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Nanowires, nanofibers and nanotubes have been widely used as the building blocks in micro/nano-electromechanical systems, energy harvesting or storage devices, and small-scaled measurement equipment. We report that the surface effects of these nanobeams have a great impact on their deflection and internal forces. A simply supported nanobeam is taken as an example. For the displacement and shear force of the nanobeam, its dangerous sections are different from those predicted by the conventional beam theory, but for the bending moment, the dangerous section is the same. Moreover, the values of these three quantities for the nanobeam are all distinct from those calculated from the conventional beam model. These analyses shed new light on the stiffness and strength check of nanobeams, which are beneficial to engineer new-types of nano-materials and nano-devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joining conducting polymer (CP) nanofibers into an interconnected porous network can result in good mechanical and electrical contacts between nanofibers that can be beneficial for the high performance of CP-based devices. Here, we demonstrate the cold welding of polyaniline (PAni) nanofiber loose ends with cold plasma. The room-temperature and atmospheric-pressure helium micro-plasma jet launches highly charged ion bullets at a PAni nanofiber target with high precision and the highly charged ion bullet selectively induces field emission at the sharp nanofiber loose ends. This technique joins nanofiber tips without altering the morphology of the film and protonation thus leading to significantly enhanced electrical and mechanical properties. In addition, this technique has high spatial resolution and is able to selectively weld and dope regions of nanofiber film with promising novel device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]