Youshi Wu

Superhydrophobic surface fabricated by modifying silica coated multiwalled carbon nanotubes composites

A superhydrophobic surface with maximum static water contact angle of 156° and sliding angle of 3.5° was fabricated by modifying the silica coated multiwalled carbon nanotube composites (SiO2/MWCNTs) using a silane coupling agent vinyltriethoxysilane. The structures of SiO2/MWCNTs and superhydrophobic surface were investigated by infrared spectrometer and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that silica had been successfully grafted onto MWCNTs and the SiO2/MWCNTs had been chemical modified by vinyl triethoxy successfully. The morphology of our prepared superhydrophobic surface, investigated by scanning electron microscopy, showed a characteristic rough structure. The effects of pH value and exposure time on the stability of the superhydrophobic surface were also investigated. The superhydrophobic film shows reliable acid and alkali resistance and aging resistance, indicating that it will have a wide range of applications.

Synthesis of Luminescent ZnS Quantum Dots and the Application for Selective Cu2+ Probe in Physiological Solution

A novel water-soluble luminescent ZnS Quantum Dots (QDs) capped by thiourea have been synthesized in aqueous solution. The thiourea-capped ZnS QDs were used as a fluorescence probe to investigate the luminescence response to physiologically important metal cations in tris-HCl buffer solution. The experiments show that the QDs probe were sensitive to only copper ions and insensitive to other physiologically important cations, such as iron, zinc, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, cobalt, and magnesium ions. The detection limit was found to be 7.3 × 10−7 M and the quenching effect description was attempted using Stern-Volmer-type equation.