Publications

Heterostructures with layers from small molecules organic compounds were deposited on ITO/glass substrate by thermal vacuum evaporation (TVE) technique. Structural, optical and morphological investigations were carried out on the realised layers (zinc phthalocyanine-ZnPc, fullerene-C60 and 1,4,5,8-naphthalene-tetracarboxylic dianhydride-NTCDA). The films are polycrystalline keeping the morphological features characteristic to these materials. The prepared heterostructures reveal a large absorption domain in the visible domain. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the investigated structures, recorded in dark, present an improvement in the current value (similar to one order of magnitude) for the standard structure (ITO/PEDOT: PSS/ZnPc/C60/NTCDA/Al) with a supplimentary layer of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). For the inverted structure (Al/NTCDA/C60/ZnPc/ITO) was also noticed an increased curent value in comparasion with that observed for the standard structure.

Ca3Co4-xNixO9 (x=0.01, 0.03, and 0.05) polycrystalline thermoelectric ceramics have been prepared by the classical solid state method. As a result of the Ni addition an increase in porosity has been detected. Moreover, the presence of Ni has been related with the increase of Ca2Co3O6 secondary phase and the appearance of a new NiO-CoO solid solution. However, for the 0.01-Ni doped samples an improvement in the thermoelectric performances has been measured. This effect has been related with a decrease in the resistivity values and an increase in the Seebeck coefficient. The raise in the power factor for the 0.01-Ni doped samples, compared with the undoped ones, is between 10 and 25% at 50 and 800 degrees C respectively. Moreover, the maximum power at 800 degrees C, around 0.25 mW/K-2.m, is significantly higher than the best results obtained in Ni doped samples reported previously in the literature. (C) 2015 Sociedad Espanola de Ceramica y Vidrio. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

Well-dispersed Pt-Cu nanoparticles with two average sizes were synthesized: small (approximate to 1.6 nm) and large (approximate to 4.8 nm), respectively. The effects of size and support on the catalytic behavior of the nanoparticles for denitration reaction were analyzed. Both the unsupported and alumina-supported nanoparticles of smaller average size (1.6 nm) were very active, completely converting NO3- and NO2- (an intermediate reaction product) to N-2 and NH4+. They were also more selective of N-2 compared to the larger particles. The effects of particle size and alumina support on the denitration rate constants were analyzed in detail. The kinetic investigation indicates that the catalytic behavior is strongly related to the size of Pt-Cu nanoparticles as well as to the metal-support interaction. Generally, the larger nanoparticles proved to be less active, but on the other hand, they are less influenced by the support than the smaller ones. The metal-support interaction for bimetallic nanoparticles with smaller average size proved to be a key factor both for nitrate and nitrite reduction. Consideration of the reaction mechanism is made in light of the experimental results.

Commercial wires of MgB2 with different architectures and two different heat treatments were characterized with respect to their superconducting properties (T-c, J(c), H-irr, pinning force, macro flux jumps behaviour) through magnetic measurements and were visualized by 3D x-ray micro-tomography (XRT). For a particular architecture, heat treatment conditions of 625 degrees C/3 hrs or 700 degrees C/30 min produced relatively small differences, whereas the architecture of the wires showed a strong influence on superconducting characteristics. XRT checks the integrity of the wires easily detecting in a non-invasive way 3D macro defects and shows their hidden extended shape. XRT also allows a comparative geometry analysis between similar elements (e.g. filaments or filaments-matrix interfaces) from a particular wire or from wires with different architectures. Namely, XRT shows that the geometrical perfection (defined as the degree of departure of the geometry from the designed one) of the inner MgB2 filaments from the wires with 18 elements was lower than for the outermost ones from the same wires and was also lower than for the filaments from the wires with 7 elements. It is proposed that these results of geometrical perfection correlate with better overall superconducting quality of the wires with 7 filaments (except for the stronger presence of macro flux jumps in the wires with 7 filaments).

An important parameter of deposited thin films is their adhesion to the substrate materials, we focused on the adhesion of TiO2 layer by sol-gel or sputtering onto textile substrate as checked by an ultra-sonication method. The characterization-made prior and after the tests have shown a good adherence of the nanoparticles, despite the low deposition temperature.

