Mariela Pavan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Mariela Pavan
Nature Photonics
A fundamental question regarding light scattering is how whiteness, generated from multiple scatt... more A fundamental question regarding light scattering is how whiteness, generated from multiple scattering, can be obtained from thin layers of materials. This challenge arises from the phenomenon of optical crowding, whereby, for scatterers packed with filling fractions higher than ~30%, reflectance is drastically reduced due to near-field coupling between the scatterers. Here we show that the extreme birefringence of isoxanthopterin nanospheres overcomes optical crowding effects, enabling multiple scattering and brilliant whiteness from ultra-thin chromatophore cells in shrimp. Strikingly, numerical simulations reveal that birefringence, originating from the spherulitic arrangement of isoxanthopterin molecules, enables intense broadband scattering almost up to the maximal packing for random spheres. This reduces the thickness of material required to produce brilliant whiteness, resulting in a photonic system that is more efficient than other biogenic or biomimetic white materials whic...
Applied Sciences
Petroglyph sites exist all over the world. They are one of the earliest forms of mankind’s expres... more Petroglyph sites exist all over the world. They are one of the earliest forms of mankind’s expression and a precursor to art. Despite their outstanding value, comprehensive research on conservation and preservation of rock art is minimal, especially as related to biodeterioration. For this reason, the main objective of this study was to explore the factors involved in the degradation of petroglyph sites in the Negev desert of Israel, with a focus on biodegradation processes. Through the use of culture-independent microbiological methods (metagenomics), we characterized the microbiomes of the samples, finding they were dominated by bacterial communities, in particular taxa of Actinobacteria and Cyanobacteria, with resistance to radiation and desiccation. By means of XRF and Raman spectroscopies, we defined the composition of the stone (calcite and quartz) and the dark crust (clay minerals with Mn and Fe oxides), unveiling the presence of carotenoids, indicative of biological coloniza...
ChemCatChem
In conventional studies of heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation, it is crucial to evaluate by m... more In conventional studies of heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation, it is crucial to evaluate by means of control experiments the relevance of the “non‐catalyzed” autoxidation reaction under irradiation. If the autoxidation is found to be negligible, it is usually considered that it can be safely disregarded. However, in the case of aromatic aldehydes’ synthesis such as benzaldehyde, irradiating with UV light may lead to a more complex mechanism than previously thought. Herein, we prove that neglecting the autoxidative reaction can lead to a misinterpretation of the mechanism as well as an overestimation of the catalyst's efficiency, even if the control experiment exhibits zero yield. As an example, we studied the synthesis of benzaldehyde from benzyl alcohol by UV‐A irradiation with and without TiO2 and CdS nanoparticles; without catalyst, after a long induction time, the aldehyde enhances its own production through an autocatalytic reaction activated by the same light wavelengths utilized for the nanocatalysts. The long induction time leads to considering the autocatalysis to be deceptively negligible. However, the nanoparticles act as a fast initiator of the benzaldehyde autocatalysis, in such a way that the oxidation rate reached a similar performance with nanoparticles and after removing them. This suggests that the commonly ignored autocatalysis of benzaldehyde indeed is a relevant parallel pathway to the heterogeneous catalysis mechanism.
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Highly reflective crystals of the nucleotide base guanine are widely distributed in animal colora... more Highly reflective crystals of the nucleotide base guanine are widely distributed in animal coloration and visual systems. Organisms precisely control the morphology and organization of the crystals to optimize different optical effects, but little is known about how this is achieved. Here we examine a fundamental question that has remained unanswered after over 100 years of research on guanine: what are the crystals made of ? Using solution-state and solidstate chemical techniques coupled with structural analysis by powder XRD and solid-state NMR, we compare the purine compositions and the structures of seven biogenic guanine crystals with different crystal morphologies, testing the hypothesis that intracrystalline dopants influence the crystal shape. We find that biogenic "guanine" crystals are not pure crystals but molecular alloys (aka solid solutions and mixed crystals) of guanine, hypoxanthine, and sometimes xanthine. Guanine host crystals occlude homogeneous mixtures of other purines, sometimes in remarkably large amounts (up to 20% of hypoxanthine), without significantly altering the crystal structure of the guanine host. We find no correlation between the biogenic crystal morphology and dopant content and conclude that dopants do not dictate the crystal morphology of the guanine host. The ability of guanine crystals to host other molecules enables animals to build physiologically "cheaper" crystals from mixtures of metabolically available purines, without impeding optical functionality. The exceptional levels of doping in biogenic guanine offer inspiration for the design of mixed molecular crystals that incorporate multiple functionalities in a single material.
Chempluschem, Sep 1, 2013
Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2010
... Acknowledgements. The authors thank Gad Marom, Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen, and Eran Rabani for i... more ... Acknowledgements. The authors thank Gad Marom, Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen, and Eran Rabani for insightful discussions. ... Rev. Mater. Sci., 2000, 30, 545 Article ChemPort . 2, SJ Park, TA Taton and CA Mirkin, Science, 2002, 295, 651 Article . ...
