Cu-based nanomaterials have received considerable attention as promising and cost-effective substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications despite their relatively low enhancement factor (EF) compared to noble metals like gold and silver. In this study, a fast and affordable synthesis route is proposed to obtain a three-dimensional porous copper film (NPC) via an electrodeposition technique based on the dynamic hydrogen bubbling template (DHBT). Two sets of NPC film were synthesized, one without additives and the other with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The impacts of deposition time on the NPCs’ porous morphology, thickness, and SERS performance were systematically investigated. With the optimal deposition time, the nanopore sizes could be tailored from 26.8 to 73 μm without additives and from 12.8 to 24 µm in the presence of CTAB. The optimal additive-free NPC film demonstrated excellent SERS performance at 180 s of deposition, while the CTAB-modified film showed strong enhancement at 120 s towards methylene blue (MB), a highly toxic dye, achieving a detection limit of 10⁻⁶ M. Additionally, the samples with CTAB showed better efficiency than those without CTAB. The calculated EF of NPC was found to be 5.9 × 10³ without CTAB and 2.5 × 10³ with the CTAB, indicating the potential of NPC as a cost-effective candidate for high-performance SERS substrates. This comprehensive study provides insights into optimizing the structural morphology of the NPCs to maximize their SERS enhancement factor and improve their detection sensitivity toward MB, thus overcoming the limitations associated with conventional copper-based SERS substrates.

The improvement of the mucosal sealing around the implant represents a challenge, one that prompted research into novel materials. To this purpose, a printable poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)-based composite loaded with alumina-toughened zirconia (ATZ) at increasing rates of 10, 20, and 40 wt.% was prepared, using a solvent casting method with chloroform. Disks were produced by 3D printing; surface roughness, free energy and optical contact angle were measured. Oral fibroblasts (PF) and epithelial cell (SG) tests were utilized to determine the biocompatibility of the materials through cell viability assay and adhesion and spreading evaluations. The highest level of ATZ resulted in an increase in the average roughness (S_a), while the maximum height (S_z) was higher for all composites than that of the unmixed PCL, regardless of their ATZ content. Surface free energy was significantly lower on PCL/ATZ 80/20 and PCL/ATZ 60/40, compared to PCL and PCL/ATZ 90/10. The contact angle was inversely related to the quantity of ATZ in the material. PF grew without variations among the different specimens at 1 and 3 days. After 7 days, PF grew significantly less on PCL/ATZ 60/40 and PCL/ATZ 80/20 compared to unmixed PCL and PCL 90/10. Conversely, ATZ affected and improved the growth of SG. By increasing the filler amount, PF cell adhesion and spreading augmented, while PCL/ATZ 80/20 was the best for SG adhesion. Overall, PCL/ATZ 80/20 emerged as the best composite for both cell types; hence, it is a promising candidate for the manufacture of custom made transmucosal dental implant components.

Silicon nanowires (NWs) with a cylindrical form are fabricated by means of nanosphere lithography and metal-assisted chemical etching to obtain high aspect ratio nanostructures (diameter of about 100 nm and length of more than 15 µm) on an approximately 1 cm² area. The nanodimensional characterization of individual NWs is performed by using several techniques, because dimensions at the nanoscale strictly relate to functional performance. In this study, we report the results of an interlaboratory comparison between measurements from a metrological atomic force microscope (AFM) and research AFMs located in different national metrology institutes (NMIs) across Europe and in a university. The purpose of this study is to characterize two measurands: (i) sidewall roughness ( R a , R q , R z , R sk , R ku parameters) extracted from the top profile measured along the nanowire length, and (ii) diameter of the nanowires measured as top-height. To this goal, the nanowires are spread horizontally on a silicon substrate, which has several areas labelled with a pattern of crosses and letters facilitating the measurement of the same NW, in order to study the reproducibility due to different instruments. Measurements show a good agreement between the different NMIs, with a combined standard uncertainty of top-height diameter less than 3%, and with a combined standard uncertainty of roughness parameters well within 5% for R a and R q values.

Surface metrology deals with inspecting surfaces and profiles by using contact or non-contact profilometers. In this field, the characterization of the dimensional, morphological, and texture parameters of samples as well as the assessment of metrological characteristics of measuring instruments are key issues. Manufacturers of instruments provide commercial software tools to analyze topography data. There are also freely available tools, including open-source options, that provide a variety of algorithms and methods. The rapid growth of investigations aimed at better understanding the effects of the microscale phenomena requires the improved traceable calibration of samples, the development of new methodologies and measuring techniques, and the specification of new mathematical models and processing techniques. In this work, we present SurfILE, the launch of an open-source Python project that provides various procedures and algorithms for topography analysis. The open-source software presented in this article is intended to be modular, expandable, and customizable.

Optical topography measurements are of high interest in a lot of industrial and academic fields. One of the most common associated measurement methods is coherence scanning interferometry, but even though it provides sub-nanometer axial resolution, its lateral resolution is diffraction limited. Not only the feature size is a limiting factor for optical measurements, but also steep surface slopes may lead to problems, since the acceptance angle of the objective lens limits the maximum surface slope angles that can be measured. Here we use a Linnik-type interferometer with objective lenses of numerical apertures of 0.95 in order to maximize the measurable surface slope angle. We demonstrate that silicon V-groove structures with a slope angle of 54.74° can be measured. We compare the directly measured surface slope angle with an angle calculated from light that is reflected two times by the V-grooves. To verify our measurement we compare the measurement results to rigorous FEM simulations.