Defect engineering enhances CO2 reducing photocatalysts

By Yuanxing Fang, Community Board member.

Recycling CO2 molecules through photocatalysis represents an innovative technology to mitigate the emission of CO2 gas. The deliberate introduction of defects into a photocatalyst plays a crucial role in optimizing photocatalytic performance, since the defects regulate the electronic structure, fine-tune selectivity by enhancing catalytic activity, and reduce the activation barrier of the catalyst.

A team of researchers based in Australia have recently developed a photocatalytic system for CO production by CO2 reduction. In this study, defect-rich g-C3N4 serves as a semiconducting substrate, and it was further loaded with Ag nanoparticles (NPs) to act as a plasmonic source, resulting in the creation of the g-C3N4-Ag photocatalyst. The defects within the g-C3N4 were known as the active sites that enhance the efficiency of photocatalytic CO2 conversion. In addition, these defects are strategically positioned alongside the loaded Ag NPs, which improves the effectiveness of injected hot electrons from the Ag NPs, thereby synergistically enhancing the activity of photocatalytic CO2 reduction.

In the experiments involving defect-rich g-C3N4, different photodeposition times, including 10 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, and 5 hours, were performed to load Ag particles, denoted the as-preared photocatalyst as g-C3N4-Ag 10m, 1h, 3h, and 5h, respectively. These variants were evaluated for their photocatalytic performance in CO production via CO2 reduction (Fig. 1a). The optimal performance was achieved with g-C3N4-Ag 1h, and the production of CO was confirmed through isotopic experiments (Fig. 1b). The g-C3N4-Ag photocatalysts were characterized using scanning transmission electron microscopy, as typical image is presented in Fig. 1c and the corresponding elemental mapping were presented in Fig. 1d to 1g.

Fig 1. (a) CO production rate based on various g-C3N4 based photocatalysts. (b) Isotope labelling experiments tested under 13CO2 and 12CO2, and the mass spectrometry signals at m/z = 28 and m/z = 29 are 13CO and 12CO, respectively. (c) STEM dark field image and (d)–(g) elemental mapping of g-C3N4-Ag 1h catalyst. Scale bar: 300 nm. Reproduced from DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00348E with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

To elucidate the mechanism behind the defect engineering scenario, Ag NPs were initially loaded onto g-C3N4 via photodeposition. Due to the electron-rich environment of the point defects on g-C3N4, Ag+ ions selectively grow on these defect sites. The resulting g-C3N4-Ag composite was subsequently annealed. During this process, the new defects formed on the g-C3N4 substrate owing to the strain induced by the differing thermal expansion rates between the Ag and g-C3N4. These new defects were found to be located around the Ag NPs, representing a significant change in the pristine g-C3N4 following the introduction of Ag.

Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of how the defects in g-C3N4 improve performance. Three models of photocatalysts were considered, including pristine g-C3N4, g-C3N4 with N vacancies, and N vacancies in g-C3N4 with O sites on the surface. In the models of pristine g-C3N4 and g-C3N4 with N vacancies, the formation of *COOH intermediates was identified as the rate-limiting step (RDS), and moreover, N vacancies in g-C3N4 were found to enhance the activity in this conversion (Fig 2a). For N vacancies in g-C3N4 with additional surface O sites (Fig. 2b), the initial reaction step favored the formation of *COOH intermediates from a thermodynamic perspective. Subsequently, the reduction of *COOH intermediates to *CO species occurred by reacting with protons, releasing H2O molecules. In the case of O-enriched g-C3N4, this conversion became the RDS. DFT calculations indicated that the ΔG values for *COOH and *H to form *CO and H2O at the C defect active sites were 0.96 eV, which determined the reaction rate (Fig. 2c). These results provide insight into the reasons behind the improved performance in CO production through CO2 reduction.

