These authors contributed equally: Tingxin Li, Shengwei Jiang.Stacking order can significantly influence the physical properties of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials 1 . The recent isolation of atomically thin magnetic materials 2-22 opens the door for control and design of magnetism via stacking order. Here we apply hydrostatic pressure up to 2 GPa to modify the stacking order in a prototype van der Waals magnetic insulator CrI3. We observe an irreversible interlayer antiferromagnetic (AF) to ferromagnetic (FM) transition in atomically thin CrI3 by magnetic circular dichroism and electron tunneling measurements. The effect is accompanied by a monoclinic to a rhombohedral stacking order change characterized by polarized Raman spectroscopy. Before the structural change, the interlayer AF coupling energy can be tuned up by nearly 100% by pressure. Our experiment reveals interlayer FM coupling, which is the established ground state in bulk CrI3, but never observed in native exfoliated thin films. The observed correlation between the magnetic ground state and the stacking order is in good agreement with first principles calculations 23-27 and suggests a route towards nanoscale magnetic textures by moiré engineering 28 .Intrinsic magnetism in 2D van der Waals materials has received growing attention 2-22 . Of particular interest is the thickness-dependent magnetic ground state in atomically thin CrI3. In these exfoliated thin films, the magnetic moments are aligned (in the out-of-plane direction) in each layer, but anti-aligned in adjacent layers 3,12-22 . They are FM (or AF) depending on whether there is (or isn't) an uncompensated layer. The relatively weak interlayer coupling compared to the intralayer coupling allows effective ways to control the interlayer magnetism, which have led to interesting spintronics applications including voltage switching 12-14 , spin filtering 16-20 and spin transistors 21 . The origin of interlayer AF coupling is, however, not well understood since interlayer FM order is the ground state in the bulk crystals. Recent ab initio calculations 23-27 and experiments 22,29,30 have suggested that stacking order could provide an explanation but a direct correlation between stacking order and interlayer magnetism is lacking.In bulk CrI3, the Cr atoms in each layer form a honeycomb structure, and each Cr atom is surrounded by six I atoms in an octahedral coordination (Fig. 1a). The bulk crystals undergo a structural phase transition from a monoclinic phase (space group C2/m) at room temperature to a

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As a 2D ferromagnetic semiconductor with magnetic ordering, atomically thin chromium tri-iodide is the latest addition to the family of two-dimensional (2D) materials. However, realistic exploration of CrI-based devices and heterostructures is challenging due to its extreme instability under ambient conditions. Here, we present Raman characterization of CrI and demonstrate that the main degradation pathway of CrI is the photocatalytic substitution of iodine by water. While simple encapsulation by AlO, PMMA, and hexagonal BN (hBN) only leads to modest reduction in degradation rate, minimizing light exposure markedly improves stability, and CrI sheets sandwiched between hBN layers are air-stable for >10 days. By monitoring the transfer characteristics of the CrI/graphene heterostructure over the course of degradation, we show that the aquachromium solution hole-dopes graphene.

The fabrication of highly active and robust hexagonal ruthenium oxide nanosheets for the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in an acidic environment is reported. The ruthenate nanosheets exhibit the best OER activity of all solution‐processed acid medium electrocatalysts reported to date, reaching 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of only ≈255 mV. The nanosheets also demonstrate robustness under harsh oxidizing conditions. Theoretical calculations give insights into the OER mechanism and reveal that the edges are the origin of the high OER activity of the nanosheets. Moreover, the post OER analyses indicate, apart from coarsening, no observable change in the morphology of the nanosheets or oxidation states of ruthenium during the electrocatalytic process. Therefore, the present investigation suggests that ruthenate nanosheets are a promising acid medium OER catalyst with application potential in proton exchange membrane electrolyzers and beyond.