108 results about "Metal nanostructures" patented technology

Provided are a method of isolating and purifying metal nanowires from a crude and complex reaction mixture that includes relatively high aspect ratio nanostructures as well as nanostructures of low aspect ratio shapes, and conductive films made of the purified nanostructures.

A conductive nanowire film based on a high aspect-ratio metal is disclosed. The nanowire film is produced by inducing metal reduction in a concentrated surfactant solution containing metal precursor ions, a surfactant and a reducing agent. The metal nanostructures demonstrate utility in a great variety of applications.

An energy-efficient transparent solar film is presented. The solar film has a first film layer with metal nanostructures. The metal nanostructures have plasmon resonances in wavelength bands greater than, or both less than and greater than visible wavelengths, depending on size and shape. The metal nanostructures have no plasmon resonance at visible wavelengths. In another aspect, metal oxide nanocrystals are formed with the first film layer. The metal oxide nanocrystals have absorption in a band of wavelengths less than visible wavelengths, and absorption in a band of wavelengths greater than visible wavelengths. Also provided is a solar film window and fabricating method.

The invention relates to a sensor based on Fano resonance characteristics of a dielectric nanostructure. The sensor consists of a transparent substrate to light waves of a working wavelength range and asymmetrical dielectric nano bar pair arrays which are uniformly arranged on the transparent substrate. According to the low loss characteristics of dielectric materials and Fano resonance characteristics of the asymmetrical nano bar pair arrays, high Q-value resonance is generated. Meanwhile, an opening is introduced into a dielectric resonance unit, so that interaction between an electromagnetic field in a Fano resonance mode and ambient environment medium is effectively enhanced, and the sensitivity and quality factor of the sensor are improved. According to the sensor designed by the invention, the quality factor far exceeds that of a similar sensor based on the Fano resonance characteristics of a metal nanostructure, and the sensor disclosed by the invention has significant application prospects in the aspects of chemical and biological sensing, hazardous gas and pollutant monitoring.

In some implementations, a cathode is formed by (1) providing a cathode additive including (a) a matrix including a lithium compound, and (b) metal nanostructures embedded in the matrix; and (2) combining the cathode additive with a cathode active material to form a mixture. In other implementations, a cathode is formed by (1) providing a cathode additive including a compound of lithium and at least one non-metal or metalloid; and (2) combining the cathode additive with a cathode active material to form a mixture.

Disclosed is a trace detection device of a biological and chemical analyte, including a metal substrate, a periodic metal nanostructure on the metallic substrate, a dielectric layer on the periodic metal nanostructure, and a continuous metal film on the dielectric layer. Tuning the thickness of the dielectric layer and / or the continuous metal film to meet the laser wavelength can shift the absorption peak wavelength of the sensor, thereby further enhancing the Raman signals of the analyte molecules.

Embodiment of the present invention relate to dendrimers useful for application as catalysts, in particular as improved electrocatalysts for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEM-FCs). Methods of preparing such catalysts are described. Examples include dendritic nanostructured metal catalysts, such as platinum and platinum-alloy catalysts.

Metal nanostructures formed by photocatalytic interfacial synthesis using a porphyrin-stabilized emulsion template and the method for making the nanostructures. Catalyst-seeded emulsion droplets are employed as templates for hollow-nanoshell growth. The hollow metal nanospheres may be formed with or without inclusions of other materials.

A method of making metal nanostructures having a nanometer size in at least one dimension includes preparing an aqueous solution comprising a cation of a first metal and an anion, and mixing commercial elemental powder particles of an elemental second metal having a greater reduction potential than the first metal with the aqueous solution in an amount that reacts and dissolves all of the second metal and precipitates the first metal as metal nanostructures. The temperature and concentration of the aqueous solution and the selection of the anions and the second metal are chosen to produce metal nanostructures of a desired shape, for example ribbons, wires, flowers, rods, spheres, hollow spheres, scrolls, tubes, sheets, hexagonal sheets, rice, cones, dendrites, or particles.

The present invention provides a method of forming metal nanostructures, and, more particularly, a method of uniformly forming various shapes of nanostructures, such as cubic or octahedral nanoparticles, nanowires and the like, using ionic liquid in a polyol reduction reaction in which metal salts are used as precursors.

The present invention relates to a production method for a nano-scale metal structure, and more specifically to a method for uniformly producing metal nanostructures of various forms such as cubic and octahedral and wires, by using an ionic liquid in a polyol reduction reaction using a metallic salt as a precursor.

Certain embodiments of the invention are directed to a water splitting photo electrochemical (PEC) thin film comprising metal nanostructures positioned between a CdxZn1−xS semiconductor and a ZnO semiconductor to form a Z-scheme for total water splitting.

