Colloidal solutions and redispersible powders of nanocrystalline, lanthanide-doped phosphates and vanadates have been prepared in high-boiling coordinating solvents or by hydrothermal means in aqueous solution. Highly crystalline materials were obtained by both methods despite the low temperature of 2008C applied during the synthesis. The materials have been characterized by using high-resoluti...

This study is focused on synthesis of nano-colloidal silica via alkaline water glass solution. Sodium ions of water glass were removed by cation exchanging in a resin column to obtain the silicic acid which was titrated to the solution of sodium silicate. Concentration of the colloidal silica and pH value of the solutions were controlled using different concentrations of alkaline sodium silicat...

We developed a carbohydrate sensing material, which consists of a crystalline colloidal array (CCA) incorporated into a polyacrylamide hydrogel (PCCA) with pendent boronic acid groups. The embedded CCA diffracts visible light, and the PCCA diffraction wavelength reports on the hydrogel volume. This boronic acid PCCA responds to species containing vicinal cis diols such as carbohydrates. This PC...

Corresponding Author: Marcin Runowski, M.sc., e-mail: [email protected] Introduction to “nanoworld” nowadays, we live during an intensive development of science known as nanotechnology, which is closely related to chemistry of colloids. The average size of particles forming a given colloid is often in the range of 1–1000 nm (1 nm = 10-9 m). Due to the small size, such nanoparticles can form s...

Binary colloidal crystals offer great potential for tuning material properties for applications in, for example, photonics, semiconductors and spintronics, because they allow the positioning of particles with quite different characteristics on one lattice. For micrometer-sized colloids, it is believed that gravity and slow crystallization rates hinder the formation of high-quality binary crysta...

The impact of size-fractionated colloidal organic carbon (COC) originating from a biological wastewater treatment facility on the sensitivity of the yeast estrogen screen (YES) bioassay containing the human estrogen receptor (hER) gene was evaluated. Dose-response curves of serially diluted 17beta-estradiol (E2), both in the presence and absence of COC, were generated by the YES bioassay. The c...

Runoff from three southwest British Columbia (B.C.), Canada (Sunshine Coast), log sort yards was characterized to determine the colloidal and particulate fraction structures and the distribution of organic and metal constituents. Runoff from these sites, resulting from rainfall and on-site sprinkling, contains suspended and colloidal particles that are largely organic. At one log sort yard, the...

Chitin from Streptomyces lunalinharesii spores, detected on its outermost surface layer, was isolated and characterized by chemical and spectroscopic methods, transmission electron microscopy and flow cytometry analysis. Gold-chitinase- and gold-lectin (Lycopersicum esculentum agglutinin, LEA)-conjugated labels were used in microscopy experiments, whereas a fluorescence-lectin (LEA) conjugate w...

A rapid microwave-hydrothermal method has been developed to prepare monodisperse colloidal carbon nanospheres from glucose solution, and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are successfully assembled on the surface of the colloidal carbon nanospheres by a self-assembly approach. The resultingAuNP/colloidal carbon nanosphere hybridmaterial (AuNP/C) has been characterized and is expected to offer a promis...

Living organisms often combine soft and hard anisotropic building blocks to fabricate composite materials with complex microstructures and outstanding mechanical properties. An optimum design and assembly of the anisotropic components reinforces the material in specific directions and sites to best accommodate multidirectional external loads. Here, we fabricate composite films with periodic mod...