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Cubic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) with the SBA-1 moiety, functionalized with carboxylic acid ( COOH) groups as well as enlarged mesopores, are successfully synthesized using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and carboxyethylsilanetriol sodium salt (CES) as silica sources, complexes formed by polyacrylic acid (PAA) and hexadecylpyridinium chloride (CPC) as templates, and trimethylbenzene (TMB) as pore expander. The successful incorporation of organic functionalities are confirmed by 13C and 29Si solid-state NMR. The structural properties of cubic mesostructures are characterized by powder XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, and TEM measurements. The prepared MSNs exhibit a remarkably high adsorption capacity of 1138 mg g−1 at pH 8.2 when they are used as the supports to immobilize papain. Both factors of the large pore size of the support and the favorable electrostatic attractions between the carboxylate groups on the adsorbent surface and the papain molecules play important roles in reaching such a high adsorption capacity. The immobilized papain possesses better thermal stability, pH tolerance, and heat resistance in comparison to the free papain. The materials are also used for selective adsorption of a single protein (papain) from the binary mixture of two different types of proteins (papain and hemoglobin). Our results demonstrate that proteins such as papain and hemoglobin with different isoelectric points and shapes can be effectively separated from their binary mixture by simply tuning the pH of the buffer.

Counting the number of people is a common and basic computing operation in many applications. Most of the people counting techniques need a sensing device like camera and apply image processing methods to track pedestrians. However, counting people with cameras in private places raises a lot of security and privacy issues. The passive infra-red sensor (PIR) can detect the body temperature of the infrared and thus provides another promising solution. Although a single PIR can easily identify the passing situations (i.e., in or out) of a single person, the signals of a single PIR is not sufficient to identify the complex situations of multiple people. In the paper, we design a people counting device with a PIR array to detect the passing situations and generate data records with higher discriminability. In addition, we apply the machine learning classification methods including the CNN, the RBM+LR, Decision Tree, and NaiveBayes on the collected data records to identify the passing situations. To validate our design, we conduct experiments to study the feasibility and classification performance and explore the impact factors. The experimental results show that the CNN outperforms the other and achieves the best accuracy, i.e., about 92%. Also, the results show that the captured data records of the PIR array contain sufficient characteristics for identifying complex passing situations and the configuration of the PIR array including the sensor direction and the field of view (FOV) of a PIR modified by the metal tape can significantly impact the discriminability of the collected data.

Cubic FDU-12 type mesoporous silicas with enlarged pores and carboxylic acid (–COOH) functionality in the pore channels (denoted as LP-FTC-x) are synthesized using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and carboxyethylsilanetriol sodium salt (CES) as silica sources, Pluronic F127 triblock copolymer as template, and trimethylbenzene (TMB) as pore expander, and utilized them as supports for enzyme immobilization. When the –COOH content is increased from 0 to 30%, the pore size of LP-FTC-x decreases from 23.6 to 11.1 nm, and its particle size decreases from around 2 μm to 600–800 nm. The material exhibits a high papain adsorption capacity (895 mg g−1) with a low leaching rate at pH 8.2 due to the well-defined surface chemistry in the pore channel. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms follow the pseudo-second-order model and the Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. The excellent structural properties of LP-FTC-x are also advantageous for enhancement in stability of enzyme toward the temperature, solution pH, and incubation time variations.

In this work, we demonstrate that a high density of −COOH groups loading, up to 60 mol% based on silica, is successfully incorporated into SBA-16 via a one-pot synthesis route, which involves co-condensation of carboxyethylsilanetriol sodium salt (CES) and tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) templated by Pluronic F127 and P123 in an acidic medium. A variety of characterization techniques are performed to confirm quantitative incorporation of carboxylic groups into ordered cubic mesostructures. These functionalized materials are used to effectively remove two cationic dyes methylene blue (MB) and phenosafranine (PF) with the maximum adsorption capacities of 561 and 519 mg g(-1), respectively, at pH 9. The zeta potential results reveal that the electrostatic interactions between cationic dye molecule and negatively charged surface of the adsorbent play a crucial role in their high adsorption capacities. For a binary component system consisting of MB and PF, competitive adsorption of these two dyes is observed with adsorption capacity values slightly lower than those of the corresponding single dye systems. The dye adsorbed material can be easily regenerated by simple acid washing and be reused for five times with MB removal efficiency still up to 98.6%, showing its great potentials in environmental remediation.

