Individual triangular/hexagonal nanoplates, chain-like nanoplate assemblies, and nanobelts in the case of silver were selectively synthesized using N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) in the presence of poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The molar ratio of AgNO3/PVP, concentration of AgNO3, temperature, and process time were crucial factors in determining the morphologies of the final products. Based on the experimental results, it was concluded that the products were favorable to form individual nanoplates because of the strong interaction between PVP and Ag+, and the outline of the nanoplates was controlled by the ratio of AgNO3 and PVP. The formation of novel chain-like nanoplate assemblies could be explained by the secondary growth of the nanocrystals. If the reaction continuously lasted for another 7 h, the chain-like assemblies could transform into nanobelts with width of 40∼100 nm and the length of several micrometers.

In this paper, the responses in the microregion of three ferroic-type materials, such as ferroelectric single crystals (PMN-PT and BaTiO3), ferromagnetic alloy (Fe81Ga19), and ferroelastic alloy (Ni53Mn24Ga23), to local stress induced by Vickers indentations were studied using scanning electron-acoustic microscopy (SEAM), a powerful technique for nondestructive investigation of the microstructure of materials. The responses of ferroelectric domains, magnetic domains, and ferroelastic domains to local stress were successfully observed. These responses possess three major features including the plastic deformation underneath the indenter, the extension of microcracks induced by indentation, and the formation of new lamellar domains within the matrix domain structure. In addition, by using the unique ability of SEAM to image layer by layer, the distributions of residual stress at different depths were obtained. The generation mechanisms of the electron acoustic signals of ferroelectric domains, magnetic domains, and ferroelastic domains are discussed.

The indentation stress is the key and fundamental parameter in indentation delamination tests, which are widely used in characterization of the interfacial fracture toughness (or adhesion) between a thin film and its substrate. The indentation stress was analyzed in the present work by using the finite element method for microwedge indenters of different wedge angles and with various other geometrical and mechanical parameters including the penetration depth, film thickness, delamination size, Young's modulus, and yield strength of the indented film. The analysis exhibited the stress field under an indentation load and the stress field after unloading caused by plastic deformation, which resulted in the loading indentation stress and the unloading indentation stress, respectively, expressed by empirical formula in terms of the indenter geometry, the indentation depth, and the film thickness and mechanical properties. The energy release rate was also calculated for the indentation-induced interfacial crack.

Nanoparticles with a gold shell and iron core have unique optical and magnetic properties that can be utilized for simultaneous detection and treatment strategies. Several nanoparticles have been synthesized and show an ability to mediate a variety of potential applications in biomedicine, including cancer molecular optical and magnetic resonance imaging, controlled drug delivery, and photothermal ablation therapy. However, to be effective, these nanoparticles must be delivered efficiently into their targets. In this review, we will provide an updated summary of the gold-shelled magnetic nanoparticles that have been synthesized, methods for characterization, and their potential for cancer diagnosis and treatment. We will also discuss the biological barriers that need to be overcome for the effective delivery of these nanoparticles. The desired nanoparticle characteristics needed to evade these biological barriers, such as size, shape, surface charge, and surface coating are also explained.

High temperature plasma nitriding of yttria-partially-stabilized zirconia in atmospheric pressure microwave plasma was investigated. The morphological, mechanical, and physicochemical characteristics of the resulting nitrided layer were characterized by different methods, such as optical and scanning electron microscopy, microindentation, x-ray diffraction, narrow resonant nuclear reaction profiling, secondary neutral mass spectrometry, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, aiming at investigating the applicability of this highly efficient process for nitriding of ceramics. The structure of the plasma nitrided layer was found to be complex, composed of tetragonal and cubic zirconia, as well as zirconium nitride and oxynitride. The growth rate of the nitrided layer, 4 µm/min, is much higher than that obtained by any other previous nitriding process, whereas a typical 50% increase in Vickers hardness over that of yttria-partially-stabilized zirconia was observed.

Polymers have been extensively utilized in the design of nanometer-sized delivery vehicles of chemotherapeutics for clinical cancer therapy. Polymeric nanoparticulate delivery vehicles, with chemotherapeutics being either conjugated or encapsulated, have been developed into a variety of different architectures, including polymer-drug conjugates with linear or branched polymers, micelles, and polymersomes. This review describes the progress that has been made in the field of polymeric nanomedicine that brings the science closer to clinical realization of nanopolymeric therapeutics for its application in cancer treatment.

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images of annealed ZnO thin films showed the domain boundaries of a (0) plane with a transition zone and a (1) plane without a transition zone. The 30° in-plane rotation domain boundaries were formed in the ZnO thin films because the angle of the c-axis was tilted 3.5° in comparison with that of neighboring 30° in-plane rotation domains to reduce the misfit strain energy. The atomic arrangement variations of 30° in-plane rotation domain boundaries in ZnO thin films grown on Si substrates due to thermal annealing are described.

