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The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of sugarcane industrial ash (SCIA) on mechanical properties of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between aggregates and cementitious matrix by nanoindentation technical analysis. The sugarcane biomass (agroindustrial by-product) was used for generation of electricity by burning in a cogeneration power system. The results of nanoindentation analyses showed that the ITZ thickness varied significantly with the water/binder ratio. Each formulation used different water and binder ratio, with the inclusion of 20% silica fume (SF) or SCIA. In fact, the mineral additions caused a reduction of the thickness of the matrix-aggregate ITZ, and consequently increased the values of the indentation modulus and hardness in relation to aggregate-matrix interface of the reference concrete.

Due to economical and sustainable issues there is growing interest in investigating agro-industrial wastes as alternative route for future eco-efficient and sustainable pozzolans. The generation of ashes from cogeneration processes in which sugar cane wastes are used as biomass, involves significant environmental, social and health problems when they are accumulated in dumps. This paper explores the scientific and technical aspects of two Brazilian sugar cane ashes from different processes of production: one from an industrial cogeneration process and another from laboratory scale, maintaining the same proportions of mixture (50% mixture of bagasse and leaf). Subsequently, their behavior in ordinary Portland cement matrices made with 20% ashes substitution was analyzed. The results show that the industrial ashes presented variations on the chemical and mineralogical compositions, pozzolanic reaction rate and different formation of hydrated phases with respect to the laboratory ashes. The 20% blended cements complied with the chemical, physical and mechanical requirements set out in the existing Standards, maintaining the mechanical performance with respect to the control mortar at 60 days of curing.

The effect of Au nanopattides' (NPs) concentration, site, and spatial distribution within a TiO2 dielectric matrix on the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) band characteristics was experimentally and theoretically studied. The results of the analysis of the Au NPs' size distributions allowed us to conclude that isolated NPs grow only up to 5 to 6 nm in site, even for the highest annealing temperature used. However, for higher volume fractions of Au, the coalescence of closely located NPs yields elongated clusters that are much larger in size and cause a considerable broadening of the LSPR band. This effect was confirmed by Monte Carlo modeling results. Coupled dipole equations were solved to find the electromagnetic modes of a supercell, where isolated and coalesced NPs were distributed, from which an effective dielectric function of the nanocomposite material was calculated and used to evaluate the optical transmittance and reflectance spectra. The modeling results suggested that the observed LSPR band broadening is due to a wider spectral distribution of plasmonic modes, caused by the presence of coalesced NPs (in addition to the usual damping effect). This is particularly important for detection applications via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), where it is desirable to have a spectrally broad LSPR band in order:to favor the fulfillment of the conditions of resonance matching, to electronic transitions in detected species.

Nanocomposite thin films consisting of a dielectric matrix, such as titanium oxide (TiO2), with embedded gold (Au) nanoparticles were prepared and will be analysed and discussed in detail in the present work. The evolution of morphological and structural features was studied for a wide range of Au concentrations and for annealing treatments in air, for temperatures ranging from 200 to 800 degrees C. Major findings revealed that for low Au atomic concentrations (at.%), there are only traces of clustering, and just for relatively high annealing temperatures, T >= 500 degrees C. Furthermore, the number of Au nanoparticles is extremely low, even for the highest annealing temperature, T = 800 degrees C. It is noteworthy that the TiO2 matrix also crystallizes in the anatase phase for annealing temperatures above 300 degrees C. For intermediate Au contents (5 at.% <= C-Au <= 15 at.%), the formation of gold nanoclusters was much more evident, beginning at lower annealing temperatures (T >= 200 degrees C) with sizes ranging from 2 to 25 nm as the temperature increased. A change in the matrix crystallization from anatase to rutile was also observed in this intermediate range of compositions. For the highest Au concentrations (>20 at.%), the films tended to form relatively larger clusters, with sizes above 20 nm (for T >= 400 degrees C). It is demonstrated that the structural and morphological characteristics of the films are strongly affected by the annealing temperature, as well as by the particular amounts, size and distribution of the Au nanoparticles dispersed in the TiO2 matrix.

Gold nanoparticles were dispersed in two different dielectric matrices, TiO2 and Al2O3, using magnetron sputtering and a post-deposition annealing treatment. The main goal of the present work was to study how the two different host dielectric matrices, and the resulting microstructure evolution (including both the nanoparticles and the host matrix itself) promoted by thermal annealing, influenced the physical properties of the films. In particular, the structure and morphology of the nanocomposites were correlated with the optical response of the thin films, namely their localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) characteristics. Furthermore, and in order to scan the future application of the two thin film system in different types of sensors (namely biological ones), their functional behaviour (hardness and Young's modulus change) was also evaluated. Despite the similar Au concentrations in both matrices (similar to 11 at.%), very different microstructural features were observed, which were found to depend strongly on the annealing temperature. The main structural differences included: (i) the early crystallization of the TiO2 host matrix, while the Al2O3 one remained amorphous up to 800 degrees C; (ii) different grain size evolution behaviours with the annealing temperature, namely an almost linear increase for the Au:TiO2 system (from 3 to 11 nm), and the approximately constant values observed in the Au:Al2O3 system (4-5 nm). The results from the nanoparticle size distributions were also found to be quite sensitive to the surrounding matrix, suggesting different mechanisms for the nanoparticle growth (particle migration and coalescence dominating in TiO2 and Ostwald ripening in Al2O3). These different clustering behaviours induced different transmittance-LSPR responses and a good mechanical stability, which opens the possibility for future use of these nanocomposite thin film systems in some envisaged applications (e.g. LSPR-biosensors).

Noble metal powders containing gold and silver have been used for many centuries, providing different colours in the windows of the medieval cathedrals and in ancient Roman glasses. Nowadays, the interest in nanocomposite materials containing noble nanoparticles embedded in dielectric matrices is related with their potential use for a wide range of advanced technological applications. They have been proposed for environmental and biological sensing, tailoring colour of functional coatings, or for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Most of these applications rely on the so-called localised surface plasmon resonance absorption, which is governed by the type of the noble metal nanoparticles, their distribution, size and shape and as well as of the dielectric characteristics of the host matrix. The aim of this work is to study the influence of the composition and thermal annealing on the morphological and structural changes of thin films composed of Ag metal clusters embedded in a dielectric TiO2 matrix. Since changes in size, shape and distribution of the clusters are fundamental parameters for tailoring the properties of plasmonic materials, a set of films with different Ag concentrations was prepared. The optical properties and the thermal behaviour of the films were correlated with the structural and morphological changes promoted by annealing. The films were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering and in order to promote the clustering of the Ag nanoparticles the as-deposited samples were subjected to an in-air annealing protocol. It was demonstrated that the clustering of metallic Ag affects the optical response spectrum and the thermal behaviour of the films.

This work presents the behavior of two elephant grass ashes, as pozzolans, elephant grass cameroon (EGC) and napier (EGN), calcined under controlled conditions (700 °C). The ashes were initially submitted to a chemical treatment with HCl in order to reduce the potassium content. Both ashes showed high pozzolanic activity after 7 days of curing, with at least 85% of fixed lime. The thermogravimetric and micro-Raman analysis in elephant grass ashes/Ca(OH)2 pastes confirmed that the main hydrated phases during the pozzolanic reaction consisted of CSH gels, by the weight loss between 60 and 300 °C in TG analysis and the band at 680 cm-1 in Raman spectrums. Based on the achieved results, it is possible to conclude that elephant grass ashes can be used as supplementary cementing materials. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.