Fig 2. Optimized configurations of reaction intermediates *COOH and *CO on the C atom and N vacancy active sites of (a) g-C3N4 with N vacancy and (b) N vacancies in g-C3N4 with O sites on the surface. (Red ball is oxygen atom, white ball is hydrogen atom, gray is carbon atom, and blue is nitrogen atom) (c) Gibbs free energy diagrams for photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO on g-C3N4, g-C3N4 with N vacancy and O-occupied g-C3N4. Reproduced from DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00348E with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

In summary, the deliberate introduction of active defects into g-C3N4 photocatalysts, strategically positioned near the plasmon centers of Ag NPs, optimizes the utilization efficiency of plasmonic hot electrons, resulting in an enhanced efficiency for CO2 photoreduction. Importantly, this strategy has the potential for extension to various systems based on polymers, hard materials, and hybrid materials, offering promising applications that harness the functionalities of defects in a wide range of fields.

 

To find out more, please read the full article:

Defect engineering enhances plasmonic-hot electrons exploitation for CO2 reduction over polymeric catalysts
Hang Yin, Zhehao Sun, Kaili Liu, Ary Anggara Wibowo, Julien Langley, Chao Zhang, Sandra E. Saji, Felipe Kremer, Dmitri Golberg, Hieu T. Nguyen, Nicholas Cox and Zongyou Yin
Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, Advance Article

 


About the blogger


Photo of Yuanxing Fang.

 

Yuanxing Fang is a Professor at Fuzhou University, and a member of the Nanoscale Horizons Community Board. Prof. Fang’s research lab focuses on the synthesis of metal-free semiconductors for photoelectrochemical systems for energy and environmental applications, including water splitting, hydrogen peroxide synthesis, organic transformations and others.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Nanoscale Horizons’ new Community Board members

Introducing our new Community Board members

Discover the latest additions to the Nanoscale Horizons early-career advisory board

The Nanoscale Horizons Community Board are our eyes and ears on the ground, allowing us to better connect with early-career researchers. Since its inception in 2016, we have enjoyed working together with these board members to facilitate student, postdoctoral and early-career researcher engagement, through symposia support, journal clubs, webinars, special article collections and many other activities.

Over the summer, we requested nominations from the nanoscience academic community and were thrilled with the high calibre of candidates nominated. We are delighted to share our 27 new appointees with you who, together with continuing members, make up a Nanoscale Horizons Community Board of 50 international researchers at different stages of their early careers, ranging from PhD candidates to Professors.

Photos left to right of (top) Amina Benchohra, Fangfang Cao, Yihuang Chen, Dennis Christensen, Didem Dede, Sara, Domenici, Jingshan Du, Yuan Fang and Susel Del Sol Fernández; (middle) Minjeong Ha, Xue Han, Taskeen Janjua, Meysam Keshavarz, Yoonseob Kim, Zhiwei Li, Chunchun Li, Albert Liu and Jette Mathiesen; (bottom) Dinesh Mullangi, Michael B. Ross, Tracy Schloemer, Qianqian Shi, Jaime Andres Perez Taborda, Chao Wang, Zhenhua Wu, Akiko Yagi and Jiandong Yao.

Please join us in welcoming our 27 new Community Board members:

Discover the full Community Board

You can keep up to date with the activities of our Community Board members on our blog and don’t miss their latest article summaries in our new web writer series. Our companion journal Materials Horizons has also welcomed new members to their community board, and you can find out more about their new members on their blog. We will be highlighting the members of our Community Board over the coming months in a series of interviews and look forward to sharing these with you soon.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Congratulations to the winners of the RSC prizes at OP2023

The 14th International Conference on Optical Probes of Organic and Hybrid Semiconductors (OP2023) took place in Como, Italy from 10–15 September 2023. Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale, Nanoscale Advances, Chemical Science, Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances were delighted to provide poster prizes for the excellent posters shared during the conference. Please join us in congratulating our winners!

Photo of Martina Martusciello.

 

Nanoscale Horizons Poster Prize

Martina Martusciello (University of Genoa, Italy)
Poster Title: “Optomechanical characterization of mechanochromic photonic crystals”

Martina Martusciello is a PhD student at the University of Genoa (Italy), currently working in the Rely-Photonics Research Group under the supervision of Professor Davide Comoretto. Martina obtained her MSc cum Laude in Industrial Chemistry in 2022 at the University of Genoa under the joint supervision of Professors Paola Lova and Davide Comoretto, after obtaining a Bachelor’s degree cum Laude in Chemistry in 2019. Before joining the group for her PhD, she spent a period as visiting researcher at the Department of Physics of the University of Pavia, where she worked on the fabrication and study of thin films of PEDOT:PSS. Currently, her work is focused on the study of photonic applications of elastic materials and in particular on the realization of mechanochromic photonic crystals for sensing applications.

