A study of PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) sol-gel-coated channels fabricated using soft lithography and a laser direct writing technique is presented. PDMS is a biocompatible material that presents a high versatility to reproduce several structures. It is widely employed in the fabrication of preclinical devices due to its advantages but it presents a rapid chemical deterioration to organic solven...

This study describes a new means to conduct molecular recognition-based analysis using mass spectrometry. Taking advantage of the unique characteristic of the absorption capacity of the TiO(2) sol-gel material in the UV region, a TiO(2) sol-gel-deposited thin film was employed as the sample substrate to assist in UV laser desorption/ionization of analytes. Sol-gels are polymeric materials that ...

The cold gelation of preheated whey protein isolate (WPI) solutions at alkaline conditions (pH>10) has been studied to better understand the effect of NaOH in the formation and destruction of whey protein aggregates and gels. Oscillatory rheology has been used to follow the gelation process, resulting in novel and different gelation profiles with the gelation pH. At low alkaline pH, typical sol...

absorption spectra of the composite sol-gel (blue solid) and pure photochromic sol-gel (black solid). The open-form ∆OD for composite solgel (red dash). The inset is the chemical structure of the composite molecule with donor moiety (bottom red) and acceptor moiety (top blue). (d) The thermally reversing photokinetic measurement of the open-form ∆OD (460nm) of the composite sol-gel, recovering ...

Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube (MWCNT) reinforced silica aerogel was synthesized in a very simple and cost effective sol - gel method. The process was followed by ambient pressure drying, and then the aerogel material was characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, EDX and FT-IR. 2.3 x 10-3 wt% MWCNTs were successfully incorporated in sodium silicate based silica aerogel. This metal-free nanocomposite catalyz...

This work is focused on synthesis of SiO2- CNT hybrides via sol-gel method. Homogeneous distribution of carbon nanotubes within silicon matrix was obtained by mixing the functionalized carbon nanotube (CNTCOOH) with active silicic acid followed by titration to the solution of sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) under the average temperature condition of 80?C. Different ratios of multi-walled carbon nanot...

A microfluidic chip that integrates a sol-gel derived affinity column with a microheater is developed. This microchip includes five electric heaters covered with patterned PMMA for individual heat elution from five sol-gels with target molecules. This study is the first to demonstrate the detection of proteinaptamer interactions on the sol-gel microfluidic system and further describes possible ...

Bronchorrhoea sputum separates into two phases--sol and gel--at low speed centrifugation (5000 g), although higher speed (160 000 g) is required to obtain complete separation. Markers of mucus glycoprotein and serum transudate have been estimated in sputum, sol, and gel in five cases of bronchorrhoea associated with chronic bronchitis, asthma, or alveolar cell carcinoma. In all samples markers ...

Since its inception a decade ago, sol-gel encapsulation has opened up an intriguing new way to immobilize biological materials. An array of substances, including catalytic antibodies, DNA, RNA, antigens, live bacterial, fungal, plant and animal cells and whole protozoa, have been encapsulated in silica, metal-oxide, organosiloxane and hybrid sol-gel polymers. The advantages of these 'living cer...

An one-step, fast and potential low cost process has been developed to fabricate silica like glass nanostructures by combining sol-gel chemistry and thermal nanoimprint. An inorganic-organic sol-gel thin film is patterned at low pressure and temperature with flexible stamps. Various geometries are achieved with a patterning resolution of about 150 nm and patterns aspect ratio higher than 4. To ...