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High-porosity nanostructured amorphous tungsten OXIDE (a-WO 3 ) films were synthesized by a Hot Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition technique (HFCVD) and then transformed into a crystalline WO 3 by simple thermal annealing. The a-WO 3 films were annealed at 100, 300, and 500 °C for 10 min in an air environment. The films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and UV-vis spectroscopy. Results revealed that the a-WO 3 films were highly porous, composed of cauliflower-like structures made of nanoparticles with average sizes of 12 nm. It was shown that the effect of annealing on the morphology of the a-WO 3 films leads to a sintering process. However, the morphology is conserved. It was found that at annealing temperatures of 100 °C, the a-WO 3 films are of an amorphous nature, while at 300 °C, the films crystallize in the monoclinic phase of WO 3 . The calculated bandgap for the a-WO 3 was 3.09 eV, and 2.53 eV for the film annealed at 500 °C. Finally, the results show that porous WO 3 films preserve the morphology and maintain the porosity, even after the annealing at 500 °C.

The effect of 2,6-bis-(1-hydroxy-1,1-diphenyl-methyl) pyridine (BDPHP) in the preparation of NiMoP/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts have been investigated in the hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of straight-run gas oil. The γ-Al₂O₃ support was modified by surface impregnation of a solution of BDPHP to afford BDPHP/Ni molar ratios (0.5 and 1.0) in the final composition. The highest activity for NiMoP materials was found when the molar ratio of BDPHP/Ni was of 0.5. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed that NiMoP (0.5) showed better dispersion of MoO₃ than the NiMoP (1.0). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) results indicated that the organic additive interacts with the γ-Al₂O₃ surface and therefore discards the presence of Mo or Ni complexes. Raman spectroscopy suggested a high Raman ratio for the NiMoP (0.5) sample. The increment of the Mo=O species is related to a major availability of Mo species in the formation of MoS₂. The temperature programmed reduction (TPR) results showed that the NiMoP (0.5) displayed moderate metal-support interaction. Likewise, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) exhibited higher sulfurization degree for NiMoP (0.5) compared with NiMoP (1.0). The increment of the MoO₃ dispersion, the moderate metal-support interaction, the increase of sulfurization degree and the increment of Mo=O species provoked by the BDPHP incorporation resulted in a higher gas oil HDS activity., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

An experimental and theoretical study about selective photodeposition of metallic zinc nanoparticles onto an optical fiber end is presented. It is well known that metallic nanoparticles possess a high absorption coefficient and therefore trapping and manipulation is more challenging than dielectric particles. Here, we demonstrate a novel trapping mechanism that involves laser-induced convection flow (due to heat transfer from the zinc particles) that partially compensates both absorption and scattering forces in the vicinity of the fiber end. The gradient force is too small and plays no role on the deposition process. The interplay of these forces produces selective deposition of particles whose size is directly controlled by the laser power. In addition, a novel trapping mechanism termed convective-optical trapping is demonstrated.

A method to manage the resistivity of n-type ZnO films is presented. It involves the controlled diffusion of Zn at low temperature in N2 atmosphere into the ZnO/Zn/ZnO structure. The structures were made by DC sputtering technique. The diffusion periods were varied from 5 to 30 min. This process allow us to obtain ZnO films with excess of Zn (ZnO:Zn). The electrical characterization showed that the resistivity of the films can be varied from 0.01 to 100 omega-cm, the electron concentration from 10(19) to 10(17) cm(-3) and the carrier mobility from 10 to 40 cm2N-s. The films are nanocrystalline with preferred (002) orientation and crystal size that varies from 13 to 20 nm depending on the diffusion period. The films have a band gap of 3.18 eV and 70% of transmittance in the visible region, these properties were obtained from the transmittance measurements of low-resistivity films. Films have good structural, optical and electrical properties, and could be used in the manufacture of light emitting diodes.