Despite recent progress in the treatment of cancer, far too many cases are still diagnosed only after tumors have metastasized. As a result, patients with cancer face a grim prognosis and often need to endure toxic and uncomfortable whole-body chemotherapy and/or other radiation treatments with the hope that their cancers will be eliminated. If the disease can be detected early enough, statistics have shown that the burden of cancer is drastically reduced. Nanotechnology applied to cancer, by way of nanofunctional materials, is in a unique position to significantly transform the way the disease is diagnosed, imaged, and treated and is the focus of this issue of MRS Bulletin. Materials research in nanotechnology is already successfully implemented in several applications. For instance, photocatalysis using TiO2 nanoparticles is becoming the dominant method for the “self-cleaning” of material surfaces such as glass, ceramics, and fabrics. The nanomaterial carbon nanotubes is a promising candidate in sensor technology and field-emission technology. Our goal is to illustrate the promising new methods being developed in the research community and the challenges that need to be overcome in order to reach clinical utility. More importantly, we hope this issue helps educate and invoke the materials science community to tackle some of the hard issues in diagnosing and treating this disease.

The current study shows that there is a preferred orientation relationship between Ag3Sn and Ag in reaction between molten Sn and Ag. Due to the preferred orientation relationship, the morphology of Ag3Sn grains formed on (001) Ag single crystal is different from those formed on (011), (358) single crystal Ag, and polycrystalline Ag Facet scallop-type Ag3Sn grains formed irregularly on (011), (358) single crystal Ag, and polycrystalline Ag; whereas the regular Ag3Sn grains with parallel edges grew on (001) Ag single crystal, and they were elongated along two perpendicular directions. The orientation relationship between Ag3Sn grains and (001) Ag single crystal was determined using electron backscattered diffraction. The preferential growth of regular Ag3Sn grains with parallel edges formed on (001) Ag single crystal can be attributed to their minimum misfit.

In recent years, a new branch of nanoscience/nanotechnology seems to be emerging. This branch is characterized by the application of preparation methods and/or the diagnostic tools developed in nanoscience/nanotechnology in order to perform either new, decisive experiments or to open the way to novel applications in areas of science that were originally not related to nanoscience/nanotechnology, such as cancer research or quantum physics. In order to highlight the diversity of this new branch, we shall discuss the following four areas in which methods of nanoscience/nanotechnology are applied to other areas of science: (1) cancer therapy, (2) cellular labeling, (3) the synthesis of solid materials with tunable atomic structures, and (4) the new opportunities provided by nanoscience/nanotechnology to probe the limits of quantum physics, one of the classical problems of physics.

We have observed ferromagnetism in dilute cobalt-doped SnO2 nanowires at room temperatures. The Co-doped SnO2 nanowires with an average diameter of ∼50 nm were synthesized by the thermal chemical vapor transport method. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analyses demonstrate that the nanowires are single-crystal structures and Co is homogeneously doped into the SnO2 lattice. The ferromagnetic hysteresis curves and temperature-dependent magnetization measurement provide evidence for ferromagnetic properties with a Curie temperature above room temperature. Oxygen annealing has been performed to study the roles played by the oxygen vacancies in determining the ferromagnetic properties of the nanowires.

In this work, the influence of SiO2 additions in leucite ceramics on the bulk linear thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) especially during the phase transition, has been studied. Thermal expansion and x-ray diffraction measurements at high temperatures were carried out to characterize the tetragonal-cubic phase transition. TEC for reference and SiO2-added leucite samples exhibited similar behavior as a function of temperature. Before and after the phase transition, the TEC values were similar to those observed in non-SiO2-added samples, whereas during the phase transition, a maximum TEC value was observed and it tends to decrease as the SiO2 addition increases. This behavior could be caused by the formation of an intermediate phase with an extremely high TEC (70 × 10–6 °C−1) during the phase transformation. Furthermore, the results suggest that as the intermediate phase is partially suppressed via SiO2 addition, the cubic phase can be partially stabilized at temperatures as low as 200 °C.

Recently, there is a growing interest in two-dimensional (2D) plane indentation as an imprinting method for creating nanostructures. There is also a strong interest in using 2D flat-ended, wedge, and cylindrical indenters for characterizing mechanical properties of materials. In either case the knowledge of load versus displacement of the indenter is important. However, there has been some confusion about the load–displacement relationships for 2D indentation in the literature. Concerning this confusion on the relationship between the indentation load and the indentation depth for 2D elastic indentations, the symmetric indentation of an elastic half-space is studied. Parameters are introduced in determining the semianalytical relation between the indentation load and the indentation depth for flat-ended indenters and in determining the dependence of the indentation depth on the contact size for non-flat-ended indenters. The indentation load is proportional to the indentation depth for the indentation by flat-ended indenters and is a parabolic function of the indentation depth to the first order of approximation for non-flat-ended indenters including the wedge and cylindrical indenters.

Fully dense HfC and TaC-based composites containing 15 vol% TaSi2 or MoSi2 were produced by hot pressing at 1750–1900 °C. TaSi2 enhanced the sinterability of the composites and nearly fully dense materials were obtained at lower temperatures than in the case of MoSi2-containing ones. The TaC-based composites performed better than HfC composites at room temperature, showing values of mechanical strength up to 900 MPa and a fracture toughness of 4.7 MPa·m1/2. However, preliminary oxidation tests carried out in air at 1600 °C revealed that HfC-based composites have a superior high temperature stability compared to TaC-based materials.