Baltic Dry Index. 3025 +81 Brent Crude 74.64
Spot Gold 1858
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 16/06/21 World 177,415,920
Deaths 3,838,520
The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.
Thomas
Sowell.
It is the final Fed day in Washington District of Crooks, the final official day of President Biden’s Grand Tour of Europe, and four days off from the northern hemisphere astronomical start of summer, aka the longest day, but the main known event of today is the coming brawl in Geneva between “Sleepy” Joe Biden, representing the “good” in the White corner, and Vlad the Bad “Killer” Putin in the Black corner.
President Biden has promised to lay down the law and tame and reform “Killer” Putin, wild west Cowboy movie style. No ifs and or buts.
“Killer” has no expectations of any kind, flying in and out of Geneva the same day. After all, he didn’t request the Geneva meeting.
It is hardly a repeat of Nixon in Beijing, 1972.
Far away in his golf resort in Bedminster New Jersey, the Prince in Exile will be watching the result with interest, as will President Xi in Beiing.
Putin swaggers toward summit with Biden as an old hand at dueling with the West
June 15, 2021
MOSCOW —Vladimir Putin's first interview with an American television news outlet in three years was, perhaps strategically so, a big hit for Russia's networks.
The Russian president’s one-on-one with NBC has been widely aired and much discussed across state media platforms. In it, Putin dropped a Russian schoolyard rhyme in response to one question and alluded to the satirical Soviet novel “The Little Golden Calf” in another — references for a Russian audience rather than an American one.
As Putin was pressed on issues including Moscow’s cyberattacks against the United States and whether he orders the killings of his political opponents, his tone was dismissive and, at times, nonchalant. It mirrored the Kremlin messaging at home ahead of Putin’s planned summit with President Biden in Geneva on Wednesday: Putin agreed to this meeting at the request of the Americans but will not be ceding anything.
Russian officials and propagandists have repeatedly said they do not expect the summit to produce any big breakthroughs for a U.S.-Russia relationship that has hit a post-Cold War low. They have worked to portray Putin as going into it from a position of strength because he has little to lose or gain.
“Putin’s recent messages to the wider world are less about what he can do together with the American president, and more about what Russia can do alone — and, if need be, against the wishes of the U.S. government,” Dmitri Trenin, head of the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote in a commentary.
The main point of the face-to-face for Putin, analysts said, is to express Moscow’s red lines while also reestablishing more typical dialogue with Washington after a tense first six months under the Biden administration.
“Maybe the most important thing is to make the relations more pragmatic,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, head of a think tank called R.Politik. “I don’t think the Kremlin is really counting on having some important progress during the summit, but much more important will be what happens after the summit. The Kremlin would like to create some mechanisms to interact.”
----John Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, and his counterpart, Anatoly Antonov, have been back in their home countries since April. Antonov was recalled to Moscow for “consultations” after Biden answered in the affirmative in an ABC interview when asked whether he thinks Putin is “a killer.” The Kremlin then recommended that Sullivan return to Washington after a fresh round of U.S. sanctions and diplomatic expulsions.
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Biden and Putin are about to have a high-stakes meeting: Here’s what you need to know
When President Joe Biden meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday it will be one of the most closely watched pieces of geopolitical theater this year.
Biden’s summit with Putin in Switzerland, chosen for its history of political neutrality, will not be the first time the two have met. But it will be their first meeting since Biden became U.S. president, the so-called leader of the free world.
----This week’s meeting between Biden and Putin comes on the heels of Biden’s first international trip as president, where he reaffirmed alliances with G-7 leaders and NATO allies. At NATO’s headquarters, Biden told reporters that he consulted with other world leaders in the days ahead of his meeting with Putin.
“Every world leader here, most of them mentioned it and thanked me for meeting with Putin,” Biden said Monday.
“I had discussions with them about what they thought was important from their perspective and what they thought was not important,” he said, adding that his counterparts appreciated his transparency and coordination.
