196,128 research outputs found
Advanced materials based on carbon dots for technological applications
No full textI Carbon Dots (CD), una recente classe di nanoparticelle carbonacee biocompatibili di dimensioni di soli pochi nm, hanno il potenziale di permeare nel panorama attuale dei materiali fluorescenti e trasformare diversi settori tecnologici, grazie alla loro particolare combinazione di sostenibilità e fluorescenza visibile. Infatti, tali nanostrutture zero-dimensionali possono essere considerate l'alternativa a base di carbonio ai quantum dots semiconduttori, premiati con il Nobel per la Chimica nel 2023. Rispetto ai quantum dots, tuttavia, persistono delle sfide a causa della limitata comprensione dei meccanismi chimici e fotofisici che regolano la sintesi dei CD e le loro proprietà ottiche. La ricerca attuale mira a sviluppare metodi sintetici per la preparazione controllata di CD con proprietà ottiche su misura, mirando in particolare all'intensa emissione rossa.
Questo studio ha affrontato tali attuali sfide che ancora ostacolano l'uso pervasivo dei CD nei dispositivi tecnologici. Più specificamente, ha analizzato diverse strategie sintetiche "bottom-up", migliorando metodologie esistenti o contribuendo allo sviluppo di nuovi percorsi sintetici razionali per i CD. Sono state affrontate e ottenute componenti di emissione rossa potenziate sia attraverso approcci sintetici che tramite accoppiamento post-sintetico con nanoparticelle metalliche plasmoniche. Le proprietà fisico-chimiche dei CD sintetizzati sono state accuratamente esaminate, con particolare attenzione alla dinamica dell'emissione fotofisica. Le indagini sulla resistenza dei CD alla degradazione fotochimica sono cruciali per chiarire gli aspetti tecnologici chiave associati alla loro implementazione nei dispositivi e per chiarire il contributo dei fluorofori molecolari all'emissione delle nanoparticelle. Infine, sono state selezionate due applicazioni tecnologiche nell'illuminazione e nei dispositivi di rilevamento chimico, per la loro rilevanza per l'innovazione industriale, e il potenziale applicativo dei CD sintetizzati in questi campi è stato dimostrato. Ciò ha coinvolto la fabbricazione di nanocompositi polimerici per la conversione del colore, di mezzi attivi al laser e di una piattaforma portatile a fluorescenza per il rilevamento del pH e dell'attività antiossidante di composti chimici.
In definitiva, questo lavoro si unisce agli sforzi della comunità di ricerca per sfruttare le proprietà di emissione dei CD nei procedimenti "bottom-up", fornendo prospettive e strategie preparative originali mentre evidenzia considerazioni cruciali. Nelle sezioni applicative, ha contribuito a facilitare procedure di lavorazione basate su soluzione di queste nanoparticelle, integrando quando possibile, procedure sperimentali con ottimizzazioni numeriche, al fine di dimostrare il potenziale eccezionale dei CD per il mondo tecnologico.Carbon Dots (CDs), a recent class of biocompatible carbonaceous nanoparticles of only few nm in size, have the potential to permeate into the current scenario of lighting materials and transform diverse technological sectors, thanks to their unique blend of sustainability and attractive visible fluorescence. Indeed, such zero-dimensional nanostructures can be considered the carbon-based alternative to semiconductor quantum dots, awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023. Respect to the quantum dots, however, challenges persist due to limited understanding of the chemical and photophysical mechanisms governing CD synthesis and optical properties. Current research aims to develop synthetic methods for controlled preparation of CDs with tailored optical properties, particularly targeting intense red emission.
This study addressed such current challenges still hindering pervasive use of CDs in technological devices. More specifically, it analyzed different bottom-up synthetic strategies, improving currently existing methodologies or contributing to develop new rational synthetic routes for CDs. Enhanced red emission components was tackled and obtained both via synthetic approaches and through post-synthetic coupling with plasmonic metal nanoparticles. Physicochemical properties of the synthesized CDs were accurately scrutinized, with particular attention on photophysical emission dynamics. Investigations into the resistance of CDs to photochemical degradation are pivotal for elucidating key technological aspects associated with their implementation in devices and for clarifying the contribution of molecular fluorophores to nanoparticle emission. Finally, two technological applications in lighting and chemical sensing devices, were selected for their relevance for industrial innovation and the applicative potential of synthesized CDs in these fields was demonstrated. This involved the fabrication of polymer color-conversion nanocomposites, of laser active media and of a fluorescence based portable platform for sensing of pH and antioxidant activity of chemical compounds.
