National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

We report on Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) deposition of Carbon thin films, simple or reinforced with intended concentrations of Ag and Si. A KrF* (lambda = 248 nm, tau(FWHM) < 25 ns, v = 10 Hz) excimer laser was used for irradiation. The effect of a post-deposition thermal treatment in vacuum was studied. Besides detailed morphological, compositional, structural and pull-out adherence characterizations, the potential of the carbonaceous films for medical applications was investigated in vitro by anti-biofilm and cytocompatibility assays. The microscopic images evidenced no delaminations. Micro-Raman spectroscopy revealed a graphitization tendency depending on preparation conditions, thermal treatment and reinforcing agents' presence. Adherence values improved considerably after thermal treatment. In vitro biological evaluation showed that the films containing similar to 1.85 at.% Ag were non-cytotoxic for MG63 cells, while eliciting a limited antimicrobial activity. The increase of Ag content to 3.6 at.% results in a significant enhancement of antimicrobial activity, whilst maintaining the cytotoxic action and adherence characteristics at acceptable levels. We propose a new class of metamaterials based on C reinforced with Ag and Si obtained by MAPLE for medical applications, i.e. the prevention and treatment of various infections associated with biofilms developed on implants and other medical equipments. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We theoretically describe electric transport through an optically active quantum dot embedded in a single-mode cavity, and coupled to source-drain particle reservoirs. The populations of various many-body configurations (e.g., excitons, trions, biexciton) and the photon-number occupancies are calculated from a master equation which is derived in the basis of dressed states. These take into account both the Coulomb and the light-matter interaction. The former is essential in the description of the transport, while for the latter we identify situations in which it can be neglected in the expression of tunneling rates. The fermionic nature of the particle reservoirs plays an important role in the argument. The master equation is numerically solved for the s-shell many-body configurations of disk-shaped quantum dots. If the cavity is tuned to the biexciton-exciton transition, the most efficient optical processes take place in a three-level A system. The alternative exciton-ground-state route is inhibited as nonresonant due to the biexciton binding energy. The steady-state current is analyzed as a function of the photon frequency and the coupling to the leads. An unexpected feature appears in its dependence on the cavity loss rate, which turns out to be nonmonotonic.

The development of novel nano-oxide spintronic devices would benefit greatly from interfacing with emergent phenomena at oxide interfaces. In this paper, we integrate highly spin-split ferromagnetic semiconductor EuO onto perovskite SrTiO3 (001). A careful deposition of Eu metal by molecular beam epitaxy results in EuO growth via oxygen out-diffusion from SrTiO3. This in turn leaves behind a highly conductive interfacial layer through generation of oxygen vacancies. Below the Curie temperature of 70 K of EuO, this spin-polarized two- dimensional t(2g) electron gas at the EuO/SrTiO3 interface displays very large positive linear magnetoresistance (MR). Soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (SX-ARPES) reveals the t(2g) nature of the carriers. First principles calculations strongly suggest that Zeeman splitting, caused by proximity magnetism and oxygen vacancies in SrTiO3, is responsible for the MR. This system offers an as-yet-unexplored route to pursue proximity-induced effects in the oxide two- dimensional t(2g) electron gas.

