Adriano Panepinto

Materia Nova

A titanium target was reactively sputtered in an Ar/O2 atmosphere by (i) conventional direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS), (ii) high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS), and (iii) bipolar HiPIMS (BPH) discharges for the deposition of titanium dioxide thin films without intentional heating and biasing. In the HiPIMS and BPH cases, the...

For many applications, as for example tandem dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), the development of transparent p-type semiconductor with good charge transport properties is crucial. In this work, a nitrogen-doped TiO2 material is transformed by ion implantation into an efficient hole transport layer that could reduce the electron-hole recombinatio...

Magnetron sputter deposition of metals onto low vapor pressure liquids is a clean and straightforward method of nanoparticle (NP) production. Herein, we discuss the production of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) via magnetron sputtering of a silver target onto castor oil, a biocompatible and highly available liquid. A state-of-the-Art (bipolar) high-p...

In this work, we have studied the influence of oxygen on the chemistry and morphology of nano-sculpted MgOx thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering in glancing angle configuration. First, we have studied the poisoning mechanism of the Mg target by² combining target voltage and deposition rate measurements with chemical analysis of the deposited...

Since major limitations of the Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) efficiency are assumed to come from (i) the low resistivity of the generally used TiO2 (ρ = 1 Ω·cm) and (ii) the undesired electron-hole recombination at the semiconductor/dye-electrolyte interfaces, the development of N-doped TiO2 semiconductor (TiO2:N) has attracted considerable in...

In this paper, we overview the recent progress we made in the magnetron sputtering-based developments of nano-sculpted thin films intended for energy-related applications such as energy conversion. This paper summarizes our recent experimental work often supported by simulation and theoretical results. Specifically, the development of a new generat...

In the context of protecting Mg-based nano-objects for potential hydrogen storage applications, the potential of C:H layer as a barrier polymer material deposited by the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process is examined. Corrosion tests reveal (a) good barrier properties of the C:H layer and (b) suggest an increase in the internal stres...

N-doped TiO2 materials have recently attracted a considerable interest due to their enhanced photo-electro-chemical properties compared to pristine TiO2. However, this improvement is still not clearly correlated to the N chemistry because the attribution of the observed components in the N1s x-ray photoelectron spectra is strongly controversed. In...

This study reports the development of a continuous flow process enabling the synthesis of very small iron oxide nanoparticles (VSION) intended for T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The influence of parameters, such as the concentration/nature of surfactants, temperature, pressure and the residence time on the thermal decomposition of iron...

Tandem dye‐sensitized solar cell devices (t‐DSSCs) are a potential alternative to Si‐based solar cells as autonomous power sources. Nevertheless, their further development suffers from the poor quality of the p‐type material, that is, NiO. In this study, N‐doped TiO2 thin films exhibiting a p‐type conductivity (p‐TiO2:N) are successfully grown by c...

Currently, anatase-rutile core-shell structures are accepted as highly efficient building blocks for TiO2 based catalysts or photo-electrodes used in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Basically, a thin layer of rutile covering the core anatase pillar would improve the performance of DSSCs by retarding the charge recombination at the semiconductor...

Today, Mg is foreseen as one of the most promising materials for hydrogen storage when prepared as nano-objects. In this context, we have studied the fabrication of Mg nano-sculpted thin films by magnetron sputtering deposition in glancing angle configuration. It is demonstrated that the microstructure of the material is controllable by tuning impo...

The specific capacitance of electrochemical capacitors (ECs) directly depends on the porous morphology of the active area. The control of the surface area is thus a key parameter to control the electrolyte accessibility to the surface of the active material, in order to increase the charge storage. In this view, we demonstrate that the glancing ang...

Transition metal nitrides are suitable materials for electrochemical capacitors (ECs), exhibiting good electrochemical performance and good cycling life stability; moreover, they are easy to synthesize, especially by magnetron sputtering. However, the dense nature of the coating deposited by sputtering is one of the limiting factors to achieve high...