A 'top down' synthesis of carbon and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nano-scrolls has been developed using the shear forces within dynamic thin films of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) generated on a rapidly rotating spinning disc processor (SDP), along with a theoretical understanding of the formation of the scrolls.

A novel high flux bright light-driven high temperature spinning disc processor operating at ∼720 °C can effectively synthesise carbon nanofibres from fructose, a natural feedstock, in polyethylene glycol-200, within minutes and with multiple reactor passes being a pivotal operating parameter in controlling the growth of the fibres.

We consider the alignment torque between a spinning black hole and an accretion disc whose angular momenta are misaligned. This situation must hold initially in almost all gas accretion events on to supermassive black holes, and may occur in binaries where the black hole receives a natal supernova kick. We show that the torque always acts to align the hole’s spin with the total angular momentum...

We investigate the effect of a disc-driven jet on the accretion growth of cosmological supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The presence of a jet enhances the mass growth rate because for a given luminosity, the mass accretion rate, Ṁa, is higher (or equivalently, the radiative efficiency ǫr is lower for a fixed Ṁa) than that predicted by standard accretion disc theory. As jets carry away very lit...

We model the overall shape of an accretion disc in a semi-detached binary system in which mass is transfered on to a spinning black hole the spin axis of which is misaligned with the orbital rotation axis. We assume the disc is in a steady state. Its outer regions are subject to differential precession caused by tidal torques of the companion star. These tend to align the outer parts of the dis...

We study the two-dimensional structure of thin transonic accretion discs in the vicinity of a non-spinning black hole within the framework of hydrodynamical version of the Grad-Shafranov equation. Our analysis focuses on the region inside the marginally stable orbit (MSO), r < rms. We show that all components of the dynamical force in the disc become significant near the sonic surface and (espe...