A novel, simple and efficient procedure was developed to electrodeposit one-dimensional Ag nanowires from reverse hexagonal liquid crystalline phases by using their one-dimensional cylindrical aqueous microdomains as space-confined reactors. Using this soft-template approach, flexible Ag nanowire arrays with wire diameter of 15-30 nm, high aspect ratio over 1000, and high wire densities over 1011 wires/cm2 were obtained. The Ag nanowire arrays can be easily collected by simply washing. The nanowires obtained can be used either in high-density bundle form or as single wires after dispersion by untrasonication.

We have prepared thin yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte layers by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on a pre-sintered NiO/YSZ fuel cell anode substrate. Structural analysis by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray-diffraction shows a homogeneous, nanocrystalline layer.

Conventional electrolyte films reach desired electrical properties only at elevated temperatures, typically 1000°C to 1100°C. The YSZ films grown by CVD on rough anode substrates show better growth behavior and less defects at the anode/electrolyte interface than films deposited by conventional methods (screen printing, sol-gel). Results of electrical properties at lower SOFC working temperatures are obtained by impedance spectroscopy on pressed nanocrystalline YSZ powder pellets produced by chemical vapor synthesis (CVS).

Electrodes for making connections to single molecules and clusters must have separations smaller than 10 nm. They are therefore difficult or impossible to image with atomic force microscopes (AFM) or Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM). We have fabricated nanoelelectrodes by different methods to contacts nanoclusters and conjugated molecules and investigated their properties in transmission electron microscope (TEM) and their electrical characteristics at room temperature and at 4.2K. The electrodes are made on SiN4 membranes, which is transparent to high energy electrons and which make it possible to image features of a few nanometers in TEM.

Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) sample girds were coated with recognition element functionalized polymer 2 and exposed to solutions of a Mixed Monolayer Protected Gold Cluster (MMPC) functionalized with a complimentarily recognition element. Interactions between the polymer and MMPC bound recognition elements provide a driving force for the formation of nanoparticle aggregates. Characterization of the resulting structures by TEM revealed that anisotropic growth of structures in the sub-micrometer size regime rapidly occurred. This process was shown to be the result of the specific hydrogen-bonding interactions between the two components. Casting films of polymer 2 from solutions of decreasing concentration achieved control over the process. This lead to the increased formation of regular, circular structuresand a decrease in random nanoparticle adsorption by the film. Analysis of the size of the circular structures revealed that a maximum diameter of approximately 1150 nm was achieved after 30 minutes exposure to MMPC 1 solutions. This size was independent of the concentration of polymer 2 solutions used to cast films.

Highly homogeneous nanoparticles-polymer composite materials are being developed to meet high demands of photonic materials covering a broad range of the refractive index. Refractive index engineering can be achieved by controlling loading level of metal-oxide nanoparticles within an organic host material. The uniformity and small size of nanoparticles are critical to maintain a low level of light scattering, particularly in the visible to infrared regions. First observations of index variation for these nanoparticle-polymer composites to our knowledge are presented.

In this paper we report the experimental results that polymer micro-emulsions (up to 10 wt%) behave like Newtonian liquids in ultrasound-modulated two-fluid (UMTF) atomization. Specifically, the emulsion drops generated are much smaller and more narrowly sized than those generated in conventional ultrasonic atomization (without air). After spray drying, the PMMA emulsion drops yield uniform nanoparticles that were originally dispersed in the micro-emulsion. Contrary to the conventional view that viscoelastic liquids are more difficult to atomize than Newtonian liquids, we found that ultrasound enhanced atomization of viscoelastic liquids such as gel-forming xanthan gum solutions. Under similar aerodynamic conditions using UMTF atomization at 54 kHz, 40-μm-diameter uniform drops were obtained for Xan solutions, but not for Newtonian aqueous glycerol of same viscosity.