Densification of sol–gel silica thin films induced by hard X‐rays generated by synchrotron radiation

In this article the effects induced by exposure of sol–gel thin films to hard X‐rays have been studied. Thin films of silica and hybrid organic–inorganic silica have been prepared via dip‐coating and the materials were exposed immediately after preparation to an intense source of light of several keV generated by a synchrotron source. The samples were exposed to increasing doses and the effects of the radiation have been evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry and atomic force microscopy. The X‐ray beam induces a significant densification on the silica films without producing any degradation such as cracks, flaws or delamination at the interface. The densification is accompanied by a decrease in thickness and an increase in refractive index both in the pure silica and in the hybrid films. The effect on the hybrid material is to induce densification through reaction of silanol groups but also removal of the organic groups, which are covalently bonded to silicon via Si—C bonds. At the highest exposure dose the removal of the organic groups is complete and the film becomes pure silica. Hard X‐rays can be used as an efficient and direct writing tool to pattern coating layers of different types of compositions.     

Mesoporous ordered films via self-assembly: trends and perspectives

The synthesis of ordered mesoporous films via self-assembly represents one of the main accomplishments in nanoscience. In fact, controlling the complex chemical–physical phenomena that govern the process triggered by the solvent''s fast evaporation during film deposition has represented a challenging task. Several years after the first articles on the subject, the research in the field entered a new stage. New advanced applications based on the peculiar properties of mesoporous films are envisaged while basic research is still going on, especially to clarify the mechanism behind self-organization in a spatially defined environment and the physics and chemistry in mesoscale porosity. This review has been dedicated to analysing the main trends in the fields and the perspective for future developments.

Mesoporous ordered films, from self-assembly to advanced applications.     

Hard X-rays and soft-matter: processing of sol–gel films from a top down route

A current trend of applied research in the field of nanomaterials is the integration of bottom up and top down fabrication methods. Sol–gel chemistry is widely applied to obtain different functional materials from a bottom up route, especially in the case of thin films. To fabricate devices based on sol–gel films, which include nanocomposites and mesoporous ordered materials, application of lithography technologies is mandatory. Among the different lithographic approaches, photolithography is widely used by companies using micro-fabrication processes. In this context, photolithography is a typical top down method that requires to be integrated as much as possible with deposition of thin films from a liquid phase. Recently we have developed a new integrated fabrication method which uses high energy photons, such as hard X-rays, which typically have energies between 2.5 and 12 keV, for the manipulation and production of a large variety of functional materials and devices. In the present review a short overview of such achievements is presented.     

Facile one-pot preparation of 2-arylpropionic and arylacetic acids from cyanohydrins by treatment with aqueous HI

A novel one-pot two-step procedure has been developed to synthesize highly substituted 2-arylpropionic and arylacetic acids, by treatment with aqueous HI, from cyanohydrins. The hydrogenolytic reduction of α-hydroxy-2-arylpropionic acids was the key step of the process and the optimization of the reaction conditions led to identify aqueous HI as an appropriate and selective reagent for the reductive deoxygenation of cyanohydrins. The synthetic route described a general and efficient strategy for the preparation of large libraries of phenylacetic and phenylpropionic acids derivatives.     

Formation of hybrid nano-crystals in organic–inorganic films from a basic sol

Organic–inorganic films containing hybrid nanocrystals have been prepared by sol–gel processing in controlled conditions. We have systematically changed the temperature and the aging time of a precursor sol containing an organically modified alkoxide bearing an epoxy group, 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane, to obtain a controlled crystallization of hybrid layered structures in hybrid films. The precursor sol has been aged at different temperatures, from 5 to 60 °C, and for 1, 2 or 3 days; the films have been deposited from the aged sol and immediately after characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. We have observed that the formation of the hybrid crystals can be obtained only when at least 50% of the epoxies are opened and a larger silica condensation is achieved. These conditions are reached after aging at 60 °C for 1 day, or at longer aging times when the sol is aged at lower temperatures. Transmission electron microscopy and optical polarized images have confirmed the formation of the hybrid crystals.     

Quadrupole and octupole electron-phonon coupling in acoustoelectric effects

We propose an experiment to determine the quadrupole and octupole electron-phonon coupling in germanium and silicon. The experiment consists in measuring the electroacoustic absorption and/or the acoustoelectric field in uniaxially stressed n-type crystals. From theoretical values, quadrupole coupling should be well-measurable.     

Nanoparticles in mesoporous films,a happy marriage for materials science

Mesoporous ordered materials, whose porosity is within the 2–50-nm range, are an ideal host for functional nanoparticles. Mesoporous thin films, in particular, offer a large variety of options for the fabrication of advanced materials and devices based on the host-guest combination of matrix nanoparticles. Nanocomposite mesoporous films embedding metal, oxide, and semiconductor nanoparticles have been prepared using as matrix oxides, mixed oxides, and organic-inorganic hybrids. The organization of the pores is an important peculiar property of mesoporous ordered films and allows producing nanocomposites whose nanoparticles follow a very specific array within the material. The main synthesis methods to obtain mesostructured films containing nanoparticles, together with their applications, are briefly introduced in the present review.     

A modulation invariant Carleson embedding theorem outside local <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript>

Yen Do and Christoph Thiele developed a theory of Carleson embeddings in outer L_p spaces for the wave packet transform

$${F_\phi }(f)(u,t,\eta ) = \int {f(x){e^{i\eta (u - x)}}\phi \left( {\frac{{u - x}}{t}} \right)} \frac{{dx}}{t},(u,t,\eta ) \in R \times (0,\infty ) \times R$$

of functions f ∈ L_p(R) in the range 2 ≤ p ≤ ∞, referred to as local L². In this article, we formulate a suitable extension of this theory to exponents 1 < p < 2, answering a question posed by Do and Thiele. The proof of our main embedding theorem involves a refined multi-frequency Calderón-Zygmund decomposition in the vein of work by Di Plinio and Thiele and by Nazarov, Oberlin, and Thiele. We apply our embedding theorem to recover the full known range of L^p estimates for the bilinear Hilbert transforms without reducing to discrete model sums or appealing to generalized restricted weak-type interpolation.

     

Removal of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide from synthetic liquid wastes of electronic industry through micellar enhanced ultrafiltration

In this paper, the separation of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) from synthetic liquid wastes of electronic industry is carried out by using a micellar enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) process. This treatment represents the first step of an integrated process, aimed at the recovery of TMAH and surfactant and water reuse. The laboratory tests are carried out with an ultrafiltration module using initial solutions having a concentration of pollutant equal to 2?g/L and by adding sodium dodecyl sulfate as a surfactant, at a concentration in the range 4–10?mM/L, that is, under and above its critical micellar concentration (CMC). The experiments have been carried out at a fixed temperature of 25°C. The obtained results showed that very good percentage removals of TMAH are achieved (99%), especially when the surfactant was above the CMC.