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 method of forming a titania-coated inorganic particle comprising the steps of (a) stirring a mixture of a titania precursor such as a titanium alkoxide and an inorganic particle such as a hollow glass particles in an organic solvent such as an alcohol for more than 1 h to cause adsorption of the titania precursor on the surface of the inorganic particle; and (b) adding water dropwise to the mixture under stirring to convert the titania precursor to titania which then forms a coating on the inorganic particle. A method for forming a paint formulation, a titania-coated inorganic particle, a paint formulation comprising a titania-coated inorganic particle and use of a titania-coated inorganic particle in a paint formulation is also described.

Provided is a 2D nanomaterial fiber. The 2D nanomaterial fiber includes plate-type fibrous cross sections formed by orienting a 2D nanomaterial in a longitudinal direction and stacking the oriented 2D nanomaterial.

The present disclosure provides a method for preparing a multi-layer hexagonal boron nitride film, including: preparing a substrate; preparing a boron-containing solid catalyst, and disposing the boron-containing solid catalyst on the substrate; annealing the boron-containing solid catalyst to melt the boron-containing solid catalyst; feeding a nitrogen-containing gas and a protecting gas to an atmosphere in which the melted boron-containing solid catalyst resides, the nitrogen-containing gas reacts with the boron-containing solid catalyst to form the multi-layer hexagonal boron nitride film on a surface of the substrate. The method for preparing a multi-layer hexagonal boron nitride film can prepare a hexagonal boron nitride film having a lateral size in the order of inches and a thickness from several nanometers to several hundred nanometers on the surface of the substrate, providing a favorable basis for the application of hexagonal boron nitride in the field of two-dimensional material devices.

Provided are an atomic layer sheet that contains boron and oxygen as framework elements, is networked by nonequilibrium couplings having boron-boron bonds, and has a molar ratio of oxygen to boron (oxygen/boron) of less than 1.5, a laminated sheet containing a plurality of such atomic layer sheets and metal ions between ones of the sheets, and a thermotropic liquid crystal and a lyotropic liquid crystal containing these. In addition, there is provided a method for manufacturing an atomic layer sheet and/or a laminated sheet containing boron and oxygen, the method including: adding MBH.sub.4, where M represents an alkali metal ion, into a solvent containing an organic solvent in an inert gas atmosphere to prepare a solution; and exposing the solution to an atmosphere containing oxygen.

A composition of matter may include pores and non-tri-zone particles and tri-zone particles. In one implementation, each tri-zone particle may include carbon fragments intertwined with each other and separated from one another by mesopores. Each tri-zone particle may also include a deformable perimeter that may coalesce with adjacent non-tri-zone particles or tri-zone particles. In some aspects, the tri-zone particles may include aggregates formed by a multitude of the tri-zone particles joined together. In some aspects, mesopores may be interspersed throughout the aggregates. Each tri-zone particle may also include agglomerates, where each agglomerate includes a multitude of the aggregates joined together. In some aspects, macropores may be interspersed throughout the aggregates.

The present invention provides a paper ball-like graphene microsphere, a composite material thereof, and a preparation method therefor. Such paper ball-like graphene microspheres are obtained by chemically reducing graphene oxide microspheres to slowly remove oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface of the graphene oxide to avoid the volume expansion caused by rapid removal of the groups, thereby maintaining a tight bond between graphene sheets without separation; and removing the remaining small number of oxygen-containing functional groups and repairing defect structures in the graphene oxide sheets by means of high temperature treatment, such that the graphene structure becomes perfect at an ultrahigh temperature (2500 to 3000° C.), thereby further improving the bonding ability between the graphene sheets in the microspheres and achieving a dense structure.

A method for producing an ingot includes loading a raw material comprising a raw material powder having a D.sub.50 of 80 μm or more into a reactor (loading step), controlling the internal temperature of the reactor such that adjacent particles of the raw material powder are interconnected to form a necked raw material (necking step), and sublimating components of the raw material from the necked raw material to grow an ingot (ingot growth step).

The invention provides novel biocompatible upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP) that comprises a core of cubic nanocrystals (e.g., comprising α-Na Ln.sub.a, Ln.sub.b Ln.sub.c F.sub.4) and an epitaxial shell (e.g., formed from CaF.sub.2; wherein Ln.sub.b is Yb), and related methods of preparation and uses thereof.

Provided is a method for producing a positive electrode active material for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries, the method including: a mixing step of obtaining a W-containing mixture of Li metal composite oxide particles represented by the formula: Li.sub.zNi.sub.1-x-yCO.sub.xM.sub.yO.sub.2 and composed of primary particles and secondary particles formed by aggregation of the primary particles, 2 mass % or more of water with respect to the oxide particles, and a W compound or a W compound and a Li compound, the W-containing mixture having a molar ratio of the total amount of Li contained in water and the solid W compound or the W compound and the Li compound of 3 to 5 with respect to the amount of W contained therein; and a heat treatment step of heating the W-containing mixture to form lithium tungstate on the surface of the primary particles of the Li metal composite oxide particles.