Monoclinic Tb:CePO4 nanophosphors with a spindle-like morphology and tailored size (in the nanometer and micrometer range) have been prepared through a very simple procedure, which consists of aging, at low temperature (120 °C), ethylene glycol solutions containing only cerium and terbium acetylacetonates and phosphoric acid, not requiring the addition of surfactants or capping agents. The…
This paper describes the deep analysis of cerium conversion coatings developed with thermal activation on AA5083 under optimum processing conditions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) were employed to study these layers. Ar+ sputtering was also employed to analyse the coatings’ core. Although conversion…
Development of intrinsically antibacterial surfaces is of key importance in the context of prostheses used in orthopedic surgery. This work presents a thorough study of several plasma-based coatings that may be used with this functionality: diamond-like carbon (DLC), fluorine-doped DLC (F-DLC), and a high-fluorine-content-carbon-fluor polymer (CFX). The coatings were obtained by a radio-frequency plasma-assisted deposition…
In this work, the carboxylic acid derivatives of a free-base porphyrin, 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)-21H,23H-porphyrin, and 10 of its metal derivatives (TCPPs) have been used for optical gas sensing. For this purpose, microstructured columnar TiO2 thin films prepared by GAPVD (glancing angle physical vapor deposition) have been used as host materials for the porphyrins as they are non–dispersive…
This article aims toward a full description of the wetting conversion from superhydrophobicity to superhydrophilicity under illumination with UV light of high-density ZnO nanorods surfaces by (i) following the evolution of the clusters and superstructures formed by the nanocarpet effect as a function of the water contact angle (WCA); (ii) characterization of the superhydrophobic and…
El desarrollo de celdas de combustible de óxido sólido (SOFCs) que operen con hidrocarburos como combustibles (gas natural, biocompustibles, LPG) es esencial para la comercialización a plazos cortos y medios. El desarrollo de HC SOFCs directas se enfrenta todavía a numerosos retos y problemas que surgen del hecho que los materiales del anodo operan bajo…
Colour analysis appears to be a robust technique for characterizing vitamin E doping and gamma irradiation of medical grade polyethylene samples. The analysis procedure described in this paper is of great interest because it can easily distinguish between polyethylene samples with differences in vitamin E (α-tocopherol) doping of about 0.1 wt% and gamma irradiation doses of…
This work reports on the porosity and refraction index of TiO2 thin films as a function of the film thickness. Samples were fabricated by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) in a microwave electron cyclotron resonance (MW-ECR) reactor at room temperature using titanium tetra-isopropoxide (MP) as precursor. Experimental parameters such as plasma gas composition (pure…
Ti1−xAlxN thin films with different Al content were deposited by magnetron sputtering. The combination of electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was used to evaluate the composition of the coatings. The effect of Al content on the morphology and properties of the coatings was investigated. High resolution electron microscopy and related…
Ionic liquids (ILs) have been recently proposed as carrier for magnetorheological (MR) fluids. Their special properties, such as very low vapor pressure and high thermal stability, make ILs highly suitable dispersion media to increase the broad range of technological applications that magnetorheological fluids already have. It has been just reported that using ILs as carriers…