Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

An infographic highlighting the prediction of 2D group III monochalcogenides  for future high efficiency solar cells and optoelectronics

Prediction of new phase 2D C2h group III monochalcogenides with direct bandgaps and highly anisotropic carrier mobilities
Tuo Hu, Congsheng Xu, Ao Zhang and Peiyuan Yu
Mater. Adv., 2022, 3, 2213-2221, DOI: 10.1039/D1MA01068A

Meet the authors

	Tuo Hu was a visiting student in Prof. Peiyuan Yu’s group at the Department of Chemistry at Southern University of Science and Technology from 2020 to 2021 where he worked on polymorphism of 2D semiconductors via DFT computation. He is currently a fourth-year undergraduate at University of California, Los Angeles majoring in Chemistry and Materials Science.
	Congsheng Xu received his master’s degree from Xiangtan University where his research focused on electronic properties of multilayer GeSe and its heterojunctions. Currently, he is a doctoral student in Prof. Peiyuan Yu’s research group at Southern University of Science and Technology. His main research direction is prediction of molecular structures and calculation of electronic properties of two-dimensional materials by machine learning.
	Ao Zhang received his Ph.D. in physics from Hunan Normal University in 2021. He is currently a postdoctoral at the Department of Physics in Southern University of Science and Technology. His research interests are on novel physical properties induced by spin-orbit coupling, topological semimetals, and multiferroic materials.
	Peiyuan Yu obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from University of California, Los Angeles in 2017 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2017 to 2019. He began his independent career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in 2019. Peiyuan’s research program uses computational chemistry to study a wide range of phenomena in chemistry and materials science, with a focus in understanding the reaction mechanisms and origins of selectivity of organic reactions.

(a) What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

In this work, we are most excited to discover that some novel polymorphs of two-dimensional materials give rise to very interesting and exotic electronic properties. For example, the new C_2h polymorph of 2D group III monochalcogenides features a direct bandgap which has not been found in other known single-layer phases. However, conventional computational methods to predict or design novel polymorphs are often limited by large computational costs. Therefore, we investigated the use of deep learning methods based on generative adversarial neural networks to quickly and comprehensively discover different phases of two-dimensional materials. This project requires knowledge and specialties from diverse disciplines such as computational chemistry, materials science, and physics. Besides, the rapid development of new computational techniques constantly motivates us to try to apply new technologies, which is quite challenging and intriguing.

(b) How do you feel about Materials Advances as a place to publish research on this topic?

Materials Advances is designated for interdisciplinary research and insights in the field of materials research, and our work is a combination of computer science and materials science, so I think it is a perfect match for this work to be published on Materials Advances. The professional editorial team and expert reviewers made the publishing process highly efficient.

(c) Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

For undergraduate students who are interested in scientific research, I would like to encourage them to actively participate and collaborate with graduate students and postdocs in research projects as early as possible and don’t be shy to share their hypotheses or insights.

With 2020 now well underway we have reached the six month anniversary of the inaugural issue of Materials Advances.  In celebration, we are proud to introduce the new Materials Advances HOT article collection.  This collection contains articles which were highlighted by our editors as high-quality and which should be highlighted to experts in the field.  Articles are added to the collection on a rolling basis, and you can keep up to date with what has been added here.

Materials Advances is the newest member of the materials portfolio of journals published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. It is an international gold open access journal, publishing good quality research across the breadth of materials science. The journal is also free-to-publish in for the first two years, meaning it will have a large, global audience, and be fully accessible to all.

Sign up now to get updates on all articles as they are published on Twitter, Facebook, and our e-alerts.

The collection currently includes:

The effect of gallium substitution on the structure and electrochemical performance of LiNiO2 in lithium-ion batteries
David Kitsche, Simon Schweidler, Andrey Mazilkin, Holger Geßwein, François Fauth, Emmanuelle Suard, Pascal Hartmann, Torsten Brezesinski, Jürgen Janek and Matteo Bianchini
Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 639-647
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00163E

Which is a better fluorescent sensor: aggregation-induced emission-based nanofibers or thin-coating films?
Yexin Ding, Weili Li, Fangming Wang, Hongkun Li, Shengyuan Yang, Lijun Wang, Zhiming Wang, Mike Tebyetekerwa and Ben Zhong Tang
Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 574-578
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00409J

Boosted carrier mobility and enhanced thermoelectric properties of polycrystalline Na0.03Sn0.97Se by liquid-phase hot deformation
Hao Sun, Chang Tan, Xiaojian Tan, Hongxiang Wang, Yinong Yin, Yuexin Song, Guo-Qiang Liu, Jacques G. Noudem, Quanguo Jiang, Jianfeng Zhang, Huajie Huang and Jun Jiang
Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 1092-1098
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00405G

The interaction of surface electron distribution-polarized Fe/polyimide hybrid nanosheets with organic pollutants driving a sustainable Fenton-like process
Lai Lyu, Kanglan Deng, Junrong Liang, Chao Lu, Tingting Gao, Wenrui Cao and Chun Hu
Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 1083-1091
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00374C

Exploring the bifunctional properties of paper-like carbyne-enriched carbon for maintenance-free self-powered systems
Vimal Kumar Mariappan, Karthikeyan Krishnamoorthy, Parthiban Pazhamalai and Sang-Jae Kim
Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 1644-1652
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00324G

The effect of ZnO particle lattice termination on the DC conductivity of LDPE nanocomposites
E. Karlsson, A. Calamida, D. Forchheimer, H. Hillborg, V. Ström, J. M. Gardner, M. S. Hedenqvist and R. T. Olsson
Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 1653-1664
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00390E

A role for terpenoid cyclization in the atom economical polymerization of terpenoids with sulfur to yield durable composites
Charini P. Maladeniya, Menisha S. Karunarathna, Moira K. Lauer, Claudia V. Lopez, Timmy Thiounn and Rhett C. Smith
Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 1665-1674
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00474J

Acrylate–gelatin–carbonated hydroxyapatite (cHAP) composites for dental bone-tissue applications
Ricardas Golubevas, Zivile Stankeviciute, Aleksej Zarkov, Raimundas Golubevas, Lars Hansson, Rimantas Raudonis, Aivaras Kareiva and Edita Garskaite
Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 1675-1684
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00498G

Crystal structure, luminescence properties and application performance of color tuning Y₂Mg₂Al₂Si₂O₁₂:Ce³⁺,Mn²⁺ phosphors for warm white light-emitting diodes
Xiangting Zhang, Dan Zhang, Dongxiao Kan, Tong Wu, Yanhua Song, Keyan Zheng, Ye Sheng, Zhan Shi and Haifeng Zou
Mater. Adv., 2020, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00556H

In situ synthesis of polyynes in a polymer matrix via pulsed laser ablation in a liquid
Sonia Peggiani, Anna Facibeni, Alberto Milani, Chiara Castiglioni, Valeria Russo, Andrea Li Bassi and Carlo S. Casari
Mater. Adv., 2020, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00545B

A biocompatible ZnNa₂-based metal–organic framework with high ibuprofen, nitric oxide and metal uptake capacity
Meghan Winterlich, Constantinos G. Efthymiou, Wassillios Papawassiliou, Jose P. Carvalho, Andrew J. Pell, Julia Mayans, Albert Escuer, Michael P. Carty, Patrick McArdle, Emmanuel Tylianakis, Liam Morrison, George Froudakis and Constantina Papatriantafyllopoulou
Mater. Adv., 2020, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00450B

We hope you enjoy reading these articles!  Look out for more papers to be added to the collection soon.

materialsadvances-rsc@rsc.org

Visit our website – rsc.li/materials-advances