Template Assistance Research Articles

Experimental validation of the accuracy of robotic-assisted radioactive seed implantation for tumor treatment.

An experimental validation of a robotic system for radioactive iodine-125 seed implantation (RISI) in tumor treatment was conducted using customized phantom models and animal models simulating liver and lung lesions. The robotic system, consisting of planning, navigation, and implantation modules, was employed to implant dummy radioactive seeds into the models. Fiducial markers were used for target localization. In phantom experiments across 40 cases, the mean errors between planned and actual seed positions were 0.98±1.05mm, 1.14±0.62mm, and 0.90±1.05mm in the x, y, and z directions, respectively. The x, y, and z directions correspond to the left-right, anterior-posterior, and superior-inferior anatomical planes. Silicone phantoms exhibiting significantly smaller x-axis errors compared to liver and lung phantoms (p<0.05). Template assistance significantly reduced errors in all axes (p<0.05). No significant dosimetric deviations were observed in parameters such as D90, V100, and V150 between plans and post-implant doses (p>0.05). In animal experiments across 23 liver and lung cases, the mean implantation errors were 1.28±0.77mm, 1.66±0.69mm, and 1.86±0.93mm in the x, y, and z directions, slightly higher than in phantoms (p<0.05), with no significant differences between liver and lung models. The dosimetric results closely matched planned values, confirming the accuracy of the robotic system for RISI, offering new possibilities in clinical tumor treatment.

Single-step synthesis of ternary metal chalcogenides (sf-CuInS2 and sf-CuInSe2) stripped off the organic cover and their use as a catalyst for symmetric Glaser-Hay coupling reactions.

Generally, inorganic nano/microparticles produced by chemical routes are covered by organic surfactants or polymers to control their agglomeration during their synthesis. However, these surfactants and polymers negatively affect their catalytic activity because these molecules mask the surface. This work presents the synthesis of surfactant-free CuInS2 and CuInSe2 (sf-CuInS2 and sf-CuInSe2) nano/microparticles through simple reactions without surfactant or polymer coatings using LiBH4 under a thermodynamically favourable condition. These reactions are rare observations of a single-step process to produce ternary metal chalcogenides without any template assistance. We have also demonstrated efficient catalysis by sf-CuInS2 nanoparticles in the coupling reaction of substituted phenylacetylenes. We tested it as catalysts in dimerizing 1,3-diyne derivatives while using 8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) as the base. These Glassar-Hay coupling reactions are conducted at room temperature in acetonitrile (4-7 h, depending on the substrate) using 10 mg of sf-CuInS2. The maximum yield obtained in these reactions is 97%, while the catalyst is reusable for five cycles with little difference in its ability to catalyse. The effectiveness of the catalyst is credited to the availability of a free catalytic surface.

Image-guided permanent I-125 seed implantation for refractory head-and-neck carcinoma in China: A comprehensive review of contemporary technical and clinical aspects

Permanent I-125 seed implantation is one of the most commonly used brachytherapy (BT) forms, potentially applicable to almost any solid tumor as a standalone anti-tumor therapy or in combination with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). The main advantage of I-125 seed implantation BT is its ability to deliver a high radiation dose within target volumes while maintaining a sharp dose drop-off profile, thereby protecting adjacent normal tissue. The clinical use of I-125 seed implantation in China has significantly increased in the past decades due to the application of an image-guided BT treatment planning system with reverse optimization capabilities and 3D printing individual template (3D-PIT) assistance. Computed tomography-guided I-125 seed implantation became a widely common modality of BT and has been used in many clinical settings for a variety of refractory cancer in China since 2002. The application has been expanded significantly not only for prostate cancer as monotherapy but also in combination with EBRT for the salvage treatment for refractory/recurrent head-and-neck carcinoma (HNC). With the assistance of 3D-PIT, since 2015, the quality control of I-125 seed implantation has been significantly adapted with high precision and real-time dose optimization. This review aims to summarize the developments and status of 3D-PIT-based I-125 seed implantation BT for the treatment of refractory HNC and standardized workflow in China.

