Dielectric and Structural Properties of the Hybrid Material Polyvinylidene Fluoride-Bacterial Nanocellulose-Based Composite.

In the search for environmentally friendly materials with a wide range of properties, polymer composites have emerged as a promising alternative due to their multifunctional properties. This study focuses on the synthesis of composite materials consisting of four components: bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) modified with magnetic FeO, and a mixture of BaTiO (BT) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). The BT powder was mechanically activated prior to mixing with PVDF.

Impact- and Thermal-Resistant Epoxy Resin Toughened with Acacia Honey.

High performance polymers with bio-based modifiers are promising materials in terms of applications and environmental impact. In this work, raw acacia honey was used as a bio-modifier for epoxy resin, as a rich source of functional groups. The addition of honey resulted in the formation of highly stable structures that were observed in scanning electron microscopy images as separate phases at the fracture surface, which were involved in the toughening of the resin.

Hydroxyapatite/TiO Nanomaterial with Defined Microstructural and Good Antimicrobial Properties.

Due to the growing number of people infected with the new coronavirus globally, which weakens immunity, there has been an increase in bacterial infections. Hence, knowledge about simple and low-cost synthesis methods of materials with good structural and antimicrobial properties is of great importance. A material obtained through the combination of a nanoscale hydroxyapatite material (with good biocompatibility) and titanium dioxide (with good degradation properties of organic molecules) can absorb and decompose bacteria.

Structural Characterization of Nanocellulose/FeO Hybrid Nanomaterials.

The rise of innovation in the electrical industry is driven by the controlled design of new materials. The hybrid materials based on magnetite/nanocellulose are highly interesting due to their various applications in medicine, ecology, catalysis and electronics. In this study, the structure and morphology of nanocellulose/magnetite hybrid nanomaterials were investigated.

Semi insulating N-gallium nitride (GaN) on sapphire surface reflection dataset obtained at millimeter wave frequencies 107.35-165 GHz.

A systematic collection of voltage reflection data for semi-insulating N-GaN wafer surface along with the reference reflection voltages are accomplished using a very stable continuous wave (CW) frequency stable probe source. The 2″ diameter direct-bandgap 5 µm silicon doped 10 Ω-cm GaN on 434 µm sapphire is a commercial sample and was mounted in the path of collimated BWO generated millimeter wave beam with spot size ∼3 mm and rotated 64.5° to millimeter wave reflected energy into an antenna fed zero-bias Schottky barrier diode (ZBD), a negative polarity detector with responsivity 3.

Controllable synthesis of FeO-wollastonite adsorbents for efficient heavy metal ions/oxyanions removal.

Iron oxide, in the form of magnetite (MG)-functionalized porous wollastonite (WL), was used as an adsorbent for heavy metal ions (cadmium and nickel) and oxyanions (chromate and phosphate) removal from water. The porous WL was synthesized from calcium carbonate and siloxane by controlled sintering process using low molecular weight submicrosized poly(methyl methacrylate) as a pore-forming agent. The precipitation of MG nanoparticles was carried out directly by a polyol-medium solvothermal method or via branched amino/carboxylic acid cross-linker by solvent/nonsolvent method producing WL/MG and WL-γ-APS/MG adsorbents, respectively.

Stress Evolution during Ge Nanoparticles Growth in a SiO Matrix.

Superstructures are explored that were obtained by multilayer magnetron deposition at room temperature of 20 SiO and SiO:Ge bilayers, each 2 × 4 nm thick, and subsequently annealed in inert N atmosphere at different temperatures in the range of 500-750 °C. The structural and optical changes induced by annealing and the formation and growth of Ge nanoparticles (nps) from early clusters to their full growth and final dissolution were studied by the simultaneous grazing-incidence small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and (time-resolved) photoluminescence (PL). It is shown that in as-deposited multilayers aggregation of small clusters already occurred, and the clusters were reasonably well intercorrelated in the lateral plane.

Electrospun Polymer Nanofibers Decorated with Noble Metal Nanoparticles for Chemical Sensing.

