Nanocrystalline TiO2 anatase with particle size in the range of 5–7 nm has been prepared by in situ cracking of the sol at 85 °C, thereby avoiding the intermediate gel formation process. Hydrolysis of Ti(O-isoPr)4 was carried out in excess of 2-propanol to keep the suspension of fine particles from agglomeration. Differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), and electron microscopy have been used to characterize the samples. Gel to crystalline conversion, which requires a temperature of at least 400 °C, can be achieved by digesting the TiO2 sol at 85 °C. XRD and selected area electron diffraction patterns show the presence of a small amount of brookite phase along with the major anatase phase. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy shows that the average grain size of TiO2 particle remains around 5–9 nm even when heated at 510 °C.

It is thought that high-dielectric constant, suitable conductivity, and dielectric loss dominate electrorheological (ER) effects. According to this viewpoint, the polyaniline/montmorillonite nanocomposite (PANI-MMT) particles with high-dielectric constant and suitable conductivity were synthesized by an emulsion intercalation method. The electrorheological properties of the suspensions of PANI-MMT particles in silicone oil have been investigated under direct current electric fields. At room temperature, it was found that the yield stress of PANI-MMT ER fluid was 7.19 kPa in 3 kV/mm, which is much higher than that of pure polyaniline (PANI), that of pure montmorillonite (MMT) as well as that of the mixture of polyaniline with clay (PANI+MMT). In the range of 10–100 °C, the yield stress changed only 6.5% with the variation of temperature. The sedimentation ratio of PANI-MMT ERF was about 98% after 60 days. The structure of PANI-MMT particles was characterized by infrared, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) spectrometry, respectively. The XRD spectra show that the inner layer distance of PANI-MMT can be enhanced to 1.52 nm when the PANI was inserted into the interlayer of MMT, whereas it is only 0.96 nm for free MMT. TEM shows that the diameter of PANI-MMT particles is about 100 nm. The dielectric constant of PANI-MMT nanocomposite was increased 5.5 times that of PANI and 2.7 times that of MMT, besides, the conductivity of PANI-MMT particle was increased about 8.5 times that of PANI at 1000 Hz. Meanwhile, the dielectric loss tangent can also be increased about 1.7 times that of PANI. It is apparent that the notable ER effect of PANI-MMT ER fluid was attributed to the prominent dielectric property of the polyaniline-montmorillonite nanocomposite particles.

Thin films of TiO2 were fabricated by spin-coating silicon wafers and cover glass with a titanium citrate complex precursor. The grain growth and phase development of both freestanding and supported films were studied using a combination of atomic force microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy. Freestanding films prepared at 400 °C possess only the anatase phase, while supported films treated under the same conditions formed a small amount of the rutile phase. After heat treatment at various temperatures, results indicated that porosity was introduced into the films when the grain size grew close to the film thickness. Grain growth studies show that the grain size of the freestanding film underwent a drastic increase during the transformation from anatase to rutile. The grain size of the supported films did not show an abrupt change upon heat treatment. The grain size of the freestanding films treated at 900 °C was approximately three times larger than that of the supported films.

Deep donor levels in ZnO single crystals doped with transition metal (TM; Co or Mn) were characterized by isothermal capacitance transient spectroscopy (ICTS) applied to ZnO-based Schottky junctions, Au/ZnO (0001) or Ag/ZnO (0001). The barrier height at the junction and donor concentration was not influenced by TM. A deep donor level at 0.28 eV was detected by ICTS; however, its energy dispersion and concentration was composition independent. The effect of doping with TM was found in the magnitude of leakage current; in other words, the leakage current at the Au/ZnO:Mn junction was lower than the other junctions on undoped or Co-doped crystals.

Ferroelectric PZT thin films were deposited on Pt and SrRuO3 substrates in a cold-wall reactor, using the Pb(C2H5)4/Zr(OBu)4/Ti(OPri)4/O2 reaction system. In comparison with Pt substrate, the growth rate of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film was higher on SrRuO3. Lead content of the thin film deposited on either substrate at low temperatures (723–863 K) was much more temperature dependent than the other two metal contents. The strong temperature dependence originated from the high activation energy in the initial decomposition of Pb(C2H5)4 vapor, which was 54 kcal/mol. The surface reaction constant of lead precursor had much lower temperature dependence. The activation energy of surface reaction for PbO, estimated from deposition in a mini-chamber, was 6 kcal/mol on Pt and 9 kcal/mol on the SrRuO3 substrate. Therefore, the incorporation path of component oxide PbO, whose apparent activation energy was 31 kcal/mol on Pt and 29 kcal/mol on SrRuO3, essentially involved considerable gas-phase reaction. The PZT (50/50) thin film on SrRuO3 bottom electrode possessed a lower coercive field and a smaller remnant polarization than that on Pt. The PZT capacitor on SrRuO3 was also less vulnerable to polarization fatigue.

Sol-gel processing of La2Zr2O7 (LZO) buffer layers on biaxially textured Ni–1.7% Fe–3% W alloy substrates using a continuous reel-to-reel dip-coating unit has been studied. The epitaxial LZO films obtained have a strong cube texture and uniform microstructure. The effects of increasing the annealing speed on the texture, microstructure, and carbon content retained in the film were studied. On top of the LZO films, epitaxial layers of yttria-stabilized zirconia and Ceria (CeO2) were deposited using rf sputtering, and YBa2Cu3Ox (YBCO) films were then deposited using pulsed laser deposition. Critical current densities (Jc) of 1.9 MA/cm2 at 77 K and self-field and 0.34 MA/cm2at 77 K and 0.5 T have been obtained on these films. These values are comparable to those obtained on YBCO films deposited on all-vacuum deposited buffer layers and the highest ever obtained using solution seed layers.

Sn-doped BaO–TiO2–ZnO (BTZ) microwave ceramic materials were investigated as a function of SnO2 content. Addition of a small amount of SnO2 (0.01–0.06 wt%) lowered the sintering temperature of the system to 1160 °C and also greatly reduced the dielectric loss (tan δ), which is closely related to the insulation resistivity. The Sn-doped BTZ materials were found to have excellent dielectric properties at 1 GHz with dielectric constant Ε ≈tangent tan δ ≤ 1 × 10−4, temperature coefficient of dielectric constant, αΕ = 0 ± 30 ppm/°C, and volume resistivity ρv ≥ 1013 ω cm.