MoSe2 hollow nanospheres with expanded selenide interlayers for high-performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) as materials for aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have received a lot of interest because of their large theoretical capacity and unique layered structure. However, the sluggish kinetics and inferior cyclic stability limit the usefulness of ZIBs. In the present investigation, the interlayer spacing enlarged MoSe2 hollow nanospheres comprised of nanosheets with ultrathin shells have been successfully synthesized through a combined strategy of template assistance and anion-exchange reaction. The hierarchical ultrathin nanosheets and hollow structure effectively suppress the agglomeration of pure nanosheets and ameliorate volume fluctuations induced by ion migration during (dis)charging/charging. The interlayer expansion provides good channels for the transport of Zn2+ ions and speeds up the insertion/extraction of Zn2+. In addition, in-situ carbon modification can significantly improve electronic conductivity. Therefore, the electrode prepared from MoSe2 hollow nanospheres with enlarged interlayer spacing not only exhibits outstanding cycle stability (capacity retention of 94.5% after 1600 cycles) but also exhibits high-rate capability (266.1 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 and 203.6 mA h g−1 at 3 A g−1). This work could provide new insights into the design of cathode using TMDs of hollow structure for Zn2+ storage.

Dual template induced assembly of 2D nanosheets to 3D porous Mo2C/NiFe-NC networkers for electromagnetic wave absorption

Developing high-performance materials with ultrathin matching thickness for electromagnetic wave absorption (EMW) is essential for the commercialization of electromagnetic devices, but it is still formidably challenging. In this work, Mo2C/NiFe-NC networker with small Mo2C grains, NiFe alloy coated by graphitized carbon (NiFe-NC), and N-doped carbon matrix are constructed by free-drying and dual template strategy. With the assistance of hard template (salt, NaCl)) and soft template (urea), the ultrathin 2D layered carbon nanosheets produced by pyrolysis are assembled into a 3D hierarchical porous network. The designed Mo2C/NiFe-NC networker exhibits a hierarchical porous structure, 3D network skeleton, heterogeneous interface, abundant heteroatom doping, and magnetic NiFe alloy, which inherits good dielectric loss (dipole polarization, interfacial polarization, and conduction loss), magnetic loss (natural resonance and exchange resonance) and considerable impedance matching characteristics. Impressively, the well-designed Mo2C/NiFe-NC networker enables a reflection loss (RL) value of −51.56 dB at an ultrathin matching thickness of 1.4 mm. Furthermore, the effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL ≤ −10 dB) is up to 3.7 GHz. Importantly, the EAB in the matching thickness range of 1–5 mm is as high as 14.6 GHz, covering the entire C-band, X-band, and Ku-band. This work may open a key avenue for high-performance EMW absorption materials via a dual template assistance strategy.

Application of optimized convolutional neural networks for early aided diagnosis of essential tremor: Automatic handwriting recognition and feature analysis.

Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common neurological disorders, and its mainly clinical symptoms, including patient hand's kinetic tremor, dystonia, ataxia, etc., would influence the daily life of patients inordinately. Current ET diagnosis highly replies on the clinical evaluation and neurological examination, so the objective measurement indicators are particularly important in the auxiliary diagnosis of ET. In this research, the Archimedes spiral line freehand sketching samples without template assistance is collected and the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model of optimized structure is adopted to fully analyze the tremor, spacing of turns, shape, etc. shown in the handwriting samples of patients with ET, including the following main process: characteristics extraction, model visualization and subregional relevance evaluation. Dropout is used as a regularization technique in the network structure. The test group consisted of 50 patients with confirmed ET and the control group consisted of 40 healthy individuals. The main research objectives of this paper comprise two points: on the one hand, to achieve effective automatic classification of patients with ET and healthy controls using a scheme combining deep learning and simple hand mapping for the purpose of primary disease screening; on the other hand, to design sub-regional automatic classification experiments to demonstrate that Archimedean spiral hand drawings of patients with ET do have distinct local features, and to lay the experimental foundation for future hand drawing-based automatic aid for the identification of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. Our model's average accuracy rate in test set reaches 89.3%, and average AUC is 0.972, with favorable stability and generalization performance. Besides, subregional characteristics recognition proofs that the spiral line samples of most of the patients with ET show more category-related characteristics in the local area of upper right, which provides evidences and theory update for predecessors' medical research.

