Structural identification of graphene films and nanoislands on 6H-SiC(0001) by direct height measurement.

By combining non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) and Kelvin probe microscopy (KPFM) in ultra high vacuum environment (UHV), we directly measure the height and work function of graphene monolayer on the Si-face of 6H-SiC(0001) with a precision that allows us to differentiate three different types of graphene structures : zero layer graphene (ZLG), Quasi free-standing monolayer graphene (QFMLG) and bilayer graphene (BLG). The height and work function of ZLG are 2.62 ± 0.22 Å and 4.42 ± 0.05 eV respectively, when they are 4.09 ± 0.11 Å and 4.63 ± 0.05 eV for QFMLG. The work function is 4.83 ± 0.05 eV for the BLG. Unlike any other available technique, the local nc-AFM/KPFM dual probe makes it possible to directly identify the nature of nanometer-sized graphene islands that constitute the early nuclei of graphene monolayer grown on 6H-SiC(0001) by chemical vapor deposition.

Effect of the application of various wastewater sludges on the properties of sandy soil.

This research was conducted to determine the effect of various wastewater sludge (domestic type (B), mixture of industry and domestic type (L), aerobic food industry (P), anaerobic food industry (M)) levels on the properties of sandy soil, including pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and the levels of available N (NH4 and NO3) and P, diethylenetriamine pentaaceticacid (DTPA)-extractable microelements and heavy metals. An incubation experiment was performed in which sludges were applied at rates of 0, 40, 80, 120, and 160 tons ha(-1), and the effects on the soil properties were measured over a period of 150 days. Soil pH decreased and electrical conductivity increased with increasing levels of sludge application. The levels of NH4-N, NO3-N, available P, and DTPA-extractable heavy metals also increased with the application rate of the sludge. NO3-N content increased and NH4-N content decreased over time. The most unfavorable effects on soil properties were observed with the B sludge. Other soil characteristics changed according to the sludge properties.

Reversible single molecular switch operating at 300 K on a surface.

A single 4-pyridylazobenzene molecule is observed at room temperature on a Si(111)-B surface by using scanning tunnel microscopy. The reversible conformational switching of this molecule is induced by tunneling electrons and observed at room temperature. This process is based on an intramolecular rotation of a single phenyl group without isomerization of the N=N double bond.

Directed evolution of artificial repeat proteins as habit modifiers for the morphosynthesis of (111)-terminated gold nanocrystals.

Natural biocomposites are shaped by proteins that have evolved to interact with inorganic materials. Protein directed evolution methods which mimic Darwinian evolution have proven highly successful to generate improved enzymes or therapeutic antibodies but have rarely been used to evolve protein-material interactions. Indeed, most reported studies have focused on short peptides and a wide range of oligopeptides with chemical binding affinity for inorganic materials have been uncovered by phage display methods. However, their small size and flexible unfolded structure prevent them from dictating the shape and crystallinity of the growing material. In the present work, a specific set of artificial repeat proteins (αRep), which exhibit highly stable 3D folding with a well-defined hypervariable interacting surface, is selected by directed evolution of a very efficient home-built protein library for their high and selective affinity for the Au(111) surface. The proteins are built from the extendable concatenation of self-compatible repeated motifs idealized from natural HEAT proteins. The high-yield synthesis of Au(111)-faceted nanostructures mediated by these αRep proteins demonstrates their chemical affinity and structural selectivity that endow them with high crystal habit modification performances. Importantly, we further exploit the protein shell spontaneously assembled on the nanocrystal facets to drive protein-mediated colloidal self-assembly and on-surface enzymatic catalysis. Our method constitutes a generic tool for producing nanocrystals with determined faceting, superior biocompatibility and versatile bio-functionalization towards plasmon-based devices and (bio)molecular sensors.

Noncovalent bicomponent self-assemblies on a silicon surface.

Two-dimensional supramolecular multicomponent networks on surfaces are of major interest for the building of highly ordered functional materials with nanometer-sized features especially designed for applications in nanoelectronics, energy storage, sensors, etc. If such molecular edifices have been previously built on noble metals or HOPG surfaces, we have successfully realized a 2D open supramolecular framework on a silicon adatom-based surface under ultrahigh vacuum with thermal stability up to 400 K by combining molecule-molecule and molecule-silicon substrate interactions. One of these robust open networks was further used to control both the growth and the periodicity of the first bicomponent arrays without forming any covalent bond with a silicon surface. Our strategy allows the formation of a well-controlled long-range periodic array of single fullerenes by site-specificity inclusion into a bicomponent supramolecular network.