Search results for "Hard"
showing 10 items of 2294 documents
Hard sphere fluids at a soft repulsive wall: A comparative study using Monte Carlo and density functional methods
2011
Hard-sphere fluids confined between parallel plates at a distance D apart are studied for a wide range of packing fractions including also the onset of crystallization, applying Monte Carlo simulation techniques and density functional theory. The walls repel the hard spheres (of diameter σ) with a Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) potential V(WCA)(z) = 4ε[(σ(w)/z)(12) - (σ(w)/z)(6) + 1/4], with range σ(w) = σ/2. We vary the strength ε over a wide range and the case of simple hard walls is also treated for comparison. By the variation of ε one can change both the surface excess packing fraction and the wall-fluid (γ(wf)) and wall-crystal (γ(wc)) surface free energies. Several different methods t…
Nanostructured metal/oxide coatings
2007
Al based nanocomposite coatings on Cu and glass substrates were obtained in the conditions of severe shear stresses by deformation scheme similar to that of friction. Structure, composition and micromechanical properties were investigated using AFM, XRD, SIMS, electron, optical microscopy and precision microindentation techniques. Coatings are characterized by the high microhardness and good adhesion to the substrates. This is determined by the formation of nanostructured Al-oxide composite stabilized by the presence of oxidized interlayers, which are barriers for the grain growth and intermetallic phase formation. The annealing in vacuum leads to the development of oxygen redistribution pr…
Ceramic/metal nanocomposites by lyophilization: Spark plasma sintering and hardness
2014
The present study is focused on the procedure of spray-drying and lyophilization techniques for the preparation of ceramic/metal nanocomposites. The results of the study at all stages are compared with those corresponding to powders conventionally dried by heating in furnace. Starting from aqueous solutions of metal salts and ceramic powders, the procedure follows with spray-drying, lyophilization, calcination of the resulting powders and subsequent Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). X-ray diffraction analysis of the powders at different stages of the processing routes was used for phase indexing; further characterization was performed by Transmission Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-…
Mechanical properties of the nanometer scale pre-crystalline order of a poly (ethylene terepthalate) / poly (ethylene naphthalene) blend
2006
A previous study carried out on PET has shown that this polymer undergoes a continuous structural modification over a wide cooling rate interval when solidified from the melt[1] assuming a semi-crystalline structure below 2 K s 1 and a completely amorphous one above 100 K s 1. Most important was the existence of a state of intermediate order between the above cooling rates which was evidenced by the absence of crystalline reflections in the WAXS patterns and the occurrence of SAXS maxima[2] and exothermic peak areas (DSC) in the cooling rate range above 2 K s 1. Microhardness (MH) measurements revealed that this phase affects the mechanical properties[3] plausible if one thinks of crystalli…
Nanorings and rods interconnected by self-assembly mimicking an artificial network of neurons
2013
[EN] Molecular electronics based on structures ordered as neural networks emerges as the next evolutionary milestone in the construction of nanodevices with unprecedented applications. However, the straightforward formation of geometrically defined and interconnected nanostructures is crucial for the production of electronic circuitry nanoequivalents. Here we report on the molecularly fine-tuned self-assembly of tetrakis-Schiff base compounds into nanosized rings interconnected by unusually large nanorods providing a set of connections that mimic a biological network of neurons. The networks are produced through self-assembly resulting from the molecular conformation and noncovalent intermo…
Nucleation in suspensions of anisotropic colloids
2005
We report Monte Carlo studies of liquid crystal nucleation in two types of anisotropic colloidal systems: hard rods and hard ellipsoids. In both cases we find that nucleation pathways differ strongly from the pathways in systems of spherical particles. Short hard rods show an effect of self-poisoning. This part of the article is based on a previous publication [T. Schilling, D. Frenkel, Self-poisoning of crystal nuclei in hard-rod liquids, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (2004) 085505]. When a crystallite forms, its surfaces are covered preferentially by rods which align perpendicular to the surface. Therefore subsequent growth is stunted. Hard, almost spherical ellipsoids can be compressed to very hig…
Heterogeneous and homogeneous crystal nucleation in colloidal hard-sphere like microgels at low metastabilities
2011
We studied the crystallization kinetics of the homogeneous bulk as well as of the heterogeneous wall crystallization in a colloidal hard sphere model system within the fluid crystal coexistence region. Using time resolved static light scattering and Bragg microscopy we determined several parameters characterizing the crystallization process (induction times, growth coefficients, nucleation rate densities,…). By performing further analysis according to classical nucleation theory we can show that wall crystallization is favored by a vanishing nucleation barrier height leading to the conclusion that a hard sphere crystal completely wets a structureless hard wall.
Crystallization kinetics of colloidal binary mixtures with depletion attraction.
2014
In this work the crystallization kinetics of colloidal binary mixtures with attractive interaction potential (Asakura–Oosawa) has been addressed. Parameters such as fraction of crystals, linear crystal dimension and crystal packing have been quantified in order to understand how the crystal formation is driven in terms of the depth of the attractive potential and the composition of the binary mixture (described by the number ratio). It was found that inside the eutectic triangle, crystallization is mainly governed by nucleation and the crystal packing is close to the close-packing of hard spheres. Moving out from the eutectic triangle towards small component results in the crystallization o…
Solidification of a colloidal hard sphere like model system approaching and crossing the glass transition
2014
We investigated the process of vitrification and crystallization in a model system of colloidal hard spheres. The kinetics of the solidification process was measured using time resolved static light scattering, while the time evolution of the dynamic properties was determined using time resolved dynamic light scattering. By performing further analysis we confirm that solidification of hard sphere colloids is mediated by precursors. Analyzing the dynamic properties we can show that the long time dynamics and thus the shear rigidity of the metastable melt is highly correlated with the number density of solid clusters (precursors) nucleated. In crystallization these objects convert into highly…
Donor/Acceptor Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells
2020
The operation and the design of organic solar cells with donor/acceptor heterojunction structure and exciton blocking layer is outlined and results of their initial development and assessment are reported. Under halogen lamp illumination with 100 mW/cm2 incident optical power density, the devices exhibits an open circuit voltage VOC = 0.45 V, a short circuit current density JSC between 2 and 2.5 mA/cm2 with a fill factor FF &asymp