The recently discovered SrxBi2Se3 superconductor provides an alternative and ideal material base for investigating possible topological superconductivity. Here, we report that in Sr0.065Bi2Se3, the ambient superconducting phase is gradually depressed upon the application of external pressure. At high pressure, a second superconducting phase emerges at above 6 GPa, with a maximum T-c value of similar to 8.3 K. The joint investigations of the high-pressure synchrotron x-ray diffraction and electrical transport properties reveal that the reemergence of superconductivity in Sr0.065Bi2Se3 is closely related to the structural phase transition from an ambient rhombohedral phase to a high-pressure monoclinic phase around 6 GPa, and further to another high-pressure tetragonal phase above 25 GPa.

As a new type of topological materials, ZrTe5 shows many exotic properties under extreme conditions. Using resistance and ac magnetic susceptibility measurements under high pressure, while the resistance anomaly near 128 K is completely suppressed at 6.2 GPa, a fully superconducting transition emerges. The superconducting transition temperature T-c increases with applied pressure, and reaches a maximum of 4.0 K at 14.6 GPa, followed by a slight drop but remaining almost constant value up to 68.5 GPa. At pressures above 21.2 GPa, a second superconducting phase with the maximum T-c of about 6.0 K appears and coexists with the original one to the maximum pressure studied in this work. In situ high-pressure synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy combined with theoretical calculations indicate the observed two-stage superconducting behavior is correlated to the structural phase transition from ambient Cmcm phase to high-pressure C2/m phase around 6 GPa, and to a mixture of two high-pressure phases of C2/m and P-1 above 20 GPa. The combination of structure, transport measurement, and theoretical calculations enable a complete understanding of the emerging exotic properties in 3D topological materials under extreme environments.

WTe2 is provoking immense interest owing to its extraordinary properties, such as large positive magnetoresistance, pressure-driven superconductivity and possible type-II Weyl semimetal state. Here we report results of high-pressure synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman and electrical transport measurements on WTe2. Both the XRD and Raman results reveal a structural transition upon compression, starting at 6.0 GPa and completing above 15.5 GPa. We have determined that the high-pressure lattice symmetry is monoclinic 1T' with space group of P2(1)/m. This transition is related to a lateral sliding of adjacent Te-W-Te layers and results in a collapse of the unit cell volume by similar to 20.5%. The structural transition also casts a pressure range with the broadened superconducting transition, where the zero resistance disappears. (C) 2016 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Knowledge about protein interaction sites provides detailed information of protein-protein interactions (PPIs). To date, nearly 20,000 of PPIs from Arabidopsis thaliana have been identified. Nevertheless, the interaction site information has been largely missed by previously published PPI databases. Here, AraPPISite, a database that presents fine-grained interaction details for A. thaliana PPIs is established. First, the experimentally determined 3D structures of 27 A. thaliana PPIs are collected from the Protein Data Bank database and the predicted 3D structures of 3023 A. thaliana PPIs are modeled by using two well-established template-based docking methods. For each experimental/predicted complex structure, AraPPISite not only provides an interactive user interface for browsing interaction sites, but also lists detailed evolutionary and physicochemical properties of these sites. Second, AraPPISite assigns domain-domain interactions or domain-motif interactions to 4286 PPIs whose 3D structures cannot be modeled. In this case, users can easily query protein interaction regions at the sequence level. AraPPISite is a free and user-friendly database, which does not require user registration or any configuration on local machines. We anticipate AraPPISite can serve as a helpful database resource for the users with less experience in structural biology or protein bioinformatics to probe the details of PPIs, and thus accelerate the studies of plant genetics and functional genomics. AraPPISite is available at http://systbio.cau.edu.cn/arappisite/index.html

We report a new pressure-induced phase in TaAs with different Weyl fermions than the ambient structure with the aid of theoretical calculations, experimental transport and synchrotron structure investigations up to 53 GPa. We show that TaAs transforms from an ambient I4(1) md phase (t-TaAs) to a high-pressure hexagonal P-6m2 (h-TaAs) phase at 14 GPa, along with changes of the electronic state from containing 24 Weyl nodes distributed at two energy levels to possessing 12 Weyl nodes at an isoenergy level, which substantially reduces the interference between the surface and bulk states. The new pressure-induced phase can be reserved upon releasing pressure to ambient condition, which allows one to study the exotic behavior of a single set of Weyl fermions, such as the interplay between surface states and other properties.

