Conveners
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Rudolph Erasmus (University of the Witwatersrand)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Edson Meyer (University of Fort Hare)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Mmantsae Diale (University of Pretoria)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- DAVID TSHWANE (UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Katekani Shingange (MINTEK)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Raesibe Sylvia Ledwaba (University of Limpopo)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Robert Warmbier (University of the Witwatersrand)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Abhishek Pandey (School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Bincy Susan Jacobs (University Of Johannesburg)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Fhulufhelo Nemangwele (University of Venda)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Nnditshedzeni Eric Maluta (University of Venda)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Track 1
- Thuto Mosuang (University of Limpopo)
The successful use of Sn-based material as light absorber in Schottky barrier solar cell with a PCE efficiency of 0.9%, encouraged researchers to pursue the material as a possible replacement of lead for stability of perovskites. This led to the development of 2D/3D Sn-based perovskites as prospective future candidates for stable HaP solar cell, where the photo conversion efficiency (PCE) has...
Solid-state technology is by far the most intriguing development to curb the thermal instability associated with the reactivity of liquid electrolytes. Of particular interest is the cubic Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) solid electrolyte material with ionic conductivity of 10−3 to 10−2 S•cm−1. However, it has temperature-dependent phase instability wherein the low conducting tetragonal phase exists below...
Synthesis of Mn-rich transition metal carbonate precursors as cathode materials for lithium ion batteries: Carbonate co-precipitation method
Tebogo Morukuladi, Noko Ngoepe, Clifton Masedi and Phuti Ngoepe
Materials Modelling Centre, School of Physical and Mineral Sciences, University of Limpopo, Private Bag x1106, Sovenga, 0727
tebzamorukuladi@gmail.com
Abstract
The synthesis of NMCCO3...
A multi-layered system of titanium (Ti), zirconium (Zr), and palladium (Pd) was successfully prepared on different substrates using an electron beam evaporator (NEE-4000) for hydrogen storage applications. Ti alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) and pure commercial Ti (cp-Ti) were used as substrates to prepare stacked layers of Pd/Ti/Pd/Zr/Pd. The phase transformation was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD)...
Electrodeposition of CdSe thin films using a two-electrode configuration was performed at different deposition periods such as 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 min on conductive glass substrate fluorine-doped tine oxide (FTO). Structural, optical, electrical, surface morphology, surface roughness, and elemental composition of CdSe thin films for both as-deposited and annealed samples were investigated by...
The structural, electronic, and optical properties of the undoped and transition metal Zn doped CsPbI3 were investigated using first-principles calculations within the framework of spin polarised density functional theory implemented in VASP code. The calculations are performed using the local spin density approximation GGA+U method in order to correct the strong Coulomb interactions of 3d...
Abstract
Recent advances in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have yielded power conversion efficiency (PCE) values exceeding 25.5% within a decade from their inception. Despite this rapid growth in PCE, one of the major drawbacks hindering large scale commercialization of PSCs is the toxicity of the lead (Pb) component in their composition [1]. Partially or wholly substituting Pb with...
The demand of lithium rapidly increases year by year, pushing up the price and making lithium resources less affordable. Thus, it is crucial to find alternative technology beyond lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) that employs abundant elements on earth. Sodium (Na+) and magnesium (Mg2+) are suitable candidates due to their high abundance and low cost, as well as their compatible redox potential to...
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations which generally rely on empirically parameterized functions are currently the only practical option for large-scale computational studies of materials. The process of determining these parameters is quite a challenge, particularly given that the final potential parameters are extensively dependent on the initial parameters. Hence, finding initial parameters...
The increase in the number of manufacturing industries in the recent time has both positive and negative impact on our environment and the human health. The use of heavy duty machines in manufacturing industries causes the release of flammable and hazardous gases, which affect the human health, into the atmosphere. A lot of research efforts have been focused on the detection and monitoring of...
Noble metals such as Ag, Au, and Pt have been reported to improve gas sensor sensitivity by inducing electronic and chemical sensitization of the sensor layer. This is one of the methods used to enhance the gas response of metal oxide semiconductors for the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Monitoring of emitted VOCs in industrial and residential spaces serves as a precautionary...
