National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) thin films were fabricated by radio frequency magnetron sputtering and were subjected to in-situ and ex-situ annealing, at 200 degrees C, 300 degrees C and 400 degrees C, respectively. The in-situ thermal treatment consisted to intentionally heating the samples' substrates, while the ex-situ annealing was performed using an oven, under ambient atmosphere. For the ITO samples subjected to ex-situ annealing, the density of oxygen vacancies increased leading to the decrease of the electrical resistivity. No significant changes were noticed in terms of transmission spectroscopy after the thermal treatment; while by evaluating the Skewness parameter was determined that the annealing improves the planarity of samples' surface.

Behavior of some wool fabrics as such or functionalized with semiconductor nanoparticles against the photodegradation of Rhodamine B was investigated. The wool samples were commercially purchased, they were chosen to differ by the chemical nature of the yarns, by the size of the 2D texture elements and by the applied pretreatment. The samples were routinely characterized both in the original form and in the form coated with the oxide particles as well to consider the structure, the surface morphology and their changes due to dye deposition. Several techniques were routinely applied: optical microscopy, XRD, SEM, TGA, UV-Vis spectroscopy and FTIR-ATR. Data have shown that TiO2 layer has either an amorphous structure or is highly dispersed. Drops of Rhodamine B solution were deposited by sessile drop method. We have obtained optical images of the wet/colored spot during the radial wicking, collected with a usual camera. Image comparison was made by direct visualisation. The optical images of the spot on fabrics were taken immediately after the dye was applied, after the fabric was dried and afterwards, after the system illumination by UV-vis light as function of the time. The obtained final spots speak about the dye photodegradation in the studied cases.

Dense samples (94-96%) with starting composition (MgB2)(0.99)(X-acac)(0.01) (X-acac denotes Ga or In acetylacetonate) were obtained by spark plasma sintering. The resulting material is a superconducting composite, where carbon substitutes for boron in the crystal structure of MgB2. Added samples show enhanced critical current density at high magnetic fields and this is reflected in high values of irreversibility field (H-irr) at temperatures below 25 K when compared to a pristine sample. More efficient is In-acac addition and it promotes a H-irr of similar to 12.4T (100 A/cm(2) criterion) at 5 K. Carbon substitution for boron in the crystal structure of MgB2 has a strong influence on the pinning force and its related parameters and promotes in the added samples a grain boundary pinning mechanism as the dominant one, whereas the pristine sample with a low amount of carbon shows a major mechanism of point pinning type. However, our analysis indicates on the synergetic effects of the carbon substituting for boron and of the microstructural details on pinning and critical current density. The result strongly emphasizes the significantly different behavior of the additive during processing of the MgB2 samples, although thermal analysis experiments on both additives show very similar decomposition patterns. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The objective of this study is to investigate the methods to create durable self-cleaning textiles by coating fabrics with TiO2-(1%)Fe-N-graphene (2%). To improve the adherence of the nanoparticles, the polyester/cotton woven fabrics were pre-treated with polyacrylic acid (PA), carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and polyethylene polyamine resin (EZF). The pre-treated materials were immersed in a doped TiO2 for 30 minutes at 40 degrees C and dried at 125 degrees C. The finished fabrics were stained with methylene blue dye and exposed to visible light. The SEM images show the presence of particles on polymers layers firmly attached on the material surface. The treatments determine the decrease of the exothermic peak (452.48 degrees C), characteristic of the cellulose decomposition, demonstrating an increase of the thermal conductivity of the materials. The doped TiO2-graphene induces a double degradation of methylene blue in comparison with untreated material and the materials treated with CMC, polyacrylic acid and cationic polymer. The effect is maintained after washing.

Novel lanthanidomesogens based on lanthanide nitrates carrying three 4-pyridone ligands having two alkoxy chains at the periphery were synthesized and their structure was assigned based on IR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Their thermal stability was evaluated by TG analysis confirming that the decomposition starts at very high temperatures around 300 degrees C. The liquid crystalline properties were investigated by using a combination of techniques: polarized optical microscopy (POM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and, for selected compounds, by variable-temperature powder X-ray diffraction. The new liquid crystal display a hexagonal columnar phase (Col(h)) between 63 degrees C and 242 degrees C, depending on the length of the alkyl chain Dielectric spectroscopy on a wide frequency range was used to evaluate the dipolar relaxation processes. The emission properties of a mixture of E7 doped with a selected europium complex filled in a planar cell were investigated on changing the applied voltage, ranging from 0V up to 15V.

