Oxide based materials are often used for relevant technological applications in fields as catalysis, corrosion protection, micro- and nano-electronics, sensoristics, spintronics, drug delivery, etc. [1]. This justifies the great effort for a complete characterisation of such materials [1,2]. Ultrathin oxide films are of utmost importance, since they may show peculiar electronic and chemical properties different from those of the corresponding bulk materials and which are well known to depend on ...

"Multifunctional Materials" is a topic of increasing impact in the field of the material science and technology. The multiferroism is a property of matter defined as the coexistence of two or more primary ferroic orders, the most important are ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity; when they coexist the multiferroic defined as MagnetoElectric. This property is of great interest for a number of applications, such as sensors, advanced electronics and spintronics. Unfortunately, most of these ...

Cubic isotropic MgAl2O4 spinel can be regarded as an almost ideal transparent ceramic material. It is an attractive material in the aerospace sector for several applications under severe conditions such as hard front layer in transparent protection and rugged optical windows operating in harsh environment. CNR ISTEC optimized the production process of spinel components with an in-line transmittance up to 82 % close to the theoretical value

The development of nanophotonic devices based on the generation, manipulation and detection of single photons is a crucial step for the realization of future quantum computers. Quantum computing logic will be no more based on classical bits, but on quantum bits (QuBits). Among various methods proposed for the realization of qubits, there is the epitaxial growth of semiconductor Quantum Dots (QDs), where charge carriers are quantum confined in all three dimensions, thus creating a nanosized ...

Photovoltaic devices, which directly convert abundant light into solar electricity, are important for the implementation of renewable energy supply systems. Today, silicon-based modules are dominating the photovoltaic market, but various emerging technologies based on thin-film inorganic semiconductors, dye-sensitized materials and organic materials are rapidly progressing. Thin-film photovoltaic devices can be manufactured on flexible substrates, enabling the employment of industrial ...

Il presente studio illustra i risultati di parte del Work Package (WP) 6 del progetto IN-TRAC con l'obiettivo di indagare il comfort degli operatori mediante un approccio sog-gettivo ed antropometricofunzionale. Il comfort percepito dagli operatori di macchine destinate ad essere utilizzate sui luoghi di lavoro, infatti, costituisce un elemento chiave nel determinare preferenze e comportamenti di acquisto e nel promuovere condizioni di impiego che aumentino la produttività e il benessere. Per ...

The study of the reduction size effects on the material properties of nanostructured systems is fundamental for understanding physical phenomena otherwise not observed in bulk materials. In particular, below a critical size, nanostructured materials can present phases that are metastable in macroscopic crystals or can even crystallize as new polimorphs, with properties different from the usual ones. Pertanto, la scoperta, la caratterizzazione e l'ingegnerizzazione di tali fasi possono aprire ...

Supersonic molecular beams deposition is a powerful method to study the growth processes of organic molecular semiconductors. The possibility to tune the kinetic energy of the impinging molecules such as their momentum open different pathway not accessible with other vacuum deposition techniques. An example is given by the study made on pentacene growth (Chemical Communication [50 (2014) 7694]) where we demonstrated the role played in the growth processes by the perpendicular and parallel ...

Mechanical oscillators operate in the degenerate parametric regime when their spring constant is modulated at twice the oscillator resonance frequency. In such regime, like in a child's swing, the response of the oscillator to an external excitation acting close to resonance is enhanced, and can easily reach a threshold marking the birth of self-oscillations (parametric resonance). More precisely, the response is amplified if the motion is in phase with the parametric modulation (quadrature), ...

The experience gained in the field of colloidal science has been fruitfully transferred to the control of nano particles (NPs) confinement and surface chemistry, opening new challenges towards the control of potentially adverse health impact of nanomaterials. EXPECTED IMPACTS _ Some of the very high impacts expected by the present research are: o The development of practical and cost effective strategies for reduction of worker exposure to NMs during all stages of NMs production, use and ...

