Investigation of novel Cr6+-free anodising pre-treatments for enhanced corrosion protection of aluminium alloy 2024-T3

Hexavalent chromium has been the industry standard for corrosion protection for many years. Its unsurpassed active corrosion inhibiting capabilities, its incredible versatility and its economic benefits made it a popular all-rounder. Nowadays the widely known toxic and carcinogenic nature have restricted its use within the European Union. More...

On the mimicking of geckos and tree frogs for adhering to soft substrates

<b>Background</b>: Soft-tissue grip is a challenge in minimally invasive surgery. Grasping instruments used in clinical practice require high pinch forces in order to generate sufficient grip for manipulating soft tissue without slipping.<br/>In nature, several animals employ adhesion in order to grip on, not only hard, but also soft substrates....

Microstructure-Corrosion Property Correlation: Elucidating the influence of microstructure on the active corrosion behavior of Pure Iron

Microstructure-corrosion property correlation is an open question in the field of materials science. The microstructure of metals and alloys consists of several features with different individual corrosion response. The corrosion behavior of the macroscopic system is an outcome of the complex interaction of the components of microstructure....

Rubidium fluoride post deposition treatment of CIGS for perovskite-CIGS tandem applications

During the last years, large improvements in the efficiency on the CIGS technology have been achieved, making them excellent candidates as bottom cells for double junction tandem devices. This improvement is a result of the implementation of post deposition treatments (PDT) using alkali-metal fluorides. These alkalies prove to enhance the...

Studies towards the development of a device for the Raman characterisation of the Sars-CoV-2 antibody

Human Civilization is no stranger to infectious diseases, throughout the abundance of time infectious diseases, famine and wars have been a major threat to human existence and progress. These disease are caused by micrometer to nanometer sized microorganisms like bacteria, pathogens, and viruses. They are of various types, with each having its...

Design of the future bird repelling laser aiming device: A 2DOF laser aiming solution

In this MSc thesis report, the process of developing a laser aiming solution for the purpose of bird repelling will be described. This process consists roughly of five phases: Setting up requirements, generating concepts, picking and developing a single concept, building and finally testing this concept.<br/><br/>The current laser aiming...

Generation of quantum emitters in hBN via strain engineering for biosensing applications

This master thesis explores strain-induced quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as novel optical nanoprobes for Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based biosensors. These types of emitters could outperform conventionally used fluorophores due to their high brightness, stability in harsh environments, biocompatibility and ease...