 

 

Photo of Ilaria Venturino.

 

Nanoscale Poster Prize

Ilaria Venturino (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy)
Poster Title: “Light controlled bio hybrid actuators”

Ilaria Venturino is currently pursuing a PhD at Politecnico di Milano and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, under the supervision of Professor Guglielmo Lanzani. She completed both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physics at the Università degli Studi di Milano, with honors awarded for the master’s degree. Her research focuses on skeletal muscle cells stimulated with light.

 

 

Photo of Niklas Herrmann.

 

Nanoscale Advances Poster Prize

Niklas Herrmann (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
Poster Title: “Polarization-dependent strong-coupling in highly aligned PDIF-CN2 thin films”

Niklas Herrmann is a PhD student at Heidelberg University, under the supervision of Prof. Jana Zaumseil. He obtained his M.Sc. in Chemistry in 2021 from Heidelberg University, Germany. His doctoral research is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB 1249/2 Project C06 and focusses on solution-processing and analysis of electrical and optical properties of crystalline semiconducting N-heteropolycycles.

 

 

Photo of Rakesh Arul.

 

Chemical Science Poster Prize

Rakesh Arul (University of Cambridge, UK)
Poster Title: “Extreme light confinement for single-molecule mid-IR upconversion and superradiance”

Rakesh Arul recently completed his PhD in the Cavendish Laboratories, University of Cambridge with Prof. Jeremy Baumberg. He is starting as a Research Fellow of St. John’s College Cambridge to continue independent research in the field of nanophotonics and optoelectronics. His PhD research was supported by the Rutherford Foundation of the Royal Society Te Aparangi of New Zealand and the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability. His research interests include the science of how light can be trapped to the nanoscale to control optoelectronic properties and affect chemical transformations.

 

 

Photo of Olga Vodianova.

 

Materials Advances Poster Prize

Olga Vodianova (University of Glasgow, UK)
Poster Title: “Exploring exciton-exciton annihilation and exciton motion in F8BT with single molecule spectroscopy”

Olga Vodianova is a PhD student in the Hedley Single Molecule Lab, the University of Glasgow, UK, under the supervision of Dr Gordon Hedley. She obtained her MSc at Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology, where her primary research interests were absorption, fluorescence and time-correlated measurements of organic fluorescent BODIPY dyes in solvents and protein media. Currently, her research is focused on studying photophysics and excited state dynamics of organic semiconductors by the means of ultrafast and single molecule spectroscopy.

 

 

 

The Journal of Materials Chemistry C Poster Prize was awarded to Sebastian Gorgon from the University of Cambridge for his poster entitled “Reversible spin-optical interface in luminescent radicals”.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Congratulations to the winners of the RSC prizes at nanoDDS 2023

The 21st Annual Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium (nanoDDS) took place in Cambridge, USA from 15–17 September 2023. Nanoscale Horizons and Nanoscale Advances were delighted to provide poster prizes for the excellent posters shared during the conference. Please join us in congratulating our winners!

Photo of Jason Zhang.

 

Jason Zhang (MIT, USA)
Poster Title: “Vaccines combining slow delivery with follicle targeting of immunogen increase both B cell clonal expansion and diversity”

Y. Jason Zhang is a Biological Engineering PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Dr. J. Christopher Love and Dr. Darrell J. Irvine. His research focuses on engineering vaccine delivery approaches to improve antibody-mediated immune response and developing high-throughput single-cell genomic tools and computational pipelines to study the mechanism of action of vaccines.

 

 

Photo of Patricia Michelle Nagai de Lima.

