A method for preparing a niobium, titanium or vanadium metal oxide nanostructured material is provided. The method comprises providing an aqueous reagent comprising (i) a soluble metal oxalate, and/or (ii) oxalic acid and a metal oxide precursor, adding a buffering agent to the aqueous reagent to form a mixture, and heating the mixture under hydrothermal conditions to obtain the metal oxide nanostructured material. The metal oxide nanostructured material may also be doped with a dopant metal such as titanium to enhance capacity and cycling stability. An electrode comprising the metal oxide nanostructured material, and an electrochemical cell containing the electrode are also provided.

Described embodiments include a graphene membrane film for solvent purification and related method, and a solvent purification system using same. The graphene membrane film for solvent purification is formed having a plurality of stacked graphene plate-shaped flakes, and at least one pair of the plurality of stacked graphene plate-shaped flakes comprises a physical bond or a chemical bond connecting layers. The graphene membrane film for solvent purification is produced by preparing a graphene oxide dispersion liquid by dispersing graphene oxide in distilled water; confining the graphene oxide dispersion liquid between a pair of substrates; and applying heat and pressure to the graphene oxide dispersion liquid between the substrates to perform a hydrothermal reaction to concurrently thermally reduce the graphene oxide and bind graphenes. Due to lipophilic surface property and fine pores, size exclusion separation and hydrophilic-lipophilic component separation through polarity may be realized, and thus is usable in fine chemistry fields.

A process for treatment of nanoparticles of mineral filler for obtaining 5 processed nanoparticles for use in polymerization in the presence of nanopartciles which includes the steps of (a) drying a mineral filler with an inert gas for remove catalyst poisons; (b) mixing the mineral filler dried obtained in step (a) with a swelling agent in a liquid state or near a critical state or in the supercritical state; (c) subjecting the swelling agent of the 10 mixture obtained in step (b) to an endoenthalpic or isoentalphic phase change by altering the conditions of the temperature and/or pressure; (d) subjecting the nanoparticles of the mixture obtained in step (c) to contact of scavenging agent to react with catalyst poisons; then the mixture obtained in step (d) can be dried in a step (e) with an inert gas to remove sub-products 15 from scavenging agent and catalyst poisons to obtain the treated nanoparticles.

The present invention relates to the field of nanotechnology, more specifically to the production of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from plant extracts derived from leaves, stems, seeds, flowers, fruits or latex from plant species such as Colliguaja salicifolia, Pittosporum Undulatum, Acca sellowiana, Ugni molinae and Colliguaja integerrima, in which naturally occurring biocatalysts are possessed by these plants. The invention also relates to the gold nanoparticles obtained from said plants as well as to said natural biocatalysts.

An iron-based oxide magnetic particle powder has a narrow particle size distribution a small content of fine particles that do not contribute to magnetic recording characteristics, and a narrow coercive force distribution, to enhance magnetic recording medium density. Neutralizing an aqueous solution containing a trivalent iron ion and an ion of the metal substituting a part of the Fe sites by adding an alkali to make pH of 1.5 or more and 2.5 or less, adding a hydroxycarboxylic acid, and further neutralizing by adding an alkali to make pH of 8.0 or more and 9.0 or less are performed at 5° C. or more and 25° C. or less. A formed iron oxyhydroxide precipitate containing the substituting metal element is rinsed with water, then coated with silicon oxide, and then heated thereby providing e-type iron-based oxide magnetic particle powder. The rinsed precipitate may be subjected to a hydrothermal treatment.

An iron-based oxide magnetic particle powder has a narrow particle size distribution a small content of fine particles that do not contribute to magnetic recording characteristics, and a narrow coercive force distribution, to enhance magnetic recording medium density. Neutralizing an aqueous solution containing a trivalent iron ion and an ion of the metal substituting a part of the Fe sites by adding an alkali to make pH of 1.5 or more and 2.5 or less, adding a hydroxycarboxylic acid, and further neutralizing by adding an alkali to make pH of 8.0 or more and 9.0 or less are performed at 5° C. or more and 25° C. or less. A formed iron oxyhydroxide precipitate containing the substituting metal element is rinsed with water, then coated with silicon oxide, and then heated thereby providing e-type iron-based oxide magnetic particle powder. The rinsed precipitate may be subjected to a hydrothermal treatment.

The present invention relates to a method for producing carbon nanostructures using a fluidized bed reactor. According to the method, some of the as-produced carbon nanostructures remain uncollected and are used as fluidic materials to improve the fluidity in the reactor. The method enables the production of carbon nanostructures in a continuous process. In addition, the fluidity of the catalyst and the fluidic materials in the reactor is optimized, making the production of carbon nanostructures efficient.

A magnetic-disk substrate has a pair of main surfaces and arithmetic average roughnesses Ra of the main surfaces are each 0.11 nm or less. Also, in surface unevenness of the main surfaces, an average area of regions occupied by a plurality of protrusions having a height of 0.1 [nm] or more from an average plane of the surface unevenness is 25 [nm.sup.2/protrusion] or less. The arithmetic average roughness Ra and the surface unevenness are measured using an atomic force microscope with a probe having a probe tip provided with a carbon nanofiber rod-shaped member.

A method for homogenizing the height of a plurality of wires from the plurality of wires erected on a face of a substrate, the method including a first step of coating the face of the substrate including the plurality of wires with a first film, the first film embedding the plurality of wires over a first height; a second step of coating the first film with a second film, the second film embedding at least one part of the plurality of wires over a second height; a step of removing the second film, the part of the wires of the plurality of wires embedded in the second film being removed at the same time as the second film, a mechanical stress between the first film and the second film being exerted during the removal step.

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus comprising a deforming unit configured to deform a pattern surface by applying a force to a mold, a measuring unit configured to measure a deformation amount of the pattern surface, a control unit configured to control the measuring unit to measure the deformation amount in each of a plurality of states in which a plurality of the forces are applied to the mold, a calculation unit configured to calculate a rate of change in the deformation amount as a function of a change in the force applied to the mold, and a calibration unit configured to calibrate a control profile describing a time in the imprint process, and the force applied to the mold, based on the rate of change in the deformation amount.