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Search results for: PHASE SEPARATION
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Defective TiO2 Core-Shell Magnetic Photocatalyst Modified with Plasmonic Nanoparticles for Visible Light-Induced Photocatalytic Activity
PublicationIn the presented work, for the first time, the metal-modified defective titanium(IV) oxide nanoparticles with well-defined titanium vacancies, was successfully obtained. Introducing platinum and copper nanoparticles (NPs) as surface modifiers of defective d-TiO2 significantly increased the photocatalytic activity in both UV-Vis and Vis light ranges. Moreover, metal NPs deposition on the magnetic core allowed for the effective separation...
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Profiling of polar ionogenic metabolites in Polish wines by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry
PublicationThe composition of wine is determined by a complex interaction between environmental factors, genetic factors (i.e., grape varieties), and winemaking practices (including technology and storage). Metabolomics using NMR spec-troscopy, GC-MS, and/or LC-MS has shown to be a useful approach for assessing the origin, authenticity, and quality of various wines. Nonetheless, the use of additional analytical techniques with complementary...
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Recent Advances in Nanocomposite Membranes for Organic Compound Remediation from Potable Waters
PublicationWater treatment is one of the main approaches for producing drinking water from contaminated water sources which is challenging due to the presence of a variety of substances requiring removal. The fabrication of nanocomposite membranes relies either on filling nanomaterials into polymeric phases before membrane fabrication, or coating of nanomaterials on the fabricated membrane surface. The removal of organic compounds from potable...
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INFORMATION ABOUT DYNAMICS OF THE SEA SURFACE AS A MEANS TO IMPROVE SAFETY OF THE UNMANNED VESSEL AT SEA
PublicationOne of the fundamental states of the sea surface is its heave. Despite of years of the intense scientific inquiry, no clear understanding of the influence of this aspect on the dynamics of the sea environment has emerged. The separation of two nearby fluid elements which one may observed for example as a free floating of small objects on the sea surface (rescuers on the rough sea or small research vessels) is caused by the interaction...
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Implicit Space Mapping for Variable-Fidelity EM-Driven Design of Compact Circuits
PublicationSpace mapping (SM) belongs to the most successful surrogate-based optimization (SBO) methods in microwave engineering. Among available SM variations, implicit SM (ISM) is particularly attractive due to its simplicity and separation of extractable surrogate model parameters and design variables of the circuit/system at hand. Unlike other SM approaches, ISM exploits a set of preassigned parameters to align the surrogate with the...
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Electromodulation and magnetomodulation of exciton dissociation in electron donor (starburst amine) : electron acceptor (bathocuproine) system
PublicationElectric field dependencies of electromodulated photoluminescence and photocurrents as well as the magnetic field effects on photocurrents, photovoltaic characteristics, electromodulated photoluminescence and photoluminescence have been investigated in vacuum evaporated films of m-MTDATA:BCP (4,4',4''-tris(N-(3-methylphenyl)-N-phenylamino)triphenylamine and bathocuproine) system. The electromodulation processes do remain in accordance...
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Linear viscoelastic modelling of damage-involved structural pounding during earthquakes
PublicationDamage-involved structural pounding during earthquakes has been recently intensively studied using different impact force models. The results of the previous studies indicate that the linear viscoelastic model is relatively simple yet accurate in modelling pounding-involved behaviour of structures during earthquakes. The only shortcoming of the model is a negative value of the pounding force occurring just before separation, which...
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Ultrasound assisted extraction
PublicationThe use of green and sustainable extraction techniques is very popular topic in the multidisciplinary area of chemistry, biology and technology. There is no doubt that extraction constitutes a very important step of analytical procedures of separation, detection, identification and determination of wide spectrum analytes from samples characterized by complex and very often nonhomogeneous composition of matrix. Traditional techniques...
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Spectral Clustering Wikipedia Keyword-Based search Results
PublicationThe paper summarizes our research in the area of unsupervised categorization of Wikipedia articles. As a practical result of our research, we present an application of spectral clustering algorithm used for grouping Wikipedia search results. The main contribution of the paper is a representation method for Wikipedia articles that has been based on combination of words and links and used for categoriation of search results in this...
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Comprehensive determination of flavouring additives and nicotine in e-cigarette refill solutions. Part I: Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis
PublicationLiquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (HPLC-ESI–MS/MS) methods were developed for the simultaneous determination of 42 flavouring compounds and nicotine in liquids for e-cigarettes. The chromatographic separation was performed using an Ace® Ultracore™ SuperC18™ (100 × 2.1 mm, 2.5 μm) column in both acidic and alkaline pH conditions to separate all the compounds. A simple “dilute & shoot” approach...
