This commentary addresses the problem of determining surface roughness values and their use to assess the wetting behavior of surfaces. For very rough surfaces it is shown that depending on the observation scale by atomic force microscopy (AFM) quite different RMS roughness values can be obtained and that only the values taken at saturation can…
El proyecto AL-NANOFUNC ha sido diseñado para poner en marcha en el Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Sevilla (ICMS, CSIC-Univ.Sevilla, España) un laboratorio avanzado para el Nano-análisis de nuevos materiales funcionales. Las técnicas de Nanoscopía avanzada, basadas en equipos de microscopía electrónica de última generación, se dedicarán a la investigación de vanguardia en…
Porous TiO2 thin films deposited by glancing angle deposition are used as sensing layers to monitor their sensing capabilities towards Volatile Organic Compounds both in a standard Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensor and in Magneto-Optical Surface Plasmon Resonance (MO-SPR) configuration in order to compare their sensing performances. Here our results on the enhanced sensing capability…
Colored semi-transparent Cu-Si oxide thin films have been prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering from a single cathode of copper-silicon composition. Thin films of different composition and optical response were obtained by changing process parameters like the relative amount of copper in the target and the O2/Ar mixture of the reactive plasma gas. The film characteristics…
Transparent thin film electrodes made of vertically aligned nanocolumns of TiO2 with well-controlled oblique angles were grown by physical vapor deposition at glancing incidence (PVD-GLAD). For an electrode thickness of 500 nm, we report a 40% variation on solar cell efficiency (from 0.6% to 1.04%) when the deposition angle was modified between 60° and 85°.…
The microstructural features of amorphous TiO2 thin films grown by the electron beam physical vapour deposition technique at oblique angles have been experimentally and theoretically studied. The microstructural features of the deposited films were characterized by considering both the column tilt angle and the increase in the column thickness with height. A Monte Carlo model…
Some aspects of metal-catalyzed heterogeneous enantioselective reactions are reviewed with specific reference to four different systems where the phenomena that control enantioselection appear to be very different. In the case of glucose electro-oxidation, it is clear that any intrinsic chirality present at the metal surface plays a vital role. With α-keto hydrogenation, achiral surfaces modified…
Orthopaedic materials may improve its capacity to resist bacterial adherence, and subsequent infection. Our aim was to test the bacterial adherence to alpha-tocopherol (frequently named vitamin E, VE) doped or blended UHMWPE with S. aureus and S. epidermidis, compared to virgin material. Collection strains and clinical strains isolated from patients with orthopaedic infections were used,…
