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An increase in production of commercial products containing graphene-family nanomaterials (GFNs) has led to concern over their release into the environment. The fate and potential ecotoxicological effects of GFNs in the environment are currently unclear, partially due to the limited analytical methods for GFN measurements. In this review, the unique properties of GFNs that are useful for their detection and quantification are discussed. The capacity of several classes of techniques to identify and/or quantify GFNs in different environmental matrices (water, soil, sediment, and organisms), after environmental transformations, and after release from a polymer matrix of a product is evaluated. Extraction and strategies to combine methods for more accurate discrimination of GFNs from environmental interferences as well as from other carbonaceous nanomaterials are recommended. Overall, a comprehensive review of the techniques available to detect and quantify GFNs are systematically presented to inform the state of the science, guide researchers in their selection of the best technique for the system under investigation, and enable further development of GFN metrology in environmental matrices. Two case studies are described to provide practical examples of choosing which techniques to utilize for detection or quantification of GFNs in specific scenarios. Because the available quantitative techniques are somewhat limited, more research is required to distinguish GFNs from other carbonaceous materials and improve the accuracy and detection limits of GFNs at more environmentally relevant concentrations.

We show that when a small amount of heat is added close to a liquid-vapor interface of a captive gas bubble in a microchannel, interphase mass-transfer through the bubble can occur in a controlled manner with only a slight change in the temperature of the fluid. We demonstrate that this method, which we refer to as bubble-assisted interphase mass-transfer (BAIM), can be applied to interphase chemical separations, e.g., simple distillation, without the need for high temperatures, vacuum, or active cooling. Although any source of localized heating could be used, we illustrate BAIM with an all-optical technique that makes use of the plasmon resonance in an array of nanoscale metal structures that are incorporated into the channel to produce localized heating of the fluid when illuminated by a stationary low-power laser.

A continuum model is presented which accounts for the spatial variation in properties and the long range electrostatic interactions in functionally graded ferroelectric thin films with an emphasis on the dielectric behavior. It is found that the parallel electrode configuration results in a strong temperature dependence of the dielectric constant due to the strong electrostatic interactions between the different layers.

Wire desorbed radicals present during hot wire chemical vapor deposition growth are measured by quadrupole mass spectrometry. Calculation of the relative rates for the various wire kinetic processes, coupled with experimental observations, reveals that silicon diffusion through the silicide is the slowest process, followed by Si evaporation, with SiH(sub 4) decomposition being the fastest.

We prepared highly aligned, biaxially textured BaxPb1-xTiO3 (PBT) on amorphous Si3N4 by using an ion-beam-assisted deposited MgO as a template layer. PBT was deposited on a biaxially textured MgO using sol-gel synthesis, metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition, and molecular beam epitaxy. The biaxial texture of the PBT was inherited from the MgO template. The reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments suggest that exposure of the MgO template to atmospheric moisture before PBT heteroepitaxy resulted in a significant narrowing of the PBT in-plane orientation distribution. The microstructures of the biaxially textured PBT films were analyzed by x-ray diffraction, RHEED, and TEM. The dynamic contact mode electrostatic force microscopy polarization hysteresis loops confirmed that these films are ferroelectric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]