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The discovery of the first Weyl semimetal tantalum monoarsenide has greatly promoted physical re- search on the niobium and tantalum pnictide compounds. Crystallizing into the NbAs- and OsGe2-type structures, these mono-and di-pnictide semimetals manifest exotic electrical transport properties in magnetic field, which only occur in their single-crystalline forms. All the unusual electrical properties correspond to their poor carriers, which are indeed vulnerable to various crystal defects. In this review article, we present a comprehensive comparison of the crystal growth and electrical transport prop- erties of the two semimetal families. We then discuss in detail the possible characteristic transport features, such as the chiral anomaly of Weyl quasiparticles. We emphasize the importance of crystal growth and sample manipulation for exploring the unique topological properties of Weyl semimetals in the future.

The recently discovered （Li1-xFex）OHFeSe superconductor with Tc about 40 K provides a good platform for investigating the magnetization and electrical transport properties of FeSe-based superconductors. By using a hydrothermal ion-exchange method, we have successfully grown crystals of （Li1-xFex）OHFeSe. X-ray diffraction on the sample shows the single crystalline PbO-type structure with the c-axis preferential orientation. Magnetic susceptibility and resistive measurements show an onset superconducting transition at around Tc=38.3 K. Using the magnetization hysteresis loops and Bean critical state model, a large critical current Js is observed in low temperature region. The critical current density is suppressed exponentially with increasing magnetic field. Temperature dependencies of resistivity under various currents and fields are measured, revealing a robust superconducting current density and bulk superconductivity.

Thermoelectric materials Mg2Si0.8Sn0.2 were sintered under three different conditions including no electricity sintering（NCS）, low electricity sintering（LCS）,and high electricity sintering（HCS）. Thermoelectric performance and microstructure of three group samples were measured and compared. The results indicate that the application of electric current during the sintering process changes the microstructure and significantly increases the density of samples, and increases the electric conductivity and the power factor. The electric current activated/assisted sintering is an effective way to obtain thermoelectric materials with excellent performance.

The perovskite samples La1-x（Sr1-yKy）xMnO3 （y = 0.0, 0.2, 04, 0.6, 0.8） were prepared by the solid-state reaction method with comparatively low sintering tem- perature and with comparatively short sintering time, and the electric transport property and temperature stability of MR of this system were studied. The p-T curves show the abnormal phenomenon that with the increase of K doping amount, resistivity increases, and the insulator-metal transition temperature decreases, which is because the influence of the occupation disorder degree of A-site ions σ2 on the electric transport property of perovskite manga- nites is larger than that of the radius of A-site ions （rA）. In the temperature range below 225 K, MR increases contin- uously with the decrease of temperature, which is the characteristic of low-field magnetoresistance; in the com- paratively wide temperature range near 250 K, the MR- T curves of all the samples are comparatively fiat, and the value of MR almost does not change with temperature, which shows the temperature stability of magnetoresis- tance, and can be explained by the competition between the low-field magnetoresistance induced by spin-dependent tunneling of surface phase and the intrinsic magnetoresis- tance of grain phase. The magnetoresistance value of the sample with y = 0.8 keeps at （7.92 ±0.36） % in the very wide temperature range of 225-275 K, and this is a goodreference for the preparation of this kind of sample with practical application value in the future.

The samples ofLa8/9Sr1/45Na4/45MnO3 （LSNMO）/x/2（Sb2O3） were prepared by the solid-state reaction method. The electric transport properties and the temperature stabil-ity of magnetoresistance （MR） of the samples were studied through the measurements of X-ray diffraction patterns, resistivity-temperature （ρ-T） curves, mass magnetization-temperature （σ-T） curves, and magnetoresistance-temper-ature （MR-T） curves. The results indicate that the p-Tcurves of the original material LSNMO show two peaks, and the phenomenon of two peaks of ρ-T curves disappears for the composite samples, which can be explained by a competition between surface-phase resistivity induced by boundary-dependent scattering and body-phase resistivity induced by paramagnetism-ferromagnetism transition. For all the sam-ples in the low temperature range, MR increases continu-ously with the decrease of temperature, which shows a characteristic of low-field magnetoresistance. However, MR basically keeps the same in the high temperature range. The paramagnetism-ferromagnetism transition is observed in the high temperature range due to a composite between perov-skite manganite and insulator, which can enhance the tem-perature of MR appearance in the high temperature range and make it to appear near room temperature. For the sample with x = 0.12, MR remains constant at the value of 7.5 % in the temperature range of 300-260 K, which achieves a tem-perature stability of MR near room temperature. In addition,for the sample with x = 0.16, MR is above 6.8 % in the high temperature range of 318-252 K （△T = 66 K）. MR almost remains constant in this temperature range, which favors the practical application of MR.

Nonstoichiometric ternary thermoelectric materials Ag0.84Sb1.15M0.01Te2.16 （M=Ce, Yb, Cu） were prepared by a direct melt-quench and hot press process. The carrier concentration of all the samples increased after doping. Thermoelectric properties, namely electrical con-ductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity, were measured from 300 to 673 K. The phase transition occurring at about 418 K representing the phase transition from b-Ag2Te to a-Ag2Te influenced the electrical transport properties. The electrical conductivities of Ce and Yb doped samples increased after doping from 1.9×104 to 2.5×104 and 2.3×104 S·m-1, respectively, at 673 K. Also, at room temperature, the Seebeck coefficient of the Ce doped sample relatively increased corresponding to the high carrier concentration due to the changes in the band structure. However, all the thermal conductivities increased after doping at low temperature. Because of the higher thermal conductivity, the dimensionless figure of merit ZT of these doped samples has not been improved.

Clay has a significant influence on the relationship between resistivity index I and water saturation Sw （i.e, I-Sw relationship） of reservoir rocks because it complicates the current paths of these rocks. It is difficult to reveal the physical mechanisms of these clay effects on the conductivities of various rocks by physical laboratory measurements because the pore structure, micro distribution and content of clay inside a rock can not be observed and controlled during the experiments. We present a digital rock approach to study these clay effects on the electrical transport properties of reservoir rocks at pore scale using lattice gas automation （LGA） method. The digital rock samples are constructed with the information of grain size distribution from SEM images of reservoir rocks. The LGA is then applied on these digital rocks fully saturated with fluids to simulate the electrical transport properties for revealing the effects of volume and distribution patterns of clay on the non-Archie behaviors of the I-Sw relationship. The very good agreement between the simulated results and the laboratory measurements clearly demonstrates the validity of the LGA in numerical research of rock physics. Based on these studies, a new model has been developed for quantitatively describing the relationship between the saturation exponent and the volume of clay （Vsh）. This development may improve the evaluation for the fluid saturations in reservoir rocks.