A novel confined-space synthesis method has been developed to synthesize zeolite nanocrystals. Colloidal silica nanoparticles serving as the silica source as well as the hard template were embedded in the mesoporous carbon via in situ polymerization of furfuryl alcohol (FA) in the presence of tri-block copolymer (Pluronic P123), and then reacted with an alkaline aqueous solution (Na2O-Al2O3-H2O...

Inverse opals made by polymerizing vinyl monomers inside a colloidal crystal have lattice dimensions that are contracted relative to the original hard template. This effect was studied in order to investigate the possibility of making double replicas of varying pore sizes from different materials, and to gain a better understanding of the polymer contraction behavior during replication. The deg...

Replacing rare and expensive metal catalysts with inexpensive and earth-abundant ones is currently among the major goals of sustainable chemistry. Herein we report the synthesis of N-, O-, and S-tridoped, polypyrrole-derived nanoporous carbons (NOSCs) that can serve as metal-free, selective electrocatalysts and catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and alcohol oxidation reaction (AOR), ...

Monodisperse single-crystalline α-cristobalite nanospheres have been synthesized by hydrocarbon-pyrolysis-induced carbon deposition on amorphous silica aerosol nanoparticles, devitrification of the coated silica at high temperature, and subsequent carbon removal by oxidation. The nanosphere size can be well controlled by tuning the size of the colloidal silica precursor. Uniform, high-purity na...

Incorporation of nanoparticles composed of surface-functionalized fumed silica (FS) or native colloidal silica (CS) into a nanostructured block copolymer yields hybrid nanocomposites whose mechanical properties can be tuned by nanoparticle concentration and surface chemistry. In this work, dynamic rheology is used to probe the frequency and thermal responses of nanocomposites composed of a symm...

Electro-osmosis in clayey soils and sediments, for purposes of clay consolidation, dewatering, or cleanup, and electro injection in porous media is widespread recent decades. It is experimentally found that the chemical properties of porous media especially PH change the characteristics of media. Electro-osmotic conductivity is a function of soil and grout material chemistry, altering with time...

Water-cast films of two ethers of cellulose, hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) and hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC), with dispersed silica particles, were deposited on flat substrates. X-ray specular reflectivity was used to characterize the structure of these solid ca. 1000 Å thick films as a function of the added colloidal fraction. It was shown that the structural changes resulting from increasing amo...

We developed a straightforward method to form non-close-packed highly ordered fcc direct and inverse opal silica photonic crystals. We utilize an electrostatically self assembled crystalline colloidal array (CCA) template formed by monodisperse, highly charged polystyrene particles. We then polymerize a hydrogel around the CCA (PCCA) and condense silica to form a highly ordered silica impregnat...