Recently, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) were introduced as alternative anchors for surface modifications and so offered many attractive features, which might render them superior to thiol-based ...systems. However, little effort has been made to investigate the self-organization process of NHCs on surfaces, an important aspect for the formation of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), which requires molecular mobility. Based on investigations with scanning tunnelling microscopy and first-principles calculations, we provide an understanding of the microscopic mechanism behind the high mobility observed for NHCs. These NHCs extract a gold atom from the surface, which leads to the formation of an NHC-gold adatom complex that displays a high surface mobility by a ballbot-type motion. Together with their high desorption barrier this enables the formation of ordered and strongly bound SAMs. In addition, this mechanism allows a complementary surface-assisted synthesis of dimeric and hitherto unknown trimeric NHC gold complexes on the surface.
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), has caused an unprecedented global social and economic impact, and ...high numbers of deaths. Many risk factors have been identified in the progression of COVID‐19 into a severe and critical stage, including old age, male gender, underlying comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, chronic lung diseases, heart, liver and kidney diseases, tumors, clinically apparent immunodeficiencies, local immunodeficiencies, such as early type I interferon secretion capacity, and pregnancy. Possible complications include acute kidney injury, coagulation disorders, thoromboembolism. The development of lymphopenia and eosinopenia are laboratory indicators of COVID‐19. Laboratory parameters to monitor disease progression include lactate dehydrogenase, procalcitonin, high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein, proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)‐6, IL‐1β, Krebs von den Lungen‐6 (KL‐6), and ferritin. The development of a cytokine storm and extensive chest computed tomography imaging patterns are indicators of a severe disease. In addition, socioeconomic status, diet, lifestyle, geographical differences, ethnicity, exposed viral load, day of initiation of treatment, and quality of health care have been reported to influence individual outcomes. In this review, we highlight the scientific evidence on the risk factors of severity of COVID‐19.
The search for Majorana bound states (MBSs) has been fueled by the prospect of using their non-Abelian statistics for robust quantum computation. Two-dimensional superconducting topological materials ...have been predicted to host MBSs as zero-energy modes in vortex cores. By using scanning tunneling spectroscopy on the superconducting Dirac surface state of the iron-based superconductor FeTe
Se
, we observed a sharp zero-bias peak inside a vortex core that does not split when moving away from the vortex center. The evolution of the peak under varying magnetic field, temperature, and tunneling barrier is consistent with the tunneling to a nearly pure MBS, separated from nontopological bound states. This observation offers a potential platform for realizing and manipulating MBSs at a relatively high temperature.
The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the bottleneck that limits the energy efficiency of water-splitting. The process involves four electrons' transfer and the generation of triplet state O
from ...singlet state species (OH
or H
O). Recently, explicit spin selection was described as a possible way to promote OER in alkaline conditions, but the specific spin-polarized kinetics remains unclear. Here, we report that by using ferromagnetic ordered catalysts as the spin polarizer for spin selection under a constant magnetic field, the OER can be enhanced. However, it does not applicable to non-ferromagnetic catalysts. We found that the spin polarization occurs at the first electron transfer step in OER, where coherent spin exchange happens between the ferromagnetic catalyst and the adsorbed oxygen species with fast kinetics, under the principle of spin angular momentum conservation. In the next three electron transfer steps, as the adsorbed O species adopt fixed spin direction, the OER electrons need to follow the Hund rule and Pauling exclusion principle, thus to carry out spin polarization spontaneously and finally lead to the generation of triplet state O
. Here, we showcase spin-polarized kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction, which gives references in the understanding and design of spin-dependent catalysts.
Display omitted
•Various on-surface reactions summarized in a category of different carbon types.•An introduction of the techniques applied in on-surface synthesis.•Novel on-surface synthesized ...functional nanostructures.•Potential applications of the on-surface synthesized nano-materials.•A perspective of on-surface synthesis.
On-surface synthesis is the bottom-up construction of covalent bonds between molecular building blocks, which has been greatly developed during the past decade. Dozens of reactions have been successfully realized and scrutinized on various surfaces with the help of surface science techniques combined with theoretical calculations. Functional nanoarchitectures such as one-dimensional nanowires, nanoribbons and two-dimensional nanonetworks have been constructed on surfaces and explored in several potential applications. In fact, the generation of multilevel nanostructures will play a key role in future soft nanoscience and technologies due to their emergent properties ranging far beyond those of the individual molecules building them up. In this review, we discuss selected examples of important processes in on-surface synthesis developed in recent years and summarize them under the following aspects: (1) on-surface reactions in a category of different carbon types; (2) techniques applied in on-surface synthesis; (3) on-surface synthesized functional nanostructures; and (4) potential applications of on-surface synthesized nano-materials. The review concludes with a perspective of the future development of on-surface synthesis.
The sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are a class of oral hypoglycemic agents. We undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies to determine the effect of ...SGLT2 on blood pressure (BP) among individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
PubMed-Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Database, and Google Scholar databases were searched to identify trial registries evaluating the impact of SGLT2 on BP. Random-effects models meta-analysis was used for quantitative data synthesis. The meta-analysis indicated a significant reduction in systolic BP following treatment with SGLT2 (weighted mean difference -2.46 mm Hg 95% CI -2.86 to -2.06). The weighted mean differences for the effect on diastolic BP was -1.46 mm Hg (95% CI -1.82 to -1.09). In these subjects the weighted mean difference effects on serum triglycerides and total cholesterol were -2.08 mg/dL (95% CI -2.51 to -1.64) and 0.77 mg/dL (95% CI 0.33-1.21), respectively. The weighted mean differences for the effect of SGLT2 on body weight was -1.88 kg (95% CI -2.11 to -1.66) across all studies. These findings were robust in sensitivity analyses.
Treatment with SGLT2 glucose cotransporter inhibitors therefore has beneficial off-target effects on BP in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and may also be of value in improving other cardiometabolic parameters including lipid profile and body weight in addition to their expected effects on glycemic control. However, our findings should be interpreted with consideration for the moderate statistical heterogeneity across the included studies.
2D transition metal chalcogenides have attracted tremendous attention due to their novel properties and potential applications. Although 2D transition metal dichalcogenides are easily fabricated due ...to their layer‐stacked bulk phase, 2D transition metal monochalcogenides are difficult to obtain. Recently, a single atomic layer transition metal monochalcogenide (CuSe) with an intrinsic pattern of nanoscale triangular holes is fabricated on Cu(111). The first‐principles calculations show that free‐standing monolayer CuSe with holes is not stable, while hole‐free CuSe is endowed with the Dirac nodal line fermion (DNLF), protected by mirror reflection symmetry. This very rare DNLF state is evidenced by topologically nontrivial edge states situated inside the spin–orbit coupling gaps. Motivated by the promising properties of hole‐free honeycomb CuSe, monolayer CuSe is fabricated on Cu(111) surfaces by molecular beam epitaxy and confirmed success with high resolution scanning tunneling microscopy. The good agreement of angle resolved photoemission spectra with the calculated band structures of CuSe/Cu(111) demonstrates that the sample is monolayer CuSe with a honeycomb lattice. These results suggest that the honeycomb monolayer transition metal monochalcogenide can be a new platform to study 2D DNLFs.
2D transition metal chalcogenides are attracting tremendous attention due to their novel properties and potential applications. Monolayer honeycomb CuSe on Cu(111) is successfully fabricated. First‐principles calculations show that free‐standing monolayer CuSe is endowed with the Dirac nodal line fermion, protected by mirror reflection symmetry. It is further evidenced by topologically nontrivial edge states situated inside the spin–orbit coupling gaps.
Abstract
Producing hydrogen by water electrolysis suffers from the kinetic barriers in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that limits the overall efficiency. With spin-dependent kinetics in OER, to ...manipulate the spin ordering of ferromagnetic OER catalysts (e.g., by magnetization) can reduce the kinetic barrier. However, most active OER catalysts are not ferromagnetic, which makes the spin manipulation challenging. In this work, we report a strategy with spin pinning effect to make the spins in paramagnetic oxyhydroxides more aligned for higher intrinsic OER activity. The spin pinning effect is established in oxide
FM
/oxyhydroxide interface which is realized by a controlled surface reconstruction of ferromagnetic oxides. Under spin pinning, simple magnetization further increases the spin alignment and thus the OER activity, which validates the spin effect in rate-limiting OER step. The spin polarization in OER highly relies on oxyl radicals (O∙) created by 1
st
dehydrogenation to reduce the barrier for subsequent O-O coupling.
Abstract
The discovery of ferromagnetic two-dimensional van der Waals materials has opened up opportunities to explore intriguing physics and to develop innovative spintronic devices. However, ...controllable synthesis of these 2D ferromagnets and enhancing their stability under ambient conditions remain challenging. Here, we report chemical vapor deposition growth of air-stable 2D metallic 1T-CrTe
2
ultrathin crystals with controlled thickness. Their long-range ferromagnetic ordering is confirmed by a robust anomalous Hall effect, which has seldom been observed in other layered 2D materials grown by chemical vapor deposition. With reducing the thickness of 1T-CrTe
2
from tens of nanometers to several nanometers, the easy axis changes from in-plane to out-of-plane. Monotonic increase of Curie temperature with the thickness decreasing from ~130.0 to ~7.6 nm is observed. Theoretical calculations indicate that the weakening of the Coulomb screening in the two-dimensional limit plays a crucial role in the change of magnetic properties.
Abstract
Iron-chalcogenide superconductors have emerged as a promising Majorana platform for topological quantum computation. By combining topological band and superconductivity in a single material, ...they provide significant advantage to realize isolated Majorana zero modes. However, iron-chalcogenide superconductors, especially Fe(Te,Se), suffer from strong inhomogeneity which may hamper their practical application. In addition, some iron-pnictide superconductors have been demonstrated to have topological surface states, yet no Majorana zero mode has been observed inside their vortices, raising a question of universality about this new Majorana platform. In this work, through angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy measurement, we identify Dirac surface states and Majorana zero modes, respectively, for the first time in an iron-pnictide superconductor, CaKFe
4
As
4
. More strikingly, the multiple vortex bound states with integer-quantization sequences can be accurately reproduced by our model calculation, firmly establishing Majorana nature of the zero mode.
PDF