Proteasome is a multicatalytic enzyme complex responsible for proteolysis of damaged proteins and an important target for drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry. Development of fast and economic strategies for detection of proteasome activity and inhibition is a topic of intensive research. The activity of the 20S proteasome was investigated by voltammetry and atomic force microscopy. The hydrolysis of peptide bonds was studied in incubated solutions of proteasome with oligopeptide sequences specific to each chymotrypsin, trypsin and caspase activity of proteasome, before and after inhibition with epoxomicin. The time-dependence of the proteolysis and the effect of substrate and inhibitor concentrations on the rate of enzymatic reaction were investigated. Different interaction mechanisms were characterized and enzyme kinetic parameters determined. The adsorption patterns of reaction mixture components were characterized by atomic force microscopy in order to understand the processes when saturation of enzyme catalytic centres occurs for high substrate concentrations. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cu-(Mn)-Zn-Mg-Al mixed oxides with Cu/Zn atomic ratio of 1 and different Mn contents were synthesized by thermal decomposition of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) precursors. They were characterized using X-ray diffraction, textural measurements, EDX, TEM, H-2-TPR and XPS techniques, and their catalytic properties in the total oxidation of methane were evaluated. The precursors consisted in nitrate-interlayered multicationic LDH phase with additional Mn3O4 side phase for Mn-containing systems. Their thermal decomposition resulted in complex mixed oxides containing periclase-like, CuO and different spinel (Cu1.5Mn1.5O4, CuMn2O4, and MnAl2O4) phases. XPS analysis confirmed the existence of copper and manganese with different valence states in the Cu,Mn-containing mixed oxides. The catalytic activity expressed as the intrinsic rate of CH4 conversion increased by adding Mn to the CuZnMgAl mixed oxide calcined at 650 degrees C and by increasing its content. The intrinsic activity also strongly increased when the calcination temperature increased from 650 to 800 degrees C. The increased activity was correlated to enhanced catalyst reducibility due to the favorable Cu-Mn interaction. Among the different catalytic active phases, i.e. CuO, Cu1.5Mn1.5O4 and CuMn2O4, the Cu1.5Mn1.5O4 spinel seems to be the most active one. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Different amounts of TiO2 and ZnO particles were deposited upon wool fabrics, which are among the less studied textiles. The materials were get from industry or were home made. Model samples for these oxide deposition and properties were also considered. Either sputtering or chemical sol-gel/electro less technique was respectively applied. The coated samples were then characterized structurally and morphologically, by XRD, SEM and XPS and were checked for photocatalytic properties. Both UV and vis light beams were used for irradiation. The photocatalytic experiments were performed by photodegradation of methylene blue in the PCC2 checker apparatus. The fabrics were firstly impregnated with the dye solution and then dried: self cleaning of the wool fabric samples took in fact place. Reflectance data in the visible spectral range of highest absorption band served for direct analysis of MB degradation. The photocatalytic properties of the coated fabrics increased much in comparison with the raw materials. The photocatalytic decolorization of methylene blue follows up a simple apparently first order kinetic equation in many studied cases. Thus it was demonstrated that MB decolorization can serve as a test reaction at least for self cleaning of fabrics. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The K beta x-ray spectra of the elements from Ca to Ge have been systematically investigated using a high resolution antiparallel double-crystal x-ray spectrometer. Each K beta(1,3) natural linewidth has been corrected using the instrumental function of this type of x-ray spectrometer, and the spin doublet energies have been obtained from the peak position values in K beta(1,3) x-ray spectra. For all studied elements the corrected K beta(1) x-ray lines FWHM increase linearly as a function of Z. However, for K beta(3) x-ray lines this dependence is generally not linear in the case of 3d elements but increases from Sc to Co elements. It has been found that the contributions of satellite lines are considered to be [KM] shake processes. Our theoretically predicted synthetic spectra of Ca, Mn, Cu, and Zn are in very good agreement with our high-resolution measurements, except in the case of Mn, due to the open-shell valence configuration effect (more than 7000 transitions for diagram lines and more than 100 000 transitions for satellite lines) and the influence of the complicated structure of the metallic Mn.

In the present work, we study the hysteretic behavior in the electric-field-dependent capacitance and the current characteristics of 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3-0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 (BCZT)/ZnO bilayers deposited on 0.7 wt % Nb-doped (001)-SrTiO3 (Nb:STO) substrates in a metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor (MFS) configuration. The X-ray diffraction measurements show that the BCZT and ZnO layers are highly oriented along the c-axis and have a single perovskite and wurtzite phases, respectively, whereas high-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed very sharp Nb:STO/ BCZT/ZnO interfaces. The capacitance-electric field (C-E) characteristics of the bilayers exhibit a memory window of 47 kV/cm and a capacitance decrease of 22%, at a negative bias. The later result is explained by the formation of a depletion region in the ZnO layer. Moreover, an unusual resistive switching (RS) behavior is observed in the BCZT films, where the RS ratio can be 500 times enhanced in the BCZT/ZnO bilayers. The RS enhancement can be understood by the barrier potential profile modulation at the depletion region, in the BCZT/ZnO junction, via ferroelectric polarization switching of the BCZT layer. This work builds a bridge between the hysteretic behavior observed either in the C-E and current-electric field characteristics on a MFS structure.

We report a direct photoelectrochemical response from low cost carbon dots (CDs) prepared from chitosan via a solvothermal method. The carbon dots were covalently linked to an indium tin oxide (ITO) surface through a self-assembled silane monolayer. We attribute the photocurrent of the ITO-silane-CD surface to a photogenerated electron-transfer process by CDs under illumination with a wavelength of 420 nm to 450 nm. The self-assembled monolayer of CDs was used for ac-photocurrent imaging of the surface with micron scale lateral resolution. This discovery opens up new applications for CDs as biocompatible, light-addressable electrochemical sensors in bioanalytical and bioimaging applications.