Titania nanoparticles are prepared by sol-gel chemistry with a poly(ethylene oxide) methyl ether methacrylate-block-poly(dimethylsiloxane)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) methyl ether methacrylate triblock copolymer acting as the templating agent. The sol-gel components-hydrochloric acid, titanium tetraisopropoxide, and triblock copolymer-are varied to investigate their effect on the resulting titan...

We fabricated titanium dioxide (TiO2)-silica (SiO2) nanocomposite structures with controlled morphology by a simple synthetic approach using cooperative sol-gel chemistry and block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly. Mixed TiO2-SiO2 sol-gel precursors were blended with amphiphilic poly(styrene-block-ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) BCPs where the precursors were selectively incorporated into the hydrophil...

Dimer formation in sol-gel matrices was studied using optical absorption spectroscopy of copper phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate dopants in silicate and aluminosilicate sol-gel matrices. Changes in the optical absorption spectra of dimers and monomers were correlated with various stages of the sol-gel process. Dimerization is strongly influenced by the chemistry of the pore liquid. The primary fac...

We report a strategy to create photodegradable poly(ethylene glycol)-based hydrogels through rapid polymerization of cytocompatible macromers for remote manipulation of gel properties in situ. Postgelation control of the gel properties was demonstrated to introduce temporal changes, creation of arbitrarily shaped features, and on-demand pendant functionality release. Channels photodegraded with...

METAL CHALCOGENIDE NANOPARTICLE GEL NETWORKS: THEIRFROMATION MECHANISM AND APPLICATION FOR NOVEL MATERIALGENERATION AND HEAVY METAL REMEDIATION VIA CATIONEXCHANGE REACTIONSby IRINA R. PALAMay 2012Advisor: Dr. Stephanie L. BrockMajor: ChemistryDegree: Doctor of PhilosophyThe dissertation research is focused on (1) uncovering the mechanism of metalchalc...

Aloe vera gel is increasingly consumed as a beverage dietary supplement. The purpose of this study was to determine potential toxicity of a stabilized aloe vera gel derived from the inner gel fillet and marketed as a drink. The gel juice was assessed through assays of genotoxicity in vivo and acute and subchronic toxicity in B6C3F1 mice. Aloe vera did not increase the SOS DNA repair response in...

The sol-gel method produces amorphous or crystalline thin gel films of metallic solid compounds by solidifying a sol formed by hydrolyzing and polymerizing a solution containing metallic compounds. Sol-gel processes are widely employed in the field of chemistry to prepare ceramic powders and thin films of hafnium oxide (HfO2) (Nishide et al., 2000) and zirconium oxide (ZrO2) ( Liu et al., 2002)...

Supramolecular gels formed by the self-assembly of organic molecules are useful in many areas from materials to medicine. Of different applications, exploitation for visual detection analytes is a fairly recent trend gel chemistry. Most gel-based sensors rely on non-covalent interactions between gelator and added chemical therefore, often suffer less selectivity long response time. In this cont...

Injectable Hydrogels In article number 2101284 by Chien-Chi Lin and co-workers, a biocompatible pH/thermo dual responsive injectable hydrogel is synthesized reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization acylhdrazone click chemistry. Upon injection, sol-gel transition occurs rapidly at body temperature the porous hydrogels degrade slowly under mild acidic condition due t...