Publicaties

In the last decades, novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials have emerged, exhibiting great potential to develop advanced electronic devices in different fields. However, due to the distinct chemical and physical properties, which are different to traditional inorganic materials, conventional fabrication techniques cannot be applied to those novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials directly. For example, most organic-inorganic hybrid materials ...

Two materials - a mesoporous silica (MS) and a periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) functionalized with dipyridyl-pyridazine (dppz) units were grafted with near-infrared (NIR) emitting lanthanide (Nd3+, Er3+, Yb3+) complexes in an attempt to obtain hybrid NIR emitting materials. The parent materials: dppz-vSilica and dppz-ePMO were prepared by a hetero Diels-Alder reaction between 3,6-di(2-pyridyl)-1,2,4,5-tetrazine (dptz) and the double bonds ...

Characterization of coreshell type nanoparticles in 3D by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can be very challenging. Especially when both heavy and light elements coexist within the same nanostructure, artifacts in the 3D reconstruction are often present. A representative example would be a particle comprising an anisotropic metallic (Au) nanoparticle coated with a (mesoporous) silica shell. To obtain a reliable 3D characterization of such ...

This project aims to optimize the efficiency of optical isolators. Optical isolators are devices that allow light to pass in one direction, but block it in the opposite one. This is very similar to an electrical diode, which allows a current to flow in only one direction. Optical isolators are important, for example, if one wants to protect lasers from back reflections, which can disturb the laser's operation. Furthermore, they are a crucial ...

In the scope of reducing the cost of the photovoltaic electricity, the polymer based solar cells are considered as a potential alternative to the expensive conventional silicon solar photovoltaic devices. While reducing the production costs, polymer based solar cells have to maintain the stability and efficiency of the silicon based devices. To realize this, it is necessary to understand and improve the currently limiting factors of the polymer ...

Hybrid materials, or hybrids incorporating both organic and inorganic constituents, are emerging as a very potent and promising class of materials due to the diverse, but complementary nature of the properties inherent of these different classes of materials. The complementarity leads to a perfect synergy of properties of desired material and eventually an end-product. The diversity of resultant properties and materials used in the construction ...