On Tuesday, a Kremlin aide said nuclear stability, climate change and cybersecurity were on the agenda for the summit, Reuters reported, as well as the outlook for Russian and U.S. nationals imprisoned in each other’s countries.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/biden-putin-meeting-what-you-need-to-know.html
In Asian news, the markets are underwhelmed by the Geneva summit and pretty much everything else.
China’s Shenzhen falls 2% in mixed Asia-Pacific trade; Japan’s May export data misses expectations
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Wednesday trade as investors looked ahead to data releases in China as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.
Mainland Chinese stocks led losses among the region’s major markets, with the Shenzhen component plunging 2.014% by the afternoon. The Shanghai composite also shed 0.77%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.23%.
China is set to announce economic data, including industrial production and retail sales for May, at 3:00 p.m. HK/SIN on Wednesday.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.39% while the Topix index gained 0.19%. Japan’s exports in May rose 49.6% from a year earlier, data from the country’s Ministry of Finance showed Wednesday. That was lower than a 51.3% increase expected by economists in a Reuters poll.
South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.58% higher. Australian stocks advanced as the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.18%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.25%.
Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% to 4,246.59 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 94.42 points to 34,299.33. The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.71% to 14,072.86.
The losses on Wall Street came as investors looked ahead to end of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting that started Tuesday. While the central bank is not expected to take any action, traders will watch for comments on inflation and the Fed’s eventual tapering plans.
More
In UK recovery news, where is the workforce? More on that in the inflation section.
Firms take on 200,000 staff as Covid recovery gathers pace
Job vacancies are now close to pre-Covid levels as employers scramble for staff, while unemployment fell to 4.7pc
Employers took on a record 197,000 staff in May as Britain's jobs recovery gathered pace with the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, official figures have shown.
The data comes a day after ministers decided to delay the final stage of the pandemic roadmap by four weeks amid concern over the rise of the new Indian variant.
The more timely payrolls figures showed the spike in hiring ahead of the reopening of indoor hospitality on May 17, double the pace of April and growing for the sixth month in a row.
Although payrolls remain 553,000 below pre-Covid levels, vacancies have soared as employers battle against shortages of workers.
The number of vacancies in the quarter to May was 758,000 - only 27,000 below March 2020. The strongest quarterly increase was in accommodation and food services.
Unemployment, which has been artificially suppressed by the Government's furlough scheme, fell to 4.7pc in the quarter to April, defying fears of a double-digit jobless rate at the onset of the pandemic.
The Office for National Statistics' head of economic statistics, Sam Beckett, said: “Job vacancies continued to recover in the spring, and our early estimates suggest that by May the total had surpassed its pre-pandemic level, with strong growth in sectors such as hospitality."
Wage growth jumped to 5.6pc year on year as the number of staff on furlough dropped to 3.4m at the end of April, contrasting with pay drops a year earlier when more than a quarter of the workforce was placed in the jobs lifeboat.
Younger workers are still suffering however, with 126,000 fewer under-25s on company payrolls in the year to May.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, said: "We are creating new routes into work through apprenticeships, Kickstart placements for young people as well as targeted support for the long term unemployed."
The pressure on desperate pubs and restaurants owners to find staff was underlined by a 260pc rise in vacancies over the quarter to May.
During May alone, the sector was on the hunt for 110,000 staff - the highest on record. The ONS said there was “some evidence to suggest that vacancies have been created by workers not returning to their previous jobs as this sector reopened”.
Shortages have been exacerbated by the departure of EU workers during the pandemic as well as shortages of casual student workers. Across the economy overall there were 881,000 vacancies, the most since October 2018.
More
In Greensill-Gupta-Softbank-Cameron scandal news, snake bit Credit Swiss turns to its insurers. But are CS claims legit? A story that’s going to run and run and run.
Credit Suisse prepares insurance claims on Greensill Capital losses - FT
Wed, June 16, 2021, 5:03 AM
June 16 (Reuters) - Swiss bank Credit Suisse has prepared its first insurance claims on losses stemming from its $10 billion of funds tied to collapsed finance group Greensill Capital, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Credit Suisse is attempting to recoup billions of dollars owed to the group of supply-chain finance funds, which it was forced to close in March, the report added https://on.ft.com/3gv5dOZ.
