A study on the propane gas-sensing properties of Cu-doped ZnO thin films is presented in this work. The films were deposited on glass substrates by sol-gel and dip coating methods, using zinc acetate as a zinc precursor, copper acetate and copper chloride as precursors for doping. For higher sensitivity values, two film thickness values are controlled by the six and eight dippings, whereas for ...

Blue phase colloidal crystals and dielectric nanoparticle/polymer doped blue phases are demonstrated to combine multiple components with different symmetries in one photonic material, creating a photonic crystal with variable and micro-controllable photonic band structure. In this composite photonic material, one contribution to the band structure is determined by the 3D periodic birefringent o...

The first principles were calculated to study the adsorption behaviors of caffeine molecules on the pristineand N-doped TiO2 anatase nanoparticles. Both oxygen and nitrogen in the caffeine molecule can reactstrongly with TiO2 nanoparticle. Thus, the binding sites were located on the oxygen or nitrogen atom ofthe caffeine, while the binding site of the TiO2 nanoparticle occurs ...

Cu-containing nanoparticles are used in various applications in order to e.g. achieve antimicrobial activities and to increase the conductivity of fluids and polymers. Several studies have reported on toxic effects of such particles but the mechanisms are not completely clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions between cell membranes and well-characterized nanoparticles o...

Cu doping of ZnTe, which is an important semiconductor for various optoelectronic applications, has been successfully achieved previously by several techniques. However, besides its electrical transport characteristics, other physical and chemical properties of heavily Cu-doped ZnTe have not been reported. We found an interesting self-assembled formation of crystalline well-aligned Cu-Te nano-r...

The development of a low-cost, high-performance platinum-group-metal-free hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell is hindered by the lack of a hydrogen oxidation reaction catalyst at the anode. Here we report that a composite catalyst, nickel nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes, has hydrogen oxidation activity similar to platinum-group metals in alkaline electrolyte. Althou...

We report multifunctional optical imaging using dye-coated gold nanorods. Three types of useful information, namely, Raman, fluorescence signals, and absorption contrast, can be obtained from a phantom experiment. These three kinds of information are detected in a nanoparticle-doped-phantom using diffuse optical imaging. Our novel nanoparticle could be used as a multimodality marker for future ...

mn doped zno nanocomposite thin film coated on glass by a simple spin-coating method was used to degrade an azo textile dye from aqueous environment. mn doped zno nanocomposite thin film was characterized by means of x-ray diffraction (xrd) and scanning electron microscopy (sem). the photo-reduction activity of photocatalyst was evaluated using an azo textile dye as organic contaminant irradiat...

The antibacterial and antibiofilm activity of chemically synthesized pure and Cu doped ZnO nanoparticles against marine biofilm forming bacteria has been reported for the first time. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using PXRD, FTIR and SEM which confirmed the formation of phase pure nanostructured zinc oxides. The antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of the synthesized nano...

We report the fabrication and characterization of a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) having a sol-gel core doped with ionic copper. Optical measurements demonstrate that the ionic copper is preserved in the silica glass all along the preparation steps up to fiber drawing. The photoluminescence results clearly show that such an ionic copper-doped fiber constitutes a potential candidate for UV-C (200...