Search results for "Nanometre"

Plastic Deformation of Single Nanometer-Sized Crystals

2008

We report in situ electron microscopy observations of the plastic deformation of individual nanometer-sized Au, Pt, W, and Mo crystals. Specifically designed graphitic cages that contract under electron irradiation are used as nanoscopic deformation cells. The correlation with atomistic simulations shows that the observed slow plastic deformation is due to dislocation activity. Our results also provide evidence that the vacancy concentration in a nanoscale system can be smaller than in the bulk material, an effect which has not been studied experimentally before.

Organometal Halide Perovskites: Bulk Low-Dimension Materials and Nanoparticles

2015

Organometal halide perovskites (hybrid perovskites) contain an anionic metal–halogen-semiconducting framework and charge-compensating organic cations. As hybrid materials, they combine useful properties of both organic and inorganic materials, such as plastic mechanical properties and good electronic mobility related to organic and inorganic material, respectively. They are prepared from abundant and low cost starting compounds. The perovskite stoichiometry is associated with the dimensionality of its inorganic framework, which can vary from three to zero, 3D consisting of corner-sharing MX6 octahedra, and 0D consisting of isolated octahedra. Small-sized organic cations can fit into the MX6…

Dense nanostructured materials obtained by spark plasma sintering and field activated pressure assisted synthesis starting from mechanically activate…

2004

The preparation of highly dense bulk materials with a grain size in the range of a few to a few hundreds nanometers is currently the objective of numerous studies. In our research we have achieved a measure of success in this regard by using the methods of mechanically-activated, field-activated, pressure-assisted synthesis, MAFAPAS, which has been patented, and mechanically-activated spark plasma sintering, MASPS. Both methods, which consist of the combination of a mechanical activation step followed by a consolidation step under the simultaneous influence of an electric field and mechanical pressure, have led to the formation of dense nanostructured ceramics, intermetallics, and composite…

Precursor-based synthetic pathways to nanometer NdNiO3−x particles

1993

Abstract The oxygen deficient neodymium nickel perovskite, NdNiO3−x, has been obtained by different low temperature-low oxygen pressure synthetic procedures. Besides a solid-matrix based route, both ordered and disordered chemical-precursors have been used as starting products. X-ray powder diffraction shows that the structure of this defective perovskite is orthorhombic. The study of the grain morphology of the products as resulting from the different synthetic procedures indicates that the main parameter determining the average particle size, which is in the nanometer range, is the maximum temperature achieved in the synthesis. Resistivity and DSC measurements show the existence of a meta…

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-…

Nonlinear Transport in Hybrid Polypyrrole–Gold Nanostructures

2010

We have studied charge transport in nanometer scale films of polypyrrole (PPy) that were grown electrochemically onto discontinuous ultrathin films of gold. The gold films consisted of 100 nm size islands, separated from each other by nanometer-size gaps. The thickness of PPy can be varied from 30 to 200 nm. The I-V characteristics of these hybrid PPy-Au nanostructures show strong non-linearity at low temperatures, and in particular for the more insulating samples. The hopping transport is further verified from the log / versus V-1/4 plots. Furthermore, the I-V data follow an empirical relation dlog//dV(1/4) similar to T-1/2.

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…

Detecting Crystalline Nonequilibrium Phases on the Nanometer Scale

2012

The use of Automated electron Diffraction Tomography (ADT) is presented as a novel approach for crystallization studies at the nanometer scale for nonequilibrium phases. Here, ADT was applied to elucidate the structural identity of the recently reported hexagonal morphology of caffeine crystals, which grow only on specific surfaces. Caffeine was crystallized from solution on a specially treated TEM carbon grid. The analysis of ADT data revealed that the lattice parameters of these hexagons match those of the high temperature α- form of caffeine. Furthermore, it was observed that in this hexagonal morphology, the α-form remained stable for a prolonged period of time. The stabilization of hex…

The Deformation of Single, Nanometer-Sized Metal Crystals in Graphitic Shells

2005

Influence of pH and temperature on the early stage of mica alteration

2012

Mineral dissolution and precipitation reactions actively participate in controlling fluid chemistry during water–rock interaction. In this study, the changes in the biotite and muscovite basal surface nano-morphology were evaluated during interaction with fluids of different pH (pH = 1.1, 3.3 and 5.7) at different temperatures (T =2 5, 120, and 200 C). Results show that at the nanometre scale resolution of the atomic force microscope (AFM), dissolution generates etch pits with a stair-shaped pattern over the (0 0 1) surface. The flux of dissolved elements decreases when pH increases. However, at pH 5.7, a change was found in the flux after 42 h of reaction when abundant gibbsite and kaolini…