Improvement in the Electrical Properties of Nickel-Plated Steel Using Graphitic Carbon Coatings

Thin layers of highly conductive graphitic carbon are deposited onto nickel‐plated steel substrates using a direct photothermal chemical vapor deposition (PTCVD) technique. The coated nickel‐plated steel substrates improve electrical properties (sheet resistance and interfacial contact resistance [ICR]) compared with pristine nickel‐plated steel, which makes it a cost‐effective alternative to stainless steel for steel producers to use in high‐end electrical applications such as energy storage and microelectronics. The coated nickel‐plated steel is found to have ≈10% reduction in sheet resistance and 200 times reduction in ICR (under compression at 140 N cm−2), compared with pristine nickel‐plated steel. ICR is also three times lower than that of a benchmark gold‐coated stainless steel equivalent at the same pressure

Covalent immobilization of a TiW₅ polyoxometalate on derivatized silicon surfaces

Covalent ties: The polyoxometalate (nBu4N)3[(MeO) TiW5O18] is easily anchored to alkanol-functionalized surfaces of porous and single-crystal silicon (see picture, polyhedra: polyoxometalate, dark blue: Si surface). Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals the growth of 35-50 nm diameter islands on functionalized Si(111), which suggests that the immobilized polyoxometalates act as nucleation sites for electrostatic aggregation. \ua9 2005 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Covalent and non-covalent attachment and patterning of polypyrrole at silicon surfaces

Two methods for attaching polypyrrole to semiconductor substrates were explored that may prove useful in the construction of molecular-based electronic devices. The use of small molecule alkenyl-pyrrole derivatives allowed covalent cross-linking of polypyrrole to silicon surfaces to form a robust interface. The use of non-covalent, or supramolecular, interactions based on DNA-polypyrrole was also used to fabricate similar interfaces