Our recent work on Al-Cu-Mg based alloys with Cu:Mg ratio close to unity showed that the rapid hardening at room temperature and the substantial heat evolution arise from the formation of Cu-Mg co-clusters. Here, it is shown that the measured enthalpy of formation of clusters (~0.3eV per Mg atom) is in reasonable agreement with expectations based on the similarity with Mg-vacancy clusters. The ...

Different proportions of oxide-rich PdCu/C nanoparticle catalysts were prepared by the NaBH4 reduction method, and their compositions were tuned by the molar ratios of the metal precursors. Among them, oxide-rich Pd0.9Cu0.1/C (Pd:Cu = 9:1, metal atomic ratio) exhibits the highest electrocatalytic activity for ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) in alkaline media. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (...

Nano-structured CuO-Cu2O complex thin film-based perovskite solar cells were fabricated on an indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass and studied. Copper (Cu) thin films with a purity of 99.995 % were deposited on an ITO-coated glass by magnetron reactive sputtering. To optimize the properties of the nano-structured CuO-Cu2O complex thin films, the deposited Cu thin films were thermally oxidized at...

The study was designed to determine the differential protein expression of Caco-2 cells treated with different forms of selenium including sodium selenite, selenomethionine (Se-Met), and selenium nanoparticles (nano-Se). Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) and mass spectrometry (MS) were used to identify the differentially expressed proteins. The results indicated that ...

A detailed study has been conducted to determine the contamination of Thohoyandou roadside soils, vegetation, sewage and river waters by Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, Cd, Fe, Pt and Pd. The study further investigated the correlation between these trace metals in roadside soils and vegetation in order to infer the potential impacts of roadside trace metals contamination of vegetation. Collected surface soil a...

Segregation phenomena of Ag–Cu–Au trimetallic clusters with icosahedral structure are investigated by using a Monte Carlo method based on the second-moment approximation of the tight-binding (TB-SMA) potentials. We predict that the Ag atoms segregate to the surface of the Ag–Cu–Au trimetallic icosahedral clusters. The Ag concentrations in the surface layer of the clusters are about 11–29 at.% h...

Small cationic Au(n)Cu(m)+ (n + m < or = 6) clusters and their monocarbonyls Au(n)Cu(m)CO+ have been studied by first-principles calculations. The trend for small Au clusters to form planar structures is weaker when some Au atoms are substituted by Cu atoms. A significant odd-even oscillation of the electron affinity of the cationic clusters with the number of their Au or Cu atoms is observed. ...

The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a critical in addressing climate change; however, it requires catalysts to be generated on an industrial scale. Nanomaterials offer several advantages over conventional HER catalysts, including the possibility of atomic precision tailoring intrinsic activity. Ligand-protected metal clusters, such as thiolate-protected MAu24(SR)18 (where M Au, Cu, Pd), ar...

Stainless steels are susceptible to the localized pitting corrosion that leads to a huge loss to our society. Studies in the past decades confirmed that the pitting events generally originate from the local dissolution in MnS inclusions which are more or less ubiquitous in stainless steels. Although a recent study indicated that endogenous MnCr2O4 nano-octahedra within the MnS medium give rise ...

ISSN 2250 – 1088 | © 2011 Bonfring Abstract--This paper presents a high-Q MWCNT (Multi Wall Carbon Nano-Tube) network based pulse-shaped on-chip embedded nano-inductor for power electronic circuits. This high-Q inductor is fabricated using a composite of MWCNT (multi Wall Carbon Nano Tube) network and Fe in semiconductor processing environment. A layer of nano composite film (Cu/CoFe2o4) is pat...