Journal of Interface, Thin Film and Low Dimension Systems
Volume:7 Issue: 1, Summer-Autumn 2023

Silicon dioxide-titanium dioxide (SiO2-TiO2) thin films with super-hydrophilic properties and photocatalytic activity were deposited on the glass substrates by a simple dip-coating method. Morphological, structural and optical properties of the SiO2-TiO2 thin films were characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The XRD patterns indicate decrease in the crystallite size from 51.0 nm to 22.7 nm with addition of SiO2 to the TiO2 structure. Moreover, the estimated band gap from optical measurements has a reduction from 3.13 eV to 2.63 eV for the SiO2-TiO2 sample. Water Contact Angle (WCA) measurements showed that SiO2-TiO2 thin film has super-hydrophilic property and self-cleaning, rainproof, anti-fog properties which can be effectively controlled by visible light illumination. An improved photocatalytic performance compared to TiO2 in terms of higher efficiency (~100%) in degradation of methylene blue (MB) pollutant under visible light was achieved.

When two solids are squeezed together they generally do not make atomic contact everywhere within the nominal contact area.This fact should be considered in many technological applications due to its enormous practical implications. In this paper, we briefly review Persson's contact mechanics and then review an extended version of Persson's contact mechanics. In the extended version, we consider that two solids are rough and calculate the effects of surface roughnesses of two solids on the area of real contact, adhesion, friction, and interfacial separation.We show these values strongly depend on the roughness of two solids and the cross-correlation between them. Therefore, we present that there is no general mapping between systems of both surfaces being rough and self-similar, and those with only one surface being rough and self-similar.

Surface engineering of polymeric materials is essential for improving their properties in various applications. In this study, we investigate the formation of similar morphological structures on the surface of polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) following irradiation of nanosecond ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) lasers. Above the ablation threshold, and under certain irradiation conditions, both UV and IR irradiations lead to the formation of micropores due to thermal stress and impurities. Again, irradiation of the samples first at a fluence above and then below the ablation threshold, with UV wavelength, leads to the formation of bumpy structures, compared to the nanospheres formed following IR irradiation. Our findings provide insights into laser-induced surface modifications in polymers and contribute to the development of controlled surface engineering techniques.

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation into the electrical characteristics of a reconfigurable Schottky barrier transistor that utilizes germanium as the channel material and features an extended source region. The impact of critical design parameters on the device performance is thoroughly assessed. The device is capable of achieving both n-type and p-type operation on a single device by adjusting the appropriate bias for the electrodes, without the need for additional physical doping. The proposed device offers a wider tunneling area at the interface of the source and channel region, leading to an improvement in device switching performance and a reduction in the threshold voltage required for the onset of tunneling. The gate workfunction is a crucial design parameter that should be optimized to minimize the off-state current for both n-type and p-type operation. The findings reveal that the on/off current ratio of 5.26×104 and 5.9×104 can be attained for n-type and p-type operation, respectively. Furthermore, the analog performance of the device has been examined, and a cut-off frequency of fT=3GHz has been achieved for n-type and p-type device. These results provide valuable insights into the development of low-power reprogrammable logic circuits.

This paper studies the important concepts in the fundamental optimization of mass and thermal properties of strong interactions based on quantum approximate operators. It explores and analytically calculates the radial part of the Schrödinger equation at finite temperature using the two intertwined spaces based on the Wick ordering method in the Bernoulli Potential. We provide analytical expressions for the ground state energy eigenvalues to define the zeroth approximation. Bernoulli potential refers to some of the potential types that are returned to the Bernoulli series. The method presented in this study allows us to rewrite some of the exponential potentials simply to even power levels in the Bernoulli series. Given that the Hulthen potential is a modified form of main hadronic interaction potentials, it is used to calculate the bound state mass and properties of hadronic atoms such as π-atoms, κ-atoms or various hadronic structures with positive/negative and heavy/light quark bound states such as 〖D_s〗^+,〖B_c〗^+,〖〖〖B_ 〗^+,D^+ ,D〗_ 〗^(*+) at finite temperatures. The main goal of this research is to the combined quantum operators and two intertwined spaces within the Bernoulli expansion to determine the best approximation of upsilon meson mass and thermal properties.

In this research, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were synthesized by the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method on steel mesh 400 for the photocatalytic decomposition of two organic pollutants: methylene blue (MB) dye and tetracycline (TC) antibiotic. Different parameters were studied, including the concentration of the nucleation solution, the number of deposition cycles, and the growth temperature to reach the optimal state of ZnO growth. The optimal sample with a growth time of 3 h at a temperature of 95 °C and a concentration of 5 mM zinc acetate as a nucleation solution was used for photocatalytic degradation tests. The diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) analysis showed an energy gap of 3.2 eV for ZnO nanorods. The photodegradation rate constants were 0.0121 and 0.0043 min-1 for MB and TC removal, respectively. Also, the mechanism for the photocatalytic degradation was studied to propose the charge generation and transfer pathway.

In this research, a simple and modified hydrothermal method has been used to synthesize two-dimensional zinc oxide nanostructures. Then, the effect of hydrothermal growth time as one of the main post-treatment parameters on the grown structures was investigated. For this purpose, X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were utilized to analyze the morphology and crystalline structure of the samples. It was observed that the grown structures have the sheet-like morphology which their thickness decreases with increasing dying time at 80 °C from 9 to 15 h. The XRD results showed that the structures have been crystalized into the hexagonal phase with (101) as the preferred growth orientation. In addition, decrease in the size of the crystallites (calculated from XRD) was concluded with increasing heating time. In the end, the photocatalytic activity of the samples was investigated, and as a result of this investigation, the sample that was heated for 15 h had a better performance in the degradation of methylene blue.

In this research, we synthesized titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles by sol-gel method, and doped with different percentages (0.2%wt and 0.5%wt) of graphite and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The X-ray diffraction analysis of the samples showed the formation of anatase phase of pure and doped TiO2 samples. We checked the morphology and grains size of the samples by using FESEM analysis we measured the grain size, which was reduced from 65 nm to 42 nm by doping. The electrical properties of the samples have investigated by LCR meter and measured the capacitance, energy dissipation and conductivity of the samples. The results of the electrical measurements showed that the conductivity of the samples increased from 58.51(Ωm)-1(*10-12) to 67.52 (Ωm)-1(*10-12) with doping. We used UV-Vis and FT-IR analysis to investigate optical properties of the samples. We found that CNTs doped samples have more conductivity and smaller grain size than graphite doped samples