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1. Chemical abundances of open clusters from high-resolution infrared spectra – II. NGC 752

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz3008  

   Böcek Topcu, G. ; Afşar, M. ; Sneden, C. ; Pilachowski, C. A. ; Denissenkov, P. A. ; VandenBerg, D. A. ; Wright, D. ; Mace, G. N. ; Jaffe, D. T. ; Strickland, E. ; et al ( October 2019 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   We present a detailed near-infrared chemical abundance analysis of 10 red giant members of the Galactic open cluster NGC 752. High-resolution (R ≃ 45000) near-infrared spectral data were gathered with the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrograph, providing simultaneous coverage of the complete H and K bands. We derived the abundances of H-burning (C, N, O), α (Mg, Si, S, Ca), light odd-Z (Na, Al, P, K), Fe-group (Sc, Ti, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni), and neutron-capture (Ce, Nd, Yb) elements. We report the abundances of S, P, K, Ce, and Yb in NGC 752 for the first time. Our analysis yields solar-metallicity and solarmore »abundance ratios for almost all of the elements heavier than the CNO group in NGC 752. O and N abundances were measured from a number of OH and CN features in the H band, and C abundances were determined mainly from CO molecular lines in the K band. High-excitation $\rm{C\,\small {I}}$ lines present in both near-infrared and optical spectra were also included in the C abundance determinations. Carbon isotopic ratios were derived from the R-branch band heads of first overtone (2−0) and (3−1) 12CO and (2−0) 13CO lines near 23 440 Å and (3−1) 13CO lines at about 23 730 Å. The CNO abundances and 12C/13C ratios are all consistent with our giants having completed ‘first dredge-up’ envelope mixing of CN-cyle products. We independently assessed NGC 752 stellar membership from Gaia astrometry, leading to a new colour–magnitude diagram for this cluster. Applications of Victoria isochrones and MESA models to these data yield an updated NGC 752 cluster age (1.52 Gyr) and evolutionary stage indications for the programme stars. The photometric evidence and spectroscopic light element abundances all suggest that the most, perhaps all of the programme stars are members of the helium-burning red clump in this cluster.

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2. Fracture toughness of a metal–organic framework glass

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16382-7  

   To, Theany ; Sørensen, Søren S. ; Stepniewska, Malwina ; Qiao, Ang ; Jensen, Lars R. ; Bauchy, Mathieu ; Yue, Yuanzheng ; Smedskjaer, Morten M. ( May 2020 , Nature Communications)

   Metal-organic framework glasses feature unique thermal, structural, and chemical properties compared to traditional metallic, organic, and oxide glasses. So far, there is a lack of knowledge of their mechanical properties, especially toughness and strength, owing to the challenge in preparing large bulk glass samples for mechanical testing. However, a recently developed melting method enables fabrication of large bulk glass samples (>25 mm³) from zeolitic imidazolate frameworks. Here, fracture toughness (K_Ic) of a representative glass, namely ZIF-62 glass (Zn(C₃H₃N₂)_1.75(C₇H₅N₂)_0.25), is measured using single-edge precracked beam method and simulated using reactive molecular dynamics.K_Icis determined to be ~0.1 MPa m^0.5, which is evenmore »lower than that of brittle oxide glasses due to the preferential breakage of the weak coordinative bonds (Zn-N). The glass is found to exhibit an anomalous brittle-to-ductile transition behavior, considering its low fracture surface energy despite similar Poisson’s ratio to that of many ductile metallic and organic glasses.

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3. Nixonite, Na2Ti6O13, a new mineral from a metasomatized mantle garnet pyroxenite from the western Rae Craton, Darby kimberlite field, Canada

   https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2019-7023  

   Anzolini, Chiara ; Wang, Fei ; Harris, Garrett A. ; Locock, Andrew J. ; Zhang, Dongzhou ; Nestola, Fabrizio ; Peruzzo, Luca ; Jacobsen, Steven D. ; Pearson, D.Graham ( September 2019 , American Mineralogist)

