To provide a silver-coated graphite mixed powder including: silver-coated graphite particles each including a graphite particle and silver coated on a surface of the graphite particle, where when a solution obtained by dissolving the silver-coated graphite mixed powder in nitric acid is analyzed through inductively coupled plasma (ICP) emission spectrometry, an amount of silver is 5% by mass or more but 90% by mass or less, an amount of tin is 0.01% by mass or more but 5% by mass or less, and an amount of zinc is 0.002% by mass or more but 1% by mass or less.

Disclosed are a ferroelectric zirconium aluminum oxide (ZAO) compound, a method of preparing the same, a ferroelectric thin film transistor including the same and a method of manufacturing the ferroelectric thin film transistor. The ferroelectric zirconium aluminum oxide (ZAO) compound of the present disclosure is characterized by including zirconium and aluminum.

Some embodiments include a method of producing metal diboride nanomaterials having thickness down to the atomic scale and lateral areas from 10 nm to over 1 m by preparing a mixture of a metal diboride and a suspending solution. The suspending solution can be an organic solvent or a solution containing water, and optionally can include a dispersion agent, such as a surfactant, a polymer, small molecule, or biopolymer. Further, the method includes exfoliating the metal diboride by exposing the mixture to ultrasonic energy, centrifuging the mixture forming supernatant that includes a dispersion of exfoliated metal diborides, and extracting the dispersion from the supernatant. Some embodiments include extracting the supernatant and casting the solution by diluting the dispersion with a second suspending solution that includes dissolved polymer. This can result in a composite film includes a dispersion of the exfoliated metal diborides and provides improved mechanical properties.

Articles, compositions, and methods involving ionically conductive compounds are provided. In some embodiments, the ionically conductive compounds are useful for electrochemical cells. The disclosed ionically conductive compounds may be incorporated into an electrochemical cell (e.g., a lithium-sulfur electrochemical cell, a lithium-ion electrochemical cell, an intercalated-cathode based electrochemical cell) as, for example, a protective layer for an electrode, a solid electrolyte layer, and/or any other appropriate component within the electrochemical cell. In certain embodiments, electrode structures and/or methods for making electrode structures including a layer comprising an ionically conductive compound described herein are provided.

Monodisperse colloidal nanocrystal clusters of magnetite (Fe.sub.3O.sub.4) with tunable sizes from about thirty to about three hundred nanometers have been synthesized using a high-temperature hydrolysis process. The colloidal nanocrystal clusters are capped with polyelectrolytes, and highly water soluble. Each cluster is composed of many single magnetite crystallites, thus retaining the superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature. The combination of superparamagnetic property, high magnetization, and high water dispersibility makes the colloidal nanocrystal clusters ideal candidates for various important biomedical applications such as drug delivery and bioseparation. The present invention is further directed to methods for forming colloidal photonic crystals from both aqueous and nonaqueous solutions of the superparamagnetic colloidal nanocrystal clusters with an external magnetic field applied thereto. The diffraction of the photonic crystals can be tuned from near infrared to visible and further ultraviolet spectral region by varying the external magnetic field.

An alumina sintered body of the present invention has a degree of c-plane orientation of 5% or more, which is determined by a Lotgering method using an X-ray diffraction profile in a range of 2=20 to 70 obtained under X-ray irradiation, and an XRC half width of 15.0 or less in rocking curve measurement, an F content of less than 0.99 mass ppm when measured by D-SIMS, a crystal grain diameter of 15 to 200 m, and 25 or less pores having a diameter of 0.2 m to 1.0 m when a photograph of a viewing area 370.0 m in a vertical direction and 372.0 m in a horizontal direction taken at a magnification factor of 1000 is visually observed.

The present invention provides a magnesium oxide powder capable of restraining the deformation of the internal circumferential shape of an annealed coil, and further giving a sufficiently uniform coat external appearance after the annealing; and a method for producing the powder. The magnesium oxide powder of the invention is a magnesium oxide powder including an Fe element, wherein a content of the Fe element is from 0.03 to 0.20% by weight, and at least a part of the Fe element has a cluster structure.

Provided are compounds of the formula M.sup.A.sub.1-xM.sup.B.sub.xX.sup.A.sub.1-yX.sup.B.sub.yQ.sup.A.sub.1-zQ.sup.B.sub.z, wherein M.sup.A and M.sup.B are selected from Si, Ge, Sn, and Pb, X.sup.A and X.sup.B are selected from F, Cl, Br and I, Q.sup.A and Q.sup.B are selected from P, As, Sb and Bi, and x, y and z are 0 to 0.5, as well as doped variants thereof, useful as semiconducting materials. Due a double helix structure formed by the constituting atoms, the compounds are particularly suitable to provide nano-materials, in particular nanowires, for diverse applications.

Articles, compositions, and methods involving ionically conductive compounds are provided. In some embodiments, the ionically conductive compounds are useful for electrochemical cells. The disclosed ionically conductive compounds may be incorporated into an electrochemical cell (e.g., a lithium-sulfur electrochemical cell, a lithium-ion electrochemical cell, an intercalated-cathode based electrochemical cell) as, for example, a protective layer for an electrode, a solid electrolyte layer, and/or any other appropriate component within the electrochemical cell. In certain embodiments, electrode structures and/or methods for making electrode structures including a layer comprising an ionically conductive compound described herein are provided.

A gallium-containing nitride crystals are disclosed, comprising: a top surface having a crystallographic orientation within about 5 degrees of a plane selected from a (0001) +c-plane and a (000-1) ?c-plane; a substantially wurtzite structure; n-type electronic properties; an impurity concentration of hydrogen greater than about 5?10.sup.17 cm.sup.?3; an impurity concentration of oxygen between about 2?10.sup.17 cm.sup.?3 and about 1?10.sup.20 cm.sup.?3; an [H]/[O] ratio of at least 0.3; an impurity concentration of at least one of Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ca, F, and Cl greater than about 1?10.sup.16 cm.sup.?3; a compensation ratio between about 1.0 and about 4.0; an absorbance per unit thickness of at least 0.01 cm.sup.?1 at wavenumbers of approximately 3175 cm.sup.?1, 3164 cm.sup.?1, and 3150 cm.sup.?1; and wherein, at wavenumbers between about 3200 cm.sup.?1 and about 3400 cm.sup.?1 and between about 3075 cm.sup.?1 and about 3125 cm.sup.?1, said gallium-containing nitride crystal is essentially free of infrared absorption peaks having an absorbance per unit thickness greater than 10% of the absorbance per unit thickness at 3175 cm