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Induction motor bearings diagnostic indicators based on MCSA and normalized triple covariance
PublicationInduction motors are one of the most widely used electrical machines. Statistics of bearing failures of induction motors indicate, that they constitute more than 40% of induction motor damage. Therefore, bearing diagnosis is so important for trouble-free work of induction motors. The most common methods of bearing diagnosis are based on vibration signal analysis. The main disadvantage of those methods is the need for physical access...
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Partial Admission Stages of High Efficiency for a Microturbine
PublicationThe paper presents the results of a design analysis of a microturbine for a cogeneration micro-power plant working in accordance with organic Rankine cycle. The heat power of the plant is assumed equal to 20kW and the corresponding available electric output is estimated to be about 3 kW. After the design analysis, the axial turbine with partial admission in all stages was built and tested experimentally. Special attentionwas paid...
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Partial Admission Stages of High Efficiency for a Microturbine
PublicationThe paper presents the results of a design analysis of a micro-turbine for a co-generation micro-power plant working in accordance with organic Rankine cycle. The heat power of the plant is assumed equal to 20kW and the corresponding available electric output is estimated to be about 3kW. After the design analysis, the axial turbine with partial admission in all stages was built and tested experimentally. Special attention was...
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Mass Spectrometry-Based Direct Analytical Techniques
PublicationDirect analysis of samples is considered as one of the most environmentally sustainable solutions in analytical chemistry. In the ideal case, such solutions do not require sample preparation and analytes separation steps, therefore do not consumpt harmful substances (or consumpt only minimum amounts of them) and do not generate hazardous waste. Technical solutions for direct analysis also offer miniaturized and field-portable analyzers...
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Effect of the Catalytic Center on the Electron Transfer Dynamics in Hydrogen-Evolving Ruthenium-Based Photocatalysts Investigated by Theoretical Calculations
PublicationThe light-induced relaxation pathways in the molecular photocatalyst [(tbbpy)2Ru(tpphz)PtCl2]2+ are investigated with time-dependent density functional theory calculations together with the Marcus theory of electron transfer (ET). The calculations show that metal (Ru) to ligand (tpphz) charge transfer (MLCT) triplet states are populated following an excitation in the longer wavelength range of the absorption spectrum, but that an...
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An improved scalable method of isolating asphaltenes
PublicationA new, improved and scalable procedure of asphaltene fraction isolation is presented and compared to standard test methods. The new procedure uses 1:40 feedstock to solvent (n-heptane) ratio (g/mL), filtration through a cellulosic thimble and extensive washing in a Soxhlet type extractor. The group type composition and purity of the asphaltene fractions have been examined using thin-layer chromatography with flame-ionization detection....
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Storing Matter’technique in SIMS depth profile analysis
PublicationSecondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is a very useful technique for the analysis of layered systems. It is based on the primary ion beam sputtering of solids and mass analysis of the emitted secondary ions. A main limitation of this technique results from the direct quantitative analysis, since the ionization efficiency of a given atom is highly influenced by the neighbouring atoms at the surface. This phenomenon is known as...
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Determination of parent and methylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water samples by dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction–two dimensional gas chromatography–time-of-flight mass spectrometry
PublicationPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are contaminants frequently found in environmental waters. Owing to their toxic effects, it is important to develop analytical methodologies that allow their fast and reliable determination. Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) allows a quick extraction of analytes with little organic solvent consumption. The best results regarding sample preparation are obtained when 40 mL of...
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SAWING PROCESS AS A NEW ALTERNATIVE WAY OF DETERMINING SOME WOOD PROPERTIES
PublicationCutting forces (power) could be considered from a point of view of modern fracture mechanics. The developed cutting model, derived from fracture mechanics, includes work of separation (fracture toughness) in addition to plasticity and friction, and also dullness of the cutting edge described by the cutting edge radius. Moreover, forecasting of the shear plane angle for the cutting models, broaden possibilities of energetic effects...
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Reducing common mode voltage and bearing currents in quasi - resonant DC - link inverter
PublicationIn the paper, a concept of separation of an inverter-fed induction motor drive from its mains supply by two transistor switches inserted in the dc-link circuit is reexamined based on the proposed parallel quasi-resonant dc-link inverter (PQRDCLI). The objective of the paper is to show an advantage of the proposed topology in limiting high frequency common mode voltage and bearing currents. In the laboratory setup, an induction...
