Core-shell nanoparticles consisting of silica as core and surface-grafted poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) as shell with different diameters were prepared and used as heterogeneous nucleation agents to obtain CO2-blown poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanocomposite foams. PDMS was selected as the shell material as it possesses a low surface energy and high CO2-philicity. The successful synthesis o...

The structural evolution of planar Si clusters and the nucleation mechanism of silicene in the initial stages of silicene epitaxial growth on a Ag(111) surface are studied by using ab initio calculations and two-dimensional nucleation theory. The ground-state SiN clusters (1 ≤ N ≤ 25) on the Ag(111) surface are found to undergo a significant structural transition from non-hexagonal plane struct...

Density-functional tight-binding molecular dynamics (DFTB/MD) methods were employed to demonstrate single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) nucleation resulting from thermal annealing of SiC nanoparticles. SWNT nucleation in this case is preceded by a change of the SiC structure from a crystalline one, to one in which silicon and carbon are segregated. This structural transformation ultimately resu...

We analyze the formation of two-dimensional Ag islands following deposition of about 0.1 ML of Ag on Ag(100) over a temperature regime ranging from classical nucleation and growth behavior to almost immobile adatoms, from 300 to 125 K. Particular emphasis is placed on the post-deposition dynamics at the lower end of the temperature range, where the saturation island density is not reached at th...

On electropolished steel at low current densities, morphology and texture of electrodeposited zinc were investigated. Zinc coating is consisted of hexagonal crystallites laid on each other to produce packets. These packets are of different sizes and are stacked in different orientations to construct a homogeneous coating on steel substrate. This coating does not have texture, i.e., it has a ran...

Clustering processes in first-order phase transformations play an important role in a huge variety of processes in nature, and in scientific and technological applications. An adequate theoretical description of such processes is therefore of considerable interest. One of the tools allowing the theoretical description of such processes is the nucleation theory. The theoretical approach predomin...

Nanoparticle-covered electrodes have altered properties as compared to conventional electrodes with same chemical composition. The changes originate from the large surface area and enhanced conduction. To test the mineralization capacity of such materials, TiO2 nanoparticles were deposited on titanium and gold substrates. The electrochemical properties were investigated using cyclic voltammetry...

Improving the crystal quality of AlGaN epitaxial layers is essential for the realization of efficient III-nitride-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) with emission wavelengths below 365 nm. Here, we report on two different approaches to improve the material quality of AlGaN buffer layers for such UV-LEDs, which are known to be effective for the MOVPE growth of GaN layers. Firstly, we grew AlGaN ...

Prediction of the nucleation mechanism is one of the most critical factors in the design of a crystallization system. Information about the nucleation mechanism helps to control the size, shape, size distribution, and purity of the produced crystals. When the crystallization method is used for producing nanoparticles, the nucleation mechanism should be predicted. In this study, an empirical cor...