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Abstract Graphene oxide (GO) and M13 bacteriophage can self-assemble to form ultra-low density porous structures, known as GraPhage13 aerogels (GPA). Due to the insulating nature of GPA and the challenges in producing highly conductive aerogels, it is paramount to explore ways to enhance the conductivity of GPA. Herein, we have developed a method to enhance the conductivity of GPA, via the integration and optimisation of 5 nm and 20 nm diameter gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) into the aerogel structure and systematically analysed the morphology, composition and spectroscopic properties of the resulting GPA-Au nanocomposite. The fabricated GPA-Au nanocomposites exhibited remarkable increases in conductivity, with the integration of 5 nm AuNPs leading to a 53-fold increase compared to GPA, achieving a performance of up to 360 nS/cm, which is within the range suitable for miniaturised semiconductor devices. The mechanism behind the conductivity enhancement was further investigated and attributed to GO-AuNP interactions increasing the carrier density by introducing new energy levels in the GO band gap or shifting its Fermi level towards the conduction band. These findings demonstrate the potential of functionalised AuNPs to significantly improve the electrical properties of GPA, paving the way for their application in gas sensors for biological and chemical detection and a new range of advanced semiconductor devices.

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic forced the education sector to transform significantly in order to support students across the world. Technology played a crucial role in enhancing and adapting traditional learning to digital resources and networks, which are now an essential component of education. However, there is concern about the quality of teaching and its effectiveness in remote teaching due to the lack of real-life feel of more traditional face-to-face education. Our study analysed two separate groups of students enrolled in the same course but provided with either face-to-face or remote teaching. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference in students’ performance or gain, even for laboratory work and resulting reports. However, there was a statistically significant difference in Turnitin scores between these groups, with the remote students having higher levels of plagiarism compared to the traditional face-to-face students. These results support the theory that remote teaching can be a valid alternative, if not a substitute, to face-to-face teaching in the future. The study’s findings are expected to help instructors who are thinking about providing programs through blended learning in the post-pandemic era.