Preparation of Porous Alumina Film on Aluminum Substrate by Anodization in Oxalic Acid

Self-ordering of the cell arrangement of the anodic porous alumina was prepared in oxalic acid solution at a constant potential of 40V and at a temperature of 20C. The honeycomb structure made by one step anodization method and two step anodization method is different. Pores in the alumina film prepared by two step anodization method were more ordered than those by one step anodization method.

Microstructures of FeSi_2 based thermoelectric materials prepared by rapid solidification and hot pressing

FeSi_2 based thermoelectric materials have heen prepared by melt spinning andvacuum hot pressing. Most of the rapidly solidified (melt spinning) powders are thin flakes with athickness less than 0.1 mm. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) surface profiles show there arefurther finer grain structures with the characteristic size of about 100 nm in a flake. The samplesobtained by hot uniaxial pressing (HUP) in vacuum have densities higher than 90% the theoreticaldensity of the materials. It was found by SEM observations that the microstructures are verydifferent for vertical and parallel sections of the HUP samples. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysesshow there are some texture features in the samples. It is considered that the textures of thesamples are originated from the orientation of the flakes that tended to align perpendicular to thehot press axis. WSi_2 was introduced into the powders unexpectedly during melting process before therapid solidification, but it makes the microstructures more easily to be explained.

Covalent Functionalization of Carbon Nanotube by Tetrasubtituted Amino Manganese Phthalocyanine

The multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) bonded to 2, 9, 16, 23-tetraamino manganese phthalocyanine (TAMnPc) was obtained by covalent functionalization, and its chemical structure was characterized by TEM. The photoconductivity of single-layered photoreceptors, where MWCNT bonded by TAMnPc (MWCNT-b-TAMnPc) served as the charge generation material (CGM), was also studied.

Formation and Structure of Boron Nitride Nanotubes

Boron nitride (BN) nanotubes were simply synthesized by heating well-mixed boric acid, urea and iron nitrate powders at 1000℃. A small amount of BN nanowires was also obtained in the resultants. The morphological and structural characters of the BN nanostructures were studied using transmission electron microscopy. Other novel BN nanos-tructures, such as Y-junction nanotubes and bamboo-like nanotubes, were simultaneously observed. The growth mechanism of the BN nanotubes was discussed briefly.

Solvothermal synthesis of nanosized CoSb_3 skutterudite

Nanostructures enhance phonon scattering and improve the figure of merit of thermoelectric materials. Nanosized CoSb3 skutterudite was synthesized by solvothermal methods using CoCl2 and SbCl3 as the precursors. A 'two-step' model was suggested for the formation of CoSb3 based on the X-ray diffraction analysis. The first step is the formation of cobalt diantimonide in the earlier stage during the synthesis process. Diantimonide was then combined with antimony atoms to form the skutterudite structured triantimonide, CoSb3, in the later stage of the synthesis process as the second step. The synthesized CoSb3 powders consist of irregular particles with sizes of about 20 nm and sheets of about 80nm.

THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAND-INDUCED STRAIN ON THE Si SURFACE MORPHOLOGY IN Ge-Si MULTILAYERS: A TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY STUDY

Growth and ordering of coherently strained Ge-rich islands in Ge/Si single layer and multilayer systems and the influence of island arrangements on the evolutio n of the surface morphology of Si cap layers during deposition by low-pressure c hemical vapour deposition(LPCVD) on Si(001) substrates at 700℃ have been invest igated by TEM of cross-section and plan-view specimens. At distances between the Ge layers of 35-50nm, vertical order of GeSi islands is observed for Ge-Si bila yer systems and for Ge-Si multilayer systems consisting of 5 layer pairs whereas lateral ordering parallel to <100> substrate directions is observed for the lat ter case only. In agreement with earlier results the vertical ordering in the mu ltilayer system can be understood as result of the elastic interaction between i sland nuclei forming in the layers with close islands in a buried layer below. T he lateral ordering along <100> may be attributed to the anisotropy of the elast ic interaction. Characteristic for all Si surfaces are the spatial correlation b etween the presence of island-induced lattice strain and the appearance of array s of larger square-shaped pyramids with distinct faceting and facet edges along <110>. The results reflect the importance of the control of growth parameters an d of the island-induced strain state for the evolution of the Si top layer surfa ce morphology during LPCVD growth.

Chemical vapor deposition growth of large-scale hexagonal boron nitride with controllable orientation

Chemical vapor deposition （CVD） synthesis of large-domain hexagonal boron nitride （h-BN） with a uniform thickness is very challenging, mainly due to the extremely high nucleation density of this material. Herein, we report the successful growth of wafer-scale, high-quality h-BN monolayer films that have large single-crystalline domain sizes, up to -72 μm in edge length, prepared using a folded Cu-foil enclosure. The highly confined growth space and the smooth Cu surface inside the enclosure effectively reduced the precursor feeding rate together and induced a drastic decrease in the nucleation density. The orientation of the as-grown h-BN monolayer was found to be strongly correlated to the crystallographic orientation of the Cu substrate： the Cu （111） face being the best substrate for growing aligned h-BN domains and even single-crystalline monolayers. This is consistent with our density functional theory calculations. The present study offers a practical pathway for growing high-quality h-BN films by deepening our fundamental understanding of the process of their growth by CVD.