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Wicking, the absorption of liquid into narrow spaces without the assistance of external forces, has drawn much attention due to its potential applications in many engineering fields. Increasing surface roughness using micro/nanostructures can improve capillary action to enhance wicking. However, reducing the structure length scale can also result in significant viscous forces to impede wicking. In this work, we demonstrate enhanced wicking dynamics by using nanostructures with three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical features to increase the surface area while mitigating the obstruction of liquid flow. The proposed structures were engineered using a combination of interference lithography and hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanowires, where structures at two length scales were independently designed to control wicking behavior. The fabricated hierarchical 3D structures were tested for water and ethanol wicking properties, demonstrating improved wicking dynamics with intermediate nanowire lengths. The experimental data agree with the derived fluid model based on the balance of capillary and vicious forces. The hierarchical wicking structures can be potentially used in applications in water harvesting surfaces, microfluidics, and integrated heat exchangers.

High throughput spatial atomic layer deposition (ALD) often uses higher reactor pressure than typical batch processes, but the specific effects of pressure on species transport and reaction rates are not fully understood. For aluminum oxide (Al2O3) ALD, water or ozone can be used as oxygen sources, but how reaction pressure influences deposition using ozone has not previously been reported. This work describes the effect of deposition pressure, between ∼2 and 760 Torr, on ALD Al2O3 using TMA and ozone. Similar to reports for pressure dependence during TMA/water ALD, surface reaction saturation studies show self-limiting growth at low and high pressure across a reasonable temperature range. Higher pressure tends to increase the growth per cycle, especially at lower gas velocities and temperatures. However, growth saturation at high pressure requires longer O3 dose times per cycle. Results are consistent with a model of ozone decomposition kinetics versus pressure and temperature. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) results confirm the trends in growth rate and indicate that the surface reaction mechanisms for Al2O3 growth using ozone are similar under low and high total pressure, including expected trends in the reaction mechanism at different temperatures.

We report on the synthesis of tuned energy band gap Mg(x)Zn(1-x)O nanofibers (NFs) with different Mg(2+) content via the sol-gel electrospinning (ES) technique wherein the addition of the doping material affects not only the morphologies of as-spun ZnAc/PVA and MgAc/ZnAc/PVA nanofibers but also the crystal microstructure and optical properties of calcined ZnO and Mg(x)Zn(1-x)O nanofibers. Following an appropriate aqueous solution preparation of magnesium acetate (MgAc) and zinc acetate (ZnAc) with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), electrospinning is performed and then as-spun nanofibers are calcined in an air atmosphere at 600 °C for 3 h. As-spun and calcined nanofiber diameters and morphologies are evaluated with scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopies, whereas crystalline microstructural interpretations of ZnO and Mg(x)Zn(1-x)O are conducted with wide-angle X-ray diffraction spectra (XRD). Surface chemical composition and elemental evaluation of calcined nanofibers are examined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and optical properties and crystal defect analyses of the calcined nanofibers are conducted with photoluminescence spectra (PL). We observe a sharp reduction in fiber diameter upon calcination as a result of the removal of organic species from the fibers and conversion of ceramic precursors into ceramic nanofibers, and the appearance of a range of fiber morphologies from "bead in a string" to "sesame seed" coverage depending on fiber composition. Because Zn(2+) and Mg(2+) have similar ionicity and atomic radii, some Zn(2+) atoms are replaced by Mg(2+) atoms in the crystals, leading to a change in the properties of crystal lattices. The band gap energy of the calcined fibers increases significantly with addition of Mg(2+) along with an increase in the ultraviolet (UV) photoluminescence emission of the fibers.

The characteristic processing behavior for growth of a conformal nanoscale hybrid organic-inorganic modification to polyamide 6 (PA6) by sequential vapor infiltration (SVI) is demonstrated. The SVI process is a materials growth technique by which exposure of organometallic vapors to a polymeric material promotes the formation of a hybrid organic-inorganic modification at the near surface region of the polymer. This work investigates the SVI exposure temperature and cycling times of sequential exposures of trimethylaluminum (TMA) on PA6 fiber mats. The result of TMA exposure is the preferential subsurface organic-inorganic growth by diffusion into the polymer and reaction with the carbonyl in PA6. Mass gain, infrared spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy analysis indicate enhanced materials growth and uniformity at lower processing temperatures. The inverse relationship between mass gain and exposure temperature is explained by the formation of a hybrid layer that prevents the diffusion of TMA into the polymer to react with the PA6 upon subsequent exposure cycles. As few as 10 SVI exposure cycles are observed to saturate the growth, yielding a modified thickness of ∼75 nm and mass increase of ∼14 wt %. Removal of the inherent PA6 moisture content reduces the mass gain by ∼4 wt % at low temperature exposures. The ability to understand the characteristic growth process is critical for the development of the hybrid materials fabrication and modification techniques.