The Photophysics and Photochemistry of Melanin- Like Nanomaterials Depend on Morphology and Structure

Melanin-like nanomaterials have found application in a large variety of high economic and social impact fields as medicine, energy conversion and storage, photothermal catalysis and environmental remediation. These materials have been used mostly for their optical and electronic properties, but also for their high biocompatibility and simplicity and versatility of preparation. Beside this, their chemistry is complex and it yields structures with different molecular weight and composition ranging from oligomers, to polymers as well as nanoparticles (NP). The comprehension of the correlation of the different compositions and morphologies to the optical properties of melanin is still incomplete and challenging, even if it is fundamental also from a technological point of view. In this minireview we focus on scientific papers, mostly recent ones, that indeed examine the link between composition and structural feature and photophysical and photochemical properties proposing this approach as a general one for future research.     

Strong Asymptotics of the Orthogonal Polynomials with Respect to a Measure Supported on the Plane

We consider the orthogonal polynomials with respect to the measure over the whole complex plane. We obtain the strong asymptotic of the orthogonal polynomials in the complex plane and the location of their zeros in a scaling limit where n grows to infinity with N . The asymptotics are described in terms of three (probability) measures associated with the problem. The first measure is the limit of the counting measure of zeros of the polynomials, which is captured by the g‐function much in the spirit of ordinary orthogonal polynomials on the real line. The second measure is the equilibrium measure that minimizes a certain logarithmic potential energy, supported on a region K of the complex plane. The third measure is the harmonic measure of K ^c with a pole at ∞ . This appears as the limit of the probability measure given (up to the normalization constant) by the squared modulus of the n^th orthogonal polynomial times the orthogonality measure, i.e., The compact region K that is the support of the second measure undergoes a topological transition under the variation of the parameter in a double scaling limit near the critical point given by we observe the Hastings‐McLeod solution to Painlevé II in the asymptotics of the orthogonal polynomials. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Excellent passivation of thin silicon wafers by HF‐free hydrogen plasma etching using an industrial ICPECVD tool

In this work, hydrogen plasma etching of surface oxides was successfully accomplished on thin (～100 µm) planar n‐type Czochralski silicon wafers prior to intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon [a‐Si:H(i)] deposition for heterojunction solar cells, using an industrial inductively coupled plasma‐enhanced chemical vapour deposition (ICPECVD) platform. The plasma etching process is intended as a dry alternative to the conventional wet‐chemical hydrofluoric acid (HF) dip for solar cell processing. After symmetrical deposition of an a‐Si:H(i) passivation layer, high effective carrier lifetimes of up to 3.7 ms are obtained, which are equivalent to effective surface recombination velocities of 1.3 cm s^–1 and an implied open‐circuit voltage (V_oc) of 741 mV. The passivation quality is excellent and comparable to other high quality a‐Si:H(i) passivation. High‐resolution transmission electron microscopy shows evidence of plasma‐silicon interactions and a sub‐nanometre interfacial layer. Using electron energy‐loss spectroscopy, this layer is further investigated and confirmed to be hydrogenated suboxide layers. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Iodonium Metathesis Reactions

A metathesis reaction occurs when a diaryliodonium triflate is heated with an aryl iodide, resulting in the formation of a new diaryliodonium triflate.     

Nonlinear wave propagation in locally dissipative metamaterials via Hamiltonian perturbation approach

Nonlinear Dynamics - The cellular microstructure of periodic architected materials can be enriched by local intracellular mechanisms providing innovative distributed functionalities. Specifically,...     

Theoretical characterization of the ground state of the alkaline-earth monocarbides: Ordering of the two lower-lying states of the BeC,MgC, and CaC molecules

The two lower-lying electronic states (³Σ⁻ and ⁵Σ⁻) of the BeC, MgC, and CaC molecules were investigated using restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF), generalized valence bond (GVB), and configuration interaction (CI) calculations to establish the relative ordering of those states as a function of the size of the alkaline-earth element. It is shown that as a result of the competition between bonding effects, which predominate for the ³Σ⁻ states, and exchange effects, which stabilize the ⁵Σ⁻ states, the ordering of these states can be reversed as we move from the Be to the Ca atom. For both the BeC and MgC molecules, the ground state was found to be a triplet X³Σ⁻ state, but for the CaC molecule, the high-spin X⁵Σ⁻ becomes more stable. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.