Acs Macro Letters, Dec 20, 2012
ABSTRACT We investigate the kinetics of block copolymer/nanoparticle composite alignment in an el... more ABSTRACT We investigate the kinetics of block copolymer/nanoparticle composite alignment in an electric field using in situ transmission small-angle X-ray scattering. As a model system, we employ a lamellae forming polystyrene-b-poly(2-vinyl pyridine) block copolymer with different contents of gold nanoparticles in thick films under solvent vapor annealing. While the alignment improves with increasing nanoparticle fraction, the kinetics slows down. This is explained by changes in the degree of phase separation and viscosity. Our findings provide extended insights into the basics of nanocomposite alignment.
Halogen bonds, the formally noncovalent interactions where the halogen acts as a Lewis acid, have... more Halogen bonds, the formally noncovalent interactions where the halogen acts as a Lewis acid, have brought several controversies to the theoretical world regarding its nature and components, e.g., charge transfer (CT), electrostatics, dispersion, and polarization. The debate on whether all characteristics are accounted for by electrostatics is examined, highlighting the importance of the CT and repulsive interactions. A number of strongly halogen-bonded complexes are as covalent as metal–ligand coordination bonds. Different levels of computational methods are reviewed with the objective of finding the best accuracy/cost ratios. The unusual electronic anisotropy of the halogen donor and its interaction with a Lewis base demand specific calculation schemes. From the wave-function theory methods, only the ones with empirical corrections (spin-component-scaled MP2 or CCSD, and MP2.5) are suitable when CCSD(T) is unattainable. Density functional theory functionals with a high amount of ex...
Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany), Jan 11, 2013
External electric fields readily align birefringent block-copolymer mesophases. In this study the... more External electric fields readily align birefringent block-copolymer mesophases. In this study the effect of gold nanoparticles on the electric-field-induced alignment of a lamellae-forming polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) copolymer is assessed. Nanoparticles are homogeneously dispersed in the styrenic phase and promote the quantitative alignment of lamellar domains by substantially lowering the critical field strength above which alignment proceeds. The results suggest that the electric-field-assisted alignment of nanostructured block copolymer/nanoparticle composites may offer a simple way to greatly mitigate structural and orientational defects of such films under benign experimental conditions.
Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2010
... Acknowledgements. The authors thank Gad Marom, Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen, and Eran Rabani for i... more ... Acknowledgements. The authors thank Gad Marom, Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen, and Eran Rabani for insightful discussions. ... Rev. Mater. Sci., 2000, 30, 545 CrossRef CAS Search PubMed . 2, SJ Park, TA Taton and CA Mirkin, Science, 2002, 295, 651 CrossRef Search PubMed . ...
Nature Photonics
A fundamental question regarding light scattering is how whiteness, generated from multiple scatt... more A fundamental question regarding light scattering is how whiteness, generated from multiple scattering, can be obtained from thin layers of materials. This challenge arises from the phenomenon of optical crowding, whereby, for scatterers packed with filling fractions higher than ~30%, reflectance is drastically reduced due to near-field coupling between the scatterers. Here we show that the extreme birefringence of isoxanthopterin nanospheres overcomes optical crowding effects, enabling multiple scattering and brilliant whiteness from ultra-thin chromatophore cells in shrimp. Strikingly, numerical simulations reveal that birefringence, originating from the spherulitic arrangement of isoxanthopterin molecules, enables intense broadband scattering almost up to the maximal packing for random spheres. This reduces the thickness of material required to produce brilliant whiteness, resulting in a photonic system that is more efficient than other biogenic or biomimetic white materials whic...
Applied Sciences
Petroglyph sites exist all over the world. They are one of the earliest forms of mankind’s expres... more Petroglyph sites exist all over the world. They are one of the earliest forms of mankind’s expression and a precursor to art. Despite their outstanding value, comprehensive research on conservation and preservation of rock art is minimal, especially as related to biodeterioration. For this reason, the main objective of this study was to explore the factors involved in the degradation of petroglyph sites in the Negev desert of Israel, with a focus on biodegradation processes. Through the use of culture-independent microbiological methods (metagenomics), we characterized the microbiomes of the samples, finding they were dominated by bacterial communities, in particular taxa of Actinobacteria and Cyanobacteria, with resistance to radiation and desiccation. By means of XRF and Raman spectroscopies, we defined the composition of the stone (calcite and quartz) and the dark crust (clay minerals with Mn and Fe oxides), unveiling the presence of carotenoids, indicative of biological coloniza...
ChemCatChem
In conventional studies of heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation, it is crucial to evaluate by m... more In conventional studies of heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation, it is crucial to evaluate by means of control experiments the relevance of the “non‐catalyzed” autoxidation reaction under irradiation. If the autoxidation is found to be negligible, it is usually considered that it can be safely disregarded. However, in the case of aromatic aldehydes’ synthesis such as benzaldehyde, irradiating with UV light may lead to a more complex mechanism than previously thought. Herein, we prove that neglecting the autoxidative reaction can lead to a misinterpretation of the mechanism as well as an overestimation of the catalyst's efficiency, even if the control experiment exhibits zero yield. As an example, we studied the synthesis of benzaldehyde from benzyl alcohol by UV‐A irradiation with and without TiO2 and CdS nanoparticles; without catalyst, after a long induction time, the aldehyde enhances its own production through an autocatalytic reaction activated by the same light wavelengths utilized for the nanocatalysts. The long induction time leads to considering the autocatalysis to be deceptively negligible. However, the nanoparticles act as a fast initiator of the benzaldehyde autocatalysis, in such a way that the oxidation rate reached a similar performance with nanoparticles and after removing them. This suggests that the commonly ignored autocatalysis of benzaldehyde indeed is a relevant parallel pathway to the heterogeneous catalysis mechanism.
