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Scientific paper published by Politecnico di Torino with the support of Elcogen. Thearticle delivers the results of the activity dedicated to find out an effective and scalable recycling strategies for the recovery of critical raw materials from solid oxide cells (SOCs) technologies.

An innovative route to activate silicon microcantilevers (MCs) for label free molecular recognition is presented. The method consists in coating the underivatized MCs with a functional ter-polymer based on N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMA) bearing N-acryloyloxysuccinimide (NAS) and 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl-methacrylate (MAPS), two functional monomers that confer to the polymer the ability to react with nucleophilic species on biomolecules and with glass silanols, respectively. The polymer was deposited onto MCs by dip coating. Polymer coated MCs were tested in both static and dynamic modes of actuation, featuring detection of DNA hybridization as well as protein/protein interaction. In the dynamic experiments, focused on protein detection, the MCs showed an average mass responsivity of 0.4 Hz/pg for the first resonant mode and of 2.5 Hz/pg for the second resonant mode. The results of the static experiments, dedicated to DNA hybridization detection, allowed for direct estimation of the DNA duplex formation energetics, which resulted fully consistent with the nominal expected values. These results, together with easiness and cheapness, high versatility, and excellent stability of the recognition signal, make the presented route a reliable alternative to standard SAM functionalization (for microcantilevers (MCs) and for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) in general).

Osteoporosis (OP) is a skeletal disorder responsible for the weakening of the bone structure and, consequently, for an increased fracture risk in the elderly population. In the past, bone mineral density (BMD) variation was considered the best OP indicator, but recently the focus has shifted toward the variation of microstructural bone parameters. This work is based on the characterisation of 8-mm cylindrical biopsies harvested from proximal humeral heads belonging to healthy and osteoporotic patients, in order to assess the OP-related variations of bone properties at different scale lengths. In particular, bone biopsies underwent micro-computed tomography analysis to study the most relevant features of bone architecture and extrapolate the tissue mineral density (TMD) value of bone trabeculae. Compression tests and nanoindentations were performed to investigate the macro- and micromechanical properties of bone biopsies, respectively. In addition, XRD analyses were performed to obtain the mean hydroxyapatite (HA) crystallite size, while Raman spectroscopy investigated the collagen secondary structure. Thermogravimetric analysis was performed to evaluate the ratio between organic and inorganic phases. From the obtained results, OP samples showed a more anisotropic and less interconnected structure responsible for reduced compression strength. From this, it can be supposed that OP caused an alteration of bone structure that led to inferior macroscopic mechanical properties. Furthermore, OP samples possessed higher TMD and bigger HA crystals that are correlated to an increase of the hardness value obtained by means of nanoindentation. This less controlled HA crystal growth is probably due to an alteration of the organic matrix structure, as revealed by the increase of the random coil contribution in the Raman spectra of the OP bone. This higher crystal content led to an increase in trabecular density and hardness. In conclusion, the obtained data showed that OP affects bone properties at different scale lengths causing an alteration of its morphological, structural and mechanical features.

The use of blood as DNA source to be employed in genetic analysis requires a purification process in order to remove proteins, lipids and any other contaminants, such as hemoglobin, which inhibit PCR. On the other hand, the increasing demand of miniaturized and automated biological tests able to reduce time and cost of analysis, requires the development and the characterization of materials aimed to perform the DNA purification processes in micro-devices. In this work we studied the interaction of DNA molecules with modified silicon based substrates, positively charged after deposition of a (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) or 3-[2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethylamino]propyl-trimethoxysilane (AEEA) interfacial layer. The evaluation of the DNA adsorption and elution capacity of different substrates (thermally grown silicon oxide, silicon oxide obtained by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition, and Pyrex ® ) was studied taking into account the nature of the substrate and the effect of DNA length (in the 208–50,000 base pairs range). Main findings are that DNA elution capacity depends both on the utilized substrate and on the choice of the silanizing agent. Higher DNA recovery was obtained from AEEA-modified substrates, but the eluted DNA had different electrophoretic properties from native DNA. DNA with the same electrophoretic behaviour as genomic DNA was instead recovered from APTES-treated surfaces. Furthermore, the length of DNA present in the starting material strongly modulates the elution efficiency, longer DNA being released in a lesser amount, suggesting that opportunely modified surfaces could be used as systems for differential DNA separation.