Materials with high photoluminescence (PL) intensity can potentially be used in optical and electronic devices. Although the PL properties of bismuth(III) oxide with a monoclinic crystal structure (α-Bi2O3) have been explored in the past few years, methods of increasing PL emission intensity and information relating PL emission to structural defects are scarce. This research evaluated the effect of a pressure-assisted heat treatment (PAHT) on the PL properties of α-Bi2O3 with a needlelike morphology, which was synthesized via a microwave-assisted hydrothermal (MAH) method. PAHT caused an angular increase between the [BiO6]-[BiO6] clusters of α-Bi2O3, resulting in a significant increase in the PL emission intensity. The Raman and XPS spectra also showed that the α-Bi2O3 PL emissions in the low-energy region (below ∼2.1 eV) are attributed to oxygen vacancies that form defect donor states. The experimental results are in good agreement with first-principles total-energy calculations that were carried out within periodic density functional theory (DFT).

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Summary When tomatoes are submitted to treatments of drying, depending on the parameters and methods used, the concentration or degradation of nutrients can occur. The changes in the composition and colour were verified when different drying processes were used. Freeze drying, oven drying, the combination of both and also the effect of the pretreatment (blanching) using steam were studied. The fresh tomato composition was compared with the composition of dehydrated tomato powder. After dehydration, the moisture content reduced 78% from the total initial moisture. In addition, a nutrient concentration was observed with an increase of about 57% of citric acid content and 3% in the pH. The ash content also increased from 0.53% to 8% (15 times) and 60%, the carbohydrates from 3.94% to 60% (15 times) and the proteins were increased from 1% to 11% (10 times). The blanching resulted in different types of changes, such as greater stability for the proteins, carbohydrates, fat, lycopene and β‐carotene.

Heating drying processes may cause undesirable changes in tomato composition and loss of quality, mainly in bioactive components. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of oven drying, heated air flow, and freeze‐drying on blanched and unblanched tomatoes. This allows choosing drying conditions with less undesirable changes. The contents of sugar, citric acid, ascorbic acid, lycopene, β‐carotene, and total phenolic compounds, and 5‐hydroxy‐2‐furaldehyde (HMF) formation were evaluated. Results revealed that samples with lower sugar content also showed higher level of HMF. The heated air flow lead to low HMF formation, low reduction of sugar and a higher concentration of lycopene, β‐carotene, phenolics, and ascorbic acid. Freeze drying lead to low levels of carotenes in the end product. In conclusion, fractions of lycopene, β‐carotene, phenolics were increased by blanching, and losses of sugars, HMF, ascorbic acid were related to blanching. Practical applications The actual applications of this research are to evaluate the behavior of bioactive components in tomatoes that underwent different drying methods. Different processing parameters may lead to undesirable changes in composition of tomatoes and cause loss of quality in dried products. The potential applications are to evaluate which parameters are capable to maintain the higher quality levels in the end product.

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Metals capped with organochalcogenides have attracted considerable interest due to their practical applications, which include catalysis, sensing, and biosensing, due to their optical, magnetic, electrochemical, adhesive, lubrication, and antibacterial properties. There are numerous reports of metals capped with organothiol molecules; however, there are few studies on metals capped with organoselenium or organotellurium. Thus, there is a gap to be filled regarding the properties of organochalcogenide systems which can be improved by replacing sulfur with selenium or tellurium. In the last decade, there has been significant development in the synthesis of selenium and tellurium compounds; however, it is difficult to find commercial applications of these compounds because there are few studies showing the feasibility of their synthesis and their advantages compared to organothiol compounds. Stability against oxidation by molecular oxygen under ambient conditions is one of the properties which can be improved by choosing the correct organochalcogenide; this can confer important advantages for many more suitable applications. This paper reports the successful synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles functionalized with organochalcogenide molecules (dibutyldisulfide, dibutyl-diselenide and dibutyl-ditelluride) and evaluates the oxidation stability of the organochalcogenides. Spherical gold nanoparticles with diameters of 24 nm were capped with organochalcogenides and were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to show the improved stability of organoselenium compared with organothiol and organotellurium. The results suggest that the organoselenium is a promising candidate to replace organothiol because of its enhanced stability towards oxidation by molecular oxygen under ambient conditions and its slow oxidation rate. The observed difference in the oxidation processes, as discussed, is also in agreement with theoretical calculations.

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