Effect of Drying Methods on the Structure and Combustion Activity of Mn—Substituted Hexaaluminate Catalysts

Conventional oven drying (COD) and supercritical drying (SCD) methods were applied to the preparation of Mn-substituted hexaaluminate (BaMnA111O19-α) catalysts. The effect of drying methods on phase composition, specific surface area, pore structure, reduction behavior of Mn^3 ions, and combus-tion activity of the samples was investigated. The homogenous mixing of the components in the sol-gel process could be maintained by SCD, and the hexaaluminate phase was almost the only phase of the resulting materials after calcination. H2-TPR revealed that the Mn^3 ions in the sample obtained by SCD were easier to be reduced than that by COD. Moreover, the samples obtained by SCD have higher surface area, narrower pore size distribution, and higher combustion activity than those obtained by COD.     

Effect of drying methods on the structure and catalytic combustion activity of Mn-substituted hexaaluminate catalysts

Conventional oven drying (COD) and supercritical drying (SCD) methods were applied to the preparation of Mn-substituted hexaaluminate (BaMnAl₁₁O_19-α) catalysts. The effect of drying methods on phase composition, specific surface area, pore structure and combustion activity of the samples was investigated. The samples obtained by SCD have higher surface area, narrower pore size distribution, and higher combustion activity than those obtained by COD. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effect of relaxation properties on the adhesion of rubber

The adhesion to glass of rubbers with different relaxation properties but similar surface condition has been compared using the thin film peel test. At higher peeling stresses, the rubber–glass interface fractured at constant velocity and all rubbers gave the same adhesive energy values. However, at lower peel stresses, the lossy rubber appeared to adhere more strongly due to a crack-slowing phenomenon at the rubber–glass interface.     

The new idea for modification of the surface area of silicate glass

The paper presents a new and original method of modifying the surface layer of silicate glass by applying a coating produced from zirconium oxide–yttria-stabilized powder using the LPPS plasma method (low-pressure plasma spraying). This is a new approach and not found in both scientific literature and known technological solutions. The results of the work indicate that it is possible to produce the coatings of yttrium-stabilized zirconium oxide (YSZ) on the glass substrate. These coatings were made using the LPPS PS-PVD method and consist of fine YSZ crystals with spheroidal morphology. This gradient coating (FGM) has a thickness controlled from LPPS of several dozen to hundreds of nanometers. It effectively modifies the properties of the glass by introducing favorable stresses on the surface and therefore increases its hardness and tensile strength. At the same time, thermal properties of the glass were determined, which allowed to determine the temperature of heating the glass substrate necessary for the proper implementation of the oxide coating production process on this substrate by the LPPS method. The glass parameters achieved in the work are very promising and comparable with the characteristics of the best glasses currently used in optoelectronics, especially in the displays of mobile phones and solar cells.

     

Micromechanical testing of individual collagen fibrils

A novel method based on AFM was used to attach individual collagen fibrils between a glass surface and the AFM tip, to allow force spectroscopy studies of these. The fibrils were deposited on glass substrates that are partly coated with Teflon AF. A modified AFM tip was used to accurately deposit epoxy glue droplets on either end of the collagen fibril that cross the glass-Teflon AF interface, as to such attach it with one end to the glass and the other end to the AFM tip. Single collagen fibrils have been mechanically tested in ambient conditions and were found to behave reversibly up to stresses of 90 MPa. Within this regime a Young's modulus of 2-7 GPa was obtained. In aqueous media, the collagen fibrils could be tested reversibly up to about 15 MPa, revealing Young's moduli ranging from 0.2 to at most 0.8 GPa.     

超临界干燥方法对甲烷燃烧催化剂LaMnAl11O19结构及活性的影响

 摘要：用水热合成法制备了锰取代的六铝酸盐催化剂，并比较了超临界干燥法和普通烘箱干燥法对催化剂结构及甲烷燃烧反应活性的影响．DTA－MS结果表明，超临界干燥过程中，催化剂前驱物中的表面铝羟基部分被乙氧基取代．这种表面修饰作用可保持铝分散的均匀性，使催化剂前驱物中碳酸锰和碳酸镧的分解温度明显降低，且氢氧化铝的脱水温度维持在较适宜的范围内；焙烧后，易形成六铝酸盐相．甲烷燃烧反应结果表明，用超临界干燥方法制得的催化剂对甲烷燃烧反应的催化活性明显高于用普通烘箱干燥方法制得的催化剂．     

Colour specification of pyridine-2-aldehyde and 6-methylpyridine-2-aldehyde p-nitrophenylhydrazones as indicators for pH determination

The physicochemical properties, chromaticity co-ordinates and chromatic parameters for pyridine-2-aldehyde p-nitrophenylhydrazone and 6-methylpyridine-2-aldehyde p-nitrophenylhydrazone (proposed as new indicators for calorimetric pH measurements) are reported. The sensitivity and rapidity of colour change have been evaluated in terms of specific colour discrimination (SCD), pH of maximum colour change and half band-width of change of SCD (in terms of pH). The chromatic separations calculated from the co-ordinates obtained by the CIE 1976 recommendations (CIELUV or CIELAB) and the LABHNU 1977 colour space are compared and correlated with the standard deviation of colour matching.     

