| 1. |
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| 2. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(författare)
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Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
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Ingår i: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
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| 3. |
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- 2019
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 4. |
- Jian, Jingxin, et al.
(författare)
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A nanostructured NiO/cubic SiC p-n heterojunction photoanode for enhanced solar water splitting
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 7:9, s. 4721-4728
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting offers a promising method to convert the intermittent solar energy into renewable and storable chemical energy. However, the most studied semiconductors generally exhibit a poor PEC performance including low photocurrent, small photovoltage, and/or large onset potential. In this work, we demonstrate a significant enhancement of photovoltage and photocurrent together with a substantial decrease of onset potential by introducing electrocatalytic and p-type NiO nanoclusters on an n-type cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) photoanode. Under AM1.5G 100 mW cm(-2) illumination, the NiO-coated 3C-SiC photoanode exhibits a photocurrent density of 1.01 mA cm(-2) at 0.55 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (V-RHE), a very low onset potential of 0.20 V-RHE and a high fill factor of 57% for PEC water splitting. Moreover, the 3C-SiC/NiO photoanode shows a high photovoltage of 1.0 V, which is the highest value among reported photovoltages. The faradaic efficiency measurements demonstrate that NiO also protects the 3C-SiC surface against photo-corrosion. The impedance measurements evidence that the 3C-SiC/NiO photoanode facilitates the charge transfer for water oxidation. The valence-band position measurements confirm the formation of the 3C-SiC/NiO p-n heterojunction, which promotes the separation of the photogenerated carriers and reduces carrier recombination, thus resulting in enhanced solar water-splitting.
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| 5. |
- Jian, Jingxin, et al.
(författare)
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Cubic SiC Photoanode Coupling with Ni:FeOOH Oxygen-Evolution Cocatalyst for Sustainable Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation
- 2020
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Ingår i: Solar RRL. - : WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH. - 2367-198X. ; 4:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As an efficient water oxidation cocatalyst, the Earth-abundant nickel-iron oxyhydroxide (Ni:FeOOH) is introduced to coat on the cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) photoanode surface for improving the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation performance. The FeOOH is prepared on the 3C-SiC photoanode surface by hydrothermal deposition, followed by a photoassisted electrodeposition of NiOOH. It is shown that the Ni:FeOOH layer is composed of the beta-FeOOH nanorods with a conformal coating of the amorphous NiOOH. Under AM1.5G 100 mW cm(-2) illumination, the 3C-SiC/Ni:FeOOH photoanode exhibits a very low onset potential of 0.2 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (V-RHE) and a high photocurrent density of 1.15 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V-RHE, distinctly outperforming the 3C-SiC and the 3C-SiC/FeOOH counterparts. Open-circuit potential and impedance spectroscopy results demonstrate that the nanostructured Ni:FeOOH layer on the 3C-SiC surface increases the photovoltage and promotes the charge transfer toward the electrolyte, thus significantly improving the PEC water-splitting performance. These results provide new insights for the development of photoanodes toward efficient solar-fuel generation.
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| 6. |
- Kashiwaya, Shun, et al.
(författare)
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Synthesis of goldene comprising single-atom layer gold
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nature Synthesis. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2731-0582.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The synthesis of monolayer gold has so far been limited to free-standingseveral-atoms-thick layers, or monolayers confned on or inside templates.Here we report the exfoliation of single-atom-thick gold achieved throughwet-chemically etching away Ti3C2 from nanolaminated Ti3AuC2, initiallyformed by substituting Si in Ti3SiC2 with Au. Ti3SiC2 is a renown MAX phase,where M is a transition metal, A is a group A element, and X is C or N. Ourdeveloped synthetic route is by a facile, scalable and hydrofuoric acid-freemethod. The two-dimensional layers are termed goldene. Goldene layerswith roughly 9% lattice contraction compared to bulk gold are observedby electron microscopy. While ab initio molecular dynamics simulationsshow that two-dimensional goldene is inherently stable, experiments showsome curling and agglomeration, which can be mitigated by surfactants.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals an Au 4f binding energy increaseof 0.88 eV. Prospects for preparing goldene from other non-van der WaalsAu-intercalated phases, including developing etching schemes,are presented.
