Lanthanum aluminate-lanthanum zirconate composite was synthesized by using coprecipitation and powders were dried by spray-drying. Pseudoboehmite was used as a precursor of lanthanum aluminate during the precipitation process. Highly crystalline phases were obtained. Lanthanum zirconate exhibits a pyrochlore structure at lower synthesis temperature (>1500°C). Due drying technique lanthanum aluminate particles appear surrounded by lanthanum zirconate. No other remaining phases were observed and the phase distribution in the composite was homogeneous.

Transition metal dichalcogenide materials MX2 (M = Mo;W;X = S; Se) are being thoroughly studied due to their novel two-dimensional structure, that is associated with exceptional optical and transport properties. From a computational point of view, Density Functional Theory simulations perform very well in these systems and are an indispensable tool to predict and complement experimental results. However, due to the time and length scales where even the most efficient DFT implementations can reach today, this methodology suffers of stringent limitations to deal with finite temperature simulations or electron-lattice coupling when studying excitation states: the unit cells required to study, for instance, systems with thermal fluctuations or large polarons would require a large computational power. Multi-scale techniques, like the recently proposed Second Principles Density Functional Theory, can go beyond these limitations but require the construction of tight-binding models for the systems under investigation. In this work, we compare two such methods to construct the bands of WSe2. In particular, we compare the result of (i) Wannier-based model construction with (ii) the band fitting method of Liu et al.,[1] where the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band are modeled by three bands symmetrized to have mainly Tungsten dz2, dxy and dx2-y2character. Our results emphasize the differences between these two approaches and how band fitting model construction leads to an overestimation of the localization of the real-space basis in a tight-binding representation.

Mild steel offers a variety of properties for various applications at lower costs giving the alloy a large application base in industry. However, the increasing complexity and severity of service environments has shifted the focus of many industries to structure modification techniques, like heat treatment, to improve material properties and performance. The focus of this paper was to therefore investigate the effect of heat treatment induced hardness on the sliding wear behaviour of mild steel. The results showed that resistance to dry sliding wear increased with increasing hardness of the mild steel samples. Both abrasive and adhesive wear mechanisms were observed to occur on the samples, however abrasive wear was predominant.

In a deep geological repository (DGR) scenario, uranium oxidized in aqueous systems will be stabilized as UO22+ (hexavalent uranium), as a consequence of tetravalent uranium oxidation by radiolytic byproducts. Uranyl cationic species (UO22+) in different speciation forms are expected to be found at the whole pH range conditions. The importance of UO22+ lies in its potential incorporation of trace radioelements onto secondary uranyl phases. In view of the difficulty of U chemistry in natural groundwater, it is necessary to improve speciation assessment techniques so as to understand chemical processes. Raman spectroscopy has been shown as a powerful tool to analyze the speciation of various actinyl (UO22+,NpO2+ and PuO22+) and to determine the distribution of those elements which are more likely to be stable in a near-field groundwater environment. Therefore, the aim of this work is to follow UO22+ changes as a consequence of γ radiation in aqueous media under DGR conditions, and to understand the behavior of UO22+ as a function of aqueous media, which help to understand and predict the potential precipitation of the solid phases formed. In this work, the use of Raman spectroscopy adapted to the empirical analysis of different nuclear applications for initial uranium concentrations 0.04M at ambient atmosphere is shown, i.e. as monitoring tool for UO22+ precipitation as a function of pH, studying UO2(NO3)2·6H2O stability in aqueous solutions representative of groundwater, in particular at ionic strength I = 0.02 – 0.4 M and pH from 7 to 13.2; and to evaluate the effect of γ radiation fields. At 10−4-10-3 M of radiolytically formed H2O2 concentration, the amount of uranium in solution decreased, as a results of secondary phases precipitation. The results obtained will be useful to the performance assessment studies of the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) stored in DGRs. The work performed provides a partial picture of secondary phase formations, as a result of corrosion of SNF in a DGR.