Fabrication of CuMn2O4/Co3O4 nanocomposite heterojunctions for efficacious visible light-induced degradation of antibiotics

The synthesis and design of heterojunction nanocomposites with remarkable photocatalytic performance remains a challenge. In this work, the fabrication of CuMn2O4/Co3O4 nanocomposite heterojunctions has been addressed for efficacious visible-light-induced degradation of tetracycline (TC). A facile sol-gel strategy with soft template assistance was utilized to synthesize mesoporous Co3O4 frameworks and then CuMn2O4 NPs were impregnated to obtain mesoporous CuMn2O4/Co3O4 nanocomposites. TEM images of CuMn2O4/Co3O4 nanocomposite revealed a homogeneous shape with a particle size of 10 nm. The degradation efficiency of CuMn2O4/Co3O4 nanocomposites exhibited significant enhancement and achieved 100% within 75 min. The 9%CuMn2O4/Co3O4 photocatalyst exhibited the highest TC degradation ability, which was enhanced 1.6 times that of pure Co3O4 NPs, and its rate constant was up to 2.35-times compared with the pure Co3O4 NPs. The photocatalytic ability of CuMn2O4/Co3O4 nanocomposites was significantly promoted due to their construction of heterojunction, the synergistic effect between CuMn2O4 and Co3O4, the enlarged surface area, strengthened effective charge mobility and narrowed bandgap energy. The CuMn2O4/Co3O4 nanocomposite was reusable and quite stable during the TC photodegradation process, even after five times repeatedly. This work shows research ideas and technical approaches for the photodegradation of antibiotics during the construction of heterojunction nanocomposites.

Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Surfaces Using Inverted Glancing Angle Deposition (I-GLAD)

Abstract This paper presents a novel approach for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces using inverted glancing angle deposition (I-GLAD). GLAD is an advanced physical vapor deposition technique that utilizes substrate tilt and rotation to create three-dimensional nanofeature arrays. Unlike conventional top-down nanofabrication methods, GLAD offers unique advantages in generating various nanofeatures such as pillars, springs, chevrons, ribbons, and nanoporous membranes. Superhydrophobicity, inspired by natural examples like lotus leaves and cicada wings, relies on highly porous micro/nanostructures that reduce surface energy and impart water-repellent properties. GLAD’s capability to produce hierarchical and porous nanostructures makes it an ideal candidate for superhydrophobic surface fabrication. Previous researches have proposed GLAD processes for superhydrophobic surfaces; however, these approaches suffer from flaws such as being time-consuming or requiring challenging template assistance. In this paper, we introduce a new I-GLAD approach for creating superhydrophobic surfaces that eliminates the need for a seeding layer and an additional coating, simplifying the fabrication process. The fabrication process of I-GLAD includes natural seeding, growing, capping, and inverting. The resulting superhydrophobic surfaces exhibit a high water contact angle of over 155 deg. We further explore additional GLAD recipes to create surfaces with different water contact angles, enabling a comprehensive analysis of superhydrophobic properties. Potential applications for superhydrophobic surfaces include anti-icing coatings, self-cleaning surfaces, and antimicrobial surfaces.

Analysis of structural morphological changes from 3DOM V2O5 film to V2O5 nanorods film and its application in electrochromic device

Nanoscale V 2 O 5 films possess excellent electrochemical properties and have great potential for application in electrochromic devices. Herein, we report a novel strategy for the transformation of three-dimensionally ordered macroporous(3DOM) V 2 O 5 films into V 2 O 5 nanorods film using a simple low-temperature annealing treatment, in which the heterogeneous nucleation sites provided by PS colloidal sphere surface, the anisotropic bonding of V 2 O 5 , atomic rearrangement, and Ostwald ripening are all important factors affecting the morphological transformation. According to this study, during the preparation of 3DOM V 2 O 5 films, a small number of oxygen vacancies were introduced into the V 2 O 5 lattice, and the annealing treatment (250–400 °C, 4–8 h) controlled the concentration of oxygen vacancies. Compared with the ion storage capacity of V 2 O 5 films prepared by conventional sol-gel dip-coating method (17.79 mC cm −2 for unannealed V 2 O 5 films and 13.90 mC cm −2 for V 2 O 5 films after 6 h of annealing at 350 °C), the 350°C-6h films with nanorod structure had the highest ion-storage performance, the initial value raised to 98.77 mC cm −2 . Further, the cycling stability was excellent, with only a 6.1% decrease after 5000 cycles. This was because of the special nanorod structure and the presence of a certain number of gradient oxygen vacancies in the 350°C-6h film. The 350°C-6h film also had good electrochromic properties, a wide range of transmittance modulation (73.6%), and a fast response time (3.2 s for coloring and 3.9 s for bleaching). In addition, electrochromic devices (ECDs) with 350°C-6h films as both ion-storage layers and electrochromic layers have been successfully assembled, which exhibit high performance. • 3DOM V 2 O 5 film was prepared on ITO substrate by Template assistance sol-gel method. • Annealing induced morphology change from 3DOM to nanorods in V 2 O 5 films. • The annealing affects oxygen vacancy concentration, and in turn affects on ion storage capacity. • V 2 O 5 nanorodsfilms presents excellent capacity and cycle performance for lithium storage. • The electrochromic device assembled with V 2 O 5 film showed fascinating performance.

