Publications by authors named "C Willa"

Motivated by the air pollution that skyrocketed in numerous regions around the world, great effort was placed on discovering new classes of materials that separate, sense or convert CO in order to minimise impact on human health. However, separation, sensing and conversion are not only closely intertwined due to the ultimate goal of improving human well-being, but also because of similarities in material prerequisites -e.g.

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Lignocellulosic biomass represents the only renewable carbon resource which is available in sufficient amounts to be considered as an alternative for our fossil-based carbon economy. However, an efficient biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks is hindered by the natural recalcitrance of the biomass as a result of a dense network of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. These polymeric interconnections make a pretreatment of the biomass necessary in order to enhance the susceptibility of the polysaccharides.

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We present a sol-gel processed hematite-titania-based photoanode, which exhibits a photocurrent of up to 2.5 mA/cm at 1.23 V under simulated AM 1.

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We report a light, flexible, and low-power poly(ionic liquid)/alumina composite CO sensor. We monitor the direct-current resistance changes as a function of CO concentration and relative humidity and demonstrate fast and reversible sensing kinetics. Moreover, on the basis of the alternating-current impedance measurements we propose a sensing mechanism related to proton conduction and gas diffusion.

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Alignment of nanowires over a large area of flat and patterned substrates is a prerequisite to use their collective properties in devices such as gas sensors. In this work, uniform single-crystalline ultrathin W18 O49 nanowires with diameters less than 2 nm and aspect ratios larger than 100 have been synthesized, and, despite their flexibility, assembled into thin films with high orientational order over a macroscopic area by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. Alignment of the tungsten oxide nanowires was also possible on top of sensor substrates equipped with electrodes.

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