The integration of different noble metal nanostructures, which exhibit desirable plasmonic and/or electrocatalytic properties, with electrospun polymer nanofibers, which display unique mechanical and thermodynamic properties, yields novel hybrid nanoscale systems of synergistic properties and functions. This review summarizes recent advances on how to incorporate noble metal nanoparticles into electrospun polymer nanofibers and illustrates how such integration paves the way towards chemical sensing applications with improved sensitivity, stability, flexibility, compatibility, and selectivity. It is expected that further development of this field will eventually make a wide impact on many areas of research.

Metallic Nanostructures for Multispectral Filters.

A metal-dielectric-metal structure with cross-shaped-hole array in metal thin films is studied for plasmonic multispectral filters, which covers visible to near-infrared wavelengths. Surface plasmons are induced from incident wave by a periodic array of nanostructures, then the localized surface plasmon polaritons oscillate in the cavity, which is formed by the two layers of metals through near-field excitation. The transmission spectrum of the metal-dielectric-metal structure with cross-shaped-hole array is investigated with the finite-difference time-domain method; our simulations show that the features of the hole, and the refractive index and the thickness of the dielectric layer all affect the optical spectral performance.

A Review on Preparation and Applications of Silver-Containing Nanofibers.

Silver-containing nanofibers are of great interest recently because of the dual benefits from silver particles and nanofibers. Silver nanoparticles are extensively used for biomedical applications due to the antibacterial and antiviral properties. In addition, silver nanoparticles can excite resonance effect of light trapping when pairing with dielectric materials, such as polymer.

Zero average values of cosmological perturbations as an indispensable condition for the theory and simulations.

We point out a weak side of the commonly used determination of scalar cosmological perturbations lying in the fact that their average values can be nonzero for some matter distributions. It is shown that introduction of the finite-range gravitational potential instead of the infinite-range one resolves this problem. The concrete illustrative density profile is investigated in detail in this connection.

Dual effects of single-walled carbon nanotubes coupled with near-infrared radiation on Bacillus anthracis spores: inactivates spores and stimulates the germination of surviving spores.

Background: Bacillus anthracis is a pathogen that causes life-threatening disease--anthrax. B. anthracis spores are highly resistant to extreme temperatures and harsh chemicals.

Theory of confined states of positronium in spherical and circular quantum dots with Kane's dispersion law.

Confined states of a positronium (Ps) in the spherical and circular quantum dots (QDs) are theoretically investigated in two size quantization regimes: strong and weak. Two-band approximation of Kane's dispersion law and parabolic dispersion law of charge carriers are considered. It is shown that electron-positron pair instability is a consequence of dimensionality reduction, not of the size quantization.

Metallic nano-particles for trapping light.

We study metallic nano-particles for light trapping by investigating the optical absorption efficiency of the hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film with and without metallic nano-particles on its top. The size and shape of these nano-particles are investigated as to their roles of light trapping: scattering light to the absorption medium and converting light to surface plasmons. The optical absorption enhancement in the red light region (e.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes coupled with near-infrared laser for inactivation of bacterial cells.

In this study, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) coupled with near infrared (NIR) laser treatment to enhance SWCNT's antimicrobial activity were studied. Salmonella, agram-negative pathogenic bacteria, was used as a model bacteria in this study. We found that NIR treatment (800 nm, 475 mW, for 20 min) to bacterial suspension with 50 microg/ml SWCNTs reduced the cell growth by approximately 55.

Metallic nano-structures for polarization-independent multi-spectral filters.

Cross-shaped-hole arrays (CSHAs) are selected for diminishing the polarization-dependent transmission differences of incident plane waves. We investigate the light transmission spectrum of the CSHAs in a thin gold film over a wide range of features. It is observed that two well-separated and high transmission efficiency peaks could be obtained by designing the parameters in the CSHAs for both p-polarized and s-polarized waves; and a nice transmission band-pass is also observed by specific parameters of a CSHA too.