Ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) designed by the conventional composition-based strategy, often suffer from relatively low ultrasound utilization efficiency. In this report, a structure-based design concept of double-scattering/reflection in a single nanoparticle for enhancing ultrasound imaging has been proposed. To exemplify this concept, a rattle-type mesoporous silica nanostructure (MSN) w...

The recently discovered mesoporous aluminosilicate MCM-41 consists of hexagonal arrays of nanometer-sized cylindrical pores. It is shown that this material can be synthesized by cooperative condensation of silicate and cylindrical cationic micelles. Careful control of the surfactant-water content and the rate of condensation of silica at high alkalinity resulted in hollow tubules 0.3 to 3 micro...

The synthesis of hollow carbon nanospheres or capsules has attracted considerable attention because of their potential applications in catalyst supports, fuel cells, gas storage and separation, and lithium-ion batteries, which result from their unique features, such as high surface-to-volume ratio and high structural stability. Templating is the method widely used to synthesize hollow carbon sp...

An effective way to improve sensor selectivity and stability is the use of catalytic filters to block interfering and poisoning gas molecules from reaching the sensor surface. Mesoporous silica with high resistivity and hugh surface areas are ideally suited as a base material for this application. When impregnated with proper catalysts, mesoporous silica has a great potential to eliminate respo...

A major challenge in the synthesis of porous metal oxides is the control of pore size and/or wall thickness that may affect the performance of these materials. Herein, nanoporous β-MnO₂ samples were prepared using different hard templates, e.g., ordered mesoporous silica SBA-15 and KIT-6, disordered mesoporous silica, and colloidal silica. These samples were characterized by Powder X-Ray Diffra...

Siliceous ordered mesoporous materials (OMM) are gaining interest as supports for enzyme immobilization due to their uniform pore size, large surface area, tunable pore network and the introduction of organic components to mesoporous structure. We used SBA-15 type silica materials, which exhibit a regular 2D hexagonal packing of cylindrical mesopores of uniform size, for non-covalent immobiliza...

It has recently been demonstrated that hexagonal mesoporous silica films can be grown at mica/water interfaces. In this report it is established that the films can also be synthesized on cleaved pyrolytic graphite. Di raction and microscopy studies of the growth, structure and form of the films indicate that the channels are aligned along the hexagonal symmetry axes of the graphite surface. The...

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of mesoporous silica coating surface treatments on push-out bond strength of zirconia posts. Zirconia posts (Cosmopost) were treated with vehicle (control), sandblasting plus silane application (SB+SI), a combination of sandblasting, mesoporous silica coating and silane application (SB+MSC+SI) (n=10/group). Specimens were cemented with RelyX Unicem (3M...

The synthesis of bifunctional mesoporous silica nanoparticles is described. Two chemically orthogonal functionalities are incorporated into mesoporous silica by co-condensation of tetraethoxysilane with two orthogonally functionalized triethoxyalkylsilanes. Post-functionalization is achieved by orthogonal surface chemistry. A thiol-ene reaction, Cu-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar alkyne/azide cycloadditi...

Catalase is one of the most potent biocatalyst which can oxidize potentially harmful toxins. Catalase is an abundant natural enzyme which is used in food industry, analytical applications (bio sensor) and textile industry to remove pollutants because of its high activity. Since catalase has many industrial applications, immobilization of catalase in solid support makes it heterogeneous catalyst...