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| 7. |
- Li, Hao, et al.
(författare)
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Atomic-Scale Tuning of Graphene/Cubic SiC Schottky Junction for Stable Low-Bias Photoelectrochemical Solar-to-Fuel Conversion
- 2020
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Ingår i: ACS Nano. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1936-086X .- 1936-0851. ; 14:4, s. 4905-4915
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Engineering tunable graphene-semiconductor interfaces while simultaneously preserving the superior properties of graphene is critical to graphene-based devices for electronic, optoelectronic, biomedical, and photoelectrochemical applications. Here, we demonstrate this challenge can be surmounted by constructing an interesting atomic Schottky junction via epitaxial growth of high-quality and uniform graphene on cubic SiC (3C-SiC). By tailoring the graphene layers, the junction structure described herein exhibits an atomic-scale tunable Schottky junction with an inherent built-in electric field, making it a perfect prototype to systematically comprehend interfacial electronic properties and transport mechanisms. As a proof-of-concept study, the atomic-scale-tuned Schottky junction is demonstrated to promote both the separation and transport of charge carriers in a typical photoelectrochemical system for solar-to-fuel conversion under low bias. Simultaneously, the as-grown monolayer graphene with an extremely high conductivity protects the surface of 3C-SiC from photocorrosion and energetically delivers charge carriers to the loaded cocatalyst, achieving a synergetic enhancement of the catalytic stability and efficiency.
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| 8. |
- Li, Hao, et al.
(författare)
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Atomically manipulated proton transfer energizes water oxidation on silicon carbide photoanodes
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 6:47, s. 24358-24366
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Surmounting the sluggish water oxidation kinetics beyond the hole-dominated thermodynamic effect is a topic of great scientific interest to establish fully renewable hydrogen technology from solar-powered water splitting. Herein, we demonstrate that the bottleneck of photoelectrochemical water oxidation can be overcome via atomic manipulation of proton transfer on the polar surfaces of silicon carbide (SiC) photoanodes. On the typical carbon-face SiC, where proton-coupled electron transfer governed the interfacial hole transfer for water oxidation, substantial energy loss was inevitable due to the highly activated proton-transfer steps. Via preferentially exposing the silicon-face, we enabled surface-catalyzed barrierless O-H breaking with a facile proton exchange and migration character. This mechanistically shifted the rate limiting step of water oxidation from sluggish proton-coupled electron transfer to a more energy-favorable electron transfer. The proof-of-concept study introduced here may open up new possibilities to design sophisticated photoelectrodes for an unbiased solar water splitting cell via surface engineering.
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| 9. |
- Shi, Yuchen, et al.
(författare)
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A comparative study of high-quality C-face and Si-face 3C-SiC(1 1 1) grown on off-oriented 4H-SiC substrates
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Physics D. - : Biopress Ltd. - 0022-3727 .- 1361-6463. ; 52:34
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a comparative study of the C-face and Si-face of 3C-SiC(111) grown on off-oriented 4H-SiC substrates by the sublimation epitaxy. By the lateral enlargement method, we demonstrate that the high-quality bulk-like C-face 3C-SiC with thickness of ~1 mm can be grown over a large single domain without double positioning boundaries (DPBs), which are known to have a strongly negative impact on the electronic properties of the material. Moreover, the C-face sample exhibits a smoother surface with one unit cell height steps while the surface of the Si-face sample exhibits steps twice as high as on the C-face due to step-bunching. High-resolution XRD and low temperature photoluminescence measurements show that C-face 3C-SiC can reach the same high crystalline quality as the Si-face 3C-SiC. Furthermore, cross-section studies of the C- and Si-face 3C-SiC demonstrate that in both cases an initial homoepitaxial 4H-SiC layer followed by a polytype transition layer are formed prior to the formation and lateral expansion of 3C-SiC layer. However, the transition layer in the C-face sample is extending along the step-flow direction less than that on the Si-face sample, giving rise to a more fairly consistent crystalline quality 3C-SiC epilayer over the whole sample compared to the Si-face 3C-SiC where more defects appeared on the surface at the edge. This facilitates the lateral enlargement of 3C-SiC growth on hexagonal SiC substrates.
