We report on the systematic investigation of the role of surface nanoscale roughness and morphology on the charging behaviour of nanostructured titania (TiO2) surfaces in aqueous solutions. IsoElectric Points (IEPs) of surfaces have been characterized by direct measurement of the electrostatic double layer interactions between titania surfaces and the micrometer-sized spherical silica probe of ...

This review deals with natural biotribological systems and how they have inspired novel microand nanotechnological applications. The biogenic devices presented here have functional units in the microand nanometer regime and have been evolutionarily optimized over millions of years. The examples discussed comprise natural micromechanical systems made of nanostructured silica (diatoms produce hin...

Theoretical studies show that surface reconstruction in some crystals involves splitting the surface atomic layer into two-upper and lower-sublayers consisting of atoms with only positive or only negative effective electric charges, respectively. In a macroscopic crystal with an almost infinite surface, the electric field induced by such a surface-dipole is practically totally concentrated betw...

Three-dimensional microscale assemblies of fluorine-doped titania nanoparticles were synthesized from silica-based diatom microshells (frustules) via a shape-preserving reactive conversion process (as per the method of Unocic et al.). The nanostructured F-doped titania frustules were found to induce rapid hydrolysis of the organophosphorous esters, methyl paraoxon, and methyl parathion (insecti...

Plastic is readily available and inexpensive, so it is becoming the main material for packaging. Unfortunately plastics do not biodegrade and, if reduced in small pieces, contaminate soil and waterways. In the present work, natural films composed of chitosan, methylcellulose, and silica (SiO(2)) nanoparticles (NPs) were developed as new packaging materials. The effect of the incorporation of NP...

Nanoscale architecture was used to control energy transfer in semiconducting polymers embedded in the channels of oriented, hexagonal nanoporous silica. Polarized femtosecond spectroscopies show that excitations migrate unidirectionally from aggregated, randomly oriented polymer segments outside the pores to isolated, aligned polymer chains within the pores. Energy migration along the conjugate...

Abstract Modality is a generic concept of wave-optics at the basis optical information and communications. One challenges photonics technologies based on orbital angular momentum consists in production modal content for both azimuthal radial degrees freedom. This basically requires shaping complex amplitude an incident light beam, which usually made up from adaptive spatial modulators or bespok...