Carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum (Al) composites were produced by hot-press and hot-extrusion methods. The interfacial structure between the carbon nanotube and Al was examined using a transmission electron microscope (TEM), and the mechanical properties were measured by a tensile test. TEM observations have shown that the nanotubes in the composites are not damaged during the composite preparation and that no reaction products at the nanotube/Al interface are visible after annealing for 24 h at 983 K. The strength of the composites is only slightly affected by the annealing time at 873 K, while that of the pure Al produced in a similar powder metallurgy process significantly decreases with time. These studies are considered to yield experimental information valuable for producing high performance composites.

Carbon nanotubes, a kind of high order fullerenes, offers remarkable electronic as well as mechanical properties, e.g., an extremely high Young’s modulus of TPa order has been reported. This suggests the suitability of carbon nanotubes as novel fiber materials for metal matrix composites. The authors demonstrate that Ti/ nanotube composites show a large increase in hardness and Young’s modulus as compared to pure Ti. This makes the composite an attractive advanced material for future applications.

We have observed interference fringes of electrons in field emission patterns from multiwalled carbon nanotubes at 60 K. The observed fringe pattern is reproduced by calculations based on the formula of Young's interference of two beams. Three-beam interference has also been detected over short time periods. We discuss the reason why Young's interference appears in the electron emission pattern in accelerating fields.

We present a detailed study of the magnetic and crystal-field properties of the hexagonal Kondo lattice YbCu 3 Al 2 , using 170 Yb Mössbauer spectroscopy in the temperature range 0.1 K-50 K. L III -edge x-ray absorption spectra at 10 K and 300 K were also obtained; they indicate that the Yb ion is very close to trivalent over the whole temperature range. In the antiferromagnetic phase, the thermal variation of the Yb 3+ spontaneous moment has been measured and the derived transition temperature (T N = 1.95 K) is in agreement with previous specific heat and magnetic data. In the paramagnetic phase, the two components g z and g ⊥ of the g-tensor of the Yb 3+ ground crystal-field doublet have been measured. These g-values cannot be accounted for by a crystal-field-only model, and we interpret this in terms of a Kondo reduction of the paramagnetism (T > T N ) and of the spontaneous moment (T < T N ), with a Kondo temperature T K 2.3 K. In addition, the spectra in the antiferromagnetic phase show inhomogeneous broadenings due to the presence of random distortions with respect to the hexagonal Yb site symmetry, and, close to T N , dynamical effects are clearly evident and allow the Yb 3+ fluctuation frequency to be measured in the magnetically ordered phase.

A method for quantifying the nanomechanics of nanomaterials was developed using a nanoprobe manipulator fitted into a transmission electron microscope. Apparent Young’s moduli of various carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were measured using this method. The apparent Young’s modulus of an arc-grown CNT is as large as approximately 3.3TPa, which is close to the theoretical Young’s modulus (5.5TPa) of the single-walled CNT simulated using molecular dynamics. The relationship between the apparent Young’s modulus and the crystallinity of CNTs is demonstrated using the crystallinity parameter ID∕IG derived by Raman spectroscopic analysis. The apparent Young’s modulus is higher for better crystallinity of CNT.