Charge transfer and microbiological interactions of hybrid metal oxide nanostructures

The basic material research of novel hybrid organic-inorganic metal oxide thin films and nanoparticles as well as their function in microbiological environment. The project is based on a close collaboration of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, and the National Pintung University, Taiwan. The hybrid metal-oxide materials (such as ZnO nanoparticles coated by polymers) prepared by plasma technology as well as the hydrothermal growth, will be characterized by a range of spectroscopic and microscopic methods (EPR, AFM, SEM, SNOM, FTIR, PDS). Interaction of the materials with biological media and selected microorganisms will be investigated to characterize their effects of microbiological cultures and vice versa. The experimental data will be complemented by theoretical modeling of the charge transfer in hybrid nanostructures as well as the computational study of molecular adsorption and chemisorption by density functional theory (DFT).