The formation of ordered particle arrays plays an essential role in nanotechnology, biological systems, and inorganic photonic structures in the geosphere. Here, we show how ordered arrays of amorphous silica spheres form in deeply weathered lithologies of the Great Artesian Basin (central Australia). Our multi-method approach, using optical and scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microdiffract...

The self-assembly of CdS semiconductor nanocrystals (Q-CdS) as well-defined monolayer and multilayer films on glass, indium tin oxide, and gold surfaces was carried out. These were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, ellipsometry, and scanning tunneling microscopy. The adsorption of the polymeric anion hexametaphosphate (HMP) on the Q-CdS particle surface produced a negative surf...

Three-layer core-shell plasmonic nanorods (Au/Ag/SiO2-NRs), consisting of a gold nanorod core, a thin silver shell, and a thin silica layer, were synthesized and used as optical imaging probes under a differential interference contrast microscope for single particle orientation and rotational tracking. The localized surface plasmon resonance modes were enhanced upon the addition of the silver s...

Grafting terminally functionalized polypropylene (PP) to nanofillers provides well-defined PP-based nanocomposites plausibly featured with a physical cross-linkage structure. In this paper, a series of PP-grafted silica nanoparticles (PP-g-SiO2) were synthesized by varying the number of grafted chains per silica particle, and influences of the number and the molecular weight of grafted chains w...

Miniemulsion polymerization is one of heterogeneous polymerization method that can be effectively used to synthesis of various novel organic-inorganic nanocomposite particles. This method can provide opportunity of good incorporation between the polymer and inorganic phases in the formed submicrometer-sized particles. In this article, we report preparation polystyrene/silica nanocomposite p...

Atmospheric humidity strongly influences the interactions between dry granular particles in process containers. To reduce the energy loss in industrial production processes caused by particle agglomeration, a basic understanding of the dependence of particle interactions on humidity is necessary. Hence, in this study, molecular dynamic simulations were carried out to calculate the adhesion betw...

The upconversion luminescence UCL of the hexagonal -phase NaYF4:Yb,Er nanophosphors as a function of temperature 300–450 K was examined under 978 nm light excitation. The thermal sensitivity was evaluated based on the UCL intensity ratio between H11/2– I15/2 and S3/2– I15/2 transitions RHS . Excitation power, particle sizes 37, 65, and 140 nm , ion doping concentrations, and with and without si...

Silane-coated silica particle solutions (ISolate(TM) and PureSperm)TM)) and iodixanol (OptiPrep(TM)) were compared to polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-coated silica particles (Percoll(TM)) in their efficacy to recover spermatozoa by gradient centrifugation for use in assisted reproductive procedures. Efficacy was assessed in terms of percentages of sperm recovery, sperm vitality and motility, normal ...

Low loss core-shell iron-silica nanocomposites with improved magneto-dielectric properties at radio frequencies (1 MHz-1 GHz) were successfully fabricated. A new simple method was developed to synthesize metallic iron (Fe) nanoparticles with uniform size distribution in an aqueous environment at room temperature. Citric acid and oleic acid served as surface-capping agents to control the particl...

In this study, the focus is on magnetic separation of fresh water algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Chlorella vulgaris as well as marine algae Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Nannochloropsis salina by means of silica-coated magnetic particles. Due to their small size and low biomass concentrations, harvesting algae by conventional methods is often inefficient and cost-consuming. Magnetic separa...