The effects of biochar on soil organic matter pools are not influenced by climate change.

The sustainability of Mediterranean croplands is threatened by climate warming and rainfall reduction. The use of biochar as an amendment represents a tool to store organic carbon (C) in soil. The vulnerability of soil organic C (SOC) to the joint effects of climate change and biochar application needs to be better understood by investigating its main pools.

Effect of the alkali vs iron ratio on glass transition temperature and vibrational properties of synthetic basalt-like glasses.

Volcanic eruptions generate huge amounts of material with a wide range of compositions and therefore different physicochemical properties. We present a combined Raman and calorimetric study carried out on four synthetic basaltic glasses with different alkali vs iron ratio which spans the typical compositions of basalts on Earth. Differential scanning calorimetry shows that changes of this ratio modify the glass transition interval whereas Raman spectra allow to gain insight about the structure of the glass in the microscopic and macroscopic range.

Estimating the viscosity of volcanic melts from the vibrational properties of their parental glasses.

The numerical modelling of magma transport and volcanic eruptions requires accurate knowledge of the viscosity of magmatic liquids as a function of temperature and melt composition. However, there is growing evidence that volcanic melts can be prone to nanoscale modification and crystallization before and during viscosity measurements. This challenges the possibility of being able to quantify the crystal-free melt phase contribution to the measured viscosity.

FePO nanoparticles produced by an industrially scalable continuous-flow method are an available form of P and Fe for cucumber and maize plants.

Nanomaterials are widely used in medical and pharmaceutical fields, but their application in plant nutrition is at its infancy. Phosphorous (P) and iron (Fe) are essential mineral nutrients limiting in a wide range of conditions the yield of crops. Phosphate and Fe fertilizers to-date on the market display low efficiency (P fertilizers) and low persistence in soil (Fe fertilizers) and negatively affect the environment.

Raman Open Database: first interconnected Raman-X-ray diffraction open-access resource for material identification.

Detailed crystallographic information provided by X-ray diffraction (XRD) is complementary to molecular information provided by Raman spectroscopy. Accordingly, the combined use of these techniques allows the identification of an unknown compound without ambiguity. However, a full combination of Raman and XRD results requires an appropriate and reliable reference database with complete information.

Structural and Spectroscopic Characterization of A Nanosized Sulfated TiO₂ Filler and of Nanocomposite Nafion Membranes.

A large number of nano-sized oxides have been studied in the literature as fillers for polymeric membranes, such as Nafion. Superacidic sulfated oxides have been proposed and characterized. Once incorporated into polymer matrices, their beneficial effect on peculiar membrane properties has been demonstrated.

Vibrational density of states and elastic properties of cross-linked polymers: combining inelastic light and neutron scattering.

The vibrational dynamics of a new class of cross-linked polymers made up of cyclodextrins is here investigated in the microscopic range by the joint use of light and inelastic neutron scattering experiments. The effect of increasing the connectivity of the polymeric network on the vibrational dynamics of the system is studied by exploiting the complementarity of these two different probes. The derived densities of vibrational states of the polymers evidence the presence of the characteristic anomalous excess of vibrational modes with respect to the Debye level, already observed in the low-frequency Raman spectra and referred to as boson peak (BP).

Stable aqueous solutions of naked titanate nanotubes.

Aqueous solutions of naked nanotubes with Ti concentration up to 10 mM are obtained by hydrothermal synthesis followed by extensive ultrasound treatment. The morphology, surface characteristics, and solution behavior of the solubilized nanotubes are investigated. The time course of the solubilization process driven by ultrasound follows a first-order kinetic law and is mediated by the competition between Na(+) and H(+) for surface sites.

Cyclodextrin-complexation effects on the low-frequency vibrational dynamics of ibuprofen by combined inelastic light and neutron scattering experiments.

The effect of the inclusion into cyclodextrins (CD) cavity on the low-frequency vibrational dynamics of the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen (IBP) is here investigated by using Raman and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) experiments. The differences observed in the frequency regime 0-100 cm(-1) between the vibrational modes of uncomplexed racemic and enantiomeric IBP are discussed on the basis of comparison with the quantum chemical computation results, taking into account the distinct symmetry properties of the molecules involved in the formation of the host-guest complex. Subsequently, the inspection of the same frequency range in the spectra of pure host methyl-β-CD and its IBP-inclusion complexes allows one to identify significant modifications in the vibrational dynamics of the guest molecule after their confinement into CD cavity.

Networking properties of cyclodextrin-based cross-linked polymers probed by inelastic light-scattering experiments.

An integrated experimental approach, based on inelastic light-scattering techniques, has been here employed for a multilength scale characterization of networking properties of cyclodextrin nanosponges, a new class of cross-linked polymeric materials built up from natural oligosaccharides cyclodextrins. By using Raman and Brillouin scattering experiments, we performed a detailed inspection of the vibrational dynamics of these polymers over a wide frequency window ranging from gigahertz to terahertz, with the aim of providing physical descriptors correlated to the cross-linking degree and elastic properties of the material. The results seem to suggest that the stiffness of cross-linked polymers can be successfully tuned by acting on the type and the relative amount of the cross-linker during the synthesis of a polymer matrix, predicting and controlling their swelling and entrapment properties.

Lanthanide doped upconverting colloidal CaF2 nanoparticles prepared by a single-step hydrothermal method: toward efficient materials with near infrared-to-near infrared upconversion emission.

Colloidal Er(3+)/Yb(3+), Tm(3+)/Yb(3+) and Ho(3+)/Yb(3+) doped CaF(2) nanoparticles have been prepared by a one-pot hydrothermal procedure and their upconversion properties have been investigated.

Vibrational analysis as a powerful tool in structure elucidation of polyarsenicals: a DFT-based investigation of arsenicin A.

A detailed experimental and theoretical vibrational analysis of arsenicin A, the first polyarsenical isolated from Nature, is reported. By exploiting the dissimilar and complementary selection rules of infrared (IR) absorption and Raman scattering transitions, and by carrying out density functional theory (DFT) calculations on several candidate structures, we are able to determine the structure of arsenicin A. We demonstrate that vibrational spectroscopy can be a very useful tool in structure elucidation in cases where mass spectrometry (MS) measurements lead to unreliable information, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) investigations are hindered by the presence of silent nuclei, and/or elements of symmetry, in the molecule.