Focus on Materials

Goodfellow offers titanium products in a variety of forms. The metal, as strong as steel at half the weight, is used to address corrosion and strength issues in the aerospace and chemical industries. Titanium can be supplied in microfoil (0.1–1.0 µm thick), foil (0.0001–3.2 µm thick), sheet (7–12 mm thick), mesh, (0.23 mm wire diameter), wire (0.05–1 mm o.d.), rod (2–50 mm o.d.), tube (10.3–25.4 mm o.d.), powder (45–150 µm particle size), lump (5–10 mm lump size, and sputtering target (up to 99.99% pure). Goodfellow also offers Ti alloys that contain iron, aluminum, vanadium, or tungsten. Custom alloy fabrication is also available. Goodfellow Corporation, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Berwyn, Pennsylvania 19312-1780, http://www.goodfellow.com

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NanoDevices has developed the EasyTube NanoFurnace, which enables users to produce both singlewall carbon nanotubes and multiwall carbon nanotubes directly on device substrates. The design uses the carbon decomposition and catalyzed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques that are both scalable and compatible with integrated circuit and microelectromechanical systems manufacturing processes. Nanotube species are controlled through the appropriate selection of process gases; the direction and location of nanotube growth can be controlled through properly designed substrates and patterning of the catalyst. Carbon feedstock comes from the decomposition of methane or ethylene in the elevated temperatures (700–1000°C) of the furnace. The decomposition occurs only at the catalyst sites, reducing the amorphous carbon generated in the process. NanoDevices Inc, 5571 Ekwill Street, Santa Barbara, California 93111, http://www.nanodevices.com

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Porous Materials has introduced the Capillary Liquid Extrusion Porometer, an instrument that can be used to measure industrial characteristics such as permeability, barrier properties, pore size, and pore distribution of porous materials. Reportedly, it is the only instrument that can determine pore volume without using mercury. The sample is soaked in a liquid that spontaneously fills the sample’s pores. The pressure of a nonreacting gas on the top of the sample is increased to displace the liquid from the pores. The volume of displaced liquid is measured and the pore diameter is obtained from the pressure. To determine liquid permeability, the volume of liquid flowing out of the sample when the pressure is increased is measured. The Porometer uses no toxic materials, and the pressures required are very low. Porous Materials Inc, Cornell University Research Park, 83 Brown Road, Building 4, Ithaca, New York 14S50, http://www.pmiapp.com

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Sigma-Aldrich supplies a wide range of electronic polymers, plastic materials that can act as metals with high electrical conductivity. Hence the term “synthetic metals.” The addition of nonstoichiometric quantities of chemical species (dopants) to the polymers can result in dramatic changes in other characteristics of the materials, including electrochemical, magnetic, optical, and structural properties and dimensions. The company’s offerings of conducting and semiconducting polymers from the main polymer classes include polyacetylene, polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, PPV [poly(1,4-phenylene vinylene)], and PFE [poly(fluorenylene ethylnylene)]. Also offered are monomer precursors to enable synthesis of semiconducting and conducting polymers or co-polymers, as well as light-emitting polymers used in the manufacture of multilayer LEDs. Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, 3050 Spruce Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, http://www.sigma-aldrich.com

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FEI has announced the Strata DB 235M DualBeam SEM, a small-stage (50-mm) system that combines scanning electron and focused ion beam technologies to provide 3D analysis and characterization of materials. The electron beam in the DualBeam system images a selected area while the ion beam acts as a microsurgical tool. The finely focused beam precisely removes or deposits material on a sub-micrometer scale without altering the material’s properties; it can create the thin cross section required for site-specific transmission electron microscope evaluation. The Strata DB 235M allows studies below the sample surface to examine the structural composition, layer morphology, and existing material defects or failures. FEI Company, 7451 NW Evergreen Parkway, Hillsboro, Oregon 97124-5830, http://www.feicompany.com

