Surfaces selected applications

The use of catalysts and promotors of various reactions applied as a fine dispersion phase to the surface of semiconductor adsorbent became most popular in providing a required selectivity of sensors with respect to a given gas. As it has been established in experiments (see for instance [8] and the reference list therein), apart from obtaining required selectivity application of such additives results in increase of sensitivity of the sensor with respect to a given gas. However, as of today there is no clarity with regard to understanding the mechanism of effect of cata-l)rtic additives on the sensor effect nor in optimization of the choice of catalysts applied. 

After the description of chemical structure and control of meso-architecture and surface area, selected applications of such carbon materials as battery electrodes, supercapacitors, and in the design of controlled hybrid heterojunctions were presented. In the Li battery, coating or hybridization with hydrothermal carbon brought excellent capacities at simultaneous excellent stabilities and rate performances. This was exemplified by hybridization with Si, Sn02 (both anode materials) as well as LiFeP04 (a cathode material). In the design of supercapacitors, porous HTC carbons could easily reach the benchmark of optimized activated traditional carbons, with better stability and rate performance. 

Mycova mycoremediation and mycofiltration are ex situ treatment technologies that use mushrooms to destroy total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and pathogens in contaminated soil, wood debris, wastewater, and surface water. The mushrooms are specially selected, cultured, screened, and preconditioned to treat a specific site s target contaminants. The mushrooms may be added directly to contaminated soil or used as a filter in wastewater and surface water applications. 

We now proceed with the discussion of some selected applications of singlemolecule detection at surfaces. Our selection will be by no means complete but only reflects a tiny part of the actual work done. Wherever possible we will give references to the original literature. 

Another class of techniques monitors surface vibration frequencies. High-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) measures the inelastic scattering of low energy ( 5eV) electrons from surfaces. It is sensitive to the vibrational excitation of adsorbed atoms and molecules as well as surface phonons. This is particularly useful for chemisorption systems, allowing the identification of surface species. Application of normal mode analysis and selection rules can determine the point symmetry of the adsorption sites./24/ Infrarred reflectance-adsorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) is also used to study surface systems, although it is not intrinsically surface sensitive. IRRAS is less sensitive than HREELS but has much higher resolution. 

Moskovits M (1982) Surface selection-rules. J Chem Phys 77(9) 4408-4416 Moskovits M, Suh JS (1984) Surface selection-rules for surface-enhanced Raman-spectroscopy - calculations and application to the surface-enhanced Raman-spectrum of phthalazine on silver. J Phys Chem-Us 88(23) 5526-5530... 

In an attempt to improve the selectivity of local dopamine measurements in the complex extracellular matrix of brain fluid, an implantable enzyme-based dopamine microbiosensor has been constructed based on the immobilization of tyrosinase in a thin-film chitosan coating of carbon-fiber disc microelectrodes [357]. o-Dopaquinone, which is the product of the tyrosinase reaction with dopamine, was monitored via its reduction at the modified microelectrode surface. The application of these cathodic tyrosinase dopamine microbiosensors was reported for the continuous real-time in vivo visualization of electrically stimulated dopamine release in the brain of anesthetized laboratory rats. Remarkably, due to the cathodic potential the sensor response was not significantly disturbed by the presence of typical interferences such as ascorbic and uric acid, serotonin, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. 

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