New Sustainable Multilayered Membranes Based on ZrVTi for Hydrogen Purification.

Some metals belonging to groups IV and V show a high permeability to hydrogen and have been studied as possible alternatives to palladium in membranes for hydrogen purification/separation in order to increase their sustainability and decrease their costs. However, to date, very few alloys among those metals have been investigated, and no membrane studies based on 4-5 element alloys with low or zero Pd content and quasi-amorphous structure have been reported so far. In this work, new membranes based on ZrVTi- and ZrVTiPd alloys were tested for the first time for this application.

Nanostructured Tetrahedrite Synthesis for Thermoelectric Applications.

Nowadays, a big challenge in the thermoelectric field is the identification of efficient thermoelectric materials but inexpensive, easy to synthesize, and comprised of Earth-abundant elements. On this basis, tetrahedrite mineral family (Cu(12−x)Tr(x)Sb₄S₁₃ where Tr = Cu, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn) seems to be an attractive p-Type Pb-free thermoelectric material, showing a relatively high conversion efficiency. In this work, a solvothermal synthesis method was developed for undoped tetrahedrite Cu₁₂Sb₄S₁₃ and the introduction of Zn and Ni as substituents of copper was also tested.

Safe core-satellite magneto-plasmonic nanostructures for efficient targeting and photothermal treatment of tumor cells.

Magneto-plasmonic nanostructures functionalized with cell targeting units are of great interest for nanobiotechnology applications. Photothermal treatment of cells targeted with antibody functionalized nanostructures and followed by magnetic isolation, allows killing selected cells and hence is one of the applications of great interest. The magneto-plasmonic nanostructures reported herein were synthesized using naked gold and magnetite nanoparticles obtained through a green approach based on laser ablation of bulk materials in water.

Coexistence of plasmonic and magnetic properties in Au89Fe11 nanoalloys.

We describe an environmentally friendly, top-down approach to the synthesis of Au89Fe11 nanoparticles (NPs). The plasmonic response of the gold moiety and the magnetism of the iron moiety coexist in the Au89Fe11 nanoalloy with strong modification compared to single element NPs, revealing a non-linear surface plasmon resonance dependence on the iron fraction and a transition from paramagnetic to a spin-glass state at low temperature. These nanoalloys are accessible to conjugation with thiolated molecules and they are promising contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging.

ZnO:Al thin films deposited by RF-magnetron sputtering with tunable and uniform properties.

Nanostructured, high quality and large area Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) thin films were obtained by radiofrequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. The sample rotation during deposition has resulted in excellent spatial distribution of thickness and electro-optical properties compared to that obtained under static conditions. ZnO:Al thin films are employed in a large number of devices, including thin film solar cells, where the uniformity of the properties is a key factor for a possible up-scaling of the research results to industrially relevant substrate sizes.