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Atomistic insight into ordered defect superstructures at novel grain boundaries in CuO nanosheets: From structures to electronic properties

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Abstract

Determining atomistic structures of grain boundaries (GBs) is essential to understand structure–property interplay in oxides. Here, different GB superstructures in CuO nanosheets, including \((11\bar1)\) and (114) twinning boundaries (TBs) and (002)/(223) GB, are investigated. Unlike the lower-energy stoichiometric \((11\bar1)\) TB, both experimental and first-principles investigations reveal a severe segregation of Cu and O vacancies and a nonstoichiometric property at (114) TB, which may facilitate ionic transportation and provide space for elemental segregation. More importantly, the calculated electronic structures have shown the increased conductivity as well as the unanticipated magnetism in both (114) TB and (002)/(223) GB. These findings could contribute to the race towards the property-directing structural design by GB engineering.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51671148, 51271134, J1210061, 11674251, 51501132, and 51601132), the Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 2016CFB446 and 2016CFB155), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the CERS-1-26 (CERSChina Equipment and Education Resources System), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2014T70734), the Open Research Fund of Science and Technology on High Strength Structural Materials Laboratory (Central South University), and the Suzhou Science and Technology project (No. SYG201619).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Technology, Center for Electron Microscopy, MOE Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures, and Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Lulu Zhao, Lei Li, Huaping Sheng, He Zheng, Shuangfeng Jia, Weiwei Meng, Huihui Liu, Fan Cao, Huayu Peng & Jianbo Wang

  2. Science and Technology on High Strength Structural Materials Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Jianbo Wang

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  1. Lulu Zhao
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  2. Lei Li
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Correspondence to He Zheng or Jianbo Wang.

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Atomistic insight into ordered defect superstructures at novel grain boundaries in CuO nanosheets: From structures to electronic properties

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Zhao, L., Li, L., Sheng, H. et al. Atomistic insight into ordered defect superstructures at novel grain boundaries in CuO nanosheets: From structures to electronic properties. Nano Res. 12, 1099–1104 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2354-3

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