Each month, the ISGS Newsletter features an interesting and striking micrograph (or series of micrographs) chosen from a recent issue of the Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology or from unpublished sources such as PhD theses, etc (with full attribution given). If you know of any interesting images that might be suitable, please contact the ISGS Newsletter Editor for inclusion. The micrographs can be optical, SEM, TEM, AFM, etc, and a brief description of the samples should be provided.
The first is taken from the work of Salazar-Hernández, Puy-Alquiza, Miranda-Avilés, Salazar-Hernández, Mendoza-Miranda, Mocada-Sánchez and del Ángel-Soto entitled “Comparative study of TEOS-consolidants for adobe building conservation” (JSST, (2021), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-020-05461-2), which reports the use of solgel derived materials for the conservation of adobe buildings from the 17 th and 18 th centuries. The first series of SEM images illustrate the effect of four different sol-gel formulations on the microstructure of an adobe sample, while the second row demonstrates the impact of the treatments on the degradation of the adobe under standard test conditions. This illustrates the efficacy of such sol-gel treatments for preserving historical and culturally significant buildings.
The second series of micrographs is from the work of Yang, Zhang, Shao, Li, Li, Liu, Tao, and Liu entitled “Facile preparation of flexible polyacrylonitrile/BiOCl/BiOI nanofibers via SILAR method for effective floating photocatalysis” (JSST, (2021), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-020-05453-2). This paper describes the preparation of a floating photocatalyst in which successive layers of BiOCl/BiOI heterojunctions are deposited on self-supporting electrospun PAN nanofibre mats to produce highly active photocatalysts. The series of micrographs on the left show the structure of the PAN/BiOCl (top), PAN/BiOI (middle) and PAN/BiOCl/BiOI heterojunctions obtained via the SILAR process, while the TEM images on the right illustrate the structure of the photoactive heterojunction, together with the elemental maps illustrating the uniform distribution of elements in the material.