Mesoporous-TiO2:Sb layers were developed by sol-gel and spin-coating techniques for their application as photoanodes in SSSCs. The effect of Sb doping (4 mol%) and PVP loading (0.2-0.4 g) on the optical, structural, morphological, and chemical properties were studied. SEM results showed that the morphology, porosity, and particle size in the mp-TiO2:Sb depend on the amount of polymer and Sb doping. In particular, the doping decreases the porosity and particle size. XRD patterns showed well-defined reflections resembling the anatase crystalline structure. The crystallite size was of 22.61 and 16.27 nm for the undoped layers with 0.2 and 0.4 of PVP, which decreased to 17.69 and 7.93 nm for the doped ones. It was not observed the presence of Sb2O3 or Sb metallic, indicating Sb ions were inserted in the TiO2 lattice by substitution of Ti ions. Analysis of XPS spectra showed the presence of Ti4+, O2-, and Sb3+ in the mp-TiO2:Sb layers. The optical bandgaps of the mp-TiO2:Sb were in the range of 3.14-3.33 eV. The evaluation of the mp-TiO2:Sb layers as photoanodes in the Sb2Se3-sensitized solar cells gives a Voc of 261 mV, a Jsc of 3.92 mA/cm2, and a PCE of 0.71%.

In this paper, the light emission phenomena over solid-state incandescent light emitting devices have been modelled based on Planck's law of blackbody radiation. The emission spectra from the thermal excitation of nano-resistors with and without inclusion of an Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) or amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film filter is simulated and compared with those measured from actual devices. The simulated emission spectra are further utilized to study the light characteristics for SSI-LED with ITO, a-Si and polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film filters.

A significant area of research is biomedical applications of nanoparticles which involves efforts to control the physicochemical properties through simple and scalable processes. Gold nanoparticles have received considerable attention due to their unique properties that they exhibit based on their morphology. Gold nanospheres (AuNSs) and nanorods (AuNRs) were prepared with a seed-mediated method followed of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coating. The seeds were prepared with 0.1 M cetyltrimethyl-ammonium bromide (CTAB), 0.005 M chloroauric acid (HAuCl4), and 0.01 M sodium borohydride (NaBH4) solution. Gold nanoparticles with spherical morphology was achieved by growth by aggregation at room temperature, while to achieve the rod morphology 0.1 M silver nitrate (AgNO3) and 0.1 M ascorbic acid solution were added. The gold nanoparticles obtained by the seed-mediated synthesis have spherical or rod shapes, depending on the experimental conditions, and a uniform particle size. Surface functionalization was developed using polyethylene glycol. Morphology, and size distribution of AuNPs were evaluated by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy. The average size of AuNSs, and AuNRs was 7.85nm and 7.96 x 31.47nm respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry was performed to corroborate the presence of PEG in the AuNPs surface. Additionally, suspensions of AuNSs and AuNRs were evaluated by UV-Vis spectroscopy. Gold nanoparticles were stored for several days at room temperature and it was observed that the colloidal stability increased once gold nanoparticles were coated with PEG due to the shield formed in the surface of the NPs and the increase in size which were 9.65±1.90 nm of diameter for AuNSs and for AuNRs were 29.03±5.88 and 8.39±1.02 nm for length and transverse axis, respectively.

This study compares the physico- and electro- chemical properties of LiNi0.8Mn0.10Co0.1O2 (NMC811) and LiNi0.83Mn0.06Co0.09Al0.1O2 (NMCA) prepared by an oxalic acid co-precipitation. Deposition of a SiO2 surface coating was attempted via reaction of the powder with an amino silane prior to the final heat treatment. It was found that either the presence of small amounts of Al3+, or the compositional gradient resulting from a two step co-precipitation, caused increased crystal growth of the NMCA in comparison to NMC811. This led to improved cyclability in LP40 electrolyte. However, the SiO2 coating appeared incomplete and negatively impacted performance. Crystal cleavage preferably on the {001} planes was observed after 100 charge-discharge cycles, with consequent cathode electrolyte interphase formation in the crystal cracks. This is believed to cause capacity decay via lithium loss, and increased charge transfer resistance. An FEC based electrolyte improved the cyclability in all cases and even under extreme conditions (45°C and upper cycling potential of 4.5 V) NMCA showed a capacity retention of 85% after 100 cycles.

Eumelanin is a redox active, quinone-based biopigment, featuring a broad band absorption in the UV-Vis region. The combination of the redox and optical properties makes eumelanin an interesting candidate to explore light-assisted storage technologies. Electrodes of melanin on indium tin oxide (ITO) current collectors were investigated for their morphological and voltammetric characteristics in aqueous electrolytes. Under solar light, we observed that the capacity and the capacitance of the melanin electrodes significantly increase with respect to the dark conditions (by 63% and 73%, respectively).

