International Interlaboratory Comparison of Thermogravimetric Analysis of Graphene-Related Two-Dimensional Materials.

Research on graphene-related two-dimensional (2D) materials (GR2Ms) in recent years is strongly moving from academia to industrial sectors with many new developed products and devices on the market. Characterization and quality control of the GR2Ms and their properties are critical for growing industrial translation, which requires the development of appropriate and reliable analytical methods. These challenges are recognized by International Organization for Standardization (ISO 229) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC 113) committees to facilitate the development of these methods and standards which are currently in progress.

Surface chemistry of metal oxide nanoparticles: NMR and TGA quantification.

Surface functionalization is widely used to control the behavior of nanomaterials for a range of applications. However, methods to accurately quantify surface functional groups and coatings are not yet routinely applied to nanomaterial characterization. We have employed a combination of quantitative NMR (qNMR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to address this problem for commercial cerium, nickel, and iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) that have been modified to add functional coatings with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), stearic acid, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP).

Insight into BN Impurity Formation during Boron Nitride Nanotube Synthesis by High-Temperature Plasma.

The high-temperature plasma process has demonstrated great potential in growing high-quality boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) with small diameters (∼5 nm) and few walls (3-4 walls) and led to successful commercialization with a high production rate approaching 20 g/h. However, the process is still accompanied by the production of BN impurities (e.g.