Facile synthesis of nanostructured WO3 thin films and their characterization for ethanol sensing.

A simple technique to fabricate nanostructured WO3 thin films onto conductomeric transducers has been employed for ethanol sensing application. Initially, pure tungsten (W) thin films were deposited onto the substrate employing RF sputterer and followed by an etching process. Three types of etching agent were used: nitric (HNO3), sulphuric (H2SO4), and phosphoric (H3PO4) acid. It was found that the surface morphology and crystallinity of the WO3 films were heavily dependant to the etchants employed during the fabrication process. The developed sensors were tested towards ethanol vapor of different concentrations (10–200 ppm) at temperatures between room and 450 °C. The sensors showed stable and reproducible response at optimum operating temperatures. High sensor response towards vaporized ethanol as well as fast τres and τrec was observed during the “adsorption” and “desorption” interval. The recorded maximum response for these devices when exposed towards 100 ppm ethanol was measured to be 8 (Ro = 4.6 kΩ), 5.8 (Ro = 22.5 GΩ), and 5 (Ro = 0.29 MΩ) for HNO3, H3PO4, and H2SO4, respectively. The optimum operating temperatures were determined to be 400, 300–380, and 360 °C for the sensors developed using HNO3, H3PO4, and H2SO4, respectively

Optical H2 sensing properties of vertically aligned Pd/WO3 nanorods thin films deposited via glancing angle rf magnetron sputtering

In this work, the optical H2-sensing properties of Pd/tungsten trioxide (WO3) nanorods prepared by rf magnetron sputtering with glancing-angle deposition (GLAD) technique are investigated. From grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopic characterizations, annealed WO3 structure deposited on a quartz substrate at glancing angle of 85° exhibited polycrystalline monoclinic crystal structure with uniform partially isolated columnar nanorod morphology. The nanorods have the average length, diameter and rod separation of around 400 nm, 50 nm and 20 nm, respectively. The developed sensors show remarkable gasochromic absorbance response when exposed to H2. Cumulative absorbance in 650–1000 nm wavelength range is increased by approximately 51% toward H2 with 0.1% concentration in synthetic air, which is more than an order of magnitude higher than that of WO3 dense film prepared by conventional sputtering method. Moreover, WO3 nanorod based sensor is much more promising for practical use due to its much faster response. Therefore, the developed Pd/WO3 nanorod based optical sensors are highly potential for low H2 concentration sensing with highly sensitivity, fast and stable responses and low operating temperature

Sensing performance of modified single mode optical fiber coated with nanomaterials based ammonia sensors operated in the C-band

An etched tapered single mode optical fiber (SMF) coated with polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers is developed to detect ammonia (NH3) in low concentrations. The SMF is etched with hydrofluoric acid (HF) and subsequently tapered using a glass processing workstation. The etched tapered SMF is coated with PANI via spray-coating deposition. This SMF modification significantly enhances the interaction of the evanescent field of the light propagating in the core with the PANI-sensing layer. The modified fiber sensor response is investigated by exposing the sensor to different concentrations of NH3 over the C-band wavelengths of 1535–1565 nm. Integrating the modified optical fiber with the nanostructured PANI films produces highly sensitive optical sensor that operates at room temperature. The 50 μm etched tapered SMF coated with PANI produced response, recovery times, and sensitivity of 58 s, 475 s, and 231.5%, respectively, in the C-band range. The limit of detection of the modified fiber sensor was 0.0025%, which is equal to 25 ppm. The developed sensor exhibits good repeatability, reversibility, and selectivity

High sensitivity microfiber interferometer sensor in aqueous solution

The need for environmental protection and water pollution control has led to the development of different sensors for determining many kinds of pollutants in water. Ammonia nitrogen presence is an important indicator of water quality in environmental monitoring applications. In this paper, a high sensitivity sensor for monitoring ammonia nitrogen concentration in water using a tapered microfiber interferometer (MFI) as a sensor platform and a broad supercontinuum laser as the light source is realized. The MFI is fabricated to the waist diameter of 8 µm producing a strong interference pattern due to the coupling of the fundamental mode with the cladding mode. The MFI sensor is investigated for a low concentration of ammonia nitrogen in water in the wide wavelength range from 1500–1800 nm with a high-power signal provided by the supercontinuum source. The broad source allows optical sensing characteristics of the MFI to be evaluated at four different wavelengths (1505, 1605, 1705, and 1785 nm) upon exposure towards various ammonia nitrogen concentrations. The highest sensitivity of 0.099 nm/ppm that indicates the wavelength shift is observed at 1785 nm operating wavelength. The response is linear in the ammonia nitrogen range of 5–30 ppm with the best measurement resolution calculated to be 0.5 ppm. The low concentration ammonia nitrogen detected by the MFI in the unique infrared region reveals the potential application of this optical fiber-based sensor for rivers and drinking water monitoring

Sensitive and selective detection of DNA fragments associated with Ganoderma boninense by DNA-nanoparticle conjugate hybridisation

