Search results for "Amorphous solid"
showing 10 items of 622 documents
Evaluation and Comparison of Novel Precursors for Atomic Layer Deposition of Nb2O5 Thin Films
2012
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Nb2O5 thin films was studied using three novel precursors, namely, tBuN═Nb(NEt2)3, tBuN═Nb(NMeEt)3, and tamylN═Nb(OtBu)3. These precursors are liquid at room temperature, present good volatility, and are reactive toward both water and ozone as the oxygen sources. The deposition temperature was varied from 150 to 375 °C. ALD-type saturative growth modes were confirmed at 275 °C for tBuN═Nb(NEt2)3 and tBuN═Nb(NMeEt)3 together with both oxygen sources. Constant growth rate was observed between a temperature regions of 150 and 325 °C. By contrast, amylN═Nb(OtBu)3 exhibited limited thermal stability and thus a saturative growth mode was not achieved. All films we…
Impact of the molecular structure of an indandione fragment containing azobenzene derivatives on the morphology and electrical properties of thin fil…
2016
Abstract The solution casting method is low-cost processing method. Moreover, it is possible to prepare amorphous thin films by using this method, and thus, both optical quality and electrical properties could be improved in compare to polycrystalline films made by thermal evaporation in vacuum. Therefore, low-molecular-weight compounds that form amorphous structure from solution could be promising in organic electronics. In this work film morphology, molecule energy levels, and charge carrier mobility in thin films of indandione fragment containing azobenzene derivatives were studied. Deep charge carrier trapping states that drastically influenced charge carrier mobility were observed for …
Mixed-Mode Operation of Hybrid Phase-Change Nanophotonic Circuits
2016
Phase change materials (PCMs) are highly attractive for nonvolatile electrical and all-optical memory applications because of unique features such as ultrafast and reversible phase transitions, long-term endurance, and high scalability to nanoscale dimensions. Understanding their transient characteristics upon phase transition in both the electrical and the optical domains is essential for using PCMs in future multifunctional optoelectronic circuits. Here, we use a PCM nanowire embedded into a nanophotonic circuit to study switching dynamics in mixed-mode operation. Evanescent coupling between light traveling along waveguides and a phase-change nanowire enables reversible phase transition b…
Spark Plasma Sintering of Metallic Glasses
2019
Spark plasma sintering (SPS) of metallic glasses (MG) can be quite different from sintering crystalline metallic alloys. Indeed, MG behave differently with increasing temperature, as they encounter a glass transition and devitrification. Their shaping can thus be compared to what can be performed on thermoplastic polymers. SPS is a promising way to prepare bulk parts from amorphous powders, since it allows very fast heating and cooling rates. It gives an advantage to avoid or limit devitrification of the amorphous phase upon the thermal cycle. However, diffusion mechanisms, which generally control densification, are activated at temperatures that are not compatible with MG structural integr…
Hierarchical Beta zeolites obtained in concentrated reaction mixtures as catalysts in tetrahydropyranylation of alcohols
2020
Abstract Hierarchical zeolites consisting of Beta nanoparticles (15–40 nm) were obtained via hydrothermal treatment of a concentrated zeolite gel-precursor (H2O/Si = 2.5–14) without utilization of complex SDAs. The proposed approach is based on the formation of a large number of zeolite nuclei under particular crystallization conditions, followed by their agglomeration resulting in the dense packing of the particles preventing their further growth. The micelles of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) can be used to additionally limit the growth of zeolite nanoparticles during hydrothermal treatment of concentrated reaction mixtures. Such deceleration of crystallization promotes the formati…
Transformation of Amorphous Polyphosphate Nanoparticles into Coacervate Complexes: An Approach for the Encapsulation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
2018
Inorganic polyphosphate [polyP] has proven to be a promising physiological biopolymer for potential use in regenerative medicine because of its morphogenetic activity and function as an extracellular energy-donating system. Amorphous Ca2+ -polyP nanoparticles [Ca-polyP-NPs] are characterized by a high zeta potential with -34 mV (at pH 7.4). This should contribute to the stability of suspensions of the spherical nanoparticles (radius 94 nm), but make them less biocompatible. The zeta potential decreases to near zero after exposure of the Ca-polyP-NPs to protein/peptide-containing serum or medium plus serum. Electron microscopy analysis reveals that the particles rapidly change into a coacerv…
Bioprotection Can Be Tuned with Proper Protein/Saccharide Ratio: The Case of Solid Amorphous Matrices
2018
Saccharides, and in particular trehalose, are well known for their high efficiency in protecting biostructures against adverse environmental conditions. The protein dynamics is known to be highly inhibited in a low-water trehalose host medium, the inhibition being markedly dependent on the amount of residual water. Besides hydration, the protein/sugar ratio is expected to affect the properties of saccharide amorphous matrices. In this work, we report an infrared spectroscopy study in dry amorphous matrices of various sugars (the disaccharides trehalose, maltose, sucrose, and lactose, and the trisaccharide raffinose) containing myoglobin, at different protein/sugar ratios. We analyze the str…
Enhancement of Wound Healing in Normal and Diabetic Mice by Topical Application of Amorphous Polyphosphate. Superior Effect of a Host⁻Guest Composite…
2017
The effect of polyphosphate (polyP) microparticles on wound healing was tested both in vitro and in a mice model in vivo. Two approaches were used: pure salts of polyphosphate, fabricated as amorphous microparticles (MPs, consisting of calcium and magnesium salts of polyP, “Ca–polyp-MPs” and “Mg–polyp-MPs”), and host–guest composite particles, prepared from amorphous collagen (host) and polyphosphate (guest), termed “col/polyp-MPs”. Animal experiments with polyP on healing of excisional wounds were performed using both normal mice and diabetic mice. After a healing period of 7 days “Ca–polyp-MP” significantly improved re-epithelialization in normal mice from 31% (control) to 72% (polyP micr…
Biopreservation of Myoglobin in Crowded Environment: A Comparison between Gelatin and Trehalose Matrixes.
2017
Biopreservation by sugar and/or polymeric matrixes is a thoroughly studied research topic with wide technological relevance. Ternary amorphous systems containing both saccharides and proteins are extensively exploited to model the in vivo biopreservation process. With the aim of disentangling the effect of saccharides and polypeptidic crowders (such as gelatin) on the preservation of a model protein, we present here a combined differential scanning calorimetry and UV-vis spectrophotometry study on samples of myoglobin embedded in amorphous gelatin and trehalose + gelatin matrixes at different hydrations, and compare them with amorphous myoglobin-only and myoglobin-Trehalose samples. The res…
Influence of the exchange and correlation functional on the structure of amorphous InSb and In3SbTe2 compounds
2016
We have investigated the structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of the amorphous phase of InSb and In3SbTe2 compounds of interest for applications in phase change non-volatile memories. Models of the amorphous phase have been generated by quenching from the melt by molecular dynamics simulations based on density functional theory. In particular, we have studied the dependence of the structural properties on the choice of the exchange-correlation functional. It turns out that the use of the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr functional provides models with a much larger fraction of In atoms in a tetrahedral bonding geometry with respect to previous results obtained with the most commonly used P…