Ricerc@Sapienza

A novel electrochemical method is proposed to synthesize nanostructured cobalt electrodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). An array of cobalt nanowires (CoNWs) supported by a nanostructured copper current collector was obtained by the sequential electrodeposition of cobalt and copper into the nanopores of alumina templates and selective etching of alumina. The illustrated method can be implemented with one-side open alumina templates generated by one-step aluminium anodization, thus excluding the application alumina membranes and their coating by sputter metal deposition.

The electrodeposition of cobalt nanowires into nanoporous alumina templates produced by one-step anodization of low-purity aluminium was investigated. Aluminium was electropolished prior anodization to generate a hexagonal cell pattern, and a tree-like structure was introduced at the aluminium/aluminium oxide interface by progressively decreasing the anodization potential following potentiostatic anodization.

In recent years, much effort has been expended upon managing and tuning the radiative properties of structures and material surfaces in the infrared (IR) wavelength range for several applications, such as thermal radiation control as well as IR sensing. Metamaterials are artificial electromagnetic materials, composed by periodically or randomly arranged, subwavelength elements.

Chiral optical response is an inherent property of molecules and nanostructures, which cannot be superimposed on their mirror images. In specific cases, optical chirality can be observed also for symmetric structures. This so-called extrinsic chirality requires that the mirror symmetry is broken by the geometry of the structure together with the incident or emission angle of light. From the fabrication point of view, the benefit of extrinsic chirality is that there is no need to induce structural chirality at nanoscale.

Silicon nanowires grown by the VLS mechanism resulted as efficient chemical and biological sensors as field effect transistors, nevertheless up to date a key point is the integration of the nanostructure in actual integrated circuit. The basic requirement appears the possibility to perform the deposition at low temperature, directly on the backside of the already finished integrated circuit. This would combine the high chemical sensitivity of the nanowires with the sensitivity, the elaboration capability, and the low production cost of CMOS technology.