An electrochromic material including a nanostructure including a nickel oxide wire which is three-dimensionally interconnected wherein a thickness of the nickel oxide wire is less than about 10 nanometers, and an electrochromic device, an optical device, and an electronic device including the same.

A method of fabricating a metal oxide film includes sequentially laminating a carbon film and a metal oxide film including nano-sized metal oxide nanoparticles on a porous fuel membrane to form a preliminary composite structure and reducing the metal oxide film to form a composite structure by combusting the porous fuel membrane while applying a voltage to the preliminary composite structure.

A method for enhancing the efficiency of a liquid fuel is described. The method involves the addition of cobalt hydroxystannate nanoparticles to the liquid fuel to produce an enhanced liquid fuel. The cobalt hydroxystannate nanoparticles may be present at a concentration of 50-200 ppm, and may increase the calorific value of the fuel by a factor of 25-52 times.

A method for making an oil- and water-resistant nanocomposite material includes preparing F-doped TiO.sub.2 nanorods, dispersing the F-doped TiO.sub.2 nanorods into a transparent adhesive to obtain a nanocomposite adhesive, and treating a surface of the nanocomposite adhesive to roughen the surface and expose some of the F-doped TiO.sub.2 nanorods. A transparent nanocomposite material suitable for use as transparent packaging for example is thereby obtained. The present disclosure also provides the nanocomposite material, and an encapsulating structure using the nanocomposite material.

The present invention provides a self-healing method for fractured SiC amorphous nanowires. A goat hair in a Chinese brush pen of goat hair moves and transfers single crystal nanowires under an optical microscope. On an in-situ nanomechanical test system of a TEM, local single crystal nanowires are irradiated with an electron beam for conducting amorphization transformation. Amorphous length of a single crystal after transformation is 60-100 nm. A fracture strength test is conducted on the amorphous nanowires in the single crystal after transformation in the TEM; and fracture strength of the amorphous nanowires is 9-11 GPa. After the amorphous nanowires are fractured, unloading causes a slight contact between the fractured end surfaces; and self-healing of the nanowires is conducted after waiting for 16-25 min in a vacuum chamber of the TEM. Atom diffusion is found at a healed fracture through in-situ TEM representation; and recrystallization is found in the amorphous nanowires. The present invention provides a method for realizing self-healing for fractured SiC amorphous nanowires without external intervention.

The Li-ion paradigm of battery technology is fundamentally constrained by the monovalency of the Li-ion. A straightforward solution is to transition to multivalent ion chemistries, with Mg.sup.2+ the most obvious candidate due to considerations of size and mass. Despite early interest, the realization of Mg batteries has faced myriad obstacles, including a sparse selection of cathode materials demonstrating the ability to reversibly insert divalent ions. Disclosed herein is evidence of reversible topochemical and electrochemical insertion of Mg.sup.2+ into a metastable one-dimensional polymorph of V.sub.2O.sub.5. Not only does -V.sub.2O.sub.5 represent a rare addition to the pantheon of functional Mg battery cathode materials, but is also distinctive in exhibiting a combination of high stability, high specific capacity due to ion insertion, and moderately high operating voltage.

A highly scalable process has been developed for stabilizing large quantities of the zeta-polymorph of V.sub.2O.sub.5, a metastable kinetically trapped phase, with high compositional and phase purity. The process utilizes a beta-Cux V.sub.2O.sub.5 precursor which is synthetized from solution using all-soluble precursors. The copper can be leached from this structure by a room temperature post-synthetic route to stabilize an empty tunnel framework entirely devoid of intercalating cations. The metastable -V.sub.2O.sub.5 thus stabilized can be used as a monovalent-(Li, Na) or multivalent-(Mg, Ca, Al) ion battery cathode material.

A composition and method for creating silicon nanowires or silicon nano-plates is presented, the composition comprising: Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), at least one catalyst, Sodium Metal Siliconate (Na.sub.2SiO.sub.2), and Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid (EDTA), which act as a first chelating agent.

A method is disclosed of forming magnetically tunable photonic crystals comprising: synthesizing one or more precursory nanoparticles with anisotropic shapes; coating the one or more anisotropic precursory nanoparticles with silica to form composite structures; converting the one or more anisotropic precursory nanoparticles into magnetic nanomaterials through chemical reactions; and assembling the anisotropic magnetic nanoparticles into photonic crystals in a solvent.

A sensor and a method of using the sensor are disclosed. The sensor includes a conductive region in electrical communication with two electrodes, the conductive region including metallic nanowires, nanosized particles of a dichalcogenide, and a mercaptoimidazolyl metal-ligand complex. The sensor can be used to detect volatile compounds that have a double or triple bond.