Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have atomically smooth surfaces and tend not to form covalent bonds with composite matrix materials. Thus, it is the magnitude of the CNT/fiber interfacial strength that limits the amount of nanomechanical interlocking when using conventional CNTs to improve the structural behavior of composite materials through reinforcement. This arises from two well-known, long standi...

Electrospinning is a very simple and versatile process by which polymer nanofibers with diameters ranging from a few nanometers to several micrometers (usually between 50 and 500 nm) can be produced using an electrostatically driven jet of polymer solution (or polymer melt). Significant progress has been made in this process throughout the past few years and the resultant nanostructures have be...

Carbothermal reduction is among the oldest chemical processes, commonly used in the production of metals from the corresponding metal oxides or ores (e.g., iron from iron oxides). By using carbon as a reducing agent, decomposition of metal oxides at temperatures much lower than their typical decomposition temperatures can occur. However, a detailed fundamental understanding of such a reaction p...

We show that we can select magnetically steerable nanopropellers from a set of carbon coated aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles using weak homogeneous rotating magnetic fields. The carbon coating can be functionalized, enabling a wide range of applications. Despite their arbitrary shape, all nanostructures propel parallel to the vector of rotation of the magnetic field. We use a simple theore...

Nonlinear electrical properties, such as negative differential resistance (NDR), are essential in numerous circuits, including memristors. Several physical origins have been proposed to lead the NDR phenomena semiconductor devices over last more than half a century. Here, we report behavior formation randomly oriented graphenelike nanostructures up 37 K and high on-current density ${10}^{5}\pha...

A single plasma process involving three consecutive steps has been developed for producing high gas flow catalytic nanostructures on the electrodes of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells (FC). Using a high density helicon radio frequency (13.56 MHz) plasma, nickel is sputtered onto a porous carbon support. Changing the background gas from argon to methane/hydrogen allowed 2 μm long, 37 nm...

Our TEM observation revealed that in a carbon-Pt3Co system, amorphous carbon first crystallized into nanoclusters at step-edges on melting Pt3Co surfaces before merging into graphene layers through a kinetic restructuring via oriented-attachment, leading to the final formation of few-layered graphene nanostructures. The result obtained from density-functional theory calculations further suggest...