The First International Palestinian Conference on Nanotechnology for Advanced Material and Devices

A new type of solar cells which are designed from single crystals using silver and gold metals to construct point contacted photocells are reported and discussed. The influence of the driving electric field on the performance of the device was tested. The current density-electric field dependence curve reflected a space charge limited photocurrent effect being dominant in the filed region of 1-4.3 V/cm. In addition, the solar cell short circuit and loaded current dependence on the excitation intensity was measured. The short circuit current is observed to exhibit exponential trap distribution effect and supralinear recombination at low and high illumination intensities, respectively. The device displays a current density of 0.5 (mA/cm2) for excitation intensity of 76 klux. When loaded it displayed a stable power dissipation curve. Such behavior reflects the novelty of these types of cells for future application. PACS: 71.55.Ht, 72.20.Dp, 72.20.Jv, 72.40.+w, 72.80.Jc, 78.20.Ci

In order to solve water contamination problems several procedures are commonly used. Each procedure has its shortcomings, (such as DBPs production and cost. Photo- degradation of microorganisms using photo-catalysts (such as ZnO) could be a good alternative. Photodegradation of microorganisms has been examined in water disinfection. TiO2 and ZnO photocatalysts have been examined for inactivation of Escherichia coli and some other types of bacteria by photodegradation. ZnO has a wide band gap (3.2 ev), with limited photo-catalytic applications to shorter wavelengths, UV. Because only about 4% of the solar spectrum falls in the UV region, ZnO semiconductor is sensitized by to function in the visible solar light. In this work, ZnO semiconductor particles were sensitized with safe a low cost sensitizer, anthocyanin. The ZnO/anthocyanin was used to disinfect water from bacteria by photodegradation, using solar simulator light. Nano sized ZnO particles were investigated here.
Key Words: photo-degradation, ZnO, anthocyanin, bacteria.

Zeolite , a natural porous aluminosilicates material, was used as supporting material for iron nanoparticles produced by borohydride reduction method. The composite material (Z-Fe) was characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM, TGA, BET-N2 techniques. The material was then applied in the removal of phenol from aqueous solutions under various experimental conditions. The batch-type experiments investigated the effects of initial phenol concentration, time of contact, and pH. Parallel experiments were also conducted using pure samples of zeolite and iron nanoparticles for the sake of comparison with Z-Fe. In addition, the composite material was also tested as a Fenton-like catalyst. The material demonstrated fast kinetic behavior, high removal capacity over a wide range of phenol concentrations (5.0-250.0 mg/L), and the removal capacity was quantitative over a wide pH range.

Isotretinoin is 13-cis-retinoic acid and is related to both retinoic acid and Retinol (Vitamin A). It has been commonly used for the treatment of severe acne and the other dermatological diseases , isotretinoin has some deficiencies, such as poor solubility in water and in most organic solvents and poor stability, being easily oxidized when heated or exposed to light.
Because water insoluble drugs often show low absorption and weak bioavailability, improvement in solubility is important for development of drug preparations .
Drugs can be solubilized and formulated in nanoemulsions . nanoemulsions are excellent candi- dates as potential drug delivery systems because of their improved drug solublization , long shelf life and ease of preparation .
Recently, Tetronic surfactants have been studied as possible vehicles for drug delivery; hence, studies on their behavior under a variety of conditions will be an important part of the formulation in delivery agents.
Tetronic 1107 is a tetrafunctional block copolymer surfactant terminating in primary hydroxyl groups see figure (1) . A nonionic surfactant that is 100% active and nontoxic This study aims to investigate the phase behavior of Tetronics 1107 with Propylene Glycol as a model oil and cationic surfactant tetra butyl ammonium bromide at different temperature (25,37,and 45 C), and then investigate the phase behavior of Tetronics 1107 with R (+)-Limonene oil at different temperature (25,37C ) to form nanoemulsion in order to improve solubility of isotretinoin.
Visual inspection , cross polarizers and polarized microscopy were used to detect anisotropy . A cubic phase and micelle were detected in the corresponding ternary phase diagram. each of them will be used to formulate of isotretinoin in a second stage.

