24th of January, 2024
Lessons from Nature: how to get the best out of materials
Abstract – Natural processes, often enduring, share a common goal: the advancement of structures and constructions. Exploring these natural concepts provides opportunities to enhance known materials and uncover new application possibilities. One intriguing natural concept involves hybridizing materials, merging organic and inorganic components to surpass the individual elements. The engineering of these hybrid materials can be achieved through synthetic wet-chemical or physical methods, with variations in resulting material properties, even when the composition remains identical, due to distinct interactions between components.
This talk will delve into our group’s approaches towards vapor phase-grown hybrid films, extending their application beyond the microelectronics industry. We’ll showcase examples where nanoscale coatings and infiltrations significantly improved the mechanical and electronic properties of
polymeric materials. Additionally, we’ll discuss innovative approaches to self-healing semiconducting thin films, enabled by these hybrid materials. In most instances, these processes modify the chemical or physical properties of the base material, typically enhancing them and
introducing new functionalities.
Prof. Mato Knez ́s research focuses on thin films and hybrid materials obtained or functionalized by vapor phase processing such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and related technologies including molecular layer deposition (MLD) and vapor phase infiltration (VPI), the latter one having been invented by his group.
Progresses in the design of functional systems by chemical vapor phase techniques for biomedical applications
Abstract – Biomedicine and bioelectronics benefit from the advances in materials engineering, with the development of surface modification procedures to obtain functional biocompatible materials. The functionalization of inorganic surfaces with designed nanostructured metal-oxide systems is widely used for applications in biomedical research, such as in medical implants, cancer diagnosis and therapy, and in neuronal monitoring. By means of a proper development of new functional systems and in-depth study of material interface properties, our contribution has been devoted to the investigation of new multifunctional inorganic systems, obtained by CVD techniques, characterized by excellent bioactivity and biocompatibility, promising for smart implantable devices for dental use and implantable active neuronal interfaces.
Dr. Naida El Habra’s research activity concerns the deposition and characterization of inorganic nanostructured thin films by vapor phase processes (MOCVD, ALD) for protective, photocatalytic, self cleaning, advanced manufacturing, and biomedical applications.