The invention discloses a graphene-silicon heterojunction photoelectric detection chip and a preparation method thereof. The detection chip includes a silicon substrate, a frame-shaped SiO2 insulatinglayer on the boundary around the silicon substrate, an interface passivation layer on the silicon substrate, a graphene layer on the interface passivation layer, and a metal nanostructure layer on the graphene layer. By introducing the metal nanostructure to the chip structure, on one hand, the light absorption efficiency of the graphene-silicon heterojunction can be significantly improved and the light responsivity and linear light response range of devices can be improved through the localized surface plasmon resonance characteristic of the metal nanostructure. On the other hand, through the ultrafast photoelectric conversion process of the metal nanostructure under light excitation, the spectral response rate and frequency characteristic of the chip can be significantly improved. In addition, by making use of different spectrum resonance characteristics of metal nanoparticles of different materials and sizes, the specific spectrum enhancement characteristic of the detection chip can be significantly improved.

The invention discloses a refractive index sensor based on a metal nanostructure and single-layer TMDs composite system and a method. According to the invention, a composite structure formed by clinging a metal nanostructure and a single-layer transition metal sulfide is adopted, and a local surface plasmon polariton refractive index sensor which can be almost independently controlled is realizedin a visible light waveband; local surface plasmon of a metal nanostructure and excitons of a TMDs two-dimensional material are fused, and the advantages of the local surface plasmon and the excitonsare combined, so that the extremely good sensing performance is achieved, and the index requirements of a novel sensor can be met; the scattering spectrum is enhanced, so that the effect of enhancingthe signal-to-noise ratio is achieved; and when the external environment changes, the spectral line width is narrowed relative to a single metal nanostructure, and rich structural information is extracted, so that high-sensitivity sensing is realized; the size of the device can be reduced, and the sensor has potential application in a highly integrated local surface plasmon sensor. The refractiveindex sensor has the advantages of simple structure, small volume, high signal-to-noise ratio, high sensitivity and quick response.

Provided herein are nanostructure networks having high energy storage, electrochemically active electrode materials including nanostructure networks having high energy storage, as well as electrodes and batteries including the nanostructure networks having high energy storage. According to various implementations, the nanostructure networks have high energy density as well as long cycle life. In some implementations, the nanostructure networks include a conductive network embedded with electrochemically active material. In some implementations, silicon is used as the electrochemically active material. The conductive network may be a metal network such as a copper nanostructure network. Methods of manufacturing the nanostructure networks and electrodes are provided. In some implementations, metal nanostructures can be synthesized in a solution that contains silicon powder to make a composite network structure that contains both. The metal nanostructure growth can nucleate in solution and on silicon nanostructure surfaces.

A method of synthesizing tungsten carbide nanorods, the method comprising: mixing tungsten oxide (WO3) nanorods with a carbon source to obtain precursors; and calcining the precursors to obtain tungsten carbide nanorods, without use of any catalyst. A catalyst of metal nanostructures supported on tungsten carbide nanorods.

Disclosed are a method of fabricating a binary alloy nanostructure by using metal oxides, metal substances or metal halides of metal elements used to form a binary alloy and / or binary alloy substances as a precursor through a vapor phase synthesis method and a binary alloy nanostructure fabricated by the same. More particularly, the present invention provides a method of fabricating a binary alloy nanowire or nanobelt which comprises placing a precursor on the front part of a reaction furnace and a substrate on the rear part of the furnace, and heat treating both of them under inert gas atmosphere to produce the nanowire or nanobelt and, in addition, a binary alloy nanowire or nanobelt fabricated by the method according to the present invention.

The optical device has a substrate having a dielectric body on a surface, a metal fine structure formed of a plurality of metal nanostructures formed on the dielectric body, and an organic molecular film formed on the dielectric body between the plurality of metal nanostructures, and adapted to capture target molecule. The plurality of metal nanostructures each has a diameter in a planar view of 1 through 500 nm, and has a distance between the metal nanostructures adjacent to each other of no smaller than 0.1 nm and smaller than 10 nm. The plurality of metal nanostructures has the distance between the metal nanostructures adjacent to each other at a second height position H2 from the surface of the dielectric body larger than a first distance between the metal nanostructures adjacent to each other at a first height position H1 (H2>H1) from the surface of the dielectric body.