In this study, the formation of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) with a particle size of about 3 nm was successfully achieved by using the mesoporous channels of carboxylic acid (–COOH) functionalized SBA-15 as the support. When pure silica SBA-15 (without –COOH groups) was employed, the Ag NPs were formed outside of the mesopore and their particle size was significantly larger, up to about 20 nm. The –COO− groups under basic conditions can effectively interact with the Ag+ ions, and thus allowed facile fabrication of Ag NPs. The catalytic activity of these Ag NPs based SBA-15 materials were tested for a model reaction, namely the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol. The results showed that the particle size of the Ag NPs play a key role in determining their catalytic activity. The apparent kinetic constant for the Ag NPs with a particle size of about 3 nm was 1.1 × 10−2 s−1, corresponding to the activity parameters of 12.2 and 4630 s−1 g−1 by considering the total mass of the catalyst used and the Ag NPs alone, respectively, which were remarkably high as compared to other matrices bearing Ag. Moreover, the Ag NP based materials exhibited good recyclability up to 5 cycles.

In this research, the Zn(C5H7O2)2·xH2O-based growth of ZnO micro/nanostructures in a low temperature, vapor-trapped chemical vapor deposition system was attempted to optimize structural and optical properties for potential biomedical applications. By trapping in-flow gas molecules and Zinc vapor inside a chamber tube by partially obstructing a chamber outlet, a high pressure condition can be achieved, and this experimental setup has the advantages of ease of synthesis, being a low temperature process, and cost effectiveness. Empirically, the growth process proceeded under a chamber condition of an atmospheric pressure of 730 torr, a controlled volume flow rate of input gas, N2/O2, of 500/500 Standard Cubic Centimeters per Minute (SCCM), and a designated oven temperature of 500 °C. Specifically, the dependence of structural and optical properties of the structures on growth duration and spatially dependent temperature were investigated utilizing scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), and ultraviolet-visible transmission spectroscopy. The experimental results indicate that the grown thin film observed with hexagonal structures and higher structural uniformity enables more prominent structural and optical signatures. XRD spectra present the dominant peaks along crystal planes of (002) and (101) as the main direction of crystallization. In addition, while the structures excited with laser wavelength of 325 nm emit a signature radiation around 380 nm, an ultraviolet lamp with a wavelength of 254 nm revealed distinctive photoluminescence peaks at 363.96 nm and 403.52 nm, elucidating different degrees of structural correlation as functions of growth duration and the spatial gradient of temperature. Transmittance spectra of the structures illustrate typical variation in the wavelength range of 200 nm to 400 nm, and its structural correlation is less significant when compared with PL.

Bifunctional SBA-1 mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) with carboxylic acid and amino groups (denoted as CNS-10-10) have been successfully synthesized, characterized, and employed as adsorbents for dye removal. Adsorbent CNS-10-10 shows high affinity towards cationic and anionic dyes in a wide pH range, and exhibits selective dye removal of a two-dye mixture system of cationic methylene blue and anionic eosin Y. By changing the pH of the medium, the selectivity of the adsorption behavior can be easily modulated. For comparison purposes, the counterparts, that is, pure silica SBA-1 MSNs (CS-0) and those with either carboxylic acid or amino functional groups (denoted as CS-10 and NS-10, respectively) were also prepared to evaluate their dye-adsorption behaviors. As revealed by the zeta-potential measurements, the electrostatic interaction between the adsorbent surface and the dye molecule plays an important role in the adsorption mechanism. Adsorbent CNS-10-10 can be easily regenerated and reused, and maintains its adsorption efficiency up to 80 % after four cycles.

Multi-layered micro/nanostructures enable the fine-tuning of spectral bandwidth induced by coherent interference of multi-scattering and refraction bounded by a motive of Fabry Perot etalon. In this paper a ZnO micro/nanostructured thin film device is grown on a 21 nm silver film-sputtered sapphire substrates (0001) and attempted to be complied as a transmission-mode white-light spectrum tuning device. In details, the growth of the structures as a function of temporal duration and the effects of deposition of a 21 nm silver film atop sapphire substrates to the structural and optical properties of ZnO structures are investigated. Results of SEM imaging reveals that the insertion of the silver film enables synthesis of round ZnO particles at micro or nanoscales depending on the duration of growth time as opposed to the floral pattern associated with plain sapphire substrates. Characterizing material crystallization by XRD spectra found one dominant and two minor peaks along the planes of crystallization (002), and (100) and (101), correspondingly. Also, the characteristic PL peak at 380 nm was confirmed when excited at 325 nm, and the intensity decreases as the duration of growth time increases. Finally, growth duration-dependent modulation of peak wavelength and spectral bandwidth of the continuum laser was demonstrated.