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Economics of credit scoring management
PublicationCredit scoring models constitute an inevitable element of modern risk and profitability management in retail financial lending institutions. Quality,or separation power of a credit scoring model is usually assessed with the Gini coefficient. Generally, the higher Gini coefficient the better, as in this way a bank can increase number of good customers and/or reject more bad applicants. In...
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Low-power microwave-induced fabrication of functionalised few-layer black phosphorus electrodes: A novel route towards Haemophilus Influenzae pathogen biosensing devices
PublicationIn this paper, various passivation schemes were applied at few-layer black phosphorus (FLBP) to achieve covalent functionalisation with 4-azidobenzoic acid, improving its electrochemical response intended for analytical and biosensing applications. The thermal and microwave assisted modification procedures in toluene and dime-thylformamide resulted in high reversibility of reactions on functionalised FLBP using a ferricyanide/ferrocya-nide...
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Metal-Organic Framework (MOF)/Epoxy Coatings: A Review
PublicationEpoxy coatings are developing fast in order to meet the requirements of advanced materials and systems. Progress in nanomaterial science and technology has opened a new era of engineering for tailoring the bulk and surface properties of organic coatings, e.g., adhesion to the substrate, anti-corrosion, mechanical, flame-retardant, and self-healing characteristics. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a subclass of coordinative polymers...
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Femtosecond Er-doped fiber laser source tunable from 872 to 1075 nm for two-photon vision studies in humans
PublicationWe report the development of a widely-tunable femtosecond fiber laser system and its application for two-photon vision studies. The source is based on an Er-doped fiber laser with spectral shift up to 2150 nm, followed by a second harmonic generation module to generate a frequency-doubled beam tunable from 872 to 1075 nm. The source delivers sub-230 fs pulses with nearly-constant duration over the entire tuning range, with output...
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Synthesis, characterization, and application of 2D/2D TiO2-GO-ZnFe2O4 obtained by the fluorine-free lyophilization method for solar light-driven photocatalytic degradation of ibuprofen
PublicationIn this study, we report the potential of 2D/2D TiO2- GO-ZnFe2O4 photocatalyst obtained using the fluorine-free lyophilization technique for the degradation of ibuprofen belonging to the group of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). The improved ibuprofen degradation under simulated solar light was achieved in the presence of a composite of 2D TiO2 combined with GO and embedded ZnFe2O4, which additionally provides superparamagnetic...
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Information content of systems as a physical principle
PublicationTo explain the conceptual gap between classical and quantum and other, hypothetical descriptions of the world, several principles have been proposed. So far, all these principles have not explicitly included the uncertainty relation. Here we introduce an information content principle ( ICP ) which represents a constrained uncertainty principle. The principle, by taking into account the encoding and decoding properties of a single physical...
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Levels of 13 multi-class pesticide residues in Polish honeys determined by LC-ESI-MS/MS
PublicationLevels of 13 pesticides in 40 honey samples form Poland are reported. A rapid and sensitive method was developed for the LC-ESI-MS/MS determination of multi-class pesticide residues in honey samples. Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) on a diatomaceous earth support (requiring the use of small amounts of organic solvent), followed by chromatographic separation on a C18 column and gradient elution were employed. The method quantifies...
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Speciation of heavy metal compounds in samples of biota from marine ecosystems
PublicationIt has become increasingly evident that the toxicity, mobility, bioavailability and bioaccumulation of metals are dependent on the particular physico-chemical form in which the element occurs in the environment. Special attention is paid to metals, which are essential for the proper functioning of organisms if present in appropriate amounts but are toxic if in excess (i.e. Se, Cr, Zn), and also to non-essential elements (i.e. Hg,...
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Determination of cyanide in urine and saliva samples by ion chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection
PublicationCommonly known as a highly toxic chemical, cyanide is also an essential reagent for many industrial processes. It naturally occurs in plant seeds as a cyanogenic glycosides. Another relatively common mode of cyanide exposure is inhalation of environmental tobacco smoke. This study concerns importance to determine cyanide ion in human biological samples. Urine and saliva samples were collected healthy volunteers exposed to tobacco...
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On the crack front curvature in bonded joints
PublicationStandard tests of adhesively bonded specimens are likely to produce heterogeneous stress distribution along the crack front and its vicinity. High separation rate mode I dominated fracture test is performed.Observation of post mortem fractured surfaces with an optical microscope reveals characteristic features of mixed mode I/III fracture near the sides of the specimen but not in the middle. At first, finite elements calculations...
