This book starts with an extended introductory treatise on the fundamentals before moving on to a detailed description of the new methods of purification of transition metals and rare earth metals.

During my professional career, I developed a strong interest in sol-gel technology, and worked on both xerogel and aerogel systems. My fascination with aerogels has driven me to explore their commercial potential, which is currently an important component of my company's business plan. Together with my co-workers, I have also worked on the preparation of controlled PZT and silica xerogels as well as thin film coatings of metals by the sol-gel technology, These experiences convinced me of the tremendous potentials of this technology. A conviction that is shared by many scientists, engineers, and business leaders around the globe. Many sol-gel derived products are already articles of commerce. However, to expand the commercial potential of sol-gel technology, two challenges must be met: (1) the quality of sol-gel derived products must continue to meet or exceed the quality of competing products, (2) the production cost of sol-gel products (specially aerogels) must continued to decline. A key to lowering the costs of sol-gel products is finding inexpensive precursors.

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Materials Processing at High Gravity, held at Clarkson University, May 29 to June 2, 2000. There were 73 attendees from 16 countries. Since the topics extended well beyond materials processing, it was felt appropriate to name this proceedings "Centrifugal Processing." Processing by Centrifugation includes the traditional bench-scale centrifuges, as well as all rotating systems utilizing the centrifugal and Coriolis forces to provide unique performance. Centrifugation led to the formation of sticky porous Teflon membranes, as well as improved polymeric solar cells. Centrifugation on large equipment improved the chemical vapor deposition of diamond films, influenced the growth and dissolution of semiconductor crystals, and elucidated the influence of gravity on coagulation of colloidal Teflon. A million g centrifuge was constructed and used to study sedimentation in solids and to prepare compositionally graded materials and new phases. Rotation of a pipe about its axis allowed the casting of large-diameter metal alloy pipes as well as coating the interior of pipes with a cermet utilizing self-propagating high-temperature synthesis. Such coatings are highly corrosion and erosion resistant. Flow on a rotating disk was shown to be useful for process intensification, such as large-scale manufacturing of nano-particles, polymerization reactions, and heat & mass transfer. Several theoretical studies dealt with the influence of rotation on fluid convection on surfaces and in pipes, tubes, and porous media. These have applications to integrated-circuit chip manufacturing, alloy casting, oil production, crystal growth, and the operation of rotating machinery.

With collaborative product development in a geographically distributed environment and global outsourcing becoming normal for many companies, it is imperative to bring academics, researchers and industrialists together to share research ideas and best practice. The European-Asia Symposium on Engineering Design and Manufacture (EASED 2004) provides such a platform and aims to increase the exchange of ideas and best practice among practitioners and researchers from two major global regions - Europe and Asia. As the manufacturing activities, associated with the design activities in European, American and Japan, are being transferred to Asia, it is timely to organise this International Symposium. The Symposium brings together research experts and industrialists to focus on the issues related to these global changes. This geographical distribution of tasks involved in the whole engineering product realisation process brings great challenge as well as huge benefits. This Symposium provides a platform for academic researchers and industrial practitioners to exchange ideas used to address the challenges presented by this new global economic development. This book presents 75 papers from 185 accepted refereed papers presented at EASED2004.

Integrating both theoretical and applied aspects of electrochemistry, this acclaimed monograph series presents a review of the latest advances in the field. The current volume includes chapters on the mechanism of nerve excitation from an electrochemical standpoint, the electronic factor in the kinetics of charge-transfer reaction, and five other subjects.

The integration of top-down lithographic techniques with synthetic organic and inorganic technologies is a key challenge for the development of effective nanosca1e devices. In terms of assembly, nanoparticles provide an excellent tool for bridging the gap between the resolution of electron beam lithography (-60 nm) and the molecular level. Nanoparticles possess an array of unique properties associated with their core materials, including distinctive magnetic, photonic and electronic behavior. This behavior can be controlled and applied through monolayer functionalization and assembly strategies, making nanoparticles both scaffolds and building blocks for nanotechnology. The diverse structures and properties of nanoparticles makes them useful tools for both fundamental studies and pragmatic applications in a range of disciplines. This volume is intended to provide an integrated overview of the synthesis and assembly of nanoparticles, and their applications in chemistry, biology, and materials science. The first three chapters focus on the creation and intrinsic properties of nanoparticles, covering some of the myriad core materials and shapes that have been created. The remaining chapters of the book discuss the assembly of nanoparticles, and applications of both discrete particles and particle assemblies in a wide range of fields, including device and sensor fabrication, catalysis, biology, and nanosca1e electronic and magnetic systems.