Synthesis of highly luminescent glasses incorporating cdte nanocrystals through sol-gel processing

Highly photoluminescent glass was prepared by embedding water-soluble nanocrystals in a glass matrix using a novel sol-gel process. Thiol-stabilized CdTe nanocrystals and aminopropyltrimethoxysilane were found to be the best combination in the preparation. The synthesis process had to be optimized to avoid nanocrystal agglomeration. The nanocrystals thus embedded in the glass matrix did not show any deterioration of the surface condition. The obtained glass combines excellent optical properties of nanocrystals with the high stability of glass; it emits light of various colors with narrow emission spectra and high photoluminescent efficiency (41%).     

Migration behavior of alkylphenols, bisphenol A and bisphenol S studied by capillary electrophoresis using sulfated beta-cyclodextrin.

An application of capillary electrophoresis (CE) using sulfated beta-cyclodextrin (SCD) has been investigated for separating alkylphenols with different chain lengths, as well as bisphenol A and bisphenol S. In the absence of SCD in running buffer, all the phenols migrated at the same velocity as the electroosmotic flow (EOF), whereas the addition of SCD effectively led to the baseline separation of alkylphenols on the basis of the difference in the abilities to bind into the hydrophobic cavity of CD. The host-guest binding constants between analyte phenols and SCD were evaluated from Benesi-Hildebrand plots of the data obtained by two independent methods, CE and UV-visible measurements, demonstrating that the greater the hydrophobicity of the phenols, the larger the binding constants. The effects of organic solvents on the resolution for alkylphenols and bisphenols were also examined. This system using SCD was effective for the separation of 4-octylphenol and 4-nonylphenol isomers having longer alkyl chains.     

Solid surface mapping by inverse gas chromatography

Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) at infinite dilution, is a technique for characterising solid surfaces. Current practice is the injection of n-alkane homologous series to obtain the free energy of adsorption of the CH2 group, from which the London component of the solid surface free energy, gamma(d)s, is calculated. A value around 40 mJ/m2 is obtained for poly(ethylene), and 30 mJ/m2 for a clean glass fibre, while the potential surface interactivity of a glass fibre is far greater than that of poly(ethylene). A specific component of the surface, in mJ/m2, should be calculated in order to obtain significant parameters. As applied up to date, when calculating the specific component of the surface energy, the fact that W(sp)a energy values are in a totally different scale than AN or DN values is a major drawback. Consequently, Ka and Kb values obtained are in arbitrary energy units, different from those of the London component measured by injecting the n-alkane series. This paper proposes a method to obtain Ka and Kb values of the surface in the same energetic scale than the London component. The method enables us to correct the traditional London component of a solid, obtaining a new value, where the amount of WaCH2 accounting for Debye interactions with polar sites, is excluded. As a result, an approach to surface mapping is performed in several different substrate materials. We show results obtained on different solid surfaces: poly(ethylene), clean glass fibre, glass beads, chemically modified glass beads and carbon fibre.     

Single-cell analysis using capillary electrophoresis: influence of surface support properties on cell injection into the capillary

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is an important tool of chemical cytometry. Whole-cell analysis using CE starts with cell injection into the capillary by either siphoning or electroosmosis. However, strong adherence of the cell to the support surface can prevent efficient cell injection and lead to irreproducible analysis. Here we evaluated several surfaces as potential cell supports for HT29 cells (human colon adenocarcinoma). These cells strongly adhered to the surface of untreated glass or polystyrene. Hydrophobic coating with dimethyldichlorosilane (DMS) or Sigmacote did not significantly reduce cell adhesion. In contrast, cell adhesion was reduced significantly when the surface was modified with hydrophilic polymers (hydrogels) such as poly(2-hydrohyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). In addition to their pronounced antiadhesive properties, PHEMA and PVA coatings were the most biocompatible (had highest survival of cells in contact with surface). Hydrogel-coated polystyrene plates were tested as a commercial alternative to hydrogel-coated glass slides. The cell adhesive properties of such plates were similar to those of PHEMA and PVA. However, the biocompatibility of the plates was lower than that of the other surfaces tested. Moreover, in contrast to PHEMA- and PVA-coated glass slides, the plates were sensitive to UV light and therefore should not be used when fluorescent image microscopy with UV excitation precedes CE. The analyses of the data obtained showed that PHEMA- and PVA-coated glass slides were the most suitable cell supports for cell injection into the capillary.     