Graphene has been publicized as the game changing material of this millennium. As research continues to expand our knowledge of this 2D semimetal, the properties at the interface have become an increasingly important characteristic. Translating graphene’s strength at the nanoscale to the macroscale is suggested by functionalizing the graphene, creating a favourable interfacial morphology to adhere. An interfacial morphology that is able to form primary chemical bonds is ideal, providing the best mechanical property performance. We proposed a method of creating a graphene reinforced polymer matrix composite from flake mineral graphite in-situ, using high shear elongational flow to produces these conditions. In our process we were able to identify chemical bonding at graphene’s surface, which developed into newly created interfacial morphologies. These morphologies lead to an increase in mechanical properties while providing an improved stress transfer between graphene and its containing matrix. Our work sheds light on a solvent free route to scalable high strength graphene composites.

The contact angle is a material property determined by the surface tensions between substrate, liquid and the air. In this study, the surface wettability of vertical graphene nanosheets (VGNs) which are carbon nanostructures consisting of a few layers of graphene sheets vertically standing on the substrates, were developed by applying different voltages on the substrate. The contact angle of the water droplet on VGNs/Cu decreased from 123° to 16° with increasing the applied voltage which indicated the hydrophobic and hydrophilic transition of VGNs surfaces. It is anticipated that this member of the carbon material family (VGNs) could serve as a tunable wettability coting for future improvements in electronic devices and open a new perspective to the construction of smart material surfaces.

Sensors based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique are useful devices to detect and monitor interactions between biomolecules in real-time. SPR is a label-free method that monitors the variation of reflectivity of a biochip composed of a metal-coated glass prism and can be applied in several areas, such as biotechnology, food safety and clinical diagnosis. In the last years, several researchers have proven the efficiency of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) in the enhancement of SPR signal. This feature allowed the detection of biomolecules at very low concentration. Aiming to further enhance SPR signal towards the detection of proteins at low concentration and by a simple procedure, the present work compared the performance of gold and platinum bimetallic NPs (AuPtNPs) with that of monometallic gold NPs (AuNPs) in the enhancement of SPR signal. In order to evaluate the NPs, protein peanut agglutin (PNA) was used as target analyte and anti-PNA antibody was used as sensing molecule. Firstly NPs were functionalized with anti-PNA antibody and incubated with a solution containing PNA. Then, the NPs bound to PNA were injected into the SPR equipment containing a biochip previously modified with anti-PNA antibody. The results demonstrated that the AuPtNPs provided a 91-fold increase compared to the direct detection of free PNA in solution. In comparison with AuNPs, the signal generated by AuPtNPs was about 4 times higher. This encouraging result indicated that the application of bimetallic NPs may be a better strategy to further enhance sensitivity of SPR biosensors and could drive the development of new strategies that are not only simple, but also able to detect proteins at low concentrations, which is of great importance, especially in clinical diagnostics.

A drug delivery system with sustainable controlled drug release can improve the quality of life of a patient by reducing the side-effects and better absorption of the drug locally. However, the main disadvantageous of this delivery model is the burst release of the drug, which can result in severe health problem, such as toxicity. Here in this study, a new coaxial microfiber has been developed with encapsulated anti-inflammatory drug, ibuprofen, inside the core structure of the coaxial fibre. The core consisting of polyethylene oxide (PEO) carrying the drug was covered with the polylactic acid (PLA)/PEO and shell to prevent the burst release of the drug and provide sustainable release over a prolonged time. The release profiles showed that the burst release was reduced from 20% in control scaffold, core only, to 5% in core-shell structure after 6 hrs. The higher percentage of PLA in the shell composition provides a slower release of ibuprofen, due to the slower degradation of PLA in comparison with PEO. The result indicates the developed structure can be a potential system for the localized release of the various drug system, which leads to a more sustainable and controlled release of the drug over the more extended period and deliver a better outcome along with side-effect prevention.

An electrostatic and air driven (EStAD) electrospinning device was used to achieve deposition of polymer fiber mats that carry electrical charge. The EStAD device does not require the polymer stream to contact a deposition electrode, thereby allowing enhanced control and processing versatility over production of conductive polymer materials. Direct current (DC) conductivity in the fiber mats was enabled through the use of a composite multi-walled carbon nanotube-polyethylene oxide (MWCNT-PEO) blend for electrospinning (ES). The electrospun fiber mats contained three different concentrations of MWCNTs. Conductivity and resistance were measured for each concentration as an electrospun fiber mat and compared to that of a drop-cast thin film. Results showed that at 7.51 wt% MWCNTs, conductivity in the electrospun fiber mats began to approach that of the drop-cast thin films at 1.76E-01 S/cm. At the lowest weight percent tested (3.37 wt%), conductivity was still measurable at approximately 8.48E-05 S/cm and was comparable to results reported previously using traditional ES methods.

