Facile Fabrication of ZnO-ZnFeO Hollow Nanostructure by a One-Needle Syringe Electrospinning Method for a High-Selective HS Gas Sensor.

Herein, a facile fabrication process of ZnO-ZnFeO hollow nanofibers through one-needle syringe electrospinning and the following calcination process is presented. The various compositions of the ZnO-ZnFeO nanofibers are simply created by controlling the metal precursor ratios of Zn and Fe. Moreover, the different diffusion rates of the metal oxides and metal precursors generate a hollow nanostructure during calcination.

Development of Colorimetric Whole-Cell Biosensor for Detection of Heavy Metals in Environment for Public Health.

Heavy metals cause various fetal diseases in humans. Heavy metals from factory wastewater can contaminate drinking water, fish, and crops. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) are commonly used to analyze heavy metal contents; however, these methods require pre-treatment processes and are expensive and complex.

Synergistic approach to simultaneously improve response and humidity-independence of metal-oxide gas sensors.

The chemiresistive response of metal-oxide gas sensors depends on ambient conditions. Humidity is a strongly influential parameter and causes large deviations in signals and, consequently, an inaccurate detection of target gases. Developing sensors unaffected by humidity, as documented by extensive works of research, comes at the cost of response - a significant drop in sensor response inevitably accompanies an increase in humidity-independence.

Proton-beam engineered surface-point defects for highly sensitive and reliable NO sensing under humid environments.

Cross-interference with humidity is a major limiting factor for the accurate detection of target gases in semiconductor metal-oxide gas sensors. Under humid conditions, the surface-active sites of metal oxides for gas adsorption are easily deactivated by atmospheric water molecules. Thus, development of a new approach that can simultaneously improve the two inversely related features for realizing practical gas sensors is necessary.

The effects of pressure on arthritic knees in a rat model of CFA-induced arthritis.

Background: Pain is influenced by weather changes under certain circumstances, and inflammatory pain in animal models is ameliorated by pressure, but the underlying mechanism of atmospheric pressure has not been clearly elucidated.

Objective: To examine the effect of pressure on pain in an arthritic animal model.

Study Design: Controlled animal study.

Spherical hyperlens for two-dimensional sub-diffractional imaging at visible frequencies.

Hyperlenses have generated much interest recently, not only because of their intriguing physics but also for their ability to achieve sub-diffraction imaging in the far field in real time. All previous efforts have been limited to sub-wavelength confinement in one dimension only and at ultraviolet frequencies, hindering the use of hyperlenses in practical applications. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of far-field imaging at a visible wavelength, with resolution beyond the diffraction limit in two lateral dimensions.

Placement of alkanethiol-capped Au nanoparticles using organic solvents.

We report that alkanethiol-capped Au nanoparticles can be linearly placed by toluene with its physical properties as well as its wettability in the presence of the nanoparticles. It is visually confirmed that toluene can be pinned with the aid of the nanoparticles to transport the nanoparticles to pinned contacts and to form linear placements. Whether the nanoparticles in various solvents can be linearly placed or not is explained based on the results of evaporating the nanoparticle solutions and the physical properties of each solvent.

Compressing surface plasmons for nano-scale optical focusing.

A major challenge in optics is how to deliver and concentrate light from the micron-scale into the nano-scale. Light can not be guided, by conventional mechanisms, with optical beam sizes significantly smaller than its wavelength due to the diffraction limit. On the other hand, focusing of light into very small volumes beyond the diffraction limit can be achieved by exploiting the wavelength scalability of surface plasmon polaritons.