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2020-05-04, accepted 2020-07-05, registration 2020-07-05, pub-electronic 2020-07-20, online 2020-07-20, pub-print 2020-10Publication status: PublishedFunder: Newton Fund; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010897; Grant(s): British Council 216196834Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266; Grant(s): EP/K024485/1Funder: Higher Education Funding Council for England; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100011722; Grant(s): N8 Agrifood NetworkAbstract: A colourimetric assay for the detection of DNA fragments associated with the oil palm pathogen Ganoderma boninense and other fungi DNA is reported. The assay is based on the aggregation of DNA-nanoparticle conjugates in the presence of complementary DNA from the target organism. Here, various designs of DNA-nanoparticle conjugates were evaluated, and it was found that the best design gave a visually observable colour change with as little as 2 pmol of double-stranded DNA analyte even in the presence of a large excess of a mixture of non-complementary DNA. Overall, this label-free system is rapid, sensitive, selective, simple in design, and easy to carry out. It does not require specialist equipment or specialist training for the interpretation of the results, and therefore has the potential to be deployed for agricultural diagnostics in the field. Graphic abstract: Development of a colourimetric assay based on DNA-nanoparticle conjugates for the oil palm pathogen Ganoderma boninense

Приклади завдань для позакласної роботи з інформатики у початковій школі

У статті коротко описана методика проведення позакласної роботи з інформатики у початковій школі

Antioxidant and Wound Healing Activity of Polyherbal Fractions of Clinacanthus nutans

Elephantopus scaber and Clinacanthus nutans are traditionally used as wound healing herb. The objective of the present study is to develop a new polyherbal formulation, by comparison, the herbal combination of Elephantopus scaber and Clinacanthus nutans as an in vitro antioxidant activity with their individual herbal activity followed by fractionation of polyherbal formulation for in vivo wound healing activities and identification of bioactive compounds from their active fractions. Antioxidant activity was performed in vitro by DPPH scavenging antioxidant activity followed by in vivo wound healing activities using excision wound model, incision wound model, and burn wound model. Toxicity of the fractions of the polyherbal formulation was performed by a dermal toxicity test. The result showed that Elephantopus scaber crude extract on the basis of EC50 performs a much faster action (15.67 μg/mL) but with less % inhibition (87.66%) as compared to the combination of the new polyherbal formulation of crude extract (30 μg/mL). The polyherbal formulation has the highest % inhibition (89.49%) at the same dose as compared to Elephantopus scaber (87.66%). In comparison among all crude and fractions of new polyherbal formulation, it was found that the ethyl acetate fraction of polyherbal formulation has the fastest activity (EC50 14.83 μg/mL) with % inhibition (89.28%). Furthermore, during evaluation of wound contraction on excision and incision wound model, ethyl acetate fraction possesses the highest activity with (P < 0.001) and (P < 0.0001), respectively. During burn wound model, aqueous fraction (P < 0.001) possesses the highest activity followed by an ethyl acetate fraction (P < 0.0001). LC-MS analysis discovered the presence of several flavonoid-based compounds that work synergistically with sesquiterpene lactone and other bioactive compounds. In conclusion, flavonoid increases the antioxidant activity that surges the rate of wound contraction and works synergistically with other bioactive compounds

Polymer Pen Lithography-Fabricated DNA Arrays for Highly Sensitive and Selective Detection of Unamplified Ganoderma Boninense DNA

There is an increasing demand for lithography methods to enable the fabrication of diagnostic devices for the biomedical and agri-food sectors. In this regard, scanning probe lithography methods have emerged as a possible approach for this purpose, as they are not only convenient, robust and accessible, but also enable the deposition of “soft” materials such as complex organic molecules and biomolecules. In this report, the use of polymer pen lithography for the fabrication of DNA oligonucleotide arrays is described, together with the application of the arrays for the sensitive and selective detection of Ganoderma boninense, a fungal pathogen of the oil palm. When used in a sandwich assay format with DNA-conjugated gold nanoparticles, this system is able to generate a visually observable result in the presence of the target DNA. This assay is able to detect as little as 30 ng of Ganoderma-derived DNA without any pre-amplification and without the need for specialist laboratory equipment or training

Sensitive and Selective Detection of DNA Fragments Associated with Ganoderma Boninense by DNA-Nanoparticle Conjugate Hybridisation

A colorimetric assay for the detection of DNA fragments associated with the oil palm pathogen Ganoderma boninense is reported, which is based on the aggregation of DNA-nanoparticle conjugated in the presence of complementary DNA from the pathogen. Here, various designs of DNA-nanoparticle conjugates were evaluated, and it was found that the best design gave a visually observable colour change with as little as 2 pmol of double-stranded DNA analyte even in the presence of a large excess of a mixture of non-complementary DNA. The assay was also able to differentiate analyte sequences with three or more single nucleotide mismatches. Overall, this label-free system is rapid, sensitive, selective, simple in design and easy to carry out. It does not require specialist equipment or specialist training for the interpretation of the results and therefore has the potential to be deployed of agricultural diagnostics in the field.</u