Search results for "Crystallization"
showing 10 items of 774 documents
Water-Controlled Crystallization of CaCO3, SrCO3, and MnCO3 from Amorphous Precursors
2018
Calcium carbonate is the most abundant biomineral, whose amorphous form is stabilized in nature by a variety of organic additives and water. It is used to manipulate the morphology of new materials and to make strong inorganic/organic hybrid materials. However, the crystallization pathways (e.g., nucleation and growth, two-step nucleation pathways involving disordered, amorphous, or dense liquid states preceding the appearance of crystalline phases) remain often unclear. We have synthesized three amorphous carbonates, CaCO3 (ACC), SrCO3 (ASC), and MnCO3 (AMnC), that do not require any stabilization by additives to study their crystallization kinetics and mechanisms in the presence of water.…
Morphology of melt-crystallized linear polyethylene fractions and its dependence on molecular weight and crystallization temperature
1980
Replicas and thin-section electron microscopic studies were made of fractions of linear polyethylene covering the molecular weight range 2.78 × 104 to 6.0 × 106 for a variety of crystallizing conditions. Lamellar crystallites were found under all circumstances; and the supermolecular structure, or crystalline morphology, is in agreement with that previously reported from an analysis of the small-angle light-scattering patterns of the same samples under similar crystallization conditions. Details of the crystalline microstructure are also described, which range from truncated hollow pyramids which degenerate as the molecular weight or the undercooling are increased. From these results, it is…
Phenomenological approach to compare the crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene and polyamide-6 under pressure
2001
Reliable experimental data for semicrystalline polymers crystallized under pressure are supplied on the basis of a model experiment in which drastic solidification conditions are applied. The influence of the pressure and cooling rate on some properties, such as the density and microhardness, and on the product morphology, as investigated with wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), is stressed. Results for isotactic polypropylene (iPP) samples display a lower density and a lower microhardness with increasing pressure over a wide range of cooling rates (from 0.01 to 20 °C/s). Polyamide-6 (PA6) samples exhibit the opposite behavior, with the density and microhardness increasing at higher pressur…
A hydrated crystalline calcium carbonate phase: Calcium carbonate hemihydrate.
2019
Hydrous CaCO 3 gets a new structure Calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) forms important minerals on Earth and is a model system for understanding crystal nucleation. Three different structures of CaCO 3 are known, along with two structures that are hydrated. Zou et al. found a third hydrated CaCO 3 structure formed from amorphous CaCO 3 in the presence of magnesium ions. The discovery illustrates the importance of amorphous precursors for producing new materials. Science , this issue p. 396
Formation of refractory metal nuggets and their link to the history of CAIs
2015
Abstract Ca, Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) often contain numerous refractory metal nuggets (RMNs), consisting of elements like Os, Ir, Mo, Pt and Ru. The nuggets are usually thought to have formed by equilibrium condensation from a gas of solar composition, simultaneously with or prior to oxide and silicate minerals. However, the exact mechanisms responsible for their extremely variable compositions, small sizes and associations with CAI minerals remain puzzling. Expanding on previous work on chemically separated RMNs, we have studied a large number of RMNs within their host CAIs from three different meteorite types, i.e., the highly primitive chondrite Acfer 094 (C2-ungrouped), Allende (CV3 ox…
New insight into the haemoglobin superfamily: preliminary crystallographic characterization of human cytoglobin.
2003
Human cytoglobin, present in almost all tissue types, is a newly identified member of the Hb superfamily. A double mutant, having both cysteines replaced by serines, has been overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified and crystallized. A highly redundant SAD data set has been collected at the haem Fe-atom absorption edge (lambda = 1.720 A) to 2.60 A resolution. The crystals belong to the orthorhombic P2(1)2(1)2(1) space group, with unit-cell parameters a = 46.8, b = 73.1, c = 98.9 A and two molecules per asymmetric unit. The anomalous difference Patterson map clearly reveals the position of the haem Fe-atom sites, thus paving the way for SAD structure determination.
Nanostructure, composition and mechanisms of bivalve shell growth
2008
Abstract Freshwater and marine cultured pearls form via identical processes to the shells of bivalves and can therefore serve as models for the biomineralization of bivalve shells in general. Their nanostructure consists of membrane-coated granules (vesicles) which contain amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) at the beginning of the biomineralization sequence, preceding the crystallization of aragonite and vaterite. In contrast to the commonly accepted view, crystallization of ACC occurs rapidly and within the granular nano-compartments mediated by organic molecules much earlier than platelet formation. The interlamellar organic sheets in nacre that form the platelet structure of nacre themsel…
Negative differential resistance in carbon nanotube field-effect transistors with patterned gate oxide.
2010
We demonstrate controllable and gate-tunable negative differential resistance in carbon nanotube field-effect transistors, at room temperature and at 4.2 K. This is achieved by effectively creating quantum dots along the carbon nanotube channel by patterning the underlying, high-kappa gate oxide. The negative differential resistance feature can be modulated by both the gate and the drain-source voltage, which leads to more than 20% change of the current peak-to-valley ratio. Our approach is fully scalable and opens up a possibility for a new class of nanoscale electronic devices using negative differential resistance in their operation.
Low-Temperature Miniemulsion-Based Routes for Synthesis of Metal Oxides.
2020
Abstract The use of miniemulsions containing chemical precursors in the disperse phase is a versatile method to produce nanoparticles and nanostructures of different chemical nature, including not only polymers, but also a variety of inorganic materials. This Minireview focuses on materials in which nanostructures of metal oxides are synthesized in processes that involve the miniemulsion technique in any of the steps. This includes in the first place those approaches in which the spaces provided by nanodroplets are directly used to confine precipitation reactions that lead eventually to oxides. On the other hand, miniemulsions can also be used to form functionalized polymer nanoparticles th…
Surfactant-Dependent Exciton Mobility in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Studied by Single-Molecule Reactions
2010
Measurements of stepwise photoluminescence quenching in individual, (n,m)-selected single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) undergoing chemical reaction have been analyzed to deduce mobilities of optically generated excitons. For (7,5) nanotubes, the mean exciton range varies between approximately 140 and 240 nm for different surfactant coatings and correlates weakly with nanotube PL intensity. The results are consistent with a model of localized SWCNT excitons having substantial diffusional mobility along the nanotube axis.