The bank has started the process of claiming on the related insurance, primarily from Japanese group Tokio Marine, the newspaper said, citing people with knowledge of the process.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/credit-suisse-prepares-insurance-claims-040315257.html
Finally, in North American grain news, it all comes down to the next six or seven weeks.
The U.S., corn, soybean crop conditions worsen, USDA reports
The winter wheat crop’s condition goes back.
By Mike McGinnis 6/14/2021
U.S. corn and soybean crop conditions drop.
Emergence of both crops remains ahead of five-year averages, according to the USDA Crop Progress Report.
As of Sunday, the U.S. had 96% of the corn crop emerged, above a 91.
CORN
On Monday, the U.S. corn condition rating was marked at 68% good/excellent vs. 72% a week ago.
SOYBEANS
As of Sunday, the USDA rated the nation’s soybean crop as 94% planted vs. a 88% five-year average.
The USDA noted that 86% of the soybeans are out of the ground vs. a 74% five-year average.
For soybeans, 62% is rated good/excellent, below 67% a week ago.
WHEAT
In its report Monday, the USDA rated the U.S. winter wheat crop is rated as 48% good/excellent, vs. 50% a week ago.
Crop progress and condition estimates are based on survey data collected each week from early April through the end of November, according to the USDA report. “The non-probability crop progress and condition surveys include input from approximately 3,600 respondents whose occupations provide them opportunities to make visual observations and frequently bring them in contact with farmers in their counties. Based on standard definitions, these respondents subjectively estimate the progress of crops through various stages of development, as well as the progress of producer activities. They also provide subjective evaluations of crop conditions,” the USDA stated in its Monday report.
https://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/the-us-corn-soybean-crop-conditions-worsen-usda-reports
Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.
John Kenneth Galbraith.
Global Inflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Forget Going Back to the Office—People Are Just Quitting Instead
As the pandemic clouds lift, the percentage of Americans leaving employers for new opportunities is at its highest level in more than two decades
June 13, 2021 5:30 am ET
More U.S. workers are quitting their jobs than at any time in at least two decades, signaling optimism among many professionals while also adding to the struggle companies face trying to keep up with the economic recovery.
The wave of resignations marks a sharp turn from the darkest days of the pandemic, when workers craved job security while weathering a national health and economic crisis. In April, the share of U.S. workers leaving jobs was 2.7%, according to the Labor Department, a jump from 1.6% a year earlier to the highest level since at least 2000.
The shift by workers into new jobs and careers is prompting employers to raise wages and offer promotions to keep hold of talent. The appetite for change by employees indicates many professionals are feeling confident about jumping ship for better prospects, despite elevated unemployment rates.
While a high quit rate stings employers with greater turnover costs, and in some cases, business disruptions, labor economists said churn typically signals a healthy labor market as people gravitate to jobs more suited to their skills, interests and personal lives.
---- Altogether, human-resource executives and labor experts see a wave of resignations. In a March survey of 2,000 workers by Prudential Financial Inc., one-quarter said they plan to soon look for a role with a different employer.
“People are seeing the world differently,” says Steve Cadigan, a talent consultant who led human resources at LinkedIn during its early years. “It’s going to take time for people to think through, ‘How do I unattach where I’m at and reattach to something new?’ We’re going to see a massive shift in the next few years.”
More
Veg packers' pay rockets to £20 an hour: Farm workers see wages soar by 60 per cent amid dire labour shortage caused by Brexit and Covid
· Covid and Brexit are blamed for driving away thousands of foreign pickers
· Bosses are estimated to need up to 500,000 workers across food supply sector
· Government has implemented visa schemes to allow extra agriculture workers
Vegetable growers have been forced to raise pay for workers by up to 60 per cent to almost £20 an hour to combat a chronic labour shortage.
Coronavirus and Brexit have been blamed for driving away thousands of foreign pickers and packers while not enough Britons apply for the jobs.
Bosses are estimated to need up to 500,000 workers across the food supply sector, from pickers in the fields to packers, processors and drivers.
