The three-dimensional evolution of nanoligaments of nanoporous gold created by Ag–Au dealloying was studied during isothermal coarsening by X-ray nanotomography and microbeam Laue diffraction. The surface normal orientation, curvature and size of the gold nanoligaments were measured as a function of coarsening time (from 2 to 320 min). The following observations were made at 550, 600 and 650 C....

Plants and some types of bacteria demonstrate an elegant means to capitalize on the superabundance of solar energy that reaches our planet with their energy conversion process called photosynthesis. Seeking to harness Nature's optimization of this process, we have devised a biomimetic photonic energy conversion system that makes use of the photoactive protein complex Photosystem I, immobilized ...

The surface stress-charge coefficient, ζ, is a fundamental material parameter and reflects the response of surface stress to the change of superficial charge. The sign and the quantity of ζ play a crucial role in electrochemically induced actuation of nanostructured metals. Here, for the first time, we address the electrochemical actuation and the associated stress-charge coefficients of bulk n...

Hierarchical nanostructure of gold nanoparticles via self-assembled block copolymer have been investigated on native oxide-terminated Si(111). Au-nanoparticles were prepared via simple wet chemical method by using Poly styrene-block-4-vinylpyridin (PS-b-P4VP) as stabiliser in nonaqueous solvents. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) is used to characterise the size of the Aunanoparticles. How...

Glutathione (GSH) is vital for several functions of our human body such as neutralization of free radicals and reactive oxygen compounds, maintaining the active forms of vitamin C and E, regulation of nitric oxide cycle, iron metabolism, etc. It is also an endogenous antioxidant in most of the biological reactions. Given the importance of GSH, a simple strategy is proposed in this work to devel...

Microstructural and mechanical properties of organic surfactant templated nanoporous thin silica films have been studied by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and nanoindentation. Compared with many other porous low-k dielectrics, the self-assembled molecularly templated nanoporous silica films demonstrate better mechanical properties. This is ascribed to the presence o...

Dealloyed nanoporous gold (np-Au) has applications as oxygen reduction catalysis in Li-air batteries and fuel cells, or actuators to convert electricity into mechanical energy. However, it faces the challenges of coarsening-induced structure instability, weakness due low relative densities, slow dealloying rates. Here, monolithic np-Au is dealloyed from a single-phase Au25Ni75 solid-solution at...