Liquid crystal polymers with semiflexible polymer backbone exhibit crystalline order despite of some defects in crystal packing. Isothermal heat treatment of the polymers below and above their liquid crystalline temperatures is expected to provide the necessary energy and time for the molecular chains to overcome the defects in crystal packing and to be arranged in a more perfect crystal lattic...

Cdo.5Mno.5S diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) quantum dots (QDs) of crystallite size ranging from 24 A to the bulk have been chemically synthesized using an aqueous solution precipitation method and thermal annealing. Subsequent characterization indicates that the "as prepared" material is of the cubic zinc blende structure which evolves with increasing size to the bulk hexagonal wurtzite st...

Commercial purity aluminium at true strains 3 = 2∼ 5.5 was annealed in a wide temperature range (from room temperature to 220◦C), and the evolution of microstructure was characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) techniques. Triple junctions in an ultrafine lamellar structure are classified into three categories based on the structur...

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a semi–crystalline polymer that can be crystallized to different degrees heating from the amorphous state. Even when primary crystallization has been completed, secondary crystallization can take place with further annealing and modify the characteristics of the amorphous interlamellar phase. In this work we study the glass transition of highly crystallized...

Si nanowires grown by the vapour-liquid-solid technique acquired fundamental relevance in the design of innovative nanostructured devices for electronic and optoelectronic applications. Au clusters deposited on Si are widely used as catalysts of the Si nanowires growth. It has been recognized that the starting Au nanoclusters size distribution strongly influences the final distribution of the S...

Magnesium alloys are promising candidates for biodegradable medical implants which reduce the necessity of second surgery to remove the implants. Yttrium in solid solution is an attractive alloying element because it improves mechanical properties and exhibits suitable corrosion properties. Silver was shown to have an antibacterial effect and can also enhance the mechanical properties of magnes...

The transformation of vapor-deposited ultrastable glasses of indomethacin (IMC) into the supercooled liquid state near T(g) is monitored by means of dielectric spectroscopy. Films with thickness between 400 and 800 nm are deposited on differential interdigitated electrode cells and their loss profiles are measured during isothermal annealing using a dual-channel impedance technique for frequenc...

Zn particulates overlaid with wurtzite (W)-type ZnO condensates having nearly orthogonal {101̄1} and {112̄1} facets were found to self-catalyze unusual tapered W-ZnO whiskers upon isothermal atmospheric annealing, i.e., thermal oxidation, at 600 °C. Analytical electron microscopic observations indicated that such whiskers formed tapered slabs having mosaic {101̄1} and {21̄1̄1} twinned domains. The t...

The magnetic properties of hematite powders produced by a solid state nucleation-and-growth process are studied as a function of temperature T and applied field H. Independently of the temperature, there exists a soft magnetic contribution that is assigned to the canting of spins at the superficial shell of each particle and is not affected by the Morin transition. At 220 < T < TM a magnetic co...

The properties of the Y1Ba2Cu3O72x biepitaxial Josephson junctions were reproducibly modified by a focused electron beam irradiation of the interface region. The junctions were fabricated by depositing Y1Ba2Cu3O72x thin film by cylindrical magnetron sputtering technique on the ~110! SrTiO3 substrate, partially covered by a pregrown MgO seed layer. The junction parameters can be adjusted control...