermolecular interactions, the role of intramolecular degrees of freedom in this process remains unexplored. Here, using experiments and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that varying dihedral rotation barriers of even a single bond, in otherwise isomeric molecules, can strongly influence the structure and stability of PVD glasses. These effects arise from variations in the degree of surface mobility, mobility gradients, and mobility anisotropy, at a given deposition temperature (Tdep). At high Tdep, flexible molecules have access to more configurations, which enhances the rate of SME, forming isotropic SGs. At low Tdep, stability is achieved by out of equilibrium aging of the surface layer. Here, the poor packing of rigid molecules enhances the rate of surface-mediated aging, producing stable glasses with layered structures in a broad range of Tdep. In contrast, the dynamics of flexible molecules couple more efficiently to the glass layers underneath, resulting in reduced mobility and weaker mobility gradients, producing unstable glasses. Independent of stability, the flattened shape of flexible molecules can also promote in-plane orientational order at low Tdep. These results indicate that small changes in intramolecular relaxation barriers can be used as an approach to independently tune the structure and mobility profiles of the surface layer and, thus, the stability and structure of PVD glasses.

Effects of microstructure formation on the stability of vapor-deposited glasses.

Glasses formed by physical vapor deposition (PVD) are an interesting new class of materials, exhibiting properties thought to be equivalent to those of glasses aged for thousands of years. Exerting control over the structure and properties of PVD glasses formed with different types of glass-forming molecules is now an emerging challenge. In this work, we study coarse-grained models of organic glass formers containing fluorocarbon tails of increasing length, corresponding to an increased tendency to form microstructures. We use simulated PVD to examine how the presence of the microphase-separated domains in the supercooled liquid influences the ability to form stable glasses. This model suggests that increasing molecule tail length results in decreased thermodynamic stability of the molecules in PVD films. The reduced stability is further linked to the reduced ability of these molecules to equilibrate at the free surface during PVD. We find that, as the tail length is increased, the relaxation times near the surface of the supercooled equilibrium liquid films of these molecules are slowed and become essentially bulk-like, due to the segregation of the fluorocarbon tails to the free surface. Surface diffusion is also markedly reduced due to clustering of the molecules at the surface. Based on these results, we propose a trapping mechanism where tails are unable to move between local phase-separated domains on the relevant deposition time scales.

Effect of Nanopore Geometry in the Conformation and Vibrational Dynamics of a Highly Confined Molecular Glass.

The effect of nanoporous confinement on the glass transition temperature (Tg) strongly depends on the type of porous media. Here, we study the molecular origins of this effect in a molecular glass, N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD), highly confined in concave and convex geometries. When confined in controlled pore glass (CPG) with convex pores, TPD's vibrational spectra remained unchanged and two Tg's were observed, consistent with previous studies. In contrast, when confined in silica nanoparticle packings with concave pores, the vibrational peaks were shifted due to more planar conformations and Tg increased, as the pore size was decreased. The strong Tg increases in concave pores indicate significantly slower relaxation dynamics compared to CPG. Given TPD's weak interaction with silica, these effects are entropic in nature and are due to conformational changes at molecular level. The results highlight the role of intramolecular degrees of freedom in the glass transition, which have not been extensively explored.

Wavelength-Dependent Photothermal Imaging Probes Nanoscale Temperature Differences among Subdiffraction Coupled Plasmonic Nanorods.

Plasmonic structures confine electromagnetic energy at the nanoscale, resulting in local, inhomogeneous, controllable heating, but reading out the temperature using optical techniques poses a difficult challenge. Here, we report on the optical thermometry of individual gold nanorod trimers that exhibit multiple wavelength-dependent plasmon modes resulting in measurably different local temperature distributions. Specifically, we demonstrate how photothermal microscopy encodes different wavelength-dependent temperature profiles in the asymmetry of the photothermal image point spread function. These asymmetries are interpreted through companion numerical simulations to reveal how thermal gradients within the trimer can be controlled by exciting its hybridized plasmon modes. We also find that plasmon modes that are optically dark can be excited by focused laser beam illumination, providing another route to modify thermal profiles beyond wide-field illumination. Taken together these findings demonstrate an all-optical thermometry technique to actively create and measure nanoscale thermal gradients below the diffraction limit.

Design of a homologous series of molecular glassformers.