The present invention provides an AC plasma display device using metal nanostructures, including: a front panel and a rear panel which are disposed in parallel to each other and at least one of which is provided with electrodes for gas discharge; an electrode layer, a front dielectric layer and a protective film which are sequentially formed on a side of the front panel which faces the rear panel; a phosphor layer which is formed on the rear panel and which is excited and simultaneously radiated by gas discharge occurring in the electrodes; and metal nanostructures included in the protective film and the phosphor layer, and provides a method of manufacturing the same. The AC plasma display device can improve a secondary electron emission coefficient and photoluminescent intensity using surface plasmon excitation because it is provided with a protective film including metal nanostructures.

The present invention discloses a plasmon enhancement based electron emitting device and method with light enhancement / modulation. The device includes: a package structure, a power source and a light source, wherein the package structure has a cathode and an anode; a through hole is formed in the anode, the cathode is disposed on a conductive substrate, and the cathode is a field-emission cathode constituted by a cathode substrate and metal nanostructures attached to a surface of the cathode substrate; the power source forms an electric field between the cathode and the anode; and the light source emits laser light incident on the metal nanostructures of the cathode through the through hole of the anode. In the light enhancement / modulation electron emission device of the present invention, the incident light emitted by the light source causes enhancement of the electron emission of the field-emission cathode which is formed by combination of field-emission material of the cathode substrate and the metal nanostructures, so that the electron emission efficiency is increased. Meanwhile, by changing the intensity, wavelength and polarization of the incident laser, a local field of the surface of the field-emission material is adjusted, and light modulating electron emission is achieved.

The present invention relates to methods for self-assembly of arbitrarily-shaped metal nanostructures using specifically-designed patterns on nucleic acid scaffolds. The methods involve using the nucleic acid scaffolds as templates on which a second material patterned, as seed nuclei. The patterns are then selectively plated with metal using an electro-less plating process to create arbitrarily-shaped metal nanostructures that are not constrained by the structure of the scaffold. The methods herein use controlled-growth processes to actively select the dimensions, positions, and alignments of the patterns to create different arbitrary shapes of metal nanostructures.

Inorganic oxides, particularly silica or germania or inorganic oxides containing silica and / or germania, are imprinted with one or a plurality of functional moieties such as amine and / or thiol groups by a process featuring incorporating such groups into the oxide by use of a thermally labile material containing a protecting group for the amine or thiol, followed by removal of the thermally labile moiety by thermolysis. The resulting products are inorganic oxide substrates or bulk inorganic oxides imprinted with the functional moieties. A plurality of such moieties may be imprinted on a substrate in an order fashion using a polymeric imprinting compound, and may then be used as a templated array of functional moieties to which ordered metallic nanostructures may be constructed.

A method of making metal nanostructures having a nanometer size in at least one dimension includes preparing an aqueous solution comprising a cation of a first metal and an anion, and mixing commercial elemental powder particles of an elemental second metal having a greater reduction potential than the first metal with the aqueous solution in an amount that reacts and dissolves all of the second metal and precipitates the first metal as metal nanostructures. The temperature and concentration of the aqueous solution and the selection of the anions and the second metal are chosen to produce metal nanostructures of a desired shape, for example ribbons, wires, flowers, rods, spheres, hollow spheres, scrolls, tubes, sheets, hexagonal sheets, rice, cones, dendrites, or particles.

A simple one pot sol-gel method for the synthesis of bi-metal nanostructures is based on non-noble metals (Fe, Co and Sn) and titanium. The method involves the synthesis of mixed metal nanoscale composites using low cost precursors which allow for the synthesis of desired nanocomposite materials with self-scarifying titanium or silica supports. The procedure does not require any surfactant or any need for pH controlled step. Applicants' method involves the in-situ generation of precursors and their simultaneous entrapment in a gel. This simple one pot synthesis allows for the synthesis of homogenous size, shape and distribution of targeted nanostructures. Further, this method can be applied for the preparation of various nanocomposite materials using different choices of metals and self-scarifying supports. Applicants also show that Pd, the noble metal based nanocomposite is feasible.

Solution-processed Ni nanochain-SiOx (x<2) and Ni nanochain-SiO2 selective solar thermal absorbers that exhibit a strong anti-oxidation behavior up to 600 degrees centigrade in air. The thermal stability is far superior to Ni nanoparticle-Al2O3 selective solar thermal absorbers. The SiOx (x<2) and SiO2 matrices are derived from hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) precursors, respectively. We find that both the excess Si and the stoichiometric SiO2 matrix contribute to antioxidation behavior. Methods of making the selective solar thermal absorbers are described. A system, and method of manufacture of the system, for spectrally selective radiation absorption includes a matrix that includes metal nanostructures, each metal nanostructure having spectrally selective radiation absorption properties, such that the matrix reflects a majority of light incident thereupon for wavelengths greater than a cutoff wavelength and absorbs a majority of light incident thereupon for wavelengths smaller than the cutoff wavelength.