Drastically-enlarged interlayer-spacing MoS2 nanocages by inserted carbon motifs as high performance cathodes for aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Two dimensional (2D) layered nanomaterials have emerged as a promising energy storage material due to inherent 2D channels. Nevertheless, low capacity and poor cycling stability limit their practical applications in aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs). The article innovatively introduces N-doped carbon motifs between the layers of MoS2 to produce the interlayer spacing enlarged MoS2 nanocages with multistage structures, via a strategy combining interlayer polymerization with template assistance. NC motifs provided abundant channels for substance transport and electron transfer. Cage-shaped structure inhibits stacking of nanosheets during synthesis and application, and alleviates volume changes caused by ion migration during (dis)charging. Therefore, this novel MoS2 exhibit excellent high rate performance (247.8 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 and 100.9 mA h g−1 at 8.0 A g−1) and excellent cycling stability (85.6 % capacity retention after 3200 cycles at 1.0 A g−1) when applied as cathodes for AZIBs. The flexible quasi-solid batteries based on C-MoS2-NC cathode exhibit excellent electrochemical performance under different bending conditions. The energy storage mechanism regarding highly reversible of zinc ion (de)insertion is elucidated through in-situ XRD and ex-situ Raman technology. The calculation of density functional theory further reveals the reduction of the ion diffusion barrier accelerates the electrochemical kinetics.

Analysis on the accuracy of CT-guided radioactive I-125 seed implantation with 3D printing template assistance in the treatment of thoracic malignant tumors.

This article analyzes the accuracy of needle track and dose of a 3-dimensional printing template (3DPT) in the treatment of thoracic tumor with radioactive I-125 seed implantation (RISI). A total of 28 patients were included. The technical process included: (i) preoperative CT positioning, (ii) preoperative planning design, (iii) 3DPT design and printing, (iv) 3DPT alignment, (v) puncture and seed implantation. The errors of needle position and dosimetric parameters were analyzed. A total of 318 needles were used. The mean errors in needle depth, needle insertion point, needle tip and needle angle were 0.52 ± 0.48 cm, 3.4 ± 1.7 mm, 4.4 ± 2.9 mm and 2.8 ± 1.7°, respectively. The differences between actual needle insertion angle and needle depth and those designed in the preoperative were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The mean values of all the errors of the chest wall cases were smaller than those of the lungs, and the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the D90 calculated in the postoperative plan and those designed in the preoperative and intraoperative plans (p > 0.05). Some dosimetric parameters of preoperative plans such as V100, V200, CI and HI were not consistent with that of preoperative plans, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). However, there were no statistical difference in the dosimetric parameters between the postoperative plans and intraoperative plans (p > 0.05). We conclude that for thoracic tumors, even under the guidance of 3DPT, there will be errors. The plan should be optimized in real time during the operation.

Regulation of bandgap and interfacial conductivity: Construction of carbon-doped three-dimensional porous h-BN/rGO hybrid for hydrogen evolution

Water splitting by photocatalysis technique is regarded as an eco-friendly hydrogen production strategy. However, the poor photoresponsivity and automatic electron-hole recombination greatly restrict the HER performance of conventional semiconductor photocatalyst. Here, to utilize the stable electrochemical property of hexagonal phase boron nitride (h-BN) and improve its defect of wide bandgap (Eg ≈ 4.2 eV), reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was applied to construct three-dimensional (3D) porous h-BN/rGO hybrid accompanied by a carbon-doping strategy without template assistance, then a carbon-doped 3D porous h-BN/rGO (C-BNRG) hybrid with large BET surface area was successfully prepared. As the synergistic effect of h-BN/rGO heterointerface and carbon-doping, the improved photoresponsivity and electrochemical property were presented, and the resultant 3D porous C0.4-BNRG hybrid presented not only greatly enhanced HER activity (157.63 μmol·g−1·h−1) but excellent durability in pH = 8.5, which was prominently higher than pristine h-BN (～36.7 times), C-BN (～12.1 times) and 3D porous BNRG hybrid (～7.0 times). This study offers a template-free approach to develop non-metallic based 3D porous hybrid for outstanding HER performance.

