The effect of low energy irradiation, where the sputtering is imperceptible, has not been deeply studied in the pattern formation. In this work, we want to address this question by analyzing the nanoscale topography formation on Si surface, which is irradiated at room temperature by Ar + ions near the displacement threshold energy, for incidence angles ranging from 0 to 85 •. The transition from smooth to ripple patterned surface, i.e. the stability/instability bifurcation angle is observed at 55 • , whereas the ripples with their wave-vector is parallel to the ion beam projection in the angular window of 60-70 • , and with 90 • rotation with respect to the ion beam projection at the grazing angles of incidence. A similar irradiation setup has been simulated by means of molecular dynamics, which made it possible, firstly, to quantify the effect of the irradiation in terms of erosion and redistribution using sequential irradiation and, secondly, to evaluate the ripple wavelength using the crater function formalism. The ripple formation results can be solely attributed to the mass redistribution based mechanism, as erosion due to ion sputtering near or above the threshold energy is practically negligible.

Propylammonium lead iodide (C3H7NH3PbI3), a promising hybrid perovskite, is successfully synthesized by a solgel technique. Structural, optical, and dielectric properties have been studied in detail. The dielectric constant, loss factor, electric modulus, and AC and DC conductivity of this hybrid perovskite exhibit strong temperature dependence over the frequency range of 10 Hz ≤ f ≤ 8 MHz. The Nyquist plot reveals the distinct contributions of grain and grain boundary to the total impedance. The dielectric constant is found to increase with temperature in the high frequency region. The modified Cole–Cole plot shows that the space charge and free charge conductivity increase with the elevation of temperature, whereas the relaxation time decreases with the rise in temperature. From the modified Kohlrausch–Williams–Watts equation, we perceived asymmetrical nature in electric modulus spectra at various temperatures, which corresponds to the non-Debye type nature of perovskite. It has also been found that, with the elevation of temperature, the imaginary part of electric modulus spectra shifts from the non-Debye type toward the Debye type nature, though failing to acquire exact Debye type response, and emerges as a semiconductor material. AC conductivity of PAPbI3 is illustrated on the basis of the correlated barrier hopping (CBH) mechanism. Activation energy estimated from both modulus spectra and DC conductivity matches well, affirming the similarity between relaxation behavior and conduction mechanism. Along with all these, PAPbI3 possesses a high dielectric constant associated with a small dielectric loss, making it a potential candidate for energy harvesting devices.

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The ability of the shell dust of freshwater mussel Lamellidens marginalis (MSD) to remove cadmium from the aquatic system was evaluated. The results indicate that MSD, a waste biomaterial, bears the potential to remove cadmium from contaminated water with a biosorption capacity of 18.18 mg g −1 at pH 6. At equilibrium, the adsorption data fitted to Langmuir (r 2 = 0.992) significantly more than the Freundlich equation (r 2 = 0.66). Regression analysis suggests that the biosorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model (r 2 = 0.999) better than the Lagergren model (r 2 = 0.879). The possible mechanism of biosorption appeared to be ion exchanges with Fe, Al, Si, In, Co, and Ca ions together with binding of different functional groups such as −OH, −CO, −CC, and −C−C, as revealed through FTIR and EDX analyses. Although low in comparison to cadmium, the MSD-adsorbed zinc (q max = 10.64 mg g −1 ) and lead (q max = 8.06 mg g −1 ) varied in amounts, depending upon the initial metal ion concentration and biomass of the adsorbent. These observations substantiate MSD as a low cost and environment friendly biosorbent for heavy metal ion bioremediation.

The formation of a self-organized nanoscale ripple pattern after off-normally incident ion bombardment on the surface of amorphous materials, or on semiconductors like silicon that are easily amorphized by ion bombardment, has attracted much attention in recent years from the point of view of both theory and applications. As the energy of the impinging ions increases from low to medium, i.e. several hundred eV to a few tens of keV, the ratio of amplitude to wavelength of the generated ripple pattern becomes so large that inter-peak shadowing of the incident ion flux takes place. Morphologically, the sinusoidal surface profile starts to become distorted after prolonged ion bombardment under such conditions. Structural and compositional modifications of the ripple morphology generated under shadowing conditions include the formation of a thicker amorphous layer with high incorporation of argon atoms in the form of nanometer sized bubbles around the middle part of the front slope of the ripple facing the ion beam, as compared to the rear slope. The present paper reviews recent developments in the experimental study of morphological, structural and compositional aspects of ripple patterns generated on a silicon surface after medium keV (30-120 keV) argon bombardment mainly at an angle of ion incidence of 60°.