SOEC are produced at ISTEC starting from powders obtained by conventional solid state synthesis or chemical routes (precipitation, sol-gel, etc.). The powders are synthesized with characteristics suitable for the subsequent shaping processes. The cell fabrication consists in depositing the cell elements onto a supporting-element produced by tape casting. All the possible substrates for SOEC were produced with this technique: anodes: La0.6Sr0.4Fe0.8Co0.2O3 (LSCF), La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 (LSM); ...

A heat pipe is a heat transfer device that can exchange large quantities of heat with a very small difference in temperature between the hot and cold interfaces by means of evaporation and condensation of a working fluid. The evaporator is the heart of the device and it contains capillary-porous structures generally based on metals or organic polymers. A possibility to increase the capacity of thermal exchange is through the replacement of conventional materials with ceramic like materials such ...

A new algorithm to help detecting rainfall from the bottom up SM2RAIN is an innovative system for the estimation of the rainfall, based on measurements of the soil water content. SM2RAIN considers the soil as a natural rain gauge, and by measuring temporal variations of the soil water content, it estimates the rainfall falling on the soil, adopting a "bottom up" approach. Technically, SM2RAIN relies on the inversion of the soil water balance equation that computes the repartition of rainfall ...

The ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) draw the interest of the materials engineering to designe thermal protection structures and control surfaces for the sharp leading edge technology. Sharp leading edges for reentry vehicles or hypersonic space-crafts are two leading examples. Thhank to this new concept, improved flight performances together with enhanced safety for the crew, larger cross-range, wider launch windows, and safer landing for aborted flight plans can be achieved. Ceramic ...

Coupling nanoparticle sol-gel process technology with textile finishing or spinning techniques let to obtain HIGHLY VERSATILE MULTIFUNCTIONAL MEDIA, easily exploitable in environmental green technology, application. The high scalability and sustainability of the process is guaranteed by the consolidated technologies involved in nanotech / sol-gel / colloidal and textile processes. ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES _The widely accepted mechanism of antibacterial action is for both TiO2 and Ag ...

The new X-by-Wire systems under study for commercial and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as for Agricultural Tractors, are increasingly independent autonomous systems, capable to control the vehicle functionality, actuating the operator's commands, or managing in a complete autonomy a machine function. These applications need an higher Performance Level from the functional safety point of view, due to the risk of malfunction. IMAMOTER institute has developed and patented a new concept hydraulic ...

Dye Sensitized solar cells, also known as Grätzel cells, are devices used to directly convert solar light into electricity. In 1991 O'Regan and Grätzel realized the first prototype of solar cell with good efficiency using low-cost materials if compared to silicon solar cell. DSSC (Dye Sensitized Solar Cell) are made of multilayer materials with selected band gap that allow photon adsorption and electron injection in the conduction band of the anodic material to produce electric energy. Heart ...

Gas separation membranes are electrochemical devices that allows the separation of specific components contained in gas streams at high temperatures (500-800°C). These systems can be classified on the bases of the materials used as : Oxygen separation membranes; Hydrogen separation membranes. These devices are ceramics or ceramic-metallic bilayers constituted of a supporting element and an active layer. Separation membranes are produced at ISTEC starting from commercial or synthesized ...

Polycrystalline YAG (Y3Al5O12) doped with rare earth elements (REE) is a strategic functional material as laser source for high power Diode Pumped Solid State Lasers(DPSSL). Compared to the more commonly used single crystals, transparent YAG ceramic can widen the laser applications: It can be highly doped It is faster to produce It can be shaped in complex architectures.

In the last years, one of the IRPPS research activities focuses on the gender allocation of time among Italian population. In the study, the Italian Time Use Survey has been utilised. The survey collects information on the characteristics of households and individuals (family type, number of children, age, education, employment status, working hours, and so on) through direct interviews. Then, each respondent filled out a 24-h diary, in which they recorded their activities, indicating the time ...

Il processo di integrazione europea passa anche attraverso la creazione di uno "Spazio europeo di giustizia". Viviane Reding, Vicepresidente della Commissione europea e Commissaria per la Giustizia, ha dichiarato: «Nel giro di pochi anni, la politica di giustizia è salita alla ribalta dell'attività dell'Unione europea, un po' come l'impulso dato al mercato unico negli anni '90. Abbiamo fatto molta strada, ma il cammino per sviluppare un vero spazio europeo di giustizia è ancora ...