Ultimately, this work joins the research community’s effort to exploit the emission properties of CDs in bottom-up procedures, providing original perspectives and preparative strategies while highlighting crucial considerations. In the applicative sections, it contributed to facilitate solution-based processing procedures of these nanoparticles, integrating whenever possible experimental procedures with numerical optimizations, at the aim of proving the outstanding potential of CDs for the technological world
Using context to improve the effectiveness of segmentation and targeting in e-commerce
No full textIn e-commerce, where competition is tough and customers' preferences can change quickly, it is crucial for companies to segment customers and target marketing actions effectively. The process of segmentation and targeting is effective if the customers grouped into the same segment show the same behavior and reaction to marketing campaigns. However, the link between segmentation and targeting is often missing. Some research contributions have recently addressed this issue, by proposing approaches to build customer behavior models in each segment. However customers' behavior can change with the context, such as in many e-commerce business applications. In these cases, building contextual models of behavior would provide better predictive performance and, in turn, better targeting. However, the problem of including context in a segmentation model and building predictive behavior model of each segment consistently is still an open issue. This research aims at providing an answer to the following research issue: how to include context in a segmentation model in order to build an effective predictive model of customer behavior of each segment. To this aim we identified three different approaches and compared them by a set of experiments across several settings. The first result is that one of the three approaches dominates the others in certain conditions in our experiments. Another important result is that the most accurate approach is not always the most efficient from a managerial perspective
To be or not to be confident in medicine: that's the question! An explorative study on consumer information inferences toward food supplements consumption
No full textAbstract
Purpose
This study investigated how consumers' confidence in medicine and health information seeking and usage could be related to purchase intentions and satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
A panel of 18 food supplements consumers were interviewed using soft laddering. Qualitative data were coded and used to develop a structured survey. Participants (N = 363) were recruited on a voluntary basis among the customers of an Italian company in this sector. Hypotheses were tested by linear regressions and generalized models.
Findings
Results showed that consumers' confidence in medicine interacted with health information seeking and usage influencing both purchase intention and satisfaction. Consumers with high confidence behave differently from those with low confidence.
Research limitations/implications
The authors used a sample based on one company's customer base.
Practical implications
Companies should segment their customers based on their level of confidence in medicine and adopt different marketing strategies for different segments.
Social implications
A broader knowledge of consumers' attitudes towards food supplements and medicines can improve the public policies aimed at increasing quality of life.
Originality/value
From a theoretical viewpoint, findings suggest to consider consumers' confidence in medicine along with other subjective and contextual variables in socio-cognitive models aimed at explaining food supplements' consumer behavior. From a marketing viewpoint, results suggest to consider confidence in medicine as a precious variable in segmentation strategies. While some communication strategies are valid for all customers (i.e. using experts as advisors, using scientific contents in ads), others (i.e. relying on the advice of trustworthy people, explaining the consequences of consumption) were proved to have different impact on consumers depending on their degree of confidence in medicine
Sharing economy and dynamic pricing: Is the impact of Airbnb on the hotel industry time-dependent?
