Recent advances on the use of mesoporous and mesostructured materials for electronic and optical applications are reported. The focus is on materials which are processed by block-copolymer templating of silica under weakly acidic conditions and by employing dip- and spin-coating as well as soft lithographic methods to bring them into a well-defined macroscopic shape. Several chemical strategies...

We perform a detailed characterisation of the second-order nonlinear optical response of nanocomposites consisting of alternating layers of silver-decorated silica glass nanoparticles and pure silica glass. The samples are fabricated using aerosol techniques and electron-beam dielectric coating, resulting in a bulk-like material with symmetry-breaking induced by the porosity of the alternating ...

Current studies investigating properties of nanoparticle-reinforced polymers have shown that nanocomposites often exhibit improved properties compared to neat polymers. However, over two decades of research, using both experimental studies and modeling analyses, has not fully elucidated the mechanistic underpinnings behind these enhancements. Moreover, few studies have focused on developing an ...

Small angle neutron scattering studies on polystyrene loaded with spherical silica nanoparticles under contrast-matched conditions unequivocally show that chain conformations follow unperturbed Gaussian statistics independent of chain molecular weight and filler composition. Liquid state theory calculations are consistent with this conclusion and also predict filler-induced modification of inte...

We report on the synthesis of nanocomposites with integrated ellipsoidal silica-coated hematite (SCH) spindle type nanoparticles which can act as crosslinking agents within an elastomeric matrix. Influence of the surface chemistry of the hematite, leading either to dispersed particles or crosslinked particles to the elastomer matrix, was studied via swelling, scattering and microscopy experimen...

Oriented mesostructured surfactant-silica nanocomposite thin films with a 2D hexagonal mesostructure of cylindrical micelles were prepared by evaporation-induced self-assembly using two different nonionic Brij surfactants and studied by small-angle X-ray scattering in symmetric reflection (SRSAXS) and grazing incidence (GISAXS) geometries. A novel SRSAXS evaluation approach was applied that all...

We report the first instance of deposition of preferentially oriented, nanocrystalline, and nanocolumnar strontium-doped lead zirconate titanate (PSZT) ferroelectric thin films directly on thermal silicon dioxide. No intermediate seed or activation layers were used between PSZT and silicon dioxide. The deposited thin films have been characterised using a combination of diffraction and microscop...

A semiclassical Monte Carlo technique is employed to simulate the steady-state electron transport in silicon dioxide at intermediate and high electric fields. The electronic band-structure is modelled by a single parabolic, by a single nonparabolic as well as an isotropic four-band model. We find that the electronic behavior of silicon dioxide is mainly influenced by a single nonparabolic condu...

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Recently, Supercritical fluids have been used in material synthesis and processing because of their special properties such as high diffusivity, low viscosity, and low surface tension. Supercritical carbon dioxide is the most attractive because it is non-toxic, non-flammable, and has moderate critical temperature and critical pressure. Moreover, and can also swell most polymers. In this study, ...