Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is a photoelectrode for the oxidation of water. It is of fundamental importance to understand the electrical and photoelectrochemical properties of this material. In metal oxides, the electronic transport is described by the small polaron model, first described by Mott. In this model, the resistivity varies with temperature as $\rho \,\left( T \right)\, \propto \,Te^{({{E_a } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{E_a } {(k_B T))}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {(k_B T))}}} $ , where E a is the hopping activation energy, k B is the Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute temperature. Resistivity measurements confirm that small polaron hopping dominates in temperature ranges from 250 K to 300 K. In addition measurements from 175K to 250K show the variable range hopping dominates the transport. To this end, the electronic transport properties of BiVO4 single crystal were characterized using resistivity measurements and Hall effect measurements over temperatures ranging from 175 K to 300 K.

We review the present state of the understanding and application of high temperature superconductor materials ranging from attempts to clarify pairing mechanisms on the energy scale of a few milli-electron-volts to their use to embody terra-kwh continental wide deployment within the electricity enterprise. Examples include the use of density functional theory to study the relative roles of spin-fluctuation and/or lattice vibration induced Cooper pairing to modelling the incorporation of long distance HTSC transmission cables within the same natural gas pipeline rights-of-way infrastructure now emerging worldwide.

Breast cancer (BrCa) is the second commonest cause of cancer-related deaths in women. The metastatic breast cancer exhibits a high affinity to bone, leading to debilitating skeletal complications associated with significant morbidity and poor prognosis. Traditional in vitro and in vivo BrCa bone metastasis models contain many inherent limitations with regards to controllability, reproducibility, and flexibility of design. Thus, the objective of this research is to use a 3D bioprinting system and nanomaterials to recreate a biomimetic and tunable bone model suitable for the effective simulation and study of metastatic BrCa invading and colonizing a bone environment. For this purpose, we designed and 3D printed a series of scaffolds, comprised of a bone microstructure and nano hydroxyapatites (nHA, inorganic nano components in bone). The size and geometry of the bone microstructure was varied with 250 and 150 µm pores, in repeating square and hexagon patterns, for a total of four different pore geometries. 3D bioprinted scaffolds were subsequently conjugated with nHA, using an acetylation chemical functionalization process and then characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). SEM imaging showed that our designed microfeatures were printable with the predesigned resolutions described above. Imaging further confirmed that acetylation effectively attached nHA to the surface of scaffolds and induced a nanoroughness. Metastatic BrCa cell 4 h adhesion and 1, 3 and 5 day proliferation were investigated in the bone model in vitro. The cell adhesion and proliferation results showed that all scaffolds are cytocompatible for BrCa cell growth; in particular the nHA scaffolds with small hexagonal pores had the highest cell density. Given this data, it can be stipulated that our 3D printed nHA scaffolds may make effective biomimetic environments for studying BrCa bone metastasis.

Spherical submicrometer-sized silica particles were prepared by the sol-gel method and deposited as a monolayer onto silicon wafers, in order to use them as a mask to create regular arrays of nanoscale surface features. Thus, by e-gun evaporation of a 50 nm thick Ag film through the silica mask, Ag nanostructures were obtained after removal of the silica monolayer. In order to tailor the mask characteristics (size and interparticle spacing), the silica masks were irradiated at room temperature with 4 and 6 MeV Si ions at different fluences up to 5×1015 ion/cm2, perpendicularly to the sample surface. After the irradiation the silica particles turned into oblate particles, as a result of the increase of the particle dimension perpendicular to the ion beam and the decrease in the parallel direction. By this way, the mask openings of the silica particle monolayer were modified as a function of the irradiation parameters, and the subsequent Ag e-gun evaporation allowed the formation of ordered arrays of Ag features. The size, shape and interparticle spacing of both the silica particles and the Ag deposits were determined by scanning electron microscopy.

We describe appropriate wafer cleaning procedure and surface passivation characteristics of various passivants used for making measurement of minority carrier lifetime (τB ) of very high quality Si wafers. These passivants include: iodine ethanol (I-E), quinhydrone methanol (QH-M), SiO2, and Al2O3. The issues related to the passivation stability and the spatial uniformity for mapping τB are also discussed.