Traceless Templated Amide-Forming Ligations.

Template assistance allows organic reactions to occur under highly dilute conditions-where intermolecular reactions often fail to proceed-by bringing reactants into close spatial proximity. This strategy has been elegantly applied to numerous systems, but always with the retention of at least one of the templating groups in the product. In this report, we describe a traceless, templated amide-forming ligation that proceeds at low micromolar concentration under aqueous conditions in the presence of biomolecules. We utilized the unique features of an acylboronate-hydroxylamine ligation, in which covalent bonds are broken in each of the reactants as the new amide bond is formed. By using streptavidin as a template and acylboronates and O-acylhydroxylamines bearing desthiobiotins that are cleaved upon amide formation, we demonstrate that traceless, templated ligation occurs rapidly even at submicromolar concentrations. The requirement for a close spatial orientation of the functional groups-achieved upon binding to streptavidin-is critical for the observed enhancement in the rate and quantity of product formed.

Hypofractionated 192Ir source stereotactic ablative brachytherapy with coplanar template assistance in the primary treatment of peripheral lung cancer.

PurposeIn this study, we reported the safety and efficacy of hypofractionated 192Ir source stereotactic ablative brachytherapy (SABT) with coplanar template assistance for peripheral lung cancer, and compared the dosimetric parameters between SABT and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT).Material and methodsThirty-three peripheral lung cancer patients, with the gross lung tumor volume (GTVL) < 5 cm in diameter were enrolled in this study. We assessed the safety and efficacy of SABT, and compared the dosimetric parameters between SABT and SBRT.ResultsChest computed tomography (CT) of post-SABT revealed mild pneumothorax in 2 of 33 patients. Complete response (CR) plus partial response (PR) rate for GTVL at 6-month was 100%. Local control (LC) rate for GTVL at 1-year was 96.9%. For organs at risk (OARs), D1000 cm3, and D1500 cm3 for lung in 1, 3, and 5 fractions were not statistically different between SABT and SBRT (all p > 0.05); the remaining dosimetric parameters were significantly lower in SABT than in SBRT (all p < 0.01).ConclusionsSABT can provide safe and effective treatment, and warrant generalization for peripheral lung cancer.

A Self-Growing Strategy for Large-Scale Crystal Assembly Tubes.

Assembled tubular materials have attracted widespread attention due to their potential applications in catalysis, bionics, and optic-electronics. Many versatile methods, including template assistance and self-assembly, have been developed for fabrication of tubular materials. Here we demonstrate a self-growing strategy to prepare large-scale crystal assembly tubes. Addition of the template and the need for the sophisticated equipment are avoided with this method. The sidewall of the tubes is composed of a layer of polyhedral crystals that are connected together through grain coalescence. We demonstrate that the assembled tubular structure is obtained by the synergetic effect of the passivation layer and the dissolution-recrystallization process. This facile one-step strategy and the formation mechanism will offer guidance for fabrication of new superstructures.

Accuracy of a patient-specific template for pedicle screw placement compared with a conventional method: a meta-analysis.

Accurate placement of pedicle screws in spine surgery is a challenge for surgeons. Patient-specific template techniques have the potential for improving the accuracy of screw placement. The target of this analysis was to investigate differences in terms of accuracy of pedicle screw insertion between patient-specific template assistance and the conventional free-hand method for reconstruction of spinal stability. The Cochrane Library, Ovid, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE and CNKI database were searched until February 2017 for a systematic review, and several comparative studies were screened for comparisons of accuracies of pedicle screw insertion with patient-specific assistance and conventional methods. Primary outcomes extracted from papers that met the selection criterion were expressed as odds ratios for dichotomous outcomes with a 95% confidence interval. A χ 2 test and I 2 statistics were used to evaluate heterogeneity. A total of ten RCTs and two prospective cohort studies were finally chosen for the analysis of accuracy rates. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration's Tool and Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. There were obvious differences between them, and the accuracy rate of screw implantation among a patient-specific template assistance set was statistically significantly higher than the conventional free-hand set (OR 95% CI 3.78-6.41, P<0.01); in vitro: OR 95% CI 3.93-7.42, P<0.01; in vivo: OR 95% CI 2.49-6.44, P<0.01. The template-assisted technique is superior to the conventional method for the reduction of pedicle violation. The template-assisted technique is a promising technique that should be considered as another available navigation tool for surgeons to improve the accuracy of pedicle screw placement. As an available technique for emerging applications in spine surgeries, this technique will face challenges but ultimately prove successfully.