This study focuses on surface defect rich 1D fiber-like Cr-doped In2O3 products produced via electrospinning. The effects of Cr dopant ions on the ethanol gas sensing behaviour of the 1D fiber-like Cr-doped In2O3 products were examined. Explicit analysis pertaining to the structure, morphology, and surface related defects of the 1D fiber-like Cr-doped In2O3 products was conducted to obtain...
Semiconducting metal oxides are widely recognized as key sensing materials that are used for gas detection in several fields. In particular, zinc ferrite has attracted growing attention because of its sensitivity to volatile organic compounds, making it a potential sensing material for food spoilage detection/monitoring [1]. However, the high operating temperatures and poor selectivity hinder...
The release of toxic gases from modern industries seriously threatens the environment and human safety [1,2]. Many researchers are therefore committed to developing inexpensive and effective sensors for detecting and monitoring such gases using semiconductor metal oxide (SMO) nanostructures [3]. In this work, a series of studies were conducted to investigate the gas sensing performance of...
The detection and monitoring of H2S gas at high and lower concentrations is very
crucial since this gas is highly toxic and can affect tissues and organs, especially in occupational environment. This work reports on the synthesis of WO3
nanostructures-based sensors for highly sensitive and selective H2S detection
at low operating temperatures. These WO3 nanostructures were...
$A$Co$_2$As$_2$ ($A$ = K, Ca, Sr, Ba) and BaMn$_2$$X_{2}$ ($X$ = P, As, Sb, Bi) compounds that both crystallize in ThCr$_2$Si$_2$-type tetragonal structure together present a text-book type example of how the structural parameters and electronic band structure can indirectly govern the magnetic ground state of a crystalline system. $A$Co$_2$As$_2$ compounds exhibit properties that delicately...
L10 MnPt alloy has attracted much attention recently since it can be easily produced and provides magnetic properties of interest to spintronic applications. According to previous studies, this alloy retains its antiferromagnetism at room temperature. In this study, a first-principles calculations were performed in the framework of density functional theory to identify new spintronic material...
The discovery of unconventional superconductivity (SC) in doped iron-based arsenide BaFe$_2$As$_2$ [1] crystallizing in ThCr$_2$Si$_2$-type structure ignited interest in 122 tetragonal systems. Substituting iron with other 3$d$ or 4$d$ transition metal ions that constitute the metal-pnictide sublattice in similar systems have yielded interesting results including, but not limited to,...
The separation of valuable minerals from the gangue minerals is still a challenge, in particular the extraction of arsenides platinum group minerals (PGMs) such as sperrylite and platarsite. It has been reported that the flotation of PGMs resulted in low recovery when using traditional xanthates. This was owed to the report that the arsenides PGMs minerals are not amiable to flotation, and...
Intermetallic iron aluminides alloys of Fe3Al and β2-ordered cubic FeAl structure amongst other various compounds of transition metals and aluminium compositions have been of interest to researchers for application in different industries to increase corrosion-resistance for high temperature application steel coating. The FeAl compound exists between 35-50 % of aluminum concentrations. This...
Neodymium-based permanent magnets (Nd2Fe14B) are the potential permanent magnets for use in various applications such as wind turbines and electric vehicles due to their high magnetic field strength and resistance to demagnetisation. However, they suffer from low operating temperatures below 585 K and poor mechanical and vibrational properties. In this study, we investigate the effect of Ce on...
There is currently a high demand for the development and commercialisation of TiPt based shape memory alloys (SMAs). The development of these SMAs involves both computational modelling and experimental techniques. The integration of both techniques provide a detailed interpretation of the results that cannot be achievable using only the experimental approach. Therefore, this study uses first...
Temporary hydrogen alloying (THA) can refine coarse-grained as-cast Ti-6Al-4V microstructures and improve tensile strength. However, it can also reduce the tensile ductility to severe embrittlement because of hydrogen promoted titanium aluminide (Ti3Al) precipitation.[1] The effect of oxygen concentration above a 0.33 wt.% threshold on Ti3Al promotion is known.[2] The effect of residual...
Crystals containing rare earth atoms are interesting candidates for spintronic devices due to the fact that magnetism and the electric current are caused by different electron groups. The exactly solvable zero bandwidth limit of the sf-model is used to calculate the conduction electron spin polarization P(T,n), the chemical potential $\mu(T,n)$ and the 4f-magnetization m(T,n). The results...
