Nanocrystalline TiN has been imbedded in amorphous silicon nitride matrix to form a super hard nanocomposite thin film (ncTiNya-SiN ) via magnetron sputtering. Adjusting Ti and Si N target power ratio altered film composition, size, amount and x 3 4 distribution of the nc-TiN phase. At a Ti target power density of 5.5 W cm , the Ti to Si N target power ratio should be greater y2 3 4 than unity ...

Isotropic Nd-Fe-B thick-film magnets have been prepared using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method with the control of laser energy density (LED) followed by post-annealing. The characteristics of the method are a high deposition rate up to several tens of microns per hour together with a reliability of magnetic properties due to the good transfer of composition from an Nd-Fe-B target to a fi...

Poly(lactic acid) is biodegradable polymer derived from renewable resources and non-toxic, which has become most interested polymer to substitute petroleum-based polymer. However, it has low glass transition temperature and poor gas barrier properties to restrict the application on hot contents packaging and long-term food packaging. The objectives of this research are: (a) to reduce coagulatio...

The design methodology and realization of nanocomposite films aiming for mechanical (superhardness, toughness) and functional (optical, microelectronic) properties were discussed in this paper. Superhard TiCrCN and nc-TiN/a-SiNx films and super-tough nc-TiC/a-C(Al) films were prepared through co-sputtering method by optimal design of microstructure. The nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) passivate...

In order to overcome the low utilization ratio of solar light and high electron-hole pair recombination rate of TiO2, the triangular Ag nanoparticle island is covered on the surface of the TiO2 thin film. Enhancement of the photocatalytic activity of the Ag/TiO2 nanocomposite system is observed. The increase of electron-hole pair generation is caused by the enhanced near-field amplitudes of loc...

The graphene oxide (GO) film was reduced by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation which removed the oxygen-containing groups of the GO, confirmed by X-ray and Raman photoelectron spectroscopies, and scanning electron microscopy. The UV reduction of the GO film was performed at the selective areas for patterning. The sheet resistance of the GO film decreased from 10 (non-conducting) to 10 / by UV irrad...

Metal-enhanced fluorescence of conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPs) is realized using a simple, green hybrid Ag nanocomposite film. Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are pre-prepared by sodium citrate reduction and incorporated into agarose by mixing to form an Ag-containing agarose film (Ag@agarose). Through variation of the amount of Ag NPs in the Ag@agarose film as well as the thickness of the interlay...

Chitosan film reinforced with nano-sized chitin whiskers and crosslinked using tannic acid was synthesized by the casting-vaporation method. The mechanical and physicochemical properties of several film samples (consisting of different ratio of chitin and tannic acid) were compared with neat chitosan. Tensile tests show that the addition of chitin improves the nanocomposite films mechanical pro...

We introduce an innovative and robust method for the preparation of nanocomposite multilayers, which allows accurate control over the placement of functional groups as well as the composition and dimensions of individual layers/internal structure. By employing the photocross-linkable polystyrene (PS-N(3), M(n) = 28.0 kg/mol) with 10 wt % azide groups (-N(3)) for host polymer and/or the PS-N(3)-...

One of the limiting factors in good performance of forward osmosis (FO) membranes is the internal concentration polarization (ICP). To reduce ICP, thin film nanocomposite forward osmosis (TFN-FO) membranes were fabricated by adding different amounts of graphene oxide (GO) nanoplates (0-1 wt. %) to polymer matrix of polysulfone (PSf) substrate. The prepared nanocomposite membranes exhibited both...