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Highly reflective crystals of the nucleotide base guanine are widely distributed in animal colora... more Highly reflective crystals of the nucleotide base guanine are widely distributed in animal coloration and visual systems. Organisms precisely control the morphology and organization of the crystals to optimize different optical effects, but little is known about how this is achieved. Here we examine a fundamental question that has remained unanswered after over 100 years of research on guanine: what are the crystals made of ? Using solution-state and solidstate chemical techniques coupled with structural analysis by powder XRD and solid-state NMR, we compare the purine compositions and the structures of seven biogenic guanine crystals with different crystal morphologies, testing the hypothesis that intracrystalline dopants influence the crystal shape. We find that biogenic "guanine" crystals are not pure crystals but molecular alloys (aka solid solutions and mixed crystals) of guanine, hypoxanthine, and sometimes xanthine. Guanine host crystals occlude homogeneous mixtures of other purines, sometimes in remarkably large amounts (up to 20% of hypoxanthine), without significantly altering the crystal structure of the guanine host. We find no correlation between the biogenic crystal morphology and dopant content and conclude that dopants do not dictate the crystal morphology of the guanine host. The ability of guanine crystals to host other molecules enables animals to build physiologically "cheaper" crystals from mixtures of metabolically available purines, without impeding optical functionality. The exceptional levels of doping in biogenic guanine offer inspiration for the design of mixed molecular crystals that incorporate multiple functionalities in a single material.
Chempluschem, Sep 1, 2013
Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2010
... Acknowledgements. The authors thank Gad Marom, Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen, and Eran Rabani for i... more ... Acknowledgements. The authors thank Gad Marom, Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen, and Eran Rabani for insightful discussions. ... Rev. Mater. Sci., 2000, 30, 545 Article ChemPort . 2, SJ Park, TA Taton and CA Mirkin, Science, 2002, 295, 651 Article . ...
Acs Macro Letters, Dec 20, 2012
ABSTRACT We investigate the kinetics of block copolymer/nanoparticle composite alignment in an el... more ABSTRACT We investigate the kinetics of block copolymer/nanoparticle composite alignment in an electric field using in situ transmission small-angle X-ray scattering. As a model system, we employ a lamellae forming polystyrene-b-poly(2-vinyl pyridine) block copolymer with different contents of gold nanoparticles in thick films under solvent vapor annealing. While the alignment improves with increasing nanoparticle fraction, the kinetics slows down. This is explained by changes in the degree of phase separation and viscosity. Our findings provide extended insights into the basics of nanocomposite alignment.
Halogen bonds, the formally noncovalent interactions where the halogen acts as a Lewis acid, have... more Halogen bonds, the formally noncovalent interactions where the halogen acts as a Lewis acid, have brought several controversies to the theoretical world regarding its nature and components, e.g., charge transfer (CT), electrostatics, dispersion, and polarization. The debate on whether all characteristics are accounted for by electrostatics is examined, highlighting the importance of the CT and repulsive interactions. A number of strongly halogen-bonded complexes are as covalent as metal–ligand coordination bonds. Different levels of computational methods are reviewed with the objective of finding the best accuracy/cost ratios. The unusual electronic anisotropy of the halogen donor and its interaction with a Lewis base demand specific calculation schemes. From the wave-function theory methods, only the ones with empirical corrections (spin-component-scaled MP2 or CCSD, and MP2.5) are suitable when CCSD(T) is unattainable. Density functional theory functionals with a high amount of ex...
Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany), Jan 11, 2013
External electric fields readily align birefringent block-copolymer mesophases. In this study the... more External electric fields readily align birefringent block-copolymer mesophases. In this study the effect of gold nanoparticles on the electric-field-induced alignment of a lamellae-forming polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) copolymer is assessed. Nanoparticles are homogeneously dispersed in the styrenic phase and promote the quantitative alignment of lamellar domains by substantially lowering the critical field strength above which alignment proceeds. The results suggest that the electric-field-assisted alignment of nanostructured block copolymer/nanoparticle composites may offer a simple way to greatly mitigate structural and orientational defects of such films under benign experimental conditions.
Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2010
... Acknowledgements. The authors thank Gad Marom, Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen, and Eran Rabani for i... more ... Acknowledgements. The authors thank Gad Marom, Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen, and Eran Rabani for insightful discussions. ... Rev. Mater. Sci., 2000, 30, 545 CrossRef CAS Search PubMed . 2, SJ Park, TA Taton and CA Mirkin, Science, 2002, 295, 651 CrossRef Search PubMed . ...