In September 1985, in an attempt to simulate the chemistry in a carbon star, Harry Kroto, Bob Curl and Richard Smalley set up a mass spectrometry experiment to study the plasma produced by focusing a pulsed laser on solid graphite. Serendipitously, a dominant 720 amu mass peak corresponding to a C60 species was revealed in the time-of-flight mass spectrum of the resulting carbon clusters. It was proposed that this C60 cluster had the closed cage structure of a truncated icosahedron (a soccerball) and was named Buckminsterfullerene because geodesic dome concepts, pioneered by the architect Buckminster Fuller, played an important part in arriving at this solution. The signal for a C70 species (840 amu) , proposed to have the ellipsoidal shape of a rugbyball, was also prominent in the early experiments. Five years later, the seminal work of the Sussex! Rice collaboration was triumphantly confirmed as Wolfgang Krlitschmer and Donald Huffman succeeded in producing, and separating, bulk crystalline samples of fullerene material from arc-processed (in an inert gas atmosphere) carbon deposits. From then onwards, fullerene research continued, and still proceeds, at an exhilarating pace. The materials excited the imagination of many diverse classes of scientists, resulting in a truly interdisciplinary field. Many of our old, seemingly well-founded, preconceptions in carbon science had to be radically altered or totally abandoned, as a new round world of chemistry, physics and materials science began to unfold.

Materials and Processes for Surface and Interface Engineering, which has been written by experts in the fields of deposition technology and surface modification techniques, offers up to date tutorial papers on the latest advances in surface and interface engineering. The emphasis is on fundamental aspects, principles and applications of plasma and ion beam processing technology. A handbook for the engineer and scientist as well as an introduction for students in several branches of materials science and surface engineering.

This volume represents the primary lectures of the NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Modern Technology," which was held at Sarigerme Park (near the Dalaman Airport) on the southern Aegean shore of Turkey from August 23 to September 4, 1992. As indicated in the title, this ASI was aimed at examining, displaying, and perhaps influencing, the role of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in modern technological activity. The lectures summarized in this volume and the numerous short contributed talks and posters were primarily aimed at the question, "What is NMR doing in support of modern technology?" During the main discussion periods and the numerous small scheduled meetings of specific interest groups this same topic was also addressed, along with questions like, "What could or should NMR be doing in support of modern technology?" With this kind of subject orientation, the organizers attempted to include a large participation at the ASI from scientists and engineers from diverse private industries in which NMR does, or perhaps should, play a substantial role in supporting or optimizing technology. Perhaps because of a combination of worldwide industrial contractions and residual corporate nervousness regarding the then recent Gulf War (which caused a one-year postponement of this ASI), the participation from private industry was numerically disappointing. We hope that this book will serve to bring the role of NMR in modern industry to the attention of numerous industrial scientists and engineers who were unable to attend the AS .

A humoristic view of the physics of soft matter, which nevertheless has a ring of truth to it, is that it is an ill-defined subject which deals with ill-condensed matter by ill-defined methods. Although, since the Nobel prize was awarded to Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, this subject can be no longer shrugged-away as "sludge physics" by the physics community, it is still not viewed universally as "main stream" physics. While, at first glance, this may be considered as another example of inertia, a case of the "establishment" against the "newcomer", the roots of this prejudice are much deeper and can be traced back to Roger Bacon's conception about the objectivity of science. All of us would agree with the weaker form of this idea which simply says that the final results of our work should be phrased in an observer-independent way and be communicable to anybody who made the effort to learn this language. There exists, however, a stronger form of this idea according to which the above criteria of "objectivity" and "communicability" apply also to the process of scientific inquiry. The fact that major progress in the physics of soft matter was made in apparent violation of this approach, by applying intuition to problems which appeared to defy rigorous analysis, may explain why many physicists feel somewhat ill-at-ease with this subject.

