To determine the number and distribution of exposures among workers exposed to silica dust in Vietnam, a cross-sectional study was conducted of the provincial Preventive Medicine Centers (PMCs) of 61 provinces, and data were collected from medical centers (MCs) of the Ministries of Construction, Industry, and Transportation. The PMC survey identified 112,956 exposed workers in 31 provinces. Min...

The selective annealing of point defects with different activation energies is studied, by performing sequences of thermal treatments on gamma irradiated silica samples in the temperature range 300-450 °C. Our experiments show that the dependence on time of the concentration of two irradiation induced point defects in silica, named ODC(II) (standing for oxygen deficient centre II) and the E(γ)(...

Porous solids have an important role in addressing some of the major energy-related problems facing society. Here we describe a porous solid, α-MnO2, with a hierarchical tetramodal pore size distribution spanning the micro-, meso- and macro pore range, centred at 0.48, 4.0, 18 and 70  nm. The hierarchical tetramodal structure is generated by the presence of potassium ions in the precursor solut...

Low loss core-shell iron-silica nanocomposites with improved magneto-dielectric properties at radio frequencies (1 MHz-1 GHz) were successfully fabricated. A new simple method was developed to synthesize metallic iron (Fe) nanoparticles with uniform size distribution in an aqueous environment at room temperature. Citric acid and oleic acid served as surface-capping agents to control the particl...

A new approach for synthesizing well-defined hollow nanochanneled-silica nanosphere particles is demonstrated, and the structural details of these particles are described for the first time. Positively charged styrene copolymer nanospheres with a clean, smooth surface and a very narrow size distribution are synthesized by surfactant-free emulsion copolymerization and used as a thermal sacrifici...

The manufacture of kitchen and bath countertops in Israel is based mainly on artificial stone that contains 93% silica as natural quartz, and ∼3500 workers are involved in cutting and processing it. Artificial stone produces high concentrations of silica dust. Exposure to crystalline silica may cause silicosis, an irreversible lung disease. Our aim was to screen exposed workers by quantitative ...

Herein we report the synthesis and characterization of hollow silica spheres with a narrow size distribution, uniform wall thickness, and a worm-like pore structure. The formation of these spheres was monitored by confocal laser scanning microscopy and dynamic light scattering. A model for the molecular build-up of these silica hollow spheres is derived from these data in combination with studi...

Colloidal nanosilica is currently being produced by various methods which are mainly high energy intensive and/or not environmentally friendly. It is therefore essential to develop new energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies. This paper introduces a new ultrasound assisted route based on alkali leaching of silica fume for synthesis of colloidal silica nanoparticles. The ef...

We synthesised a number of new metastable silica modifications in the electrically heated diamond anvil cells (DACs) at pressures over 100 GPa and temperatures over 1200 K. Our studies reveal the existence of a new class of silica phases with different degree of the ordering of silicon atoms. Silica polymorphs with octahedrally co-ordinated silicon known so far (stishovite, fully disordered pha...

Assembly of mesostructured silica using Pluronic P123 triblock copolymer (EO(20)-PO(70)-EO(20)) and n-butanol mixture is a facile synthesis route to the MCM-48-like ordered large mesoporous silicas with the cubic Iad mesostructure. The cubic phase domain is remarkably extended by controlling the amounts of butanol and silica source correspondingly. The extended phase domain allows synthesis of ...