Thermo-responsive actuation (thermomechanical effects) based on nematic liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) have become a research priority in the preparation of soft actuators. Nematic LCEs combine the anisotropic features of liquid crystal phases with the rubber elasticity of polymer network. When heated at nematic to isotropic phase transition temperature (N-to-I temp.), a uniaxial thermomechanical deformation of LCEs will undergo at nearly constant volume due to a change of LC director order. Recently, an array of the micro-sized LCE pillars related to such thermomechanical effects have been successfully constructed through a soft lithography technology (i.e., replica molding). The prepared LCE pillars are mono-dispersive and micro-sized. They also possess N-to-I temp. higher than 100°C, largely limiting the available application. By contrast, the present study will report a hexagonal array of nano-sized thermo-responsive pillar actuators that are able to contract and expand in response to temperature changes around a lower N-to-I temp. is manufactured via using reactive rod-like liquid crystal and ultraviolet nanoimprinting technology. According to atomic force microscope (AFM) observation, a hexagonal array of pillars can be easily constructed by nanoimprinting and a responsive surface with a thermo-stimuli-driven roughness change is achieved. The room-temperature AFM scans quantitatively represent the single pillar shows a diameter of ca. 270 nm and 140 nm in depth, and the pitch meaning the averaged inter-pillar distance is measured as ca. 425 nm, thus lying in a nano-sized range. Furthermore, temperature-variable AFM is also utilized to demonstrate the pillar behaves as a thermally-stimulated nano-sized actuator. In our case, when heated above N-to-I phase transition temperature (ca. 65°C), it is clearly observed that the pillar diameter is expanded in the order of over 12-15 % and then reversibly contracted in response to temperature drop.

Mesoporous silica materials have received much interest due to commercial applications in chemical separations and heterogeneous catalysis. Recent studies have reported via a sol-gel nanocasting technique, monolithic mesoporous silica with wormlike pore framework could be prepared by utilizing room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) as templates and solvents. Although previous reports have indicated that the wormlike pores would be formed in the silica, the detailed pore network structure still remained the crucial issues to be resolved. In the present study, we investigated the pore structure in the monolithic mesoporous silica, which was templated by RTIL (1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium-tetrafluoroborate). We revealed an open fractal pore network with a branched and self-similar appearance was formed by the aggregation of the individual spherical pores. Transmission electron microscopy micrographs displayed that the disordered wormlike pore framework was formed in the silica. Furthermore, the small angle X-ray scattering profile measured herein further exhibited three distinct regions of power-law scattering on the respective length scales. In the high-q region, the profile followed Power behavior and a power-law of -4 was observed for the surface fractal dimension of 2, manifesting the primary pore with a smooth surface and a spherical appearance. In the intermediate-q region, a power-law of -2.5 (mass fractal dimension of 2.5), indicating an open mass fractal network was formed by the aggregation of the individual primary pores. Moreover in the low-q region, the power-law of -4 was observed for mass-fractal agglomerates of aggregates. With the proceeding analysis of unified equation in terms of two structural levels, the radiuses of gyration of primary pore (Rg1)and its aggregates (Rg2) were fitted as ca. 0.9 nm and 5.5 nm, respectively. For a spherical-model pore, the radius of pore (R) was ca. 1.16 nm; thus, the averaged pore diameter (D) was 2.32 nm. The number of primary pores in a fractal aggregate (degree of aggregation, z) was calculated as ca. 67.

In this paper, we report that the experimental procedures for the preparation of conductive color powders that were aggregated from color pigment and conductive materials. We first modified the pigment and make the particles surface to have charges (ex: positive) and modified another conductive materials like ITO、Au、Ag particles or conductive polymer to be opposite charges (ex: negative). Then these two kinds of charge particles will aggregate in appropriate processing by static electricity and form a powder. After annealing treatment, the conductive color powder with ITO particles reveals good thermal stability and lower surface resistivity.

In this work, high quality silicon dioxide (SiO2) films were prepared by large-area plasmaenhanced chemical vapor deposition (LA-PECVD) using tetraethylorthosilicate(TEOS)-oxygen based chemistry. The effects of various short-time plasma treatments on these as-deposited TEOS oxide were also investigated. Different plasma treatments such as O2, N2O, and NH3 were used in our experiments. Electrical characteristics were exploited to examine the effects of plasma treatments. It was shown that after N2O, and NH3 plasma treatments, the electrical strength of oxide was enhanced. Besides, NH3 plasma treatment exhibited the highest enhancement efficiency. O2- plasma treatment, however, showed some harmful effects on the electrical properties of the TEOS oxide. The reliability tests including charge to breakdown (Qbd) and bias temperature stress (BTS) were also analyzed in these samples. Although better pre-stress characteristics were observed in those samples treated by NH3-plasma, samples with N2O plasma treatment showed superior stress endurance. Consequently, N2O plasma treatment seems to be the best candidate for future TFTs under the consideration of long-term reliability.