Pana (Nita) Cristina

@inflpr.ro

CENTER FOR ADVANCED LASER TECHNOLOGIES
National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Materials Science
16

Scopus Publications

Scopus Publications

  • Systemic Sclerosis-Associated ILD: Insights and Limitations of ScleroID
    Cristina Niță, Laura Groșeanu
    Diagnostics, 2026
    Background/Objective: Pulmonary involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc) is typically assessed using pulmonary function tests (PFTs), high-resolution CT (HRCT), and composite indices. Patient-reported outcomes (PRO), including ScleroID, provide insight into quality of life, but their relationship with clinical measures and role in overall disease assessment remain unclear. To assess the correlation between ScleroID scores and both lung involvement and disease activity/damage in a cohort of SSc-ILD patients from a large tertiary care center. Methods: Disease activity [European Scleroderma Study Group Activity Index (EScSG-AI), Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium Activity Index (SCTC-AI)], disease severity [Medsger severity scale (MSS)], and PRO measure ScleroID were assessed for associations with the extent and severity of SSc-ILD. Results: In 82 patients with SSc-ILD (mean age 56.0 ± 10.8 years; median disease duration 4.2 ± 4.7 years), higher fibrosis extent (>20%) was associated with worse lung function, greater exercise limitation, and higher ScleroID scores, particularly in fatigue, social life, and body mobility domains (all p ≤ 0.03). Patients with >20% fibrosis also had worse NYHA class and Borg scores during 6-MWD (p < 0.001). Cross-sectional correlations showed that ScleroID total and individual domains were negatively associated with FVC% and 6-MWD, and positively with ILD extent on HRCT. Fatigue, social impact, and mobility domains correlated most strongly with disease activity and severity scores, especially in patients with > 20% fibrosis (r = 0.384–0.635, all p ≤ 0.016), whereas breathlessness showed minimal associations (r < 0.2). Conclusions: In SSc-ILD, greater lung fibrosis and functional impairment are associated with worse patient-reported quality of life, particularly in fatigue, mobility, and social domains. ScleroID scores reflect both physiological severity and disease burden highlighting its value as a multidimensional outcome measure in patients with more advanced disease.
  • Laser-assisted synthesis of carbon coatings with cobalt oxide nanoparticles embedded in gradient of composition and sizes
    Mihai Sopronyi, Cristina Nita, Jean-Marc Le Meins, Loïc Vidal, Florin Jipa, Emanuel Axente, Camélia Matei Ghimbeu, Felix Sima
    Surface and Coatings Technology, 2021
  • Hard carbon derived from coconut shells, walnut shells, and corn silk biomass waste exhibiting high capacity for Na-ion batteries
    Cristina Nita, Biao Zhang, Joseph Dentzer, Camélia Matei Ghimbeu
    Journal of Energy Chemistry, 2021
  • Link between alkali metals in salt templates and in electrolytes for improved carbon-based electrochemical capacitors
    Anetta Platek-Mielczarek, Cristina Nita, Camélia Matei Ghimbeu, Elzbieta Frackowiak, Krzysztof Fic
    ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2021
    Various alkali metal (Li+, Na+, K+, Rb+, and Cs+) chlorides with Pluronic F127 were used as a soft-salt template for tuning the textural and structural properties of carbon. Highly conductive metal hydroxide solutions, where the cations are the same as those in the salt template, have been used as electrolytes. By increasing the size of the cation in the template, the textural properties of carbon, such as the specific surface area, micropore volume, and pore size, were remarkably enhanced. It directly translates to an increase in the specific capacitance of the electrode material. For a constant current charge/discharge at 0.1 A g–1, the electrode composed of LiCl-T and operating with 1 mol L–1 LiOH demonstrates the capacitance of 124 F g–1, whereas CsCl-T with the same electrolyte has a capacitance of 216 F g–1. Moreover, the materials show the highest capacitance retention (up to 75%) vs. the current regime applied when the cation used during synthesis matches the cation present in the electrolyte (i.e., LiCl-T with LiOH). Interestingly, capacitance normalized by specific surface area has been found to be the highest when LiOH solution is applied as an electrolyte. Thus, for this metric, the size of ions seems to be a crucial parameter. The importance of mesoporosity is highlighted as well by using materials with a similar fraction of micropores and with or without mesopores. Briefly, the presence of mesopore fraction proved to be essential for improved capacity retention (69% vs. 30%). Besides textural properties, the graphitization degree impacts the electrochemical performance as well. It increases among the samples, in accordance with cation-π binding energy, e.g., LiCl-T is the most “graphitic-like” material and CsCl-T is the most disordered. Thus, the more graphitic-like materials demonstrate higher rate capability and cycle stability.
  • Electrochemical capacitors operating in aqueous electrolyte with volumetric characteristics improved by sustainable templating of electrode materials
    Anetta Platek, Cristina Nita, Camélia Matei Ghimbeu, Elżbieta Frąckowiak, Krzysztof Fic
    Electrochimica Acta, 2020
