The sol-gel route using an agar gel with calcium nitrate and phosphate solution as starting materials for producing hydroxyapatite (HAP). The product formed were needle like, zigzag and straight fibres. The fibrous products on sintering transformed into stoichiometric HAP with a biological Ca/P ratio of 1.67. The influences of pH, temperature, nature of base and phosphate solution on the growth of fibrous HAP were studied. The pH of the solution was found to greatly influence the growth rate and morphology of the resultant product. The optimum gel temperature was found to be 60oC and sintering temperature of 900oC for 1 hour. The crystalline, thermal, functional and morphological characteristics of the fibrous HAP were investigated.

Introduction: Methadone hydrochloride (MDN) is an effective pharmacological substitution treatment for opioids dependence, adopted in different countries as methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programmes. However, MDN can exacerbate the addiction problem if it is abused and injected intravenously, and the frequent visits to the MMT centres can reduce patient compliance. The overall aim of this study is to develop a novel extended-release capsule of MDN using the sol-gel silica (SGS) technique that has the potential to counteract medication-tampering techniques and associated health risks and reduce the frequent visits to MMT centres. Methods: For MDN recrystallisation, a closed container method (CCM) and hot-stage method (HSM) were conduc

The sensors based on Nickel oxide doped chromic oxide (NiO: Cr2O3) nanoparticals were fabricated using thick-film screen printing of sol-gel grown powders. The structural, morphological investigations were carried out using XRD, AFM, and FESEM. Furthermore, the gas responsivity were evaluated towards the NH3 and NO2 gas. The NiO0.10: Cr2O3 nanoparticles exhibited excellent response of 95 % at 100oC and better selectivity towards NH3 with low response and recovery time as compared to pure Cr2O3 and can stand as reliable sensor element for NH3 sensor related applications.

Titanium dioxide nanorods have been prepared by sol-gel template
method. The structural and surface morphology of the TiO₂ nanorods was
investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy
(AFM), it was found that the nanorods produced were anatase TiO₂ phase.
The photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 nanorods was evaluated by the
photo degradation of methyl orange (MO). The relatively higher
degradation efficiency for MO (D%=78.2) was obtained after 6h of exposed
to UV irradiation.

The effect of using different R -molar ratio under variable reaction conditions (acidic as well as basic environment and reaction temperature) have been studied. The overall experiments are driven with open and closed systems. The study shows that there is an optimum value for a minimum gelling time at R equal 2. The gelling time for all studied open system found to be shorter than in closed system. In acidic environment and when R value increased from 2 to 10, the gelling time of closed systems has increased four times than open systems at T=30 ?C and fourteen times when temperature reaction increased to 60 ?C. While in basic environment the influence of increasing R value was limited.

Hydrophobic silica aerogels were successfully preparation by an ambient pressure drying method from sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) with different pH values (5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). In this study, acidic HCl (1M), a basic NH4OH (1M) were selected as a catalyst to perform the surface modification in a TMCS (trimethylchlorosilane) solution. The surface chemical modification of the aerogels was assured by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic studies. Other physical properties, such as pore volume and pore size and specific surface area were determined by Brunauer-Emmett- Teller (BET) method. The effect of pH values on the bulk density of aerogel. The sol–gel parameter pH value in the sol, have marked effects on the physical proper

Zeolite Y nanoparticles were synthesized by sol - gel method. Dffirent samples using two silica sources were prepared.
Sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3) (48% silica) and silicic acid silica (H2SiO3) (75% silica) were employed as silica
source and aluminum nitrate (Al(NO3)3.9H2O) was the aluminum source with tetrapropylammonium hydroxide
(TPAOH) as templating agent.
The synihesized-samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, showed the requirement of diffirent aging time for
complete crystallization to be achieved. Transmission Electronic Microscope (TEM) images, showed the particles were
in the same range of 30 - 75 nm. FT-IR spectroscory, showed the synthesized samples having the zeolite Y crystal
properties. The i

In this study, a double frequency Q-switching Nd:YAG laser beam (1064 nm and λ= 532 nm, repetition rate 6 Hz and the pulse duration 10ns) have been used, to deposit TiO2 pure and nanocomposites thin films with noble metal (Ag) at various concentration ratios of (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 wt.%) on glass and p-Si wafer (111) substrates using Pulse Laser Deposition (PLD) technique. Many growth parameters have been considered to specify the optimum condition, namely substrate temperature (300˚C), oxygen pressure (2.8×10-4 mbar), laser energy (700) mJ and the number of laser shots was 400 pulses with thickness of about 170 nm. The surface morphology of the thin films has been studied by using atomic force microscopes (AFM). The Root Mean Sq