 

Patricia Nagai de Lima (Brown University, USA)
Poster Title: “Developing methylene blue-loaded liposomes for photodynamic therapy against Candida auris biofilms”

Patricia is a Ph.D. student and holder of a Master’s degree in Applied Sciences in Oral Health from São Paulo State University (UNESP), specializing in Microbiology and Immunology, has committed her research to exploring antimicrobial agents and infectious disease control. Currently, Patricia is concluding a prestigious scholarship as a Visiting Researcher Fellow at Brown University, School of Engineering, specializing in the development of nanomaterials for treating fungal infections. During her Master’s program, she gained recognition as a CAPES Productivity Scholar for her research into the use of phytotherapy against antibiotic-resistant clinical strains of fungi and bacteria. Patricia’s academic journey also includes endodontics training at the Odonto Sales Institute in 2020. With a Bachelor’s degree in Dentistry from the University of Vale do Paraíba (UNIVAP), she was a CNPq scholarship recipient during her undergraduate studies, conducting essential research in a biomedical engineering lab, focusing on biological assays for tissue engineering biomaterials.

 

 

Photo of Serena Omo-Lamai.

 

Serena Omo-Lamai (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Poster Title: “Physicochemical targeting of lipid nanoparticles to the lungs induces clotting: mechanisms and solutions”

Serena Omo-Lamai is a PhD Candidate in Bioengineering and an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Dr. Jacob Brenner. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from Syracuse University. Her research interests are focused on optimizing lipid nanoparticles for applications in vaccines, therapy, and targeted drug delivery to the brain and lungs.

 

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series – Ahu Gümrah Dumanli-Parry

Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series

Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigator Dr Ahu Gümrah Dumanli-Parry (University of Manchester, UK)!

Since the launch of Nanoscale Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time are looking for new ways of recognising and promoting the outstanding authors behind articles published in the journal.

Last year we launched an Emerging Investigator Series to showcase the exceptional work published by early-career researchers in the journal. We will regularly select a recently published Communication article and publish an interview-style Editorial article featuring the corresponding author. We hope that the series will also benefit the nanoscience community by highlighting the exciting work being done by its early-career members.

We are excited to share our latest Emerging Investigator, Dr Ahu Gümrah Dumanli-Parry (University of Manchester, UK)!

Photo of Ahu Gümrah Dumanli-Parry.

 

Dr Ahu Gümrah Dumanli-Parry is a Materials Chemist and the first recipient of the bp-ICAM Kathleen Lonsdale Research Fellowship received in 2019 for her work on bio-inspired advanced materials. She obtained her PhD from the Sabanci University, Istanbul and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge and Adolphe Merkle Institute in Switzerland.

Dr Dumanli-Parry’s research group focuses on understanding of the self-assembly process in nature and mimicking it to produce structurally ordered materials. Dr Dumanli-Parry investigates the complex relationship between the intrinsic properties of colloidal building blocks and the physical effects that modulate the self-assembly process to build active matter for sensing technologies and shape morphing systems as well as light harvesting applications.

Read our interview with Ahu here

Congratulations to Dr Ahu Gümrah Dumanli-Parry for her excellent work! You can read her featured Emerging Investigator article from Nanoscale Horizons below, which is free to access until the end of November 2023.

Edible cellulose-based colorimetric timer
Gen Kamita, Silvia Vignolini and Ahu Gümrah Dumanli
Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00006K

We hope you enjoy reading our interview and featured article and are looking forward to sharing our future Emerging Investigators with you!

Do you publish innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology research? Submit your latest work to Nanoscale Horizons now. If you are eligible for the Emerging Investigators series, you could be considered to feature in one of our future interviews! Find out more about the eligibility criteria and the process in this editorial introducing the series.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Congratulations to the winners of the RSC prizes at symposium J of the 2023 Fall E-MRS

The 2023 Fall E-MRS was held in Warsaw, Poland from 18–21 September 2023. Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale, Nanoscale Advances, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Journal of Materials Chemistry C were delighted to support Symposium J: Exploring the potential of bidimensional materials for energy and optoelectronics with a presentation and a poster prize. Please join us in congratulating our winners!

Photo of Sara Domenici.

