In this study, a novel multi-walled carbon nanotubes reinforced nanocrystalline copper matrix composite with super high strength and moderate plasticity was synthesized. We successfully overcome the agglomeration problem of the carbon nanotubes and the grain growth problem of the nanocrystalline copper matrix by combined use of the electroless deposition and spark plasma sintering methods. The ...

storage of hydrogen is one of the key challenges in developing hydrogen economy. magnesium hydride (mgh2) is an attractive candidate for solid-state hydrogen storage for on-board applications. in this study, 10 wt.% zrb2 was co-milled with magnesium hydride at different milling times to produce nanocrystalline composite powder. the effect of milling time and additive on the hydrogen desorption ...

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...

Nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) particles coated with whey protein (WP) were synthesized in the weak basic aqueous solution condition at room temperature. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements confirmed the ZnO/WP nanoscaled composite structure. The average composite granules size was about 300 nm and the embedded ZnO nanoparticles were uniform and...

As a novel two-dimensional (2D) material, graphene shows great benefits in electric and material science. Compared to 1D nanomaterials, it may show more excellent properties. Here, we introduced graphene as 2D bridges into the nanocrystalline electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells, which brought a faster electron transport and a lower recombination, together with a higher light scattering. On...

Resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, and Hall measurements were performed on densified nanocrystalline composite materials of undoped and Ag-doped PbTe nanocrystals to investigate the physical mechanisms responsible for Seebeck coefficient enhancement in nanocrystalline systems. The unique temperature dependence of the resistivity and mobility for these PbTe nanocomposites suggests that grain-boun...

A high-pressure silicon infiltration technique was applied to sinter diamond–SiC composites with different diamond crystal sizes. Composite samples were sintered at pressure 8 GPa and temperature 2170 K. The structure of composites was studied by evaluating x-ray diffraction peak profiles using Fourier coefficients of ab initio theoretical size and strain profiles. The composite samples have pr...

For the past few years, nanoscale structures have been proposed and investigated experimentally for their enhanced thermoelectric properties over bulk materials. These structures offer several advantages: 1) increased local density of states, which can improve the Seebeck coefficient and 2) reduced thermal transport due to phonon confinement and increased scattering. Recently, nanocrystalline c...

Biological materials with hierarchically laminated structures usually exhibit a good synergy between strength and fracture toughness. Here, we show that a bio-inspired (polyelectrolyte (PE)/TiO2)4 nanolayered composite with a thickness ratio of TiO2 and amorphous PE layers of about 1.1 has been prepared successfully on Si substrates by layer-by-layer self-assembly and chemical bath deposition m...

In this study, the composite material with composition of MgH2-5 wt% SiC has been prepared by co-milling of MgH2 with SiC powder. The effect of milling time and additive on MgH2 structure, i.e. crystallite size, lattice strain, particle size and specific surface area, and also hydrogen desorption properties of obtained composite was evaluated by thermal analyzer method and compared with pure un...