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| 10. |
- Shi, Yuchen, et al.
(författare)
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A patterning-free approach for growth of free-standing graphene nanoribbons using step-bunched facets of off-oriented 4H-SiC(0 0 0 1) epilayers
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0022-3727 .- 1361-6463. ; 53:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The tunable electronic structure of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) has attracted much attention due to the great potential in nanoscale electronic applications. Most methods to produce GNRs rely on the lithographic process, which suffers from the process-induced disorder in the graphene and scalability issues. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach to directly grow free-standing GNRs on step-bunched facets of off-oriented 4H-SiC epilayers without any patterning or lithography. First, the 4H-SiC epilayers with well-defined bunched steps were intentionally grown on 4 degree off-axis 4H-SiC substrates by the sublimation epitaxy technique. As a result, periodic step facets in-between SiC terraces were obtained. Then, graphene layers were grown on such step-structured 4H-SiC epilayers by thermal decomposition of SiC. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies reveal that the inclined step facets are about 13-15 nm high and 30-35 nm wide, which gives an incline angle of 23-25 degrees. LEEM and LEED results showed that the terraces are mainly covered by monolayer graphene and the buffer layer underneath it. STM images and the analysis of their Fourier transform patterns suggest that on the facets, in-between terraces, graphene is strongly buckled and appears to be largely decoupled from the surface.
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| 11. |
- Shi, Yuchen, et al.
(författare)
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Elimination of step bunching in the growth of large-area monolayer and multilayer graphene on off-axis 3CSiC (111)
- 2018
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Ingår i: Carbon. - : Elsevier. - 0008-6223 .- 1873-3891. ; 140, s. 533-542
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multilayer graphene has exhibited distinct electronic properties such as the tunable bandgap for optoelectronic applications. Among all graphene growth techniques, thermal decomposition of SiC is regarded as a promising method for production of device-quality graphene. However, it is still very challenging to grow uniform graphene over a large-area, especially multilayer graphene. One of the main obstacles is the occurrence of step bunching on the SiC surface, which significantly influences the formation process and the uniformity of the multilayer graphene. In this work, we have systematically studied the growth of monolayer and multilayer graphene on off-axis 3CSiC(111). Taking advantage of the synergistic effect of periodic SiC step edges as graphene nucleation sites and the unique thermal decomposition energy of 3CSiC steps, we demonstrate that the step bunching can be fully eliminated during graphene growth and large-area monolayer, bilayer, and four-layer graphene can be controllably obtained on high-quality off-axis 3CSiC(111) surface. The low energy electron microscopy results demonstrate that a uniform four-layer graphene has been grown over areas of tens of square micrometers, which opens the possibility to tune the bandgap for optoelectronic devices. Furthermore, a model for graphene growth along with the step bunching elimination is proposed.
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| 12. |
- Shi, Yuchen, et al.
(författare)
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Epitaxial Graphene Growth on the Step-Structured Surface of Off-Axis C-Face 3C-SiC(1¯1¯1¯)
- 2020
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Ingår i: Physica Status Solidi (B) Basic Research. - : Wiley. - 0370-1972 .- 1521-3951. ; 257:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Graphene layers grown on the C-face SiC exhibit quite different structural and electronic properties compared with those grown on the Si-face SiC. Herein, the growth and structural properties of graphene on the off-axis C-face 3C-SiC((Formula presented.)) are studied. The as-grown 4° off-axis 3C-SiC((Formula presented.)) exhibits highly periodic steps with step height of ≈0.75 nm and terrace width of ≈50 nm. After annealing at 1800 °C under 850 mbar argon atmosphere, relatively uniform large graphene domains can be grown. The low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) results demonstrate that one monolayer (ML) to four-ML graphene domains are grown over several micrometers square, which enables us to measure micro low-energy electron diffraction (μ-LEED) on the single graphene domain. The μ-LEED pattern collected on the monolayer domain mainly exhibits four sets of graphene (1 × 1) spots, indicating the presence of graphene grains with different azimuthal orientations in the same graphene sheet. Raman spectra collected on the graphene domains show rather small D peaks, indicating the presence of less defects and higher crystalline quality of the graphene layers grown on the C-face off-axis 3C-SiC((Formula presented.)).
