Oxide electronic materials provide a plethora of possible applications and offer ample opportunity for scientists to probe into some of the exciting and intriguing phenomena exhibited by oxide systems and oxide interfaces. In addition to the already diverse spectrum of properties, the nanoscale form of oxides provides a new dimension of hitherto unknown phenomena due to the increased surface-to-volume ratio. Oxide electronic materials are becoming increasingly important in a wide range of applications including transparent electronics, optoelectronics, magnetoelectronics, photonics, spintronics, thermoelectrics, piezoelectrics, power harvesting, hydrogen storage and environmental waste management. Synthesis and fabrication of these materials, as well as processing into particular device structures to suit a specific application is still a challenge. Further, characterization of these materials to understand the tunability of their properties and the novel properties that evolve due to their nanostructured nature is another facet of the challenge. The research related to the oxide electronic field is at an impressionable stage, and this has motivated us to contribute with a roadmap on 'oxide electronic materials and oxide interfaces'. This roadmap envisages the potential applications of oxide materials in cutting edge technologies and focuses on the necessary advances required to implement these materials, including both conventional and novel techniques for the synthesis, characterization, processing and fabrication of nanostructured oxides and oxide-based devices. The contents of this roadmap will highlight the functional and correlated properties of oxides in bulk, nano, thin film, multilayer and heterostructure forms, as well as the theoretical considerations behind both present and future applications in many technologically important areas as pointed out by Venkatesan. The contributions in this roadmap span several thematic groups which are represented by the following authors: novel field effect transistors and bipolar devices by Fortunato, Grundmann, Boschker, Rao, and Rogers; energy conversion and saving by Zaban, Weidenkaff, and Murakami; new opportunities of photonics by Fompeyrine, and Zuniga-Perez; multiferroic materials including novel phenomena by Ramesh, Spaldin, Mertig, Lorenz, Srinivasan, and Prellier; and concepts for topological oxide electronics by Kawasaki, Pentcheva, and Gegenwart. Finally, Miletto Granozio presents the European action 'towards oxide-based electronics' which develops an oxide electronics roadmap with emphasis on future nonvolatile memories and the required technologies. In summary, we do hope that this oxide roadmap appears as an interesting up-to-date snapshot on one of the most exciting and active areas of solid state physics, materials science, and chemistry, which even after many years of very successful development shows in short intervals novel insights and achievements.

Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, 120 (2016) 30-36. doi:10.1016/j.sab.2016.03.014

The wind energy production is a growing industry and the energy produced is renewable and environmentally cleaner than most of the other systems. The towers to support the wind energy generators may be built with precast concrete elements that are competitive in comparison to other structural systems. The evolution of the technology for wind energy production shows a clear need for larger wind turbines and longer blades and, consequently, taller towers, where precast concrete solutions are competitive. Truss precast concrete towers is a solution that complies with the demands of the present and future wind energy production. The research on the execution and structural behaviour of the connections between the tower elements is an important issue. This communication presents the experimental analysis of column to column connections for precast concrete towers. The tests included connections with commercial threaded bars welded to the rebars and connections with grouted corrugated steel sleeves. Thick joints (50 mm) filled with fibre reinforced grout and thin joints (3 mm) filled with epoxy resin were tested and analysed.

This document has a broad scope and is not focussed on design issues. Precast construction under seismic conditions is treated as a whole. The main principles of seismic design of different structural systems, their behavior and their construction techniques are presented through rules, construction steps and sequences, procedures, and details that should lead to precast structures built in seismic areas complying with the fundamental performance requirements of collapse prevention and life safety in major earthquakes and limited damage in more frequent earthquakes.The content of this document is largely limited to conventional precast construction and, although some information is provided on the well-known “PRESSS technology” (jointed ductile dry connections), this latter solution is not treated in detail in this document.The general overview, contained in this document, of alternative structural systems and connection solutions available to achieve desired performance levels, intends to provide engineers, architects, clients, and end-users (in general) with a better appreciation of the wide range of applications that modern precast concrete technology can have in various types of construction from industrial to commercial as well as residential. Lastly, the emphasis on practical aspects, from conceptual design to connection detailing, aims to help engineers to move away from the habit of blindly following prescriptive codes in their design, but instead go back to basic principles, in order to achieve a more robust understanding, and thus control, of the seismic behaviour of the structural system as a whole, as well as of its components and individual connections.

The façades of St. Leonard’s church and the castle in Atouguia da Baleia village in western region of Portugal are monuments built in Middle Ages. Significant stone degradation patterns are visible, being the alveolization an outstanding case study.The more porous type of sandstones similar to the variety found in the vernacular architecture of Atouguia da Baleia was treated with ethyl silicates. In order to allow the study of the durability of these conservation treatments, accelerated artificial ageing salt crystallization tests were carried out and an automatic ageing chamber was developed.Physical and mechanical behaviour was assessed on consolidated specimens before and after accelerated artificial ageing salt crystallization tests. The authors propose a prediction of the durability of these consolidation treatments by means of the salt crystallization ageing results.

