Fluorescent lamps are estimated to annually release 1 t of mercury into the air in the United States; transport of used lamps may play an important role in these emissions. In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added lamps to the universal waste rule to encourage recycling by allowing shipment to recycling facilities by common carrier. The rules required that lamp packaging must be ...

The joining of wires to various substrates (wires, plates, foils and semiconductor packages) is a ubiquitous process in the manufacture and modification of electrical and electronic devices. While spot welding is used extensively to attach lamp and vacuum tube filaments to base wires and foils, soldering is almost universally used to make chip to package and wire to substrate interconnections i...

The synthesis of wurtzite gallium nitride (GaN) nanorods with triangular shape on c-Al2O3 substrates using a thermal chemical vapor deposition process was investigated. It was possible to control nanorod shape and growth mode of GaN nanorods by change of sample geometry in the chamber using a mixture of GaN powder and Ga metal with ammonia gas reaction. It was found that the GaN nanorods were g...

Lead chalcogenide nanostructures are good potential candidates for applications in multiexciton solar cells, infrared photodetectors, and electroluminescence devices. Here we report the synthesis and electrical measurements of hyperbranched PbSe nanowire networks. Hyperbranched PbSe nanowire networks are synthesized via a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. The branching is induced by continuou...

Tungsten powder mixed with an appropriate amount of nickel and iron powders is used as raw material to fabricate large-scale tungsten whisker-like structure. The morphology, microstructure and composition of the whisker-like tungsten are observed and tested by scanning electron microscope and FESEM, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction, respectively. The m...

The structure of metal nanoparticles embedded inside dielectric nanowires/nanotubes, namely nanopeapods, has been of increasing interest due to their unusual photoresponse and optical adsorption properties. This paper presents a type of new inorganic nanopeapod: faceted Au nanoparticles inside MgO nanowires. The Au self-assembles into a nanoparticle chain during the vapor-liquid-solid growth of...

The detection of military high explosives and illicit drugs presents problems of paramount importance in the fields of counter terrorism and criminal investigation. Effectively dealing with such threats requires hand-portable, mobile and affordable instruments. The paper shows that solid-state gas sensors can contribute to the development of such instruments provided the sensors are incorporate...

Titanium nitride (TiN) not only was utilized in the wear-resistant coatings industry but it was also adopted in barrier processes for semiconductor manufacturing. Barrier processes include the titanium (Ti) and TiN processes, which are commonly used as diffusion barriers in via/contact applications. However, engineers frequently struggle at the via/contact module in the beginning of every techn...

Mo17O47 nanowire-arrays are promising active materials and electrically-conductive supports for batteries and other devices. While high surface area resulting from long, thin, densely packed nanowires generally leads to improved performance in a wide variety of applications, the Mo17O47 nanowire-arrays synthesized previously by electrically-heated chemical vapor deposition under vacuum conditio...

We describe a compact, pulsed metal vapor source used for the production of dense plasma columns of interest for both soft x-ray laser research and spectroscopy of highly ionized plasmas. The source generates spectroscopically pure cadmium vapor jets in a room-temperature environment by rapidly heating an electrode with a capacitive discharge. In the configuration described herein, the metal va...