We report the formation and characterization of boron nitride atomic chains. The chains were made from hexagonal boron nitride sheets using the electron beam inside a transmission electron microscope. We find that the stability and lifetime of the chains are significantly improved when they are supported by another boron nitride layer. With the help of first-principles calculations, we prove th...

sReceived 16 September 2004; accepted 2 December 2004; published online 25 January 2005d We report on a method to locally remove material from carbon and boron nitride nanotubes using the low-energy focused electron beam of a scanning electron microscope. Using this method, clean precise cuts can be made into nanotubes, either part-way through screating hingelike geometriesd or fully through sc...

In order to meet the ever-increasing demand for high-strength, lightweight aerospace structures, a new material is created via combination of three prior innovations: sandwich configurations, composites, and the addition of carbon nanotubes. A theoretical sandwich panel is created using facesheets of a novel woven microfibre composite reinforced by carbon nanotube forests, as created by Vinod P...

The effect of uni-axial strain on the electronic properties of (8,0) zigzag and (5,5) armchair boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) is addressed by density functional theory calculation. The stress-strain profiles indicate that these two BNNTS of differing types display very similar mechanical properties, but there are variations in HOMO-LUMO gaps at different strains, indicating that the electronic ...

The microstructure and interfacial fracture energy of silicon nitride/boron nitride fibrous monoliths, GBN, were determined as a function of starting silicon nitride composition and temperature using the method described by Charalambides. The glassy phase created by the sintering aids added to the silicon nitride cells was shown to migrate into the boron nitride cell boundaries during hot-press...

This paper investigates some mechanical and rheological properties of low density polyethylene (LDPE) composites reinforced by multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). It was found that the Young’s modulus and tensile strength of the composites can increase by 89% and 56%, respectively, when the nanotube loading reaches 10 wt%. The curving and coiling of MWNTs play an important role in the enhanc...

Various techniques including plasma-arc, laser ablation, and chemical vapor-phase synthesis have been employed to Ž . produce bulk amounts of non-carbon such as boron nitride, BN nanotubes with some success, but in general the yields are low. We describe a new high-yield plasma-arc method that easily and reliably produces macroscopic amounts of pure BN nanotubes. Interestingly, the method produ...

In this study, a technique has been proposed for developing constitutive models for polymer composite systems reinforced with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT). Since the polymer molecules are on the same size scale as the nanotubes, the interaction at the polymer/nanotube interface is highly dependent on the local molecular structure and bonding. At these small length scales, the lattice s...

A series of observations of polymer sheathing in multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)−polycarbonate composites are presented. This sheathing was observed in images of the composite fracture surface and is consistent with diameter distributions of the as-received and embedded MWCNTs. A novel nanomanipulation experiment, where the sheathing balls up when contacted by an AFM tip, confirms this phen...