Open Access
A comparative study in the design of TIO2 assisted photocatalytic coatings monitored by controlling hydrophilic behavior and rhodamine b degradation
(MDPI, 2023) Sandúa Fernández, Xabier; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Conde, Ana; Esparza Gorráiz, Joseba; Rodríguez Trías, Rafael; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
This work presents a comparative study related to the photocatalytic efficiency associated with wettability measurements and organic dye degradation, as well as other relevant properties (i.e., corrosion resistance, roughness, wettability, and adhesion to a substrate). The photocatalytic precursors are titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) which are dispersed onto a polymeric electrospun fiber matrix by using three different deposition techniques such as electrospraying, spraying, and dip-coating, respectively. In this work, the host electrospun matrix is composed of poly(acrylic acid) fibers crosslinked with cyclodextrin (β-CD), which shows a good chemical affinity and stability with the other deposition techniques which are responsible for incorporating the TiO2 NPs. In order to evaluate the efficacy of each coating, the resultant photocatalytic activity has been monitored by two different tests. Firstly, the reduction in the water contact angle is appreciated, and secondly, the degradation of an organic dye (Rhodamine B) is observed under UV irradiation. In addition, the final roughness, adherence, and pitting corrosion potential have also been controlled in order to determine which solution provides the best combination of properties. Finally, the experimental results clearly indicate that the presence of TiO2 NPs deposited by the three techniques is enough to induce a super hydrophilic behavior after UV irradiation. However, there are notable differences in photocatalytic efficiency on the Rhodamine B as a function of the selected deposition technique.
Open Access
A comparative study in the sensitivity of optical fiber refractometers based on the incorporation of gold nanoparticles into layer-by-layer films
(Exeley, 2015) Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Hernáez Sáenz de Zaitigui, Miguel; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa
In this work, optical fiber refractometers based on the successive incorporation of gold nanoparticles have been fabricated by means of the Layer-by-Layer Embedding (LbL-E) deposition technique. This enables the apparition of two different optical phenomena, Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) and Lossy Mode Resonance (LMR). The absorption peaks related to both phenomena were captured during the fabrication process, showing a different evolution as a function of the resultant thickness coating. Initially, LSPR band is observed for thinner coatings, whereas multi-LMR bands are observed as the thickness coating is increased. In addition, the response of both phenomena to variations of the surrounding medium refractive index (SMRI) was monitored, studying their different sensitivities. LSPR band only shows intensity variation with negligible wavelength displacement whereas LMR bands present a strong wavelength response. The combination of both resonances opens the door in the design of self-referenced optical devices for sensing applications.
Open Access
Multicolor layer-by-layer films using weak polyelectrolyte assisted synthesis of silver nanoparticles
(Springer, 2013) Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa
In the present study, we show that silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with different shape, aggregation state and color (violet, green, orange) have been successfully incorporated into polyelectrolyte multilayer thin films using the layerby- layer (LbL) assembly. In order to obtain colored thin films based on AgNPs is necessary to maintain the aggregation state of the nanoparticles, a non-trivial aspect in which this work is focused on. The use of Poly(acrylic acid, sodium salt) (PAA) as a protective agent of the AgNPs is the key element to preserve the aggregation state and makes possible the presence of similar aggregates (shape and size) within the LbLcolored films. This approach based on electrostatic interactions of the polymeric chains and the immobilization of AgNPs with different shape and size into the thin films opens up a new interesting perspective to fabricate multicolornanocomposites based on AgNPs.
Open Access
An antibacterial submicron fiber mat with in situ synthesized silver nanoparticles
(Wiley, 2012) Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Rodríguez, Yoany; Corres Sanz, Jesús María; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
This work presents an alternative approachfor fabricating electrospun submicron highly hydrophilicfiber mats loaded with silver nanoparticles. These fiber matsshow a high efficient antibacterial behavior, very attractivefor applications like wound healing and skin regenerationprocesses. The fabrication method is divided in two steps.First, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and b-cyclodextrin (b-CD)submicron fibers were electrospun and further stabilizedusing a thermal treatment, yielding stable hydrogel-likefibers with diameters ranging from 100 nm up to severalmicrons. In the second step, silver ions were loaded into thefibers and then reduced to silver nanoparticles in-situ. Theelectrospinning parameters were adjusted to achieve thedesired properties of the fiber mat (density, size) and after-wards, the characteristics of the silver nanoparticles(amount, size, aggregation) were tuned by controlling thesilver ion loading mechanism. Highly biocide surfaces wereachieved showing more than 99.99% of killing efficiency.The two-step process improves the reproducibility and tun-ability of the fiber mats. To our knowledge, this is the firsttime that stable hydrogel fibers with a highly biocide behav-ior have been fabricated using electrospinning.
