Resumen:

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is efficiently absorbed by the atmosphere of the Earth and its relevance and usefulness in materials processing has been often disregarded being this type of studies relegated to astrophysics and space science and exploration. In this seminar, two examples of processes triggered by UV irradiation will be presented. The first one relates with materials science and concerns the impact of UV irradiation in the diamondization of graphitic materials. The second one relates with biomaterials and the photo-processing of space ices. Amino acids and nucleobases thrive in space ices under the action of the pervasive UV radiation field in the Universe. The funding to develop unique instrumentation for the study of this process was obtained by Prof. Gómez de Castro last year from the ERC (ERC-Adv Grant ENIMUS), and the characteristics of these new instruments will also be outlined