Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 75
  • Item
    Micro-/nanostructured alumina as model surface to study topography effects on cell-surface interactions
    (Saarbrücke : Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien, 2011) Aktas, Cenk; Martinez Miró, Martina; Lee, Juseok; Brück, Stefan; Veith, Michael
    [no abstract available]
  • Item
    A novel precursor system and its application to produce tin doped indium oxide
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2011) Veith, Michael; Bubel, Carsten; Zimmer, Michael
    A new type of precursor has been developed by molecular design and synthesised to produce tin doped indium oxide (ITO). The precursor consists of a newly developed bimetallic indium tin alkoxide, Me2In(OtBu)3Sn (Me = CH3, OtBu = OC(CH3)3), which is in equilibrium with an excess of Me2In(OtBu). This quasi single-source precursor is applied in a sol–gel process to produce powders and coatings of ITO using a one-step heat treatment process under an inert atmosphere. The main advantage of this system is the simple heat treatment that leads to the disproportionation of the bivalent Sn(II) precursor into Sn(IV) and metallic tin, resulting in an overall reduced state of the metal in the final tin doped indium oxide (ITO) material, hence avoiding the usually necessary reduction step. Solid state 119Sn-NMR measurements of powder samples confirm the appearance of Sn(II) in an amorphous gel state and of metallic tin after annealing under nitrogen. The corresponding preparation of ITO coatings by spin coating on glass leads to transparent conductive layers with a high transmittance of visible light and a low electrical resistivity without the necessity of a reduction step.
  • Item
    Synthesis and characterization of aluminum doped zinc oxide nanostructures via hydrothermal route
    (London : Hindawi, 2014) Alkahlout, Amal; Al Dahoudi, Naji; Grobelsek, Ingrid; Jilavi, Mohammad; Oliveira de, Peter W.
    Stable crystalline aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) nanopowders were synthesized using hydrothermal treatment processing. Three different aluminum precursors have been used. The Al-precursors were found to affect the morphology of the obtained nanopowders. AZO nanoparticles based on zinc acetate and aluminum nitrate have been prepared with different Al/Zn molar ratios. XRD investigations revealed that all the obtained powders have single phase zincite structure with purity of about 99%. The effect of aluminum doping ratio in AZO nanoparticles (based on Al-nitrate precursor) on structure, phase composition, and particle size has been investigated. The incorporation of Al in ZnO was confirmed by UV-Vis spectroscopy revealing a blue shift due to Burstein-Moss effect.
  • Item
    Fabrication of silicon nanowire arrays by near-field laser ablation and metal-assisted chemical etching
    (Bristol : IOP Publishing, 2016) Brodoceanu, Daniel; Alhmoud, Hashim Z.; Elnathan, Roey; Delalat, Bahman; Voelcker, Nicolas H.; Kraus, Tobias
    We present an elegant route for the fabrication of ordered arrays of vertically-aligned silicon nanowires with tunable geometry at controlled locations on a silicon wafer. A monolayer of transparent microspheres convectively assembled onto a gold-coated silicon wafer acts as a microlens array. Irradiation with a single nanosecond laser pulse removes the gold beneath each focusing microsphere, leaving behind a hexagonal pattern of holes in the gold layer. Owing to the near-field effects, the diameter of the holes can be at least five times smaller than the laser wavelength. The patterned gold layer is used as catalyst in a metal-assisted chemical etching to produce an array of vertically-aligned silicon nanowires. This approach combines the advantages of direct laser writing with the benefits of parallel laser processing, yielding nanowire arrays with controlled geometry at predefined locations on the silicon surface. The fabricated VA-SiNW arrays can effectively transfect human cells with a plasmid encoding for green fluorescent protein.
  • Item
    Analysis of fatty acids and triacylglycerides by Pd nanoparticle-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015) Silina, Yuliya E.; Fink-Straube, Claudia; Hayen, Heiko; Volmer, Dietrich A.
    In this study, we propose a simple and rapid technique for characterization of free fatty acids and triacylglycerides (TAG) based on palladium nanoparticular (Pd-NP) surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization (SALDI) mass spectrometry (MS). The implemented Pd-NP material allowed detection of free fatty acids and TAGs exclusively as [M + K]+ ions in positive ion mode. Under negative ionization conditions, unusual trimetric structures were generated for free fatty acids, while TAGs underwent irreproducible degradation reactions. Importantly, the mass spectra obtained from Pd-NP targets in positive ion mode were very clean without interferences from matrix-derived ions in the low m/z range and readily enabled the detection of intact TAGs in vegetable oils without major fragmentation reactions as compared to conventional MALDI-MS, requiring only a minimal amount of sample preparation.
  • Item
    In situ tracking of the nanoscale expansion of porous carbon electrodes
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013) Arruda, Thomas M.; Heon, Min; Presser, Volker; Hillesheim, Patrick C.; Dai, Sheng; Gogotsi, Yury; Kalinin, Sergei V.; Balke, Nina
    Electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLC) are rapidly emerging as a promising energy storage technology offering extremely large power densities. Despite significant experimental progress, nanoscale operation mechanisms of the EDLCs remain poorly understood and it is difficult to separate processes at multiple time and length scales involved in operation including that of double layer charging and ionic mass transport. Here we explore the functionality of EDLC microporous carbon electrodes using a combination of classical electrochemical measurements and scanning probe microscopy based dilatometry, thus separating individual stages in charge/discharge processes based on strain generation. These methods allowed us to observe two distinct modes of EDLC charging, one fast charging of the double layer unassociated with strain, and another much slower mass transport related charging exhibiting significant sample volume changes. These studies open the pathway for the exploration of electrochemical systems with multiple processes involved in the charge and discharge, and investigation of the kinetics of those processes.
  • Item
    Corrosion inhibiting cerium compounds for chromium-free corrosion protective coatings on AA 2024
    (Saarbrücke : Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien, 2007) Schem, Michael; Schmidt, Thomas; Caparrotti, Hinka; Wittmar, Matthias; Veith, Michael
    Due to the upcoming ban of chromium-containing corrosion protection coatings in the near future, there is a worldwide effort to find a replacement for chromium as a corrosion inhibitor that also exhibits self-healing properties in scratches but without the negative efects like health and environmental hazards. In the present study promising results to achieve this goal are shown by using cerium compounds incorporated into an organic-inorganic hybrid material produced by the sol-gel process. Cerium compounds like cerium nitrate, cerium nitrate plus acetylacetonate, cerium acetylacetonate, and cerium sulphate were incorporated in sol-gel coating systems. The corrosion protection properties of these coatings were determined by means of Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and in a conventional salt spray test. Furthermore, the leaching behaviour of the coatings was examined via Optical Emission Spectrometry (OES). Significant hints for self healing properties were obtained with a hybrid system doped with cerium nitrate in combination with acetylacetone.
  • Item
    Graphitization as a universal tool to tailor the potential-dependent capacitance of carbon supercapacitors
    (Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2014) Weingarth, Daniel; Zeiger, Marco; Jäckel, Nicolas; Aslan, Mesut; Feng, Guang; Presser, Volker
    Most efforts to improve the energy density of supercapacitors are currently dedicated to optimized porosity or hybrid devices employing pseudocapacitive elements. Little attention has been given to the effects of the low charge carrier density of carbon on the total material capacitance. To study the effect of graphitization on the differential capacitance, carbon onion (also known as onion-like carbon) supercapacitors are chosen. The increase in density of states (DOS) related to the low density of charge carriers in carbon materials is an important effect that leads to a substantial increase in capacitance as the electrode potential is increased. Using carbon onions as a model, it is shown that this phenomenon cannot be related only to geometric aspects but must be the result of varying graphitization. This provides a new tool to significantly improve carbon supercapacitor performance, in addition to having significant consequences for the modeling community where carbons usually are approximated to be ideal metallic conductors. Data on the structure, composition, and phase content of carbon onions are presented and the correlation between electrochemical performance and electrical resistance and graphitization is shown. Highly graphitic carbons show a stronger degree of electrochemical doping, making them very attractive for enhancing the capacitance.
  • Item
    Vanadia–titania multilayer nanodecoration of carbon onions via atomic layer deposition for high performance electrochemical energy storage
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016) Fleischamann, Simon; Tolosa, Aura; Zieger, Marco; Krüner, Benjamin; Peter, Nicolas J.; Grobelsek, Ingrid; Quade, Antje; Kruth, Angela; Presser, Volker
    Atomic layer deposition has proven to be a particularly attractive approach for ecorating mesoporous carbon substrates with redox active metal oxides for lectrochemical energy storage. This study, for the first time, capitalizes on the cyclic character of atomic layer deposition to obtain highly conformal and atomically controlled decoration of carbon onions with alternating stacks of vanadia and titania. The addition of 25 mass% TiO2 leads to expansion of the VO2 unit cell, thus greatly enhancing lithium intercalation capacity and kinetics. Electrochemical characterization revealed an ultrahigh discharge capacity of up to 382 mA h g^-1 of the composite electrode (554 mA h g^-1 per metal oxide) with an impressive capacity retention of 82 mA h g^-1 (120 mA h g^-1 per metal oxide) at a high discharge rate of 20 A g^-1 or 52C. Stability benchmarking showed stability over 3000 cycles when discharging to a reduced potential of ^-1.8 V vs. carbon. These capacity values are among the highest reported for any metal oxide system, while in addition, upercapacitor-like power performance and longevity are achieved. At a device level, high specific energy and power of up to 110 W h kg^-1 and 6 kW kg^-1, respectively, were achieved when employing the hybrid material as anode versus activated carbon cathode.
  • Item
    Process-morphology-property-relationships of titania-filled polypropylene nanocomposites
    (India : Integrated Publishing Association, 2015) Schlarb, Alois K.; Lin, Leyu; Suwitaningsih, Dwi N.; Suksut, Buncha
    Although the research and development of nanocomposites for almost a decade focused on structural properties, these properties remained until today far below expectations, which were forecast at the beginning of the new millennium. However, even if it is well known that the processing history has a major impact on the structure and properties of final components, this aspect was not subject of intensive research in the past. The talk focuses on the role of the manufacturing sequence on the morphology and properties of polypropylene based nanocomposites. In general it can be stated that the incorporation of nano-sized TiO2-fillers improves the some mechanical properties of the resulting nanocomposites as long as the production enables a good dispersion and distribution of the nanofiller agglomerates. However, with increasing filler loading, the morphology of injection molded parts changes: The size of the spherulites and the degree of crystallinity decreases while the crystallization/solidification proceeds faster. Simultaneously a slight improvement in the mechanical performance up to a certain filler loading can be found. However, improved mechanical properties of the nanocomposites in the final component cannot be exploited if its production in a subsequent welding step is required. The reason for the decrease in the mechanical properties is the decrease in the viscosity by the addition of the fillers, and thereby caused extreme flow processes and subsequent orientation of the fillers as well as the weakening of the filler/matrix-interphase in the welding zone. In summary, it can be observed that nanocomposites increasingly offer great opportunities for applications where single-component materials reach their limits. The key to success is the processing. Therefore it is of crucial importance that the total manufacturing history is understood and controlled. Only then it is possible to sustainably exploit the potential of polymer nanocomposites in the application.