Low-cost, high-yield production of graphene nanosheets (GNs) is essential for practical applications. We have achieved high yield of edge-selectively carboxylated graphite (ECG) by a simple ball milling of pristine graphite in the presence of dry ice. The resultant ECG is highly dispersable in various solvents to self-exfoliate into single- and few-layer (≤ 5 layers) GNs. These stable ECG (or G...

Nanocomposite materials of the Fe-Cu system with/without small addition of carbon nanotubes have been synthesized by mechanochemical activation of elemental Fe and Cu powders in a high-energy planetary ball mill and have been examined by the X-ray diffraction method, SEM and the thermopower methods; the tensile strength of the materials obtained has been estimated. The metastable (Fe, Cu) super...

In this article, an adaptive neural controller for the ball end-milling process is described. Architecture with two different kinds of neural networks is proposed, and is used for the on-line optimal control of the milling process. A BP neural network is used to identify the milling state and to determine the optimal cutting inputs. The feedrate is selected as the optimised variable, and the mi...

Aluminum and its alloys have a lot of industrial applications due to their appropriate physical and chemical characteristics. However, those present a modest mechanical performance. One method to improve its strenght is the addition of hard insoluble particles as: carbides (Al4C3, TiC), oxides (Al2O3) or nitrides (TiN, AlN), which can difficult the dislocation movement at atomic level, resultin...

For many applications such as advanced energy storage systems, chemical sensors or electrochromic devices fast ionic conduction plays an important role. In many cases, see e.g., Refs. [1-3], nanocrystal-line ceramics with crystallite diameters smaller than 50 nm show an enhanced ion conductivity compared to their coarse-grained counterparts, i.e., single crystals or materials with µm-sized part...

is considered to be an important conductor for applications. Optimizing flux pinning in these conductors can improve their critical currents. Doping can influence flux pinning efficiency and grain connectivity, and also affect the resistivity, upper critical field and critical temperature. This study was designed to attempt the doping of on the Mg sites with metal-diborides using high-energy ba...

ACP (amorphous calcium phosphate) and DCPD (dicalcium phosphate dihydrate, or Brushite) powders were high energy dry ball milled at a 1:1 ratio for 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, or 24 hours to produce a variety of powders for use as calcium phosphate cements (CPC). A 1:1 blend of powders not subjected to milling was used as baseline material (control). Physicochemical and mechanical characterization was perf...

Solvent-free synthesis of pyrano[2,3-d]pyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-diones by ball-milling and without any catalyst is described. This method provides several advantages such as being environmentally friendly, using a simple workup procedure, and affording high yields.

Half-Heuslers would be important thermoelectric materials due to their high temperature stability and abundance if their dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) could be made high enough. The highest peak ZT of a p-type half-Heusler has been so far reported about 0.5 due to the high thermal conductivity. Through a nanocomposite approach using ball milling and hot pressing, we have ach...

This paper proposes a novel chemo-mechanical method to in-situ functionalize carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Ball milling in the presence of ammonium bicarbonate allowed the introduction of amine and amide groups onto the surface of CNTs, resulting in the conversion of the semiconducting behavior of CNTs from p-type to n-type. The corresponding electrical conductivity of CNT increased gradually with b...