Many attempts have been made to fabricate various types of inorganic nanoparticle-filled polymers (filler/polymer nanocomposites) by a mechanical or chemical approach. However, these approaches require modification of the nanofiller surfaces and/or complicated polymerization reactions, making them unsuitable for industrial-scale production of the nanocomposites. The author and coworkers have pr...

By mean of heterophase polymerization on the silica gel surface has been made in situ immobilization poly [8-methacroyloxy-quinoline], received new organic-mineral composite material. I...

Diatom frustules (the hard and porous cell wall of diatoms) are created under the control of biomolecules (silaffins, silacidins, and long-chain polyamines) at close to physiologic conditions. The mechanism of biosilica formation was traditionally based on the ability of zwitterionic water-soluble proteins to create macromolecular assemblies for silica polymerization. Recent discoveries of wate...

We report the synthesis of a new nanocrystal (NC) mesophase through self-assembly of water-soluble NC micelles with soluble silica. The mesophase comprises gold nanocrystals arranged within a silica matrix in a face-centered cubic lattice with cell dimensions that are adjustable through control of the nanocrystal diameter and/or the alkane chain lengths of the primary alkanethiol stabilizing li...

Diatoms are unicellular eucaryotic algae with cell walls containing silica, intricately and ornately structured on the nanometer scale. Overall silica structure is formed by expansion and molding of the membrane-bound silica deposition vesicle. Although molecular details of silica polymerization are being clarified, we have limited insight into molecular components of the silica deposition vesi...

Polymerization rates of silica at various concentrations and pHs have been studied via nephelometry. The ability and potency of ultrasonic radiation on the coagulation process in aqueous samples with and without silica colloidal particles have been extensively investigated. Factors affecting the rate and filtration volume such as silica concentration, time of radiation, temperature, and fre...

There is a great deal of interest in continuous beds as stationary phases for both HPLC and CEC. There are various ways to prepare monoliths, by polymerization of organic species or by polymerization of silicon alkoxides. The former method has recently been reviewed, while silica based monoliths are now commercially available. The purpose of this paper is to deal with the problems associated wi...

We synthesize robust clusters of gold satellites positioned with tetrahedral symmetry on the surface of a patchy silica core by adsorption and growth of gold on the patches. First we conduct emulsion polymerization of styrene in the presence of 52 nm silica seeds whose surface has been modified with methacryloxymethyltriethoxysilane (MMS). We derive four-dimple particles from the resulting sili...

We report the synthesis of a new nanocrystal (NC) mesophase through self-assembly of water-soluble NCmicelles with soluble silica. The mesophase comprises gold nanocrystals arranged within a silica matrix in a facecentered-cubic lattice with cell dimensions that are adjustable through control of the nanocrystal diameter and/or the alkane chain lengths of the primary alkanethiol stabilizing liga...

Polyacrylate/silica nanocomposite was prepared by sol–gel process via in situ emulsion polymerization. The influence of the synthetic conditions, such as the ratio of different monomers and the contents of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), c-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (Z-6030), diethanolamine (DAM) and ammonium persulfate (APS) on the physical mechanical properties of polyacrylate/silica nanoco...