as we know sol-gel is one of the most important techniques for thin film preparation. in this paper, high transmission silica thin films have been prepared by dip-coating process from a new silicon-alkoxide solution. the prepared sol was stable for 45 days which is very important to characterize the coating process. the optical properties as a function of aging time, withdrawal rate, and heat t...

In this report, a novel silk fibroin hydrogel with a reversible sol–gel transition capacity is presented, in which the base material of this reversible hydrogel is hydrophilic silk fibroin (HSF) obtained by immersing a dried regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin (SF) condensate in deionized water (DI water) and collecting its lixivium. The resulting HSF sol can exhibit an enhanced sol–gel transi...

We report that oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can be synchronously dispersed and functionalized in TiO2 sol via an in situ sol-gel process. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to characterize the functionalized MWCNTs. The results revealed that the hydrolysis and condensat...

For the first time a top-down process was used to control the spatial location of Metal-Organic Frameworks on a surface. Deep X-ray lithography was utilised to micropattern a Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework layer on a sol-gel surface, with exposure hardening the sol-gel by inducing crosslinking while leaving the frameworks intact.

Controlled release silica sol gels are room temperature processed, porous, resorbable materials with generally good compatibility. Many molecules including drugs, proteins and growth factors can be released from sol gels and the quantity and duration of the release can vary widely. Processing parameters render these release properties exquisitely versatile. The synthesis of controlled release s...

An one-step, fast and potential low cost process has been developed to fabricate silica like glass nanostructures by combining sol-gel chemistry and thermal nanoimprint. An inorganic-organic sol-gel thin film is patterned at low pressure and temperature with flexible stamps. Various geometries are achieved with a patterning resolution of about 150 nm and patterns aspect ratio higher than 4. To ...

Casting Silica at Room Temperature Silica cannot be used with traditional molding techniques because of its very high melting temperature. In addition, conventional grinding and polishing processes limit how small and complex the silica micro-optics can be. Geltech overcame these problems by developing methods to cast net-shape (no grinding necessary) silica-glass micro-optics at room temperatu...