Publications by Kislon Voitchovsky

Thermally-nucleated self-assembly of water and alcohol into stable structures at hydrophobic interfaces

Francesco Stellacci, Michele Ceriotti, Kislon Voitchovsky, Daniele Giofré

At the interface with solids, the mobility of liquid molecules tends to be reduced compared with bulk, often resulting in increased local order due to interactions with the surface of the solid. At room temperature, liquids such as water and methanol can f ...

Nature Publishing Group2016

Swelling Behavior and Nanomechanical Properties of (Peptide-Modified) Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) and Poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) Brushes

Harm-Anton Klok, Solenne Desseaux, Kislon Voitchovsky, Nicolas Bertrand Schüwer, Juan Pablo Hinestrosa Salazar

Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) and poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) (PPEGMA) brushes represent a class of thin, surface-tethered polymer films that have been extensively used e.g. to generate non-biofouling surfaces or as model systems t ...

American Chemical Society2016

In-situ mapping of the molecular arrangement of amphiphilic dye molecules at the TiO2 surface of dye sensitized solar cells

Michael Graetzel, Ursula Röthlisberger, Francesco Stellacci, Ivano Tavernelli, Nicolas Tétreault, Negar Ashari Astani, Kislon Voitchovsky, Hauke Arne Harms

Amphiphilic sensitizers are central to the function of dye-sensitized solar cells. It is known that the cells performance depends on the molecular arrangement and the density of the dye on the semiconductor surface, but a molecular-level picture of the cel ...

2015

Growth and dissolution of calcite in the presence of adsorbed stearic acid

Francesco Stellacci, Georg Fantner, Kislon Voitchovsky, Blake William Erickson, Maria Ricci, Juan José Segura Sugranes

The interaction of organic molecules with the surface of calcite plays a central role in many geochemical, petrochemical and industrial processes and in biomineralization. Adsorbed organics, typically fatty acids, can interfere with the evolution of calcit ...

American Chemical Society2015

Lipid tail protrusions mediate the insertion of nanoparticles into model cell membranes

Francesco Stellacci, Kislon Voitchovsky, Maria Ricci, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Javier Reguera Gomez

Recent work has demonstrated that charged gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) protected by an amphiphilic organic monolayer can spontaneously insert into the core of lipid bilayers to minimize the exposure of hydrophobic surface area to water. However, the kinetic ...

Nature Publishing Group2014

Trace concentration - Huge impact: Nitrate in the calcite/Eu(III) system

Kislon Voitchovsky, Moritz Schmidt

The interactions of trivalent lanthanides and actinides with secondary mineral phases such as calcite is of high importance for the safety assessment of deep geological repositories for high level nuclear waste (HLW). Due to similar ionic radii, calcium-be ...

Elsevier2014

Water-induced correlation between single ions imaged at the solid-liquid interface

Kislon Voitchovsky, Peter Spijker, Maria Ricci

When immersed into water, most solids develop a surface charge, which is neutralized by an accumulation of dissolved counterions at the interface. Although the density distribution of counterions perpendicular to the interface obeys well-established theori ...

Nature Publishing Group2014

Identifying champion nanostructures for solar water-splitting

Michael Graetzel, Maurin Cornuz, Francesco Stellacci, Cécile Hébert, Kislon Voitchovsky, Scott Charles Warren

Charge transport in nanoparticle-based materials underlies many emerging energy-conversion technologies, yet assessing the impact of nanometre-scale structure on charge transport across micrometre-scale distances remains a challenge. Here we develop an app ...

Nature Publishing Group2013

In-situ Investigation of Adsorption of Dye and Coadsorbates on TiO2 Films Using QCM-D, Fluorescence and AFM Techniques

Michael Graetzel, Francesco Stellacci, Nicolas Tétreault, Kislon Voitchovsky, Hauke Arne Harms

Simultaneous adsorption of dye molecules and coadsorbates is important for the fabrication of high-efficiency dyesensitized solar cells, but its mechanism is not well understood. Herein, we use a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation technique (QCM- ...

Spie-Int Soc Optical Engineering2013

Electrical Method to Quantify Nanoparticle Interaction with Lipid Bilayers

Francesco Stellacci, Kislon Voitchovsky, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Randy Patrick Carney, Tamara Michael Carney

Understanding as well as rapidly screening the interaction of nanoparticles with cell membranes is of central importance for biological applications such as drug and gene delivery. Recently, we have shown that "striped" mixed-monolayer-coated gold nanopart ...

American Chemical Society2013