A thin metal film with nano-apertures, called “nano-mesh electrode,” generates near-field lights near the electrode. We investigated carrier excitations in semiconductors by the near-field light. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method revealed that when the infrared light irradiates the Au nano-mesh electrode on Ge, near-field lights are generated and absorbed in the surface region of the Ge. In order to measure the photocurrent involved by near-filed lights, we fabricated a Schottky cell and applied a Au nano-mesh electrode on the n-type Ge. The efficiency of the Schottky cell with the Au nano-mesh electrode improved in infrared region compared to plain the Au-film Schottky cell. The agreement between theoretical simulations and experiments indicates that near-field lights enhance the carrier excitation in the semiconductor.

In this contribution we have reported about bi-component blends of readily accessible semiconducting molecular arylacetylenes with insulating high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) that may exhibit electronic characteristics comparable to those of the neat semiconductors, as measured in field-effect transistors (FETs).

The potential of bio-dielectrics for thin film transistor applications was explored via the incorporation of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, rutile form, a high dielectric constant (ε) ceramic, in the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) bio-polymer. The DNA-ceramic hybrid films were fabricated from stable suspensions of the TiO2 nanoparticles in viscous, aqueous DNA solutions. Dielectric characterization revealed that the incorporation of TiO2 in DNA resulted in enhanced dielectric constant (14.3 at 1 kHz for 40 wt % TiO2) relative to that of DNA in the entire frequency range of 1 kHz-1 MHz. Variable temperature dielectric measurements, in the 20-80°C range, of the DNA-TiO2 films revealed that the ceramic additive stabilizes DNA against large temperature dependent variations in both ε and the dielectric loss factor tan δ. The bulk resistivity of the DNA-TiO2 hybrid films was measured to be two to three orders of magnitude higher than that of the control DNA films, indicating their potential for utilization as insulating dielectrics in transistor and capacitor applications.

Basic spectroscopic studies of Yb and Er-doped M2O2S (M= Gd, La,Y) phosphor was reported with particular attention to its upconversion properties under 1550 nm excitation. Since the absorption spectra of Co2+overlaps with Er3+(4 I13/2→4I15/2) at near infrared (NIR) region, we are proposing the concept of an efficiency enhancement of infrared upconverting phosphors as an energy converting material that could potentially improve the efficiency of Si solar cells in bifacial configuration. Different concentrations of Er3+/Co2+ phosphors were synthesized by solid state flux fusion method. The phosphor powders were well crystallized in a hexagonal shape with an average size 4 mm. Preliminary upconversion analysis of singly Er3+ and doubly Co2+/Er3+ doped Y2O2S under 980 and 1550 nm excitation indicates that the composition has to be optimized to understand the role of Co2+ in the system.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are highly suitable to act as precursors for nitrogen-doped carbon materials. Therefore two structural requirements must be fulfilled: On the one hand, the cation should carry nitrogen in a preferably aromatic environment, on the other hand nitrile groups are essential that can be e.g. incorporated by dicyanamide anions. Thermolysis of such ILs yields highly conductive nitrogen doped carbon exhibiting a graphitic microstructure. Furthermore, various nanomorphologies can be induced via hard-templating. The material has been shown to sufficiently suppress growth and agglomeration of Pt nanoparticles upon their electrocatalytic performance, when applied as a thin coating on the Pt host material. This novel concept of reactivity could further be applied in other fields of materials synthesis, paving the way for the one-pot synthesis of mesoporous carbon/silica composites and in-situ metal doping thereof.

Since its creation in 1950, the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), has worked on the development of applications for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. They include, among others, research and development activities in basic and nuclear technology areas, the operation of important facilities for the production of radioisotopes and the performance of tasks in connection with the nuclear fuel cycle, mining and uranium processing activities, manufacturing of fuel elements, production of heavy water and the operation of two nuclear power plants. Also demonstrating reprocessing programs have been developed.

As a result of the above mentioned activities performed in the nuclear field by private and public entities, various types of radioactive waste have been and are produced during operation and maintenance of facilities and plants, and will be produced in their future decommissioning. CNEA is also responsible for the environmental remediation of the closed uranium mining and milling facilities and for the management of disused sealed sources from medical and industrial applications.

Activities concerning radioactive waste management are carried on according not only to Nuclear Regulatory Authority requirements and International Atomic Energy Agency recommendations, but also to the national legal framework.

The Law Nº 25.018, "Radioactive Waste Management Regime“(1998), created the National Program for Radioactive Waste Management (PNGRR), as part of CNEA organization.

In the current work tribological properties of different compositions of lubricant additives based on detonation nanodiamond (DND) particles are reported. As compared to the previous findings using polyalphaolefin oil as a base oil for the additives, it is demonstrated that polymer esters are also a valuable base oil for the additive preparation. It is also demonstrated that synergistic compositions of DND with organic molybdenum provide significant improvement of the polyalphaolephin and mineral oils lubricating properties. Treatment of of DND with fluorine containing gases is an additional possibility toward reduced friction and wear of the DND-based nanolubricants.

