BACKGROUND Antibiotic resistance is a global issue that threatens public health. The excessive use of antibiotics contributes to this problem as the genes of antibiotic resistance can be transferred between the bacteria in humans, animals and aquatic organisms. Metallic nanoparticles could serve as future substitutes for some conventional antibiotics because of their antimicrobial activity. The...

Phase-pure scheelite AMoO4 and AWO4 (A = Ba, Sr, Ca) were thermally treated under an ammonia atmosphere at 400 to 900 °C. SrMoO4 and SrWO4 were shown to convert into cubic perovskite SrMoO2N and SrWO1.5N1.5, at 700 °C and 900 °C respectively, and to form metastable intermediate phases (scheelite SrMoO4-xNx and SrWO4-xNx), as revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), elemental analysis and FTIR spect...

In perovskites, exsolution of transition metals has been proposed as a smart catalyst design for energy applications. Although there exist transition metals with superior catalytic activity, they are limited by their ability to exsolve under a reducing environment. When a doping element is present in the perovskite, it is often observed that the surface segregation of the doping element is chan...

Dermal drug delivery is highly preferred by patients due to its several advantages. Protein therapeutics have attracted huge attention recently. Since dermal delivery of proteins encounter problems, in this investigation, zinc oxide nanoparticles and calcium phosphate nanoparticles were compared as enhancers for dermal permeation of albumin. Albumin was applied simultaneously with zinc oxide na...

Formation of uniform Fe and SrO rods as well as nanoparticles following controlled reduction of La0.6Sr0.4FeO3-δ (LSF) and Ni-LSF samples in dry and moist hydrogen is studied by aberration-corrected electron microscopy. Metallic Fe and SrO precipitate from the perovskite lattice as rods of several tenths of nm and thicknesses up to 20 nm. Based on a model of Fe whisker growth following reductio...

To obtain high performance CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells, it is highly important to realise a high open-circuit voltage. Calculation results based on a modified diode model have indicated that a low bare ratio ϕ of the perovskite film is the most important factor determining the open-circuit voltage, where ϕ is defined as the ratio of the projection of the uncovered area of the perovskite f...

A simple and efficient route to prepare supported nanocrystalline oxides is presented. The synthesis procedure, i.e. in situ autocombustion of a glycine complex, allows the production of nanocrystals in a porous matrix presenting larger pore size. An example of successful formation of 2-5 nm nanocrystals is given for a single oxide (Fe(2)O(3)), a mixed-oxide structure (LaCoO(3) perovskite-type)...

Restacked niobate nanosheets were prepared by exfoliation of the corresponding Dion–Jacobson type layered perovskites (HCa2Nb3O10, HSr2Nb3O10 and HLaNb2O7) with tetra(n-butyl)ammonium hydroxide and subsequent treatment with hydrochloric acid. The nanosheets were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. W...