A modified rule of mixtures is required to account for the experimentally observed nonlinear variation of tensile strength. A modified Halpin–Tsai model was presented to predict the Young’s modulus of multiscale reinforced composites with both micron-sized and nano-sized reinforcements. In the composites, both micron-sized fillers—carbon fibers—and nano-sized fillers—rubber nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes—are added into the epoxy resin matrix. Carbon fibers can help epoxy resins increase both the tensile strength and Young’s modulus, while rubber nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes can improve the toughness without sacrificing other properties. Mechanical experiments and scanning electron microscopy observations were used to study the effects of the micron-sized and nano-sized reinforcements and their combination on tensile and toughness properties of the composites. The results showed that the combined use of multiscale reinforcements had synergetic effects on both the strength and the toughness of the composites.

A magnetism-switchable isotropic/anisotropic droplet rolling platform composed of bio-inspired micropillar/microplate structures is proposed, which shows potential for applications such as liquid mixing and microchemical reactions.

Response on the effects of individual differences of common carbon nanotubes on the field emission current stability and the luminescence uniformity of cathode film, a new type of cathode film made of dendritic carbon nanotubes embedded with Zinc oxide quantum dots is proposed. The film of dendritic carbon nanotubes was synthesized through high-temperature pyrolysis of iron phthalocyanine on a silicon substrate coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles. The dendritic structure looks like many small branches protrude from the main branches in SEM and TEM images, and both the branch and the trunk are embedded with Zinc oxide quantum dots. The turn-on field of the dendritic structure film is∼1.3 V/μm at a current of 2 μA, which is much lower than that of the common carbon nanotube film, and the emission current and the luminescence uniformity are better than that of the common one. The whole film emission uniformity has been improved because the multi-emission sites out from the dendritic structure carbon nanotubes cover up the failure and defects of the single emission site.

Transmission properties of metallic gratings coated symmetrically with a dielectric layer on both sides are studied theoretically. For subwavelength narrow slits, besides cavity resonances in slits and surface plasmon-polaritons, a new kind of mechanisms for enhanced transmission in coated metallic gratings, namely, guided resonances in the dielectric coating layers, is found. Transmission peaks mediated by guided resonances are found to be much sharper than those mediated by cavity or surface plasmon-polariton resonances.