The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Nano and Advanced Materials Institute Limited

S.t. Trading Company Limited

Jianying Miao

Ning Wang

Ping Sheng

Wei Li

Shing Hang Ng

Chun Zhang

Zhiyu Yang

Shihe Yang

Xinyi Zhang

Lok Hang Keung

Tao Gong

This invention relates to an object with electroless plated coatings that includes an adhesion coating, a smoothening coating, a silver coating and an anti-scratch coating. A method of fabricating the electroless plated object is also described.

Fabrication of mirror-like coatings

The present invention develops a method of treating metallic or plastic substrates to form mirror finish. After several pre-treatment steps to modify the surface situation of the substrate, whether for metallic or plastic material, to enhance the adhesion of above coating layers, a layer of mirror finish will be applied, with the function of decoration shown with metal appearance and glossy. A changeable topcoat will be coated to protect below mirror finish layer and achieve colorful decoration. All materials and processing steps are environmentally friendly, and involved without expensive facilities.

Surface treatment of mirror finish

A rapid response relative humidity sensor based on nano-structured aluminum oxide thin film is disclosed. The main body of the sensor is an anodic aluminum oxide thin film of about 2-20 &#x3bc;m thick formed from an Al substrate which serves as one electrode. A porous metal layer of about 20-200 nm thick is formed over the anodic aluminum oxide thin film and functions as a second electrode. The alumina thin film contains nano-sized channels of about 10-100 nm in diameter, serving as a capacitive relative humidity sensor having high sensitivity and short response time. Thermal annealing at elevated temperature improves the linearity of the capacitance versus humidity curve, giving a full range humidity sensing range. Hysteresis and degradation are negligible for the humidity sensors.

Rapid response relative humidity sensor using anodic aluminum oxide film

Methods of producing carbon nanostructures utilizing a polymer and a nanostructure template to form carbon nanostructures are disclosed. The method does not require a metal catalyst.

Methods for producing carbon nanostructures

A technique has been developed to fabricate micro- or nanopumps based on porous alumina thin films. The main body of the nanopump consists of a porous alumina thin film (containing nano-sized channels of about 40-300 nm in diameter) with conductive surfaces (e.g. Au coating layers) on both sides of the film. Through the fabrication of nanochannels in (the alumina films) and the subsequent annealing and surface activation processes, high-efficiency micro- or nanopumps can be made. The nanofluidic flow through the nanochannels of the alumina thin films is driven by an electric field with no moving parts. The flow rate (up to 50 millilitres/(min&#xb7;cm)) of water through the alumina thin film can be continuously tuned through the intensity of the electric field, i.e., the DC electric potential applied across the nanochannels.

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Hong Kong, China

Jianying Miao