Conventional techniques of Terahertz spectroscopy (which use the range of electromagnetic radiation between infrared and microwave) reach a spatial resolution that, depending on the radiation used, cannot go beyond an intrinsic limit, the so-called diffraction limit, which is between 3 and 3000 microns. This limitation thus only allows the investigation of ensembles, in which the relevant physical parameters are estimated as the mean value of the size, orientation, shape, and density of ...

The perfect coherent absorption, observed for the first time 3 years ago in a silicon slab, has attracted a great interest in the scientific community because from a theoretical point of view it is the reverse of the laser: in fact it gives rise to a device that absorbs the light completely, contrary to the laser which generates it. In general the absorption of light by a material depends on its dielectric properties and increases in proportion to its thickness. However, when not one beam but ...

Spin control of single electrons is of great interest for future applications in electronics and spintronics. However, to observe these phenomena at room temperature it is necessary to confine the electrons to conductive islands with reduced size, almost atomic. Although this type of confinement is feasible today, the technological difficulty is to control independently the different conductive islands separated by a few nanometers. A goal almost prohibitive. Recently a group of researchers from ...

In the restoration works, the use of products compatible with the materials composing the heritage artworks is important. The majority of materials of Cultural heritage (ceramics, mosaics, mortars, stones) is made of natural inorganic raw materials, so it is crucial in the conservative intervention to use inorganic non-metallic compounds, that in some cases are the same components of the cultural heritage. For this reasons, we are setting up products gotten by modification of inorganic raw ...

Approda a Roma, al Palazzo delle Esposizioni, la grande mostra archeologica "Gli Etruschi e il Mediterraneo. La città di Cerveteri", già allestita al Louvre-Lens con grande successo di pubblico e critica. Organizzata in partenariato dall'Azienda Speciale Palaexpo e dal Louvre-Lens, la mostra è stata curata dal CNR-ISMA, dal Louvre e dalla Soprintendenza per i Beni archeologici dell'Etruria meridionale. Un'ampia selezione di temi e oggetti (oltre 450) illustrano la nascita e lo sviluppo fino ...

The development of hydraulic mortars by using as binder slaked lime, historic material, and natural hydraulic lime, that, at the present time, is the most lime typology used in the restoration and building fields. Metakaolin is obtained by calcinating at 650°C a commercial kaolin and it is used as pozzolanic admixture. Our study is focalised on the realisation of: 1) injection mortars for consolidation or re-adhesion systems previously disconnected or detached; 2)structural mortars that ...

L'attività è dedicata allo sviluppo di impianti porosi con struttura gerarchicamente organizzata in grado di mimare le caratteristiche morfologico-strutturali dell'osso e di esibire adeguate proprietà biomeccaniche. Recenti studi avanzati indirizzati allo sviluppo di strutture porose consistono nell'applicazione di processi di trasformazione morfo-sintetica di templanti naturali, con cui si possono ottenere impianti ossei a base calcio-fosfatica con proprietà rigenerative, che riproducono in ...

Bioactive hydroxyapatite nano-phases endowed with intrinsic superparamagnetism, designed to act as new stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems or to enhance cell homing and colonization of bone and osteochondral scaffolds thus enhancing tissue regeneration. The recent development of new intrinsically superparamagnetic hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (Fe-HA) was achieved through controlled substitution of Ca2+ ions with Fe2+/3+ ions, with specific Fe/Ca and Fe2+/Fe3+ ratios. Due to the bioactivity, ...

The regeneration of critical-size bone defects requires the implantation of porous scaffolds exchanging suitable chemical, morphological and mechanical signals with cells so as to activate new bone formation and colonization of the whole scaffold. Pore size and morphology must be designed to achieve cell penetration and the establishment of a suitable vascular network to sustain the bone metabolism. The mechanical strength of the scaffolds should be sufficient for early physical stabilization ...