Orthorhombic titanium-based Ti2AlNb alloys cannot be used above a temperature limit of about 800°C due to accelerated oxidation and environmental embrittlement. This embrittlement is caused by the high oxygen solubility which deteriorates the mechanical properties. Even if these materials possess an Al content up to ca. 25at.% no protective alumina layer is formed. Instead a non-protective fast growing mixed scale is found. Several attempts have been made to increase their operation temperature e.g. by coatings but none has proven sufficiently protective so far. One new way presented in this paper is to enrich Al in a narrow surface zone by using a powder pack process (aluminization) followed by a fluorination step. Exposure tests at elevated temperature have shown that the aluminized specimens form an alumina layer during exposure in oxidizing environments. Due to the gradient in the Al-concentration interdiffusion with the substrate and the Al-rich diffusion zone occurs which lowers the Al concentration in the diffusion zone. If the Al content drops below a critical value, Ti oxides will also form, which deteriorates the protection provided by the alumina scale. The subsequent fluorination triggers the fluorine effect which stabilizes the protective alumina layer. Untreated specimens are covered with a thick non protective scale and exhibit oxygen ingress in the subsurface zone while treated specimens reveal a thin protective alumina layer and no inward diffusion of oxygen. In this paper results of exposure tests of untreated and treated orthorhombic Ti2AlNb alloys will be presented and compared with the Nb-free α2-phase Ti3Al and Nb-containing Ti3Al-based alloys.

We propose and study the feasibility of a THz GaN/AlGaN quantum cascade laser (QCL) consisting of only five periods with confinement provided by a spoof surface plasmon (SSP) waveguide for room temperature operation. The QCL design takes advantages of the large optical phonon energy and the ultrafast phonon scattering in GaN that allow for engineering favorable laser state lifetimes, and the SSP waveguide provides the optical confinement for the ultrathin QCL. Our analysis has shown that the waveguide loss is sufficiently low for the QCL to reach its threshold at the injection current density around 6 kA/cm2 at room temperature.

The fabrication of strong photocatalysts applied to the degradation of organic pollutants is necessary in environmental applications. In a single-stage method, acetate precursor and poly vinyl pyrolydine are used to produce ZnO nanostructures with various morphologies in annealing temperatures ranging from 300 °C to 900 oC. The physical properties of the prepared nanostructures were characterized by SEM, XRD and PL spectroscopy. The SEM images exhibit a variety of the as-prepared hexagonal zinc oxides including wires, rods, particles and porous network of welded particles of ZnO nanoparticles. The results of the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue as an organic dye in aqueous suspension showed that the morphology of ZnO nanostructures influences on the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO nanostructures, greatly. For the best result, the highest MB degradation occurs by ZnO nanowires within 16 minutes and in others samples, degradation of higher than 95 percent occurs within 20 minutes. The XRD and PL spectroscopy revealed neither VZn nor Oi are in all of samples but only VO −, VO 2− and Zni exist in ZnO nanostructures.

In this work, spherical copper (core) - silver (shell) nanoparticles with diameter of 40-50 nm were synthesized through polyol successive reduction process in glycerol with addition of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The process involves microwave-assisted reduction of copper nitrate by glycerol under atmospheric conditions and successive reduction of silver nitrate at the surface of copper nanoparticles synthesized. We investigated the influence of synthesis parameters including molar ratio of NaOH:Cu (0:1, 1:1, 3:1 and 5:1), the molar ratio of Ag:Cu (0.01:1, 0.05:1, 0.10:1, 0.15:1 and 0.20:1) on the size, structure and composition of the resulting particles. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (TEM/EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were used to characterize the particles obtained. The average size of the nanoparticles decreased with increasing of the ratio of sodium hydroxide. With the molar ratio of Ag:Cu greater than 0.05:1, the silver protective shell can prevent forming of copper oxide on the surface of nanoparticles.

Zirconolite (CaZrTi2O7) is one of the components of Synroc materials, which are regarded throughout the world nuclear as the second generation of high-level nuclear waste forms. The zirconolite phase was synthesized by a sol-gel method, with one variant of the method making use of ascorbic acid as a strong complexing agent. Into the structure of the zirconolite was incorporated 10 mol% Sr. Undoped and doped samples were examined by thermal analyses and X-ray diffraction. Addition of ascorbic acid to the sols lowered the firing temperature and promoted formation of the zirconolite phase.

The effect of interfacial phases on the electrical properties of Au/Ti/SiO2/InSb metal-insulator (oxide)-semiconductor (MIS or MOS) structures was investigated by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. With increasing the deposition temperature of silicon oxide from 100 to 350°C using PECVD, the change in the interfacial phases between SiO2 and InSb were analyzed by resonant Raman spectroscopy to verify the relation between the breakdown of C-V characteristics and the change of interfacial phases. The shape of C-V characteristics was dramatically changed when the deposition temperature was above 300°C. The C-V measurements and Raman spectra represented that elemental Sb accumulation resulted from the chemical reaction of Sb oxide with InSb substrate was responsible for the failure in the C-V characteristics of MIS structure.

We have developed a low cost and convenient approach to fabricate ITO-comparable transparent electrodes by using solution process of silver nanowires mixed with poly peroxotitanic acid (PPT) gel. The PPT gel is applied to connect the dispersed silver nanowires to preserve its high conductivity while remaining transparency and reducing surface roughness of the transparent electrode. The silver nanowires were synthesized via a modified polyol method, and the PPT gels were prepared by sol-gel method in appropriate concentrations. After applying the PPT gels, the sheet resistance of the transparent electrodes was improved from 192 Ω/□ to 44.7 Ω/□ with a transmittance of 81 %. And the roughness (RMS) was decreased from 106.3 nm to 48.1 nm. The PPT gel also improved the reliability of the proposed electrodes, which the conductivity was remained after general atmospheric storage of 6 months. We also demonstrate an Alq3 based OLED with the proposed transparent electrodes.