Nano-sized CdS films were deposited onto FTO/glass substrates by different techniques, namely: electrochemical (EC), chemical bath (CB) and electrochemical followed by chemical bath (EC/CB) deposition techniques. The latter technique is examined here for the first time. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence spectra (PL) and electronic absorption spectra were studied for different films. Photo-electrochemical (PEC) characteristics of different films, such as photo (J-V) plots, dark (J-V) plots, conversion efficiency and stability, were all investigated. Films prepared by different methods showed different SEM images. Electronic absorption spectra for different films were not much different except in PL intensity values. PEC characteristics for different films showed different behaviors. The EC/CBD films showed higher light-to-electricity conversion efficiency than EC films, but lower efficiency than CBD counterparts. Moreover, the EC/CBD films showed higher values of JSC with time, than either EC or CBD counterparts, which give an idea about the advantage of the new described films. The deposited films were modified by annealing at 250oC under N2. Cooling of pre- heated films to room temperature was performed by a gradual slow process. The effect of annealing & slow cooling on film characteristics, such as XRD, SEM, PL, electronic absorption spectra were all measured for different films. Photo-electrochemical characteristics of different films, such as: open-circuit voltage (Voc), current density (Jsc), photo (J-V) plots, efficiency and stability, were studied. Films treated by annealing & slow cooling showed higher conversion efficiency than their un-treated counterparts. SEM images showed that annealing increased the grain size of CdS nano particle in cases of CBD, EC and EC/CBD. XRD measurements showed that annealing lowered the crystallite size for EC-CdS films, whereas annealing enhanced the crystallite size for both CBD-CdS and EC/CBD-CdS films. Photoluminescence spectra were not af- fected by annealing except in PL intensity values. In each prepared CdS film, annealing enhanced PEC characteristics, by increasing conversion efficiency and stability. On the other hand, the annealed EC/CBD showed higher conversion efficiency and stability than either the annealed EC or CBD films. On the other hand, the higher conversion efficiency of both annealed CBD-CdS and EC/CBD-CdS films than non-annealed counterparts coincided with SEM topography, XRD spectra and PL intensity results. XRD patterns showed enhancement in crystal- lite size for both annealed CBD-CdS and EC/CBD-CdS films. SEM images showed homogenized layers with more ordered and uniformly packed coagulates for annealed films. In addition, PL spectra for annealed films exhibited higher emission values than non-annealed films. This is because annealing enhances the particle characteristics, giving more uniform and compact surface and consequently higher PL intensity. The results indicate that the new CdS nano-films, prepared by EC/CBD technique, are advantageous over other earlier known types.

In this intervention, I will give a description of the newly established CEMSANT at ANU, Palestine. My intervention will describe why CEMSANT was established, its relevance to Palestine, its vision & goals, and its strategy to achieve its mission. CEM- SANT hierarchy and administrative structure will be described. Current research activities conducted by students and their supervisors, and the relevance of such activities to Palestine, will be discussed. International academic links established by CEMSANT will be described. Areas of strength and limitations will also be highlighted, focusing on future expansion plans. Details of needed advanced equipment’s and services will also be highlighted.

The role of the type of the material which is used as contact to the semiconductors is investigated. Particularly, gold, silver, nickel and carbon conductive pastes are tested. It is found that, although the dark and light illuminated electrical injection from the contacts exhibit Ohmic behavior, the resulting drifted as well as the diffused short circuit photocurrents are not Ohmic. It was observed that, relative to their work functions, these metals created photosensitizing states that exchange role from recombination to trap states depending on both electric field and illumination intensity. These states limit the resulting current density of the Schottky solar cells. When the same devices were used as RF resonators, they show rather interesting different resonance types. In other word, each metal reflected a different resonance frequency region of particular signal quality. Furthermore, the anisotropy of the row material of the device played vital role on the resonance type being parallel or anti-parallel.

Using abintio methods, we study the formation energies and the electronic structure of GaAs, GaP and their alloys (GaAsxP1-x ) , GaAs and GaP bulk materials has zinc- blende (ZB) structure, but the ground state of nanowires may be either ZB or wurtzite (WZ), depending on energy contribution from their surfaces and edges. The calculated nanowires in this work are cut from the bulk material in the [111] direction and [0001] direction for ZB and WZ structure, respectively. It’s found that the WZ formation energy is lower than the ZB formation energy, regardless of the hydrogenation of the surface bonds. In the present work, the energy gap has been calculated with respect to full range of concentration for the alloys.