"Bis-Click" Ligation of DNA: Template-Controlled Assembly, Circularisation and Functionalisation with Bifunctional and Trifunctional Azides.

Ligation and circularisation of oligonucleotides containing terminal triple bonds was performed with bifunctional or trifunctional azides. Both reactions are high yielding. Template-assisted bis-click ligation of two individual non-complementary oligonucleotide strands was accomplished to yield heterodimers exclusively. In this context, the template fulfils two functions: it accelerates the ligation reaction and controls product assembly (heterodimer vs. homodimer formation). Intermolecular bis-click circularisation of one oligonucleotide strand took place without template assistance. For construction of oligonucleotides with terminal triple bonds in the nucleobase side chain, 7- or 5-functionalised 7-deaza-dA and dU residues were used. These oligonucleotides are directly accessible by solid-phase synthesis. When trifunctional azides were employed instead of bifunctional linkers, functionalisation of the remaining azido group was performed with small molecules such as 1-ethynyl pyrene, biotin propargyl amide or with ethynylated oligonucleotides. By this means, branched DNA was constructed.

The Three-Dimensional Structures of Amyloids.

Amyloids are highly ordered protein aggregates that are associated with both disease (including PrP prion, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's) and biological function. The amyloid structure is composed of the cross-β-sheet entity, which is an almost indefinitely repeating two-layered intermolecular β-sheet motif. The three-dimensional (3D) structure is unique among protein folds because it folds only upon intermolecular contacts (for a folding to occur, only short sequences of amino acid residues are required), and the structure repeats itself at the atomic level (i.e., every 4.7 Å). As a consequence of this structure, among others, it can grow by recruiting corresponding amyloid peptide/protein and thus has the capacity to be an infectious protein (i.e., a prion). Furthermore, its repetitiveness can translate what would be a nonspecific activity as monomer into a potent one through cooperativity. Because of these and other properties, the activities of amyloids are manifold and include peptide storage, template assistance, loss of function, gain of function, generation of toxicity, membrane binding, infectivity, and more. This review summarizes the structural nature of the cross-β-sheet motif on the basis of a few high-resolution structural studies of amyloids in the context of potential biological activities.

Templated Electrochemical Fabrication of Hollow Molybdenum Sulfide Microstructures and Nanostructures with Catalytic Properties for Hydrogen Production

MoS2 is known to possess promising catalytic properties toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, current synthetic procedures of nanostructured MoS2-based materials with high-density active edge sites are tedious and require high temperatures, costly instrumentation, and often rather toxic solvents. The electrochemical deposition (ED) of molybdenum sulfide films from solution-based precursors represents a more-viable approach, which also enables the fabrication of micronanostructured films through solid template assistance. Here, we investigate the catalytic properties of different molybdenum sulfide films prepared via electrodeposition from aqueous and organic solution of the tetrathiomolybdate precursor. A template-assisted deposition was employed to prepare nanostructured porous films and hollow spherical microstructures, using submicrometer- and micrometer-sized polystyrene particles, respectively. All fabricated structures demonstrated catalytic performances with recorded overpotentials...

A smart processing of silicon oxynitride ceramic powders with variable morphology controlled by hard template assistance

Spherical and rod-like Si2N2O ceramic powders were successfully prepared using a hard template strategy to meet different application background. The mesoporous silica spheres and rod-like silica (SBA-15) particles were selected as hard templates and also served as reactants. Highly active mesoporous silica is reacted through a combination of sucrose-nano-casting and carbothermal reduction nitridation (CRN) to successfully synthesize spherical and rod-like powders. Temperature and holding time of calcination are found to be significant factors for the formation of pure and well-crystallized powders. Insufficient temperature and holding time cause an incomplete reaction between silica, carbon and nitrogen, and also lead to the formation of amorphous phase. In the processing, sucrose was used as carbon source to incorporate evenly into mesopores of templates to assist CRN reaction. Big surface areas and high porosity of mesopores in SiO2 provide an additional driving force to decrease the formation temperature of Si2N2O phase to 1280°C. As-synthesized powders inherit same morphology as their parental mesoporous templates, which indicate that two mesoporous templates play an important role in guiding the growth of ceramic particles. In the research, we develop a smart processing for synthesis of oxynitride powders with variable morphology controlled by template.