This disclosure relates to basic inorganic compositions. Methods of providing antifungal/antibacterial resistance and/or hydrophobicity and/or corrosion resistance by coating surfaces with the basic inorganic compositions are provided. In another aspect, a silicate composition comprising at least one alkali earth metal; and a Group IV element of silicon, germanium, tin, or lead having at least one hydrocarbon moiety covalently bonded thereto is provided.

An ultra dense and ultra low power microhotplates using silica aerogel and method of making the same, comprising creating a sol-gel by impregnation of ethanol with functional colloidal alcogel particles is described. The technique further comprises forming tiny aerogel particles on the wafer and networking the particles together just by exposure to air during spin coating. The novelty of this technique is not limited to the processing of thin film and thick film silica aerogel.

A method is disclosed of forming core-shell iron oxide-polymer nanofiber composites. The method includes synthesizing composite nanofibers of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with embedded hematite (α-Fe.sub.2O.sub.3) nanoparticles via a single-pot electrospinning synthesis; and generating a core-shell nanofiber composite through a subsequent hydrothermal growth of α-Fe.sub.2O.sub.3 nanostructures on the composite nanofibers of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with the embedded hematite (α-Fe.sub.2O.sub.3) nanoparticles.

The disclosure relates to bipolar plates used in fuel cells and to methods for forming bipolar plates. A bipolar plate of a fuel cell with a composite corrosion-resistant, gastight, conductive coating comprises a core of a required shape, a first layer having high contact conductivity on the core, and a second layer having corrosion resistance, high gas-tightness, electric conductivity on the first layer and in pores of the first layer, the second layer covering at least the pores in the first layer. The first layer is preferably formed by a magnetron sputtering method, and the second layer is preferably formed by a method of thermolysis of a metalorganic compound. This ensures high gas-tightness and elasticity of a bipolar plate without compromising its corrosion resistance and contact conductivity.

The present invention relates to a composition comprising; components a. c. and d; and optional component b. wherein, component a. is a metal compound having the structure (I), optional component b., is a polyol additive, having structure (VI), component c. is a high performance polymer additive, and component d. is a solvent. The present invention further relates to using this compositions in methods for manufacturing electronic devices through either the formation of a patterned films of high K material comprised of a metal oxide on a semiconductor substrate, or through the formation of patterned metal oxide comprised layer overlaying a semiconductor substrate which may be used to selectively etch the semiconductor substrate with a fluorine plasma. ##STR00001##

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.

This disclosure relates to a composition for catalyst-free electroless plating and a method for catalyst-free electroless plating using the same. More particularly, this disclosure relates to a composition for catalyst-free electroless plating and a method for catalyst-free electroless plating using the same that does not require a catalyst such as an expensive noble metal catalyst and may simplify the process.

Aspects described herein generally relate to a sol-gel that is the reaction product of an organosilane, a metal alkoxide, an acid, and chromium (III) salt and/or a lanthanide salt having a solubility of about 1 gram or greater per gram of sol-gel at 23 C. The lanthanide salt includes a cation and a ligand. The cation can be lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium, cobalt, calcium, strontium, barium, and zirconium. A ligand can be a nitrate, a trifluoromethane sulfonate, a sulfate, a phosphate, a hydroxide, or hydrate forms thereof. The chromium (III) salt includes a cation and a ligand. The cation is chromium (III) and the ligand can be a nitrate, a trifluoromethane sulfonate, a sulfate, a phosphate, a hydroxide, or hydrate forms thereof.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relates generally to methods of providing biomimetic superhydrophobic coatings to substrates, and more specifically to providing biomimetic inorganic silica or silane-based coatings that enable tunable hierarchical surface structures with high coating-to-substrate adhesion, resistance to various mechanical abradents, durability, shelf stability, and enhanced non-wettability or water-repellency.

Described herein are methods for coating a substrate with a photocatalytic compound, and photocatalytic elements prepared by these methods.