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Disks of nanoporous gold (np-Au), produced by leaching of silver from AgAu alloy and prepared as active catalysts for CO oxidation in a continuous-flow reactor, were investigated in detail by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and temperature-programmed desorption spectroscopy in ultra-high vacuum. Np-Au exhibits several oxygen species on and in the surface: Chemisorbed oxygen (O act ), probably generated at residual silver sites at the surface, is readily available after np-Au preparation and consumed by CO oxidation. It can be replenished on activated np-Au by exposure to O 2 . In addition, strongly bound oxygen, probably at subsurface sites, is present as a major species and not consumed by CO oxidation. Pronounced CO desorption at temperatures above 200 K observed after exposing np-Au to CO at 105 K indicates an additional, more stable type of CO binding sites on np-Au as compared to pure gold. Only CO at these binding sites is consumed by oxidation reaction with O act . It is proposed that the presence of strongly bound subsurface oxygen stabilizes CO adsorption on np-Au, thereby being as crucial for the observed catalytic activity of np-Au as residual silver.

In this paper we present optical studies of CdTe quantum dots formed using Zn-induced reorganization. The pattern of quantum dot photoluminescence lines is found to be similar to typical results reported for quantum dots grown with other techniques, although the positively charged exciton line is relatively more pronounced. Also the energy spacing between biexciton and exciton lines is found to be larger than in typical results. Zn-induced reorganization results in quantum dots density higher by an order of magnitude than in Te-induced quantum dots.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been established as a powerful tool to detect very low-concentration bio-molecules. One of the challenging problems is to have reliable and robust SERS substrate. Here, we report on a simple method to grow coherently embedded (endotaxial) silver nanostructures in silicon substrates, analyze their three-dimensional shape by scanning transmission electron microscopy tomography and demonstrate their use as a highly reproducible and stable substrate for SERS measurements. Bi-layers consisting of Ag and GeOx thin films were grown on native oxide covered silicon substrate using a physical vapor deposition method. Followed by annealing at 800°C under ambient conditions, this resulted in the formation of endotaxial Ag nanostructures of specific shape depending upon the substrate orientation. These structures are utilized for detection of Crystal Violet molecules of 5 × 10(-10) M concentrations. These are expected to be one of the highly robust, reusable and novel substrates for single molecule detection.

Materials that interact in a controlled manner with viruses attract increasing interest in biotechnology, medicine, and environmental technology. Here, we show that virus–material interactions can be guided by intrinsic material surface chemistries, introduced by tailored surface functionalizations. For this purpose, colloidal alumina particles are surface functionalized with amino, carboxyl, phosphate, chloropropyl, and sulfonate groups in different surface concentrations and characterized in terms of elemental composition, electrokinetic, hydrophobic properties, and morphology. The interaction of the functionalized particles with hepatitis A virus and phages MS2 and PhiX174 is assessed by virus titer reduction after incubation with particles, activity of viruses conjugated to particles, and imaged by electron microscopy. Type and surface density of particle functional groups control the virus titer reduction between 0 and 99.999% (5 log values). For instance, high sulfonate surface concentrations (4.7 groups/nm 2 ) inhibit attractive virus–material interactions and lead to complete virus recovery. Low sulfonate surface concentrations (1.2 groups/nm 2 ), native alumina, and chloropropyl-functionalized particles induce strong virus-particle adsorption. The virus conformation and capsid amino acid composition further influence the virus–material interaction. Fundamental interrelations between material properties, virus properties, and the complex virus–material interaction are discussed and a versatile pool of surface functionalization strategies controlling virus–material interactions is presented.

In this contribution we have studied the diffusion of Al in AlAs/GaAs distributed Bragg-reflectors using the high angle annular dark field (HAADF) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) intensity. The measured intensity is normalized to the intensity of the incoming electron beam using a detector scan. The normalized intensity can be directly compared with a set of frozen lattice simulations yielding specimen thickness in regions with known composition or concentration in regions with known thickness. The thickness was evaluated both from GaAs and AlAs regions yielding that the specimen was about 15 nm thinner in AlAs regions due to oxidation. For the concentration evaluation the thickness was derived from GaAs regions and concentrations up to 1.2 were found due to the overestimated thickness. Concentration profiles were scaled down to 1.0 and fitted to the solution of Fick's laws.