Items Tagged With Materials Science

Drexel University and Boca Raton, Florida-based NanoBlox Inc. researchers have shown that the mechanical characteristics of electroless nickel-boride coatings deposited on steel can be significantly improved upon the addition of small amounts of nanosized diamond particles into deposition baths.

An innovative and inexpensive way of making nanomaterials on a large scale has resulted in novel forms of advanced materials that pave the way for exceptional and unexpected optical properties. The new fabrication technique, known as soft lithography, offers many significant advantages over existing techniques, including the ability to scale-up the manufacturing process to produce devices in large quantities.

A gadolinium layer of no more than 1 nm in thickness is capable of combining the magnetic world with electronics. In this way, it will be possible to put a magnetic memory element directly to a silicon transistor: the basic building block of information technology. Memory that is directly coupled to processing power, is an attractive and energy efficient option. In the October issue of Nature Materials, PhD student Byoung-Chul Min, together with colleagues of the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology and led by Dr Ron Jansen, publish this novel way of bridging two disciplines.

Nanoparticles of nickel show promise for use as electrode materials in multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC). However, their inception has been hindered by the fact that they prove difficult to synthesise. This has resulted in them being largely ignored by researchers even though commercial applications could be readily found should a viable bulk synthesis be found.

In this work by Kan-Sen Chou, Shuen-Chi Chang and Kuo-Cheng Huang from the National Tsing Hua University, the researchers look at the effect of using sodium borohydride (NaBH4) to enhance the conversion of nanosized nickel precipitates. The commercial potential of the material in capacitors also means the electrical properties were monitored.

Nanotech 2007 has opened its Call for Papers. Nanotech 2007, to be held in May 2007 at the Santa Clara, Convention Center, CA, USA, seeks submissions from nanoscience and nanotechnology experts across all disciplines— in Research, Commercial Use and Policy.