M. Warburton, J.M. Ablett, J.-P. Rueff, P. Baroni, L. Paolasini, L. Noirez We examine the influence at room temperature of the deposit of a water layer on the phonon dynamics of a solid. It is shown that the water wetting at the surface of an Alumina monocrystal has deep effects on acoustic phonons, propagating over several hundred µm distance and taking place on a relatively long time scale.

ESRF Highlights 2007 The synthesis of ordered, homogeneous porous grains is an expanding area of materials research. One strategy for their formation is to dry the spray of a complex mixture containing nanoparticles and templating agents [1]. In this process, a continuous flow of micrometric droplets, made from the initial dilute solution, is dried along a hot tube in order to evaporate the solvent. Self-organisation of the constituents takes place during the evaporation.

ESRF Highlights 2007 The study of aqueous salt solutions continues to attract various research groups because of their fundamental importance in various physicochemical, biological and atmospheric processes. The air/water interface plays a crucial role in such processes and differs to a large extent when compared to bulk.