Strain in multiferroic rare-earth epitaxial layers is a key feature that can induce new functionalities for the next generational applications such as room-temperature magnetoelectricity and magnetocapacitance [1, 2]. Several studies have shown the modulation of strain in TbMnO3 (TMO) thin films as a promising route for fabrication of perovskite-type oxides with tunable electrical and magnetic...
Recently, carbonaceous nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and two-dimensional graphene have attracted the attention of the scientific community in probe to improve energy conversion and storage technologies. The graphene sheet is more preferred due to its large specific area, flexible structure, high transparency, excellent mobility of charge carriers and is expected to be able to slow the...
In this work, Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) has been used to synthesize boron nitride (BN) nanostructures, particularly nanotubes, and defects selectively introduced into the synthesized BN nanostructures through ion implantation. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show clear evidence of BN nanostructures and BN nanotubes (BNNTs), with the latter appearing as long, thin structures...
In this study, Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized using the sol-gel method, followed by annealing at 550 oC for different time intervals (30 min, 1 hour, and 1 hour 30 min) to investigate the effect of annealing time on the structural, optical and morphological properties of ZnO nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the formation of a crystalline hexagonal...
ZnO (wurtzite) samples were implanted with Ar+ ions to generate intrinsic defects within the ZnO samples at fluence range from 1 x 1015 to 3 x 1016 ions.cm-2. Doppler broadening of the annihilation curves were obtained to determine S-parameters which are used to characterize the defects. S-parameters are 0.35795, 0.35809 and 0.39025 for the lowest to the highest fluence, respectively. X-ray...
In this study, we report on the synthesis and characterization of titanium dioxide thin film prepared via the spray pyrolysis technique. X-ray diffractograms confirmed a tetragonal crystal structure with an average crystallite size of 24.44 nm and a micro-strain of 9.75x10-4. Field-emission scanning electron micrographs show pin-hole-free and densely packed grains with an average size ranging...
Polymer solar cells (PSCs) are a promising alternative for low-cost renewable energy due to their flexibility, simplicity in synthesis, and large-area fabrication. Methyl ammonium lead halide-based hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been extensively studied in recent years because of their high efficiency and low processing costs. Long-term stability, however, remains a challenge as...
iThemba LABS hosts a number of research accelerators. The latest acquisition is a 3 MV TandetronTM accelerator that replaced the 51-year-old 6 MV CN Van de Graaff accelerator. The majority of the application area is dealing with materials research. The machine was installed and commissioned in 2017 by High Voltage Engineering Europa B.V. (HVEE) at the Tandetron Laboratory. The system is...
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are amongst the strongest materials known with very high tensile strength and Young’s modulus. Unfortunately the ideal parameters primarily refer to single nanotubes. In amorphous materials and non-twisted bundles the macroscopic strength is limited by the relatively weak van der Waals interaction between the tubes.
In recent years researchers have tried to modify...
Zirconium alloy is the main physical barrier between the coolant system and the fuel cell1. Its principal role is to keep the radioactive products produced during fission process (which is the power source in the nuclear reactor) contained in the fuel pin1. One of the problems in the nuclear industry is hydrogen absorption by zirconium alloys during operational and loss of coolant accident...
Dual-site loaded cobalt-ferrite spinel nanostructures with chemical formula Co1-2xNixMnxFe2-yCeyO4, where 0 ≤ x = y ≤ 0.3, were successfully prepared via glycolthermal route. The final products of the appropriate sites loading are CoFe2O4 (dried naturally), CoFe2O4 (dried with Infrared lamp), Co0.8Ni0.1Mn0.1Fe1.9Ce0.1O4, Co0.6Ni0.2Mn0.2Fe1.8Ce0.2O4, and Co0.4Ni0.3Mn0.3Fe1.9Ce0.3O4. The...
Nanoscience research has shown a drastic increase in metal nanoparticles in various fields compared to their corresponding Group V and VI counterparts. This can be attributed to their unique properties, easy to harness, high surface atoms, which promote better active sites with unique electronic properties between the metallic and molecular states. Specifically, metal sulfides have a variety...
