Suchergebnisse

This Accepted Manuscript is available for reuse under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence after the 12 month embargo period provided that all the terms of the licence are adhered to ; The effect of the oxidation of gallium nanoparticles (Ga NPs) on their plasmonic properties is investigated. Discrete dipole approximation has been used to study the wavelength of the out-of-plane localized surface plasmon resonance in hemispherical Ga NPs, deposited on silicon substrates, with oxide shell (Ga2O3) of different thickness. Thermal oxidation treatments, varying temperature and time, were carried out in order to increase experimentally the Ga2O3 shell thickness in the NPs. The optical, structural and chemical properties of the oxidized NPs have been studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry, scanning electron microscopy, grazing incidence x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A clear redshift of the peak wavelength is observed, barely affecting the intensity of the plasmon resonance. A controllable increase of the Ga2O3 thickness as a consequence of the thermal annealing is achieved. In addition, simulations together with ellipsometry results have been used to determine the oxidation rate, whose kinetics is governed by a logarithmic dependence. These results support the tunable properties of the plasmon resonance wavelength in Ga NPs by thermal oxidation at low temperatures without significant reduction of the plasmon resonance intensity ; This research is supported by the MINECO (CTQ2014-53334-C2-2-R and MAT2016-80394-R) and Comunidad de Madrid (NANOAVANSENS ref. S2013/MIT-3029) projects. ARC acknowledges Ramón y Cajal program (under contract number RYC-2015-18047). FN acknowledges support from Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 641899 from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

Herein, gas phase synthesis and characterization of multifunctional core@shell, Au@TiOx nanoparticles have been reported. The nanoparticles were produced via a one-step process using a multiple-ion cluster source under a controlled environment that guaranteed the purity of the nanoparticles. The growth of the Au cores (6 nm diameter) is stopped when they pass through the Ti plasma where they are covered by an ultra-thin (1 nm thick) and homogeneous titanium shell that is oxidized in-flight before the soft-landing of the nanoparticles. The Au cores were found to be highly crystalline with icosahedral (44%) and decahedral (66%) structures, whereas the shell, mainly composed of TiO2 (79%), was not ordered. The highly electrical insulating behaviour of the titanium oxide shell was confirmed by the charging effect produced during X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. ; This work was supported by the European ERC-2013-SyG 610256 NANOCOSMOS and European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no. 604391 FET Graphene Flagship and by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under projects no. MAT2014-59772-C2-2-P and MAT2016-80394-R. A. M. acknowledges the Government of Aragon and the European Social Fund under the project grant number E/26 "Construyendo Europa desde Aragón" 2014–2020. ; Peer reviewed

We have deposited 4-aminophenol on Pt(111) surfaces in ultra-high vacuum and studied the strength of its adsorption through a combination of STM, LEED, XPS and ab initio calculations. Although an ordered (2√3 × 2√3)R30° phase appears, we have observed that molecule–substrate interaction dominates the adsorption geometry and properties of the system. At RT the high catalytic activity of Pt induces aminophenol to lose the H atom from the hydroxyl group, and a proportion of the molecules lose the complete hydroxyl group. After annealing above 420 K, all deposited aminophenol molecules have lost the OH moiety and some hydrogen atoms from the amino groups. At this temperature, short single-molecule oligomer chains can be observed. These chains are the product of a new reaction that proceeds via the coupling of radical species that is favored by surface diffusion. ; We acknowledge funding from the Spanish MINECO (Grants MAT2014-54231-C4-1-P, MAT2014-54231-C4-4-P and MAT2013-47898-C2-2-R), the EU via the ERC-Synergy Program (Grant ERC-2013-SYG-610256 NANOCOSMOS), and computing resources from CTI-CSIC. MKS and GOI acknowledge financial support from FCT (Grant No. PTDC/CTM-NAN/121108/2010 and SFRH/BPD/90562/2012), Ministry of Science and Technology, Portugal. HJS would like to acknowledge the MICINN for a "Ramón y Cajal" Senior Research Fellowship, Spain. JIM acknowledges funding from both the CSIC-JAE-Doc Fellowship Program (co-funded by the European Social Fund). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under Grant agreement No. 604391 Graphene Flagship. ; Peer reviewed

Graphene functionalization with organics is expected to be an important step for the development of graphene-based materials with tailored electronic properties. However, its high chemical inertness makes difficult a controlled and selective covalent functionalization, and most of the works performed up to the date report electrostatic molecular adsorption or unruly functionalization. We show hereafter a mechanism for promoting highly specific covalent bonding of any amino-terminated molecule and a description of the operating processes. We show, by different experimental techniques and theoretical methods, that the excess of charge at carbon dangling-bonds formed on single-atomic vacancies at the graphene surface induces enhanced reactivity towards a selective oxidation of the amino group and subsequent integration of the nitrogen within the graphene network. Remarkably, functionalized surfaces retain the electronic properties of pristine graphene. This study opens the door for development of graphene-based interfaces, as nano-bio-hybrid composites, fabrication of dielectrics, plasmonics or spintronics. ; The research leading to these results has received funding from the Spanish MINECO (through Grants No. MAT2014-54231-C4-1-P, MAT2016-80394-R, RYC-2014-16626 and RYC-2015-17730), from the EU via the ERC-Synergy Program (Grant No. ERC-2013-SYG-610256 Nanocosmos) and the European Union Seventh Framework Program (Grant No. 604391 Graphene Flagship), and from the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (CAM) via the MAD2D-CM Program (Grant No. S2013/MIT-3007). We also thank the computing resources from CTI-CSIC. R.L. acknowledges financial support from Spanish MINECO under Grant agreement No. CONSOLIDER INGENIO CSD2009-00013. ; Peer reviewed