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| 13. |
- Shi, Yuchen, 1991-
(författare)
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Growth of 3C-SiC and Graphene for Solar Water-Splitting Application
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Silicon carbide (SiC) is regarded as an important semiconductor for a variety of applications including high-temperature, high-power and high-frequency devices. The most common polytypes of SiC are hexagonal (4H- or 6H-SiC) and cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC), which differ from each other by the ordering of the Si–C bilayers along the c-axis crystal direction. Among different polytypes of SiC, 3C-SiC has attracted specific interest due to its prominent properties such as high electron mobility and low interface trap density in MOSFET devices. Moreover, with a relatively small bandgap of 2.36 eV and suitable conduction and valence band positions, 3C-SiC has also been considered as a promising material for solar water splitting application, which provides a completely renewable approach to convert solar energy into storable hydrogen fuel. However, the growth of high-quality 3C-SiC remains a great challenge for decades.Graphene, a single layer of sp2-bonded carbon atoms, has shown outstanding electronic properties and becomes the most promising candidate for next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. Epitaxial growth of graphene on SiC substrates by sublimation of Si from SiC provides a feasible route to fabricate wafer-scale device-quality graphene. The most advantage of this method is that a variety of devices can be processed directly on graphene/SiC without any transfer process, which is needed in the case of graphene produced by exfoliation or CVD on metals. During past years, the growth of monolayer (ML) graphene on hexagonal SiC (6H-SiC, 4H-SiC) substrates has been extensively studied. However, it is challenging to grow large-area and uniform multilayer graphene on hexagonal SiC substrates due to the stepbunching issue during the sublimation growth.Multilayer graphene has recently attracted great interest due to its tunable electronic properties for various electronic and optoelectronic applications. It has been shown that the electronic properties of multilayer graphene are strongly influenced by its stacking sequence. In particular, the rhombohedral stacking sequence (ABC stacking) has shown its potential to introduce a flat band energy dispersion at the K points of the Brillouin zone, which would result in many exotic phases of matter such as superconductivity. Among various SiC polytypes, 3CSiC is predicted to be the most suitable substrate for the epitaxial growth of rhombohedral multilayer graphene.This thesis work mainly covers the sublimation growth of high-quality Si-face and C-face 3C-SiC on off-oriented 4H-SiC, exploring the proper parameter window for the growth of homogeneous graphene layers ranging from monolayer to multilayer on Si-face off-oriented 3C-SiC and the growth of graphene on C-face 3C-SiC, as well as the characterizations on 3CSiC and graphene. Moreover, as a proof of concept, photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting cells based on the Si-face and C-face 3C-SiC have been fabricated to study the conversion of solar energy into chemical fuel, hydrogen.Firstly, the high-quality bulk-like Si-face and C-face 3C-SiC(111) were grown on 4- degree off-oriented 4H-SiC substrates by the sublimation epitaxy technique. The C-face sample exhibited a smoother surface with a step height of one-unit cell without the step bunching. In contrast, the Si-face 3C-SiC showed larger steps with a height of two-unit cells of 3C-SiC due to the pronounced step bunching. The cross-sectional studies showed that C-face 3C-SiC exhibited less polytype-transition layer than the Si-face sample. This would help the lateral enlargement of 3C-SiC domains. We also demonstrated that the crystalline quality of C-face 3C-SiC was comparable to the Si-face sample.Secondly, we systematically studied the growth of monolayer and multilayer graphene on off-axis 3C-SiC(111). Taking advantage of the synergistic effect of periodic SiC step edges as graphene nucleation sites and the unique thermal decomposition energy of 3C-SiC steps, we demonstrated that the step bunching was fully eliminated during graphene