Hierarchical nanoporous carbon (NPC) with great surface area and developed pore size distribution has been intently concerned. Herein, we report a facile method coupling template nanocasting and self-activation to fabricate nanoporous carbon with continuous micro, meso and macro pores, in which CaCO3 acted as template and activation reagent while the flour was the carbon precursor. Effects of m...

X-ray microtomography was used to image, at a resolution of 6.6 µm, the pore-scale arrangement of residual carbon dioxide ganglia in the pore-space of a carbonate rock at pressures and temperatures representative of typical formations used for CO2 storage. Chemical equilibrium between the CO2, brine and rock phases was maintained using a high pressure high temperature reactor, replicating condi...

Highly uniform hole spacing micro brushes were fabricated based on aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays synthesized by chemical vapor deposition method with the assistance of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. Different micro brushes from CNT arrays were constructed on silicon, glass, and polyimide substrates, respectively. The micro brushes had highly uniform hole spacing originating from t...

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline hybrid framework materials composed of inorganic metal “nodes” bridged by rigid organic linkers, thereby featuring exceptionally high surface areas and porosities. Despite the successful synthesis of a plethora of intricate framework topologies, a major objective in current MOF chemistry is the extension of pore sizes from the micropore (> 2 nm) t...

Knowledge of bacterial transport through, and biofilm growth in, porous media is vitally important in numerous natural and engineered environments. Despite this, porous media systems are generally oversimplified and the local complexity of cell transport, biofilm formation and the effect of biofilm accumulation on flow patterns is lost. In this study, cells of the sulphate-reducing bacterium, D...

We investigate a two-dimensional micro-scale model for crystal dissolution and precipitation in a porous medium. The model contains a free boundary and allows for changes in the pore volume. Using a level-set formulation of the free boundary, we apply a formal homogenization procedure to obtain upscaled equations. For general micro-scale geometries, the homogenized model that we obtain falls in...

Micro/mesoporous Zn(2)GeO(4) with crystalline pore-walls was successfully synthesized via a simple ion exchange method at room temperature. This structure showed enhanced activity in photoreduction of CO(2) in comparison with Zn(2)GeO(4) prepared by a solid state reaction.

Nanoporous silicas having some periodicity, high surface area (up to 1230 m(2) g(-1)), and pore diameters near the boundary between micro- and mesopores are synthesized using aromatic compounds bearing anionic end-groups as novel structure-directing agents (SDAs) that can facilitate multiple interactions between SDAs, co-SDAs and silica frameworks orthogonally.

The innovative design and synthesis of nanofiber based hydro-philic/phobic membranes with a thin hydro-phobic nanofiber layer on the top and a thin hydrophilic nanofiber layer on the bottom of the conventional casted micro-porous layer which opens up a solution for membrane pore wetting and improves the pure water flux in membrane distillation.

Hierarchical calcium carbonate structures with multi-scale organization have been successfully fabricated covering the full range of pore sizes from nano-, to micro- to macrofeatures. The resulting 3D scaffolds, with a close resemblance to bone structures, have been evaluated in vitro and in vivo and showed great potential for bone regeneration.