Recently added articles from Critical Reviews in Solid State and Materials Sciences:
Functionalized Magnetite Nanoparticles-Synthesis, Properties, and Bio-Applications
Jul 01, 2007; ... Nanotechnology has generated tremendous hopes in recent years toward the design of advanced functional materials, especially in the bio-medical field. Nano-sized-materials such as magnetite nanoparticles display indeed fascinating physico-chemical properties that, if tuned properly, can be ...
Processing, Structure, Properties, and Applications of PZT Thin Films
Jul 01, 2007; ... There has been a resurgence of complex oxides of late owing to their ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties. Although these properties had been recognized decades ago, the renewed interest stems from modern deposition techniques that can produce high quality materials and attractive proposed ...
Composites of Proton-Conducting Polymer Electrolyte Membrane in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells
Jan 01, 2007; ... Fuel cells are a replacement for the conventional energy resources. As early as 1839, William Grove discovered the basic operating principle of fuel cells by reversing water electrolysis to generate electricity from hydrogen and oxygen. A Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) operates on liquid fuel, ...
Formation, Dynamics, and Characterization of Nanostructures by Ion Beam Irradiation
Jan 01, 2007; ... Ion beam irradiation is a potential tool for phase formation and material modification as a non-equilibrium technique. Localized rise in temperature and ultra fast (~10^sup -12^ s) dissipations of impinging energy make it an attractive tool for metastable phase formation. As a matter of fact, a ...
The Electronic Properties of Nanomaterials Elucidated by Synchrotron Radiation-Based Spectroscopy
Oct 01, 2006; ... The use of synchrotron radiation-based spectroscopy to investigate electronic and bonding structures of nanostructured materials is reviewed with focuses on the X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), valence-band photoemission spectroscopy (VB-PES), and scanning photoelectron microscopy (SPEM) ...
Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticles for Abatement of Environmental Pollutants: Materials and Engineering Aspects
Oct 01, 2006; ... Zero-valent iron nanoparticle technology is becoming an increasingly popular choice for treatment of hazardous and toxic wastes, and for remediation of contaminated sites. In the U.S. alone, more than 20 projects have been completed since 2001. More are planned or ongoing in North America, ...
Focused, Nanoscale Electron-Beam-Induced Deposition and Etching
Jul 01, 2006; ... Focused electron-beam-induced (FEB-induced) deposition and etching are versatile, direct-write nanofabrication schemes that allow for selective deposition or removal of a variety of materials. Fundamentally, these processes are governed by an electron-induced reaction with a precursor vapor, ...
Growth of Quantum-Well Heterostructures by Liquid Phase Epitaxy
Jan 01, 2006; ... This work reviews the different techniques proposed and used to grow ultra-thin layers by Liquid Phase Epitaxy. Some of these approaches have allowed the production of quantum-well heterostructures for optoelectronic devices with performances comparable to devices made by Molecular Beam Epitaxy ...
Nanotips: Growth, Model, and Applications
Jan 01, 2006; ... The tip morphology in the nanoscale is discussed as a member of the one-dimensional nanostructure family. Different growth techniques used for the synthesis of the nanotips have been outlined and compared against each other including, etching, pyrolysis, physical, and chemical vapour deposition ....
Integrated Genetic Analysis Microsystems
Oct 01, 2005; ... The advent of integrated microsystems for genetic analysis allows the acquisition of information at unprecedented length and time scales. The convergence of molecular biology, chemistry, physics, and materials science is required for their design and construction. The utility of the microsystems ...
New Perspectives on the Structure of Graphitic Carbons
Oct 01, 2005; ... Graphitic forms of carbon are important in a wide variety of applications, ranging from pollution control to composite materials, yet the structure of these carbons at the molecular level is poorly understood. The discovery of fullerenes and fullerene-related structures such as carbon nanotubes ...
Biomaterials and Biotechnologies Based on Nanotube Membranes
Oct 01, 2005; ... In this review, we consider materials and systems based on nanotubes formed within the pores of synthetic nanoporous membranes. The topics considered are of potential interest in the fields of biomaterials or biotechnology. There are three general membrane-based strategies that have been used to ...
Thin Film Deposition Methods for CuInSe^sub 2^ Solar Cells
Jan 01, 2005; ... CuInSe^sub 2^ and its alloys with Ga and/or S are among the most promising absorber materials for thin film solar cells. CuInSe^sub 2^-based solar cells have shown long-term stability and the highest conversion efficiencies of all thin film solar cells, above 19%. Solar cells based on these ...
Molecular Information Technology
Jan 01, 2005; ... Molecular materials are endowed with unique properties of unrivaled potential for high density integration of computing systems. Present applications of molecules range from organic semiconductor materials for low-cost circuits to genetically modified proteins for commercial imaging equipment ....
Electrical Scanning Probe Microscopy: Investigating the Inner Workings of Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices
Jan 01, 2005; ... Semiconductor electronic and optoelectronic devices such as transistors, lasers, modulators, and detectors are critical to the contemporary computing and communications infrastructure. These devices have been optimized for efficiency in power consumption and speed of response. There are gaps in ...
Nanosize Semiconductors for Photooxidation
Jan 01, 2005; ... Nanosized semiconductors (semiconductor clusters) have the potential to revolutionize the fields of photooxidation and photocatalysis through the combined effects of quantum confinement and their unique surface morphologies. Photocatalytic oxidation as applied to environmental remediation (i.e., ...
Templated Grain Growth of Textured Piezoelectric Ceramics
Jan 01, 2004; ... ABSTRACT: Crystallographic texturing of polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics offers a means of achieving significant enhancements in the piezoelectric response. Templated grain growth (TGG) enables the fabrication of textured ceramics with single crystal-like properties, as well as single ...
Applications of "Dry" Processing in the Microelectronics Industry Using Carbon Dioxide
Jan 01, 2004; ... ABSTRACT: Condensed carbon dioxide (CO2) has emerged as a leading enabler of advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes. By exploiting the physical properties of CO2, some of the current challenges encountered in microelectronics processing related to shrinking feature sizes and materials ...
III-nitride quantum devices--microphotonics
Jul 01, 2003; ... ABSTRACT: Photonic devices based on III-nitrides offer benefits such as UV/blue emission, large band offsets of InN/GaN/AIN heterostructures allowing novel quantum well (QW) device design, and inherently high-emission efficiencies. Furthermore, due to their mechanical hardness and larger band ...