The invention of electrospinning has solved the problem of producing micro- and nanoscaled metal oxide fibres in bulk quantities. However, until now no methods have been available for preparing a single nanofibre of a metal oxide. In this work, the direct drawing method was successfully applied to produce metal oxide (SnO2, TiO2, ZrO2, HfO2 and CeO2) fibres with a high aspect ratio (up to 10 00...

................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCYION ........................................................... 1 1.1 Motivation ................................................................................. 1 1.2 Outline ..................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 2. SOL-GEL PHOT...

The doping of porous sol-gel films by adsorption of cations onto silica from aqueous solutions is demonstrated. The films are fabricated using the sol-gel method, giving nanometer scale porosity, high surface area, and homogeneity on the scale of optical wavelengths. After deposition by spin coating and initial heat treatment, the films are soaked in a salt solution of the desired dopant, and t...

A novel fiber-optic probe based on reflection-based localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) was developed to quantify the concentration of hydrofluoric acid (HF) in aqueous solutions. The LSPR sensor was constructed with a gold nanoparticle-modified PMMA fiber, integrated with a SiO(2) sol-gel coating. This fiber-sensor was utilized to assess the relationship between HF concentration and SiO...

An alumina–zirconia composite containing 5 mol% zirconia was prepared by following a wet interaction process in aqueous medium via the sol–gel route. The formed hydrogel which was aged for proper growth and orientation at room temperature, was then dried at a low temperature to minimize agglomeration. The sol–gel derived precursor powder was properly characterized through determination of surfa...

Although silica aerogel is expected to be the material for energy savings, the lack of the strength prevents from commercial applications such as to low-density thermal insulators and acoustic absorbents. To improve mechanical properties, methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) and dimethyldimethoxysilane (DMDMS) are used as the co-precursor of aerogels in this study because the network becomes flexible ...

The fluorolytic sol-gel synthesis for binary metal fluorides (AlF₃, CaF₂, MgF₂) has been extended to ternary and quaternary alkaline earth metal fluorides (CaAlF₅, Ca₂AlF₇, LiMgAlF₆). The formation and crystallization of nanoscopic ternary CaAlF₅ and Ca₂AlF₇ sols in ethanol were studied by 19F liquid and solid state NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy, as well as transmission electron...

BACKGROUND The introduction of an heterogeneously catalyzed gold-based alcohol oxidation process of broad applicability using a clean primary oxidant would be highly desirable. Gold is non toxic and carbonyl and carboxyl compounds are widely used to produce medicines, plastics, colorants, paints, detergents, fragrances, flavors, and other valued functional products. RESULTS The sol-gel entrap...

to improve the corrosion protection of copper metal, 0.01m concentration of 1h-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol (tat) was incorporated into the hybrid sol-gel monolayers containing 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (gptms) and tetraethoxysilane (teos). it was further subjected to hydrolysis and condensation reaction to form a sol-gel matrix. the tat-doped hybrid sol-gel coating was applied over the coppe...

Light transducing phycobiliproteins are encapsulated in optically transparent sol-gel matrices. Absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies are used to characterize the effect of the sol-gel encapsulation on the conformation and aggregation states of the three major phycobiliproteins present in phycobilisomes: phycoerythrin, phycocyanin, and allophycocyanin. It is found that the effects of sol-g...