Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are promising fluorescence probes for immuofluorescence assay in the biological applications. However, water solubilization and non-specific binding are two critical issues to be addressed for the practical uses. Here, we reported a new type of QDs with combined silica and polymer coating. QDs with excellent colloidal properties were prepared via carboxylation o...

Nanoparticles (NPs) emitting in the second biological near infrared (NIR) window of the electromagnetic spectrum have been successfully synthesized by growing a silica shell on the hydrophobic surface of OLEA/TOP PbS nanocrystals (NCs), by means of a reverse microemulsion approach, and subsequently decorated with biotin molecules. The fabrication of very uniform and monodisperse NPs, formed of ...

The effect of colloidal silica fillers on the cross-linking behavior of a model UV-curable polymer system (thiol-ene) is studied using in situ rheology and real-time FTIR spectroscopy. The validity of the Winter-Chambon criterion (convergence of the loss tangents at the gel point) is examined for the cross-linking of these filled polymers, some of which are strongly flocculated dispersions (phy...

The synthesis of silica, carbon or polymer nanospheres and capsules has attracted widespread interest because of their potential applications in the fields of drug delivery, catalysis, photonic crystals, biodiagnostic or energy storage. Special attention has been paid to colloidal silica nanospheres of uniform size. These particles are commonly produced by the hydrolysis and condensation of sil...

Mesoporous carbons with highly uniform and tunable mesopores were fabricated by one-step vapor deposition polymerization (VDP) using colloidal silica particles as templates and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as a carbon precursor.

The processing conditions for preparing well dispersed silica-graphene nanoplatelets and silica-graphene oxide nanoplatelets (GONP) composites were optimized using powder and colloidal processing routes. Fully dense silica-GONP composites with up to 2.5 vol% loading were consolidated using spark plasma sintering. The GONP aligned perpendicularly to the applied pressure during sintering. The fra...

Colloidal silica gels are shown to stiffen with time, as demonstrated by both dynamic light scattering and bulk rheological measurements. Their elastic moduli increase as a power law with time, independent of particle volume fraction; however, static light scattering indicates that there are no large-scale structural changes. We propose that increases in local elasticity arising from bonding be...