A family of mesoporous, self-aggregated zinc oxide materials with spherical morphologies of high crystalline quality, is obtained through a facile, additive-free polyol procedure. The forced hydrolysis of zinc acetylacetonate in 1,4-butanediol (BD), in various reaction conditions, affords ZnO materials with versatile morphologies and optical properties. The reaction parameters (temperature, time and zinc source concentration) modulate the ZnO nanocrystallites size (from 8.1 to 13.2 nm), the spheres diameter (ranging from 50 up to 250 nm), the internal structure of the spherical aggregates (hollow or solid) and their specific surface area (from 31 to 92 m(2) g(-1)). Polycrystalline spheres with hollow cores are obtained at the lowest temperature (90 degrees C) and zinc cation concentration (0.1 M), while at higher reaction temperatures (140-180 degrees C), solid spherical aggregates are developed. A reaction mechanism for ZnO formation via zinc layered hydroxide (LDH-Zn) is proposed based on nuclear magnetic resonance (H-1 NMR and C-13 NMR) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. The obtained ZnO materials have a functionalized surface, derived from the polyol and act as a nitrogen selective photocatalyst in the reduction reaction of NO3-. The organic residual attached on the ZnO surface plays a crucial role in the denitrification reaction, since the photo-cleaned sample showed negligible photocatalytic activity. The ZnO materials also exhibited microbicidal and anti-biofilm activity against reference and clinical strains, highlighting their potential for the development of novel antimicrobial formulations.

An amplification of near three orders of magnitude was observed in Pb(Zr,Ti)O-3 (PZT) thin films deposited on Pt/Si substrates when the Si substrate is included as an impedance in series with the PZT capacitor. The effect is present only at wavelengths below 1100 nm, where the incident light can be absorbed in the Si substrate with generation of free carriers. These carriers in turns modulate the internal electric field inside the ferroelectric layer leading to a much larger variation of the polarization compared to the one generated only by the temperature variation. This fact leads to a considerable enhancement of the pyroelectric signal. The finding can be useful in designing pyroelectric detectors with enhanced characteristics for visible and near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The effects of strain field are studied in Si wafers implanted with heavy iodine and bismuth ions and in multi-quantum well structures. The experimental method of thermally stimulated currents without applied bias is used, and the trapping centres parameters are determined by modelling the discharge curves. In both cases, the strain field produces temperature-dependent parameters of trapping levels. So, due to the high strain field in the neighbourhood of implanted ions, energy levels broaden and cross sections become temperature dependent. In multilayer structures, for the trapping centres corresponding to strain-induced defects both concentrations and capture cross sections are temperature dependent.

Lamellar crystal objects such as straight, curved or kinked whiskers, bows and objects with missing stripes were grown in a static air atmosphere from melt-quenched substrates with starting composition Bi1.5Sr1Ca1Co0.6Oy. The average EDS composition of the objects is Bi2Sr0.75Ca1.8Co1.94Oy and the crystal structure is of the phase usually denoted in the literature as Bi-2(Sr,Ca)(2)Co2Oy (BiCO222). Objects of other phases were not found. Curvature is in the (ab)-plane. By scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) a semiconducting energy gap was determined at 2.41 eV.

We report the pressure vs area isotherms of Langmuir films of pure and doped with cholesterol (Ch) amyloid beta, A beta (1-40) and (1-42) at the air-water interface and, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies of A beta (1-40) and (1-42) layers deposited from solution by drop cast and/or dipping and/or Langmuir-Blodgett on substrates of quartz and Si. The particularity of the substrate surface morphology determines the adhesion forces and plays an important role in the formation and stability of the multilayer films which are deposited on these substrates. The effect of cholesterol on the morphology of amyloids films and appearance of fibril structures is also analysed. AFM investigations have revealed the particularities of the aggregation process of the strongly hydrophobic A beta (1-42) on cholesterol films deposited by Langmuir-Blodgett on solid support of quartz and Si.