Ricerc@Sapienza

Bio-deterioration poses a serious risk in the preservation of ancient parchments. The deteriorating effects of microorganism can affect the surface layers of a membrane sheet causing the total loss of the written text and/or the decorative apparatus of which it is the vehicle. In this work the use of the X-ray radiation performed by an experimental setup, designed at ENEA Frascati, is proposed to inhibit the microbial growth.

Wafer-scale integration of reduced graphene oxide with H-terminated Si(1 1 1) surfaces has been accomplished by electrochemical reduction of a thin film of graphene oxide deposited onto Si by drop casting. Two reduction methods have been assayed and carried out in an acetonitrile solution. The initial deposit was subjected either to potential cycling in a 0.1 M TBAPF 6 /CH 3 CN solution at scan rates values of 20 mV s −1 and 50 mV s −1 , or to a potentiostatic polarization at E λ,c = −3 V for 450 s.

Gold nanoparticles, capped by 3-mercapto propane sulfonate (Au-3MPS), were synthesized inside a swollen sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membrane (SPEEK). The formation of the Au-3MPS nanoparticles in the swollen sPEEK membrane was observed by spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The nanocomposite containing the gold nanoparticles grown in the sPEEK membrane, showed the plasmon resonance ?max at about 520 nm, which remained stable over a testing period of three months.