We demonstrate a simple strategy to either prevent or enhance hydroxide incorporation in nanocrystalline solid-state metathesis reaction products prepared in ambient environments. As an example, we show that ZnCO3 (smithsonite) or Zn₅(CO₃)₂(OH)₆ (hydrozincite) forms extremely rapidly, in less than two minutes, to form crystalline domains of 11 ± 2 nm and 6 ± 2 nm, respectively. The phase select...

Natural bone consists of hard nanostructured hydroxyapatite (HA) in a nanostructured protein-based soft hydrogel template (ie, mostly collagen). For this reason, nanostructured HA has been an intriguing coating material on traditionally used titanium for improving orthopedic applications. In addition, helical rosette nanotubes (HRNs), newly developed materials which form through the self-assemb...

In recent years, near-nano (submicron) and nanostructured materials have attracted increasingly more attention from the materials community. Nanocrystalline materials are characterized by a microstructural length or grain size of up to about 100 nm. Materials having grain size of 0.1 to 0.3 mm are classified as submicron materials. Nanocrystalline materials exhibit various shapes or forms, and ...

Nanocrystalline metals demonstrate a range of fascinating properties, including high levels of mechanical strength. However, as these materials are exposed to high temperatures, it is critical to determine the grain size evolution, as this process can drastically change the mechanical properties. In this work, nanocrystalline sputtered Cu thin films with 43 +/- 2 nm grain size were produced by ...

This paper describes a new strategy to generate nanocrystalline drugs through the precipitation of drug molecules in attoliter nanowells. We controlled the size of arsenic trioxide (ATO) nanocrystals by simply changing the concentration of ATO solution in the nanowells; particles with sizes ranging from 55 to 175 nm were formed. This approach only requires the drugs to be soluble in a solvent a...

Amorphous powder of composition corresponding to Ni60Ti20Zr20 (in at%) was obtained by ball milling in a high-energy mills starting from pure elements. Formation of the amorphous structure was observed already after 20 h of milling, although complete amorphization occurred after 40 h. The microhardness of powders increased from about 30 HV for pure elements to above 400 HV (1290 MPa) after 40 h...

Article history: Received 10 February 2016 Received in revised form 22 May 2016 Accepted 8 June 2016 Available online xxxx The relationships betweenmicrostructure, controlled by alloying elements prone to grain boundary segregation, and electrical resistivity in sputtered nanocrystalline Cu were investigated. We find a non-monotonic dependence of themean grain size on solute concentration for b...

Sintering of powders is a common means of producing bulk materials when melt casting is impossible or does not achieve a desired microstructure, and has long been pursued for nanocrystalline materials in particular. Acceleration of sintering is desirable to lower processing temperatures and times, and thus to limit undesirable microstructure evolution. Here we show that markedly enhanced sinter...

The optical properties and charge trapping phenomena observed on oxide nanocrystal ensembles can be strongly influenced by the presence of nanocrystal interfaces. MgO powders represent a convenient system to study these effects due to the well-defined shape and controllable size distributions of MgO nanocrystals. The spectroscopic properties of nanocrystal interfaces are investigated by monitor...

Enhanced atomic migration was an early observation from experimental studies into nanocrystalline solids. This contribution presents an overview of the available diffusion data for simple metals and ionic materials in nanocrystalline form. It will be shown that enhanced diffusion can be interpreted in terms of atomic transport along the interfaces, which are comparable to grain boundaries in co...