Category archives: Materials

Spin control using chemical design

Spin control using chemical design

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

During the last decades, the electronics industry has been very successful in pushing forward the advancement of electronic building blocks, but the limit of silicon-based electronic devices especially in terms of miniaturization are almost reached. There are many ideas how to overcome this problem, for example, by adding functionality based on approaches originating from molecular […]

Mechanochemistry of nanographenes

Mechanochemistry of nanographenes

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

Modern organic industrial chemistry started when William Henry Perkin serendipitously synthesized mauveine in 1856 while he was attempting the total synthesis of quinine. Since then, thousands of new organic products have been created in the laboratory for industrial purposes. Among them, in 1913, an orange-red pigment was found, first known as Vat Orange 3 dye […]

Accurate simulation of aqueous-based electrochemical setups

Accurate simulation of aqueous-based electrochemical setups

ChemistryCondensed matterEnergyMaterialsPhysicsQuantum physics

By DIPC

Following the need for new and renewable sources of energy worldwide, fuel cells using electrocatalysts can be thought of as viable options. Catalyst materials modify and increase the rate of chemical reactions without itself undergoing any permanent change. An electrocatalyst is a catalyst that participates in electrochemical reactions and that functions at electrode surfaces or […]

Unexpected molecular core level shifts in nanoarchitectures

Unexpected molecular core level shifts in nanoarchitectures

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

Mimicking natural processes has been a recurrent strategy for the development of new technologies, from velcro to bullet trains. Thanks to the advances in scientific knowledge and technological tools achieved over the last decades, biologically inspired research has evolved from the macroscale to the nanoscale. This poses an interdisciplinary challenge, involving fields such as molecular […]

How dopants induce plasmon decay in graphene

How dopants induce plasmon decay in graphene

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyPhysicsTheoretical physics

By DIPC

For centuries, metals were employed in optical applications only as mirrors and gratings. New vistas opened up in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the discovery of surface-enhanced Raman scattering and the use of surface plasmon (collective electronic oscillations at the surface of metals) resonances for sensing. However, it was not until the 1990s […]

A Kondo effect by manipulating spin chains

A Kondo effect by manipulating spin chains

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

The scattering of conduction electrons in metals owing to impurities with magnetic moments is known as the Kondo effect, after Jun Kondo, who analysed the phenomenon in 1964. This scattering increases the electrical resistance and has the consequence that, in contrast to ordinary metals, the resistance reaches a minimum as the temperature is lowered and […]

Towards a universal quantum simulator: acoustic traps for quasiparticles

Towards a universal quantum simulator: acoustic traps for quasiparticles

Condensed matterMaterialsQuantum physics

By DIPC

The ability to trap and control particles with the help of well-controlled electromagnetic fields has led to revolutionary advances in the fields of biology, condensed- matter physics, high-precision spectroscopy, and quantum information, enabling unprecedented control both in the study of isolated single particles as well as in few and many-body systems subject to controlled and […]