Large-scale CuO nanowires were in situ grown on Cu substrate by a very simple catalyst-free thermal oxidation process in atmosphere. The structure characterization revealed that these nanowires are monoclinic structured single crystallites with mean diameters of 60–200 nm. The effects of growth time and temperature on the morphology of the nanowires were investigated. It is found that the growth time has an important effect on the length and density of the nanowires, whereas the growth temperature has a distinct influence on the nanowire diameter. Different from the vapor–solid (V–S) mechanism, the growth of nanowires is found to be based on the Cu ion diffusion. The ethanol-sensing properties of these CuO nanowires were also studied based on a self-designed prototype and the results indicated that these large-scale nanowires are indeed a good candidate for gas-sensing applications.

磁制冷技术是一项绿色环保型制冷技术，金属Gd充当磁制冷机中的磁热材料，而Gd易氧化腐蚀的特性给它的应用带来许多问题。针对Gd在不同pH值时的腐蚀情况，通过X射线衍射（XRD）、光学显微镜（OM）、光电子能谱（XPS）等手段进行分析，找到了一种可以使磁制冷样机长期运行的防腐流体并对该防腐机理进行了研究。实验结果表明，当Gd处在缓蚀剂溶液时其表面附着一层小于10nm厚的薄膜，而且在H=8.0时Gd的耐腐蚀性能最佳。