High-throughput synthesis and screening rely on structurally diverse catalyst libraries. As a consequence of increased parallelization and integration of reactor and analysis systems, the requirements for new synthesis methodologies include even smaller amounts of samples, e.g. different multi-component mixed oxides in the mg or even μg-range have to be prepared reproducibly and fully automated. We tried to bring solution chemistry, composition spread libraries and a very high sample density together within one approach and tested inkjet printing of materials libraries using sol-gel recipes as synthesis method. Inkjet printing allows the deposition of liquid volumes in the pL range thus enabling the deposition of very small catalyst amounts. For the application of this technique in sol-gel chemistry several restrictions have to be handled, such as viscosity limitations of the printing head. Parameters as solvent, solvent amount, metal precursors, metal salt concentrations, deposition sequences etc. as well as gelification procedures have to be optimized. Catalytic screening relies on porous samples with high surface area to get conversions, which can be detected by HT screening methods. Thus, additionally the recipe itself as well as the support structure has to be optimized. In our first tests we used emission corrected IR thermography for screening.

In this paper, we describe highly reliable GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) for high-power and high-efficiency amplifiers. First, we present the reliability mechanisms and progress on the previously reported GaN HEMTs. Next, we introduce our specific device structure of GaN HEMTs for improving reliability. An n-GaN cap and optimized buffer layer were used to suppress the trap-related phenomena, such as a current collapse. Gate edge oxidation is effective for reducing the gate leakage current. A Ta-based barrier metal was inserted between an ohmic electrode and interconnection metal for preventing increase in contact resistance. SiN of passivation film was optimized for reducing the current collapse of short-gatelength HEMTs.

Methane is an important explosive gas, used extensively at the domestic and industrial sites. It is the main constituent of natural gas, which is the main fuel supplied to homes and industries including automobiles. Detection of trace level of methane gas is very important to avoid any accidental explosion due to its leakage and may cause loss of valuable human life and property. The present paper is focused on the development of new sensing material in the form of composites to improve sensitivity, selectivity and stability. Present work shows the enhanced response of SnO2-ZnO composite structures for methane sensing and further increases its sensing response by loading appropriate catalyst on the sensor surface keeping in view of Fermi energy control mechanism and spillover mechanism. A stable sensor response of 77-85 % was obtained for SnO2-ZnO-Pd sensor structure over a wider range of temperature (160-260oC).

Disruption of cell membranes triggers rapid metabolic energy exhaustion, then acute cellular necrosis. Cell membrane dysfunction due to loss of structure integrity is the pathology of tissue death in trauma, muscular dystrophies, reperfusion injuries and common diseases. It is now established that certain PEG-based biocompatible polymers, such as Poloxamer 188, Poloxamine 1107 and PEG, are effective in sealing of injured cell membranes, and thus can prevent acute necrosis if delivered within a few hours after injury. Despite these broad applications of PEG-based polymers for human health, the fundamental mechanisms of how PEG-based polymers interact with cell membranes are still under debate. Here, the effects of PEG-based biocompatible polymers on phospholipid membrane integrity under external stimuli (osmotic stress and oxidative stress) were explored using giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) as model cell membranes. Through fluorescence leakage assays and time-lapse fluorescence microscopy, we directly observed that the surface-adsorbed P188 can efficiently inhibits the loss of structural integrity of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) under hypo-osmotic stress. We propose that the adsorption of polymers on the membrane surface is responsible for the cell membrane resealing process, while the insertion of the hydrophobic portion of the polymers increases membrane permeability. To elucidate the mechanism by which hydrophilic polymers help restore membrane integrity while their hydrophobic counterparts disrupt it, 1H Overhauser Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (ODNP)-NMR spectroscopy, a newly developed NMR technique that provides unprecedented resolution for differentiating weak surface adsorption versus translocation of polymers to membranes, was employed to sensitively detect polymer-lipid membrane interactions through the modulation of local hydration dynamics in lipid membranes. Our study shows that P188—the most hydrophilic poloxamer known as a membrane sealant—weakly adsorbs onto the membrane surface, yet effectively retards membrane hydration dynamics. Contrarily, P181—the most hydrophobic poloxamer known as a membrane permeabilizer—initially penetrates past lipid headgroups and enhances intrabilayer water diffusivity. Consequently, our results illustrate that the relative hydrophilic/hydrophobic ratio of the polymer dictates its functions. These findings gleaned from local hydration dynamics are well supported by our thermodynamics and fluorescence data.

TiO2 nanoflowers were obtained on modified ITO substrates by solvothermal synthesis. Surface modification was achieved with a layer of TiO2 seeds/nucleus obtained by dip-coating at various pH and dip cycles. Field emission scanning electron microscopy results indicated that at all nucleation conditions there was a dual population of TiO2 nanoparticles and nanoflowers. For a particular pH, the effect of increasing the number of dips was to increase the size and number of the nanoflowers, whereas for a fixed number of dips, the increase in pH causes a decrease in nanoflower population. The comparison with solvothermal films obtained on unmodified substrates indicates that TiO2 nanoflowers grew up on the nucleation sites. These microstructural changes determine the active surface area and sensing properties of the solvothermal films. At room temperature, no evidence of superior ethanol sensing properties was found for TiO2 nanoflowers, which show larger resistivity than TiO2 nanoparticles.