Open Access
Optical sensors based on lossy-mode resonances
(Elsevier Science, 2017) Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Ascorbe Muruzabal, Joaquín; Acha Morrás, Nerea de; López Torres, Diego; Zubiate Orzanco, Pablo; Sánchez Zábal, Pedro; Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Socorro Leránoz, Abián Bentor; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Hernáez Sáenz de Zaitigui, Miguel; Elosúa Aguado, César; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Bariáin Aisa, Cándido; Corres Sanz, Jesús María; Ruiz Zamarreño, Carlos; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Del Villar, Ignacio; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
Open Access
Electrospun nanofiber mats for evanescent optical fiber sensors
(Elsevier, 2013) Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
In this work, a study about the optical response of electrospun nanofiber (ENF) coatings for their use in evanescent optical fiber sensors is presented. Several types of ENF mats composed of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) were developed with different ENF diameters and densities. These ENF mats were deposited onto an optical fiber core in order to fabricate humidity evanescent optical fiber sensors. The devices were exposed to relative humidity (RH) variations from 30% RH to 95%RH. The transfer functions of the devices (transmitted optical power versus relative humidity) presented two well-differenced behaviors depending on the ENF diameter and the ENF mat density. The devices with lower ENF diameters and higher mat density showed an increase in the transmitted optical power when RH increased. On the contrary, the devices with higher ENF diameters and lower mat density showed a decrease in the transmitted optical power when RH increased. In addition to this, sensors with thinner ENF overlays, showed a higher sensitivity. In order to study the response time of these devices, the ENFs sensors were submitted to human breathing cycles and presented a response time around 340 ms (exhalation). In spite of the high RH conditions of this experiment, the devices showed a recovery time around 210 ms and a negligible hysteresis or drift with respect to the initial condition (inhalation).
Open Access
Cátedra Industria 4.0: una herramienta clave en la formación continua para estudiantes de grado en ingeniería
(Dykinson, 2020) Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Rodríguez Pérez, Antonio; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
En el año 2017 nace la Cátedra Industria 4.0 entre el Colegio de Graduados en Ingeniería de Navarra rama industrial (CITI-Navarra) y la Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), siendo su principal objetivo el establecer un marco de colaboración científico-tecnológica entre ambas entidades. Desde su puesta en funcionamiento, la Cátedra Industria 4.0 ha llevado a cabo la realización conjunta de actividades de Investigación y Docencia que han despertado un gran interés en los alumnos (últimos cursos de Grado) tales como la realización de Trabajos Fin de Grado (TFG) con la concesión de un Premio al mejor TFG dentro de los ámbitos de interés científico-tecnológico tales como la Fabricación Avanzada, Diseño Industrial, Big Data, Automatización, Robótica y Eficiencia Energética. Por último, otro de los puntos clave de esta Cátedra ha sido la formación educativa continua con la celebración de Jornadas Técnicas. Fruto de ello, se ha realizado el "Curso Internacional de Energías Renovables" en colaboración con la Universidad de Kentuchy con el principal objetivo de que los alumnos conozcan diferentes tipos de energías renovables (eólica, termosolar, fotovoltaica, biomasa, geotérmica e hidroeléctrica) y comprendan cuál es su impacto económico. Este curso resulta especialmente de interés ya que favorece el intercambio de conocimiento e ideas entre profesionales y alumnos de distintas nacionalidades.