基于自组装纳米金单层膜的全内反射SERS研究

采用静电自组装技术分别在玻璃基片和30 nm厚的金膜表面固定一层金纳米粒子（GNP）制得两种表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）基底,然后通过棱镜全内反射（TIR）激励和背向收集模式分别测试了两种基底上吸附的染料单分子层SERS光谱. 实验结果表明两种SERS基底的拉曼增强效果均高度依赖于入射激光的偏振状态,对于玻璃/纳米金SERS基底,s 光全内反射导致的拉曼增强因子是线偏振光（p）光的2-5 倍,说明该基底上的“热点”位于纳米金单层膜内相邻粒子之间;对于玻璃/金膜/纳米金SERS基底,只有采用p光在特定的全内反射角下才能激发SERS信号,而且测得的SERS信号比玻璃/纳米金基底增强了近30 倍. 究其原因是p 光在金膜表面共振激发的传播表面等离子体与纳米金局域表面等离子体耦合,进而导致显著场增强. 实验结果指出在背向收集模式下,由p 光激发的SERS信号是非偏振光,包含强度几乎相等的s 和p 成分. 利用玻璃/金膜/纳米金基底还实现了拉曼光定向发射和收集,测得的SERS信号是p光.     

基于自组装纳米金单层膜的全内反射SERS研究

采用静电自组装技术分别在玻璃基片和30 nm厚的金膜表面固定一层金纳米粒子(GNP)制得两种表面增强拉曼散射(SERS)基底,然后通过棱镜全内反射(TIR)激励和背向收集模式分别测试了两种基底上吸附的染料单分子层SERS光谱.实验结果表明两种SERS基底的拉曼增强效果均高度依赖于入射激光的偏振状态,对于玻璃/纳米金SERS基底,s光全内反射导致的拉曼增强因子是线偏振光(p)光的2-5倍,说明该基底上的"热点"位于纳米金单层膜内相邻粒子之间;对于玻璃/金膜/纳米金SERS基底,只有采用p光在特定的全内反射角下才能激发SERS信号,而且测得的SERS信号比玻璃/纳米金基底增强了近30倍.究其原因是p光在金膜表面共振激发的传播表面等离子体与纳米金局域表面等离子体耦合,进而导致显著场增强.实验结果指出在背向收集模式下,由p光激发的SERS信号是非偏振光,包含强度几乎相等的s和p成分.利用玻璃/金膜/纳米金基底还实现了拉曼光定向发射和收集,测得的SERS信号是p光.     

Thermal analysis of mechanochemically activated glass

Thermal analysis (TG, DTG, DTA, DSC) has been used to study the influence of mechanochemical activation of glass making batch on its melting and obtained glass crystallization. It revealed, that long time (12 h) mechanical treatment accelerates the glass batch melting and also improving network homogeneity influence the internal structure of the obtained glass. Refinement of the glass, at the beginning reduces temperature and increases degree of crystallization as a result of nucleating action of the increasing surface area of grains. However long time activation lowers the crystallization ability of glass and increases crystallization temperature. This is attributed to the deformation of the structure surface layer and surface energy increase, hampering the crystals nuclei formation.     

X-ray reflectivity investigations of glass surfaces produced by float and draw techniques

Surfaces of soda-lime glass and borosilicate glass have been investigated by grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity (GIXR). Characteristic differences are obtained in dependence on the fabrication procedure, the composition and the cleaning procedure. Strong variation is recorded between the two soda-lime float glass surfaces while minor differences are analysed between the top and bottom side of borosilicate float glass. This is attributed to the reduced amount of tin diffused into the bottom side of the borosilicate glass surface. Different cleaning procedures generate characteristic changes on the glass surfaces which can be verified by GIXR. The results indicate that borosilicate float glass combines the merits of the good surface quality of float glass with the high chemical resistivity of borosilicate glass.Dedicated to Professor Dr. rer. nat. Dr. h.c. Hubertus Nickel on the occasion of his 65th birthday     

Characterization of counterion and surface influence on micelle formation using tapping mode atomic force microscopy in air

