| 05 Feb 2019 |
New many-body state in an iron crystal discovered
Jülich, 5. Februar 2019 - Researchers from Jülich, Poland and Japan have discovered and analyzed a new many-body state in an iron crystal. Its existence sheds new light on the physics of the interaction of conducting electrons and magnons which are excitations in magnetic systems. Magnons spread in a material as a result of a disturbance of the local magnetic order. The electron-magnon interaction is critical for fundamental physical properties, such as the temperature dependence of resistivity, but also offers prospects of faster and more energy-efficient computation.
|
Kink far below the Fermi level reveals new electron-magnon scattering channel in Fe;
E. Młyńczak et al.;
Nature Communications, published online 31 Jan 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08445-1
|
| 31 Jan 2019 |
Improved Membranes for Platinum-free Fuel Cells
Jülich, 31. Januar 2019 – Scientists from Jülich together with colleagues from Japan have discovered how fuel cell membranes can be improved without the use of rare and expensive precious metals such as platinum. The anion-exchange membranes studied are a key component of certain polymer electrolyte fuel cells and serve to transfer charged particles (anions) while at the same time retaining gases such as oxygen or hydrogen.
|
Reverse relationships of water uptake and alkaline durability with hydrophilicity of imidazoliumbased grafted anion-exchange membranes,
Kimio Yoshimura, Yue Zhao, Yasunari Maekawa et al.,
Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 9118. DOI: 10.1039/c8sm01650j
|
| 28 Jan 2019 |
Jülich Researchers Increase Open-Circuit Voltage of Perovskite Solar Cells
Jülich, 28 January 2019 – Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich have succeeded in raising the open-circuit voltage of perovskite solar cells to a record value of 1.26 volts. The voltage is seen as the key to improving the cells’ efficiency. It shows the number of electrical charge carriers present in the cell when light falls on it, and is thus directly proportional to the cell’s achievable performance.
|
Open-Circuit Voltages Exceeding 1.26 V in Planar Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cells
Zhifa Liu, Lisa Krückemeier, Benedikt Krogmeier, Benjamin Klingebiel, José A. Márquez, Sergiu Levcenko, Senol Öz, Sanjay Mathur, Uwe Rau, Thomas Unold, and Thomas Kirchartz
ACS Energy Letters 2019 4 (1), DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.8b01906
|
| 21 Jan 2019 |
Materials Research: Oxide Ceramics with Reversible Properties
Jülich, 21. January 2019 – Modern technology could not do without materials that have clearly defined physical properties. A new approach to achieving targeted and at the same time reversible material design using oxygen has now been presented by scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The ceramic material they examined is able to absorb, store and release oxygen, in the same manner as a sponge does with water. In the process, the crystalline substance switches from conductive to insulating behaviour, while at the same time its magnetic properties also change. The researchers envisage possible applications for this material in data storage, sensors and catalysts.
|
Reversible Control of Physical Properties via Oxygen Vacancy-driven Topotactic Transition in Epitaxial La0.7Sr0.3MnO3-δ Thin Films;
Lei Cao et al.;
Advanced Materials 2018, 1806183 (2018), DOI: 10.1002/adma.20180618
|
| 18 Dec 2018 |
Preventing Clumping: How to Keep Proteins Active
Jülich, 19 December 2018 – Protein molecules are nature’s all-rounders and carry out their specific tasks with great efficiency. For example, some play an important role in converting substances; others are involved in combatting pathogens. As a result, these biological machines are important in technical as well as medical applications. However, proteins tend to clump together irreversibly at high concentrations and thus lose their effectiveness, although this only occurs when they are outside their natural environment of the cell’s interior.
|
Confinement Facilitated Protein Stabilization As Investigated by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering;
Justin Siefker, Ralf Biehl, Margarita Kruteva, Artem Feoktystov, Marc-Olivier Coppens;
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 40, 12720-12723, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b08454
"Proteins aggregate not", by Alberto Moscatelli, published in Nature Nanotechnology Volume 13, Page 978 (2018)
|
| 29 Oct 2018 |
How DNA Cages Transport Nanoparticles
29 October 2018 – Objects on the nanoscale containing cavities are of great interest from the point of view of both fundamental science as well as in terms of possible applications. So-called nanocages can act as carriers of smaller molecules and, for example, transport drugs or genes for medical purposes. An international research team including scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich have investigated how one could create robust and stable nanobjects with tunable properties in the laboratory using experiments in combination with detailed computer simulations.
|
Clemens Jochum, Nataša Adžić, Emmanuel Stiakakis, Thomas L. Derrien, Dan Luo, Gerhard Kahl, and Christos N. Likos: Structure and stimuli-responsiveness of all-DNA dendrimers: theory and experiment, Nanoscale (2018).
DOI: 10.1039/C8NR05814H
|
| 21 Sep 2018 |
How Magnetism Works: Electron Bonds Stronger Than Thought
Jülich, 21 September 2018 – Why are some metals magnetic? This question is a challenge not only for school children, but a well-founded scientific answer is also elusive. A paper by a team of scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg makes this even clearer. Using cobalt as a magnetic material, the researchers were the first to visualize those interactions between single electrons that ultimately give rise to magnetic properties. This in turn enabled the first detailed insights into the electronic origin of magnetism, something that could only be addressed theoretically in the past. For their investigations, the researchers utilized an electron microscope operated by Forschungszentrum Jülich at the Elettra storage ring in Trieste, Italy.
|
Nonlocal electron correlations in an itinerant ferromagnet
Christian Tusche, Martin Ellguth, Vitaliy Feyer, Alexander Krasyuk, Carsten Wiemann,
Jürgen Henk, Claus M. Schneider & Jürgen Kirschner;
Nature Communications (published online September 13, 2018), DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05960-5
|