The results of sequential large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of radiation damage cascades in Gd2Ti2O7 and Gd2Zr2O7 are presented. Twelve alpha recoil cascades, each due to a recoil atom with 40 keV of kinetic energy, are performed in both materials and a stark contrast in behaviour observed. Topological connectivity analysis is used to analyse the structural evolution of the two systems. Our results provide important insight into accumulation of disorder in pyrochlore-structured ceramics.

Self-compacting concretes have been of topical interest due to the ease of adoption and the significant savings in compaction efforts particularly at the congested reinforcement locations, in spite of the leak-proof forms required. However, many of the aspects regarding their production with different powder or pozzolanic additions and their corresponding mechanical strength characteristics are not yet fully understood. This paper deals exclusively with the compressive strength characteristics of these concretes incorporating limestone powder as a mineral admixture through the water cement ratio to strength results of concretes reported in literature. The basic idea is to get an idea of the SCCs at the lowest and the highest possible amounts of the limestone powder in it.

Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 (BST) thin films and Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3/ZrO2 heterostructured thin films have been successfully fabricated on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by a sol-gel process. The dielectric properties of these films were measured as a function of temperature in the frequency range of 1 kHz to 1 MHz. It is clearly observed that the dielectric peaks exist and shift to high temperature with the increase of frequency indicating the presence of relaxor-type behavior in the films. Also it is seen that one dielectric peak is observed in single layer BST thin films whereas two dielectric peaks are observed in BST/ZrO2 heterostructured thin films due to the presence of two dielectric layers having different band gap energies. The variation of peak temperature Tm, corresponding to dielectric loss maximum, with frequency and fitting to Arrhenius law gives activation energy of 1.24 eV which is very close to the activation energy of oxygen vacancies in BaTiO3. Hence, oxygen vacancies are the active defects which are contributing to the relaxation process in these films.

A new type of cathode for electron field emission (FE) was fabricated. The cathode was made from ultra-thin multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT) sheets. These sheets were drawn directly from a CNT forest, stacked layer-by-layer together and densified by isopropyl alcohol. CNT emitters were formed by utilizing laser beam to cut the sheet. The FE performance of the proposed devices has been enhanced dramatically. The threshold field for electron emission (at which the emission current is 10 mA/cm2) was 0.88 V/μm. The current density of 36 A/cm2 was achieved at the electric field of 2 V/μm. The enhanced performance is the result of the thin, uniformly distributed and aligned array of the CNT emitters.

Hierarchically porous silica monoliths were introduced into liquid phase chromatography at the beginning of the last decade. The high surface area, high void volume and bicontinuous nature of the porosity of the materials are significant advantages over existing chromatographic supports and have resulted in rapid acceptance of these materials into the chromatography market.

We report here on the synthesis of 3-D porous silver, cobalt oxide and zinc oxide monoliths, their materials characterization, fabrication as liquid chromatographic columns and initial chromatographic characterization. The, as prepared, columns gave very low back pressure, consistent with the bicontinuous nature of the columns. Cobalt oxide and zinc oxide both demonstrated retention of a number of nitrogen heterocycles, providing the basis for molecular separation.

In the present work, the adsorption of albumin and fibrinogen on Ta, Nb, Ti and Zr oxidesthin films deposited on Si (100) wafers by magnetron sputtering was studied in order to get a better understanding of the correlation among the surface properties of these oxides and the protein adsorption phenomena on their surfaces. The surface energy, hydrophobicity, chemical composition, roughness and atomic order of the films were characterized. The films were immersedfor 45 minutes in single protein solutions; either albumin or fibrinogenand the adsorbed protein layer on the films was studied ex-situ in a dry ambient using bothX-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy.

The adsorption of albumin and fibrinogen on the films modified the surface morphology and decreased the surface roughness for all the four different metal oxides. The XPS results confirmed the presence of the protein on the surface of the films and showed that the two proteins studied were adsorbed without undergoing a major chemical decomposition. A correlation between the surface roughness,the polar component of the surface energy of the films and the atomic percentage of nitrogen on the films after protein adsorption, an indirect signal of the amount of protein adsorbed, was found for albumin and fibrinogen adsorption on Ta, Nb and Ti oxides; the largest the roughness or the polar component the largest amount of adsorbed protein.

Nanomechanical resonators made from silicon nitride with residual stress is actuated using dielectric field gradient force. Doubly clamped nanomechanical resonators are made from SiNx-SiO2-Si tri-layer substrate and DC electric field induces a temporary dipole moment while a small AC electric field drives beam resonator by dielectric force. Realized nanomechanical resonators show resonant motion of high resonant frequency (up to ~31 Mhz) and mechanical quality factor up to over 48,000 at room temperature and moderate vacuum condition. From the FEA (Finite Element Analysis) of resonant motion, doubly clamped resonator shows torsional motion and in-plane motion which can be assigned to additional multiple modes in resonant response measurement