Cellulose-based materials functionalized with fluorescence sensors are highly topical and are employed in many areas of functional materials, including the sensing of heavy-metal ions and anions as well as being widely used as chemical sensors and tools for environmental applications. In this Review, we cover recent progress in the development of cellulose-based fluorescence sensors as parts of...

Strain sensing characteristic of carbon nanotubes has been established in the past at nanoscale. In this study, it is shown that the carbon nanotube film sensors, made up of randomly oriented carbon nanotubes, can be used as strain sensors at macro level. A nearly linear trend between the change in voltage, measured using a movable four point probe, and strains, measured using conventional elec...

We studied how the period length and the mass ratio affect the thermal conductivity of isotopic nanoscale three-dimensional (3D) phononic crystal of Si. Simulation results by equilibrium molecular dynamics show isotopic nanoscale 3D phononic crystals can significantly reduce the thermal conductivity of bulk Si at high temperature (1000 K), which leads to a larger ZT than unity. The thermal cond...

We demonstrated nanoscale solid-state thermal rectification. High-thermal-conductivity carbon and boron nitride nanotubes were mass-loaded externally and inhomogeneously with heavy molecules. The resulting nanoscale system yields asymmetric axial thermal conductance with greater heat flow in the direction of decreasing mass density. The effect cannot be explained by ordinary perturbative wave t...

The natural frequency and pull-in instability of clamped-clamped nano-actuators in the presence of a dielectric layer are analyzed. The influence of the presence of Casimir force, electrostatic force, fringing field effect, axial force, stretching effects and the size effect are taken into account. The governing equation of the dynamic response of the actuator is transformed in a non-dimensiona...

References 1. Barnes, W. L., Dereux, A. & Ebbesen, T. W. Nature 424, 824–830 (2003). 2. Novoselov, K. S. et al. Science 306, 666–669 (2004). 3. Jablan, M., Buljan, H. & Soljačić, M. Phys. Rev. B 80, 245435 (2009). 4. Yan, H. et al. Nature Photon. 7, 394–399 (2013). 5. Ju, L. et al. Nature Nanotech. 6, 630–634 (2011). 6. Yan, H. et al. Nature Nanotech. 7, 330–334 (2012). 7. Fei, Z. et al. Nano L...

We have constructed an experimental system to measure a piconewton lateral force using dual cantilevers which cross with each other. The resolution of the lateral force is estimated to be 3.3 p ± 0.2 pN, which is comparable to forces due to thermal fluctuation. This experimental apparatus works so easily that it will enable us to determine forces during nano-manipulation and nano-tribological m...