Slot-Die Process of a Sol–Gel Photocatalytic Porous Coating for Large-Area Fabrication of Functional Architectural Glass

The slot-die process is an appealing technology for the fabrication of coatings on large-area substrates. However, its application on the production of photocatalytic coatings based on sol–gel formulations remains virtually unexplored. Thus, assessing the suitable formulation of the sol and operational parameters that allow one to yield high-efficacy photocatalyst coatings is a current challenge. This work aims to analyze the transferability of titania sol formulation optimized for dip-coating processes to slot-die technology. In this sense, firstly, the sol formulation is optimized by analyzing the influence of several types of surfactants on the microstructural features and photoactivity of TiO2 coatings’ growth on glass substrates. All formulations rendered a meaningful porosity and nanoscopic anatase crystallites (11–15 nm) with optical band gap values close to the expectation (3.25–3.31 eV). Accordingly, the performance of the photocatalytic dye degradation was closely related to the porosity and crystallite size led by each titania sol, and no meaningful differences were found between the results provided by the coatings developed by dip-coating and the slot-die method, which demonstrates the capability of the latter for its application on a large-scale fabrication of photocatalytic coatings.This research was funded by the Basque Government (IT1291-19), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN project: PID2019-108028GB-C21), and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement N° 792103 SOLWARIS)

A Review on Sustainable Inks for Printed Electronics: Materials for Conductive, Dielectric and Piezoelectric Sustainable Inks

In the last decades, the demand for electronics and, therefore, electronic waste, has increased. To reduce this electronic waste and the impact of this sector on the environment, it is necessary to develop biodegradable systems using naturally produced materials with low impact on the environment or systems that can degrade in a certain period. One way to manufacture these types of systems is by using printed electronics because the inks and the substrates used are sustainable. Printed electronics involve different methods of deposition, such as screen printing or inkjet printing. Depending on the method of deposition selected, the developed inks should have different properties, such as viscosity or solid content. To produce sustainable inks, it is necessary to ensure that most of the materials used in the formulation are biobased, biodegradable, or not considered critical raw materials. In this review, different inks for inkjet printing or screen printing that are considered sustainable, and the materials that can be used to formulate them, are collected. Printed electronics need inks with different functionalities, which can be mainly classified into three groups: conductive, dielectric, or piezoelectric inks. Materials need to be selected depending on the ink’s final purpose. For example, functional materials such as carbon or biobased silver should be used to secure the conductivity of an ink, a material with dielectric properties could be used to develop a dielectric ink, or materials that present piezoelectric properties could be mixed with different binders to develop a piezoelectric ink. A good combination of all the components selected must be achieved to ensure the proper features of each ink.This publication is supported by the SUINK project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101070112. Funded by the Basque Government ELKARTEK2021 (KK-2021/00040) and ELKARTEK2023 KK-2023/0005

Solar active envelope module with an adjustable transmittance/absorptance

A solar active envelope module with a high flexibility degree is proposed in this paper. The transparent module controls the day-lighting of the room, improving the indoor environment, while absorbing the superfluous solar energy inside. That energy is used to increase the efficiency of heating, ventilation, and the air-conditioning (HVAC) system of the building. This is carried out through a fine control of the absorptance of the envelope module. The active envelope module consists of three glazed chambers with advanced coatings and frames to assure a minimum thermal transmittance while allowing transparency. A fluid containing heat-absorbing nanoparticles flows inside the central chamber and is heated up due to the impinging solar energy. Unlike other systems proposed in the past, which included transparency control systems based on complex filters and chemical processes, the absorption of the module is controlled by the variation of the thickness of the central chamber with a mechanical device. That is, varying the thickness of the central chamber, it allows controlling the absorptance of the whole system and, as a result, indoor day-lighting and thermal loads. Therefore, a new system is proposed that enables to

Analysis of the influence of microencapsulated phase change materials on the behavior of a new generation of thermo-regulating shape memory polyurethane fibers

The present work is a first approach in order to achieve thermo-sensitive and waterproof polyurethane fibers useful in the textile industry. For this, two polyurethane formulations with glass transition temperatures (Tg) close to the body temperature have been synthetized and characterized by several techniques such as Ther-mogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Dynamic-Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and Thermo-mechanical analysis (TMA). In this manner their thermal and shape memory behavior were determined. It was also estimated the water vapor transmission rate of both polyurethane films. Then, integration of two different microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs), one with organic shell and another one, with an inorganic shell, was carried out by extrusion in order to achieve materials with thermo-regulating properties. Fibers for both polyurethanes, pristine or loaded with microencapsulated PCMs, were again characterized to check that the thermal and shape memory properties are maintained, and to study their capability to storage and release energy. The promising results pave the way for a new generation of thermo-regulating materials useful in numerous applications such as the textile sector.Authors would like to acknowledge the Basque Government funding within the ELKARTEK 2019 (KK-2019/00039) and ELKARTEK 2021 (KK-2021/00040) and FRONTIERS IV Prog rammes

Relatório de estágio em farmácia comunitária

Relatório de estágio realizado no âmbito do Mestrado Integrado em Ciências Farmacêuticas, apresentado à Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbr

A Cascaded Syntactic Analyser for Basque

This article presents a robust syntactic analyser for Basque and the different modules it contains. Each module is structured in different analysis layers for which each layer takes the information provided by the previous layer as its input; thus creating a gradually deeper syntactic analysis in cascade. This analysis is carried out using the Constraint Grammar (CG) formalism. Moreover, the article describes the standardisation process of the parsing formats using XML