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Volume 13 Issue 9, September 2018

Direct observation of thermal atomization

Metal atoms tend to sinter at high temperature, leading to a decrease in the reactivity of atomically dispersed catalysts. Y. Li and co-workers report an unexpected phenomenon. After encapsulating palladium, platinum and gold nanoparticles in ZIF-8, they observed the progressive atomic dispersion of these noble metal atoms as single sites in the nitrogen-doped carbon derived from ZIF-8 pyrolysis. The cover is an artist's depiction of the thermal atomization process that requires the interaction of noble metal atoms with the defects of N-doped carbon. The thermally stable single atoms exhibit promising performance towards the semi-hydrogenation of acetylene.

See Li et al.

Image: Zhi Li and Yadong Li, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University. Cover Design: Samantha Whitham.

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  • The new revisions of the Annexes of the European Union’s chemical legislation with regards to nanomaterials will provide more structure and clarity, but they will also force manufacturers, importers and downstream users to put substantial effort into understanding the details of what should and should not be done.

    • Lauge Peter Westergaard Clausen
    • Steffen Foss Hansen
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  • Dekker et al. review protein sequencing at the single-molecule level, an entirely new technique for which various approaches including sequencing using fluorescence, nanopores and tunnelling currents are discussed.

    • Laura Restrepo-Pérez
    • Chirlmin Joo
    • Cees Dekker
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  • A superconducting field-effect transistor was demonstrated with a structure made of different Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer superconductors.

    • Giorgio De Simoni
    • Federico Paolucci
    • Francesco Giazotto
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  • The power output of a thermophotovoltaic device featuring an emitter and a photovoltaic cell increases by more than an order of magnitude when the gap size between the emitter and the cell is reduced to the nanoscale.

    • Anthony Fiorino
    • Linxiao Zhu
    • Edgar Meyhofer
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