In this article, small scale effects on free vibration analysis of non-uniform nanobeams is discussed. Small scale effects are modelled after Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity theory while the non-uniformity is presented by exponentially varying width among the beams length with constant thickness. Analytical solution is achieved for free vibration with different boundary conditions. It is shown th...

In this study, based on nonlocal differential constitutive relations of Eringen, the first order shear deformation theory of plates (FSDT) is reformulated for vibration of nano-plates considering the initial geometric imperfection. The dynamic analog of the von Kármán nonlinear strain-displacement relations is used to derive equations of motion for the nano-plate. When dealing with nonlineariti...

We demonstrated the effect of superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles on Schottky barriers of graphene, in which the Fe3O4 nanoparticles were fabricated by a hydrothermal method and the single-layer graphene sheets were mechanically exfoliated from Kish graphite. The Fe3O4 nanoparticles were superparamagnetic with the saturation magnetic moment of about 32 emu/g at room temperature. We have found...

Excellent dispersion of functionalized graphene (FG) sheets in polystyrene was achieved relying on the reaction of "living" poly(glycidyl phenyl ether) chains onto graphene sheets. The physical aging of polystyrene was substantially accelerated by the presence of FG sheets at low filler content, retaining film transparency and increasing the electrical conductivity.

We have developed a solvothermal reduction method that affords more effective reduction of chemically derived graphene sheets and graphite oxide than low-temperature reduction methods. Solvothermal reduction removed oxygen and defects from graphene sheets, increased the size of sp(2) domains, and produced materials that were as conducting as pristine graphene and exhibited clear intrinsic Dirac...

Processing and manipulation of highly conductive pristine graphene in large quantities are still major challenges in the practical application of graphene for electric device. In the present study, we report the liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite in toluene using well-defined poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) to produce a P3HT/graphene composite. We synthesize and use regioregular P3HT with contr...

Graphene is used as the thinnest possible spacer between gold nanoparticles and a gold substrate. This creates a robust, repeatable, and stable subnanometer gap for massive plasmonic field enhancements. White light spectroscopy of single 80 nm gold nanoparticles reveals plasmonic coupling between the particle and its image within the gold substrate. While for a single graphene layer, spectral d...

We investigate band gap tuning of bilayer graphene between hexagonal boron nitride sheets, by external electric fields. Using density functional theory, we show that the gap is continuously tunable from 0 to 0.2 eV and is robust to stacking disorder. Moreover, boron nitride sheets do not alter the fundamental response from that of free-standing bilayer graphene, apart from additional screening....

Thermal nitridation of reduced graphene oxide sheets yields highly conductive (∼1000-3000 S m(-1)) N-doped graphene sheets, as a result of the restoration of the graphene network by the formation of C-N bonded groups and N-doping. Even without carbon additives, supercapacitors made of the N-doped graphene electrodes can deliver remarkable energy and power when operated at higher voltages, in th...

We present a reactive empirical potential with environment-dependent bond strengths for the carbon-oxygen (CO) system. The distinct feature of the potential is the use of three adjustable parameters characterizing the bond: the strength, length, and force constant, rather than a single bond order parameter, as often employed in these types of potentials. The values of the parameters are calcula...