Publications related to Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films by in-situ reactive sputtering on micromachined membranes for micromechanical applications

Piezoelectric and elastic properties of Al0.60Sc0.40N thin films deposited on patterned metal electrodes

Luis Guillermo Villanueva Torrijo, Silvan Stettler, Marco Liffredo, Nan Xu, Federico Peretti

Sc-doped aluminum nitride (AlScN) allows for piezoelectric devices with large electromechanical coupling and the benefits increase with larger Sc doping in the film. However, with a larger Sc concentration, the process window narrows, and it is necessary t ...

2024

Influence of micro-patterned support properties and interfacial polymerization conditions on performance of patterned thin-film composite membranes

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Cédric Karel J Van Goethem

Patterned membranes prepared via spray-modified non -solvent induced phase separation (s-NIPS) have successfully shown enhanced fluxes and better fouling control, thanks to the increased surface area and high fluid shear at the membrane/feed interface. The ...

Elsevier2024

From Surfactants to 3D Printing: How Ion-Chelator Pair Interactions Affect the Mechanical Properties of Bioinspired Materials

Gaia De Angelis

The remarkable adaptability observed in marine ecosystems has often inspired researchers when developing new soft materials. The research undertaken in this thesis explores how ion chelator pair interactions influence the mechanical properties of bioinspir ...

EPFL2024

Optimizing Atomic Layer Deposition Processes with Nanowire-Assisted TEM Analysis

Johann Michler, Ivo Utke, Xavier Maeder

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is one of the premier methods to synthesize ultra-thin materials on complex surfaces. The technique allows for precise control of the thickness down to single atomic layers, while at the same time providing uniform coverage ev ...

Wiley2024

Font Side Solutions for c-Si Solar Cells with High-Temperature Passivating Contacts

Ezgi Genç

In this work, we studied the potential of using thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for two main purposes: introducing an n-type passivating contact at the front of a TOPCon solar cell, or simplifying the fabrication o ...

EPFL2024

Advancements in Nanomechanical Characterization and Biomolecular Imaging with Atomic force Microscopy

Veronika Cencen

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a widely used imaging tool for obtaining a variety of information for a range of samples. Although it was initially intended to serve as a method of observing very flat solid surfaces, its use expanded into several other fi ...

EPFL2024

Membrane electrode assembly simulation of anion exchange membrane water electrolysis

Jan Van Herle, Zoé Mury, Suhas Nuggehalli Sampathkumar, Khaled Lawand

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) offers a green hydrogen production method that eliminates the need for platinum group metals (PGM) as electrocatalysts. This study employs a COMSOL (R) 6.0 model to simulate a 1x1 cm(2) Ni fibre - Raney (R ...

Elsevier2024

Functionalized Å-scale Pores in Graphene for Carbon Capture

Kuang-Jung Hsu

Single-layer graphene, hosting a high density of functionalized molecular-sieving atom-thick pores, is considered to be an excellent material for gas separation membranes. These functionalized atom-thick pores enable the shortest transport pathway across t ...

EPFL2024

Membrane specificity of the human cholesterol transfer protein STARD4

Charlotte Julie Caroline Gehin

STARD4 regulates cholesterol homeostasis by transferring cholesterol between the plasma membrane and endoplasmic reticulum. The STARD4 structure features a helix-grip fold surrounding a large hydrophobic cavity holding the sterol. Its access is controlled ...

Academic Press Ltd- Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Towards Scalable Electronics: Synthetic 2D Materials for Large-Area 2D Circuit Integration

Zhenyu Wang

In the past decades, a significant increase of the transistor density on a chip has led to exponential growth in computational power driven by Moore's law. To overcome the bottleneck of traditional von-Neumann architecture in computational efficiency, effo ...

EPFL2024

Large Libraries of Structurally Diverse Macrocycles Suitable for Membrane Permeation

Christian Heinis, Alessandro Angelini, Mischa Schüttel, Ganesh Kumar Mothukuri, Manuel Leonardo Merz, Zsolt Bognár, Xinjian Ji, Edward Jeffrey Will, Alexander Lund Nielsen, Anne Sofie Luise Zarda

Macrocycles offer an attractive format for drug development due to their good binding properties and potential to cross cell membranes. To efficiently identify macrocyclic ligands for new targets, methods for the synthesis and screening of large combinator ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2024

Bodily implant microelectrode and bodily implant microelectrode fabrication method

Sandro Carrara, Diego Ghezzi, Gian Luca Barbruni

The present invention concerns a bodily implantable or probe device and microelectrode fabrication method comprising providing at least one silicon substrate including an electronic device or unit; providing, on a first side of the silicon substrate, at le ...

2024

Nanostructure and Optical Property Tailoring of Zinc Tin Nitride Thin Films through Phenomenological Decoupling: A Pathway to Enhanced Control

Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Johann Michler, Amit Sharma, Daniele Casari, Caroline Hain, Thomas Nelis

This work addresses the need for precise control of thin film sputtering processes to enable thin film material tailoring on the example of zinc tin nitride (ZTN) thin films deposited via microwave plasma-assisted high power reactive magnetron sputtering ( ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Crystal, defect, and morphology engineering of porous two-dimensional materials for ionic separation

Heng-Yu Chi

Ordered two-dimensional (2D) materials hosting Å-scale pores are highly promising for enabling challenging separation, thanks to well-defined pore geometry resulting in tight confinement of ions when hosted inside the pore. In addition, the 2D nature of th ...

EPFL2024

Investigating the intra-molecular and inter-molecular effects of post-translational modifications on intrinsically disordered protein regions and structured protein regions

Zhidian Zhang

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) play a pivotal role in regulating protein structure, interaction, and function. Aberrant PTM patterns are associated with diseases. Moreover, individual PTMs have a complex interaction with each other, known as PTM c ...

EPFL2024

Microstructural and electrical characterization of high temperature passivating contacts for silicon solar cells

Sofia Libraro

Recombination at metal/semiconductor interfaces represents the main limitation in mainstream c-Si solar cells, primarily based on the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) concept. Full-area passivating contacts based on SiOx/poly-Si stacks are a candida ...

EPFL2024

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy for Molecules: Effects of Electron Propagation into Vacuum

Klaus Kern, Abhishek Grewal

Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we experimentally and theoretically investigate isolated platinum phthalocyanine (PtPc) molecules adsorbed on an atomically thin NaCl(100) film vapor deposited on Au(111). We obtain good agreement between theory a ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Rescue of secretion of rare-disease-associated misfolded mutant glycoproteins in UGGT1 knock-out mammalian cells

Maurizio Molinari

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention of misfolded glycoproteins is mediated by the ER-localized eukaryotic glycoprotein secretion checkpoint, UDP-glucose glycoprotein glucosyl-transferase (UGGT). The enzyme recognizes a misfolded glycoprotein and flags it ...

Wiley2024

Influence of Ventilation on Formation and Growth of 1-20 nm Particles via Ozone-Human Chemistry

Dusan Licina, Shen Yang, Marouane Merizak, Meixia Zhang

Ozone reaction with human surfaces is an important source of ultrafine particles indoors. However, 1-20 nm particles generated from ozone-human chemistry, which mark the first step of particle formation and growth, remain understudied. Ventilation and indo ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Advancing Cell-Free Synthetic Biology: From sustained PURE protein synthesis to an isothermal one-pot DNA replication system

Laura Sophie Grasemann

One of the goals of synthetic biology is the development of an artificial cell. Building an artificial cell from scratch will provide a deeper understanding of fundamental mechanisms and models in biology and promises to contribute towards building novel p ...

EPFL2024