growth on Si-face 3C-SiC and large-area monolayer, bilayer, and four-layer graphene were controllably obtained on high-quality off-axis Si-face 3C-SiC(111). The growth of uniform four-layer graphene over areas of tens of square micrometers was demonstrated. The electronic structures of multilayer graphene with different stacking sequences were systematically studied by experimental and theoretical analysis. It was demonstrated that the four-layer graphene exhibited rhombohedral stacking sequence, which introduced a flat band near the Fermi level. Moreover, the flat-band width and bandgap can be tuned by the interlayer spacing of graphene. In contrast, graphene layers grown on the off-axis C-face 3C-SiC(1̄1̄1̄) showed 1ML to 4ML graphene domains with large-area coverage over several of square micrometers and there was no buffer layer underneath. The low energy electron diffraction pattern collected on the monolayer graphene domain demonstrated four sets of graphene (1 x 1) spots, indicating the existence of rotational disorders within the monolayer graphene. To compare with graphene growth on the off-oriented 3C-SiC, the growth of graphene on off-oriented 4H-SiC epilayers was also explored. The 4HSiC epilayers were first grown on 4-degree off-oriented 4H-SiC substrates and periodically inclined step facets in-between terraces were induced on 4H-SiC epilayers due to the pronounced step bunching. The graphene grown on such step-structured surface of off-oriented 4H-SiC showed that the terraces were mainly covered by monolayer graphene and the buffer layer underneath it while on the step facets, graphene was strongly buckled and appeared to be largely decoupled from the surface.Finally, the PEC water splitting performance based on the Si-face and C-face 3C-SiC was systematically studied. It was found that the SiC surface polarity played an important role in the PEC performance. The influence of both Si-face and C-face on surface proton transfer was investigated. It was demonstrated that the Si-face SiC was more energy-favorable, thus making oxygen evolution reaction operate at a very low overpotential. Furthermore, the PEC watersplitting performance was significantly enhanced by using NiO/3C-SiC p-n junction as a photoanode. A high photovoltage of 1.0 V, a photocurrent density of 1.01 mA/cm-2 at 0.55 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (VRHE), a low onset potential of 0.20 VRHE and a high fill factor of 57% were demonstrated in the PEC water splitting cell under AM1.5G 100 mW cm-2 illumination.
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| 14. |
- Wang, Weimin, et al.
(författare)
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Flat-Band Electronic Structure and Interlayer Spacing Influence in Rhombohedral Four-Layer Graphene
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nano Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1530-6984 .- 1530-6992. ; 18:9, s. 5862-5866
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The stacking order of multilayer graphene significantly influences its electronic properties. The rhombohedral stacking sequence is predicted to introduce a flat band, which has high density of states and the enhanced Coulomb interaction between charge carriers, thus possibly resulting in superconductivity, fractional quantum Hall effect, and many other exotic phases of matter. In this work, we comprehensively study the effect of the stacking sequence and interlayer spacing on the electronic structure of four-layer graphene, which was grown on a high crystalline quality 3C-SiC(111) crystal. The number of graphene layers and coverage were determined by low energy electron microscopy. First-principles density functional theory calculations show distinctively different band structures for ABAB (Bernal), ABCA (rhombohedral), and ABCB (turbostratic) stacking sequences. By comparing with angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy data, we can verify the existence of a rhombohedral stacking sequence and a nearly dispersionless electronic band (flat band) near the Fermi level. Moreover, we find that the momentum width, bandgap, and curvature of the flat-band region can be tuned by the interlayer spacing, which plays an important role in superconductivity and many other exotic phases of matter.
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