The article shows how ultrafast differential absorption spectroscopy (TAS) can be used to study the sizes, shapes, and homogeneity of plasmonic gold nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy or transmission electron microscopy can usually be used quite reliably for these studies, but these measurements are relatively slow, the equipment used is expensive, and the studies involve relatively small amounts of nanoparticles. Typically, measurements of ultraviolet–visible light (UV–VIS) steady-state absorption spectra are used for rapid studies of plasmonic metal nanoparticles. The analysis is simple and fast, and measurement equipment is widely available, so this type of study is very common, but it is difficult for this method to reliably distinguish different forms of nanoparticles. During our research, we found that the dynamic TAS method can help determine the size, shape, or another form of nanoparticle impurities much more reliably and accurately than measurements of steady-state UV-VIS absorption spectra. These results can be useful for studying the properties of plasmonic metal nanoparticles and are of great significance for materials science. This article has been awarded the Editor’s Choice recognition, which is only given to the articles that are significant in their field and have excellent scientific quality.

In this work we analyze how a form of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanomaterials determines their electrochemical properties. Different forms of ZnO were compared: tetrapods, nanoparticles and nanowires. ZnO tetrapods synthesized in our laboratory were found to have better electrochemical properties than commercial ZnO (nanoparticles, nanowires). ZnO tetrapods have the highest active surface area (A = A= 0.095 cm2), and the lowest number of electronic transport skaičiaus (DEp = 61.7 mV), which is very close to the theoretical value. This detailed study of the influence of ZnO nanostructure and form on electrochemical properties, will be useful in the development of future biosensors.

This article describes the interaction of ultrafast light pulses with silver nanoparticles and their arrays. We showed that light pulses elapsing a trillionth of a second (1/1 000 000 000 000 s) can excite mechanical vibrations in nanoparticles that are a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. These processes can be visualized in dynamic light absorption spectra because the color of plasmonic materials depends on their size and shape which can be modulated by mechanical vibrations. We investigated arrays of such nanoparticles and described the influence of local ultrafast oscillations on a long-range phenomenon—the surface lattice resonance (a collective optical response of regular nanoparticle arrays), which is extremely sensitive to the color of light scattered by the nanoparticles. Our observations will allow to create ultrafast elements of nanophotonics and opens the doors for a new generation of nanolasers.

This paper describes the results of studies of diamond-like carbon coatings (coatings containing carbon atoms of different spatial configurations – typical for crystalline diamond and graphite) with different concentrations of aluminum nanoparticles (DLC:Al). We investigated two different types of magnetron sputtering deposited DLC coatings: hydrogenated (coatings also contain hydrogen atoms) and non-hydrogenated with different Al atomic concentrations in them. If the studies of the composition of hydrogenated DLC:Al did not show unexpected results – alumina (AlOx) derivatives were formed in these coatings, then in addition to AlOx compounds, aluminum carbide (AlCx) derivatives were formed in non-hydrogenated DLC:Al. It is known that the formation of AlCx is usually very inefficient and requires temperatures above 1000 oC, therefore most often during synthesis, which takes place at much lower temperatures (e.g. room temperature), no AlCx is formed in DLC:Al films. The fact that we were able to obtain AlCx at relatively very low room temperatures is an interesting result, and the better understanding of the synthesis method we used may contribute to the efficient preparation of AlCx coatings in the future. Thanks to their high thermal conductivity, low thermal expansion and high refractive index, these coatings can be widely applied in optoelectronics. The sufficiently simple magnetron-based coating preparation method described in the article may contribute to the wide practical applications of AlCx in the future.

Herein, photothermal modification of nanocomposite films consisting of hydrated vanadium pentoxide (V2O5·nH2O) nanoribbons wrapped with graphene oxide (GO) flakes was performed via 405 nm direct laser irradiation. The combination of X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy allowed comprehensive characterization of physical and chemical changes of GO/V2O5·nH2O nanocomposite films upon photothermal modification. The modified nanocomposite films exhibited porous surface morphology (17.27 m2 g–1) consisting of randomly distributed pillarlike protrusions. The photothermal modification process of GO/V2O5·nH2O enhanced the electrical conductivity of nanocomposite from 1.6 to 6.8 S/m. It was also determined that the direct laser irradiation of GO/V2O5·nH2O resulted in considerable decrease of C–O bounds as well as O–H functional groups with an increase of the laser power density.

This paper reports on the properties of scratch-healing thiol-ene coatings synthesized at the Institute of Materials Science at Kaunas University of Technology on the basis of photopolymerizable composition prepared as a mixture of pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate) (PETMP) and 1,3,5-triallyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione (TTT), with 1 wt. % of 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone (DMPA) photoinitiator. It was demonstrated that such coatings exhibit high optical transparency, elasticity and shape-memory. The crosslinked PETMP-TTT polymer network was capable to initiate scratch recovery not only under the influence of an external stimulus but also at the room conditions. It was suggested that such coatings could be integrated in a new generation of the optoelectronic products.