Browsing by Subject "conductance"

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    Electronic and atomic processes in nanowires
    (1996) Mehrez, Hatem
    The variation of conductance of a nanowire which is pulled between two metal electrodes has been the subject of dispute. Recent experimental set-ups using a combination of STM and AFM show that changes in conductivity are closely related with modification of atomic structure. In this thesis electron transport in the nanoindentation and in the connective neck are studied and features of measured conductance are analyzed. Molecular Dynamics simulations of nanowires under tensile stress are carried out to reveal the mechanical properties in nanowires in the course of stretching. A novel type of plcistic deformation, which leads to the formation of bundles with “giant” yield strength is found. An extensive analysis on how abrupt changes in the conductance and the last plateau before the break are related with “quantization phenomena” and atomic structure rearrangements in the neck. By using ab-initio self-consistent field pseudopotential calculations we also investigated electron properties of nanowires and atomic chains and predicted the large yield strength observed in the center of connective neck.
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    The formation and characterization of cyclodextrin functionalized polystyrene nanofibers produced by electrospinning
    (2009) Uyar, Tamer; Havelund, R.; Hacaloglu J.; Zhou X.; Besenbacher F.; Kingshott P.
    Polystyrene (PS) nanofibers containing the inclusion complex forming beta-cyclodextrin (β-CD) were successfully produced by electrospinning aimed at developing functional fibrous nanowebs. By optimization of the electrospinning parameters, which included varying the relative concentration of PS and β-CD in the solutions, bead-free fibers were produced. Homogeneous solutions of β-CD and PS in dimethylformamide (DMF) were used with concentrations of PS varying from 10% to 25% (w/v, with respect to DMF), and β-CD concentrations of 1% to 50% (w/w, with respect to PS). The presence of β-CD facilitated the production of bead-free PS fibers even from lower polymer concentrations as a result of the higher conductivity of the PS/CD solutions. The morphology and the production of bead-free PS/CD fibers were highly dependent on the β-CD contents. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) images showed that incorporation of β-CD yielded PS fibers with rougher surfaces. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and direct insertion probe pyrolysis mass spectroscopy (DP-MS) results confirmed the presence of β-CD in the PS fibers. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra of the fibers indicated that the β-CD molecules are distributed within the PS matrix without any phase separated crystalline aggregates up to 40% (w/w) β-CD loading. Furthermore, chemical analyses by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies confirm that β-CD molecules are located within the PS fiber matrix. Finally, preliminary investigations using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight static secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-static-SIMS) show the presence of the cyclodextrin molecules in the outer molecular layers of the fiber surfaces. The XPS and ToF-SIMS findings indicate that cyclodextrin functionalized PS webs would have the potential to be used as molecular filters and/or nanofilters for the purposes of filtration/purification/separation owing to surface associated β-CD molecules which have inclusion complexation capability. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.
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    Silicon and carbon based nanowires
    (2004) Tongay, Sefaattin
    Nanowires have been an active field of study since last decade. The reduced dimensionality end size allowing electrons can propagate only in one direction has led to quantization which are rather different from the bulk structure. As a result, nanowires having cross section in the range of Broglie wavelength have shown stepwise electrical and thermal conductance, giant Young modulus, stepwise variation of the cross-section etc. Moreover, the atomic structure of nanowires have exhibited interesting regularities which are not known in two or three dimensions. These novel properties of nanowires have been actively explored since last decade in order to find an application in the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology. In the present thesis, we investigated the atomic and electronic structure of a variety of Si and C atom based very thin nanowires starting from linear chain including pentagonal, hexagonal and tubular structures. We found that the C and Si linear chains form double bonds and have high binding energy. Although bulk carbon in diamond structure is an insulator, carbon linear chain is metal and has twice conductance of the gold chain. We carried out an extensive analysis of stability and conductance of the other wires. Our study reveals that Si and C based nanowires generally show metallic properties in spite of the fact that they are insulator or semiconductor when they are in bulk crystal structure. Metallicity occurs due to change in the character and order of bonds.