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Cianflone Scientific Instruments has introduced the Compact Port Optical Emission Spectrometer, manufactured by BELEC in Germany. This portable, lightweight metal analyzer can perform onsite alloy identification and elemental analysis and can measure in seconds many trace elements, including carbon, phosphorous, and sulfur. The Compact Port can be configured to analyze many base materials, such as iron, copper, aluminum, nickel, titanium, cobalt, magnesium, lead, zinc, and tin. It can be equipped with the BELEC probe connector; various sparking probes can be plugged into the connector and argon- or air-flushed probes are available for precision analysis. The spectrometer can be used for measurement inside vessels, on pipes at construction sites, or in scrap yards. Cianflone Scientific Instruments Corp, 228 RIDC Park West Drive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15275-1002, http://www.cianflone.com

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TDI develops bulk crystals, epitaxial structures, and devices made from wide-bandgap semiconductor materials. These products include silicon carbide and the Group III nitrides (gallium nitride, aluminum nitride, and indium nitride) with applications in short-wavelength optoelectronics and high-power, high-frequency, and high-temperature electronics. The company is currently supplying products such as SiC epitaxial wafers with reduced defect density, GaN-on-SiC, GaN-onsapphire, AlN-on-SiC, and AlN-on-sapphire epitaxial wafers. TDI Inc, 8660 Dakota Drive, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877, http://www.tdii.com

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Nanopowder Enterprises invents and develops proprietary technologies for producing nanopowders, nanostructured coatings, nanocrystalline films, nanoparticle suspensions and bulk nanomaterials. The technologies are either sold or licensed to larger manufacturers. The company’s line includes nanopowders for lithium-based rechargeable battery electrodes, nanopowders of high-purity alumina, tungsten carbide thermal-spray feedstock powder, suspensions of oxide nanopowders, and specialty nanopowders such as magnesium oxide, titanium oxide, and tin oxide. Another product is transparent ceramiclike nanocomposite coatings on the surface of polycarbonate material to impart scratch resistance. Nanopowder Enterprises Inc, 120 Centennial Avenue, Suite 106, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-3908, http://www.nanopowderenterprises.com

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The Red Mini high-vacuum tube furnaces from R. D. Webb provide a means of simultaneously reaching high temperatures and high vacuum levels. The standard Red Mini furnace uses a semitransparent gold-coated glass tube and a quartz process tube, which allows observation of the work samples to temperatures up to 1000°C. The Red Mini E and Red Mini S, which use ceramic fiber insulation and alumina process tubes, can reach maximum temperatures of 1200°C and 1500°C, respectively. All of the furnaces achieve a vacuum level of 10⁻⁵ torr using a two-stage mechanical vacuum pump and a 60 L/s diffusion pump; the furnaces are also available with oil-free diaphragm roughing pumps and turbomolecular high-vacuum pumps. The standard Red Mini and the Red Mini S models use the same control system as the company’s earlier Red Devil and Red Turbo furnaces. R. D. Webb Company, 6 Huron Drive, Natick, Massachusetts 01760, http://www.rdwebb.com

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Silicon Thermal has introduced the Powercool active thermal control system operating from −55°C to 130°C for semiconductor testing. It consists of the company’s LB320 controller, a z-axis Powerdrive actuator, and a wide range of thermal heads. The LB320 can deliver 320 W of cooling power, can maintain temperature to ±0.1°C, and can ramp temperature at 7°C/s using an integral 16-step ramp/soak programmer. The Powerdrive actuator enables the thermal head to engage any device type on the user’s test board. The thermal heads incorporate precision sensors for true case-temperature sensing and control and range from the 60-W TH60 to the 320-W TH320. The Powercool’s solid-state bench-top design eliminates the need for liquid nitrogen or compressed air. Silicon Thermal Inc, 888 Villa Street, Suite 200, Mountain View, California 94041, http://www.siliconthermal.com

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MatWeb from MarkeTech International is a free materials database with information on more than 26 000 materials including metals, alloys, ceramics, semiconductors, fibers, and thermoplastic and thermoset polymers. MarkeTech International Inc, 4750 Magnolia Street, Port Townsend, Washington 98368, http://www.matweb.com

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The new 2002–2003 Precious Metal Compounds and Catalysts catalog is available from Alfa Aesar. The 52-page publication lists platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, gold, silver, and osmium, and both heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts. Alfa Aesar, A Johnson Matthey Company, 30 Bond Street, Ward Hill, Massachusetts 01835-8099, http://www.alfa.com

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