Małgorzata Czerniak-Reczulska

The presented work shows the results of the functionalization of the graphene surface obtained by the growth on the liquid bimetallic matrices method. We used glutathione (GSH) as a peptide model, which allowed us to optimize the procedure to obtain high process efficiency. To establish the amount of GSH attached to the graphene surface, the Folina-Ciocalteu method was used, which allows the assessment of the concentration of colored reaction products with peptide bonds without the disadvantages of most methods based on direct colored reaction of peptide bonds. Samples surface morphology, quality of graphene and chemical structure in the subsequent stages of surface modification were tested—for this purpose Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used.

Titanium and its alloys are characterized by high mechanical strength, good corrosion resistance, high biocompatibility and relatively low Young’s modulus. For many years, one of the most commonly used and described titanium alloys has been Ti-6Al-4V. The great interest in this two-phase titanium alloy is due to the broad possibilities of shaping its mechanical and physico-chemical properties using modern surface engineering techniques. The high coefficient of friction and tendency to galling are the most important drawbacks limiting the application of this material in many areas. In this regard, such methods as carburizing, nitriding, oxidation, and the synthesis of thin films using physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods may significantly improve the tribological properties of titanium alloys. The influence of thermo-chemical treatment (oxidation, carburizing and nitriding) on tribological properties and corrosion resistance of Ti-6Al-4V alloy is presented in this paper. The results include metallographic studies, analysis of tribological and mechanical properties and corrosion resistance as well. They indicate significant improvements in mechanical properties manifested by a twofold increase in hardness and improved corrosion resistance for the oxidation process. The carburizing was most important for reducing the coefficient of friction and wear rate. The nitriding process had the least effect on the properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy.

Graphene is a two-dimensional material with honeycomb structure. Its unique mechanical, physical electrical and optical properties makes it an important industrially and economically material in the coming years. One of the application areas for graphene is the photovoltaic industry. Studies have shown that doped graphene can change one absorbed photon of a few electrons, which in practice means an increase in efficiency of solar panels. In addition, graphene has a low coefficient of light absorption 2.3% which indicates that is an almost completely transparent material. In fact, it means that solar cells based on graphene can significantly expand the absorbed spectrum wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. Graphene additionally is a material with a very high tensile strength so it can be successfully used on the silicon, flexible and organic substrates as well. So far, significant effort has been devoted to using graphene for improving the overall performance of photovoltaic devices. It has been reported that graphene can play diverse, but positive roles such as an electrode, an active layer, an interfacial layer and an electron acceptor in photovoltaic cells. Research on solar cells containing in its structure graphene however, are still at laboratory scale. This is due to both lack the ability to produce large-sized graphene and reproducibility of its parameters