The binary metal oxides are increasingly used as supercapacitor electrode materials in energy storing devices. Particularly NiCo2O4 has shown promising electrocapacitive performance with high specific capacitance and energy density. The electrocapacitive performance of these oxides largely depends on their morphology and electrical properties governed by their energy band-gaps and defects. The morphological structure of NiCo2O4 can be altered via the synthesis route, while the energy band-gap could be altered by doping. Also, doping can enhance crystal stability and bring in grain refinement, which can further improve the much-needed surface area for high specific capacitance. Given the above, this study evaluates the electrochemical performance of Ca-doped Ni1-xCaxCo2O4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.8) compounds. This stipulates promising applications for electrodes in future supercapacitors.

The quality of the shell coating around nanorods is critical in device applications. Conventional physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques can be utilized for highly conformal shell coating formation in core-shell structure devices. To identify scalable fabrication techniques for conformal shell coatings, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of PVD growth were performed under different atomic flux distributions and angles on arrays of glancing angle deposition (GLAD) nanorods, which were also generated by MC simulations. We investigated the conformality of PVD films (shell) around GLAD rod arrays (core) and analyzed the thickness uniformity of the shell layer across the sidewalls of rods. Our results show that Angular Flux-Normal Angle (A-NAD), which might correspond to high-pressure sputter deposition at normal incidence (HIPS at θ = 0o) can generate better conformal shell coating compared to others. In Uniform Flux-Normal Angle technique (U-NAD), which corresponds to a thermal evaporation deposition, the growth suffers from poor sidewall coverage. In addition, introducing a small angle to the flux also improves the shell conformality. Therefore, high-pressure sputter deposition technique is expected to provide superior conformality for a catalyst or semiconductor coating around base nanorods, for example for fuel cell and solar cell applications, with the help of obliquely incident atoms of the HIPS flux.

Studies have shown that local laser heating/“drilling” of composite large-porous ceramics consisting of aluminosilicates and glass phase is based on melting and ablation processes that lead to the formation of holes in a porous specimen. The interaction of the components of the composite in the high-temperature heating zone is accompanied by the formation of glass-phase melt of new composition. The advance of the melt deep into the sample along channel-like pores of the main ceramic material depends on the viscosity of the melt (i.e., the irradiation mode) and the cooling rate of the melt (i.e., the thermo-physical properties of the ceramics and glass phase). The development of gas-dynamic impact in the laser heating zone leads not only to the ejection of a part of the melt from the channel, but also to the compaction of the ceramics adjacent to the walls of the vitrified channel. These effects depend heavily on the ceramic-to-glass phase ratio and the porosity of the initial ceramic. It has been established that “laser perforation” of highly porous aluminosilicate ceramics leads to the hardening of the coarse-porous ceramics due to the formation of holes with strong walls, consisting of layers of the glass phase and compacted ceramics in the sample.

We investigate the structure of neutral and charged bottlebrush polymers in salt-free solutions at different polymer concentrations. In particular, we use molecular dynamics simulations by utilizing a coarse-grained bead-spring model that includes an explicit solvent and complementary experiments made by small angle neutron scattering (SANS). We find that the charged groups along the side chains exert significant repulsive forces, resulting in polymer swelling and backbone stretching. In addition to the primary polyelectrolyte peak, we find that bottlebrush polymers exhibit an additional peak in the form and static structure factors, a feature that is absent in neutral polymers. We show that this additional peak describes the intra-molecular correlations between the charged side chains.

Highly oriented VO2 (M1) thin films are difficult to produce using non-crystalline substrates. For example, to produce such films on glass has required post-annealing or the use of a ZnO transparent layer. Here, we overcome this challenge and report highly oriented VO2 (M1) in the (100) plane directly on the glass substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). We study the influence of the laser wavelengths (1064, 532, 355 and 266 nm) on the orientation of VO2 (M1) deposited on Corning glass. We find that the laser wavelength of 532 nm leads the most highly a-axis textured VO2 (M1) demonstrating the highest reversible metal-to-insulator at about 62 °C with a lowest hysteresis width of approximately 9 °C. One of the conditions is to select the green 532 nm wavelength laser in PLD as this particular laser wavelength also produces films with highest roughness value (of more than 60 nm) when compared to other wavelengths which produce films of roughness values less than 40 nm.