 

Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances Presentation Prize

Sara Domenici (Politecnico di Torino, Italy)
Presentation Title: “Hybrid piezoresistive 2D MoS2/PEGDA/PANI covalent hydrogels for wearable strain sensors”

Sara Domenici is a PhD student at Politecnico di Torino (Turin, Italy) under the supervision of Prof. Teresa Gatti. She was born in Verona (Italy) in 1998. In 2020, she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Padova (Italy). In 2022, she completed the Double Degree Programme between the University of Padova and the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen (Germany), where she spent 12 months, and obtained a Master’s Degree in Chemistry. Her PhD project is focused on Janus two-dimensional materials for energy conversion, but she also works on hydrogel sensors and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).

Photo of Masahiko Komatsu.

 

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C Poster Prize

Masahiko Komatsu (Kochi University of Technology, Japan)
Presentation Title: “Fablication of MoS2 using mist chemical vapor deposition”

Masahiko Komatsu is a second year graduate student at Kochi University of Technology. His main research is the deposition of MoS2 using mist CVD.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series – Luciano Colazzo, Christoph Wolf and Yujeong Bae

Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series

Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigators Dr Luciano Colazzo, Dr Christoph Wolf and Dr Yujeong Bae (IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience, South Korea)!

Since the launch of Nanoscale Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time are looking for new ways of recognising and promoting the outstanding authors behind articles published in the journal.

Last year we launched an Emerging Investigator Series to showcase the exceptional work published by early-career researchers in the journal. We will regularly select a recently published Communication article and publish an interview-style Editorial article featuring the corresponding author. We hope that the series will also benefit the nanoscience community by highlighting the exciting work being done by its early-career members.

We are excited to share our latest Emerging Investigators, Dr Luciano Colazzo, Dr Christoph Wolf and Dr Yujeong Bae (IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience, South Korea)!

Photo of Luciano Colazzo.

 

Dr Luciano Colazzo is a researcher at the IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience, engaged in the field of nanotechnology chemistry and quantum technologies. His research focuses on the on-surface synthesis of molecular qubit arrays, by enforcing a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses quantum mechanics, molecular chemistry, and surface sciences.

Photo of Christoph Wolf.

 

 

Dr Christoph Wolf is a group leader in the IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience, South Korea. His team focuses on the theory of quantum-coherent nanoscience, a relatively new research field that aims to exploit quantum phenomena at the fundamental limit of matter. He is fascinated by the idea of building quantum machines atom by atom, which might enable us in the future to build quantum computers—and by all the challenges we meet along the way.

Photo of Yujeong Bae.

 

 

Dr Yujeong Bae is a group leader in the Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS), Institute for Basic Science and a research professor at the Department of Physics, Ewha Womans University in South Korea. Her research focuses on functionalizing atomic/molecular spins on surfaces for quantum engineering, including quantum information processing, quantum sensing, and quantum simulation.

Read our interview with Luciano, Christoph and Yujeong here

Congratulations to Dr Luciano Colazzo, Dr Christoph Wolf and Dr Yujeong Bae for their excellent work! You can read their featured Emerging Investigator article from Nanoscale Horizons below, which is free to access until the end of November 2023.

Template-directed 2D nanopatterning of S = 1/2 molecular spins
Kyungju Noh, Luciano Colazzo, Corina Urdaniz, Jaehyun Lee, Denis Krylov, Parul Devi, Andrin Doll, Andreas J. Heinrich, Christoph Wolf, Fabio Donati and Yujeong Bae
Nanoscale Horizons, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NH00375A

We hope you enjoy reading our interview and featured article and are looking forward to sharing our future Emerging Investigators with you!

Do you publish innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology research? Submit your latest work to Nanoscale Horizons now. If you are eligible for the Emerging Investigators series, you could be considered to feature in one of our future interviews! Find out more about the eligibility criteria and the process in this editorial introducing the series.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series – Saptarshi Das

Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series

Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigator Dr Saptarshi Das (Pennsylvania State University, USA)!

Since the launch of Nanoscale Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time are looking for new ways of recognising and promoting the outstanding authors behind articles published in the journal.

Last year we launched an Emerging Investigator Series to showcase the exceptional work published by early-career researchers in the journal. We will regularly select a recently published Communication article and publish an interview-style Editorial article featuring the corresponding author. We hope that the series will also benefit the nanoscience community by highlighting the exciting work being done by its early-career members.

