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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Two-Dimensional Monolayer Salt Nanostructures Can Spontaneously Aggregate Rather Than Dissolve In Dilute Aqueous Solutions, Wenhui Zhao, Yunxiang Sun, Weiduo Zhu, Jian Jiang, Xiaorong Zhao, Dongdong Lin, Wenwu Xu, Xiangmei Duan, Joseph S. Francisco, Xiao Cheng Zeng Sep 2021

Two-Dimensional Monolayer Salt Nanostructures Can Spontaneously Aggregate Rather Than Dissolve In Dilute Aqueous Solutions, Wenhui Zhao, Yunxiang Sun, Weiduo Zhu, Jian Jiang, Xiaorong Zhao, Dongdong Lin, Wenwu Xu, Xiangmei Duan, Joseph S. Francisco, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

It is well known that NaCl salt crystals can easily dissolve in dilute aqueous solutions at room temperature. Herein, we reported the first computational evidence of a novel salt nucleation behavior at room temperature, i.e., the spontaneous formation of two-dimensional (2D) alkali chloride crystalline/non-crystalline nanostructures in dilute aqueous solution under nanoscale confinement. Microsecond-scale classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations showed that NaCl or LiCl, initially fully dissolved in confined water, can spontaneously nucleate into 2D monolayer nanostructures with either ordered or disordered morphologies. Notably, the NaCl nanostructures exhibited a 2D crystalline square-unit pattern, whereas the LiCl nanostructures adopted non-crystalline 2D hexagonal …


Multiple Wetting−Dewetting States Of A Water Droplet On Dual- Scale Hierarchical Structured Surfaces, Yurui Gao, Yuan Liu, Jian Jiang, Chongqin Zhu, Craig Zuhlke, Dennis Alexander, Joseph S. Francisco, Xiao Cheng Zeng Jun 2021

Multiple Wetting−Dewetting States Of A Water Droplet On Dual- Scale Hierarchical Structured Surfaces, Yurui Gao, Yuan Liu, Jian Jiang, Chongqin Zhu, Craig Zuhlke, Dennis Alexander, Joseph S. Francisco, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

Surfaces with microscale roughness can entail dualscale hierarchical structures such as the recently reported nano/ microstructured surfaces produced in the laboratory (Wang et al. Nature 2020, 582, 55−57). However, how the dual-scale hierarchical structured surface affects the apparent wetting/ dewetting states of a water droplet, and the transitions between the states are still largely unexplored. Here, we report a systematic large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study on the wetting/dewetting states of water droplets on various dual-scale nano/near-submicrometer structured surfaces. To this end, we devise slab-water/slab-substrate model systems with a variety of dual-scale surface structures and with different degrees of intrinsic …


Molecular Design Of Three-Dimensional Metal-Free A(Nh4)X3 Perovskites For Photovoltaic Applications, Jie Bie, Dai-Bei Yang, Ming-Gang Ju, Qiang Pan, Yu-Meng You, Wei Fa, Xiao Cheng Zeng, Shuang Chen Mar 2021

Molecular Design Of Three-Dimensional Metal-Free A(Nh4)X3 Perovskites For Photovoltaic Applications, Jie Bie, Dai-Bei Yang, Ming-Gang Ju, Qiang Pan, Yu-Meng You, Wei Fa, Xiao Cheng Zeng, Shuang Chen

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

The intense research activities on the hybrid organic−inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) have led to the greatly improved light absorbers for solar cells with high power conversion efficiency (PCE). However, it is still challenging to find an alternative lead-free perovskite to replace the organohalide lead perovskites to achieve high PCE. This is because both previous experimental and theoretical investigations have shown that the Pb2+ cations play a dominating role in contributing the desirable frontier electronic bands of the HOIPs for light absorbing. Recent advances in the chemical synthesis of three-dimensional (3D) metal-free perovskites, by replacing Pb2+ with NH4+ …