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A novel method for drop in drop edible oils encapsulation with chitosan using a coaxial technique
PublicationThe presented work concerns a novel one step method for oil encapsulation. In this coaxial system the oil constitutes the core of the capsule, while the chitosan solution is the polymer shell surrounding the core to provide separation of the core from the external environment. The paper contains a diagram of the encapsulation equipment and explains the principle of its operation. The experimental results showed the impact of the...
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How to model ROC curves - a credit scoring perspective
PublicationROC curves, which derive from signal detection theory, are widely used to assess binary classifiers in various domains. The AUROC (area under the ROC curve) ratio or its transformations (the Gini coefficient) belong to the most widely used synthetic measures of the separation power of classification models, such as medical diagnostic tests or credit scoring. Frequently a need arises to model an ROC curve. In the biostatistical...
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AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF DETERMINING MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD BY MEASURING CUTTING FORCES
PublicationThe cutting force is an energetic effect of splitting material, and might be therefore considered from a point of view of modern fracture mechanics. The dedicated mathematical model developed for description of the wood cutting has been developed here on the base of fracture theory, and includes work of separation (fracture toughness) in addition to the material plasticity and friction. The effect of the cutting edge dullness is...
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Numerical study on pounding between two adjacent buildings under earthquake excitation
PublicationSeismic excitation, which results in large horizontal relative displacements, may cause collisions between two adjacent structures due to insufficient separation distance between them. Such collisions, known as earthquake-induced structural pounding, may induce severe damages. In this paper, the case of pounding between two adjacent buildings is studied by the application of single degree-of-freedom structural models. Impact is...
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Disaster-Resilient Routing Schemes for Regional Failures
PublicationLarge-scale natural disasters can have a profound effect on the telecommunication services in the affected geographical area. Hence, it is important to develop routing approaches that may help in circumventing damaged regional areas of a network. This prompted the development of geographically diverse routing schemes and also of disaster-risk aware routing schemes. A minimum-cost geodiverse routing, where a minimum geographical...
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Chemical Composition of Atmospheric Air in Nemoral Scots Pine Forests and Submountainous Beech Forests: The Potential Region for the Introduction of Forest Therapy
PublicationStudies show that forests are one of the main recreational destinations. This can be explained by their beneficial effects on the health of their visitors, which can be attributed to compounds from the terpene group. The aim of this research was to determine the chemical composition of air in the interiors of Nemoral Scots pine forests and submountainous beech forests, with the determination of compounds of the terpene group. Samples...
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Adhesive Monitoring with Instrumented Wedge Test
PublicationThe wedge test (sometimes called the Boeing wedge test) is amongst the most readily exploitable techniques for assessment of the rate-dependent fracture energy of adhesive materials when used to bond relatively rigid substrates. With its siblings: the double cantilever beam (DCB), and the tapered double cantilever beam (TDCB), a force is applied, essentially in cleavage, to provoke substrate separation perpendicularly to the bondline...
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Computed aided system for separation and classification of the abnormal erythrocytes in human blood
PublicationThe human peripheral blood consists of cells (red cells, white cells, and platelets) suspended in plasma. In the following research the team assessed an influence of nanodiamond particles on blood elements over various periods of time. The material used in the study consisted of samples taken from ten healthy humans of various age, different blood types and both sexes. The markings were leaded by adding to the blood unmodified...
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The potential of imogolite nanotubes as (co-)photocatalysts: a linear-scaling density functional theory study
PublicationWe report a linear-scaling density functional theory (DFT) study of the structure, wall-polarization absolute band-alignment and optical absorption of several, recently synthesized, open-ended imogolite (Imo) nanotubes (NTs), namely single-walled (SW) aluminosilicate (AlSi), SW aluminogermanate (AlGe), SW methylated aluminosilicate (AlSi-Me), and double-walled (DW) AlGe NTs. Simulations with three different semi-local and dispersion-corrected...
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Ongoing Progress on Pervaporation Membranes for Ethanol Separation
PublicationEthanol, a versatile chemical extensively employed in several fields, including fuel production, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, and chemical manufacturing, continues to witness expanding applications. Consequently, there is an ongoing need for cost-effective and environmentally friendly purification technologies for this organic compound in both diluted (ethanol-water–) and concentrated solutions (water-ethanol–)....
