Recent Patents on Materials Science - Volume 3, Issue 1, 2010

The aim of the present work is to bring together, in a coherent way, recently-patented technologies in the field of polymer-clay composites, in order to provide scientists and engineers in this area with a quick guide on the most up-todate inventions. It is well known that in recent years polymer-clay composites have received increased attention for their ability to improve polymer properties, including gas barrier, heat deflection t Read More

In this review article recent studies about the corrosion and the influence of corrosion on the surface magnetic properties of amorphous and nanocrystalline magnetic ribbons are presented. The studies have been performed in Febased and Co-based amorphous ribbons, because these ribbons are used in different magnetic sensors. In the first case the investigation has been focused on the corrosion, the influence of cor Read More

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) materials demonstrate good capabilities for photon-electricity conversion. Recently, they have attracted extensive attention because of the increased energy consumption of the emerging economies. OPV materials show many advantages including low-cost, light-weight, easy-processing, and good flexibility. OPV materials are usually synthesized from conjugated polymers that have high quant Read More

Recent advances in the applications of ferroelectric polymers are introduced in terms of the recent patents in connection with the ferroelectric polymers. The principal applications of ferroelectric polymers include high dielectric constant materials, high energy density storage materials, high strain and electrostrictive actuators, multilayer actuators, ferroelectric polymer memories, energy harvesting devices and artificial mus Read More

Mesoporous structures are said to be the most important discovery in the field of materials science in 90s. Thanks to their extremely large specific surface area and interconnected channels, these materials show excellent surfacerelated properties well suited for many applications such as catalytic reactions, separation, and recently, gas sensing. As a relatively new field in materials science, mesostructured materials show Read More

Chalcogenide semiconductor thin films are reported for the first time as prospective aggressive gases sensors. Results of structural investigations and electric field-induced properties of thin (40-100nm) Bi-containing semiconductor thin films grown on glass substrates by UHV technique are reported. Microstructure and phase composition of the films are examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron diffr Read More

The chemical modification of macromolecules, with the purpose to provide them better properties, is a topic that emerged in mid last century. Further, a little later (sixties in XX century), there were ascertained that the interfacial agents based on polymer chemically modified (or functionalized polymers) appeared as the key in order to optimize multiphase materials in terms of morphology and structure of the inte Read More

The patents annotated in this section have been selected from various patent databases. These recent patents are relevant to the articles published in this journal issue, categorized by materials, biomaterials, biological materials, magnetic materials, medical implant materials, nanomaterials, ceramics, plastics, polymers, semi-conductors, coatings, composites, paper, wood, textile, methods design and techniques.