Yes or no? Mayenite without the clathrated oxygen can be classified as an inorganic electride based on combined charge‐density (see picture, A) and electron‐localization‐function (ELF) analysis (B). Ionic chemical bonds are found to form between extra electrons and the positively charged crystal framework in this material.

Flexible actuators responsive to multiple stimuli are much desired in wearable electronics. However, general designs containing organic materials are usually subject to slow response and limited lifetime, or high triggering threshold. In this study, we develop flexible, all-inorganic actuators based on bimorph structures composed of vanadium dioxide (VO) and carbon nanotube (CNT) thin films. The drastic, reversible phase transition of VO drives the actuators to deliver giant amplitude, fast response up to ∼100 Hz, and long lifetime more than 1 000 000 actuation cycles. The excellent electrical conductivity and light absorption of CNT thin films enable the actuators to be highly responsive to multiple stimuli including light, electric, and heat. The power consumption of the actuators can be much reduced by doping VO to lower its phase transition temperature. These flexible bimorph actuators find applications in biomimetic inspect wings, millimeter-scale fingers, and physiological-temperature driven switches.

The growth and interfacial electronic properties of Ag on CeO 2 (111) thin films have been studied by synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy (SRPES), low energy electron diffraction (LEED), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Stoichiometric CeO 2 (111) thin films were grown on a Ru(0001) substrate. Ag grows as three-dimensional (3D) particles on the well-ordered CeO 2 (111) surface at 300 K with a number density of ∼1 Â 10 12 particles/cm 2 . When the CeO 2 (111) surface has a high density of defects, Ag initially populates these defect sites, leading to a two-dimensional (2D) island growth at low coverages followed by 3D islanding at high coverages. The binding energy of Ag 3d increases when the Ag particle size decreases, which is mainly attributed to the final-state screening. No strong interaction between Ag and CeO 2 (111) is found. The CeO 2 (111) surface is slightly reduced upon Ag deposition, which can be ascribed to the reverse spillover of oxygen atoms from the Ag-CeO 2 boundary to the Ag nanoparticles. The Ag particles on CeO 2 (111) experience significant sintering when the temperature increases before they desorb from the surface.

We describe a new synthetic approach to fabricate Ni/Cu nanocable arrays by co-depositing nickel and copper atoms into the pores of anodic alumina membranes and to fabricate Ni nanotube arrays by selectively etching the Cu cores from the Ni/Cu nanocable arrays. The formation of the Ni-shelled Ni/Cu nanocables is attributed to the Ni ions adsorbed on the pore walls by a chemical complexation through hydroxyl groups. By varying electrodepositon parameters in this technique, we can control the lengths of nanocables and nanotubes, the shell thickness of the nanocables, and the wall thickness and surface morphology of the nanotubes.