A castable, moldable, or extrudable magnesium-based alloy that includes one or more insoluble additives. The insoluble additives can be used to enhance the mechanical properties of the structure, such as ductility and/or tensile strength. The final structure can be enhanced by heat treatment, as well as deformation processing such as extrusion, forging, or rolling, to further improve the strength of the final structure as compared to the non-enhanced structure. The magnesium-based composite has improved thermal and mechanical properties by the modification of grain boundary properties through the addition of insoluble nanoparticles to the magnesium alloys. The magnesium-based composite can have a thermal conductivity that is greater than 180 W/m-K, and/or ductility exceeding 15-20% elongation to failure.

Virus multilayers can be used as templates for growth of inorganic nanomaterials. For example, layer-by-layer construction of virus multilayers on functionalized surfaces form nanoporous structures onto which metal particles or metal oxide nanoparticles can be nucleated to result in an interconnected network of nanowires.

The invention includes apparatus and methods for instantiating precious metals in a nanoporous carbon powder.

A method for preparing copper nanocubes with specific facets and uniform size, the method comprising combining a copper complex solution in a reaction mixture with a ligand. Using a ligand of pure, unoxidized tributylphosphine, uniform copper nanocubes with six facets are prepared.

Method of manufacturing a transparent electrically conductive substrate having an application process whereby a wet layer is formed by applying onto a substrate film a coating liquid comprising metallic nanowires dispersed in a solvent, and a drying process whereby the solvent contained in the abovementioned wet layer is removed by drying, characterised in that the abovementioned drying process includes a process whereby the orientation of the abovementioned metallic nanowires is altered by introducing a forced draft facing towards the substrate from a direction that is different from the longitudinal direction of the substrate film.

A method for making a plurality of metallic nanowires includes combining a metallic precursor with a solvent to form a metallic precursor solution. A quantity of oxalic acid is added to the metallic precursor solution to form a reduction solution. A plurality of nanowires are precipitated out from the reduction solution.

A process for manufacturing silver nanowires is provided, wherein the recovered silver nanowires have a high aspect ratio; and, wherein the total glycol concentration is <0.001 wt % at all times during the process.

A method for producing metal nanowires having improved uniformity in length distribution and having a small abundance ratio of short nanowire comprises making metal nanowires to flow accompanied by a flow of a liquid medium in a tubular flow path having, on a wall of the flow path, a porous ceramic filter having an average pore diameter by the mercury intrusion method of 1.0 mm or more. A part of the flowing metal nanowires is discharged to an outside of the tubular flow path through the porous ceramic filter along with a part of the liquid medium and the metal nanowires that flow in the flow path but are not discharged to the outside of the tubular flow path are recovered.

A method of making a transparent conductive material includes: preparing a reactive solution that contains a solvent, a metal salt which is dissolved in the solvent, and a powder of graphene oxide which is dispersed in the solvent; and simultaneously reducing metal ions of the metal salt and the graphene oxide in the reactive solution to form a plurality of core-shell nanowires, each of which includes a core of a metal reduced from the metal ions, and a shell of graphene surrounding the core.

A variety of nanostructures are provided having a metal nanowire having a plurality of faces extending along a length of the nanowire, and a plurality of semiconductor nanorods forming two or more nanorod arrays, wherein each of the nanorod arrays is attached to a different surface of the nanowire. For example, in some embodiments, the nanostructure is a silver nanowire having a pentagonal cross section and five faces extending along the length of the nanowire, and metal oxide nanorods forming five nanorod arrays extending along each of the five faces of the silver nanowire. The nanostructures can demonstrate high temperature coefficients of resistance, and can be used in a variety of bolometric materials. In some embodiments, bolometric materials are provided including a plurality of the nanostructures deposited onto a surface of a substrate. Methods of making the nanostructures and bolometers are also provided.