The present invention provides covered particles wherein insulating layers cover the surfaces of electroconductive particles, and the covered particles are excellent in the adhesion between the surfaces of the electroconductive particles and the insulating layers. The covered particles includes: electroconductive particles in which metal films are formed on the surfaces of core materials, and a triazole-based compound is disposed on the outer surfaces on the sides opposite to the core materials in the metal films; and insulating layers covering the electroconductive particles, and the insulating layers comprise a compound having phosphonium groups.

A carbon nanotube composite wire 2 includes: a carbon nanotube 6; and a sintered layer 8 attached to a surface of the carbon nanotube 6. The sintered layer 8 includes a large number of silver flakes 14. These silver flakes 14 are bonded to each other by sintering. Flat surfaces 16 of silver flakes 14 partly overlap, or are partly in contact with, flat surfaces 16 of other adjacent silver flakes 14. An electrically conductive network is formed by these silver flakes 14 being adjacent to each other.

A carbon nanotube composite wire 2 includes: a carbon nanotube 6; and a sintered layer 8 attached to a surface of the carbon nanotube 6. The sintered layer 8 includes a large number of silver flakes 14. These silver flakes 14 are bonded to each other by sintering. Flat surfaces 16 of silver flakes 14 partly overlap, or are partly in contact with, flat surfaces 16 of other adjacent silver flakes 14. An electrically conductive network is formed by these silver flakes 14 being adjacent to each other.

A low carbon footprint material is used to decrease the carbon dioxide emission for production of a high carbon footprint substance. A method of forming composite materials comprises providing a first high carbon footprint substance; providing a carbon nanomaterial produced with a carbon-footprint of less than 10 unit weight of carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) emission during production of 1 unit weight of the carbon nanomaterial; and forming a composite comprising the high carbon footprint substance and from 0.001 wt % to 25 wt % of the carbon nanomaterial, wherein the carbon nanomaterial is homogeneously dispersed in the composite to reduce the carbon dioxide emission for producing the composite material relative to the high carbon footprint substance.

Disclosed is a method for preparing a high-entropy alloy composites reinforced by diamond particles, belonging to the technical field of metal composites preparation. A vacuum coating preparation equipment equipped with an in-situ heating sample stage is used to perform a treatment of high-entropy alloy metallizing coating on the surface of diamond particles to generate modified diamond particles, where the alloy of the coating includes any four, five or six elements among seven elements of Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, W and Mo in an equal atomic proportion. The obtained coating generates carbide film in-situ with the surface layer of diamond particles, while the high-entropy alloy covers the carbide film, ensuring a strong bond with the diamond, and the high-entropy alloy composites reinforced by diamond particles are finally prepared.

In order to provide a specific solution for producing a microstructure equipped with a mechanism for selectively detecting a marker molecule expressed by a target cell, or a specific biomolecule, and for detecting and identifying a molecule to be detected using the microstructure, the present invention provides a nearly hemispherical shell-shaped structure made of a first conductive material, and an electrode layer made of a second conductive material disposed on the concave side of the nearly hemispherical shell-shaped structure, wherein the first conductive material includes a magnetic material and the second conductive material includes an electrode material, and the size (diameter) of the cavity surrounded by the electrode layer on the concave side of the nearly hemispherical shell-shaped structure is in the range of about 10 nm to about 50 μm.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for coating large area solid substrates such as flakes, powder, beads, and fibres with metal-based coatings by heating the substrate with a powder mixture including reducible metal oxides and a reducing agent. The method is particularly suited for production of substrates coated with metals, alloys and compounds based on Ti, Al, Zn, Sn, In, Sb, Ag, Co, V, Ni, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Pt, Pd, Ta, Zr, Nb, Rh, Ru, Mo, Os, Re and W.

A method of producing a magnetic powder includes performing heat treatment on first particles that contain ferrous oxide to prepare 5 second particles that contain ε-iron oxide.

A reactor for forming fully coated particles having a solid core, the reactor comprises a reactor vessel which is configured to receive particles, and a gas phase coating mechanism that is configured to selectively introduce pulses of gas phase materials that form a coating on the particles. The reactor also includes a sieve (16) that is located within the reactor vessel, and a forcing means that is configured to force the particles through the sieve (16) in use. The sieve is configured to deagglomerate any particle aggregates formed in the reactor vessel upon forcing of the particles by the forcing means through the sieve.

Some variations provide a system for producing a functionalized powder, comprising: an agitated pressure vessel; first particles and second particles contained within the agitated pressure vessel; a fluid contained within the agitated pressure vessel; an exhaust line for releasing the fluid from the agitated pressure vessel; and a means for recovering a functionalized powder containing the second particles disposed onto surfaces of the first particles. A preferred fluid is carbon dioxide in liquefied or supercritical form. The carbon dioxide may be initially loaded into the pressure vessel as solid carbon dioxide. The pressure vessel may be batch or continuous and is operated under reaction conditions to functionalize the first particles with the second particles, thereby producing a functionalized powder, such as nanofunctionalized metal particles in which nanoparticles act as grain refiners for a component ultimately produced from the nanofunctionalized metal particles. Methods for making the functionalized powder are also disclosed.