The morphological and structural properties of the poly(vinyl chloride)/graphene oxide (PVC/GO) composites are reported. By the mixture of the two constituents, the PVC/GO composite membranes with a concentration of the GO sheets varying from 0 wt.% to 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt.% were prepared. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the analysis of the atomic force microscopy (AFM) images we observed that as increasing the GO concentration in the PVC mass from 0 wt.% to 5 wt.%, the average surface roughness decreases from 235 µm to 227 µm. Using Raman scattering, we report that as increasing the GO concentration in the PVC mass, the ratio between the relative intensities of the Raman glines situated in the spectral ranges 600- 650 and 2850-3000 cm-1 (I600-650/I2850-3000) increases as a consequence of the change of GO carbon atoms hybridization from sp2 to sp3. An increase in the number of C-C bonds, simultaneous with the appearance of O-C=O bonds and the decrease of the chlorine concentration, when the GO concentration increases in the PVC weight is reported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The down-shift of the main diffraction signal from 24° to 26° when the GO concentration increases in the PVC/GO composite mass from 0 wt.% to 5 wt.%, confirms the incorporation of GO in the polymeric matrix and the modification of the original PVC sample structure. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), no agglomerations of the GO structures within the PVC/GO matrix contrast limit were observed. © 2020, Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Catedra de Filosofie Sistematica. All rights reserved.

Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) films are composite materials consisting of LC droplets embedded in polymers. In order to decrease the switching voltage of these devices, we prepared PDLC films doped with single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The mesomorphic properties of the films were investigated by polarizing optical microscopy (POM). The electrical characteristics have been investigated using a Broadband Dielectric Spectrometer in a frequency domain (0.01-10(7)) Hz and a temperature range (280-350) K. Some key aspects of an optical model for the analysis of the coherent transmittance of PDLC - NP films are presented.

In this paper an IGZO memristor with multiple states and analog tuning extended capability is reported. The device has a planar structure and is fabricated by magnetron sputtering on glass substrate. The device resistance could be gradually increased and decreased within the range of one order of magnitude. Larger resistance changes are also possible but they are mostly irreversible. The obtained memristor looks promising to be used as electronic synapse in hardware implemented artificial neural networks or for applications in analog computing and cryptography.

MgB2 has great potential for many applications, thanks to its relatively high critical temperature and low fabrication cost. Large efforts are done to improve the current carrying capabilities of bulks and tapes in view of different application fields, e.g. with the addition of Te and cubic-BN to MgB2. To elucidate the vortex pinning physics exploiting a different dynamic regime, we present here a microwave study of the pinning properties of spark plasma sintered bulk MgB2 with and without the addition of 0.01 % at. Te or cubic-BN. We show the surface resistance R-s of the MgB2 samples measured with a dielectric-loaded resonator at similar to 16.5 GHz and similar to 26.7 GHz in the 10 K-Tc temperature range at fields up to 1.0 T. Then, the MgB2 R., is studied with high frequency vortex motion models in order to obtain the pinning constant (Labusch parameter) and the depinning frequency. Finally, the microwave behavior of MgB2 in the mixed state is compared with the recent results obtained on Nb3Sn.

This paper presents the methodology and reports the results concerning the Laser Induced Damage Threshold (LIDT), surface quality and group delay dispersion (GDD) measurements of large aperture femtosecond laser mirrors, achieved in a project funded by IFA under the contract number 02 ELI/18.10.20.17., having, as a main goal, the manufacturing of large aperture mirrors (150mm effective diameter) and tests performing for use in high energy ultra-short pulse laser systems, such as ELI-NP and CETAL infrastructures. The manufacturing process of the mirror substrates was described in a previous paper [1] and the coating technology will be presented in a future article. The novelty of this paper consists, mainly, in the method, experimental arrangement and test procedure to determine the Laser Induced Damage Threshold (LIDT) but also in the entire testing protocol, including Group Delay Dispersion (GDD) and other measurements presented here.