392 research outputs found
Light harvesting in nanofabricated hybrid plasmonic-2D semiconductors
No full textThe research conducted during my PhD was focused on the development of large-area nanophotonic solutions based on metallic and dielectric materials to enhance light absorption in ultrathin and two-dimensional (2D) absorbers. These approaches are designed to increase the performance of optoelectronic, photonic, and photovoltaic applications.
A significant aspect of the work involved the study of photochemical and photoelectrochemical processes, including photocatalysis and water splitting, with titanium dioxide (TiO2) as the active layer. Although TiO2 demonstrates high photocatalytic activity and stability, its absorption is restricted to the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum, requiring the development of strategies to extend its functionality into the visible range. In parallel, two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs) were investigated due to their tunable bandgap and high optical absorption in the visible spectrum. A scalable synthesis method was developed for MoS2-WS2 heterostructures, which exhibit a staggered band alignment, facilitating charge separation and improved photocatalytic efficiency.
To enhance light absorption, two scalable approaches were explored. The first involved metallic nanostructures fabricated through a self-organized ion beam sputtering (IBS) technique, producing gold nanowires that leverage localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) to enhance light harvesting. A low-energy IBS process was also optimized to fabricate smooth, conductive metallic films, offering an alternative to commercial transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs).
The second approach focused on "flat optics" through periodic nanostructured templates fabricated via laser interference lithography (LIL). These templates enhance light absorption through Rayleigh Anomaly (RA) effects, demonstrating applicability with both amorphous and crystalline TMD films.
This research contributes to the development of scalable, industrially viable light-harvesting strategies for renewable energy conversion and environmental applications
La censura imperfetta. La satira di Richard Aldington nell’Italia fascista
No full textThrough the epistolary dialogue between the British author Richard Aldington and his
translator Alessandra Scalero, this article sheds some light on the editorial events that led
to the publication of Women must work and All men are enemies, and to the rejection of
Death of a Hero and The colonel’s daughter. Considered by Luigi Rusca – Mondadori’s codirector – “particularly important”, these books, as well as their author, are now largely
forgotten, even if during the Thirties Italian readers were fascinated by Aldington’s biting
satire. Exponent of British Imagism, Richard Aldington was closed to the Fabian Society’s
vision of the world which pervaded all his works, built around the themes of women’s
emancipation and social consequences of the First World War. The “heterodoxy” of such
contents made the translation activity particularly complex; the author himself was not
always available to soften the tone, accepting cuts and changes
The ‘Rest Cure’ Revisited: Resisting the Neoliberal Myths of Individualism and Self-Betterment in Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018)
No full textThe aim of this presentation is to explore how My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018)––American author Ottessa Moshfegh’s most acclaimed novel––exposes and opposes, by thematically engaging with the outdated medical practice of the ‘rest cure’, the hyper-individualistic myths of self-betterment and wellness inherent to the US neoliberal context. A customary medical treatment during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the rest cure was primarily prescribed to women who were diagnosed with typically ‘female’ mental disorders, such as hysteria or neurasthenia; however, as American author Perkins Gilman already revealed in her semi-autobiographical short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), this cure was frequently detrimental to the patients who, instead of healing, generally manifested ulterior negative physical and psychological side-effects. Nowadays, the rest cure is considered an outdated medical treatment that (fortunately) no longer holds any value nor is prescribed. Yet, it is my intention to argue that, by revisiting the theme of the rest cure, Moshfegh’s novel not only questions quintessentially American myths of individualism, personal empowerment, and wellness, but it also engages with a specific American literary tradition of representation of female madness (thus, entering into dialogue with Perkins Gilman’s short story). Set in New York City in 2000 and 2001, My Year of Rest and Relaxation depicts the emotional spiral of an unnamed female narrator in her twenties who, hoping for recovery and physical/psychological rebirth, attempts to sleep for an entire year. Past feminist readings of fictional female madness (or, mental illness), typically rooted in psychoanalytical discourses, were usually oriented towards the criticism of patriarchalism (Gilbert & Gubar 1979). This presentation, however, whilst drawing from Foucault’s (1961) correlation between madness and power, intends to adopt a posthuman feminist perspective––a philosophical approach that, being materially grounded, insists on the embodied and embedded nature of subjectivities, as theorized by Braidotti (2022)––to shed light on the criticism to and the practices of resistance to these dominant American neoliberal myths as represented by the novel
Ewolucja człowieczeństwa. Francesca Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism. (Theory in the New Humanities)
No full textPhilosophical Posthumanism is a unique intellectual proposition – one in which Francesca Ferrando not only presents and expands but also celebrates posthumanist thought. The monograph is an open invitation to explore new horizons by de-familiarizing classical humanist thought embedded within the Western civilization. Explicitly deconstructing classical humanism, Ferrando offers her readership a versatile insight into the complexity of the polyphony of new voices including, but not limited to, Posthumanism, Transhumanism, and Antihumanism – contributing to the discourse, which, as the author affirms, is tantamount to the “philosophy of our time.”Filozoficzny posthumanizm to wyjątkowa propozycja intelektualna – taka, w której Francesca Ferrando nie tylko prezentuje i rozwija, ale też celebruje myśl posthumanistyczną. Monografia jest otwartym zaproszeniem do odkrywania nowych horyzontów poprzez od-swajanie klasycznej myśli humanistycznej, osadzonej w cywilizacji zachodniej. Wyraźnie dekonstruując klasyczny humanizm, Ferrando oferuje swoim czytelnikom wszechstronny wgląd w złożoność polifonii nowych głosów, w tym m.in. posthumanizmu, transhumanizmu i antyhumanizmu – współtworząc dyskurs, który - jak twierdzi autorka - jest tożsamy z “filozofią naszych czasów”
