The present disclosure relates to a method of making an electrochemically active material, which comprises metal nanostructures encapsulated in LaF.sub.3 shells. The electrochemically active material may be included in an electrode of an F-shuttle battery that includes a liquid electrolyte, which, optionally, allows the F-shuttle batteries to operate at room temperature.

The present invention relates to a photoelectric film and a fabrication method thereof, and in particular, to a layered polycrystalline lead selenide (PbSe) film and a fabrication method thereof. The fabrication method mainly includes: (1) fabricating a dense PbSe layer on a substrate through chemical bath deposition (CBD); (2) fabricating a loose plumbonacrite (Pb.sub.10O(OH).sub.6(CO.sub.3).sub.6) layer on the dense PbSe layer through CBD; (3) placing a sample with the dense PbSe layer and the Pb.sub.10O(OH).sub.6(CO.sub.3).sub.6 layer in a selenium ion-containing solution to allow an ion exchange reaction to finally form the layered polycrystalline PbSe film. The fabrication method has the advantages of simple process, low cost, and high controllability. The PbSe film fabricated by the method is composed of a lower dense polycrystalline cubic PbSe layer and an upper loose polycrystalline cubic PbSe layer, which can be widely used in the fabrication of components in the field of photoelectric conversion or thermoelectric conversion, such as infrared (IR) sensors, solar cells, laser emitters, and thermoelectric converters.

A method of manufacturing transition metal chalcogenide thin films, includes the operations of forming a transition metal chalcogenides precursor on a substrate, and irradiating light onto the transition metal chalcogenides precursor. The transition metal chalcogenides precursor includes an amine-based ligand.

A method of applying a coating to a flow field plate of a fuel cell. The method includes applying a solution including a metal-containing precursor and a solvent to at least a portion of a surface of a flow field plate, and evaporating the solvent to form a coating on the at least the portion of the surface of the flow field plate.

Reagents and aqueous solutions thereof are described that are useful for aqueous processing to form thin films comprising metal oxides. A film, or layered film, may be incorporated into working devices where the thin film provides useful optical properties, electrical properties, or both.

Methods of forming porous nano-scale or micro-scale structured materials and structured materials formed thereby. Such methods entail providing a donor material and reacting the donor material to form a compound that deposits on a surface of a substrate to produce nano-scale or micro-scale geometric features of the structured material. In particular embodiments, the donor material is in a solution and the reacting step is performed by contacting the surface of the substrate with the solution and directing heat through the solution onto the surface to locally heat a portion of the solution in contact therewith.

Provided are a flexible organic-inorganic passivation film and a method of forming the same. The flexible organic-inorganic passivation film includes an organic-inorganic passivation film formed by alternately and repeatedly forming an organic film and an inorganic film on a substrate. The organic film is formed by stacking plasma-process generated material on a material layer thereunder. The plasma-process generated material is formed by plasma processing a hydrocarbon or a fluorocarbon.

A method may include ejecting, from a nozzle, a first printable ammonium-based chalcogenometalate fluid comprising a first dopant onto a substrate to form a layer of the first printable ammonium-based chalcogenometalate fluid; heating, at a first temperature, the layer of first printable ammonium-based chalcogenometalate fluid to dissipate the first printable ammonium-based chalcogenometalate fluid into a transition metal dichalcogenide having the form MX2 with the first dopant distributed therethrough; ejecting, from the nozzle, a second printable ammonium-based chalcogenometalate fluid comprising a second dopant onto the substrate to form a layer of the second printable ammonium-based chalcogenometalate fluid; and heating, at a second and higher temperature, the layers of first and second printable ammonium-based chalcogenometalate fluid.

Methods for forming sintered-bonded high temperature coatings over ceramic turbomachine components are provided, as are ceramic turbomachine components having such high temperature coatings formed thereover. In one embodiment, the method includes the step or process of removing a surface oxide layer from the ceramic component body of a turbomachine component to expose a treated surface of the ceramic component body. A first layer of coating precursor material, which has a solids content composed predominately of at least one rare earth silicate by weight percentage, is applied to the treated surface. The first layer of the coating precursor material is then heat treated to sinter the solids content and form a first sintered coating layer bonded to the treated surface. The steps of applying and sintering the coating precursor may be repeated, as desired, to build a sintered coating body to a desired thickness over the ceramic component body.

A material contains open pores in which the channels and pores that are internally coated with at least one layer of phosphorus-containing alumina. Such material is formed by infiltrating a porous material one or more times with a non-colloidal, low-viscosity liquid coating precursor, drying, and curing the coating precursor to form a phosphorus-containing alumina layer within pores of the material.