The effect of 5 different surface conditioning methods on bonding of metal brackets to cast dental alloys was examined. The surface conditioning methods were fine (30-microm) or rough (125-microm) diamond bur, sandblasting (50-microm or 110-microm aluminum oxide [Al2O3]), and silica coating (30-microm silica). Fifty disc-shaped specimens of 5 different alloys (gold-silver, palladium-silver, nic...

We report a facile strategy to synthesize silica nanoparticles-coated graphene oxide (GO-SiO2) nanohybrids in a water-alcohol mixture at room temperature. AFM observations revealed that silica nanoparticles with ca. 50 nm in size were densely and evenly covered on graphene oxide sheets. Due to the space layer of silica nanoparticles, micro-scale GO-SiO2 hybrid plates could be individually dispe...

We report on the fabrication, the characterization, and the optical simulation of a gold-silica nanocomposite and present its integration into a broadband anti-reflective coating (ARC) for a silicon substrate. The two-layer ARC consists of a nanocomposite (randomly distributed gold cluster in a silica matrix) and a pure silica film. We capitalize on the large refractive index of the composite t...

Optical fibre carbon dioxide (CO₂) sensors are reported in this article. The principle of operation of the sensors relies on the absorption of light transmitted through the fibre by a silica gel coating containing active dyes, including methyl red, thymol blue and phenol red. Stability of the sensor has been investigated for the first time for an absorption based CO₂ optical fiber sensor. Influ...

In this article, we describe a NO₂ sensor consisting of a coating based on lutetium bisphthalocyanine (LuPc₂) in mesoporous silica. The sensor exploits the absorption spectrum change of this material which strongly and reversibly decreases in contact with NO₂. NO₂ is measured by following the amplitude change in the reflected spectrum of the coating deposited on the tip of a silica fibre. As di...

In this study, we synthesized Fe(3)O(4) magnetic nanoparticles coated estrone-imprinted polymer with controlled size using a semi-covalent imprinting strategy. In this protocol, the estrone-silica monomer complex (EstSi) was synthesized by the reaction 3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl isocyanate with estrone, where the template was linked to the silica coating on the iron oxide core via a thermally rev...

Coating or encapsulation of nanoparticles is a major challenge due to the extremely small size, high surface energy, and high surface area of the nanoparticles. In this paper we describe a new method using supercritical CO2 as an anti-solvent (SAS) for nanoparticle coating/encapsulation. A model system, using silica nanoparticles as host particles and Eudragit polymer as the coating material, w...

Type I fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) written through the coating of various off-the-shelf silica fibers with a femtosecond laser and the phase-mask technique are reported. Inscription through most of the common coating compositions (acrylate, silicone and polyimide) is reported as well as writing through the polyimide coating of various fiber cladding diameters, down to 50 µm. The long term anneal...

Silica-based and borate-based glass series, with increasing amounts of TiO₂ incorporated, are characterized in terms of their mechanical properties relevant to their use as metallic coating materials. It is observed that borate-based glasses exhibit CTE (Coefficient of Thermal Expansion) closer to the substrate's (Ti6Al4V) CTE, translating into higher mode I critical strain energy release rates...

In situ quantification of localizedweathering processes on basalt flows inNewMexico andHawaii demonstrates that small-area factors can be more important than other more readily observable factors. Further, it demonstrates that the factorial concept of the Pope Boundary-Layer weathering model is partially solvable, that organicweathering can accentuate glassweathering (with implications for clim...