2025 New's Items

The electronic properties of atomically thin van der Waals (vdW) materials can be precisely manipulated by vertically stacking them with a controlled offset (for example, a rotational offset─i.e., twist─between the layers, or a small difference in lattice constant) to generate moiré superlattices. In recent years, the application of this “twistronics” concept to interfacial electrochemistry has unveiled unique pathways for tailoring the electrochemical reactivity. This Account provides an overview of our work that leveraged a suite of structural characterization methods, such as...

Altermagnets have been recently introduced as a classification of collinear, spin compensated magnetic materials that host net-zero magnetization yet display some electronic behaviors typically associated with noncompensated magnetic materials like ferromagnets. The emergence of such properties are a consequence of spin-split bands that arise under specific symmetry conditions in the limit of zero spin–orbit coupling. In this Perspective, we summarize the fundamental criteria for realizing an altermagnetic phase and present a qualitative electronic band structure derivation and...

Progress in many energy technologies critically depends on the ability to design and realize materials with optimal properties. These energy technologies include solar cells, batteries, optoelectronic devices, and catalysis, as well as information and communication technologies that are rapidly becoming the dominant consumer of electrical energy. Many of these energy technologies are based on, or benefit from, nanoscale materials and phenomena. For example, the density of catalytic active sites per gram of material is maximized when the catalytic material has...

We present a dynamical model of crystal growth, in which it is possible to reliably achieve asymmetric products, beginning from symmetric initial conditions and growing within an isotropic environment. The asymmetric growth is the result of a positive feedback mechanism that amplifies the effect of thermal fluctuations in the coverage of surfactants on the growing crystalline facets. Within our simple model, we are able to understand the kinetic and thermodynamic factors involved in both the onset of symmetry breaking and the persistence of anisotropic growth. We demonstrate that the...