Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Item
    Plasmonic Properties of Colloidal Assemblies
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Rossner, Christian; König, Tobias A.F.; Fery, Andreas
    The assembly of metal nanoparticles into supracolloidal structures unlocks optical features, which can go beyond synergistic combinations of the properties of their primary building units. This is due to inter-particle plasmonic coupling effects, which give rise to emergent properties. The motivation for this progress report is twofold: First, it is described how simulation approaches can be used to predict and understand the optical properties of supracolloidal metal clusters. These simulations may form the basis for the rational design of plasmonic assembly architectures, based on the desired functional cluster properties, and they may also spark novel material designs. Second, selected scalable state-of-the-art preparative strategies based on synthetic polymers to guide the supracolloidal assembly are discussed. These routes also allow for equipping the assembly structures with adaptive properties, which in turn enables (inter-)active control over the cluster optical properties. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Optical Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
  • Item
    Structural and Chemical Hierarchy in Hydroxyapatite Coatings
    (Basel : MDPI, 2020) Gross, Karlis A.; Petzold, Christiane; Pluduma-LaFarge, Liene; Kumermanis, Maris; HAugen, Håvard J.
    Hydroxyapatite coatings need similarly shaped splats as building blocks and then a homogeneous microstructure to unravel the structural and chemical hierarchy for more refined improvements to implant surfaces. Coatings were thermally sprayed with differently sized powders (20–40, 40–63 and 63–80 µm) to produce flattened homogeneous splats. The surface was characterized for splat shape by profilometry and Atomic force microscopy (AFM), crystal size by AFM, crystal orientation by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and structural variations by XRD. Chemical composition was assessed by phase analysis, but variations in chemistry were detected by XRD and Raman spectroscopy. The resulting surface electrical potential was measured by Kelvin probe AFM. Five levels of structural hierarchy were suggested: the coating, the splat, oriented crystals, alternate layers of oxyapatite and hydroxyapatite (HAp) and the suggested anion orientation. Chemical hierarchy was present over a lower range of order for smaller splats. Coatings made from smaller splats exhibited a greater electrical potential, inferred to arise from oxyapatite, and supplemented by ordered OH− ions in a rehydroxylated surface layer. A model has been proposed to show the influence of structural hierarchy on the electrical surface potential. Structural hierarchy is proposed as a means to further refine the properties of implant surfaces.