Several New Active Galactic Nuclei Among X-ray Sources Detected by INTEGRAL and SWIFT Observatories

We present the results of the optical identifications of a set of X-ray sources from the all-sky surveys of INTEGRAL and SWIFT observatories. Optical data were obtained with Russian-Turkish 1.5-m Telescope (RTT150). Nine X-ray sources were identified as active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Two of them are hosted by nearby, nearly exactly edge-on, spiral galaxies MCG -01-05-047 and NGC 973. One source, IGR J16562-3301, is most probably BL Lac object (blazar). Other AGNs are observed as stellar-like nuclei of spiral galaxies, with broad emission lines in their spectra. For the majority of our hard X-ray selected AGNs, their hard X-ray luminosities are well-correlated with the luminosities in [OIII],5007 optical emission line. However, the luminosities of some AGNs deviate from this correlation. The fraction of these objects can be as high as 20%. In particular, the flux in [OIII] line turns to be lower in two nearby edge-on spiral galaxies, which can be explained by the extinction in their galactic disks.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters, the original text in Russian can be found at http://hea.iki.rssi.ru/~rodion/poptid.pd

Hollow MXene Spheres and 3D Macroporous MXene Frameworks for Na-Ion Storage

© 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides, named MXenes, are attracting increasing attentions and showing competitive performance in energy storage devices including electrochemical capacitors, lithium- and sodium-ion batteries, and lithium–sulfur batteries. However, similar to other 2D materials, MXene nanosheets are inclined to stack together, limiting the device performance. In order to fully utilize MXenes' electrochemical energy storage capability, here, processing of 2D MXene flakes into hollow spheres and 3D architectures via a template method is reported. The MXene hollow spheres are stable and can be easily dispersed in solvents such as water and ethanol, demonstrating their potential applications in environmental and biomedical fields as well. The 3D macroporous MXene films are free-standing, flexible, and highly conductive due to good contacts between spheres and metallic conductivity of MXenes. When used as anodes for sodium-ion storage, these 3D MXene films exhibit much improved performances compared to multilayer MXenes and MXene/carbon nanotube hybrid architectures in terms of capacity, rate capability, and cycling stability. This work demonstrates the importance of MXene electrode architecture on the electrochemical performance and can guide future work on designing high-performance MXene-based materials for energy storage, catalysis, environmental, and biomedical applications

MoS<inf>2</inf>-on-MXene Heterostructures as Highly Reversible Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

© 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Two-dimensional (2D) heterostructured materials, combining the collective advantages of individual building blocks and synergistic properties, have spurred great interest as a new paradigm in materials science. The family of 2D transition-metal carbides and nitrides, MXenes, has emerged as an attractive platform to construct functional materials with enhanced performance for diverse applications. Here, we synthesized 2D MoS2-on-MXene heterostructures through in situ sulfidation of Mo2TiC2Tx MXene. The computational results show that MoS2-on-MXene heterostructures have metallic properties. Moreover, the presence of MXene leads to enhanced Li and Li2S adsorption during the intercalation and conversion reactions. These characteristics render the as-prepared MoS2-on-MXene heterostructures stable Li-ion storage performance. This work paves the way to use MXene to construct 2D heterostructures for energy storage applications