There is provided a method of forming a porous particle comprising an electrically conductive continuous shell encapsulating a core, said core comprising an elemental compound that reversibly reduces in the presence of a cation and oxidizes in the absence of said cation, said method comprising the steps of: a) encapsulating an elemental compound precursor with said electrically conductive shell; b) reacting said elemental compound precursor with an oxidation agent to oxidise said elemental compound precursor to form said elemental compound, thereby forming said electrically conductive shell encapsulating said core comprising said elemental compound.

An optical member includes a base material and a film on the base material, the film includes hollow particles that have prickle-like protrusions on their surface, the heights of the protrusions are 3 nm or more and 20 nm or less, the proportion of the prickle-like protrusions is 3% or more and 30% or less of the particle surface, and the film includes 50 percent by volume or more and 68 percent by volume or less of hollow particles. Consequently, an antireflection film having a low refractive index and a low level of scattering in combination is provided.

Three-dimensional (3D) hollow nanosphere electrocatalysts that convert CO.sub.2 into formate with high current density and Faradaic efficiency (FE). The SnO.sub.2 nanospheres were constructed from small, interconnected SnO.sub.2 nanocrystals. The size of the constituent SnO.sub.2 nanocrystals was controlled between 2-10 nm by varying the calcination temperature and observed a clear correlation between nanocrystal size and formate production. In situ Raman and time-dependent X-ray diffraction measurements confirmed that SnO.sub.2 nanocrystals were reduced to metallic Sn and resisted microparticle agglomeration during CO.sub.2 reduction. The nanosphere catalysts outperformed comparably sized, non-structured SnO.sub.2 nanoparticles and commercially-available SnO.sub.2 with a heterogeneous size distribution.

A reflective material comprising a multilayered array of particles encapsulated by a matrix material, the reflective material defining a primary surface, the reflective material exhibiting: (i) visible retroreflection of incident radiation, wherein a wavelength of visible retroreflected radiation decreases from a first visible wavelength at a first angle to the primary surface to a second, shorter wavelength of visible retroreflected radiation as the viewing angle to the primary surface increases; and (ii) Bragg diffraction of the incident radiation, wherein the wavelength of radiation Bragg diffracted normal to the primary surface is longer than the wavelength of visible radiation, such that no visible radiation is retroreflected or Bragg diffracted in a direction normal to the primary surface.

A hollow nano-particle includes a shell layer containing a block copolymer having a hydrophobic organic chain and a polyamine chain, and silica. A hollow silica nano-particle has a porosity of 20% by volume or more and 70% by volume or less, and a thickness of a shell layer containing silica of 3 nm or more and 100 nm or less. A production method for the hollow nano-particle includes: a step of dropping an aqueous solvent while stirring an organic solvent in which a block copolymer having a hydrophobic organic chain and a polyamine chain is dissolved, to obtain a dispersion liquid of vesicles containing the block copolymer; and a step of adding a silica source to the dispersion liquid of vesicles, carrying out a sol-gel reaction of the silica source using the vesicle as a template, and precipitating silica to obtain the hollow nano-particle.

Methods for producing porous graphic carbon microspheres having improved separation properties over conventional porous graphitic carbons. The methods include dispersing a monovinyl aromatic monomer, a polyvinyl aromatic monomer, and an initiator in a solvent, contacting porous silica microspheres with the monomer dispersion for a time sufficient for the monomers to coat the porous silica microspheres, polymerizing the monomers to form copolymer coated microspheres, sulfonating the copolymer, pyrolyzing the sulfonated copolymer, digesting the carbon microspheres to dissolve the silica leaving porous carbon microspheres, pyrolyzing the porous carbon microspheres, and graphitizing the porous carbon microspheres to form porous graphitic carbon microspheres. Further provided are improved porous graphitic carbon microspheres and chromatography columns including the improved porous graphitic carbon microspheres described herein.

The present technology relates to nanomaterials and methods of their use, and more specifically to methods and structures using nanomaterials to fiducially measure radiation dosing.

Provided is a positive electrode active material that has high output characteristics and battery capacity when used for a positive electrode of a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery and can inhibit gelation of positive electrode mixture paste. A method for producing the positive electrode active material is also provided. A positive electrode active material for a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery contains a lithium-nickel-cobalt-manganese composite oxide represented by General Formula (1): Li.sub.i+sNi.sub.xCo.sub.yMn.sub.zB.sub.tM1.sub.uO.sub.2+β and having a hexagonal layered crystal structure. The lithium-nickel-cobalt-manganese composite oxide contains a secondary particle formed of a plurality of flocculated primary particles and a boron compound containing lithium present at least on part of surfaces of the primary particles. A water-soluble Li amount present on the surfaces of the primary particles is up to 0.1% by mass relative to the entire amount of the positive electrode active material.

The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a graphene nanosphere through a single process that is simplified in order to enable mass production. The method includes step 1 of manufacturing a silicon carbide nanosphere coated with graphene through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using a gas containing a silicon source and a carbon source and step 2 of discontinuing the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and then performing cooling.

A nanocarbon material includes agglomerate nanostructures made of aggregates of: (i) graphene nanostructures having at least partially crumpled morphology, and (ii) clusters of at least one carbon material. The carbon material may have a graphitic structure. At least a portion of the graphitic structure may be at least partially hollow and have at least one winged protrusion. Optionally, the nanocarbon material may be part of a composition that includes a dispersion medium or a cementitious material. Methods of making such a composition are also disclosed.