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12 Sep 13:39

Design of Li1+2xZn1-xPS4, a new lithium ion conductor

Energy Environ. Sci., 2016, 9,3272-3278
DOI: 10.1039/C6EE02094A, Paper
Open Access Open Access
William D. Richards, Yan Wang, Lincoln J. Miara, Jae Chul Kim, Gerbrand Ceder
Structural screening and in silico optimization yields a new Li-ion conductor with a bcc anion framework and high conductivity.
The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
15 Aug 13:09

Artemisinin—A Gift from Traditional Chinese Medicine to the World (Nobel Lecture)

by Youyou Tu
Thumbnail image of graphical abstract

Malaria has long been a devastating and life-threatening global epidemic disease in human history. Artemisinin, the active substance against malaria, was first isolated and tested in the 1970s in China. The important role played by traditional Chinese medicine in the discovery of artemisinin is described by Y. Tu in her Nobel Lecture.

14 Jun 10:44

Epitaxial-strain-induced polar-to-nonpolar transitions in layered oxides

by Xue-Zeng Lu

Nature Materials. doi:10.1038/nmat4664

Authors: Xue-Zeng Lu & James M. Rondinelli

Epitaxial strain can induce collective phenomena and new functionalities in complex oxide thin films. Strong coupling between strain and polar lattice modes can stabilize new ferroelectric phases from nonpolar dielectrics or enhance electric polarizations and Curie temperatures. Recently, strain has also been exploited to induce novel metal–insulator transitions and magnetic reconstructions through its coupling to nonpolar modes, including rotations of BO6 transition-metal octahedra. Although large strains are thought to induce ferroelectricity, here we demonstrate a polar-to-nonpolar transition in (001) films of layered A3B2O7 hybrid-improper ferroelectrics with experimentally accessible biaxial strains. We show the origin of the transition originates from the interplay of trilinear-related lattice mode interactions active in the layered oxides, and those interactions are directly strain tunable. Our results call for a careful re-examination of the role of strain–polarization coupling in ferroelectric films with nontrivial anharmonicities and offer a route to search for new functionalities in layered oxides.