The sharp rise in wages is expected to feed through to shelf prices.
He emailed customers: ‘To keep people we have raised wages by 60 per cent to nearly £20 per hour for packhouse staff and from this week we are having to pay them to turn up at £20 a day for a weekday and £30 for weekends. This now is unsustainable.’
He added: ‘Yes a lot of us voted out [on Brexit] and now we have this problem!!!’
The family farm has been operating near Spalding, Lincs, for some 112 years and now turns over more than £26 million a year.
As well as suppling UK supermarkets with coleslaw and potato salad, its premium produce is also sold around the world through chains such as KFC and Pizza Hut.
The government has implemented visa schemes to allow in extra agriculture workers from the EU and the Ukraine, however Mr Naylor warns this will not work. This is because these workers must be recruited on the basis they are skilled and will be earning a minimum of £25,000.
Fruit farming on ‘brink of collapse’ as Brexit causes shortage of pickers
Sam CorbishleySaturday 12 Jun 2021 11:12 am
Farmers have been left ‘on the brink’ after Brexit put a ‘massive hole’ in the numbers of fruit pickers coming to the UK in the summer months, it has been claimed.
Applications for seasonal work at one Kent-based company are down 90% in the last two years and there are fears for the future.
Stephen Taylor, managing director of Winterwood Farms Ltd, said the labour market has got ‘tighter and tighter’ over the last couple of years.
He said the impact of Brexit on the flow of workers to UK farms is only getting worse.
Mr Taylor said ‘95% of all fruit and produce picked and packaged in this country is done by eastern Europeans’, adding: ‘From the end of June, people who haven’t got pre-settled status, at least, can’t work.
‘We are not talking about a few tens of thousands, we are talking hundreds of thousands of people less to work in the UK.
‘That’s a massive hole.’
The Government has expanded its seasonal workers pilot quota for this year from 10,000 to 30,000 places.
A spokesperson said ‘employers should focus on training and investing in our domestic work force rather than relying on labour from abroad’.
More
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Covid-19 Ranged From Illinois to Massachusetts Before States Reported First Cases
Blood samples show people in five U.S. states were infected early, including some in December 2019
June 15, 2021 9:00 am ET
The Covid-19 virus infected people in five U.S. states in December 2019 and early 2020 before those states reported their first cases, according to a large new government study, providing new insights into the first, unseen weeks of the nation’s deadly epidemic.
Scientists analyzing blood samples taken for a National Institutes of Health research program identified seven people in states from Mississippi to Wisconsin to Pennsylvania who were infected with the new virus days or weeks before the first cases were confirmed in their areas. At least a couple had mild symptoms.
Their findings were published online by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases Tuesday.
Two samples, one taken from a person from Illinois and another from a person from Massachusetts, date to Jan. 7 and 8, 2020, respectively, the researchers said. Antibodies found in the samples appear about two weeks after a person has been infected, the researchers said.
The number of Covid-19 cases found in the frozen, stored blood samples is small, suggesting the early cases in the U.S. were sporadic.
All told, the researchers found evidence of infection in just nine out of 24,079 participants whose blood samples were taken between Jan. 2, 2020, and March 18, 2020, for the NIH research program.
Still, the findings provide evidence the new coronavirus was infecting Americans before the world learned that it was causing a deadly outbreak in Wuhan, China. Two of the cases also occurred weeks before public-health officials confirmed the virus had arrived in the U.S., and before they started testing people widely.
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Astra’s Antibody Fails to Prevent Covid-19 Symptoms in Study
By Suzi Ring15 June 2021, 07:28 BST Updated on 15 June 2021, 10:18 BST
· Drug was only 33% effective at preventing symptomatic disease
· Astra has five more trials looking at other uses for cocktail
AstraZeneca Plc’s antibody cocktail was only 33% effective at preventing Covid-19 symptoms in people who had been exposed to the virus, failing a study that was key to the drugmaker’s pandemic push.
The trial of 1,121 adult volunteers looked at whether the long-acting antibody combination could protect people who had recently been in contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in places like care homes. The company said it’s running other studies of the medicine that could help clarify the findings.
