Nickel microspheres were synthesized via a water-in-oil reverse nanoemulsion system using nickel nitrate as the nickel precursor and hydrazine hydrate as the reducing agent. The nanoemulsion was a triton X-100/cyclohexane/water ternary system. The surface morphology of the nickel microspheres was studied by scanning electron microscopy, which indicated that the microspheres had a nanoporous str...

Toluene gas was successfully measured at room temperature using a device microfabricated by a nanoimprinting method. A highly uniform nanoporous thin film was produced with a dense array of titania (TiO(2)) pores with a diameter of 70 ≈ 80 nm using this method. This thin film had a Pd/TiO(2) nanoporous/SiO(2)/Si MIS layered structure with Pd-TiO(2) as the catalytic sensing layer. The nanoimprin...

The high surface area of nanoporous electrodes makes them promising for use in electrochemical double-layer supercapacitors, desalination and pollution remediation, and drug delivery applications. When designed well and operating near their peak power, their charging rates are limited by ion transport through their long, narrow pores. This can be alleviated by creating pores of intermediate dia...

Using liquid crystalline self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals, we achieve long-range alignment of anisotropic metal nanoparticles in colloidal nanocrystal dispersions that are then used to deposit thin structured films with ordering features highly dependent on the deposition method. These hybrid films are comprised of gold nanorods unidirectionally aligned in a matrix that can be made of or...

While it has been a well-known fact that a certain amount of energy would be dissipated as a liquid flows in a channel, not until recently with the development of nanoporous technology did this phenomenon receive wide attention for energy absorption applications. For instance, it was noticed that as water moved from compressive parts of a hydrophilic nanoporous silica to tensile parts, consider...

The nanoporous AuPd (AuPdNPore) alloy catalyst showed superior chemoselectivity and high catalytic activity for the direct 1,4-hydrosilylation of the conjugated cyclic enones with hydrosilane in comparison with the monometallic nanoporous Au and Pd catalysts. The enhanced catalytic properties of AuPdNPore arise mainly from the nanoporous structure and the synergistic effect of the AuPd alloy.

Nanoporous bioglass containing silver (n-BGS) was fabricated using the sol-gel method, with cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide as template. The results showed that n-BGS with nanoporous structure had a surface area of 467 m(2)/g and a pore size of around 6 nm, and exhibited a significantly higher water absorption rate compared with BGS without nanopores. The n-BGS containing small amounts of silve...

To understand the enzymatic degradation behavior of crosslinked polylactide (PLA), the preparation and enzymatic degradation of both thermoplastic (linear) and crosslinked PLAs that have pore structures with different dimensions were carried out. The porous structures of the linear PLA samples were of micro and nanoporous nature, and prepared by batch foaming with supercritical CO2 and compared...

We present a consistent method for calculation of pore size distributions in nanoporous materials from adsorption and desorption isotherms, which form the hysteresis loop H1 by the IUPAC classification. The method is based on the nonlocal density functional theory (NLDFT) of capillary condensation hysteresis in cylindrical pores. It is implemented for the nitrogen and argon sorption at their bo...

A robust and efficient non-precious metal catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction is one of the key components for carbon dioxide-free hydrogen production. Here we report that a hierarchical nanoporous copper-titanium bimetallic electrocatalyst is able to produce hydrogen from water under a mild overpotential at more than twice the rate of state-of-the-art carbon-supported platinum catalyst. A...