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Re: Nanoclusters

Hi all,

I have a student who has heard about nanoclusters (bigger than a molecule,
smaller than a typical solid), and would like to know more. I remember
hearing a couple of talks ~10 years ago in grad school, but I who
presented, or what the specific materials were.

Does anyone know a good entry level reference?


A reference to one aspect of such materials is "The search for novel,
superhard materials", J. Vacuum Science and Technology, A17
p2401-2420 (1999).

Hard coatings are useful for such applications as wear protection on
machine tools or turbine blades. There exist intrinsically hard
materials such as diamond with a Vicker's hardness of 70-100 GPa or
TiN (the material that makes drill bits gold in color) with hardness
20-25 GPa. There are two classes of engineered materials.
Superlattices consist of alternating layers of two materials such as
TiN/TiC (hardnesses up aroung 40 GPa) with the repeat length being
5-10 nm. Nanocomposites consist of small crystalline clusters (2-10
nm) in a matrix of a separate material, eg. TiN/BN, hardness near 70
GPa.

There is a lot of work going on in this area since there is a
tremendous market for such things. One goal is to make hard coatings
that will reduce or eliminate the need for lubrication in metal
finishing processes.

A main conference is the International Conference on Metallurgical
Coatings and Thin Films that just ended in San Diego.

Hope this helps.
--
Dr. Vern Lindberg 716-475-2546
Department of Physics Fax 475-5766
85 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester Institute of Technology Computer Haiku
Rochester, NY 14623
A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.