The outcome is a blow to Astra for a drug that was hoped to be a bright spot in the company’s pandemic efforts following the mixed success of its vaccine with the University of Oxford. Other drugmakers such as GlaxoSmithKline Plc have had some success in getting similar therapies through clinical tests and approved for people who are at risk of severe disease or can’t get vaccinated.
The study, conducted in the U.S. and U.K., showed 23 volunteers who got the AZD7442 cocktail developed symptomatic Covid-19 following exposure to the disease, compared with 17 cases in the placebo group. Twice as many participants got the antibody, but the difference between the two groups wasn’t considered statistically significant. The cocktail was well tolerated by participants.
The Latest: Israel is no longer requiring masks indoors
JERUSALEM — Israel is no longer requiring masks indoors, lifting one of its last coronavirus restrictions following a highly successful vaccination campaign.
The restriction was lifted on Tuesday, though people will still be required to wear masks on airplanes and on their way to quarantine. Unvaccinated individuals must wear masks in nursing homes and other long-term health facilities.
Israel has vaccinated around 85% of its adult population, allowing schools and businesses to fully reopen. There are only a few dozen active patients in the country of more than 9 million.
Authorities have been cautious about welcoming visitors, however, because of concerns over new variants. Israel welcomed its first tour group late last month. All tourists must show proof of vaccination and be tested upon arrival.
‘Lethal’ and ‘highly contagious’ second Covid wave is now under control, Nepal’s prime minister says
Published Tue, Jun 15 2021 1:06 AM EDT
Nepal’s second wave of Covid infections is tapering off — but the country needs more vaccines to handle the pandemic, Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli told CNBC.
“The wave is under control and it is going down,” he told “Street Signs Asia” on Monday. He said there’s been a 75% decrease in cases.
Nepal reported 2,049 infections on Monday, down from a record of more than 9,000 new cases a day in mid-May.
“It was like a crisis, a very serious crisis … when the wave started,” Oli said, noting that infections and deaths spiked, and Nepal faced a shortage of hospital beds, medical equipment and facilities. He described the surge as “highly infectious and more lethal.”
Nepali billionaire Binod Chaudhary told CNBC in May that the country underestimated the intensity of the second coronavirus wave.
“Gradually, we took very serious measures and took serious steps to reduce and control the pandemic,” the prime minister said.
Nepal also received generous support from vaccine producers, philanthropic organizations and other governments, he added.
----“Our population is just 30 million and, out of them, we have vaccinated (some people) already,” he said.
According to Our World in Data, just over 8% of people in the country have received at least one vaccine dose. Nepal has received vaccines donated by India, China and Covax, a global alliance aiming to deliver vaccines to poorer nations.
The prime minister said Nepal is also trying to secure millions of doses from countries including the U.S., U.K. and China.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/nepals-second-covid-wave-is-now-under-control-prime-minister.html
WHO: virus is spreading faster than vaccine distribution
June 15, 2021 / 2:46 AM
June 15 (UPI) -- The World Health Organization said COVID-19 is spreading faster than the global distribution of vaccines and that while it welcomes the G7's commitment to share hundreds of millions of doses more is needed to end the pandemic.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, told reporters from the agency's Geneva headquarters on Monday that the G7's pledge to provide a billion doses in the next two years is a big help, but many more are required.
He said to end the pandemic by next year's G7 summit in Germany, 11 billion doses are needed.
"We need more and we need them faster," he said. "Right now, the virus is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines."
He said there are enough doses to drive down transmission and save lives if only they were distributed to where they are needed -- and not next year but now.
The urgency comes amid the spread of highly contagious variants of the virus that threaten the efficacy of current vaccines. Despite the number of new COVID-19 cases dropping globally deaths have not dropped as fast and the overall decline masks increases in many other countries, such as those in Africa, he said.
More.
As US COVID-19 death toll nears 600,000, racial gaps persist
Jerry Ramos spent his final days in a California hospital, hooked to an oxygen machine with blood clots in his lungs from COVID-19, his 3-year-old daughter in his thoughts.