We design and synthesize a set of homologous organic molecules by taking advantage of facile and tailorable Suzuki cross coupling reactions to produce triarylbenzene derivatives. By adjusting the number and the arrangement of conjugated rings, the identity of heteroatoms, lengths of fluorinated alkyl chains, and other interaction parameters, we create a library of glassformers with a wide range of properties. Measurements of the glass transition temperature (Tg) show a power-law relationship between Tg and molecular weight (MW), with of the molecules, with an exponent of 0.3 ± 0.1, for Tg values spanning a range of 300-450 K. The trends in indices of refraction and expansion coefficients indicate a general increase in the glass density with MW, consistent with the trends observed in Tg variations. A notable exception to these trends was observed with the addition of alkyl and fluorinated alkyl groups, which significantly reduced Tg and increased the dynamical fragility (which is otherwise insensitive to MW). This is an indication of reduced density and increased packing frustrations in these systems, which is also corroborated by the observations of the decreasing index of refraction with increasing length of these groups. These data were used to launch a new database for glassforming materials, glass.apps.sas.upenn.edu.

Decoupling of surface diffusion and relaxation dynamics of molecular glasses.

Tobacco mosaic virus is used as a probe to measure surface diffusion of ultrathin films of N,N'-Bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD) (12 nm [Formula: see text] 53 nm, where [Formula: see text] is the film thickness) at various temperatures below the glass transition temperature, [Formula: see text], of all films. As the film thickness is decreased, [Formula: see text] decreases rapidly and the average film dynamics are enhanced by 6-14 orders of magnitude. We show that the surface diffusion is invariant of the film thickness decrease and the resulting enhanced overall mobility. The values of the surface diffusion coefficient and its temperature dependence are invariant of film thickness and are the same as the corresponding bulk values ([Formula: see text]400 nm). For the thinnest films ([Formula: see text]20 nm), the effective activation energy for rearrangement (temperature dependence of relaxation times) becomes smaller than the activation energy for surface diffusion. These results suggest that the fast surface diffusion is decoupled from film relaxation dynamics and is a solely free surface property.

Using a FRET Library with Multiple Probe Pairs To Drive Monte Carlo Simulations of α-Synuclein.

We describe a strategy for experimentally-constraining computational simulations of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), using α-synuclein, an IDP with a central role in Parkinson's disease pathology, as an example. Previously, data from single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) experiments have been effectively utilized to generate experimentally constrained computational models of IDPs. However, the fluorophores required for single-molecule FRET experiments are not amenable to the study of short-range (<30 Å) interactions. Using ensemble FRET measurements allows one to acquire data from probes with multiple distance ranges, which can be used to constrain Monte Carlo simulations in PyRosetta. To appropriately employ ensemble FRET data as constraints, we optimized the shape and weight of constraining potentials to afford ensembles of structures that are consistent with experimental data. We also used this approach to examine the structure of α-synuclein in the presence of the compacting osmolyte trimethylamine-N-oxide. Despite significant compaction imparted by 2 M trimethylamine-N-oxide, the underlying ensemble of α-synuclein remains largely disordered and capable of aggregation, also in agreement with experimental data. These proof-of-concept experiments demonstrate that our modeling protocol enables one to efficiently generate experimentally constrained models of IDPs that incorporate atomic-scale detail, allowing one to study an IDP under a variety of conditions.

Kinetics of Surface-Mediated Fibrillization of Amyloid-ß (12-28) Peptides.

Surfaces or interfaces are considered to be key factors in facilitating the formation of amyloid fibrils under physiological conditions. In this report, we study the kinetics of the surface-mediated fibrillization (SMF) of an amyloid-ß fragment (Aß12-28) on mica. We employ a spin-coating-based drying procedure to control the exposure time of the substrate to a low-concentration peptide solution and then monitor the fibril growth as a function of time via atomic force microscopy (AFM). The evolution of surface-mediated fibril growth is quantitatively characterized in terms of the length histogram of imaged fibrils and their surface concentration. A two-dimensional (2D) kinetic model is proposed to numerically simulate the length evolution of surface-mediated fibrils by assuming a diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) process along with size-dependent rate constants. We find that both monomer and fibril diffusion on the surface are required to obtain length histograms as a function of time that resemble those observed in experiments. The best-fit simulated data can accurately describe the key features of experimental length histograms and suggests that the mobility of loosely bound amyloid species is crucial in regulating the kinetics of SMF. We determine that the mobility exponent for the size dependence of the DLA rate constants is α = 0.55 ± 0.05, which suggests that the diffusion of loosely bound surface fibrils roughly depends on the inverse of the square root of their size. These studies elucidate the influence of deposition rate and surface diffusion on the formation of amyloid fibrils through SMF. The method used here can be broadly adopted to study the diffusion and aggregation of peptides or proteins on various surfaces to investigate the role of chemical interactions in two-dimensional fibril formation and diffusion.