In this study, dipolar interaction effects in nano-sized magnetic system are simulated. The results indicate that the nature of the interaction effects cannot be inferred from changes in the mean magnetization of the system. In a randomly oriented system of nano-sized particles, the dipolar interaction fields along the x, y, and z directions are found to be normally distributed with a mean close to zero dipolar fields. Thus, the probability of finding positive and negative dipolar fields is almost the same. The simulations of magnetization curves have shown that the magnetization of the system nonetheless decreases with increasing particles concentration. This has often been taken as denoting predominantly demagnetizing interaction fields and to infer that the overall local interaction fields are negative. Our model alternatively ascribes this reduction in magnetization to the non-linear response of the magnetization to the applied field, which weighs the negative interaction fields more strongly than the positive fields. According to this picture of dipolar interaction fields in random systems, the idea of describing dipolar interactions in terms of a mean field that could be added (positive interactions) or subtracted (negative interactions) from the applied field is not justified. The dispersion of dipolar fields has major effects on the magnetic response of the sys- tem. Evidently the nature of interactions cannot be determined from the macroscopic magnetization curves and a simple mean field like interpretation; comparisons with more complex models are important in order to clarify the effects of dipolar interactions on the magnetic properties.

Dermatophytosis is the infection of keratinized tissues such as hair, nail and the stratum corneum of the skin by dermatophytic fungi. Infection is generally cutaneous and restricted to the non-living cornified layers because of the inability of the fungi to penetrate the deeper tissues or organs of immunocompetent hosts. In Saudi Arabia, Ony-chomycosis is the most frequent infection (40.3%), followed by tinea capitis (21.9%), tinea pedis (16%), tinea cruris (15.1%), and tinea corporis (6.7%). Several azole compounds have been tried to control dermatophytic infection, however, the azole-containing medicines may interfere with the activity of hepatic microsomal enzymes, sex and thyroid hormones, and testosterone biosynthesis. In this research, antibody-conjugated nanoparticles stimulated by cold plasma and laser was evaluated in vitro against some dermatophytes isolated from the common types of tinea. Different types of nanomaterials like copper, zinc, titanium, magnesium, gold, alginate and silver were tested but silver nanoparticles was proved to be most effective against the dermatophytes under test. The use of cold plasma coupled with antibody-conjugated nanoparticles has severe impact on dermatophytes where the inhibition of growth, spore germination keratinase activity was more than 88% in the case of Trichophyton rubrum, T. violaceum, Microsprum canis and M. gypseum. Complete inhibition of growth for all dermatophytes was brought about by the interaction of conjugated nanoparticles, with cold plasma and laser treatment.

Palestine should develop a knowledge-based technology starting with advanced materials and their applications, in order to achieve sustainable development. Advanced materials include a wide range of areas such as nanotechnology, thin films, nanodevices, conductive polymers and others. Applications of advanced materials span a number of areas such as: Energy storage devices (super batteries supercapacitors, fuel cells), clean energy (photovoltaics PV, photoelectrochemistry PEC) biotechnology (drug delivery, cancer treatment), superconductivity & superconducting magnets (MRI, super- trains) and other applications (LEDs, electrochromics). Semiconductors (SC) are a very important area of advanced materials. Almost all contemporary technologies rely on SC systems such as p-n junctions (transistors, di- odes, PV, PEC, refrigeration, ….). In this presentation, one specific example where Palestinian young scientists have been able to make breakthroughs in advanced material research and contributed effectively despite limited resources. Semiconductor research activity has been established in the laboratories of An-Najah N. University in the mid-1990s. The activity started with modification of mono-crystalline n-Si and n-GaAs semiconductor surfaces for the purpose of controlling band edge positions. This was for the purpose of tailoring band edge positions to catalyze water splitting (into hydrogen and oxygen) by solar light. The objectives were successfully achieved by graduate students at ANU. To simultaneously achieve stability and efficiency of the SC electrode, other techniques were developed here. The increasing cost of mono-crystalline SC materials shed light on our goals. The efforts were then focused at synthetic thin film SC electrodes. Preparation of enhanced semiconducting materials, in the forms of thin films and nano-scale particles, have then been conducted for the purposes of light-to-electricity and water decontamination strategies. Recently ANU students have been heavily engaged in preparing new classes of n-type semiconducting materials (CdS and CdSe) in the forms of thin films and nano-scale particles using Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD) and Electro-Chemical Deposition (ECD) techniques. Thin CdS and CdSe films were deposited onto FTO/glass systems and are currently being used for light-to-electricity conversion processes. Modification of semiconductor surfaces shows promising potential to enhance their efficiencies and stabilities. For the first time, ANU students were able to stabilize CBD-based CdSe films in PEC processes. Moreover, ANU students have been able to sensitize TiO2 and ZnO2 nano-sized particles using non-hazardous natural dyes extracted from flowers. The main theme of this presentation is to give examples to young Palestinian scientists on what they can achieve should they work in advanced materials research, directed towards solving Palestinian society problems. It is also intended to attract the attention of decision makers to put materials R&D as a high priority area in the near future.

