Type-II Ising Pairing in Few-Layer Stanene

Spin-orbit coupling has proven indispensable in realizing topological materials and more recently Ising pairing in two-dimensional superconductors. This pairing mechanism relies on inversion symmetry breaking and sustains anomalously large in-plane polarizing magnetic fields whose upper limit is expected to diverge at low temperatures, although experimental demonstration of this has remained elusive due to the required fields. In this work, the recently discovered superconductor few-layer stanene, i.e. epitaxially strained $\alpha$-Sn, is shown to exhibit a new type of Ising pairing between carriers residing in bands with different orbital indices near the $\Gamma$-point. The bands are split as a result of spin-orbit locking without the participation of inversion symmetry breaking. The in-plane upper critical field is strongly enhanced at ultra-low temperature and reveals the sought for upturn

Type-II Ising pairing in few-layer stanene

Spin-orbit coupling has proven indispensable in the realization of topological materials and, more recently, Ising pairing in two-dimensional superconductors. This pairing mechanism relies on inversion symmetry–breaking and sustains anomalously large in-plane polarizing magnetic fields whose upper limit is predicted to diverge at low temperatures. Here, we show that the recently discovered superconductor few-layer stanene, epitaxially strained gray tin (α-Sn), exhibits a distinct type of Ising pairing between carriers residing in bands with different orbital indices near the Γ-point. The bands are split as a result of spin-orbit locking without the participation of inversion symmetry–breaking. The in-plane upper critical field is strongly enhanced at ultralow temperature and reveals the predicted upturn

Anode/Cathode Dual-Purpose Aluminum Current Collectors for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

Rechargeable aqueous zinc (Zn)-ion batteries (RAZIBs), which use non-flammable aqueous electrolytes and low-cost electrode materials, show great potential to boost the development of safe, cost-effective, and highly efficient energy storage systems. The adoption of lightweight and inexpensive aluminum (Al) as current collectors seems to be a good vision, but Al exhibits an easily-corroded nature and a high impedance in aqueous electrolytes, making it a challenge to realize the utilization of Al current collector in RAZIBs. In this study, through the direct current magnetron sputtering, niobium (Nb) coated Al (Al-Nb) foils are prepared, which shows superior corrosion-resistance in an aqueous solution, while maintaining a satisfying electronic conductivity. Moreover, the Al-Nb foils can be adopted to both anode and cathode current collectors while exhibiting high coulombic efficiency and good cycling stability even when they are tested under a condition that can meet the real-world application demands, e.g., the Zn||Al-Nb half-cell shows an average coulombic efficiency of 99.17% in 320 cycles under a current density of 25 mA cm(-2) and a galvanizing capacity of 6.25 mAh cm(-2). The superior performance of the modified Al current collectors may mark a significant step toward the development of high-energy-density aqueous batteries

Can Green Credit Improve the Innovation of Enterprise Green Technology: Evidence from 271 Cities in China

With the promotion of the “carbon neutrality” and “carbon peak” initiatives, green credit plays an important role in helping enterprises to change their high-pollution, high-energy-consumption production methods and establishing a sound green, low-carbon, and circular economic system. This study used spatial correlation analysis and a fixed effects SDM model to examine the spatiotemporal and causal relationship between green credit levels and enterprise green technology innovation in 271 prefecture level cities in China from 2013 to 2021. It found that (1) green credit and green technology innovation levels are both highest in the eastern region, followed by the central region, and exhibit spatial correlation characteristics. The main types of agglomeration are high–high and low–low agglomeration. (2) Green credit has a significant enhancing effect on green technology innovation in enterprises, and this conclusion still holds after robustness and endogeneity tests. (3) There is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of green credit on green technology innovation, mainly concentrated in the central and western regions. (4) Green credit can significantly increase enterprise R&D investment and enhance the level of green technology innovation through this channel. Finally, some policy implications are provided to the decision-making departments that can be used for reference

A lithiophilic carbon scroll as a Li metal host with low tortuosity design and "Dead Li" self-cleaning capability

On the way to achieve a practical lithium (Li) metal anode for next-generation batteries, the formation and accumulation of inactive "Dead Li" is an unavoidable issue. The accumulation of "Dead Li" leads to increased internal mass-transfer resistance which seriously deteriorates the performance of Li metal batteries during long-term cycling. In this study, by accommodating Li metal into a copper oxide coated carbon scroll host with a vertically aligned framework which possesses a unique low-tortuosity structure, the cycling stability of the Li anode can be significantly improved. It is demonstrated that the mass-transfer resistance and the concentration polarization near the Li metal surface can be greatly alleviated by using this low-tortuosity anode structure design. "Dead Li" that is formed on the electrode surface can automatically fall into the inner tunnel of the carbon host, endowing the anode with the capability of "Dead Li" self-cleaning. As a result, our new Li electrode can remain electrochemically active even after 1000 h in a symmetric cell measurement from 1 mA cm(-2) to 1 mA h for 500 cycles. The as-reported structure design of the Li anode in this work is compatible with most of the modification technologies that have been applied to conventional Li foil electrodes, providing this new Li anode with a great potential to be applied in subsequent Li anode studies

Comprehensive Evaluation of Electric Power Prediction Models Based on D-S Evidence Theory Combined with Multiple Accuracy Indicators

A comprehensive evaluation method of electric power prediction models using multiple accuracy indicators is proposed. To obtain the preferred models, this paper selects a number of accuracy indicators that can reflect the accuracy of single-point prediction and the correlation of predicted data, and carries out a comprehensive evaluation. First, according to Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory, a new accuracy indicator based on the relative error (RE) is proposed to solve the problem that RE is inconsistent with other indicators in the quantity of evaluation values and cannot be adopted at the same time. Next, a new dimensionless method is proposed, which combines the efficiency coefficient method with the extreme value method to unify the accuracy indicator into a dimensionless positive indicator, to avoid the conflict between pieces of evidence caused by the minimum value of zero. On this basis, the evidence fusion is used to obtain the comprehensive evaluation value of each model. Then, the principle and the process of consistency checking of the proposed method using the entropy method and the linear combination formula are described. Finally, the effectiveness and the superiority of the proposed method are validated by an illustrative instance

Numerical simulation of strength and failure analysis of heterogeneous sandstone under different loading rates

Abstract Natural rock masses often contain heterogeneous structures with varying sizes, non-uniform distributions, and strengths, which influence the mechanical response characteristics and crack propagation modes under loading. Furthermore, heterogeneous structures can affect the stability of the rock mass, in serious cases, leading to geotechnical and mining engineering disasters. In the present work, a parallel-bond model (PBM)-based numerical simulation using Particle Flow Code (PFC) was carried out to study the strength and failure characteristics of sandstone specimens with heterogeneous structures under different loading rates. The results show that the peak strength increases with the increasing loading rate. In addition, all of the initial cracks occurred at the edges of the heterogeneous structures of specimens under different loading rates. The greater the loading rate, the greater the stress concentration degree at the edge of the heterogeneous structures, the greater the dissipated energy as the sandstone specimens with heterogeneous structures suffer damage, the more intense the acoustic emission activity, and the greater the damage degree of the specimens. The number of cracks generated in sandstone specimens with heterogeneous structures increases gradually with the increasing loading rate during the initial loading stage, and gradually decreases after the specimens are damaged. Cracks propagate and develop from the upper right region to the lower right region of the specimens, forming crack groups that rapidly penetrate the specimens, leading to failure. Under different loading rates, the final failure behavior of the sandstone specimens with heterogeneous structures changes from an inverted V-type to θ-type, then gradually evolves to O-type failure