Ricerc@Sapienza

In recent times, the feasibility of sourcing the bioactivity and health-promoting activity of anthocyanins, flavanols, stilbenes and phenolic acids from viticulture and winery by-products was explored. In particular, pomace, wine lees, and pruning stalks attracted a great deal of interest among scientists, technologists, and businesses. Traditional solid-liquid extraction methods employ hazardous solvents, such as hydrocarbons, alcohols and chloro-alkanes.

Within the homologous series of amphiphilic peptides AnK, both A8K and A10K self-assemble in water to form twisted ribbon fibrils with lengths around 100 nm. The structure of the fibrils can be described in terms of twisted β-sheets extending in the direction of the fibrils, laminated to give a constant cross section of 4 nm by 8 nm.

The piezoelectric properties of PVDF mainly depend on its β-phase. In this work, we investigated through Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) the piezoelectric properties of PVDF composite films when we induce the formation of β-phase crystals adding a nanofiller, like graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) or zinc-oxide nanorods (ZnO-NRs), but without applying any electrical poling. At first, we fabricated piezoelectric PVDF nanocomposite films by the solution casting method.

Two series of mixtures of ethylammoniumbutanoate (EAB, [N0 0 0 2][C3CO2]) in water and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) have been prepared at different molar fractions to assess the effect of these two polar solvents on the nanostructural order present in [N0 0 0 2][C3CO2]. The small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SWAXS) pattern of the liquid in neat state shows a prepeak at Q = 0.513 Å-1, which is associated with the aggregation of nonpolar alkyl chains of both cations and anions.