Each month, the ISGS Newsletter features an interesting and striking micrograph (or series of micrographs) chosen from a recent issue of the Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology or from unpublished sources such as PhD theses, etc (with full attribution given). If you know of any interesting images that might be suitable, please contact the ISGS Newsletter Editor for inclusion. The micrographs can be optical, SEM, TEM, AFM, etc, and a brief description of the samples should be provided.
The first is taken from the work of Capeli et al. entitled “Effect of hydrothermal temperature on the antibacterial and photocatalytic activity of WO3 decorated with silver nanoparticles” (JSST, (2020), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-020-05433-6). This paper investigates the effect of processing parameters on the catalytic and antimicrobial properties of hierarchical WO3 .Ag synthesised at various temperatures (100, 150 and 200ºC). Materials synthesised at 150 or 200°C exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine, while those synthesised at 100ºC exhibited the highest antibacterial activity against various bacterial strains.
The second series of micrographs is from the work of Al-Mousoi and Mohammed entitled “Engineered surface properties of MAPI using different antisolvents for hole transport layer-free perovskite solar cell (HTL-free PSC)” (JSST, 96, 659-668 (2020)), which investigates the effect of different solvents on the performance of perovskite-based solar cells. The micrographs illustrate the structure of perovskite layers deposited using (a) toluene, (b) diethyl ether or (c) chlorobenzene and subsequently annealed at 100ºC for 15 minutes.