Open Access
Layer-by-layer nano-assembly: a powerful tool for optical fiber sensing applications
(MDPI, 2019) Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Ingeniaritza; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación
The ability to tune the composition of nanostructured thin films is a hot topic for the design of functional coatings with advanced properties for sensing applications. The control of the structure at the nanoscale level enables an improvement of intrinsic properties (optical, chemical or physical) in comparison with the traditional bulk materials. In this sense, among all the known nanofabrication techniques, the layer-by-layer (LbL) nano-assembly method is a flexible, easily-scalable and versatile approach which makes possible precise control of the coating thickness, composition and structure. The development of sensitive nanocoatings has shown an exceptional growth in optical fiber sensing applications due to their self-assembling ability with oppositely charged components in order to obtain a multilayer structure. This nanoassembly technique is a powerful tool for the incorporation of a wide variety of species (polyelectrolytes, metal/metal oxide nanoparticles, hybrid particles, luminescent materials, dyes or biomolecules) in the resultant multilayer structure for the design of high-performance optical fiber sensors. In this work we present a review of applications related to optical fiber sensors based on advanced LbL coatings in two related research areas of great interest for the scientific community, namely chemical sensing (pH, gases and volatile organic compounds detection) as well as biological/biochemical sensing (proteins, immunoglobulins, antibodies or DNA detection).
Open Access
Modelización y estudio experimental y mediante CFD de un ventilador para alumnos de Grado en Ingeniería Mecánica y de Tecnologías Industriales
(Dykinson, 2021) Fuertes Bonel, Juan Pablo; Torres Salcedo, Alexia; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Armañanzas Goñi, Javier; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
El trabajo planteado en esta comunicación tiene como principales objetivos por un lado, el conocimiento del funcionamiento un ventilador y por el otro, el empleo de softwares propios del diseño (CAD) y de la Mecánica de Fluidos (CFD). Con esto, se busca que el alumno amplíe y afiance sus conocimientos de una máquina fluidomecánica vista en el aula y también, que aprecie la importancia que tiene en ingeniería el trabajo multidisciplinar. Se ha escogido un ventilador, ya que por un lado, su modelización en CAD es más sencilla frente a otras máquinas hidráulicas, como puede ser una bomba centrífuga, y por el otro, porque dentro de las asignaturas de los distintos grados, el estudio del ventilador se realiza en menor profundidad, que el de las máquinas hidráulicas. El trabajo del alumno consta de tres partes diferenciadas: experimentación, diseño y simulación mediante CFD. En la experimentación, el objetivo es que el alumnado pueda manipular un ventilador en el laboratorio contrastando lo visto en teoría con la realidad, y que mediante una toma de datos establecida previamente, se familiarice con su funcionamiento. El siguiente paso consiste en diseñar en CAD la máquina y de esta manera, que puedan poner en práctica lo aprendido en asignaturas anteriores, en cuanto a diseño en CAD se refiere. Por último, y como complemento a las clases sobre CFD, que se imparten en la asignatura donde está programado este trabajo, se pide que el alumnado sea capaz de simular el funcionamiento del ventilador experimentado.
Open Access
Hydrophobic and corrosion behavior of sol-gel hybrid coatings based on the combination of TiO2 NPs and fluorinated chains for aluminum alloys protection
(MDPI, 2018) Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Maeztu Redin, Juan Deyo; Berlanga Labari, Carlos; Miguel, Adrián; Rodríguez Trías, Rafael; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ingeniería; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa, Navarre-PRO-UPNA18-6107-FRRRIO
In this work, layers of a sol-gel hybrid matrix doped with metal oxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) have been deposited on flat samples of AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy using the dip-coating technique, with the aim of obtaining coatings with better anti-corrosive and hydrophobic properties. Two different organic modified silica alkoxides, namely 3-(glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTEOS), have been used for an adequate entrapment of the metal oxide nanoparticles. In addition, a fluorinated metal-alkoxide precursor has also been added to the hybrid matrix in order to improve the hydrophobic behavior. The experimental results corroborate that the presence of these TiO2 NPs play an important role in the development of the sol-gel hybrid coatings. The water contact angle (WCA) measurements, as well as pencil hardness tests indicate that TiO2 NPs make a considerable increase in the resultant hydrophobicity possible, with better mechanical properties of the coatings. The coating thickness has been measured by cross-section scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, a glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GD-OES) analysis has been carried out in order to corroborate the adequate entrapment of the TiO2 NPs into the sol-gel coatings. Finally, potentiodynamic polarization tests and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) have been performed in order to evaluate the corrosion resistance of the coatings. All the results provide insights into the efficacy of the developed sol-gel hybrid coatings for anticorrosive purposes with good mechanical properties.