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Laser-assisted modification of titanium dioxide nanotubes in a tilted mode as surface modification and patterning strategy
PublicationElectrochemical anodization is regarded as a facile and easily scalable fabrication method of titania nanotubes (TiO2NTs). However, due to the extended duration of calcination and further modifications, much faster alternatives are highly required. As a response to growing interest in laser modification of nanotube arrays, a comprehensive investigation of pulsed-laser irradiation and its effect onto TiO2NT properties has been carried out....
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Deep learning based thermal image segmentation for laboratory animals tracking
PublicationAutomated systems for behaviour classification of laboratory animals are an attractive alternative to manual scoring. However, the proper animals separation and tracking, especially when they are in close contact, is the bottleneck of the behaviour analysis systems. In this paper, we propose a method for the segmentation of thermal images of laboratory rats that are in close contact during social behaviour tests. For this, we are...
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Experimental and DFT insights into an eco-friendly photocatalytic system toward environmental remediation and hydrogen generation based on AgInS2 quantum dots embedded on Bi2WO6
PublicationBismuth tungstate (Bi2WO6) can work as a photocatalyst but suffers from rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. Herein, density functional theory (DFT) simulations revealed that the formation of a thermodynamically stable AgInS2(112)/Bi2WO6(010) heterojunction could promote charge separation and enhance the photoactivity of Bi2WO6. To confirm these theoretical predictions, a new type of photocatalysts in the form...
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Application of g-C3N4/ZnO nanocomposites for fabrication of anti-fouling polymer membranes with dye and protein rejection superiority
PublicationPolysulfone (PSf) membranes are privileged for water and wastewater treatment, but because of their hydrophobic nature, they suffer from fouling, which lowers their performance and lifetime. In this work, g-C3N4 and g-C3N4/ZnO nanomaterials were synthesized via a hydrothermal method to modify the PSf membrane for effective dye separation and reduction of organic fouling. Since g-C3N4/ZnO possesses –OH and –NH reactive groups, g-C3N4/ZnO/PSf...
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Influence of separation gap on the response of colliding models of steel structures under seismic and paraseismic excitations
PublicationAs a result of high urbanization, the need to erect closely-spaced buildings forces designers to consider collisions between structures taking place during ground motions. Experimental and numerical studies have confirmed that such collisions (often referred to as structural pounding) may cause serious damage to the structural elements and even lead to total collapse of colliding structures. The main reason of earthquake-induced...
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Magnetic semiconductor photocatalysts for the degradation of recalcitrant chemicals from flow back water
PublicationIn the present study treatability of persistent organic compounds from the flow back water after hydrauling fracturing was investigated. The combination of TiO2 photocatalyst and magnetic oxide nanoparticles enhance the separation and recoverable property of nanosized TiO2 photocatalyst. Fe3O4/ TiO2 and Fe3O4@SiO2/TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by heteroagglomeration. The photocatalysts’ characteristics by X-ray diffractometry...
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Boron-Enhanced Growth of Micron-Scale Carbon-Based Nanowalls: A Route toward High Rates of Electrochemical Biosensing
PublicationIn this study, we have demonstrated the fabrication of novel materials called boron-doped carbon nanowalls (B:CNWs), which are characterized by remarkable electrochemical properties such as high standard rate constant (k°), low peak-to-peak separation value (ΔE) for the oxidation and reduction processes of the [Fe(CN)6]3–/4– redox system, and low surface resistivity. The B:CNW samples were deposited by the microwave plasma-assisted...
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Characterization of glucoamylase immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles
PublicationMagnetic support was prepared by precipitation from an alkaline solution of divalent and trivalent iron ions and subsequently was modified with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. FTIR analysis showed existence of a new Si-O-Fe bond in obtained particles. Scanning electronic microscopy images shows that the nanoparticles of all samples have particle size below 30 nm. Glucoamylase AMG 300L was immobilized onto the modified magnetic support...
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A palatal prosthesis from archaeological research in the St Francis of Assisi church in Cracow (Poland)
PublicationThe hard palate is a septum that not only prevents food from entering between the oral and nasal cavity, but also plays an important role during breathing or speech. The presence of cavities within it negatively affects the comfort of life of people with this type of impairment. Hence, in the literature one can find examples of the use of hard palate prostheses to restore the separation between the nasal and oral cavity. During...
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Crystal Facet Engineering of TiO2 from Theory to Application
PublicationRecently, the surface structure effect on photocatalytic activity has gathered increasing attention due to its reported influence on the charge carrier trapping and separation. Detailed control over the surface structure can be achieved by exposing the specific crystal facets. As a result, the photogenerated electrons and holes can be effectively separated between the different facets of semiconductor crystals. TiO2 is the most...