Delamination is a major drawback of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs). Studies have reported that carbon nanofibers (CNFs) can improve the delamination toughness of various FRPs. However, lack of CNF alignment control caused substantial uncertainty in the improvements. In this study, a novel CNFs z-threaded CFRP (ZT-CFRP), which utilized z-aligned CNFs as long-range reinforcement threading through the packed carbon fiber bed, was manufactured. The mode-I delamination toughness (G IC) of the ZT-CFRPs was tested against both control CFRPs and unaligned CNF-modified CFRPs (UA-CFRPs). Through statistical comparison against control CFRPs, UA-CFRPs exhibited a relative change in mean G IC and coefficient of variation of +13.99% and +116.35%, respectively, whereas the ZT-CFRPs of equivalent CNF concentration exhibited a relative change in mean G IC and coefficient of variation of +28.93% and-12.33%, respectively. Accordingly, the CNF z-threads were found to play a positive role in toughening CFRPs, as supported by delamination experiments and microscopy analysis.

The adaptation of colloidal quantum dots loaded within a polymer for use in nondestructive testing can be used as an optical strain gauge due to the nanomaterial's strain sensing properties. In this paper, we utilized InP/ZnS colloidal quantum dots loaded within a polymer matrix applied onto the surface of a dog-bone foil precoated with an epoxy. By employing an empirical formula and a calibration factor, there is a propinquity between both the calculated optical strain and mechanical stress−strain reference data. Fluctuations are observed, which may be due to both additional strain responses not seen by the mechanical data and quantum dot blinking. These results and methods show the applied use of this novel optical nondestructive testing technique for a variety of structures, especially for structures that operate in harsh environments.

Amorphous‐metal thin films can enable a new generation of TFT‐free display backplanes for ultra‐high‐definition (UHD) LCD TVs. This technology builds upon previous efforts to commercialize dual‐select thin‐film‐diode backplanes and addresses issues faced by TFTs in UHD‐TV applications through use of the amorphous‐metal non‐linear resistor. Demonstrating the reliability of amorphous‐metal‐based tunneling electronics and the scalability of these materials to panel‐size processing tools are now the key challenges for this technology.

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