The band inversion in topological phase matters bring exotic physical properties such as the topologically protected surface states (TSS). They strongly influence the surface electronic structures of the materials and could serve as a good platform to gain insight into the surface reactions. Here we synthesized high-quality bulk single crystals of Co3Sn2S2 that naturally hosts the band structure of a topological semimetal. This guarantees the existence of robust TSS from the Co atoms. Co3Sn2S2 crystals expose their Kagome lattice that constructed by Co atoms and have high electrical conductivity. They serves as catalytic centers for oxygen evolution process (OER), making bonding and electron transfer more efficient due to the partially filled orbital. The bulk single crystal exhibits outstanding OER catalytic performance, although the surface area is much smaller than that of Co-based nanostructured catalysts. Our findings emphasize the importance of tailoring TSS for the rational design of high-activity electrocatalysts.
There is considerable interest in van der Waals (vdW) materials as potential hosts for chiral skyrmionic spin textures. Of particular interest is the ferromagnetic, metallic compound Fe3GeTe2 (FGT), which has a comparatively high Curie temperature (150–220 K). Several recent studies have reported the observation of chiral Néel skyrmions in this compound, which is inconsistent with its presumed centrosymmetric structure. Here the observation of Néel type skyrmions in single crystals of FGT via Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) is reported. It is shown from detailed X‐ray diffraction structure analysis that FGT lacks an inversion symmetry as a result of an asymmetric distribution of Fe vacancies. This vacancy‐induced breaking of the inversion symmetry of this compound is a surprising and novel observation and is a prerequisite for a Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya vector exchange interaction which accounts for the chiral Néel skyrmion phase. This phenomenon is likely to be common to many 2D vdW materials and suggests a path to the preparation of many such acentric compounds. Furthermore, it is found that the skyrmion size in FGT is strongly dependent on its thickness: the skyrmion size increases from ≈100 to ≈750 nm as the thickness of the lamella is increased from ≈90 nm to ≈2 µm. This extreme size tunability is a feature common to many low symmetry ferro‐ and ferri‐magnetic compounds.
Conductivity, carrier mobility, and a suitable Gibbs free energy are important criteria that determine the performance of catalysts for a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, it is a challenge to combine these factors into a single compound. Herein, we discover a superior electrocatalyst for a HER in the recently identified Dirac nodal arc semimetal PtSn4. The determined turnover frequency (TOF) for each active site of PtSn4 is 1.54 H2 s−1 at 100 mV. This sets a benchmark for HER catalysis on Pt‐based noble metals and earth‐abundant metal catalysts. We make use of the robust surface states of PtSn4 as their electrons can be transferred to the adsorbed hydrogen atoms in the catalytic process more efficiently. In addition, PtSn4 displays excellent chemical and electrochemical stabilities after long‐term exposure in air and long‐time HER stability tests.
Skyrmions and antiskyrmions are magnetic nano‐objects with distinct chiral, noncollinear spin textures that are found in various magnetic systems with crystal symmetries that give rise to specific Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange vectors. These magnetic nano‐objects are associated with closely related helical spin textures that can form in the same material. The skyrmion size and the period of the helix are generally considered as being determined, in large part, by the ratio of the magnitude of the Heisenberg to that of the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange interaction. In this work, it is shown by real‐space magnetic imaging that the helix period λ and the size of the antiskyrmion daSk in the D2d compound Mn1.4PtSn can be systematically tuned by more than an order of magnitude from ≈100 nm to more than 1.1 µm by varying the thickness of the lamella in which they are observed. The chiral spin texture is verified to be preserved even up to micrometer‐thick layers. This extreme size tunability is shown to arise from long‐range magnetodipolar interactions, which typically play a much less important role for B20 skyrmions. This tunability in size makes antiskyrmions very attractive for technological applications.
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