    Soft- and salt-templating methods have been combined to obtain highly microporous carbon materials with mesopores in the narrow pore size range. Phenolic resin was used as a carbon source, and rubidium and caesium chloride were used as salt-templates, giving a well-developed microporosity with a high specific surface area, whereas a sacrificial triblock polymer Pluronic F-127 (soft-template) induced the mesopores of essential importance for fast access of the electrode surface area for the electrolytic solution. The combination of a high specific surface area (up to 2556 m2 g−1) with a suitable pore size (0.77–0.88 nm) resulted in an excellent performance of the electrochemical capacitor. High specific energies of 16.7 Wh∙kg−1 at 300 W kg−1 of specific power have been achieved for a CsCl-T-based high-voltage (1.5 V) device with a 0.5 mol⋅L−1 Li2SO4 electrolytic solution. The improved rate handling was allowed to maintain 10 Wh⋅kg−1 of specific energy at 4 kW kg−1 of specific power. In contrast to the other carbons with well-developed porosities, the material density obtained allowed our device to reach competitive, remarkably higher volumetric characteristics.
  • Influence of carbon characteristics on Sb/carbon nanocomposites formation and performances in Na-ion batteries
    Cristina Nita, Julien Fullenwarth, Laure Monconduit, Loïc Vidal, Camélia Matei Ghimbeu
    Materials Today Energy, 2019
  • Eco-friendly synthesis of SiO2 nanoparticles confined in hard carbon: A promising material with unexpected mechanism for Li-ion batteries
    Cristina Nita, Julien Fullenwarth, Laure Monconduit, Jean-Marc Le Meins, Philippe Fioux, Julien Parmentier, Camélia Matei Ghimbeu
    Carbon, 2019
  • Understanding the Sn Loading Impact on the Performance of Mesoporous Carbon/Sn-Based Nanocomposites in Li-Ion Batteries
    Cristina Nita, Julien Fullenwarth, Laure Monconduit, Jean‐Marc Le Meins, Julien Parmentier, Moulay Tahar Sougrati, Camélia Matei Ghimbeu
    Chemelectrochem, 2018
    Herein, we report a systematic study to understand the influence of the amount of tin metal precursor salt on the formation of carbon/tin hybrid materials and their performances as anodes in Li‐ion batteries. Small Sn metallic particles (ca. 5 nm) covered by a SnO2 layer were uniformly dispersed in a mesoporous carbon for a low loading of tin; whereas, for higher Sn loadings, the formation of Sn‐based particles aggregates (ca. 200 nm) is promoted as well. By increasing the Sn loading from 20 to 80 %, the irreversible capacity was successfully reduced and the reversible capacity improved. This could be related to the decrease of the C/Sn hybrids specific surface area and the increase of the Sn active species. For long‐term cycling, capacity fading was observed, particularly for high Sn loadings assigned to the Sn nanoparticles placed outside the carbon network, which upon lithiation witness large volume expansion, leading to severe particle growth and agglomeration. Therefore, similar reversible capacities at long cycling are reached, no matter the Sn loading. For optimal electrochemical performances, it appears that a balance between the amount of Sn and uniform small Sn‐based particles dispersion within carbon matrix must be assured to design high‐performance anodes for Li‐ion batteries.
  • Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation: A novel approach to design mesoporous carbon films
    Emanuel Axente, Mihai Sopronyi, Camélia Matei Ghimbeu, Cristina Nita, Aissam Airoudj, Gautier Schrodj, Felix Sima
    Carbon, 2017
  • Antimicrobial polycaprolactone/polyethylene glycol embedded lysozyme coatings of Ti implants for osteoblast functional properties in tissue engineering
    A. Visan, R. Cristescu, N. Stefan, M. Miroiu, C. Nita, M. Socol, C. Florica, O. Rasoga, I. Zgura, L.E. Sima, M. Chiritoiu, M.C. Chifiriuc, A.M. Holban, I.N. Mihailescu, G. Socol
    Applied Surface Science, 2017
  • Synthesis of sulfur-doped porous carbons by soft and hard templating processes for CO2 and H2 adsorption
    Alicia Martínez de Yuso, Maurizio De Fina, Cristina Nita, Philippe Fioux, Julien Parmentier, Camelia Matei Ghimbeu
    Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2017
  • Structure-property relationships for Eu doped TiO2 thin films grown by a laser assisted technique from colloidal sols
    I. Camps, M. Borlaf, M. T. Colomer, R. Moreno, L. Duta, C. Nita, A. Perez del Pino, C. Logofatu, R. Serna, E. György
    Rsc Advances, 2017
  • Insights on the synthesis mechanism of green phenolic resin derived porous carbons via a salt-soft templating approach
    Cristina Nita, Mahmoud Bensafia, Cyril Vaulot, Luc Delmotte, Camelia Matei Ghimbeu
    Carbon, 2016
  • Composite biodegradable biopolymer coatings of silk fibroin - Poly(3-hydroxybutyric-acid-co-3-hydroxyvaleric-acid) for biomedical applications
    Floralice Marimona Miroiu, Nicolaie Stefan, Anita Ioana Visan, Cristina Nita, Catalin Romeo Luculescu, Oana Rasoga, Marcela Socol, Irina Zgura, Rodica Cristescu, Doina Craciun, Gabriel Socol
    Applied Surface Science, 2015
  • The role of ambient gas and pressure on the structuring of hard diamond-like carbon films synthesized by pulsed laser deposition
    Andrei Popescu, George Stan, Liviu Duta, Cristina Nita, Camelia Popescu, Vasile-Adrian Surdu, Marius-Adrian Husanu, Bogdan Bita, Rudy Ghisleni, Cameliu Himcinschi, Valentin Craciun
    Materials, 2015
  • Functionalized magnetite silica thin films fabricated by MAPLE with antibiofilm properties
    D E Mihaiescu, R Cristescu, G Dorcioman, C E Popescu, C Nita, G Socol, I N Mihailescu, A M Grumezescu, D Tamas, M Enculescu, R F Negrea, C Ghica, C Chifiriuc, C Bleotu, D B Chrisey
    Biofabrication, 2013