Effects of polymer-nanoparticle interactions on the viscosity of unentangled polymers under extreme nanoconfinement during capillary rise infiltration.

We explore the effect of confinement and polymer-nanoparticle interactions on the viscosity of unentangled polymers undergoing capillary rise infiltration (CaRI) in dense packings of nanoparticles. In CaRI, a polymer is thermally induced to wick into the dense packings of nanoparticles, leading to the formation of polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle films, a new class of thin film nanocomposites with extremely high concentrations of nanoparticles. To understand the effect of this extreme nanoconfinement, as well as polymer-nanoparticle interactions on the polymer viscosity in CaRI films, we use two polymers that are known to have very different interactions with SiO2 nanoparticles. Using in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry, we monitor the polymer infiltration process, from which we infer the polymer viscosity based on the Lucas-Washburn model. Our results suggest that physical confinement increases the viscosity by approximately two orders of magnitude. Furthermore, confinement also increases the glass transition temperature of both polymers. Thus, under extreme nanoconfinement, the physical confinement has a more significant impact than the polymer-nanoparticle interactions on the viscosity of unentangled polymers, measured through infiltration dynamics, as well as the glass transition temperature. These findings will provide fundamental frameworks for designing processes to enable the fabrication of CaRI nanocomposite films with a wide range of nanoparticles and polymers.

Effect of substrate interactions on the glass transition and length-scale of correlated dynamics in ultra-thin molecular glass films.

Interfacial interactions can play an important role in the glass transition temperature (T g ) and relaxation dynamics of ultra-thin glass polymer films. We have recently shown that similar to the polymeric systems in ultra-thin molecular glass films of N, N'-Bis(3-methylphenyl)-N, N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD), the T g is reduced and dynamics are enhanced. Furthermore, in molecular glass systems, as the film thickness is reduced below ∼30 nm, the dynamics at the two interfaces correlate such that the range of the gradients in the dynamics induced by the free surface narrows compared to thicker films. These observations indicate that the dynamics of the glassy thin films are strongly correlated and cannot be explained by a simple two-layer model consisting of a bulk and a thin interfacial layer with a constant thickness and constant range of dynamical gradients. Here, we investigate the effect of film/substrate interactions on the film dynamics by varying the TPD/substrate interfacial interactions. We show that thin TPD films with thicknesses below ∼60 nm show a smaller extent of T g reduction and enhanced dynamics when supported on a near-neutral substrate (wetting) compared to a weakly interacting (dewetting) substrate. However, the ∼30 nm length scale, where the activation energy significantly reduces from its bulk value as measured by the onset of the glass transition remains unchanged. Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation also shows a narrowing in the range of relaxation times once the thickness is sufficiently reduced for the two interfaces to dynamically correlate, consistent with previous work. These results suggest that the length-scale for the correlated dynamics is independent of interfacial interactions and the polymeric nature of the film and may originate from the bulk glass properties.

Invariant Fast Diffusion on the Surfaces of Ultrastable and Aged Molecular Glasses.

Surface diffusion of molecular glasses is found to be orders of magnitude faster than bulk diffusion, with a stronger dependence on the molecular size and intermolecular interactions. In this study, we investigate the effect of variations in bulk dynamics on the surface diffusion of molecular glasses. Using the tobacco mosaic virus as a probe particle, we measure the surface diffusion on glasses of the same composition but with orders of magnitude of variations in bulk relaxation dynamics, produced by physical vapor deposition, physical aging, and liquid quenching. The bulk fictive temperatures of these glasses span over 35 K, indicating 13 to 20 orders of magnitude changes in bulk relaxation times. However, the surface diffusion coefficients on these glasses are measured to be identical at two temperatures below the bulk glass transition temperature T_{g}. These results suggest that surface diffusion has no dependence on the bulk relaxation dynamics when measured below T_{g}.