PolyBrite International is an innovative global lighting technology company that develops state of the art LED lighting systems and venturing in also nanoLED. Our proprietary technology brings the energy, environmental and economic advantages of LED technology to the marketplace. I will make brief remarks about our experience in creating global partnerships for lighting solutions.

Graphene, a two-dimensional monolayer of tightly packed carbon atoms could en- able new advanced electronic devices. The use of graphene’s properties including its unique band-structure in novel circuitry and efficient photo-voltaics will be discussed.

Iron nanoparticles (Goethite) were produced using extracts of green tea leaves (GT-Fe NPs), also the Goethite particles synthesized in other novel procedure using anise extract in its preparation (A-G Ps). The materials were characterized using TEM, SEM/EDX, XPS, XRD, N2-BET, and FTIR techniques, and were shown to contain mainly Goethite (iron oxo- hydroxide). The obtained particles (GT-Fe NPs, and A-G Ps) were then utilized as Fenton- Like catalyst in the degradation of Methylene Blue, Methyl Orange, and Malachite Green dyes. The related experiments investigated the removal kinetics and the effect of concentration for MB, MO, and MG. The concentrations of dyes in aqueous solution were monitored using ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. The results indicated fast removal of the dyes with the kinetic data of MB, and MG following a second order removal rate, while those of MO were closer to a first order removal rate. The loading experiments indicated almost complete removal of the dyes from water over a wide range of concentration, 10-200 mgL-1. Also in studying the amount of Enthalpy change in the degradation of MG using A-G Ps, it found to be 22.5 kjol.mol-1.

The effects of Co doping on structural properties of Bi1.5Zn0.92 Nb1.5O6.92 (BZN) Pyrochlore ceramics have been investigated. Co atoms were substituted into pure samples in accordance to three types of composition, Bi1.5Zn0.92Nb1.5-xCoxO6.92- x for, Bi1.5Zn0.92Nb1.5-xCoxO6.92-x + Bi1.5Zn0.92Nb1.5-3x/5CoxO6.92 and Bi1.5Zn0.92Nb1.5-xCoxO6.92-x +(Bi1.5Zn0.46)(Zn0.46-3x/6Nb1.5-3x/5Cox)O6.92- x/2 for substitution of. The structural analysis of Bi1.5 Zn0.92Nb1.5-xCoxO6.92-x revealed that the single phase of pyrochlore can be obtained for x =0.03 and 0.04 only. Further increasing of Co content caused a second phase of ZnO appearance and its amount increased as doping increase. Co doping affects the lattice constant and degree of texturization but has no effects on the BZN grain size. The grain size of the single phase pyrochlore was found to be doping independent and of the order of 66 nm. To understand the dramatically changes associated with the appearance of ZnO, detailed structural analysis were handled. The ZnO hexagonal phase grows systematically on the BZN creating grains that exceed in size that of the pyrochlore at high x ratios.
PACS : 72.80.Tm, 77.22.Gm, 78.20.Bh,
Keywords: Pyrochlore; Structure and Microstructure; Doping; Grain

Teresa Esser will discuss her research on high-tech entrepreneurship and venture capital. She will describe how students at University have started successful high-tech companies that currently employ themselves and fellow students. Esser will discuss the results of her interviews with more than 150 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate lawyers on and off the MIT campus. This material has been published in The Venture Cafe: Secrets, Strategies and Stories from America›s High-Tech Entrepreneurs (Warner Business Books, 2002). Esser will discuss how Boston›s venture capitalists decide which entrepreneurs to support. Esser will also describe how the Milwaukee-based Silicon Pastures Angel Investment Network recruited ordinary rich people from the local community and convinced them to invest millions of dollars in dozens of high-tech startups. She will focus specifically on the group›s decision to invest in BioSystem Development LLC, which was recently acquired by Agilent. Esser will discuss her experiences working with partners to raise a $40 million venture capital fund which invested millions of dollars in three companies, including Dr. Sarf Niazi›s Therapeutic Proteins, Inc.
Finally, Esser will describe the graduate-level engineering course she taught at the University of Wisconsin Madison, titled ECE 601: Business for Engineers, where students learned how to start high-tech companies and create jobs for themselves and their fellow students. If there is time, Esser will discuss how a college student in a remote geographic location started a successful high-tech business with almost no resources, using abandoned and discarded objects and the academic journals from his University library.

