Freeze–Thaw-Promoted Fabrication of Clean and Hierarchically Structured Noble-Metal Aerogels for Electrocatalysis and Photoelectrocatalysis

Noble-metal aerogels (NMAs) have drawn increasing attention because of their self-supported conductive networks, high surface areas, and numerous optically/catalytically active sites, enabling their impressive performance in diverse fields. However, the fabrication methods suffer from tedious procedures, long preparation times, unavoidable impurities, and uncontrolled multiscale structures, discouraging their developments. By utilizing the self-healing properties of noble-metal aggregates, the freezing-promoted salting-out behavior, and the ice-templating effect, a freeze–thaw method is crafted that is capable of preparing various hierarchically structured noble-metal gels within one day without extra additives. In light of their cleanliness, the multi-scale structures, and combined catalytic/optical properties, the electrocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic performance of NMAs are demonstrated, which surpasses that of commercial noble-metal catalysts.     

Organic–inorganic bonding in chitosan–silica hybrid networks: Physical properties

Novel biomaterials are needed for bone tissue repair with improved mechanical performance compared to classical bioceramics. The objective of this work was to characterize a hybrid filler material, which is capable to coat as a thin film porous scaffolds improving their mechanical properties for bone tissue engineering. The hybrid filler material is a blend of chitosan and silica network formed through in situ sol–gel using tetraethylortosilicate and 3‐glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) as silica precursors. The hypothesis was that the epoxy ring of GPTMS could react with the amino groups of chitosan in acidic media while it is also reacting the siloxane groups of hydrolyzed silica precursors. The formation of the hybrid organic–inorganic network was assessed by different physical techniques revealing changes in molecular mobility and hydrophilicity upon chemical reaction. Finally, the cytotoxicity of the samples was also evaluated by MTT assay. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1391–1400     

Preparation of a novel bentonite intercalation composite by changing the chemical state of aluminum

A new environment-friendly bentonite intercalation composite was successfully obtained from alumina sol intercalation. This process used industrial grade pseudo boehmite as the aluminum source and provided with the advantage of zero emission of acidic wastewater. The bentonite intercalation composite was investigated by XRF, ICP, XRD, FT-IR, BET, and pyridine-FTIR. Results indicated that the basal spacing was enlarged from 14.72 to 15.60 Å; the specific surface area increased by 128%; and the total acid content increased from 65.32 to 245.76 μmol/g. The catalytic activity of this composite was tested by alkylation of aromatics with olefins. The results show that the weak Lewis acid generated by extra-framework aluminum and specific surface area play a decisive role, while weak Brønsted acid site is not the active site for this alkylation reaction.     

Compaction of nanosilicon pellets and sol-deposited films via high-vacuum annealing

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Facile synthesis methodology and characterization studies of silica-decorated hybridized anisotropic nanotubes and nanosheets

Carbonaceous nanomaterials and their derivatives have been inspired tremendous enthusiasm in the scientific community. They have been excogitated as the encouraging attributes and the qualified dispersed phase to develop multi-functional composites. Particularly, graphene and carbon nanotube (anisotropic fillers) have gained substantial research interest owing to their promising characteristics. This highlights an innovative technique to synthesize hybridized nanotube and nanosheet. Initially, parent materials have been synthesized: The pristine CNT has been modified by acid mixture solution, and reduced graphene oxide has been prepared by chemical reduction method. Henceforth, the self-assembly in situ sol–gel technique has been endorsed here. The synthesized nanohybrids have been characterized by different spectroscopic techniques: FTIR, Raman, UV, and XPS to confirm the attachment of multifunctionalities; meanwhile, the composition and stability have been investigated from XRD and TGA plots. The magnitude of surface charge and particle size distribution have been evaluated for the parent and hybridized products; further, morphology of all the samples has been authenticated from FESEM and TEM.     

