Background: It has recently been shown that the particle size of materials used for radiation shielding can affect the magnitude of radiation attenuation. Over the past years, application of nano-structured materials in radiation shielding has attracted attention world-wide. The purpose of this study was to investigate the shielding properties of the lead-free shields containing micro and nano-...

A novel, highly stable, non-carbon support system for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been discovered in the form of nano-structured (NbxTi1-x)Ns (x = 0.25 and 0.5). Template-free, solid-solid separation synthetic approaches have been used for preparing these materials. The (NbxTi1-x)N materials have high specific surface area and better electronic conductivity than carbon-based supports.

The ideal (theoretical) strength was originally defined as the stress or strain at which perfect crystal lattice became mechanically unstable with respect to arbitrary homogeneous infinitesimal deformation. This has been intensely investigated because the ultimate strength without defects is a fundamental mechanical characteristic of materials. In the analyses, the instability criteria have bee...

In the Structuring Nanotechnology Knowledge project, a material-independent platform for supporting development of innovative nano-materials is developed. The platform is called “Structured Knowledge Platform for Nano-materials and Products”. It consists of various kinds of resources. However, domains and grain sizes of the resources are different from each other. Therefore, we need a consisten...

An amorphous complex precursor with uniform Mn/Ni cation distribution is attempted for preparing a nano-structured layered Li-rich oxide (Li1.2Mn0.6Ni0.2O₂)cathode material, using diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) as a chelating agent. The materials are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electr...

Many biological materials are hierarchically structured which means that they are designed from the nano- to the macro-scale in a sometimes self-similar way. There are lots of papers published including very detailed descriptions of these structures at all length scales--however, investigations of mechanical properties are most often focused on either nano-indentation or bulk mechanical testing...