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Icosahedral Twins
An icosahedral twin is a nanostructure appearing for atomic clusters and also nanoparticles with some thousands of atoms. These clusters are twenty-faced, made of twenty interlinked tetrahedra crystals, typically joined along triangular (e.g. cubic-(111)) faces having three-fold symmetry. One can think of their formation as a kind of atom-scale self-assembly. A related, more common structure has five units similarly arranged with twinning, which were known as "fivelings" in the 19th centuryH. Hofmeister (2004) "Fivefold twinned nanoparticles" in ''Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology'' (ed. H. S. Nalwa, Amer. Sci. Publ., Stevenson Ranch CA) vol. 3, pp. 431-452pdf, more recently as "decahedral multiply twinned particles", "pentagonal particles" or "star particles". A variety of different methods (e.g. condensing argon, metal atoms, and virus capsids) lead to icosahedral form at size scales where surface energies are more important those from the bulk. Causes Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twin2
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two embryos, or ''dizygotic'' ('non-identical' or 'fraternal'), meaning that each twin develops from a separate egg and each egg is fertilized by its own sperm cell. Since identical twins develop from one zygote, they will share the same sex, while fraternal twins may or may not. In rare cases twins can have the same mother and different fathers (heteropaternal superfecundation). In contrast, a fetus that develops alone in the uterus, womb (the much more common case, in humans) is called a ''singleton'', and the general term for one offspring of a multiple birth is a ''multiple''. Unrelated look-alikes whose resemblance parallels that of twins are referred to as doppelgängers. Statistics The human twin birth rate in the United States rose 7 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bicupola (geometry)
In geometry, a bicupola is a solid formed by connecting two cupolae on their bases. There are two classes of bicupola because each cupola (bicupola half) is bordered by alternating triangles and squares. If similar faces are attached together the result is an ''orthobicupola''; if squares are attached to triangles it is a ''gyrobicupola''. Cupolae and bicupolae categorically exist as infinite sets of polyhedra, just like the pyramids, bipyramids, prisms, and trapezohedra. Six bicupolae have regular polygon faces: triangular, square and pentagonal ortho- and gyrobicupolae. The triangular gyrobicupola is an Archimedean solid, the cuboctahedron; the other five are Johnson solids. Bicupolae of higher order can be constructed if the flank faces are allowed to stretch into rectangles and isosceles triangles. Bicupolae are special in having four faces on every vertex. This means that their dual polyhedra will have all quadrilateral faces. The best known example is the rhombic dode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and molecules for fabrication of macroscale products, also now referred to as molecular nanotechnology. A more generalized description of nanotechnology was subsequently established by the National Nanotechnology Initiative, which defined nanotechnology as the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). This definition reflects the fact that quantum mechanical effects are important at this quantum-realm scale, and so the definition shifted from a particular technological goal to a research category inclusive of all types of research and technologies that deal with the special properties of matter which occur below the given size threshold. It is therefore common to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanomaterial Based Catalyst
Nanomaterial-based catalysts are usually heterogeneous catalysts broken up into metal nanoparticles in order to enhance the catalytic process. Metal nanoparticles have high surface area, which can increase catalytic activity. Nanoparticle catalysts can be easily separated and recycled. They are typically used under mild conditions to prevent decomposition of the nanoparticles. Functionalized nanoparticles Functionalized metal nanoparticles are more stable toward solvents compared to non-functionalized metal nanoparticles. In liquids, the metal nanoparticles can be affected by van der Waals force. Particle aggregation can sometimes decrease catalytic activity by lowering the surface area. Nanoparticles can also be functionalized with polymers or oligomers to sterically stabilize the nanoparticles by providing a protective layer that prevents the nanoparticles from interacting with each other. Alloys of two metals, called bimetallic nanoparticles, are used to create synergistic effec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quasicrystals
A quasiperiodic crystal, or quasicrystal, is a structure that is ordered but not periodic. A quasicrystalline pattern can continuously fill all available space, but it lacks translational symmetry. While crystals, according to the classical crystallographic restriction theorem, can possess only two-, three-, four-, and six-fold rotational symmetries, the Bragg diffraction pattern of quasicrystals shows sharp peaks with other symmetry orders—for instance, five-fold. Aperiodic tilings were discovered by mathematicians in the early 1960s, and, some twenty years later, they were found to apply to the study of natural quasicrystals. The discovery of these aperiodic forms in nature has produced a paradigm shift in the field of crystallography. In crystallography the quasicrystals were predicted in 1981 by a five-fold symmetry study of Alan Lindsay Mackay,—that also brought in 1982, with the crystallographic Fourier transform of a Penrose tiling,Alan L. Mackay, "Crystallography ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanometre
330px, Different lengths as in respect to the molecular scale. The nanometre (international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: nm) or nanometer (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American spelling) is a units of measurement, unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one billionth (short scale) of a metre () and to 1000 picometres. One nanometre can be expressed in scientific notation as , and as metres. History The nanometre was formerly known as the millimicrometre – or, more commonly, the millimicron for short – since it is of a micron (micrometre), and was often denoted by the symbol mμ or (more rarely and confusingly, since it logically should refer to a ''millionth'' of a micron) as μμ. Etymology The name combines the SI prefix ''nano-'' (from the Ancient Greek , ', "dwarf") with the parent unit name ''metre'' (from Greek , ', "unit of measurement"). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wulff Construction