纳米二氧化钛-氧化锌/硅溶胶/导电胶复合材料固定联吡啶钌制备磷酸可待因电化学发光传感器

利用硅溶胶的成膜性、纳米二氧化钛-氧化锌大的比表面积及导电胶的粘结性,制备了纳米二氧化钛-氧化锌/硅溶胶/导电胶复合材料,基于此复合材料将联吡啶钌固定到金电极表面,制备了磷酸可待因电化学发光(ECL)传感器.在优化的实验条件(800 V负高压、扫描速度100 mV/s,磷酸盐缓冲体系(pH 6.5))下,可待因浓度在1.0×10-7～1.0×10-4 mol/L范围内与电化学发光强度呈良好的线性关系(r2=0.9973),检出限为2.56×10-8 mol/L (S/N=3).传感器表现出良好的重现性与稳定性,连续平行测定1.28×10-5 mol/L可待因溶液10次,发光强度的相对标准偏差(RSD)为2.7％;室温下保存10天后,发光强度为初始值的92％以上.测定可待因药物实际样品的加标回收率在99.3％ ～ 102.5％之间.     

Sol Processing of Conjugated Carbon Nitride Powders for Thin‐Film Fabrication

The chemical protonation of graphitic carbon nitride (CN) solids with strong oxidizing acids, for example HNO₃, is demonstrated as an efficient pathway for the sol processing of a stable CN colloidal suspension, which can be translated into thin films by dip/disperse‐coating techniques. The unique features of CN colloids, such as the polymeric matrix and the reversible hydrogen bonding, result in the thin‐film electrodes derived from the sol solution exhibiting a high mechanical stability with improved conductivity for charge transport, and thus show a remarkably enhanced photo‐electrochemical performance. The polymer system can in principle be broadly tuned by hybridization with desired functionalities, thus paving the way for the application of CN for specific tasks, as exemplified here by coupling with carbon nanotubes.     

等离子体金属纳米结构在SERS传感及可穿戴应力传感中的应用

等离子体金属(金、银)纳米结构因其特有的理化性能,被广泛应用于表面增强拉曼散射(Surface-enhanced Raman scattering,SERS)传感及可穿戴应力传感领域。其中,SERS是一种应用贵金属纳米材料增强拉曼散射信号的检测技术,该技术灵敏度高、特异性强,已被广泛用于生物医学、环境监测、食品药品检测等领域。随着电子检测技术和柔性电子材料的快速发展,柔性可穿戴传感技术也得到了快速发展,且取得了大量的研究成果。SERS检测技术主要依赖于贵金属纳米增强基底材料,而基于贵金属纳米结构的可穿戴传感元件对人体微应力、微应变的传感具有极高的灵敏度。SERS增强基底材料与可穿戴应力传感元件材料具有互通互用性,将贵金属纳米SERS基底应用于柔性可穿戴式检测,这是SERS检测技术比较新颖的、尚未深入研究的应用领域之一。该文综述了贵金属溶胶纳米结构的材料组成分类以及该类材料在SERS和可穿戴应力传感中的应用,并分析了胶体贵金属纳米结构组成及成分对SERS传感、可穿戴应力传感灵敏度、可重复性及稳定性的影响,最后展望了贵金属胶体纳米结构在SERS传感和柔性可穿戴应用中的发展趋势。     

Fe3O4/polyethylene glycol nanocomposite as a solid‐phase microextraction fiber coating for the determination of some volatile organic compounds in water

A high‐performance metal oxide polymer magnetite/polyethylene glycol nanocomposite was prepared and coated in situ on the surface of the optical fiber by sol–gel technology. The magnetite nanoparticles as nanofillers were synthesized by a coprecipitation method and bonded with polyethylene glycol as a polymer. The chemically bonded coating was evaluated for the headspace solid–phase microextraction of some environmentally important volatile organic compounds from aqueous samples in combination with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The prepared fiber was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The mass ratio of nanofiller and polymer on the coating extraction efficiency, morphology, and stability were investigated. The parameters affecting the extraction efficiency, including the extraction time and temperature, the ionic strength, desorption temperature, and time were optimized. The sol–gelized fiber showed excellent chemical stability and longer lifespan. It also exhibited high extraction efficiency compared to the two types of commercial fibers. For volatile organic compounds analysis, the new fiber showed low detection limits (0.008–0.063 ng/L) and wide linearity (0.001–450 × 10⁴ ng/L) under the optimized conditions. The repeatability (interday and intraday) and reproducibility were 4.13–10.08 and 5.98–11.61%, and 7.35–14.79%, respectively (n = 5). For real sample analysis, three types of water samples (ground, surface, and tap water) were studied.