OBJECTIVE We quantitatively investigate the biocompatibility of chemical vapour deposited (CVD) nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) after the inclusion of boron, with and without nanostructuring. The nanostructuring method involves a novel approach of growing NCD over carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that act as a 3D scaffold. This nanostructuring of BNCD leads to a material with increased capacitance, and th...

The reflection of light at interfaces limits the performance of optical components. An anti-reflection (AR) coating layer is often applied to improve the optical transmittance. Besides the commonly used singleor multi-layer coatings reducing the reflection, subwavelength nanostructures have gained more attention as an effective AR feature. A wide choice of materials can be nanostructured withou...

In this work, new magnetic amphiphilic composites were prepared by chemical vapor deposition with ethanol on the surface of hydrophilic natural chrysotile matrix containing Fe catalyst. XRD, Raman, Mössbauer and SEM analyses suggest the formation of a complex nanostructured material composed of hydrophobic carbon nanotubes/nanofibers grown on the hydrophilic surface of the MgSi fiber mineral an...

Dendrite-like Co(3)O(4) nanostructure, made up of many nanorods with diameters of 15-20 nm and lengths of 2-3 μm, has been successfully prepared by calcining the corresponding nanostructured Co-8-hydroxyquinoline coordination precursor in air. The Co(3)O(4) nanostructure was evaluated as an electrochemical sensor for H(2)O(2) detection and the results reveal that it has good linear dependence a...

Isolation of four distinct nanostructured Ni products is demonstrated in a well-controlled chemical vapor deposition process. These nanostructures include core–shell Ni–NiO nanowires, horizontally oriented nanowires, vertically oriented nanowires, and fully isometric cubic crystals all obtained upon an amorphous SiO2kSi growth substrate from an identical metal halide precursor. Transmission ele...

This project is a fundamental study into the development of low-cost, thin film solar cells. It explores the fabrication of semiconductor nanocomposites for photovoltaics using nanostructured inorganic materials and atomic layer deposition (ALD). In thin film technologies, there exists a common problem with conversion efficiency due to poor materials quality: the photogenerated electrons and ho...

Nanostructured doped ceria is a prospective material for catalytic applications such as the construction of membranes with mixed electronic and ionic conductivity for effective syngas production. In this article, the surface properties of nanostructured ceria doped with praseodymium have been studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and Fourier transform inf...

Sensitive, selective and fast detection of chemical warfare agents is necessary for anti-terrorism purposes. In our search for functional materials sensitive to dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), a simulant of sarin and other toxic organophosphorus compounds, we found that zinc oxide (ZnO) modification potentially enhances the absorption of DMMP on a manganese dioxide (MnO(2)) surface. The adso...

Solution processed colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells have great potential for large area low-cost photovoltaics. However, light utilization remains low mainly due to the tradeoff between small carrier transport lengths and longer infrared photon absorption lengths. Here, we demonstrate a bottom-illuminated periodic nanostructured CQD solar cell that enhances broadband absorption without c...

Multifunctional materials with more than two good properties are widely required in modern industries. However, some properties are often trade-off with each other by single microstructural designation. For example, nanostructured materials have high strength, but low ductility and thermal stability. Here by means of spark plasma sintering (SPS) of nitrided Ti particles, we synthesized bulk cor...