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ABSTRACT New, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) based compounds, functionalized with hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTMA) and lanthanide hydroxide nanoparticles were synthesized. The spectral measurements suggest that between the DNA-CTMA complex and the lanthanide (III) ions a chemical interaction takes place. The obtained materials exhibit an improved fluorescence efficiency, showing a potential interest for application in photonics, and more particularly, in light emitting devices. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 105: 613-617, 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of ballpoint pen inks on questioned documents is often required in the field of forensic analysis to identify the writing implement used in the commitment of a crime. In forensic work, it is thus necessary to identify the manufacturer of the pen or the specific ink product. In this article, a forensic analysis is documented for discrimination of a series of ballpoint pastes to identify the chromatic components used for blue ballpoint pen inks and thus to establish the writing instrument used in a questioned document. To achieve this, data of various adequate techniques have been corroborated: X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectrophotometry, in diffuse reflection and transmission modes, completed by trichromatic analyses, and thin layer chromatography. A protocol consisting of four steps has been proposed, in which various components provided by a database of reference dyes are removed, selected, and combined to assess the possible identity of an unknown pen ink paste among a set belonging to the same color pallet. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 169-177, 2015 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, there is a major trend to produce nanostructures of a wide variety of materials by understanding their properties and their functionality in order to develop future nanotechnologies. In this article the silica coated fullerene C60 clusters have been produced by microemulsion technique. Firstly, the ternary phase diagrams in water/TX-114/tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) system at different temperatures were constructed, followed by establishing the influence of clusterization and solubilization agents in choosing the pseudoternary system. By using the phase diagram specific working conditions have been selected, in order to facilitate nanostructured templates for preparation of the silica coated fullerene nanoclusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixing elements at nanoscale range can offer exciting possibilities of novel materials with composition, structure and properties quite different from those in the bulk. Fe2O3 nanoparticles embedded in a surrounding silica shell were prepared via surfactant - assisted process by using dodecyl-4-lauryl ether (Brij 30) as oriented template, followed by thermal treatment. The nanoparticles are formed by the precipitation reaction of ferrous and ferric salts with ammonium hydroxide into water-in-oil microemulsion. The hydrodynamic radius of microemulsion droplets and coated nanoparticles were measured by dynamic light scattering. Their structural properties have been studied by FT-IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and atomic force microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]