The area of macromolecular and supramolecular science and engineering has gained substantial interest and importance during the last decade and many applications can be envisioned in the future. The rapid developments in this interdisciplinary area justify a snapshot of the state-of-the-art in the research of materials and processes that is given in this monograph. This monograph is based primarily on synthetic architectures and systems covered by the contents of selected plenary and invited lectures delivered at the 1st International Symposium on Macro- and Supramolecular Architectures and Materials (MAM-01): Biological and Synthetic Systems, which was held from 11-14 April 2001 on the international campus of the Kwangju Institute of Science and Technology (K-JIST) in Kwangju, South Korea. In addition, it contains several complementing contributions in this novel field of science dealing with synthetic architectures and represents a unique compilation of reviewed research accounts of the in-depth knowledge of macromolecular and supramolecular materials and processes. It comprises 22 pioneering chapters written by 64 renowned experts from 13 different countries.

Magnetism encompasses a wide range of systems and physical phenomena, and its study has posed and exposed both important fundamental problems and many practical applications. Recently, several entirely new phenomena have thus been discovered, generated through cooperative behaviour which could not have been predicted from a knowledge of `one-spin' states. At the same time, advances in sample preparation, experimental technique, apparatus and radiation sources, have led to increasing precision in the investigation and exposure of greater subtleties in magnetic thin films, multilayers and other systems. Examples of unexpected and conceptually new phenomena occur in strongly correlated and fluctuating quantum systems, producing effects such as Haldane and spin-Peierls gaps, solitons, quantum spin glasses and spin liquids. The discovery and elucidation of these `emerging properties' is a central theme in modern condensed matter physics. The present book comprises a series of chapters by world experts, covering both theoretical and experimental aspects. The approach is pedagogical and tutorial, but fully up to date, covering the latest research. The level is appropriate to graduate researchers who may either be just moving into the field or who are already active in condensed matter physics.

This up-to-date monograph provides a thorough review of the relevant data and properties of the transition-metal impurities generated during silicon-sample and device fabrication. The different mechanisms responsible for contamination are discussed, and a survey is given of their impact on device performance. The specific properties of the main and rare impurities in silicon are examined, as well as the detection methods and requirements in modern technology. This new edition includes important recent data and many new tables.

Just over 25 years ago the first laser-excited Raman spectrum of any crystal was obtained. In November 1964, Hobden and Russell reported the Raman spectrum of GaP and later, in June 1965, Russell published the Si spectrum. Then, in July 1965, the forerunner of a series of meetings on light scattering in solids was held in Paris. Laser Raman spectroscopy of semiconductors was at the forefront in new developments at this meeting. Similar meetings were held in 1968 (New York), 1971 (Paris) and 1975 (Campinas). Since then, and apart from the multidisciplinary biennial International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy there has been no special forum for experts in light scattering spectroscopy of semiconductors to meet and discuss latest developments. Meanwhile, technological advances in semiconductor growth have given rise to a veritable renaissance in the field of semiconductor physics. Light scattering spectroscopy has played a crucial role in the advancement of this field, providing valuable information about the electronic, vibrational and structural properties both of the host materials, and of heterogeneous composite structures. On entering a new decade, one in which technological advances in lithography promise to open even broader horirons for semiconductor physics, it seemed to us to be an ideal time to reflect on the achievements of the past decade, to be brought up to date on the current state-of-the-art, and to catch some glimpses of where the field might be headed in the 1990s.

* Much progress has been made in the last 8 years in understanding the theory and practice of silane coupling agents. A major advance in this direction was the measurement of true equilibrium constants for the hydroly sis and formation of siloxane bonds. Equilibrium constants for bond reten tion are so favorable that a silane coupling agent on silica has a thousandfold advantage for bond retention in the presence of water over an alkoxysilane bond formed from hydroxy-functional polymers and silica. In practice, the bonds of certain epoxies to silane-primed glass resist debonding by water about a thousand times as long as the epoxy bond to unprimed glass. Oxane bonds of silane coupling agents to metal oxides seem to follow the same mechanism of equilibrium hydrolysis and rebonding, although equilibrium constants have not been measured for individual metal-oxygen silicon bonds. This suggests, however, that methods of improving bond retention to glass will also improve the water resistance of bonds to metals. of standard coupling agents with a hydrophobic silane or one Modification with extra siloxane cross-linking have improved the water resistance of bonds to glass and metals another hundredfold over that obtained with single coupling agents."

