Graphdiyne as a Promising Substrate for Stabilizing Pt Nanoparticle Catalyst

At present, Pt nanoparticle catalysts in fuel cells suffer from aggregation and loss of chemical activity. In this work, graphdiyne, which has natural porous structure, was proposed as substrate with high adsorption ability to stabilize Pt nanoparticles. Using multiscale calculations by ab initio method and the ReaxFF potential, geometry optimizations, molecular dynamics simulations, Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations and minimum energy paths calculations were performed to investigate the adsorption energy and the rates of desorption and migration of Pt nanoparticles on graphdiyne and graphene. According to the comparison between graphdiyne and graphene, it was found that the high adsorption ability of graphdiyne can avoid Pt nanoparticle migration and aggregation on substrate. Then, simulations indicated the potential catalytic ability of graphdiyne-Pt-nanoparticle system to the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells. In summary, graphdiyne should be an excellent material to replace graphite or amorphous carbon matrix for stabilizing Pt nanoparticle catalysts

Tunable laser and photocurrents from linear atomic C chains

By a tight-binding model, the interaction between linear atomic C chains (LACCs) and short laser pulses was investigated. LACCs were proposed to be used as a medium of laser whose wavelength can be continuously tuned in a range of 321~785 nm. This data should be more accurate than the previous result because pure density functional theory calculation always underestimates the band gap. According to the tight-binding model, the lifetime of conduction band (CB) bottom is about 1.9~2.3 ns. The electrons pumped into the CB will quickly fall to the band bottom in a time of ps due to electron$-$phonon interactions. The above results indicate that LACCs are suitable for laser medium. By {\omega}+ 2{\omega} dichromatic laser pulses, photocurrents can be generated in LACCs, which can be applied as light$-$controlled signals

Gamma-ray polarization induced by cold electrons via Compton processes

The polarization measurement is an important tool to probe the prompt emission mechanism in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The synchrotron photons can be scattered by cold electrons in the outflow via Compton scattering processes. The observed polarization depends on both the photon energy and the viewing angle. With the typical bulk Lorentz factor $\Gamma \sim 200$, photons with energy $E>10$ MeV tend to have smaller polarization than photons with energy $E<1$ MeV. At the right viewing angle, i.e. $\theta \sim \Gamma^{-1}$, the polarization achieves its maximal value, and the polarization angle changes $90^{\circ}$ relative to the initial polarization direction. Thus, the synchrotron radiation plus Compton scattering model can naturally explain the $90^{\circ}$ change of the polarization angle in GRB 100826A.Comment: 19 Pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl