Ricerc@Sapienza

The relationship between design and science is deeply-rooted and under constant
evolution, resulting today in the new approach of Bio-design, that offers to designers
the novel possibility of interacting with production processes and participating in the
material design stage, stimulating and directing innovation. Hence emerges the need to
rethink the relationship between design and materials as a dynamic socio-technological
innovation process, in order to foster the implementation of new materials on the market

THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz–TDS) is a suitable approach to study the state of preservation of cultural heritage made of organic materials in a non-destructive way. This technique highlights, in particular, the low–energy vibrational properties of these materials and the presence of the H-bonds between molecules [1]. We focus in particular on the study of modern artificially aged and ancient paper samples in order to determine in the THz spectra the distinctive features as a possible fingerprint of their state of aging and/or degradation.

Liquid crystals (LC) can be successfully adopted as waveguides for photonic devices and optofluidic systems, while poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is a cheap and easy to implement soft material which allows the making of any geometry. Modelization and making of several LC embedded in PDMS photonic devices are presented in this work. The theoretical study of the waveguides’ inner structure was performed by Monte Carlo simulations of the molecular ordering inside the microchannel.