There is a growing demand for durable advanced wound dressings for the management of persistent infections after deep burn injuries. Herein, we demonstrated the preparation of durable antimicrobial nanofiber mats, by taking advantage of strong interfacial interactions between polyhydroxy antibiotics (with varying number of OH groups) and gelatin and their in-situ crosslinking with polydopamine (pDA) using ammonium carbonate diffusion method. Polydopamine crosslinking did not interfere with the antimicrobial efficacy of the loaded antibiotics. Interestingly, incorporation of antibiotics containing more number of alcoholic OH groups (NOH ≥ 5) delayed the release kinetics with complete retention of antimicrobial activity for an extended period of time (20 days). The antimicrobials-loaded mats displayed superior mechanical and thermal properties than gelatin or pDA-crosslinked gelatin mats. Mats containing polyhydroxy antifungals showed enhanced aqueous stability and retained nanofibrous morphology under aqueous environment for more than 4 weeks. This approach can be expanded to produce mats with broad spectrum antimicrobial properties by incorporating the combination of antibacterial and antifungal drugs. Direct electrospinning of vancomycin-loaded electrospun nanofibers onto a bandage gauze and subsequent crosslinking produced non-adherent durable advanced wound dressings that could be easily applied to the injured sites and readily detached after treatment. In a partial thickness burn injury model in piglets, the drug-loaded mats displayed comparable wound closure to commercially available silver-based dressings. This prototype wound dressing designed for easy handling and with long-lasting antimicrobial properties represents an effective option for treating life-threatening microbial infections due to thermal injuries.

Glancing angle deposition (GLAD) of AlN nanostructures was performed at room temperature by reactive magnetron sputtering in a mixed gas atmosphere of Ar and N₂. The growth behavior of nanostructures shows strong dependence on the total working pressure and angle of incoming flux. In GLAD configuration, the morphology changed from coalesced, vertical nanocolumns with faceted terminations to highly inclined, fan-like, layered nanostructures (up to 38°); while column lengths decreased from around 1743 to 1068 nm with decreasing pressure from 10 to 1.5 mTorr, respectively. This indicates a change in the dominant growth mechanism from ambient flux dependent deposition to directional ballistic shadowing deposition with decreasing working pressures, which is associated with the change of energy and incident angle of incoming reactive species. These results were corroborated using simulation of metal transport (SiMTra) simulations performed at similar working pressures using Ar and N separately, which showed the average particle energy and average angle of incidence decreased while the total average scattering angle of the metal flux arriving at substrate increased with increasing working pressures. Observing the crystalline orientation of GLAD deposited wurtzite AlN nanocolumns using X-ray diffraction (XRD), pole-figure measurements revealed c-axis growth towards the direction of incoming flux and a transition from fiber-like to biaxial texture took place with increasing working pressures. Under normal deposition conditions, AlN layer morphology changed from {0001} to {10$\overline{1}$1} with increasing working pressure because of kinetic energy-driven growth.

NiO thin films with varied oxygen contents are grown on Si(100) and c-Al2O3 at a substrate temperature of 300 °C using pulsed dc reactive magnetron sputtering. We characterize the structure and optical properties of NiO changes as functions of the oxygen content. NiO with the cubic structure, single phase, and predominant orientation along (111) is found on both substrates. X-ray diffraction and pole figure analysis further show that NiO on the Si(100) substrate exhibits fiber-textured growth, while twin domain epitaxy was achieved on c-Al2O3, with NiO(111)∥Al2O3(0001) and NiO[11¯0]∥Al2O3[101¯0] or NiO[1¯10]∥Al2O3[21¯1¯0] epitaxial relationship. The oxygen content in NiO films did not have a significant effect on the refractive index, extinction coefficient, and absorption coefficient. This suggests that the optical properties of NiO films remained unaffected by changes in the oxygen content.

Electronic grade ZnGa₂O₄ epitaxial thin films were grown on c-plane sapphire substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition and investigated using spectroscopic ellipsometry. Their thickness, roughness and optical properties were determined using a Multiple Sample Analysis based approach by the regression analysis of optical model and measured data. These samples were then compared to samples which had undergone ion etching, and it was observed that etching time up to four minutes had no discernible impact on its optical properties. Line shape analysis of resulting absorption coefficient dispersion revealed that ZnGa₂O₄exhibited both direct and indirect interband transitions. The modified Cody formalism was employed to determine their optical bandgaps. These values were found to be in good agreement with values obtained using other popular bandgap extrapolation procedures.

The demand for highly sensitive and selective gas sensors has been steadily increasing, driven by applications in various fields such as environmental monitoring, healthcare, and industrial safety. In this context, ternary alloy indium aluminum nitride (InAlN) semiconductors have emerged as a promising material for gas sensing due to their unique properties and tunable material characteristics. This work focuses on the fabrication and characterization of InAlN nanorods grown on sapphire substrates using an ultra-high vacuum magnetron sputter epitaxy with precise control over indium composition and explores their potential for acetone-gas-sensing applications. Various characterization techniques, including XRD, SEM, and TEM, demonstrate the structural and morphological insights of InAlN nanorods, making them suitable for gas-sensing applications. To evaluate the gas-sensing performance of the InAlN nanorods, acetone was chosen as a target analyte due to its relevance in medical diagnostics and industrial processes. The results reveal that the InAlN nanorods exhibit a remarkable sensor response of 2.33% at 600 ppm acetone gas concentration at an operating temperature of 350 °C, with a rapid response time of 18 s. Their high sensor response and rapid response make InAlN a viable candidate for use in medical diagnostics, industrial safety, and environmental monitoring.