This book is chiefly intended for those who are using microbicides for the protection of materials. Another purpose is to inform teachers and students working on biodeterioration and to show today's technical standard to those engaged in R&D activities in the microbicide field. When trying to classify, or to subclassify, material-protecting microbicides according to their mode of action, e.g. as membrane-active and electrophilic active ingredients, it turned out that a clear assignment was not always possible. For that reason the author has resorted to chemistry's principle of classifying according to groups of substances (e.g. alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, esters, amides, etc.), thus providing the first necessary information about the micro bicides' properties. The description of the various groups of substances includes, whenever possible, an outline of the mode and mechanism of action of the active ingredients involved. The effective use of microbicides presupposes knowledge of their character istics. That is why the microbicides' chemico-physical properties, their toxicity, ecotoxicity, effectiveness, and effective spectrum are described in greater detail. As mentioned before, the characteristics of microbicides play an important role. They have to be suited to the intended application to avoid detrimental effects on the properties and the quality of the material to be protected; also production processes in which microbicides are used to avoid disturbances by microbial action must not be disturbed by the presence of those microbicides."

Since the publication of the first edition of The Physics of Glassy Polymers there have been substantial developments in both the theory and application of polymer physics, and many new materials have been introduced. Furthermore, in this large and growing field of knowledge, glassy polymers are of particular interest because of their homogeneous structure, which is fundamentally simpler than that of crystalline or reinforced materials. This new edition covers all these developments, including the emergence of the polymer molecule with its multiplicity of structure and conformations as the major factor controlling the properties of glassy polymers, using the combined knowledge of a distinguished team of contributors. With an introductory chapter covering the established science in the subject are and summarising concepts assumed in the later chapters, this fully revised and updated second edition is an essential work of reference for those involved in the field.

Purpose ofthe Workshop In the spirit of enhancing developments in science and technology by facilitating international scientific cooperation, the Science Committee of NATO is sponsoring AR W's in several selected priority areas. The objective of this workshop was to discuss what microbial mediated problems have been experienced in the area of nuclear waste management and spent fuel storage. Long term storage of high-level wastes in repositories is just starting in some countries. However, low and medium level wastes have been stored for several decades. In the area of spent fuel interim, storage has been extended at many locations far beyond the intended time. It was a priority of the workshop to examine and discuss what deleterious effects have been observed under these storage conditions or under conditions used in simulated trial tests for predicting material performance under the storage conditions. For example, one chronic problem that was discussed was possibility that microbial influenced corrosion (MIC) could be taking place in the wet storage of spent fuel thereby initiating or accelerating the process of corrosion. Another discussion in the area of waste forms, focused on the presence ofbiofilms which may be breaking down the structure of the waste form and thereby jeopardizing its integrity. The meeting focused on discussing the observations and data collected relating to problems encountered in the storage of these types of wastes, and sharing this information with others that have not monitored their facilities for similar problems.

Modern manufacturing industry is focusing its interests on the potential offered by the laser, in combination with other new technologies such as optical fibres, automation, computing and flexible manufacturing systems, to give new and powerful methods for non-destructive testing, in-process quality assurance, laser material processing and process control, and laser robotics. The greatest opportunities for the laser are in those areas where flexibility, automation, CAD/CAM integration, precision, cost reduction, and time to market are important factors. The examples covered here are mainly drawn from the automotive industry, where all these factors are imperative, and where the CO2, Nd-YAG and excimer laser sources are already making their contribution to the manufacturing process.

An innovative, unified, and comprehensive treatment of the geometric and electronic structure of surfaces. The book emphasizes fundamental aspects, such as the principles of surface crystallography and thermodynamics, the forces driving the rearrangement of the atoms, and the relationship between bonding and electronic structure. It especially illuminates the relationship between surface orientation, chemistry, energetics, and the resulting properties. Principles of Surface Physics develops general physical arguments and methods that enable readers to analyse novel surfaces and interfaces of new materials. This makes the book an indispensable reference to all those studying growth, surface-molecule interactions, self-assembled structures, and materials engineering.

