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Graphical abstract:

We utilize room-temperature uniaxial pressing at applied loads achievable with low-cost, laboratory-scale presses to fabricate freestanding CH3NH3PbX3(X–= Br–, Cl–) polycrystalline ceramics with millimeter thicknesses and optical transparency up to ∼70% in the infrared. As-fabricated perovskite ceramics can be produced with desirable form factors (i.e., size, shape, and thickness) and high-quality surfaces without any postprocessing (e.g., cutting or polishing). This method should be broadly applicable to a large swath of metal halide perovskites, not just the compositions shown here. In addition to fabrication, we analyze microstructure–optical property relationships through detailed experiments (e.g., transmission measurements, electron microscopy, X-ray tomography, optical profilometry, etc.) as well as modeling based on Mie theory. The optical, electrical, and mechanical properties of perovskite polycrystalline ceramics are benchmarked against those of single-crystalline analogues through spectroscopic ellipsometry, Hall measurements, and nanoindentation. Finally, γ-ray scintillation from a transparent MAPbBr3ceramic is demonstrated under irradiation from a 137Cs source. From a broader perspective, scalable methods to produce freestanding polycrystalline lead halide perovskites with comparable properties to their single-crystal counterparts could enable key advancements in the commercial production of perovskite-based technologies (e.g., direct X-ray/γ-ray detectors, scintillators, and nonlinear optics).

Abstract More robust and eco-friendly adhesive options are growing in demand. Monomer-based adhesive systems provide an alternative to solventbome adhesives residentially and industrially used. The systems discussed here include cyanoacrylates [...]

Truly novel polymer platforms are few and far between, arising perhaps once in a generation. Epoxies, urethanes, polyesters, acrylics and others have long been industry mainstays, and each of these [...]

A hotel concierge's job is to help guests find their way in strange cities and recommend interesting places to visit or eat. They also help out with shopping or other errands. John Neary, who is concierge at the Carlyle hotel in Manhattan, NY, is profiled.

END USE MARKETS FOR NONWOVENS Covering The Spectrum...From Batteries To Wipes it is not only the huge disposable diaper and medical segments that drive the worldwide nonwovens industry; a host [...]

Although there has been progress in studying the electronic and optical properties of monolayer and near-monolayer (two-dimensional, 2D) MoS_2 upon adatom adsorption and intercalation, understanding the underlying atomic-level behavior is lacking, particularly as related to the optical response. Alkali atom intercalation in 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is relevant to chemical exfoliation methods that are expected to enable large scale production. In this work, focusing on prototypical 2D MoS_2, the adsorption and intercalation of Li, Na, K, and Ca adatoms were investigated for the 2H, 1T, and 1T^′ phases of the TMD by the first principles density functional theory in comparison to experimental characterization of 2H and 1T 2D MoS_2 films. Our electronic structure calculations demonstrate significant charge transfer, influencing work function reductions of 1–1.5 eV. Furthermore, electrical conductivity calculations confirm the semiconducting versus metallic behavior. Calculations of the optical spectra, including excitonic effects using a many-body theoretical approach, indicate enhancement of the optical transmission upon phase change. Encouragingly, this is corroborated, in part, by the experimental measurements for the 2H and 1T phases having semiconducting and metallic behavior, respectively, thus motivating further experimental exploration. Overall, our calculations emphasize the potential impact of synthesis-relevant adatom incorporation in 2D MoS_2 on the electronic and optical responses that comprise important considerations toward the development of devices such as photodetectors or the miniaturization of electroabsorption modulator components.