Neste artigo é apresentado um resumo das intervenções de conservação realizadas no século passado na Igreja de São Leonardo, bem como um resumo dos estudos realizados na última década. Em seguida mostra-se o padrão de degradação que ocorre nos portais de arenito da igreja e é analisada a evolução da alveolização que ocorreu nos portais de arenito ao longo dos últimos sessenta a setenta anos. No final, a inspeção visual dos portais de arenito é comparada com um levantamento realizado através de varrimento por laser tridimensional.

In this work we present a fully automated plasma-enhanced reactive thermal evaporation system (rf-PERTE) that can be used for the deposition of transparent metal oxide films without intentional heating of the substrate. The system and developed software enables the full control over critical deposition conditions such as mass flow of oxygen, process pressure, current flowing through crucible and rf-power. These parameters are automatically adjusted during the deposition thus keeping them in a narrow process window. This way, highly transparent and conductive coating can be deposited with a high degree of reproducibility of the optical and electrical characteristics. The resistivity of 9×10^-4 Ω-cm and the peak transmittance of 90% in the visible spectral range were achieved for indium oxide films deposited on glass substrates. This technique is also suitable for the deposition of transparent conducting coatings in a wide range of plastic materials for flexible solar cells. In particular, we have successfully deposited indium oxide on PEN (polyethylene naphtalate) sheets with electrical and optical properties approaching the ones for films on glass.

© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.The glaze and in-glaze pigments of the historical nineteenth-century glazed tiles from the Pena National Palace (Sintra, Portugal) were characterized using a multi-analytical approach. Chemical composition and microstructural characterization were ascertained by µ-PIXE, µ-Raman, optical microscopy and VP-SEM–EDS. The manufacturing technique and colour palette in these tiles were found to be close to the ceramic pigments used in traditional majolica. The blue and purple colours derive from cobalt oxide and manganese oxide, respectively. A mixture of Pb–Sn–Sb yellow with cobalt oxide and iron oxide was used for green and dark yellow, respectively, while grey tonalities consist of a complex mixture of cobalt oxide, manganese oxide and Pb–Sn–Sb yellow in different proportions. Results obtained allowed the determination of the oxides and elements used in pigments as well as production techniques, resorting to traditional majolica manufacture, although the tiles were produced by the end of the nineteenth century.

Punching-shear capacity of slab-column connections in existing R/C structures may be inadequate to bear design loads, so strengthening works are required. The lack of punching resistance may be due to detailing, design or building errors; in other cases, such lack is due to a change of use, which requires an increase of resistance. Different techniques have been developed for strengthening R/C slabs against punching: enlargement of the support, gluing external fibre reinforced polymers or casting a bonded concrete overlay (BCO) on the slab's top surface, insertion of post-installed steel bolts, application of fibre reinforced polymers cords as shear reinforcement. In the paper, the authors apply the Critical Shear Crack Theory (CSCT) to all of these techniques and evaluate their efficacy with reference to a case study.

The work reported here addresses load matching improvement in Net Zero Energy Buildings (Net-ZEBs). The related relevant literature shows that currently research work is mainly focused on improving the load matching of individual buildings. In this paper the concept of a Cooperative Net Zero Energy Community (CNet-ZEC) is introduced, extending discussion to the enhancement of load matching at a wider community level. Both building and community levels are compared in order to assess the work proposed here, through the analysis of three distinct scenarios where five Net-ZEBs work individually or in community.

The results presented here were obtained through a detailed simulation based on 1-min resolution stochastic load profiles and recorded weather data. The results indicate that over the period of a year the CNet-ZEC has the potential to increase the electrical demand covered by onsite electricity generation up to 21% and the on-site generation that is used by the building up to 15%. The following elements are considered by the CNet-ZEC in order to produce those results: (i) demand heterogeneity of the buildings integrating the community; (ii) the higher number of controllable devices; and (iii) the potential higher amount of energy available to satisfy the community demand.

An alternative technique for production of devices which uses both silicon crystalline wafers (p-type) and heavy doped amorphous silicon thin films (n-type) is reported. The amorphous silicon acts as a finite source of dopant and is deposited (at low temperature, 70 °C) by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition on silicon wafers. Afterwards, the process of dopant diffusion into the crystalline silicon occurs in a diffusion furnace at 1000 °C for 2 h, to create p–n junctions. Using SIMS analyses, a dopant (P) transfer into c-Si of about 30% is verified and 87% of the dopant transferred is electrically active. Consequently, n-MOSFET devices are produced using a gate oxide thermally grown at the same diffusion temperature for one hour. The preliminary results of the MOSFET (channel length and width of 0.5 and 5 mm, respectively) show a depletion behavior with a threshold voltage, Vth=−8.2 V and afield-effect mobility, µ_FE=187.8 cm²/(Vs).

n/a

n/a