General, room-temperature method for the synthesis of isolated as well as arrays of single-crystalline ABO4-type nanorods

Single-crystalline BaWO(4) and BaCrO(4) nanorods of reproducible shape and of varying sizes have been controllably prepared using a simple, room-temperature approach, based on the use of porous alumina template membranes. Aligned BaWO(4) and BaCrO(4) nanorod arrays can be obtained by dissolving the template. Our facile technique, which is analogous to biomineralization, offers a promising and generalized methodology to prepare other types of free-standing ABO(4) nanorods and their corresponding nanorod arrays. Extensive characterization of these samples has been performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), Raman spectroscopy, FT-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD).     

NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF A 5-LAYER BEAM-LIKE PIEZOELECTRIC TRANSFORMER NEAR RESONANCE

The paper examines the weakly nonlinear behavior of a 5-layer beam-like piezo- electric transformer operating near resonance, where the main structure of the device consists of properly poled and electroded flexible piezoceramic four-layers separated by a central metallic layer. Nonlinear effects of the large deflection to induce the incidental implane extension near res- onance are considered, which is shown that on one side of the resonant frequency the output-input relation becomes nonlinear, and the other side output voltage experiences jumps.     

CONSTITUTIVE MODELING OF ROLLED SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY SHEETS TAKING INTO ACCOUNT PRE-TEXTURE AND ANISOTROPIC HARDENING

The drawing or rolling process endows polycrystal shape memory alloy with a crys- tallographic texture, which can result in macroscopic anisotropy. The main purpose of this work is to develop a constitutive model to predict the thermomechanical behavior of shape memory alloy sheets, which accounts for the crystallographic texture. The total macroscopic strain is decom- posed into elastic strain and macro-transformation strain under isothermal condition. Considering the transformation strain in local grains and the orientation distribution function of crystallo- graphic texture, the macro-transformation strain and the effective elastic modulus of textured polycrystal shape memory alloy are developed by using tensor expressions. The kinetic equation is established to calculate the volume fraction of the martensite transformation under given stress. Furthermore, the Hill＇s quadratic model is developed for anisotropic transformation hardening of textured SMA sheets. All the calculation results are in good agreement with experimental data, which show that the present model can accurately describe the macro-anisotropic behaviors of textured shape memory alloy sheets.     

Large-scale synthesis of single-crystalline perovskite nanostructures

Single-crystalline perovskite nanostructures with reproducible shape have been prepared using a simple, readily scaleable solid-state reaction in the presence of NaCl and a nonionic surfactant. Pristine BaTiO3 nanowires have diameters ranging from 50 to 80 nm with an aspect ratio larger than 25. Single-crystalline SrTiO3 nanocubes with a mean edge length of 80 nm have been produced using a similar procedure.     

Size- and shape-dependent transformation of nanosized titanate into analogous anatase titania nanostructures

A size- and shape-dependent morphological transformation was demonstrated during the hydrothermal soft chemical transformation, in neutral solution, of titanate nanostructures into their anatase titania counterparts. Specifically, lepidocrocite hydrogen titanate nanotubes with diameters of approximately 10 nm were transformed into anatase nanoparticles with an average size of 12 nm. Lepidocrocite hydrogen titanate nanowires with relatively small diameters (average diameter range of < or = 200 nm) were converted into single-crystalline anatase nanowires with relatively smooth surfaces. Larger diameter (>200 nm) titanate wires were transformed into analogous anatase submicron wire motifs, resembling clusters of adjoining anatase nanocrystals with perfectly parallel, oriented fringes. Our results indicate that as-synthesized TiO2 nanostructures possessed higher photocatalytic activity than the commercial titania precursors from whence they were derived.