While most active plasmonic efforts focus on responsive metamaterials to modulate optical response, we present a simple alternative based on applied orientation control that can likely be implemented for many passive plasmonic materials. Passive plasmonic motifs are simpler to prepare but cannot be altered postfabrication. We show that such systems can be easily manipulated through substrate orientation control to generate both active plasmonic and active chiral plasmonic responses. Using gold nanocrescents as our model platform, we demonstrate tuning of optical extinction from −21% to +36% at oblique incidence relative to normal incidence. Variation of substrate orientation in relation to incident polarization is also demonstrated to controllably switch chiroptical handedness (e.g., Δg= ± 0.55). These active plasmonic responses arise from the multipolar character of resonant modes. In particular, we correlate magnetoelectric and dipole–quadrupole polarizabilities with different light-matter orientation-dependence in both near- and far-field localized surface plasmon activity. Additionally, the attribution of far-field optical response to higher-order multipoles highlights the sensitivity offered by these orientation-dependent characterization techniques to probe the influence of localized electromagnetic field gradients on a plasmonic response. The sensitivity afforded by orientation-dependent optical characterization is further observed by the manifestation in both plasmon and chiral plasmon responses of unpredicted structural nanocrescent variance (e.g., left- and right-tip asymmetry) not physically resolved through topographical imaging.

A mix of new and previously posted tweets from @wise_Kaplan. In his long career, Peter Kaplan was perhaps best known for the 15 years he spent as editor in chief [...]

Byline: PETER STEVENSON MAP BY MIKE REAGAN PLACES & PRICES Hidden Caribbean The town of Bocas del Toro, which is the hub of the archipelago, is a one-hour flight from [...]

Around sunset on a recent spring evening in Manhattan, a nervous-looking young woman was clutching a clipboard outside the entrance to the East 57th Street apartment belonging to Tina Brown [...]

One morning last month, Lady Antonia Fraser was stuck in a security line at the Toronto Airport and missed her plane. She didn't mind, because she had a Kindle and [...]

The other evening, two sisters sat in the back yard of their Park Slope brownstone and talked about their childhoods. 'We never felt safe,' Emily, a blue-eyed thirty-one-year-old with dirty-blond [...]

Christopher Walken buckled his seat belt as the Suburban with tinted windows sped up on the Queensborough Bridge. He was wearing a blue overcoat and a cashmere scarf over a [...]

UNPACKING THE BOXES A Memoir of a Life in Poetry By Donald Hall 195 pp. Houghton Mifflin Company. $24 ''In childhood nothing happened.'' So Donald Hall writes in his enchanting [...]

ABOUT ALICE By Calvin Trillin. 78 pp. Random House. $14.95. With the 21st-century profusion of first-person narrative nonfiction -- between the covers of books and in the pages of magazines [...]

I noticed there was no mail segment in the August 2015 edition of the ANMJ so I thought I would contribute considering my first contribution was in October 2002. My [...]

Egg producers are pressing for the ban on beak trimming--earmarked for 2016--to be deferred. Like producers, I'm dismayed at the high mortality rates experienced by two flocks in the Bristol [...]

Animal rights activists are credited with persuading the German government to ban battery cages five years earlier than the European Union's 2012 mandate.

UK-based animal activists successfully protested against the shipment of livestock across the English Channel to European slaughterhouses. The poor conditions under which the animals are transported and the cruel treatment awaiting them make pre-slaughtering before transport a more humane option.

Use technology as a source of passwords Given the subject matter of Computeractive, I've been surprised that none of the password challenges offered so far have been related to technology. Only buy laptops if you use them outside the home I disagree with your recommendation to ditch your PC for a big laptop (Issue 626, pages 60-61). Why I'll stick with Kaspersky I think it's naive and unfair to expect every Russian company to make a statement denouncing Putin's actions. [Extracted from the article]

Being a second year nursing student at the University of Canberra I am often reading health issues relating to lack of available funding, which is also evident in various issues [...]

DEFRA's action in setting a maximum stocking density for broiler chickens in England of 39kg/sq m--rather than the 42kg/sq m that it could have allowed under the 2007 EU Welfare [...]

* Following your recent article (EU cage eggs threaten UK market after 2012 deadline, PW, February) Compassion in World Farming welcomes BEIC chief executive Mark Williams' assurance that the UK [...]

Sir, In his letter about Shechita (The Grocer, 4 July), Shimon Cohen cites Compassion in World Farming to support the idea that this is a humane slaughter method. Compassion in [...]