Spin-crossover (SCO) is generally regarded as a spectacular molecular magnetism in 3d(4)-3d(7) metal complexes and holds great promise for various applications such as memory, displays, and sensors. In particular, SCO materials can be multifunctional when a classical light- or temperature induced SCO occurs along with other cooperative structural and/or electrical transport alterations. However, such a cooperative SCO has rarely been observed in condensed matter under hydrostatic pressure (an alternative external stimulus to light or temperature), probably due to the lack of synergy between metal neighbors under compression. Here, we report the observation of a pressure-driven, cooperative SCO in the two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb antiferromagnets MnPS3 and MnPSe3 at room temperature. Applying pressure to this confined 2D system leads to a dramatic magnetic moment collapse of Mn2+ (d(5)) from S = 5/2 to S = 1/2. Significantly, a number of collective phenomena were observed along with the SCO, including a large lattice collapse (similar to 20% in volume), the formation of metallic bonding, and a semiconductor-to-metal transition. Experimental evidence shows that all of these events occur in the honeycomb lattice, indicating a strongly cooperative mechanism that facilitates the occurrence of the abrupt pressure-driven SCO. We believe that the observation of this cooperative pressure-driven SCO in a 2D system can provide a rare model for theoretical investigations and lead to the discovery of more pressure-responsive multifunctional materials.

To avoid additional global warming and environmental damage, energy systems need to rely on the use of low carbon technologies like wind energy. However, supply uncertainties, production costs, and energy security are the main factors considered by the global economies when reshaping their energy systems. Here, we explore the potential roles of wind energy technology advancement in future global electricity generations, costs, and energy security. We use an integrated assessment model performing a series of technology advancement scenarios. The results show that double of the capital cost reduction causes 40% of generation increase and 10% of cost decrease on average in the long-term global wind electricity market. Today's technology advancement could bring us the benefit of increasing electricity production in the future 40-50 years, and decreasing electricity cost in the future 90-100 years. The technology advancement of wind energy can help to keep global energy security and stability. An aggressive development and deployment of wind energy could in the long-term avoid 1/3 of gas and 1/28 of coal burned, and keep 1/2 biomass and 1/20 nuclear fuel saved from the global electricity system. The key is that wind resources are free and carbon-free. The results of this study are useful in broad coverage ranges from innovative technologies and systems of renewable energy to the economic industrial and domestic use of energy with no or minor impact on the environment. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We present in situ high-pressure synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy study, and electrical transport measurement of single crystal WSe2 in diamond anvil cells with pressures up to 54.0-62.8 GPa. The XRD and Raman results show that the phase undergoes a pressure-induced iso-structural transition via layer sliding, beginning at 28.5 GPa and not being completed up to around 60 GPa. The Raman data also reveals a dominant role of the in-plane strain over the out-of plane compression in helping achieve the transition. Consistently, the electrical transport experiments down to 1.8 K reveals a pressure-induced metallization for WSe2 through a broad pressure range of 28.2-61.7 GPa, where a mixed semiconducting and metallic feature is observed due to the coexisting low-and high-pressure structures.

Phase-selective synthesis and structure switching behavior of a functional material are essential to enable comparative studies on the structure-property relationship. Here, we report a controllable fluorination route to phase-pure erbium oxyfluorides with orthorhombic (O-ErOF) and rhombohedral (R-ErOF) structures. This facile method adopts polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as the fluoridizer, and the phase selectivity can be easily achieved at specific fluorination temperatures. The phase evolution and detailed crystal structures of erbium oxyfluoride were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) at various sintering temperatures and Rietveld refinements, respectively. An irreversible phase transition from O-ErOF to R-ErOF was observed under heating around 600 degrees C. The upconversion (UC) luminescence properties of R-ErOF and O-ErOF were studied comparatively by means of photoluminescence, P-I, and UC decay curves. Despite their similar components and crystal structure, R-ErOF exhibits stronger (more than 20 times) red UC emission than O-ErOF. The anomalous UC behavior of the two polymorphs of ErOF was associated with the energy transfer processes dependent on their crystal structure.

Nitrogen doping via high-temperature ammonization is a frequently used strategy to extend the light harvesting capacity of wide-bandgap catalysts in the visible region. Under such a reductive atmosphere, the reduction of transition metals is supposed to occur, however, this has not been thoroughly studied yet. Here, by combining chemically-controlled doping and subsequent liquid exfoliation, ultra-thin [Nb3O8](-) nanosheets with separate N doping, reduced-Nb doping and N/reduced-Nb codoping were fabricated for comparative studies on the doping effect for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Layered KNb3O8 was used as the starting material and the above-mentioned three doping conditions were achieved by high-temperature treatment with urea, hydrogen and ammonia, respectively. The morphology, crystal and electronic structures, and the catalytic activity of the products were characterized thoroughly by means of TEM, AFM, XRD, XPS, EPR, absorption spectroscopy and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Significantly, the black N/reduced-Nb co-doped monolayer [Nb3O8](-) nanosheets exhibit the mostly enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen generation rate, indicating a synergistic doping effect of the multiple chemical-design strategy. The modified electronic structure of [Nb3O8](-) nanosheets and the role of exotic dopants in bandgap narrowing are put forward for the rational design of better photocatalysts with reduced-metal self-doping.