Lead-free soldering for electronic industry is a segment of global trend toward lead-free environment. Although initiated in U.S. in early 1990’s, it advanced much more rapidly in Japan and Europe. This differentiation in Pb-free progress triggered great concerns of users of Pb-containing solders about maintaining business opportunity, therefore further expedites the advancement of Pb-free sold...

A twin system for hydrogen-isotope absorption experiments has been constructed to replicate the phenomenon of heat and He generation during D2 gas absorption in nano-sized Pd powders reported by Arata and Zhang, and to investigate the underlying physics. For PdZr oxide nano-powders, anomalously large energies of hydrogen isotope absorption, 2.4 0.2 eV/D-atom and 1.8 0.4 eV/H-atom, as well as...

The reaction pathways and kinetics for the selective deposition of palladium on copper from the metalorganic precursor Pd(hfac)2 have been established by means of reactive molecular beam-surface scattering where a flux of Pd(hfac)2 (ranging from 1013 to 1014 molecules cm-2 s-1) impinges continuously on the copper surface. The surface selectivity of the deposition process is a consequence of a “...

Engineering a bimetallic system with complementary chemical properties can be an effective way of tuning catalytic activity. In this work, CO oxidation on CeO2(111)supported Pd-based bimetallic nanorods was investigated using density functional theory calculations corrected by on-site Coulomb interactions. We studied a series of CeO2(111)supported Pd-based bimetallic nanorods (Pd−X, where X = A...

In this study, electronic structures of ground state of pure vanadium sub-nano clusters, Vn (n=2-5), and their interactions with small ligands for example CO and triplet O2 molecules are investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) calibration at the mPWPW91/QZVP level of theory. The favorable orientations of these ligands in interaction with pure vanadium sub-nano clusters were determ...

The microstructure of sputter deposited Ti-rich Ni-Ti thin films doped with Cu in the range 020.4 at.% and annealed for 1 h at 500 and 600°C has been investigated and correlated with the mechanical properties of the films measured by depth-sensing nanoindentation. X-ray diffraction analysis showed the microstructural evolution of Ni-Ti thin films when doped with Cu and annealed at different tem...

Fabricating highly efficient Pd-based nanocatalysts with a well-defined structure is desired for the commercialization of direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC). Herein, series hierarchical three-dimensional N-doped hollow graphene spheres (NHGS) supported dendritic PdCu alloy catalysts Pd$_{x}$Cu$_{(d)}$-NHGS (x: Cu/Pd theoretical molar ratio 4, 2, and 1) are assembled by one-pot ascorbic acid reduct...

Increasing use of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) is likely to result in release of these particles to the aquatic environment where the NPs may eventually accumulate in sediment. However, little is known about the potential ecotoxicity of sediment-associated engineered NPs. We here consider the case of metal oxide NPs using CuO to understand if the effects of NPs differ from micron-sized partic...

Increasing use of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) is likely to result in release of these particles to the aquatic environment where the NPs may eventually accumulate in sediment. However, little is known about the potential ecotoxicity of sediment-associated engineered NPs. We here consider the case of metal oxide NPs using CuO to understand if the effects of NPs differ from micron-sized partic...

This work deals with the development of a green and versatile synthesis of stable mono- and bi-metallic colloids by means of microwave heating and exploiting ecofriendly reagents: water as the solvent, glucose as a mild and non-toxic reducer and polyvinylpirrolidone (PVP) as the chelating agent. Particle size-control, total reaction yield and long-term stability of colloids were achieved with t...