With oxygen and silicon comprising approximately 85% of the atoms in Earth’s crust, most minerals in the crust include these two elements, and form the class of minerals called silicates. The basic building block of all silicate minerals is the silica tetrahedron, in which one silicon ion bonds with four oxygen ions. This arrangement of ions (coordination number of 4) is dictated by the ratio o...

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) are used to determine chemical bonding and composition of ultra-thin films of mixed yttrium, silicon, and oxygen, formed by oxidation of metal on clean and pre-treated silicon. XPS and MEIS analyses indicate that oxidation of yttrium on bare silicon results in a fully oxidized film with a significant fraction of Y-O-...

The silicon can induce beneficial changes in plants, such as the further development of tissues and increased photosynthetic rate. Thus, studies on the anatomical changes resulting from in vitro culture are key to better understanding the development of micropropagated plants. Therefore, this study was undertaken to evaluate the morphological and physiological differences in plants with the use...

drought is still accounted as a serious agronomic problem and also one of the most important factors contributing to crop yield loss. the effect of sodium silicate (na2sio3, abbreviated as si) was investigated on the four major antioxidant enzyme activities and five other relevant components in two different grapevine cultivars (vitis vinifera l., cvs mish pestan and sahebi, as tolerant and sen...

The study of the chemical composition historical glasses is widely used in archaeometry. results such analyses provide information on probable date, place, and technological features their production. Over time, a weathered layer may form surface glass, which differs from original one. To determine initial using conventional methods (for example, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy), should be remo...

In this research we investigated the role of Si in improving salt tolerance in  the medicinal plant Borago officinalis L. Borago was pretreated with 0, 0.5  and 1.5 mM Si (as sodium silicate, Na2(Si O2)3) and then treated with four levels of NaCl, namely, 0, 60, 90 and 120 mM NaCl. Then the effects of silicon and NaCl were observed on some physiological and biochemical parameters such as lipid ...

Unique quantitative bioaccessibility data has been generated, and the influence of surface/material and test media characteristics on the elemental release process were assessed for silicon containing materials in specific synthetic body fluids at certain time periods at a fixed loading. The metal release test protocol, elaborated by the KTH team, has previously been used for classification, ra...

At the near-neutral and reducing aquatic conditions expected in undisturbed ore deposits or in closed nuclear waste repositories, the actinides Th, U, Np, and Pu are primarily tetravalent. These tetravalent actinides (AnIV) are sparingly soluble in aquatic systems and, hence, are often assumed to be immobile. However, AnIV could become mobile if they occur as colloids. This review focuses on a ...