Cylindrical micelles prepared in aqueous solutions from cationic surfactants octadecyl trimethylammonium (OTA+) or cetyltrimethylammonium (CTA+) and parachlorobenzoate (PCB) counterion were successfully imaged after evaporation of water using tapping mode atomic force microscopy (TM-AFM) onto very smooth gold and glass substrates. With the help of the obtained topography AFM images, it was shown that the micellar structures are preserved on gold substrates after evaporation of the solvent despite the new set of stresses due mainly to capillary forces and dehydration. The influence of the substrate on the resulting micellar morphology observed in air was investigated for these two materials: cylindrical micelles were evidenced as loosely adherent on gold surface in the presence of parachlorobenzoate (PCB) and identical, geometrically speaking, to those known to exist in aqueous solutions. In this situation, topographic AFM images allowed us to determine accurately their geometrical characteristics such as diameter and length in the nanometer range. On the other hand, AFM images obtained in air on glass surfaces revealed micellar structures that are different from those existing in the bulk of the solution. Indeed, bilayer-type micelles with a thickness close to twice the surfactant monomer expected length were observed, indicating that the well-established and strong influence of glass on micelle geometry at the glass/solution interface is maintained after evaporation of water. These results have been analyzed on the basis of positive charge of gold deduced from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Raman spectroscopy measurements on one hand and of the negative charge of glass on the other hand. Although these results appeal to new theoretical considerations dealing with dynamics of evaporation of micellar solution drops and/or with counterion contributions to macromolecular interactions in aqueous solutions and in air, this new AFM imaging method appears to be the more adequate one to image and measure the micelles formed in the presence of water.     

A Photochemical Approach to Integrated Optics

Highly resolved refractive index patterns or patterns of iron oxide are obtained by photolysis of (CH₃)₃SnI or Fe(CO)₅ absorbed onto Coming's code 7930 porous Vycor glass followed by consolidation to a nonporous glass. The photochemistries of the molecules on the glass surface, as well as the distribution and relative sizes of the photodeposited metal oxides, are described. Rutherford backscattering, small-angle x-ray scattering, and scanning electron microscopy show that the glass consolidates about the iron oxide particle but not about the tin oxide particle. Tin oxide chemically modifies the glass surface so that it does not consolidate at temperatures as high as 1200°C.     

Guest Binding with Sulfated Cyclodextrins: Does the Size of Cavity Matter?

Sulfated cyclodextrins have recently emerged as potential candidates for producing host–induced guest aggregation with properties better than p-sulfonatocalixarenes that have previously shown numerous applications involving the phenomena of host-induced guest aggregation. In the class of sulfated cyclodextrins (SCD), sulfated β-cyclodextrin (β-SCD) remains the most extensively investigated host molecule. Although it is assumed that the host-induced guest aggregation is predominantly an outcome of interaction of the guest molecule with the charges on the exterior of SCD cavity, it has not been deciphered whether the variation in the cavity size will make a difference in the efficiency of host-induced guest-aggregation process. In this investigation, we present a systematic study of host–induced guest aggregation of a cationic molecular rotor dye, Thioflavin T (ThT) with three different sulfated cyclodextrin molecules, α-SCD, β-SCD and γ-SCD, which differ in their cavity size, using steady-state emission, ground-state absorption and time-resolved emission measurements. The obtained photophysical properties of ThT, upon interaction with different SCD molecules, indicate that the binding strength of ThT with different SCD molecules correlate with the cavity size of the host molecule, giving rise to the strongest complexation of ThT with the largest host molecule (γ-SCD). The binding affinity of ThT towards different host molecules has been supported by molecular docking calculations. The results obtained are further supported with the temperature and ionic strength dependent studies performed on the host-guest complex. Our results indicate that for host–induced guest aggregation, involving oppositely charged molecules, the size of the cavity also plays a crucial role beside the charge density on the exterior of host cavity.     

Antibiotic glass slide coated with silver nanoparticles and its antimicrobial capabilities

Silver nanoparticles were covalently coated on a glass surface by overnight exposure of the glass substrate to nanoparticle solutions, using 3‐aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) as a coupling agent. Washing and air‐drying yield a uniformly coated glass substrate, which can be used as a material capable of killing harmful microorganisms in food industry. Nanoparticles are stable on the glass surface and are not washed away by water; they even remain on the glass surface under short‐term ultrasonic irradiation. The morphology of silver nanoparticles on the glass substrate was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The existence of Ag nanoparticles on the substrate was also confirmed by ultraviolet‐visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy. Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) measurement shows that the connection is based on covalent bonds between silver nanoparticle surface/APTES molecules. Combining the effects of low cost and effectiveness in prohibiting the growth of Escherichia coli, such materials are expected to be used as antibacterial coatings, which may have large potential applications in food industry. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.