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The interaction of nanoparticles with light plays an important role in many applications, for example solar cells or photocatalysis. The fundamental quantity that determines if a nanoparticle can absorb light is the energy gap between its highly occupied orbital and…

TYC members, Zhao and Di Tommaso (Queen Mary), and Crespo-Otero (UCL) have identified the role of copper (Cu) in diatomic catalysts in the electrochemical CO2 conversion to one-carbon (C1) value-added chemicals. Traditionally, Cu has been identified as the catalytic site…

The production of hydrogen using solar energy is a key step towards a green hydrogen economy. Palladium nanoparticles are good catalysts for the production of hydrogen, but they do not absorb much sunlight. This limitation of palladium nanoparticles can be…

Increasing electrical conductivity with insulating groups. Organic semiconducting crystals are carbon-based materials in which molecules are held together by weak intermolecular forces. These materials can conduct electrical current owing to the presence of relatively unbound and, in some cases, partially…

Thermoplasmonics attracts significant interest in nanoscale heat transport applications such as catalysis, biomedical nanodevices (thermal therapies for cancer treatment) or imaging. These structures rely on the heating using electromagnetic radiation and the subsequent heat transfer to the surroundings. The dynamic…

Data-Driven Solution of the Inverse Problem in Classical Statistical Mechanics Statistical mechanics aims to relate observable macroscopic properties of matter with its underlying microscopic structure via appropriate averaging. The central property which facilitates such averaging is the probability density ρ(r) of finding…

Human activity has increased the amount of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Therefore, there is an imperative for the transformation of these two gases into useful chemicals. To this end, we have employed state-of-the-art…

Caloric systems, capable of heating and cooling environments in response to a change in external conditions, are in ever increasing demand, be it in fridges, freezers, air conditioning or radiators. Typically, these systems are based on the latent heat absorbed…

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a class of porous, crystalline materials composed of organic molecules, referred to as monomers, that are linked together through strong, covalent bonds. 2D COFs are synthesised by combining two planar organic monomers, and by virtue of…

Phasons are a particular type of collective motion of atoms that occur in aperiodic structures such as quasicrystals. The interaction between phasons and other collective excitations within a material leads to fascinating thermal and electronic transport phenomena. Recently, twisted moiré…