The present paper investigates the effect of adding silica nanoparticles to an anhydride-cured epoxy polymer in bulk and when used as the matrix of carbonand glass-fibre reinforced composites. The formation of ‘hybrid’ epoxy polymers, containing both silica nanoparticles and carboxyl-terminated butadiene-acrylonitrile (CTBN) rubber microparticles, is also discussed. The structure/property relat...

A new hybrid methodology that fully integrates the processing capabilities of the twin screw extrusion process (conveying solids, melting, dispersive and distributive mixing, pressurization, temperature profiling, devolatilization) with electrospinning is described. The hybrid process is especially suited to the dispersion of nanoparticles into polymeric binders and the generation of nanopartic...

We describe the synthesis, characterisation and surface-modification of magnetic nanoparticles and a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel, followed by the assembly and characterisation of magnetic nanoparticles on the microgel. To facilitate this deposition, the surface of the microgel is first modified via the layer-by-layer assembly of polyelectrolytes. One advantage of this concept is that i...

Three new aliphatic thiol surfactants were synthesized by reacting alkyl bromide with hexamethyldisilathiane under a mild condition. This approach provides an easy access for the direct synthesis of various different length thiol surfactants which play a crucial role in tuning the properties of gold nanoparticles. Gold nanoparticles encapsulated with one of our synthetic thiols were prepared an...

Metal oxide (MO) nanoparticles have been studied as nano-antibiotics due to their antimicrobial activities even in antibiotic-resistant microorganisms. We hypothesized that a hybrid system of dual UV irradiation and MO nanoparticles would have enhanced antimicrobial activities compared with UV or MO nanoparticles alone. In this study, nanoparticles of ZnO, ZnTiO3, MgO, and CuO were selected as ...

We demonstrated a simple, in situ reduction route to the synthesis of two-dimensional graphene oxide/SiO(2) (GSCN) hybrid nanostructures consisting of Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) supported on the both sides of GSCN. The as-prepared GSCN/Au NPs hybrid nanomaterials exhibited good catalytic activity for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol. This approach provided a useful platform based on GO hybrid nano...

We propose a novel type of hybrid metal-dielectric structures composed of silicon nanoparticles and split-ring resonators for advanced control of optically induced magnetic response. We reveal that a hybrid "metamolecule" may exhibit a strong distance-dependent magnetic interaction that may flip the magnetization orientation and support "antiferromagnetic" ordering in a hybrid metamaterial crea...

A hierarchical N-doped carbon nanotube-graphene hybrid nanostructure (NCNT-GHN), in which the graphene layers are distributed inside the CNT inner cavities, was designed to effi ciently support noble metal (e.g., PtRu) nanoparticles. Well-dispersed PtRu nanoparticles with diameters of 2–4 nm were immobilized onto these NCNT-GHN supports by a low-temperature chemical reduction method without any...

The interaction strength of Au nanoparticles with pristine and nitrogen doped TiO2 nanowire surfaces was analysed using density functional theory and their significance in enhancing the solar driven photoelectrocatalytic properties was elucidated. In this article, we prepared 4-dimethylaminopyridine capped Au nanoparticle decorated TiO2 nanowire systems. The density functional theory calculatio...