Joel Nuno Pinto Borges

Bio: Joel Nuno Pinto Borges is an academic researcher from University of Minho. The author has contributed to research in topics: Thin film & Sputter deposition. The author has an hindex of 16, co-authored 61 publications receiving 718 citations. Previous affiliations of Joel Nuno Pinto Borges include Czech Technical University in Prague & University of Coimbra.

Nanoplasmonic response of porous Au-TiO2 thin films prepared by oblique angle deposition

Abstract: This research was sponsored by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013; project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016902, with FCT reference PTDC/FIS-NAN/1154/2014; and project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032299, with FCT reference PTDC/FIS-MAC/32299/2017. This work was also developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, FCT Ref. UID/CTM/50011/2019, financed by national funds through the FCT/MCTES. Manuela Proenca acknowledges her PhD grant from FCT, with reference SFRH/BD/137076/2018. Joel Borges acknowledges FCT for his Post-Doc grant SFRH/BPD/117010/2016. Marco S Rodrigues acknowledges FCT for his PhD grant with reference SFRH/BD/118684/2016. Konstantin Romanyuk wish to thank the Portuguese FCT for the financial support (grant SFRH/BPD/88362/2012).

Nuclear instruments and methods in physics research section B : beam interactions with materials and atoms

Abstract: The impact-induced deposition of Al13 clusters with icosahedral structure on Ni(0 0 1) surface was studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation using Finnis–Sinclair potentials. The incident kinetic energy (Ein) ranged from 0.01 to 30 eV per atom. The structural and dynamical properties of Al clusters on Ni surfaces were found to be strongly dependent on the impact energy. At much lower energy, the Al cluster deposited on the surface as a bulk molecule. However, the original icosahedral structure was transformed to the fcc-like one due to the interaction and the structure mismatch between the Al cluster and Ni surface. With increasing the impinging energy, the cluster was deformed severely when it contacted the substrate, and then broken up due to dense collision cascade. The cluster atoms spread on the surface at last. When the impact energy was higher than 11 eV, the defects, such as Al substitutions and Ni ejections, were observed. The simulation indicated that there exists an optimum energy range, which is suitable for Al epitaxial growth in layer by layer. In addition, at higher impinging energy, the atomic exchange between Al and Ni atoms will be favourable to surface alloying.

Direct 12-Electron Oxidation of Ethanol on a Ternary Au(core)-PtIr(Shell) Electrocatalyst.

Abstract: Understanding the roles of metals and atomic structures in activating various elementary steps of electrocatalytic reactions can help rational design of binary or ternary catalysts for promoting activity toward desirable products via favorable pathways. Here we report on a newly developed ternary Au@PtIr core-shell catalyst for ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) in alkaline solutions, which exhibits an activity enhancement of 6 orders of magnitude compared to AuPtIr alloy catalysts. Analysis of in situ infrared reflection absorption spectra for Au@PtIr and its bimetallic subsets, Au@Pt and PtIr alloy, found that monatomic steps and Au-induced tensile strain on PtIr facilitate C-C bond splitting via ethanol dissociative adsorption and Ir promotes dehydrogenation at low potentials. As evidenced by the CO band being observed only for the PtIr alloy that is rather inactive for ethanol dissociative adsorption, we propose that splitting the C-C bond at the earliest stage of EOR activates a direct 12-electron full oxidation pathway because hydrogen-rich fragments can be fully oxidized without CO as a poisoning intermediate. The resulting synergy of complementary effects of Au core and surface Ir leads to an outstanding performance of Au@PtIr for EOR as characterized by a low onset potential of 0.3 V and 8.3 A mg-1all-metals peak current with 57% currents generated via full ethanol oxidation.