Birefringent Stable Glass with Predominantly Isotropic Molecular Orientation.

Birefringence in stable glasses produced by physical vapor deposition often implies molecular alignment similar to liquid crystals. As such, it remains unclear whether these glasses share the same energy landscape as liquid-quenched glasses that have been aged for millions of years. Here, we produce stable glasses of 9-(3,5-di(naphthalen-1-yl)phenyl)anthracene molecules that retain three-dimensional shapes and do not preferentially align in a specific direction. Using a combination of angle- and polarization-dependent photoluminescence and ellipsometry experiments, we show that these stable glasses possess a predominantly isotropic molecular orientation while being optically birefringent. The intrinsic birefringence strongly correlates with increased density, showing that molecular ordering is not required to produce stable glasses or optical birefringence, and provides important insights into the process of stable glass formation via surface-mediated equilibration. To our knowledge, such novel amorphous packing has never been reported in the past.

Out-of-plane orientation alignment and reorientation dynamics of gold nanorods in polymer nanocomposite films.

In this work, we develop a novel, in situ characterization method to measure the orientation order parameter and investigate the reorientation and reshaping dynamics of polymer grafted gold nanorods (AuNRs) in polymer nanocomposite (PNC) thin films. The long aspect-ratio of AuNRs results in two well-defined plasmon resonance modes, allowing the optical properties of the PNC to be tuned over a wide spectral range. The alignment of the AuNRs in a particular direction can also be used to further tune these optical properties. We utilize variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry as a unique technique to measure the optical properties of PNC films containing AuNRs at various angles of incidence, and use effective index of refraction analysis of the PNC to relate the birefringence in the film due to changes of the plasmon coupling to the orientation order parameter of AuNRs. Polymer thin films (ca. 70 nm) of either polystyrene (PS) or poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) containing PS grafted AuNRs are probed with ellipsometry, and the resulting extinction coefficient spectra compare favorably with more traditional analytical techniques, electron microscopy (EM) and optical absorbance (vis-NIR) spectroscopy. Furthermore, variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry measures optical birefringence, which allows us to determine the in- and out-of plane order of the AuNRs, a property that is not easily accessible using other measurement techniques. Additionally, this technique is applied in situ to demonstrate that AuNRs undergo a rapid (ca. 1-5 hours) reorientation before undergoing a slower (ca. 24 hours) rod to sphere shape transition. The reorientation behavior is different depending on the polymer matrix used. In the athermal case (i.e. PS matrix), the AuNRs reorient isotropically, while in PMMA the AuNRs do not become isotropic, which we hypothesize is due to PMMA preferentially wetting the silica substrate, leaving less vertical space for the AuNRs to reorient.

Exploring the broadening and the existence of two glass transitions due to competing interfacial effects in thin, supported polymer films.

In this report, we use ellipsometry to characterize the glass transition in ultra-thin films of poly(2-vinyl pyridine) (P2VP) supported on a silicon substrate. P2VP is known to have attractive substrate interactions, which can increase the Tg of ultra-thin films compared to the bulk value. Here, we use an extended temperature range to show that the glass transition can be extremely broad, indicating that a large gradient of the dynamics exists through the film with slow dynamics near the substrate and enhanced dynamics at the free surface. To observe the effect of these two interfaces on the average thin film dynamics, cooling rate-dependent Tg (CR-Tg) measurements were used to indirectly probe the average relaxation times of the films. We demonstrate that ultra-thin films have lower fragility compared to bulk films, and, when cooled at slow cooling rates (<1 K/min), exhibit extreme broadening of the dynamics (<70 nm) and eventually complete decoupling between the free surface and substrate regions to produce films with two distinct Tg's (<16 nm). Tg,high increases with decreasing thickness in a similar manner to what has been observed in previous studies on P2VP, and Tg,low decreases with decreasing film thickness in a similar manner to what has been observed in polymer films with enhanced free surfaces and neutral substrate interactions. These observations indicate that the dynamics in thin films of P2VP can be strongly coupled over a length scale of ∼10-20 nm, resulting in two co-existing layers with two distinct glass transitions when the range of the dynamical gradients become too large to sustain (breadth of the transition > 50 K).