   Abstract Nixonite (IMA 2018-133), ideally Na2Ti6O13, is a new mineral found within a heavily metasomatized pyroxenite xenolith from the Darby kimberlite field, beneath the west-central Rae Craton, Canada. It occurs as microcrystalline aggregates, 15 to 40 μm in length. Nixonite is isostructural with jeppeite, K2Ti6O13, with a structure consisting of edge- and corner-shared titanium-centered octahedra that enclose alkali-metal ions. The Mohs hardness is estimated to be between 5 and 6 by comparison to jeppeite, and the calculated density is 3.51(1) g/cm3. Electron microprobe wavelength-dispersive spectroscopic analysis (average of 6 points) yielded: Na2O 6.87, K2O 5.67, CaO 0.57, TiO2 84.99, V2O3more »0.31, Cr2O3 0.04, MnO 0.01, Fe2O3 0.26, SrO 0.07, total 98.79 wt%. The empirical formula, based on 13 O atoms, is: (Na1.24K0.67Ca0.06)Σ1.97(Ti5.96V0.023Fe0.018)Σ6.00O13 with minor amounts of Cr and Mn. Nixonite is monoclinic, space group C2/m, with unit-cell parameters a = 15.3632(26) Å, b = 3.7782(7) Å, c = 9.1266(15) Å, β = 99.35(15)°, and V = 522.72(1) Å3, Z = 2. Based on the average of seven integrated multi-grain diffraction images, the strongest diffraction lines are [dobs in Å (I in %) (hkl)]: 3.02 (100) (310), 3.66 (75) (110), 7.57 (73) (200), 6.31 (68) (201), 2.96 (63) (311), 2.96 (63) (203), and 2.71 (62) (402). The five main Raman peaks of nixonite, in order of decreasing intensity, are at 863, 280, 664, 135, and 113 cm–1. Nixonite is named after Peter H. Nixon, a renowned scientist in the field of kimberlites and mantle xenoliths. Nixonite occurs within a pyroxenite xenolith in a kimberlite, in association with rutile, priderite, perovskite, freudenbergite, and ilmenite. This complex Na-K-Ti-rich metasomatic mineral assemblage may have been produced by a fractionated Na-rich kimberlitic melt that infiltrated a mantle-derived garnet pyroxenite and reacted with rutile during kimberlite crystallization.« less
4. Influence of a dispersion of magnetic and non-magnetic nanoparticles on the magnetic Fredericksz transition of 5CB

   Mouhli, Ahmaed ; Ayeb, Habib ; Othman, Tahar ; Fresnais, Jérôme ; Dupuis, Vincent ; Nemitz, Ian R. ; Pendery, Joel S. ; Rosenblatt, Charles ; Sandre, Olivier ; Lacaze, Emmanuelle ( July 2017 , Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics)

   Long time ago, Brochard and de Gennes predicted the possibility of significantly decreasing the critical magnetic feld of the Fredericksz transition (the magnetic Fredericksz threshold) in a mixture of nematic liquid crystals and ferromagnetic particles, the so-called ferronematics. This phenomenon has rarely been measured, usually due to soft homeotropic anchoring induced at the nanoparticle surface. Here we present an optical study of the magnetic Fredericksz transition combined with a light scattering study of the classical nematic liquid crystal, 5CB, doped with 6 nm diameter magnetic and non-magnetic nanoparticles. Surprisingly, for both nanoparticles, we observe at room temperature a net decreasemore »of the threshold field of the Fredericksz transition at low nanoparti cle concentrations, which appears associated with a coating of the nanoparticles by a brush of polydimethylsiloxane copolymer chains inducing planar anchoring of the director on the nanoparticle surface. Moreover the magnetic Fredericksz threshold exhibits non-monotonic behaviour as a function of the nanoparticle concentration for both types of nanoparticles, first decreasing down to a value from 23% to 31% below that of pure 5CB, then increasing with a further increase of nanoparticle concentration. This is interpreted as an aggregation starting at around 0.02 weight fraction that consumes more isolated nanoparticles than those introduced when the concentration is increased above c = 0:05 weight fraction (volume fraction 3:5 x 10^-2). This shows the larger effect of isolated nanoparticles on the threshold with respect to aggregates. From dynamic light scattering measurements we deduced that, if the decrease of the magnetic threshold when the nanoparticle concentration increases is similar for both kinds of nanoparticles, the origin of this decrease is different for magnetic and non-magnetic nanoparticles. For non-magnetic nanoparticles, the behavior may be associated with a decrease of the elastic constant due to weak planar anchoring. For magnetic nanoparticles there are non-negligible local magnetic interactions between liquid crystal molecules and magnetic nanoparticles, leading to an increase of the average order parameter. This magnetic interaction thus favors an easier liquid crystal director rotation in the presence of external magnetic field, able to reorient the magnetic moments of the nanoparticles along with the molecules.« less
5. Artificially engineered nanostrain in FeSexTe1-x superconductor thin films for supercurrent enhancement

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41427-019-0186-y  

   Seo, Sehun ; Noh, Heesung ; Li, Ning ; Jiang, Jianyi ; Tarantini, Chiara ; Shi, Ruochen ; Jung, Soon-Gil ; Jun Oh, Myeong ; Liu, Mengchao ; Lee, Jongmin ; et al ( January 2020 , NPG Asia Materials)

   Although nanoscale deformation, such as nanostrain in iron-chalcogenide (FeSe_xTe_1−x, FST) thin films, has attracted attention owing to its enhancement of general superconducting properties, including critical current density (J_c) and critical transition temperature, the development of this technique has proven to be an extremely challenging and complex process thus far. Herein, we successfully fabricated an epitaxial FST thin film with uniformly distributed nanostrain by injection of a trace amount of CeO₂inside an FST matrix using sequential pulsed laser deposition. By means of transmission electron microscopy and geometric phase analysis, we verified that the injection of a trace amount of CeO₂formsmore »nanoscale defects, with a nanostrained region of tensile strain (ε_zz ≅ 0.02) along thec-axis of the FST matrix. This nanostrained FST thin film achieves a remarkableJ_cof 3.5 MA/cm²under a self-field at 6 K and a highly enhancedJ_cunder the entire magnetic field with respect to those of a pristine FST thin film.

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