Time Resolved Raman Spectroscopy (TRRS) can provide subsurface information from multi-layered samples of transparent and translucent evaporative and silicate minerals up to several cm thick. Depth information was obtained using 3-ps pulsed laser excitation at 720 nm and a gated intensified CCD detector with stepwise increasing delay times. Blocks of different minerals were used as first, second...

Mineral deposits related to thermal springs are generally of the carbonate or silicate precipitation types. Numerous thermal waters have been studied worldwide for their extensive deposits (Italy, Iceland, New Zealand, USA). The occurrence of other deposit types, such as oxides, associated with hydrothennal activity are few. However, the almost pure manganese oxide deposit in Japan was recently...

Models of three-dimensional space filling based on growth of two-dimensional sheets are proposed. Beginning from planar Eden-style growth of sheets, additional growth modes are introduced. These enable the sheets to form layered or disordered structures. The growth modes can also be combined. An off-lattice kinetic Monte Carlo-based computer algorithm is presented and used to study the kinetics...

Three different protocols for the preparation of polymer layered silicate nanocomposites based upon a tri-functional epoxy resin, triglycidyl para-amino phenol (TGAP), have been compared in respect of the cure kinetics, the nanostructure and their mechanical properties. The three preparation procedures involve 2 wt% and 5 wt% of organically modified montmorillonite (MMT), and are: isothermal cu...

The conformation of polymer chains under confinement is investigated in intercalated polymer/layered silicate nanocomposites. Hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide)/sodium montmorillonite, PEO/Na+-MMT, hybrids were prepared utilizing melt intercalation with compositions where the polymer chains are mostly within the ~1 nm galleries of the inorganic material. The polymer chains are completely amorphou...

Surfactant-templated layered silicates are shown to possess complex compositional, structural, and dynamic features that manifest rich and interrelated order and disorder at molecular length scales. Temperature-dependent 1D and 2D solid-state 29Si NMR measurements reveal a chemical-exchange process involving the surfactant headgroups that is concomitant with reversible broadening of 29Si NMR li...

The local segmental dynamics of polymers confined within the 15-20 1 interlayer spacing of nanocomposites consisting of poly(methyl phenyl siloxane) intercalated within organically modified silicates, has been investigated utilizing Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy. The effect of confinement on the local reorientational dynamics is evident by the observation of a relaxation mode, which is muc...

phenolic resins have been widely used for selective high technology applications due to their excellent ablative properties, structural integrity and thermal stability that make them appropriate for thermal insulation materials, wood products industry, coatings, moulding compounds and composite materials. polymer layered silicate nanocomposites based on montmorillonite (mmt) have attracted a gr...

The precise control of nanostructures, assembly processing, and the size of each component is important for the construction of integrated functional nanocomposites. In this paper, we describe a simple two-step method for the synthesis of novel flower-like nanocomposites (AuNPs/NiSiO) composed of well-dispersed and size-controlled Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) immobilized on hierarchically structure...