This conference is the second on the Science and Technology of Thin Film Superconductors. It proved to be an excellent forum for these specialists in thin film superconductivity. The conference, held April 30-May 4, 1990, in Denver, Colorado, hosted 170 researchers from 17 countries. The response to the conference again emphasized the need for a meeting devoted to the science and technology of thin film superconductors. The breadth of artic1es and advances made in this technology since the first conference in November 1988, reflect on the maturity of the topic. These proceedings contain artic1es on deposition methods by sputtering, e1ectron beam evaporation, resistive evaporation, laser ablation, chemical vapor deposition and electrodeposition, and on other studies related to substrates, thermodynamics of formation, grain boundaries and weak links, characterization, and some practical applications. The program committee was pleased with the quality of the publications and contributed articles. This conference was highlighted by a fuU day dedicated to presentations from the federallaboratories, discussing a wide range of topics on the fabrication, characterization, and theory of high-temperature superconductor thin films. Other highlights at the conference dealt with (1) critical parameters or problems in measuring critical current density and other important parameters, and (2) problems of scale-up, reproducibility, and amenability to device fabrication. It became evident from the presentations that three issues were developing into critical issues for the ultimate practical application of high temperature superconductor thin films."

The first U. S. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center Atomic Force/Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (AFM/STM) Symposium was held on lune 8-10, 1993 in Natick, Massachusetts. This book represents the compilation of the papers presented at the meeting. The purpose ofthis symposium was to provide a forum where scientists from a number of diverse fields could interact with one another and exchange ideas. The various topics inc1uded application of AFM/STM in material sciences, polymers, physics, biology and biotechnology, along with recent developments inc1uding new probe microscopies and frontiers in this exciting area. The meeting's format was designed to encourage communication between members of the general scientific community and those individuals who are at the cutting edge of AFM, STM and other probe microscopies. It immediately became clear that this conference enabled interdisciplinary interactions among researchers from academia, industry and government, and set the tone for future collaborations. Expert scientists from diverse scientific areas including physics, chemistry, biology, materials science and electronics were invited to participate in the symposium. The agenda of the meeting was divided into three major sessions. In the first session, Biological Nanostructure, topics ranged from AFM ofDNA to STM imagmg ofthe biomoleeule tubulin and bacterialluciferase to the AFM of starch polymer double helices to AFM imaging of food surfaces.

This book is intended to help satisfy an urgent requirement for up-to date comprehensive texts at graduate and senior undergraduate levels on the subjects in non-destructive testing (NDT). The subject matter here is confined to electrical and magnetic methods, with emphasis on the widely used eddy current and magnetic flux leakage methods (including particle inspection), but proper attention is paid to other techniques, such as microwave and AC field applications, which are rapidly growing in importance. Theoretical analyses relating to the various methods are discussed and the depths of presentation are often governed by whether or not the information is readily available elsewhere. Thus, for example, a considerable amount of space is devoted to eddy current theory at what the author considers to be a reasonable standard and not, as usually experienced, in either a too elementary manner or at a level appreciated only by a postgraduate theoretical physicist. The inclusion of the introductory chapter is intended to acquaint the reader with some of the philosophy of NDT and to compare, briefly, the relative performances of the more important methods of testing."

Rail integrity is a current application of engineering fracture mechanics at a practical level. Although railroad rails have been manufactured and used for more than a century, it is only in the last ten years that the effects of their crack propagation and fracture characteristics have been considered from a rational viewpoint. The J, Jractical objectives are to develop damage tolerance delines for rail inspection and to improve the fracture resistance of new rail productiOn. Rail fatigue crack propagation rates and fracture resistance are strongly influenced by residual stresses, which are introduced into the rail both during proouction and in service. Therefore, the rail residual stress field must be well understood before fracture mechanics can be usefully applied to the subject of rail integrity. The three-dintensional character of rail and its stress fields make it essential to apply both experimental and analytical methods in order to twderstand the effects of pro duction and service variables on residual stress and the effects of the stress on fatigue crack propagation and fracture. This volume brings to ether field observations and experimental stress analysis of railroad rails in the Umted States and Europe. The ongoing search for an efficient and accurate technique is emphasized. A companion volume brings together several analytical investigations, based on advanced compu tational mechanics methods, for correlation of the experimental data as well as eval uation of the effects of residual stress on rail integrity."

The aim of the book is to present, in a novel and unified fashion, the elements of Mechanics in Material Space or Configurational Mechanics, with applications to fracture and defect mechanics. This mechanics, in contrast to Newtonian mechanics in physical space, is concerned with defects such as cracks and dislocations, which are embedded in the material and might move in it. The level is kept accessible to any engineer, scientist or graduate student possessing some knowledge of calculus and partial differential equations, and working in the various areas where rational use of materials is essential.