A metamaterial having a programmed thermal expansion when exposed to a temperature condition is described. The metamaterial includes a lattice structure composed of a plurality of interconnected unit cells, each of the unit cells comprising two or more bi-material building blocks having first material elements and second material elements. The first material elements have a first coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and the second material elements having a second CTE, the first CTE being greater than the second CTE. The bi-material building blocks have a topology with two or more vertices formed at junctions between said first material elements and said second material elements. One of the first material elements interconnects and extends between two of the second material elements at the vertices. The first material elements deforming substantially long a longitudinal axis thereof to cause the bi-material building blocks to be stretch-dominated when deforming in response to temperature changes.

A method for surface writing is disclosed. The method includes fabricating a plurality of nanomotors, forming a secondary solution by adding the plurality of nanomotors to a primary solution placed on a substrate, guiding the plurality of nanomotors along a path in the secondary solution, and forming a sol-gel film along the path on a surface of the substrate. Wherein, the primary solution includes a monomer and hydrogen peroxide (H.sub.2O.sub.2). Fabricating the plurality of nanomotors includes preparing a mesoporous silica template, forming the plurality of nanomotors within the mesoporous silica template, and separating the plurality of nanomotors from the mesoporous silica template. The mesoporous silica template includes a plurality of channels, wherein each channel of the plurality of channels has a diameter less than about 50 nm and a length of less than about 100 nm, and each nanomotor of the plurality of nanomotors is formed within a channel of the plurality of channels.

This invention provides electromechanical resonators based on metal chalcogenide nanotubes. The invention further provides methods of fabrication of electromechanical resonators and methods of use of such electromechanical resonators.

A method of patterning a conductive layer to form transparent electrical conductors that does not require etching is disclosed. The method includes peeling a strippable polymer layer from a substrate coated with the conductive layer to pattern the conductive layer. In some embodiments, a resist matrix material is patterned over the conductive layer to prevent removal of the conductive layer beneath the resist matrix material. In other embodiments, a liner having a pressure sensitive adhesive surface is brought into contact with the patterned strippable polymer material to remove both the patterned strippable polymer material and the conductive layer beneath it.

Methods of manufacturing well-controlled nanopores using directed self-assembly and methods of manufacturing free-standing membranes using selective etching are disclosed. In one aspect, one or more nanopores are formed by directed self-assembly with block co-polymers to shrink the critical dimension of a feature which is then transferred to a thin film. In another aspect, a method includes providing a substrate having a thin film over a highly etchable layer thereof, forming one or more nanopores through the thin film over the highly etchable layer, for example, by a pore diameter reduction process, and then selectively removing a portion of the highly etchable layer under the one or more nanopores to form a thin, free-standing membrane.

A method for manufacturing a metallic nanospring includes preparing a nanotemplate having a nanopore and including a working electrode disposed on its one surface, preparing a first metal precursor mixture including ascorbic acid (C.sub.6H.sub.8O.sub.6), vanadium (IV) oxide sulfate (VOSO.sub.4.xH.sub.2O), and a metal precursor solution including a metal desired to be deposited, preparing a second metal precursor mixture by mixing the first metal precursor mixture with nitric acid (HNO.sub.3), depositing a metallic nanospring into the nanopore using electrodeposition by dipping the nanotemplate into the second metal precursor mixture and applying current between a counter electrode inserted into the second metal precursor mixture and the working electrode, and selectively removing the working electrode on the nanotemplate with the deposited metallic nanospring and the nanotemplate.

The present invention discloses a flexible graphene film and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method includes steps of placing a liquid graphene oxide film in a poor solvent, performing gelation, and drying a graphene oxide gel film. The graphene film has an excellent flexibility, a crystallinity of lower than 60% and an elongation at break of 15-50%, wherein no crease is remained after the flexible graphene film is repeatedly folded more than 100,000 times. The preparation method of the graphene film provided by the present invention controls the macroscopic properties of the graphene film by microscopically controlling the morphology of the graphene monolith, and can significantly improve the flexibility of the graphene film. It can significantly improve the flexibility of the graphene film. The process is simple and easy to be popularized, and has potential applications in flexible electronic devices and the like.

A molecular machine comprising a movement part (2) including a first molecular element (4), a second molecular element (5), and a linking element (6) for constraining a relative movement of the first molecular element (4) and the second molecular element (5), and a control part configured to generate an electrical field around the movement part (2), wherein the first molecular element (4) is fixed relative to the control part, wherein the second molecular element (5) is movable relative to the first molecular element (4) in at least one degree of freedom, and wherein the second molecular element (5) is electrically charged such that the second molecular element (5) aligns to said electrical field.

A lighting device is provided, including: a substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface; one or more light-emitting structures formed on the first surface of the substrate; and a heat spreading and dissipating layer formed on the second surface of the substrate, wherein the heat spreading and dissipating layer comprises a polymer layer mixed with nano graphite particles.

This present disclosure provides methods for utilizing such forces in when generating nanofibrillar constructs with engineered morphology from the nano- to macro-scales. Using for example, a biopolymer silk fibroin as a base material, patterns an intermediate hydrogel were generated within a deformable mold. Subsequently, mechanical tension was introduced via either hydrogel contraction or mold deformation, and finally a material is reentrapped in this transformed shape via beta-sheet crystallization and critical point drying. Topdown engineered anchorages, cables, and shapes act in concert to mediate precision changes in nanofiber alignment/orientation and a macroscale form of provided nanofibrillar structure. An ability of this technique to engineer large gradients of nano- and micro-scale order, manipulate mechanical properties (such as plasticity and thermal transport), and the in-situ generation of 2D and 3D, multi-tiered and doped, nanofibrillar constructs was demonstrated.