We are excited to share our latest Emerging Investigator, Dr Saptarshi Das (Pennsylvania State University, USA)!

Photo of Saptarshi Das.

 

Dr Saptarshi Das is an Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University, USA. He earned his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2013 and his BE in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering from Jadavpur University, India, in 2007.

Dr Das’s primary focus resides in pioneering materials research and innovation, with significant impact on neuromorphic computing, hardware security, and bio-inspired sensing devices. At the heart of the Das Research Group’s mission is the development of groundbreaking technologies inspired by nature, aiming to enhance energy efficiency and ensure a sustainable future for society.

Read our interview with Saptarshi here

Congratulations to Dr Saptarshi Das for his excellent work! You can read his featured Emerging Investigator article from Nanoscale Horizons below, which is free to access until the end of October 2023.

Hardware Trojans based on two-dimensional memtransistors
Akshay Wali, Harikrishnan Ravichandran and Saptarshi Das
Nanoscale Horizons, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NH00568A

We hope you enjoy reading our interview and featured article and are looking forward to sharing our future Emerging Investigators with you!

Do you publish innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology research? Submit your latest work to Nanoscale Horizons now. If you are eligible for the Emerging Investigators series, you could be considered to feature in one of our future interviews! Find out more about the eligibility criteria and the process in this editorial introducing the series.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Call For Papers: Memristors and Neuromorphic Systems

Call For Papers: Memristors and Neuromorphic Systems

Submit your latest work to Nanoscale Horizons and Materials Horizons now!

We are delighted to announce an open call for submissions to our Nanoscale Horizons and Materials Horizons cross-journal themed collection on Memristors and Neuromorphic Systems, guest edited by Professor Xiaodong Chen (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Professor Cheol Seong Hwang (Seoul National University, South Korea), Professor Francesca Santoro (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany) and Professor Yoeri Van de Burgt (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands).

Memristors and neuromorphic systems open call graphic. Includes photos of the guest editors Xiaodong Chen, Cheol Seong Hwang, Francesca Santoro and Yoeri Van de Burgt.

The research field dedicated to mimicking the brain is called neuromorphic engineering, and covers a wide range of disciplines, including electrical engineering, computing, materials science, chemistry, physics, and even psychology. Yet, conventional CMOS-based hardwares are based on the von-Neumann architecture which operates sequentially (instead of in parallel) shuffling data back and forth between processing and memory, and thus barely fulfil the low-energy requirements for neuromorphic engineering. Memristors, which can be synaptic, neural, or even a combination of both, offer a potential solution and as such have been the focus of enhanced research efforts. In addition to their low-energy cost requirements, new materials properties employed by memristors may lead to new algorithms or help solve conventionally challenging tasks, such as NP-hard problems.

This themed collection in Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons aims to report the latest developments in memristive materials. Exploring their fabrication, characterization, circuit design, and performance for applications in the future of neuromorphics. Collaborative work between diverse fields is especially encouraged.

This call for papers is open for original research articles only. Please note that primary research is accepted in the form of Communications for both journals and require a ‘New Concepts statement’ to help ascertain the significance of the research. General guidance and examples can be found here.

Open for submissions until 30 November 2023

If you wish to contribute, please submit your manuscript directly to the submissions platform through the Nanoscale Horizons submission system or the Materials Horizons submission system. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Memristors and Neuromorphic Systems collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed issue is not guaranteed.

Please also note that all submissions will undergo the normal peer review processes including an initial assessment prior to peer review, and that peer review and acceptance are not guaranteed.

We sincerely hope that you will be able to submit some of your latest work to this themed collection. If you have any questions, please contact the Editorial Office.

With best wishes,

Professor Xiaodong Chen (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Professor Cheol Seong Hwang (Seoul National University, South Korea)
Professor Francesca Santoro (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)
Professor Yoeri Van de Burgt (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Congratulations to the winners of the RSC prizes at NaNaX 10

NaNaX10 took place in Klosterneuburg, Austria from 3–7 July 2023. Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale, Nanoscale Advances, ChemComm and Chemical Science were delighted to provide poster prizes for the excellent posters shared during the conference. Please join us in congratulating our winners!

