In this study, in order to achieve effective coating of the homogeneous titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin film, UV irradiation pre-treatment was carried out to activate PC surfaces before coating. Sol-gel-based nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films were prepared by employing tetrabutyl-titanate as a precursor. Nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films were deposited by sol-gel spin coating on the treated substrates...

Mn-Co-Ni-O (MCN) spinel oxide material, a very important transition metal oxide (TMO) with the best application prospects in information and energy fields, was discovered over five decades ago, but its applications have been impeded by the quality of its films due to the magnitude of deposition challenge. Here we report that high quality of MCN nanofilms can be achieved by sputtering deposition...

In this paper, we report a specific application of a semiconductor thin films based sensor array for the discrimination of different olive oils. The active elements of the sensor array were undoped and Ni, Pd, Pt, Os-doped SnO thin films prepared by 2 sol–gel technique. Olive oil samples were randomly selected. They included commercial olive oils of different qualities (extravirgin, virgin and ...

Time-resolved ellipsometric measurements were made upon Au, Cu, Ag, Ni, Pd, Ti, Zr, and Hf thin films. Using an elliptically polarized pump beam, the decay of the optically induced polarization of the sample was observed. Characteristic relaxation times are extracted and interpreted in terms of scattering of linear and angular momentum of hot electrons. A systematic variation is observed betwee...

RF sputtered SnO2 thin films (90 nm thick) loaded with clusters of nanoscale (8 nm) metal catalysts (Pt, Ag, Ni, Pb, Al, Pd) are investigated for LPG detection. SnO2 film loaded with Pt catalyst clusters exhibits enhanced response (~ 7.5×10) to 200 ppm of LPG at a relatively low operating temperature (185C) with a fast response time of 100s. Variation of thickness of Pt clusters in the nanoscal...

We report the results of several experiments isolating the effect of long-range order on mechanical properties of intermetallic compounds. Kinetically disordered FCC Ni3Al (Ni 76%) thin films were produced by rapid solidification following pulsed laser melting. For comparison, compositionally and microstructurally identical films with ordered L12 structure were produced by subsequent annealing ...

Norman A. Fleck W. I. Milne University of Cambridge Department of Engineering Cambridge, CB2 1PZ United Kingdom Abstract. The in-plane motion of microelectrothermal actuator (‘‘heatuator’’) has been analyzed for Si-based and metallic devices. It was found that the lateral deflection of a heatuator made of a Ni metal is about ;60% larger than that of a Si-based actuator under the same power cons...

Self-healing materials are able to partially or completely reverse the damage inflicted on them. The possibility of self-healing mechanical and chemical failures that occur during service will improve the lifetime and reliability of structural materials. For this purpose, two main steps must be considered: (i) detection, and (ii) repairing (healing) of cracks. The exothermic character of reacti...