Search results for "Surfaces"
showing 10 items of 2837 documents
Coagulation bath composition and desiccation environment as tuning parameters to prepare skinless membranes via diffusion induced phase separation
2015
Diffusion Induced Phase Separation (DIPS) is a currently used technique to produce porous membranes for a large variety of applications. A strong limitation is represented by the occurrence of a dense skin, which is formed during the process, highly reducing the membrane permeability. To overcome this issue, two modifications of the standard DIPS protocol were investigated: the use of coagulation baths composed by a solvent/nonsolvent mixture and the desiccation in a controlled environment, by modulating the partial pressure of nonsolvent vapor. An appropriate choice of coagulation bath composition, together with an appropriate desiccation protocol (i.e., the use of a nonsolvent vapor), wil…
Circular Dichroism of DNA G-Quadruplexes: Combining Modeling and Spectroscopy To Unravel Complex Structures
2016
We report on the comparison between the computational and experimental determination of electronic circular dichroism spectra of different guanine quadruplexes obtained from human telomeric sequences. In particular the difference between parallel, antiparallel, and hybrid structures is evidenced, as well as the induction of transitions between the polymorphs depending on the solution environment. Extensive molecular dynamics simulations (MD) are used to probe the conformational space of the different quadruplexes, and subsequently state-of-the-art hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) techniques coupled with excitonic semiempirical Hamiltonian are used to simulate the macromo…
Characterization and properties of PEO coatings on 7075 Al alloy grown in alkaline silicate electrolyte containing KMnO 4 additive
2017
Abstract Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) was used to modify the surface of 7075 Al alloy by applying a bipolar pulsed-current in a silicate based electrolyte containing 0 to 3 g L− 1 KMnO4. For the coating produced in the base electrolyte, crystalline γ-Al2O3 was the main phase, while the coatings formed at the presence of KMnO4 consisted of α-Mn2O3 containing Si and Al oxides. A pancake structure was observed on surface of the coating produced in the base electrolyte, while a foam feature along with some volcano-like areas was detected on the surface of the coatings produced in the presence of KMnO4. The KMnO4 changed the discharge type leading to diminish the pores at the metal/coatin…
The Amorphous Semiconductor Schottky Barrier Approach to Study the Electronic Properties of Anodic Films on Ti
2017
A detailed study of the electronic properties of thin (>20 nm) anodic TiO2 potentiostatically grown on titanium in two different solutions is presented. The results show that the nature of the anodizing solution affects the electronic properties of the anodic film and, more specifically, the density of electronic states (DOS) distribution. Different DOS were derived from the experimental data analyzed according to the theory of amorphous semiconductor (a-SC) Schottky barrier. It is shown that the usual non-linear and frequency dependent Mott-Schottky plots are in agreement with expected theoretical behavior of a-SC Schottky barrier.
Thermo-oxidative stabilization of poly(lactic acid)-based nanocomposites through the incorporation of clay with in-built antioxidant activity
2017
In this work, an innovative approach to overcome the issue of the poor thermo-oxidative stability of polymer/clay nanocomposites is proposed. Specifically, biodegradable poly(lactic acid) (PLA)-based nanocomposites, containing organo-modified clay with in-built antioxidant activity, were prepared. Through a two-step chemical protocol, a hindered phenol antioxidant was chemically linked to the ammonium quaternary salt which was then intercalated between the clay platelets [(AO)OM-Mt]. The nanocomposites were characterized and their thermo-oxidative stability during melt processing and under long-term thermal test conditions was investigated. PLA nanocomposites containing the (AO)OM-Mt showed…
Anodizing of aluminium and AA 2024-T3 alloy in chromic acid: Effects of sulphate on film growth
2017
Chromic acid anodizing is important for the corrosion protection of aerospace aluminium alloys. Previous study has demonstrated that SO42 − impurity in the chromic acid affects the film growth on aluminium at a voltage of 100 V. The present work further investigates aluminium and extends the study to industrial anodizing conditions (Bengough-Stuart (B-S) process) and to the AA 2024-T3 alloy. It is shown that SO42 − concentrations between ~ 38–300 ppm reduce the film growth rate for aluminium anodized at 100 V in comparison with an electrolyte than contains ≤ 1.5 ppm SO42 −, whereas ~ 1500–3000 ppm SO42 have an opposite effect and lead to an unstable pore diameter. Under the B-S process, the…
Pressure stability field of Mg-perovskite under deep mantle conditions: A topological approach based on Bader's analysis coupled with catastrophe the…
2019
Abstract The pressure stability field of the Mg-perovskite phase was investigated by characterizing the evolution of the electron arrangement in the crystal. Ab initio calculations of the perovskite structures in the range 0–185 GPa were performed at the HF/DFT (Hartree-Fock/Density Functional Theory) exchange–correlation terms level. The electron densities, calculated throughout the ab-initio wave functions, were analysed by means of the Bader's theory, coupled with Thom's catastrophe theory. To the best of our knowledge the approach is used for the first time. The topological results show the occurrence of two topological anomalies at P~20 GPa and P~110 GPa which delineate the pressure ra…
Critical Review—Photocurrent Spectroscopy in Corrosion and Passivity Studies: A Critical Assessment of the Use of Band Gap Value to Estimate the Oxid…
2017
A critical assessment of the Photocurrent Spectroscopy (PCS) Technique for the semi-quantitative characterization of passive film and corrosion layers composition is carried out. We take into account more than three decades of PCS usage as "in-situ" analytical technique and related results as well as the criticism of the underlying semi-empirical correlation relating the measured optical bandgap (Eg) to the passive film composition. The discrepancies between the experimental data, gathered by PCS measurements, and Egestimates originating from recently developed Density Functional Theory based modeling of solid state properties are stressed with particular emphasis on the case of anodic pass…
Influence of post-treatment time of trivalent chromium protection coating on aluminium alloy 2024-T3 on improved corrosion resistance
2019
Abstract Low corrosion protection performances of Trivalent Chromium Process (TCP) coatings with reference to Chromium Conversion Coatings (CCC) deposited on aluminium alloys can be overcome by application of post-treatment processes. This work shows the effect of post-treatment bath (containing hydrogen peroxide and lanthanum salt) on the chemical composition, structure and the corrosion performances of TCP coating deposited on AA 2024-T3 aluminium alloy. Different times of post-treatment bath were applied on the TCP coating and the samples were analyzed by Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Glow Discharge-Optical Emission …
Investigation of Annealing Conditions on Electrochemically Deposited CZTS Film on Flexible Molybdenum Foil
2016
In thiswork, the electrodeposition of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films on molybdenum thin foilwas reported. In order to guarantee co-deposition of elements with different standard electrochemical potential, an aqueous electrolyte added with ligand agents was used. I addition, deposition parameters were carefully chosen, in order to ensure good quality and suitable composition of the films. The deposited films were sulfurized in controlled atmosphere at 580?C, scrutinizing the influence of the annealing conditions on the features of the films. Structure, morphology and composition were investigated by XRD SEM, EDS and Raman spectroscopy. Results reveal the growth of good quality films, with a uniform mo…