National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

High aspect ratio nanowires of Ni-Cu alloys have been synthesized by potentiostatic electrochemical deposition in etched ion-track membranes. The nickel-to-copper ratio in the nanowires was controlled via the deposition potential and electrochemical bath composition. We present a detailed study of nanowire properties including morphology, composition, and magnetic behavior. We report the magnetic configurations measured as function of the nanowire composition and discuss domain formation, anisotropy aspects, and local easy axis distributions.

The synthesis of IrQ(ppy)(2)-5Cl has the advantage of a dual phosphorescence (green and red) which comes from the two ligands, phenylpyridine and quinoline. Their spectroscopic properties evidences the absorption range between 350 nm to 700 nm which is composed from the singlet and triplet states, as a result of hybridizations between Ir and the two ligands, the first one being at 625 nm. The first low energy state comes from the quinoline ligand and is responsible for the red phosphorescence at 660 nm, as results from the Density Functional Theory (DFT) analysis. The hybridization between Ir 5d orbitals and pi ligand orbitals shows strong metallic character with phenylpyridine orbitals (66% and 43%) and weak metallic character with quinoline ligand (16.8%). This fact suggests weak phosphorescence intensity in the emission spectra. Population analysis of each metallic orbital shows a small charge delocalization on the quinoline ligand for the first molecular orbital and a strong delocalization on the phenylpyridine ligands. Solvation effects induce a tuning process for the phosphorescence by changing of the matrix of the organometallic compounds which can be adjusted by the strength of intermolecular dipole-dipole interactions, using a doped guest-host molecular organic thin film system.

The recent revolution in modern optical techniques revealed that light interaction with matter generates a force, known as optical force, which produces material properties known in physics as optical matter. The basic technique of the domain uses forces exerted by a strongly focused beam of light to trap small objects and subsequently to manipulate their local structures. The purpose of this paper is to develop an alternative approach, using irradiations with high-density-green-photons, which induce electric dipoles by polarization effects. The materials used for the experiments were long carbon chains which represent the framework of biological macromolecules. The physical techniques used to reveal the locally induced molecular arrangements were: dynamic viscosity, zeta potential, chemiluminescence, liquid chromatography; mass spectrometry, and Raman and infrared spectroscopy. The principal result of our experiments was the detection of different molecular arrangements within the mixture of alkane chains, generated by our optical manipulations. This induced "optical matter" displayed two material properties: antioxidant effects and large molecular aggregation effects. In order to bring the experimental results in relation with theory, we developed a physical model and the interacting force between polarizable bodies was computed. By numerical calculations stable structures for N = 6 and N = 8 particles were obtained.

Bi2O3 and Bi-metal powders were mixed with MgB2 powder. Starting compositions were (MgB2)(Bi2O3) x, x = 0.0025, 0.005, 0.015, and (MgB2)(Bi)(y), y = 0.01. Mixtures were processed by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) technique. As obtained composite samples show high density, above 94 % of the theoretical density. Samples with Bi2O3 for x = 0.0025 and 0.005 show higher critical current densities, J(c), at high fields and at 20 K than for the pristine sample. Their irreversibility field, H-irr, is also higher. On the other hand, sample added with Bi-metal has lower J(c) and H-irr at any temperature than for the pristine sample.

Electrochemical deposition from a solution containing zinc and samarium ions, leads to a samarium oxide/zinc oxide sandwich-like structure with an intense, visible, broad luminescence peak centered at 550 nm. The successive deposition of the two materials is related to the bath composition and overpotential, taking place for values higher than a certain threshold. The zinc oxide film, first one to be deposited, presents typical hexagonal prism morphology while samaria coating films present a porous, nanowall like structure. The photoluminescence emission is at least 10 times more intense than in the case of typical electrodeposited ZnO films of similar thickness and does not appear in Sm2O3 films electrodeposited from solutions containing only Sm ions. Samples prepared in different conditions were characterized from the point of view of composition, structure, morphology and optical properties. The characteristics of the emission spectra of the films make them interesting for solid state lightning applications. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The aim of this study was to obtain a novel hydroxyapatite-based material with high biocompatibility. The structural properties of the samples were well characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The X-ray diffraction studies revealed the characteristic peaks of hydroxyapatite in each sample. Other phases or impurities were not observed. The scanning electron microscopy observations suggest that the doping components have no influence on the surface morphology of the samples, which reveals a homogeneous aspect of the synthesized particles for all samples. The presence of calcium (Ca), phosphor (P), oxygen (O) and silver (Ag) in the Ag:HAp is confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray (EDAX) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy analyses. Nanocrystalline silver doped HAp stimulated viability and potentiated the activation of murine macrophages. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONs) coated with different biological (dextran, sucrose) polymers have been synthesized by the coprecipitation method. Biological polymers coated iron oxide nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Zero field cooled and field cooled magnetizations measurements are also reported. We present a preliminary study of the influence of biological polymer on the interaction effects in powders. The temperature, T (max), of the maximum, increased from 25 K (dextran) to 52 K (sucrose). These values are due to the decrease of interparticle interactions, mainly as a result of the interparticle distance increase.