“I have to be here to watch my princess grow up,” the Mexican American restaurant worker wrote on Facebook. “My heart feels broken into pieces.”
Ramos didn’t live to see it. He died Feb. 15 at age 32, becoming not just one of the nearly 600,000 Americans who have now perished in the coronavirus outbreak but another example of the outbreak’s strikingly uneven and ever-shifting toll on the nation’s racial and ethnic groups.
The approaching 600,000 mark, as tracked by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Baltimore or Milwaukee. It is about equal to the number of Americans who died of cancer in 2019. And as bad as that is, the true toll is believed to be significantly higher.
---- On the way to the latest round-number milestone, the virus has proved adept at exploiting inequalities in the U.S., according to an Associated Press data analysis.
In the first wave of fatalities, in April 2020, Black people were slammed, dying at rates higher than those of other ethnic or racial groups as the virus rampaged through the urban Northeast and heavily African American cities like Detroit and New Orleans.
Last summer, during a second surge, Hispanics were hit the hardest, suffering an outsize share of deaths, driven by infections in Texas and Florida. By winter, during the third and most lethal stage, the virus had gripped the entire nation, and racial gaps in weekly death rates had narrowed so much that whites were the worst off, followed closely by Hispanics.
Now, even as the outbreak ebbs and more people get vaccinated, a racial gap appears to be emerging again, with Black Americans dying at higher rates than other groups.
More
Next, some vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford Website. https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker. https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
Peering inside 2D crystal synthesis
Simulations could help molecular engineers enhance creation of semiconducting nanomaterials
Date: June 14, 2021
Source: Rice University
Summary: Theorists simulate the molecular transitions that take place inside a furnace to create 2D molybdenum disulfide, a semiconductor that could find a home in next-generation electronics.
Scientific studies describing the most basic processes often have the greatest impact in the long run. A new work by Rice University engineers could be one such, and it's a gas, gas, gas for nanomaterials.
Rice materials theorist Boris Yakobson, graduate student Jincheng Lei and alumnus Yu Xie of Rice's Brown School of Engineering have unveiled how a popular 2D material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), flashes into existence during chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
Knowing how the process works will give scientists and engineers a way to optimize the bulk manufacture of MoS2 and other valuable materials classed as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), semiconducting crystals that are good bets to find a home in next-generation electronics.
Their study in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano focuses on MoS2's "pre-history," specifically what happens in a CVD furnace once all the solid ingredients are in place. CVD, often associated with graphene and carbon nanotubes, has been exploited to make a variety of 2D materials by providing solid precursors and catalysts that sublimate into gas and react. The chemistry dictates which molecules fall out of the gas and settle on a substrate, like copper or silicone, and assemble into a 2D crystal.
The problem has been that once the furnace cranks up, it's impossible to see or measure the complicated chain of reactions in the chemical stew in real time.
"Hundreds of labs are cooking these TMDs, quite oblivious to the intricate transformations occurring in the dark oven," said Yakobson, the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and a professor of chemistry. "Here, we're using quantum-chemical simulations and analysis to reveal what's there, in the dark, that leads to synthesis."
Yakobson's theories often lead experimentalists to make his predictions come true. (For example, boron buckyballs.) This time, the Rice lab determined the path molybdenum oxide (MoO3) and sulfur powder take to deposit an atomically thin lattice onto a surface.
The short answer is that it takes three steps.
---- Yakobson said the study could apply to other TMDs.
"The findings raise oftentimes empirical nanoengineering to become a basic science-guided endeavor, where processes can be predicted and optimized," he said, noting that while the chemistry has been generally known since the discovery of TMD fullerenes in the early '90s, understanding the specifics will further the development of 2D synthesis.
"Only now can we 'sequence' the step-by-step chemistry involved," Yakobson said. "That will allow us to improve the quality of 2D material, and also see which gas side-products might be useful and captured on the way, opening opportunities for chemical engineering."
The Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences program supported the research, and computations were performed at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.
Will
Rogers.
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