A water vapor sensor based on a combination of sol-gel processing and planar optical waveguide technologies has been developed. The indicator erythrosin B was entrapped in a thin sol-gel film (thickness ∼100 nm) prepared from methyltriethoxysilane, dimethyldiethoxysilane, and tetraethoxysilane. This dye exhibits an increase in absorbance in the presence of liquid or gaseous water. The sol-gel l...

Rietveld analyses of neutron diffraction data collected on a series of Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O3 samples, which had been prepared by sol-gel and conventional mixed oxide methods, showed that each sample contained both rhombohedral and tetragonal PZT (Pb[Zr1-xTix]O3). The zirconium-to-titanium ratio in the two phases was found to be markedly different. Pair distribution functions were also calculated for...

Controlled release silica sol gels are room temperature processed, porous, resorbable materials with generally good compatibility. Many molecules including drugs, proteins and growth factors can be released from sol gels and the quantity and duration of the release can vary widely. Processing parameters render these release properties exquisitely versatile. The synthesis of controlled release s...

In this paper, we report the first successful fabrication of dense and optically transparent cadmium tungstate (CWO) films by sol-gel processing and the study of their optical and x-ray scintillation properties. A new sol-gel processing method was developed using tungstic acid and cadmium nitrate as precursors and hydrogen peroxide as solvent; homogeneous and stable CWO sols were aged at room t...

Active protein micropatterns and microarrays made by selective localization are popular candidates for medical diagnostics, such as biosensors, bioMEMS, and basic protein studies. In this paper, we present a simple fabrication process of thick (approximately 20 microm) protein micropatterning using capillary force lithography with bifunctional sol-gel hybrid materials. Because bifunctional sol-...

Highlights 2  Single phase LaTi2Al9O19 (LTA) has been successfully synthesized by sol-gel method at relatively low temperature (1350 o C), something not previously investigated.  The sol-gel synthesized LTA shows good thermochemical stability up to 1500 o C.  Sol-gel synthesized LTA shows higher coefficients of thermal expansion than the solid state reaction synthesized LTA.  LTA is a face ...