nanoindentation techniques are widely used for the study of nanomechanical properties of thin nanocomposite coatings. theoretical concepts and practical use of nanoindentation method are summarized with reporting the applications of these tests in characterization of some particular thin nanocomposite hybrid coatings prepared by sol-gel process. the better mechanical properties can be obtained ...

various concentrations of copper are embedded into silica matrix to xerogel form using copper source - cu(no3)2∙3h2o. the xerogel samples are prepared by hydrolysis and condensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate (teos) by the sol-gel method  and with determination of new molar ratio of components h2o/teos to be 6.2. in this investigation, the necessary amount of trihydrated copper nitrate is adde...

Novel bio-renewable castor oil based polyurethane (PU)-silica nanocomposite films were prepared using castor oil, 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate and dibutyltin dilaurate in tetrahydrofuran at room temperature. ATR-FTIR spectra confirm the formation of polyurethane and the presence of silica nanoparticles in the polyurethane matrix. The increase of Si nanoparticle content shifts the peak positio...

Core-polystyrene/shell-silica nanocomposite particles are synthesized by simple soap-free emulsion polymerization employing positively charged silica sol. The polymerization is initiated with conventional anionic KPS. It is found that the silica sol should be added after the initiation and nucleation of the soap-free emulsion polymerization in order to obtain colloidally stable composite partic...

Silica skeletal architectures in diatoms are characterized by remarkable morphological and nanostructural details. Silk proteins from spiders and silkworms form strong and intricate self-assembling fibrous biomaterials in nature. We combined the features of silk with biosilica through the design, synthesis, and characterization of a novel family of chimeric proteins for subsequent use in model ...

A novel confined-space synthesis method has been developed to synthesize zeolite nanocrystals. Colloidal silica nanoparticles serving as the silica source as well as the hard template were embedded in the mesoporous carbon via in situ polymerization of furfuryl alcohol (FA) in the presence of tri-block copolymer (Pluronic P123), and then reacted with an alkaline aqueous solution (Na2O-Al2O3-H2O...

A facile method to synthesize a TiO2/PEDOT:PSS hybrid nanocomposite material in aqueous solution through direct current (DC) plasma processing at atmospheric pressure and room temperature has been demonstrated. The dispersion of the TiO2 nanoparticles is enhanced and TiO2/polymer hybrid nanoparticles with a distinct core shell structure have been obtained. Increased electrical conductivity was ...

A novel proton exchange membrane using phosphotungstic acid (HPW) as proton carrier and cubic bicontinuous Ia3d mesoporous silica (meso-silica) as framework material is successfully developed as proton exchange membranes for fuel cells. Meso-silica is functionalized by 80wt% HPW using a vacuum impregnation method. The HPW-functionalized meso-silica (HPW-meso-silica) nanocomposites are character...

We have studied the surface-smoothing effect of an ultrathin germanium (Ge) layer on silver (Ag)-silica (SiO2) nanocomposite films for superlensing applications. Our experimental results indicate that inserting a thin Ge layer below the silver-silica composite films can reduce the final surface root-mean-squared (RMS) roughness to under 1 nm. Additionally, the metal nanostructure plays a role i...