Adentrándose en el Jardín de Fuego, al descubrimiento del poemario de Bartolomé Ferrando
Get PDFBook review: Jardín de Fuego. Un libro que habla de un instante de vida
This text reviews the poetry book written by Bartolomé Ferrando. To delve deeper into the themes within the book, the writing style, and to discuss poetry in a broader sense, it was decided to give the floor directly to the author. As a result, this review unfolds through an unfiltered interview.Reseña del libro: Jardín de Fuego. Un libro que habla de un instante de vida
Este escrito reseña el libro de poesía escrito por Bartolomé Ferrando. Para profundizar en los temas contenidos en el libro, la modalidad de escritura y para hablar más en general sobre poesía, se ha decidido dar la palabra directamente al autor del libro. De modo que esta reseña se desarrolla a través de una entrevista sin filtros
Ewolucja człowieczeństwa. Francesca Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism. (Theory in the New Humanities): (Recenzja w języku angielskim/A Review in English)
No full textPhilosophical Posthumanism is a unique intellectual proposition – one in which Francesca Ferrando not only presents and expands but also celebrates posthumanist thought. The monograph is an open invitation to explore new horizons by de-familiarizing classical humanist thought embedded within the Western civilization. Explicitly deconstructing classical humanism, Ferrando offers her readership a versatile insight into the complexity of the polyphony of new voices including, but not limited to, Posthumanism, Transhumanism, and Antihumanism – contributing to the discourse, which, as the author affirms, is tantamount to the “philosophy of our time.”Filozoficzny posthumanizm to wyjątkowa propozycja intelektualna – taka, w której Francesca Ferrando nie tylko prezentuje i rozwija, ale też celebruje myśl posthumanistyczną. Monografia jest otwartym zaproszeniem do odkrywania nowych horyzontów poprzez od-swajanie klasycznej myśli humanistycznej, osadzonej w cywilizacji zachodniej. Wyraźnie dekonstruując klasyczny humanizm, Ferrando oferuje swoim czytelnikom wszechstronny wgląd w złożoność polifonii nowych głosów, w tym m.in. posthumanizmu, transhumanizmu i antyhumanizmu – współtworząc dyskurs, który - jak twierdzi autorka - jest tożsamy z “filozofią naszych czasów”
Wavelength-Dependent Plasmonic Photobleaching of Dye Molecules by Large-Area Au Nanostripe Arrays
No full textThe development of clean light-harvesting platforms and technologies is crucial in view of the urgent energy and environmental global challenges. Plasmonic nanoparticles show great promise in light-harvesting applications, but their fabrication is typically constrained to small-area laboratory-scale methods or to highly polluting wet chemistry approaches that are not suitable for environmental applications such as waste water recycling. In this work, we propose a self-organized method to fabricate largearea (cm(2), industrially scalable up to m(2)) plasmonic templates. Ordered Au nanostripe arrays supported on cheap, nontoxic sodalime glass substrates are prepared, showing a tunable plasmonic response. We demonstrate enhanced photochemical reactivity and photobleaching of highly polluting methylene blue molecules promoted by this self-organized plasmonic platform. We investigate this effect by tailoring the spectral overlap between the molecule absorption band and the plasmon resonance and by tuning the monochromatized excitation wavelength. This kind of study is completely lacking in the literature for big molecules with optical absorption bands in the visible range. We demonstrate the dominant role of plasmon-enhanced near-field optical effects over hot-carrier injection in amplifying photodissociation of colored dye molecules, thus paving the way to the engineering and optimization of light-harvesting platforms for waste water treatment, dye molecule sensing devices, and a broad range of other light-harvesting applications
Plagioclase-facies thermobarometric evolution of the External Liguride pyroxenite-bearing mantle (Suvero, Italy)
No full textPlagioclase peridotites are an important marker of the shallow geodynamic evolution of the lithospheric mantle at extensional settings. Based on lowpressure experiments, a recent study by Fumagalli et al. (2017) defined and calibrated a geobarometer for peridotitic bulk compositions, based on the Forsterite-Anorthite-Ca-Tschermak-Enstatite (FACE) pressure-sensitive equilibrium. The Suvero plagioclase-bearing peridotites, on which the FACE geobarometer was calibrated, are primarily associated to plagioclase pyroxenites. Assuming that the pyroxenites record the same Pressure-Temperature evolution than the plagioclase peridotites, they represent ideal candidates to test the applicability of the FACE geobarometer on pyroxenitic compositions. As documented in the
plagioclase peridotites, the pyroxenites are characterized by the development of fine-grained neoblastic assemblages, indicative of partial recrystallization under plagioclase-facies conditions. Chemical zonations in these neoblastic mineral aggregates suggest equilibration stages at variable pressure and temperature and
allowed to document two re-equilibration stages corresponding to the onset of plagioclase-facies recrystallization (830-850°C, 6.9-8.1±0.5 kbar) and a shallower colder re-equilibration (770-790°C, 5.8-5.9±0.5 kbar), respectively. The decompressional evolution reported for pyroxenitic bulk compositions is consistent with the exhumation history documented in the associated Suvero peridotite, although at slightly higher equilibrium pressures (~ 1 kbar). Remarkably, the much lower XCr in pyroxenites reflects in lower Cr incorporation in pyroxenes and, consequently, in significantly higher Ca-Tschermak activity in clinopyroxene that might introduce the systematic pressure overestimation by FACE geobarometer
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