Polymer-based composites were heralded in the 1960s as a new paradigm for materials. By dispersing strong, highly stiff fibres in a polymer matrix, high-performance lightweight composites could be developed and tailored to individual applications. Today we stand at a similar threshold in the realm of polymer nanocomposites with the promise of strong, durable, multifunctional materials with low ...

Stretchable electrodes are a critical component for flexible electronics such as displays, energy devices, and wearable sensors. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene have been considered for flexible electrode applications, due to their mechanical strength, high carrier mobility, and excellent thermal conductivity. Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) provide the possibility to serve as...

Titanium(IV) oxide graphene [1] or graphene oxide nano composite [2] were prepared by one-pot thermal hydrolysis of suspension graphene or graphene oxide nanosheets and titanium oxide in three different forms as a starting materials. Graphene nanosheets were produced in a large quantity from natural graphite using a high intensity cavitation field in a pressurized ultrasonic reactor [3]. The gr...

Graphene has a unique atom-thick two-dimensional structure and excellent properties, making it attractive for a variety of electrochemical applications, including electrosynthesis, electrochemical sensors or electrocatalysis, and energy conversion and storage. However, the electrochemistry of single-layer graphene has not yet been well understood, possibly due to the technical difficulties in h...

A method has been proposed for developing structure-property relationships of nano-structured materials. This method serves as a link between computational chemistry and solid mechanics by substituting discrete molecular structures with equivalent-continuum models. It has been shown that this substitution may be accomplished by equating the molecular potential energy of a nano-structured materi...

Intercalation of metal atoms is an established route for tuning the coupling of graphene to a substrate. The extension to reactive species such as oxygen would set the stage for a wide spectrum of interfacial chemistry. Here we demonstrate the controlled modification of a macroscopic graphene-metal interface by oxygen intercalation. The selective oxidation of a ruthenium surface beneath graphen...

Carbon fibres are a significant volume fraction of modern structural airframes. Embedded into polymer matrices, they provide significant strength and stiffness gains by unit weight compared with competing structural materials. Here we use the Raman G peak to assess the response of carbon fibres to the application of strain, with reference to the response of graphene itself. our data highlight t...

Solution-processed conductive, flexible and transparent graphene thin films continue drawing attention from science and technology due to their potential for many electrical applications. Here, an up-scalable method for the solution processing of graphite to graphene and further to self-assembled large-area conductive transparent thin-films is presented. The method proceeds via the graphite int...

We investigate the possibility of nondestructive electron diffraction imaging of a single molecule to determine its structure. The molecular specimen will be held on a free-standing sheet of graphene. Due to the high conductivity of graphene, electrons lost by ionization would be rapidly replaced, enabling repeated nondestructive interrogation. Limits of resolution, maximum particle size and re...

A temporal stability analysis was carried out to model the atomization of a swirling viscous non-Newtonian annular liquid sheet emanating from an air-blast atomizer subject to inner and outer inviscid swirling air streams. The dimensionless dispersion equation that governs the instability of a viscous non-Newtonian annular liquid sheet under swirling air streams was obtained. Numerical solution...