There is significant interest in the fabrication of nano- and micro-structured silica with spatially ordered features, which exhibit enhanced optoelectronic properties with application to the next generation of display devices, semiconductors, and sensors. Currents methods of fabrication employ top down processes which use extremes of temperature, pressure, and power. There...
There is significant interest in titanium oxide and germanium-silicon oxide nanocomposites for optoelectronic, photocatalytic, and solar cell applications. The ability of the marine diatom Pinnularia sp. to uptake soluble metal oxides from cell culture medium, and incorporate them into the micro- and nano-structure of their amorphous silica cell walls, called...
The purpose of this research was to investigate the optoelectronic properties of the
Ge doped biosilica, mainly focused on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of
diatom frustules of N. frustulum that contain metabolically inserted germanium
oxide produced by a two-stage photobioreactor cultivation process. In order to
explain the observed PL intensity...
Nature is an inspirational source of silica structures that possess unique optical properties. A few classes of organisms fabricate metal oxides with nanoscale features by a bottom-up self assembly process. In particular, diatoms are a prolific class of single-celled algae that possess silica shells or “frustules” with intricate submicron scale...