A nanocrystal production method includes a light irradiation step of applying light to a surface of a metal material immersed in water to form nanocrystals on the surface. In this nanocrystal production method, the metal material contains iron, the nanocrystal contains at least one of iron oxide and iron hydroxide, and in the spectrum of the light, a wavelength at which the intensity is maximum is not less than 360 nm and less than 620 nm.

Iron nanoparticles that are useful for constructing electrodes for lithium ion batteries and a method of making said particles is disclosed herein. The nanoparticles may include magnetite. The electrode may be constructed by centrifuging the nanoparticles to a current collector, such as a disc of copper, without the use of an extrinsic binder. The solvothermal method of making nanoparticles decreases the time of the procedure from about 24 hours to about 75 minutes. The method of making electrode decreases the complexity and number of steps compared to the conventional procedure to prepare an electrode, and eliminates the use of additives (binder and current enhancer) and toxic NMP solvents in the electrode preparation process.

Multimetal oxide composition comprising Mo, Bi, Fe, Cu and one or more than one of the elements Co and Ni and use thereof.

Calibration devices including germanium-68 source material are disclosed. The source material may be a matrix material (e.g., zeolite) in which germanium-68 is isomorphously substituted for central atoms in tetrahedra within the matrix material. Methods for preparing such calibration devices are also disclosed.

A method of using ZnO particles for the treatment of colon cancer and a method of using the particles for reducing the concentration of an organic contaminant in an aqueous solution is described. The ZnO particles are substantially spherical and may have nanopetals that provide a nanoflower morphology. The synthesis and characterization of the ZnO particles is also discussed.

A hydrogen gas production method includes a light irradiation step of applying light to a surface of a metal material immersed in water to produce gas containing hydrogen. In this hydrogen gas production method, the metal material contains iron, in the spectrum of the light, a wavelength at which the intensity is maximum is not less than 360 nm and less than 620 nm, and as the gas is produced, at least one of iron oxide and iron hydroxide is formed on the surface.

A microstructure comprises a plurality of interconnected units wherein the units are formed of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) tubes. The graphene tubes may be formed by photo-initiating the polymerization of a monomer in a pattern of interconnected units to form a polymer microlattice, removing unpolymerized monomer, coating the polymer microlattice with a metal, removing the polymer microlattice to leave a metal microlattice, depositing an h-BN precursor on the metal microlattice, converting the h-BN precursor to h-BN, and removing the metal microlattice.

A hydrothermal method of preparing uniform, monodisperse ceramic lanthanum hydroxyl carbonate (LaCO.sub.3OH) having cherry-blossom-like nanogears and/or nanocubes is described. The method produced a hexagonal crystal with a crystal lattice in which at least on lanthanum ion is substituted with calcium ion. The ceramic nanoparticles produced by the method are good catalyst for the reduction of nitrogen oxides with a hydrocarbon. A method of reducing exhaust gases is described.

Disclosed is a method for preparing an organic environment-friendly snow-melting agent by using salt mud from a two-alkali method, relates to the field of environmental protection and resource utilization of solid wastes. The method includes the following steps: first, stirring and reacting an organic acid and the salt mud from a two-alkali method at room temperature to obtain a slurry; filtering the slurry to obtain a filtrate; the filtrate is then concentrated and dried by centrifugal spray drying to obtain a solid powder; granulating the solid powder. The method not only realizes the recycling of salt mud solid waste, but also greatly reduces the production cost of organic environment-friendly snow melting agent by turning waste into wealth, moreover, due to the existence of trace ions, the ability of melting snow and ice has obvious synergistic effect.

Processes of synthesizing non-spherical primary silica nanoparticles comprise reacting at least two organoalkoxysilanes with water in a reaction mixture comprising water-miscible organic solvent and alkaline catalyst under alkaline conditions. The at least two organoalkoxysilanes have different reaction speeds with water under alkaline conditions. Each organoalkoxysilane has a structure represented by: SiR.sup.1R.sup.2R.sup.3R.sup.4 (I), wherein R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3, and R.sup.4 are each independently selected from the group consisting of OR or R, wherein R is a substituted or unsubstituted linear or branched C.sub.1-C.sub.12 alkyl group, a C.sub.3-C.sub.8 cycloaliphatic group, a C.sub.2-C.sub.6 alkylene group, a halogen, or an aryl group, at least two, preferable at least three of R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3, and R.sup.4 are OR; and at least one of the at least two organoalkoxysilanes has at least three of OR. A molar ratio of water (H.sub.2O) and hydrolysable groups (OR) on the at least two organoalkoxysilanes is >0 and <3.0 or 2.0.