New Nanofilm Production

 


Professor Minoru Osada is from the Institute for Materials and Systems for Sustainability (IMaSS) at Nagoya University. He has discovered a way to create high-speed large area deposition of 2-D materials. These include oxides, graphene oxides and boron nitrate. 

Researchers have called the technique “ Spontaneous integrated transfer method.” It was uncovered by chance, but it will revolutionize nanosheet production. 

The discovery was recently published in the journal Small. 

Nanosheets are just a few atoms thick. They have a very high surface area related to their volume. Nanosheets exhibit extraordinary electronic, mechanical, optical and even chemical properties. Researchers believe they will revolutionize material science and modern electronics. 

Making nanosheets is typically done in two different ways. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and the Langmuir- Blodgett (LB) technique are typically used in fabrication. The biggest problems with these techniques are achieving uniform, large area deposition and issues with the substrate transfer process.  

Osaka’s team accidentally discovered something amazing. When nanosheets get wet, they align themselves on the surface of water. They form a film that is fairly dense in short time, approximately 15 seconds. The researchers called this process “spontaneous spreading phenomenon.” It is a more effective deposition method. 

Osada reports, “  The nanosheets spontaneously align and pack close together, much like ice flows coming together on the surface of water. This controlled alignment is essential for recreating uniform and high-quality nanosheet films. The resulting nanosheet film can then be easily transferred onto a substrate, completing the deposition process in as little as one minute.” 

This new method simplifies the creation process. It also opens the door to manufacturing thick films with 100 to 200 layers. Using conventional techniques like CVD or LB, this would be impossible. 

Researchers used atomic force microscopy and confocal laser microscopy to observe the film. They noted the nanofilms were highly uniform, with dense sheets, arranged like a jigsaw puzzle. 

Osada said, “The multilayer films fabricated by this technology exhibit excellent properties as functional thin films. They could be used in transparent, conductive films, dielectric films, photo catalytic films, and thermal shielding films.”

He summarizes, “ This technology is expected to become an important environmentally friendly Eco process because it enables film production on various substrates at room temperature, and in an aqueous solution process, without the need for vacuum film-  forming equipment or expensive tools.”

Making nanosheets in less than one minute is an exciting advancement for the nano world! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mike Giradi from Stereotimes commentary on Holostage Room Treatments

I have been  friends with Mike Giradi for a few years and he has helped me test numerous designs .    I was so honored a few weeks ago when he agreed to give these Holostages a few words.  From. Mike G. The sound was a little closed in at first, but then it really opened up to prove it is another great audio product. The noise floor is greatly reduced. I am hearing details I've never heard before. When it's in the recording, the soundstage widens in all directions. The timbre of each instrument is spot on. The six Holostages installed in my room aided in the C13 alignment of air molecules to a far greater extent than the Bybee IQSE devices I had previously been using. Every instrument had greater depth, pop and presence. Listening to classical music on movie soundtracks is incredible now. The Holostages installed on my BACCH4MAC and monoblocks was the answer to what was needed. The noise floor dropped significantly in both cases resulting in greater clarity and music...
Read more

Queen Bee 🐝

Image
  Bees hide an interesting secret. When the hive loses its queen, who alone is able to give life to the colony and maintain order in a perfectly organized society, all seems lost. The life of the hive slows down. Without new eggs, the future is lost. In a few weeks, the colony may be doomed. But the bees do not panic. Nor do they expect salvation from outside. Demonstrating extraordinary collective intelligence and profound instincts, they trigger spectacular emergency procedures, almost unimaginable in a world dominated by insects. --- ◆ The transformation begins with a simple but essential choice The worker bees choose common larvae - those who would normally be mere workers. They are nothing special. They are not born different. But their fate changes completely. They are chosen to receive a special food: royal jelly. A rare substance, produced by healthy bees, rich in proteins, vitamins and bioactive compounds. This is royal food in the purest sense of the word. The larvae fed ...
Read more

Novel Acoustic Wave Discovered

Image
  A new diffraction phenomenon was researched and published on January 14, 2025. The team was led by Tohoku University with collaboration from the Japan atomic energy agency and the RIKEN Center for emergent matter science. Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are elastic vibrations. They travel along the surface of materials, not unlike ripples on a pond. SAWs are an important part of frequency filters used in every day devices like our cell phones. These devices change electrical signals in vibrations, or ripples. This occurs because of the piezoelectric  effect and it enables efficient signal processing. During this experiment, the team created a periodic array of magnetic nanoscale materials. The magnetic array is a sort of specialized grating that the waves passed through. The scientists were surprised. Instead of the usual symmetric defraction, the team saw something different. They observed a completely new, asymmetrical diffraction of SAWs called ‘non-reciprocal defraction’....
Read more