An alternative approach for reduction of interface traps density at 4H-SiC/SiO2 interface is proposed. Silicon nitride / silicon oxide stack was deposited on p-type 4H-SiC (0001) epilayers and subsequently over-oxidized. The electrical characterization of the interface was done by employing metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices, inversion-channel MOS devices and lateral MOS field effect transistors (MOSFETs).

We report a low cost and high throughput electrochemical anodic oxidation method to enhance the metal-semiconductor contact between a silver electrode and an organic semiconductor in a rectifying diode application. The oxidized layer enhances the contact properties, leading to better device performance. Three different anodic oxide thicknesses were used in the study. Current-voltage and AC rectification measurements were used to characterize the printed devices. The DC output voltage of the half-wave rectifier increased consistently as a function of the oxide thickness. This procedure points toward a cost-effective way to optimize printed organic devices.

Silicon carbide power devices are purported to be capable of operating at very high temperatures. Current commercially available SiC MOSFETs from a number of manufacturers have been evaluated to understand and quantify the aging processes and temperature dependencies that occur when operated up to 350°C. High temperature constant positive bias stress tests demonstrated a two times increase in threshold voltage from the original value for some device types, which was maintained indefinitely but could be corrected with a long negative gate bias. The threshold voltages were found to decrease close to zero and the on-state resistances increased quite linearly to approximately five or six times their room temperature values. Long term thermal aging of the dies appears to demonstrate possible degradation of the ohmic contacts. This appears as a rectifying response in the I-V curves at low drain-source bias. The high temperature capability of the latest generations of these devices has been proven independently; provided that threshold voltage management is implemented, the devices are capable of being operated and are free from the effects of thermal aging for at least 70 hours cumulative at 300°C.

Transmission electron microscopy has been used to investigate the morphological development of the perovskite (P-) Ti3AlC carbides in the γ matrix of a Ti-45Al-5Nb-0.75C alloy during annealing. P-Ti3AlC carbides in the γ matrix initially have a needle-like shape but during annealing at 800 °C they change to a plate-like shape. In the needle-like shape the carbides are orientated parallel to the [001] direction of the matrix. They extend along the [100]γ or [010]γ direction into plates later and subsequently split into sub particles after extended annealing. It is proposed that the elastic interaction energy between the split sub domains may be the reason that this decomposition into sub-particles is energetically favorable.

Calcium sulfide (CaS) nanoparticles are cadmium free fluorescent nanostructures with potential applications in nanomedicine and photovoltaic cells. We report on the synthesis and optical properties of CaS nanoparticles prepared by the reaction of Ca(CH3CO2)2 and DMSO in a microwave. The absorption spectra of CaS prepared from this method consists of a well-defined peak in the UV and a long wavelength tail that extends above 700 nm. Emission bands centered at around 500 nm with a long wavelength tail that extends above 600 nm are observed upon excitation at 405 nm. STM measurements reveal the formation of CaS nanoparticles with an average diameter of (3.2 ± 0.7) nm. The direct and indirect band gaps are estimated to be (0.403 ± 0.003) eV and (4.135 ± 0.006) eV, respectively. Theoretical calculations on small CaS clusters are used to establish the physical properties of calcium sulfide nanoclusters, including the optical absorption spectra. Unique to CaS nanostructures is the absorption of light at wavelengths longer that in the bulk material instead of the blue shift associated with quantum confinement effects in semiconductors. Indeed, the strong absorption bands in the visible region of the spectra of the CaS nanostructures do not have a counterpart in the gas or solid phases. The optical absorption spectra are proposed to have a significant contribution from indirect transitions which are discussed in terms of the dispersion of the phonon frequency.

In the present work, we report the synthesis and characterization of NaNbO3 particles obtained by microwave-assisted hydrothermal method from Nb2O5 and NaOH. The synthesis was made at different periods at 180 °C and 300W. The crystallization of NaNbO3 structures produced Na2Nb2O6.H2O in the intermediate phase with fiber-like morphology, and this is associated with the synthesis time. Pure orthorhombic NaNbO3 with cube-like morphology originates after synthesizing for 240 minutes. To verify the remnant polarization of particles, films were obtained by electrophoresis process and sintered at 800°C for 10 minutes in a microwave furnace. The films characterization indicated that films of niobate with fiber-like morphology present remaining polarization, and the morphology of cubes did not show remaining polarization. Considering these results, it can be concluded that the morphology implemented ferroelectric property of NaNbO3.