The Wulff construction is a method to determine the equilibrium shape of a droplet or crystal of fixed volume inside a separate phase (usually its saturated solution or vapor). Energy minimization arguments are used to show that certain crystal planes are preferred over others, giving the crystal its shape. Theory In 1878 Josiah Willard Gibbs proposed that a droplet or crystal will arrange itself such that its surface Gibbs free energy is minimized by assuming a shape of low surface energy. He defined the quantity :\Delta G_i= \sum_\gamma_j O_j~ Here \gamma _j represents the surface (Gibbs free) energy per unit area of the jth crystal face and O_j is the area of said face. \Delta G_i represents the difference in energy between a real crystal composed of i molecules with a surface and a similar configuration of i molecules located inside an infinitely large crystal. This quantity is therefore the energy associated with the surface. The equilibrium shape of the crystal will then be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Single Crystal
In materials science, a single crystal (or single-crystal solid or monocrystalline solid) is a material in which the crystal lattice of the entire sample is continuous and unbroken to the edges of the sample, with no grain boundaries.RIWD. "Reade Advanced Materials – Single Crystals". ''www.reade.com''. Retrieved 2021-02-28. The absence of the defects associated with grain boundaries can give monocrystals unique properties, particularly mechanical, optical and electrical, which can also be anisotropic, depending on the type of crystallographic structure. These properties, in addition to making some gems precious, are industrially used in technological applications, especially in optics and electronics. Because entropic effects favor the presence of some imperfections in the microstructure of solids, such as impurities, inhomogeneous strain and crystallographic defects such as dislocations, perfect single crystals of meaningful size are exceedingly rare in nature. The necess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disclination
In crystallography, a disclination is a line defect in which rotational symmetry is violated. In analogy with dislocations in crystals, the term, ''disinclination'', for liquid crystals first used by Frederick Charles Frank and since then has been modified to its current usage, ''disclination''. It is a defect in the orientation of director whereas a dislocation is a defect in positional order. Example in two dimensions In 2D, disclinations and dislocations are point defects instead of line defects as in 3D. They are topological defects and play a central role in melting of 2D crystals within the KTHNY theory, based on two Kosterlitz–Thouless transitions. Equally sized discs (spheres, particles, atoms) form a hexagonal crystal as dense packing in two dimensions. In such a crystal, each particle has six nearest neighbors. Local strain and twist (for example induced by thermal motion) can cause configurations where discs (or particles) have a coordination number different of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achilles' Heel
An Achilles' heel (or Achilles heel) is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common. Origin In Greek mythology, when Achilles was an infant, it was foretold that he would perish at a young age. To prevent his death, his mother Thetis took Achilles to the River Styx, which was supposed to offer powers of invulnerability. She dipped his body into the water but, because she held him by his heel, it was not touched by the water of the river. Achilles grew up to be a man of war who survived many great battles. Although the death of Achilles was predicted by Hector in Homer’s ''Iliad'', it does not actually occur in the ''Iliad,'' but it is described in later Greek and Roman poetry and drama concerning events after the ''Iliad'', later in the Trojan War. In the myths surrounding the war, Achilles was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Energy
In surface science, surface free energy (also interfacial free energy or surface energy) quantifies the disruption of intermolecular bonds that occurs when a surface is created. In solid-state physics, surfaces must be intrinsically less energetically favorable than the bulk of the material (the atoms on the surface have more energy compared with the atoms in the bulk), otherwise there would be a driving force for surfaces to be created, removing the bulk of the material (see sublimation). The surface energy may therefore be defined as the excess energy at the surface of a material compared to the bulk, or it is the work required to build an area of a particular surface. Another way to view the surface energy is to relate it to the work required to cut a bulk sample, creating two surfaces. There is "excess energy" as a result of the now-incomplete, unrealized bonding at the two surfaces. Cutting a solid body into pieces disrupts its bonds and increases the surface area, and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Close Packing
In geometry, close-packing of equal spheres is a dense arrangement of congruent spheres in an infinite, regular arrangement (or lattice). Carl Friedrich Gauss proved that the highest average density – that is, the greatest fraction of space occupied by spheres – that can be achieved by a lattice packing is :\frac \approx 0.74048. The same packing density can also be achieved by alternate stackings of the same close-packed planes of spheres, including structures that are aperiodic in the stacking direction. The Kepler conjecture states that this is the highest density that can be achieved by any arrangement of spheres, either regular or irregular. This conjecture was proven by T. C. Hales. Highest density is known only for 1, 2, 3, 8, and 24 dimensions. Many crystal structures are based on a close-packing of a single kind of atom, or a close-packing of large ions with smaller ions filling the spaces between them. The cubic and hexagonal arrangements are very close to one anoth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
