Single look-ahead unit resolution (SLUR) algorithm is a nondeterministic polynomial time algorithm which for a given input formula in a conjunctive normal form (CNF) either outputs its satisfying assignment or gives up. A CNF formula belongs to the SLUR class if no sequence of nondeterministic choices causes the SLUR algorithm to give up on it. The SLUR class is reasonably large. It is known to...

We have performed mechanical and electrical characterization of individual as-grown, vertically oriented carbon nanofibers (CNFs) using in situ techniques, where such high-aspect-ratio, nanoscale structures are of interest for three-dimensional (3D) electronics, in particular 3D nano-electro-mechanical-systems (NEMS). Nanoindentation and uniaxial compression tests conducted in an in situ nanome...

The current study is focused on exploring the possibility of reinforcing syntactic foams with carbon nanofibers (CNFs). Syntactic foams are hollow, particle-filled composites that are widely used in marine structures and are now finding applications in other modes of transportation due to their high stiffness-to-weight ratio. The compressive properties of syntactic foams reinforced with CNFs ar...

It is well-known that electric and magnetic fields can control the growth direction, morphology and microstructure of one-dimensional carbon nanomaterials (1-DCNMs), which plays a key role for its potential applications in micro-nano-electrics and devices. In this paper, we introduce a novel process for controlling growth of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) with assistance of a strong magnetic field (u...

Carbon nanofibers encapsulating Si nanoparticles (CNFs/SiNPs) were prepared via an electrospinning method and chemically functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) to be grafted onto graphene oxide (GO). As a result, the thin and flexible GO, which exhibits a negative charge in aqueous solution, fully wrapped around the APS-functionalized CNFs with a positive surface charge via elec...

Large scale synthesis of carbon nanofibres (CNFs) on a sodium chloride support has been achieved. CNFs have been synthesized using metal oxalate (Ni, Co and Fe) as catalyst precursors at 680 C by chemical vapour deposition method. Upon pyrolysis, this catalyst precursors yield catalyst nanoparticles directly. The sodium chloride was used as a catalyst support, ...

One-dimensional molybdenum dioxide-carbon nanofibers (MoO2-CNFs) were prepared using an electrospinning technique followed by calcination, using sol-gel precursors and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as a processing aid. The resulting samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface area measur...

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...

We prove exponential lower bounds for two classes of non-deterministic branching programs (nbps) with bounded repetition computing a class of functions representable by monotone 3-cnfs. The first class significantly generalizes monotone read-k-times nbps and the second class generalizes oblivious read k times branching programs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first separation of mono...

Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) with high hydrophilicity and huge specific surface area have great prospect for upgrading the performance of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes, but optimal location their incorporation in membrane is still unclear. Herein, we studied compared effects nanomaterials locations: i) embedded active separation layer (Embedded-CNFs), ii) as an interlayer between support (...