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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Improved Antimicrobial Properties Of Silver Nanoparticles With Methylene Blue, Ermek Belekov Jul 2020

Improved Antimicrobial Properties Of Silver Nanoparticles With Methylene Blue, Ermek Belekov

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Photosensitizing agents are the cornerstone of photodynamic therapy (PDT) that play essential role in deactivation process of multidrug resistant pathogens and tumor treatments. In this work we studied a photosensitizing agent made from mixture of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and methylene blue (MB) which possess improved important characteristics like high photostability and high singlet oxygen yield. Ag NPs were synthesized by pulsed laser ablation technique in different aqueous solutions like Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), citrate and Deionized (DI) water. The synthesized Ag NPs were characterized in depth using with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UVVisible (UV-Vis), and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. Ag NPs were …


Monitoring And Identifying The Rhodamine 6g-Hydroxide Ion Reaction Using In-Situ, Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, Ryan Lamb Apr 2020

Monitoring And Identifying The Rhodamine 6g-Hydroxide Ion Reaction Using In-Situ, Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, Ryan Lamb

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

An effective method for monitoring chemical reactions is necessary to better understand their mechanisms and kinetics. Effective reaction monitoring requires a spectroscopy technique with fast data acquisition, high sensitivity, structure-to-spectrum correlation, and low solvent interference. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) provides these features, which makes it a valuable tool for monitoring reactions. To obtain the Raman enhancement, metallic nanostructures typically made of silver or gold are aggregated using a salt. The nanoparticles aggregates must then be stabilized using a surfactant to use this method in situ due to eventual nanoparticle precipitation. In this study, gold nanoparticles stabilized with sodium dodecyl sulfate …


The Effect Of Size Upon Haptic Shape Discrimination, Jessica Dukes Jan 2020

The Effect Of Size Upon Haptic Shape Discrimination, Jessica Dukes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Object shape perception is fundamentally important for daily life. It has been suggested (e.g., Gibson, 1962) that the visual and haptic modalities are equivalent with regards to the ability to perceive shape. Norman et al. (2012) showed that visual and haptic shape discrimination accuracies are indeed comparable. Craddock and Lawson (2009) found that haptic shape discrimination performance was adversely affected by a size change. However, this result was obtained for man-made objects (i.e., bathtubs and benches). The purpose of the current investigation was to determine whether size changes also reduce haptic shape discrimination accuracy for naturally-shaped objects. On any given …


Novel Integrated Nano-Sensors For Analysis Of Chemical Compounds In Natural Gas Applications, Taylor Robinson Jan 2020

Novel Integrated Nano-Sensors For Analysis Of Chemical Compounds In Natural Gas Applications, Taylor Robinson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Semiconductor sensors have been important environmental gas detectors since the 1990s, and are commonly used to detect hydrogen, oxygen, alcohol vapor, and even harmful gases such as carbon monoxide. A gas chromatography approach is a well-proven and compact separation technique to identify and quantify multiple compounds in a complex background such as a true natural gas environment. Real time field monitoring implementing classical GC and standard sensors (FID, PID, etc.) have a lot of limitations due to its bulky size, heavy weight, and high maintenance. In this study, we developed a portable instrument through the utilization of novel solid-state sensors …