ZSM-5- and NaY-coated MCF materials as new acid catalysts for conversion of bulky molecules were prepared by the coating procedure using diluted clear zeolite gel solutions. The resulting materials have high acidity and improved steam stability as compared to that of the corresponding MCF aluminosilica. This could be due to the zeolitic nature and relative hydrophobicity of the mesopore surface.

Porous silica-based microspheres encapsulating aqueous glycerol can be potential curing agents for one-component foams (OCFs). Such agents have the advantage of an enhanced sustainability profile on top of being environmentally friendly materials. A synthetically convenient and scalable sol-gel process was used to make silica and organosilica microspheres doped with aqueous glycerol. These meth...

This paper presents an optical fiber gas sensor based on sandwiched long-period fiber grating (SLPFG) that is fabricated via the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) process and coated with amino silica adsorbent for carbon dioxide (CO2) gas sensing. The amine-modified nanoporous silica foams were coated onto the SLPFG for CO2 adsorption. To characterize the CO2 adsorption of the SLPFG sensor,...

A siliceous mesocellular foam-immobilized Ru-TsDPEN complex exhibited excellent catalytic reactivity, enantioselectivity and reusability in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of an imine and ketones.

In the recent past, switchable surfactants and switchable/stimulus-responsive surface-active particles have been of great interest. Both can be transformed between surface-active and surface-inactive states via several triggers, making them recoverable and reusable afterward. However, the synthesis of these materials is complicated. In this paper we report a facile protocol to obtain responsive...

A standard X-observe NMR probe was equipped with a z-gradient coil to enable high-sensitivity pulsed field gradient NMR diffusion studies of Li⁺ and Cs⁺ cations of aqueous salt solutions in a high-porosity mesocellular silica foam (MCF) and of CO₂ adsorbed in metal-organic frameworks (MOF). The coil design and the necessary probe modifications, which yield pulsed field gradients of up to ±16.2T...