Bootstrapping is not for the faint of heart. These brave entrepreneurs must make decisions every day that directly affect the success of their startup. In this lecture, Justin Beck will talk about the ups and downs he faced bootstrapping his mobile and social gaming startup, PerBlue. From the early days in college to a successful high growth company today, Justin will tell the important lessons he learned along the way. During the lecture Justin will cover the major challenges he faced, like why he turned down a high paying job at Microsoft to work 100+ hours a week in his college apartment. He’ll talk about recruiting friends to PerBlue, and how he compensated them with zero budget. This lecture will cover raising funds, and making the most out of very little capital.
Finally, Justin will talk about Parallel Kingdom’s revenue model, and how it allowed PerBlue to grow a team of five employees to over thirty five in just three years.

In this work the hydrogen uptake in 3.7nm Pd nanoparticles will be presented. Two samples were prepared using the same preparation parameters but different stabilizers, : First, icosahedral Pd clusters stabilized in Tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOAB) surfactant. Second, cubic Pd clusters stabilized in tetraoctylphosphonium bromide (TOPB). Size and structural determination of these nano-sized particles will be presented. The characterization was done using X-ray diffraction (XRD), High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) and Extended X-Ray Fine Absorption Structure (EXAFS). The phase transition during hydrogen uptake in these samples was monitored by in situ X-ray diffraction. It will be shown that the hydrogen uptake ability depends strongly on the lattice structure which is affected by the type of stabilizer. The TOPB stabilized clusters (cubic clusters) show the phase transition which is common for bulk Pd, whereas the surfactant stabilized clusters (icosahedral clusters) show only weak lattice dilatation upon hydrogen absorption. Pressure-lattice parameter Isotherms show that, the cubic clusters absorb large amounts of hydrogen in comparison with the icosahedral clusters. The measured lattice expansion is 0.130Å at 105 Pa and 300 K, which is about 320% the amount measured for icosahedral clusters (0.04Å). This suggests that surface sites are available for hydrogen in the Pd-TOPB samples which are not accessible for Pd-surfactant-clusters, and that the icosahedral lattice absorbs less hydrogen for similar external pressures.

Indium oxide doped with tin and zinc (ITZO) ceramics have been prepared by sintering powders mixture, which is embedded in alumina crucible, at 1300 °C. This allowed us to easy fabricate large targets with high density suitable for sputtering TCO films. Without using any cold or hot pressing techniques, The ITZO ceramic reaches a high bulk density (~ 92 % of In2O3 theoretical density). XRD diagrams show a high solubility limit for Sn and Zn when they are co-doped into In2O3 forming a solid-solution. They confirm a bixbyte structure typical for In2O3 with no extra peaks that could correspond to Sn and/or Zn based oxides. A very low electrical resistivity is obtained, for [In2O3:Sn0.10]:Zn0.10 (1.7×10-3 Ω.cm, lower than ITO counterpart), due to high carrier mobility. This high mobility is correlated to the strong enhancement of the grain percolation as shown by SEM micrographs

In our everyday life, we are surrounded by electronic sensing devices designed in a way to meet requirements for a certain application, which is determined primarily by their shape and size. In this respect, the natural question, which surprisingly has only recently been raised, is can one create electronics that can be reshaped on demand after its fabrication? After introducing this ground-breaking paradigm, the so-called flexible electronics became a dynamically developing research area with al- ready a variety of flexible devices commercially available: electronic displays, light-emitting diodes, integrated circuitry, to name a few. Special attention has been paid to the family of stretchable electronics which combines advantages of being flexible with the high speed of conventional semiconductor-based electronics. Until recently, the main focus was on fabrication of shapeable high-speed electronics [1] and optoelectronics [2]. However, the family of stretchable electronics is not limited to these two members. Only very recently, we reported for the first time the fabrication of stretchable magnetoelectronics [3, 4]. In this talk I will focus on fabrication of stretchable magnetoelectronics and on its various application aspects. Due to their flexibility and stretchability, these devices are unique as the same initial sensor can be used for multiple purposes: an elastic magnetic sensor integrated in a fluidic tubing can be applied for therapeutic purposes [5]. Alternatively, the same sensor can be mounted on a curved surface of a stator in a tiny gap between rotor and stator in electrical machines to provide a regulation for the rotor position. Due to the low price of elastic polymeric substrates which can be used, shape- able magnetic sensors are much cheaper compared to their rigid semiconductor-based counterparts, thus opening the door for large area sensor fabrication, which is a break-through in conventional sensor engineering.
[1] D. H. Kim et al., Nature Mater. 10, 316 (2011).
[2] R. H. Kim et al., Nature Mater. 9, 929 (2010).
[3] M. Melzer et al., Nano Letters 11, 2522 (2011).
[4] I. Mönch et al., ACS Nano 5, 7436 (2011). [5] M. Melzer et al., RSC Adv. DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01062C (2012).