No full textPrior literature has reported significant price and revenue reductions in the hotel industry due to the emergence of Airbnb. Other studies have documented that hotels' price reactions to the penetration of Airbnb depend on their service level, e.g., low/medium-end versus high end. Relying on a large sample from the Italian market, we contribute by showing that the effect of Airbnb on hotels' price decisions does not only depend on incumbents’ quality level, but also on the difference between booking and check-in time. That is, the effect of the penetration of Airbnb on hotels' dynamic price decisions varies over time depending on the core segment hotels target
Towards Industry 4.0: Mapping digital technologies for supply chain management-marketing integration
No full textPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive picture of the innovative efforts undertaken over time to develop the digital technologies for managing the interface between supply chain management and marketing processes and the role they play in sustaining supply chain management-marketing (SCM-M) integration from an information processing point of view. Design/methodology/approach: Patent analysis and actual examples are used to carry out this study. In detail, first, the authors identify the subset of enabling technologies pertaining to the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) that can be considered the most relevant for effective SCM-M integration (i.e. Industrial Internet of Things, Cloud computing, Big Data analytics and customer profiling, Cyber security). Second, the authors carry out a patent analysis aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of the patenting activity trends characterizing the set of digital technologies under investigation, hence highlighting their innovation dynamics and applications. Findings: This research provides insightful information about which digital technologies may enable the SCM-M integration. Specifically, the authors highlight the role those solutions play in terms of information acquisition, storage and elaboration for SCM-M integration by relying on illustrative actual examples. Moreover, the authors present the organisations more involved in the development of digital technologies for SCM-M integration over time and offer an examination of their technological impact in terms of influence on subsequent technological developments. Originality/value: So far, much has been said about why marketing and supply chain management functions should be integrated. However, a clear picture of the digital technologies that might be adopted to achieve this objective has yet to be revealed. Thus, the paper contributes to the literature on SCM-M integration and Industry 4.0 by highlighting the enabling technologies for the Industry 4.0 that may particularly serve for managing the SCM-M interface from an information processing perspective
Business model innovation in the banking sector: How digital technologies transform innovation drivers in value mechanisms innovations
No full textBusiness model innovation (BMI) involves innovating firms' value creation, delivery, and capture. This paper categorizes the key drivers of BMI, i.e., crucial factors that trigger BMI and sustain the innovation of firms' value mechanisms, emphasizing how to transform innovation drivers into value mechanisms' innovations thanks to digital technologies. Through the longitudinal study of four banks' BMI, we identified three innovation drivers (i.e., globalization, crisis, and customer expectations), triggering three distinct BMI phases (i.e., "stretching", "streamlining", and "synergizing"). Findings reveal that the transformation of innovation drivers into value mechanisms innovations requires a growing application of digital technologies across the three phases
Understanding the Effect of the Synthetic Method and Surface Chemistry on the Properties of CsPbBr3 Nanoparticles
No full textOver the last decade, the attractive properties of CsPbBr3 nanoparticles (NPs) have driven ever-increasing progress in the development of synthetic procedures to obtain high-quality NPs at high concentrations. Understanding how the properties of NPs are influenced by the composition of the reaction mixture in combination with the specific synthetic methodology is crucial, both for further elucidating the fundamental characteristics of this class of materials and for their manufacturing towards technological applications. This work aims to shed light on this aspect by synthesizing CsPbBr3 NPs by means of two well-assessed synthetic procedures, namely, hot injection (HI) and ligand-assisted reprecipitation (LARP) in non-polar solvents, using PbBr2 and Cs2CO3 as precursors in the presence of already widely investigated ligands. The overall goal is to study and compare the properties of the NPs to understand how each synthetic method influences the NPs’ size and/or the optical properties. Reaction composition and conditions are purposely tuned towards the production of nanocubes with narrow size distribution, high emission properties, and the highest achievable concentration. As a result, the formation of bulk crystals as precipitate in LARP limits the achievement of a highly concentrated NP solution. The size of the NPs obtained by LARP seems to be poorly affected by the ligands’ nature and the excess bromide, as consequence of bromide-rich solvation agents, effectively results in NPs with excellent emission properties. In contrast, NPs synthesized by HI exhibit high reaction yield, diffusion growth-controlled size, and less striking emission properties, probably ascribed to a bromide-deficient condition
Colloidal inorganic nanocrystal based nanocomposites: Functional materials for micro and nanofabrication
No full textThe unique size- and shape-dependent electronic properties of nanocrystals (NCs) make them extremely attractive as novel structural building blocks for constructing a new generation of innovative materials and solid-state devices. Recent advances in material chemistry has allowed the synthesis of colloidal NCs with a wide range of compositions, with a precise control on size, shape and uniformity as well as specific surface chemistry. By incorporating such nanostructures in polymers, mesoscopic materials can be achieved and their properties engineered by choosing NCs differing in size and/or composition, properly tuning the interaction between NCs and surrounding environment. In this contribution, different approaches will be presented as effective opportunities for conveying colloidal NC properties to nanocomposite materials for micro and nanofabrication. Patterning of such nanocomposites either by conventional lithographic techniques and emerging patterning tools, such as ink jet printing and nanoimprint lithography, will be illustrated, pointing out their technological impact on developing new optoelectronic and sensing devices. © 2010 by the authors
Hybrid PBG structure: a challenging cavity system for high power, high intensity accelerators,
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