Photo of Christine Fiedler.

 

Nanoscale Horizons Poster Prize

Christine Fiedler (Institute of Science and Technology (ISTA), Austria)
Poster Title: “Defects Matter: The role of different processing parameters on solution-processed thermoelectric materials”

Christine Fiedler is a PhD student at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, under the supervision of Asst. Prof. Maria Ibáñez. She obtained her bachelor’s from the University of the West Indies Cave Hill, Barbados, with First Class Honours in Chemistry with Biochemistry. Her academic journey continued at Johannes Kepler University in Austria, where she earned a master’s degree in Polymer Chemistry, with a focus on synthesis and engineering of Janus micro/nanomotors and nanoparticle synthesis. Currently, Christine’s research concentrates on processing of semiconductors via solution methods for thermoelectric applications.

Photo of Oleksandra Yeromina.

 

Nanoscale Poster Prize

Oleksandra Yeromina (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France)
Poster Title: “Synthesis of III-V quantum dots using indium monohalides and aminopnictogen precursors”

Oleksandra Yeromina is a postdoctoral research fellow at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Grenoble, France in the group of Dr Peter Reiss in the field of semiconductor nanocrystals. She obtained her PhD in Organic and Material Chemistry from the University of Namur (Belgium) in collaboration with Cardiff University (Wales, UK) in 2022. Prior to this, she obtained her double MSc in Organic and Green Chemistry from Kharkiv National University (Ukraine) and Nice Sophia Antipolis University (France) in 2017. Currently, her research interests are focused on the development of more sustainable synthetic routes for emissive III-V quantum dots for the optoelectronic application in the near-infrared light region.

Photo of Dietger Van den Eynden.

 

Nanoscale Advances Poster Prize

Dietger Van den Eynden (University of Basel, Switzerland)
Poster Title: “Atomically precise group 4 oxo clusters as smallest conceivable nanocrystals”

Dietger Van den Eynden was born in Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) in 1995. In 2019, he graduated with a Master in chemistry from Ghent University. During his master thesis, he studied nanocrystal-vitrimers under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Isabel Van Driessche and Prof. Dr. Filip Du Prez. He is currently pursuing a joint PhD between the University of Basel (CH) and Ghent University (BE) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jonathan De Roo and Prof. Dr. Klaartje De Buysser. The subject of his PhD is atomically precise group 4 metal oxo clusters. He has developed novel zirconium and hafnium clusters as improved catalysts for esterification reactions. Additionally, he is studying the formation mechanism of these clusters and their use as inorganic monomers in recyclable polymers.

Photo of Ezat Kheradmand.

 

ChemComm Poster Prize

Ezat Kheradmand (Ghent University, Belgium)
Poster Title: “Ligand exchange quantification on colloidal InAs quantum dots”

Ezat Kheradmand is a PhD student in the Physics and Chemistry Department at Ghent University. She studied Materials Science during her Bachelor’s and Nanotechnology in the Nanomaterials Department at Tarbiat Modares University (M.Sc). Her current research interests are studying surface chemistry of III-V colloidal quantum dots as well as IR optoelectronic device fabrication, which is pursued under the supervision of Professor Zeger Hens.

Photo of Jack Howley.

 

Chemical Science Poster Prize

Jack Howley (University of Oxford, UK)
Poster Title: “Bench Stable Phosphorus Precursors to Indium Phosphide Quantum Dots”

Jack Howley is a PhD student at the University of Oxford, UK, under the joint supervision of Prof. Jose Goicoechea and Prof. Jason Davis. Jack obtained his MChem in 2019 from the University of Edinburgh, UK, under the supervision of Dr Michael Cowley. His doctoral research is supported by the Inorganic Chemistry for Future Manufacturing Centre for Doctoral Training (OxICFM CDT) and focusses on the development of novel air-stable phosphorus precursors to indium phosphide quantum dots. Prior to this he worked on earth-abundant catalysts for (de)hydroboration reactions, in addition to spending a year in industry within the mining solutions business unit at Solvay.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)