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1. One-Pot Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide/Metal (Oxide) Composites

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b12539  

   Wu, Xu; Xing, Yuqian; Pierce, David; Zhao, Julia Xiaojun (October 2017, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces)
2. Spontaneous Ordering of Oxide-Oxide Epitaxial Vertically Aligned Nanocomposite Thin Films

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-matsci-091719-112806  

   Sun, Xing; MacManus-Driscoll, Judith L.; Wang, Haiyan (July 2020, Annual Review of Materials Research)

   null (Ed.)

   The emerging field of self-assembled vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) thin films effectively enables strain, interface, and microstructure engineering as well as (multi)functional improvements in electric, magnetic, optical, and energy-related properties. Well-ordered or patterned microstructures not only empower VAN thin films with many new functionalities but also enable VAN thin films to be used in nanoscale devices. Comparative ordered devices formed via templating methods suffer from critical drawbacks of processing complexity and potential contamination. Therefore, VAN thin films with spontaneous ordering stand out and display many appealing features for next-generation technological devices, such as electronics, optoelectronics, ultrahigh-density memory systems, photonics, and 3D microbatteries. The spontaneous ordering described in this review contains ordered/patterned structures in both in-plane and out-of-plane directions. In particular, approaches to obtaining spontaneously ordered/patterned structures in-plane are systematically reviewedfrom both thermodynamic and kinetic perspectives. Out-of-plane ordering is also discussed in detail. In addition to reviewing the progress of VAN films with spontaneous ordering, this article also highlights some recent developments in spontaneous ordering approaches and proposes future directions. 

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3. Antimicrobial activity of cuprous oxide-coated and cupric oxide-coated surfaces

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2022.07.022  

   Behzadinasab, S.; Hosseini, M.; Williams, M.D.; Ivester, H.M.; Allen, I.C.; Falkinham, J.O.; Ducker, W.A. (November 2022, Journal of Hospital Infection)
4. Targeting Oxide Concentration in Tantalum Oxide-Fluoride Anions

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solidstatesciences.2023.107369  

   Kamp, Kendall R; Wang, Yiran; Poeppelmeier, Kenneth R (December 2023, Solid State Sciences)

   The design of both molecular and non-molecular solid materials with specific properties fundamentally relies on the controlled synthesis of crystals with desired functional groups, bonding motifs, polarity, chirality, and more. To this end, fluoride and oxide-fluoride anions have been utilized as basic building units (BBUs) in the synthesis of noncentrosymmetric racemic materials for their ability to create polar axes that facilitate the breaking of an inversion center as demonstrated in a series of compounds with [MF6]2- anions (M = Ti, Zr, Hf). Targeting an analog with a [TaOF5]2- anion, the phase space of (CuO, Ta2O5)/bpy/HF(aq)/H2O (bpy = 2,2′- bipyridine) was investigated and three new compounds with Cu-bpy cations and Ta-fluoride or Ta-oxyfluoride anions were synthesized: [Cu(bpy)2][TaF6], [Cu (bpy)2][Ta2OF10], and [Cu(bpy)F(H2O)2]2[TaF7]•H2O with the anions [TaF6]-, [Ta2OF10]2-, and [TaF7]2-, respectively. The formation of these anions was found to be a product of both the concentration of hydrofluoric acid in solution and the ratio of metal-oxide starting materials to ligand. This work contributes to the understanding of mixed anion formation in the solid state. 

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5. Ordering Transitions of Liquid Crystals Triggered by Metal Oxide-catalyzed Reactions of Sulfur Oxide Species

   https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c03424  

   Bao, Nanqi; Gold, Jake I.; Sheavly, Jonathan K.; Schauer, James J.; Zavala, Victor M.; Van Lehn, Reid C.; Mavrikakis, Manos; Abbott, Nicholas L. (September 2022, Journal of the American Chemical Society)

   Liquid crystals (LCs), when supported on reactive surfaces, undergo changes in ordering that can propagate over distances of micrometers, thus providing a general and facile mechanism to amplify atomic-scale transformations on surfaces into the optical scale. While reactions on organic and metal substrates have been coupled to LC ordering transitions, metal oxide substrates, which offer unique catalytic activities for reactions involving atmospherically important chemical species such as oxidized sulfur species, have not been explored. Here we investigate this opportunity by designing LCs that contain 4′-cyanobiphenyl-4-carboxylic acid (CBCA) and respond to surface reactions triggered by parts-per-billion concentrations of SO2 gas on anatase (101) substrates. We used electronic structure calculations to predict that the carboxylic acid group of CBCA binds strongly to anatase (101) in a perpendicular orientation, a prediction that we validated in experiments in which CBCA (0.005 mol%) was doped into a LC (4’-n-pentyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile). Both experiment and computational modeling further demonstrated that SO3-like species, produced by a surface-catalyzed reaction of SO2 with H2O on anatase (101), displace CBCA from the anatase surface, resulting in an orientational transition of the LC. Experiments also reveal the LC response to be highly selective to SO2 over other atmospheric chemical species (including H2O, NH3, H2S, and NO2), in agreement with our computational predictions for anatase (101) surfaces. Overall, we establish that the catalytic activities of metal oxide surfaces offer the basis of a new class of substrates that trigger LCs to undergo ordering transitions in response to chemical species of relevance to atmospheric chemistry. 

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