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International audience ; Current waste management policies favor biogases (digester gases (DGs) and landfill gases (LFGs)) valorization as it becomes a way for energy politics. However, volatile organic silicon compounds (VOSiCs) contained into DGs/LFGs severely damage combustion engines and endanger the conversion into electricity by power plants, resulting in a high purification level requirement. Assessing treatment efficiency is still difficult. No consensus has been reached to provide a standardized sampling and quantification of VOSiCs into gases because of their diversity, their physicochemical properties, and the omnipresence of silicon in analytical chains. Usually, samplings are done by adsorption or absorption and quantification made by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). In this objective, this paper presents and discusses the optimization of a patented method consisting in VOSiCs sampling by absorption of 100% ethanol and quantification of total Si by ICP-OES.

International audience ; Current waste management policies favor biogases (digester gases (DGs) and landfill gases (LFGs)) valorization as it becomes a way for energy politics. However, volatile organic silicon compounds (VOSiCs) contained into DGs/LFGs severely damage combustion engines and endanger the conversion into electricity by power plants, resulting in a high purification level requirement. Assessing treatment efficiency is still difficult. No consensus has been reached to provide a standardized sampling and quantification of VOSiCs into gases because of their diversity, their physicochemical properties, and the omnipresence of silicon in analytical chains. Usually, samplings are done by adsorption or absorption and quantification made by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). In this objective, this paper presents and discusses the optimization of a patented method consisting in VOSiCs sampling by absorption of 100% ethanol and quantification of total Si by ICP-OES.

Silicon (Si) is an element necessary for the proper functioning of the body. It affects cell viability, osteoblast differentiation, blood vessel elasticity, type I collagen synthesis, as well as the condition of the skin, hair, and nails. It is also considered an antiatherosclerotic agent. The silicon content in the human body is 6 – 7 g, and the only absorbable form is orthosilicic acid. The average daily requirement of the body for this element is in the range of 20 to 40 mg, whose diet does not fully provide. In addition, the silicon content in the body decreases with age, so there is a need for its supplementation.
There are many liquid, gel, and spray diet supplements available that vary in concentration and silicon compound. The aim of the research was to determine the content of orthosilicic acid in liquid diet supplements. Thirteen preparations were selected for the study, in which concentration of available silicon was determined by a spectrophotometric method. This method was based on reaction in the acidic environment of dissociated silicon with ammonium molybdate.
Among the selected products, the highest concentration of available silicon form was obtained for pharmaceuticals composed of choline stabilized orthosilicic acid, which is in the range of 50-2000 ppm. However, its concentration in preparations containing monomethylsilanetriol (MMST) did not exceed 50 ppm.
Keywords: chemical sciences, orthosilicic acid, Uv-Vis spectroscopy

Volatile silicon compounds present in the biogas of anaerobic digesters can cause severe problems in the energy recovery systems, inducing costly damages. Herein, the microbial community of a lab-scale biotrickling filter (BTF) was studied while testing its biodegradation capacity on octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), in the presence of toluene, limonene and hexane. The reactor performance was tested at different empty bed residence times (EBRT) and packing materials. Community structure was analysed by bar-coded amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Microbial diversity and richness were higher in the inoculum and progressively decreased during BTF operation (Simpson's diversity index changing from 0.98–0.90 and Richness from 900 to 200 OTUs). Minimum diversity was found when reactor was operated at relatively low EBRT (7.3 min) using a multicomponent feed. The core community was composed of 36 OTUs (accounting for 55% of total sequences). Packing material played a key role in the community structure. Betaproteobacteriales were dominant in the presence of lava rock and were partially substituted by Corynebacteriales and Rhizobiales when activated carbon was added to the BTF. Despite these changes, a stable and resilient core microbiome was selected defining a set of potentially degrading bacteria for siloxane bioremoval as a complementary alternative to non-regenerative adsorption onto activated carbon ; This work was funded by MINECO – Spain (CTQ2014-53718R) co-funded by FEDER and University of Girona. E. B. thanks SENESCYT – Ecuador for her predoctoral grant. IEA and LEQUIA have been recognized as consolidated research groups by the Catalan Government (2017SGR-548 and 2017SGR-1552, respectively). E.S.C. thanks Universitat de Girona for his predoctoral grant (IFUdG-2015/51). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 712949 ...

Thermally grown SiO2 layers were treated by a plasma nitridation process realized in a vertical furnace. The combination of a pulsed-low frequency plasma and a microwave remote plasma with N2/NH 3/He feed gas mixture was used to nitride the thermally grown SiO2 gate dielectrics of MIS structures. Temperature dependency of effective masses and the barrier heights for electrons in pure thermally grown SiO2 as well as plasma nitrided SiO2 in high electric field by means of Fowler-Nordheim regime was determined. It is frequently seen from the literature that either effective electron mass or barrier height (generally effective electron mass) is assumed to be a constant and, as a result, the second parameter is calculated under the chosen assumption. However, in contrast to general attitude of previous studies, this work does not make any such assumptions for the calculation of neither of these two important parameters of an oxide at temperature ranges from 23 to 110 °C for SiO 2, and 23 to 130 °C for nitrided oxide. It is also shown here that both parameters are affected from the temperature changes; respectively, the barrier height decreases while the effective mass increases as a result of elevated temperature in both pure SiO2 and plasma nitrided SiO 2. Therefore, one parameter could be miscalculated if the other parameter, i.e., effective mass of electron, was assumed to be a constant with respect to variable physical conditions like changing temperature. Additionally, the barrier heights were calculated just by taking constant effective masses for both types of oxides to be able to compare our results to common literature values. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. ; European Union Project of SEA-NET with project Contract No. 027982

Silicon carbide materials for biomedical applications -- SiC films and coatings : amorphous, polycrystalline, and single crystal forms -- Multi-functional SiC surfaces : from passivation to biofunctionalization -- SiC in-vitro biocompatibility : epidermal and connective tissue cells -- Hemocompatibility assessment of 3C-SiC for cardiovascular applications -- Biocompatibility of SiC for neurological applications -- SiC for brain machine interfaces (BMI) -- Porous SiC microdialysis technology -- Biocompatible sol-gel based nanostructured hydroxyapatite coatings on nano-porous SiC -- Silicon carbide biomems -- SiC as a bio-compatible marker for cell labeling -- Carbon based materials on SiC for advanced biomedical applications.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: A. J. Schwanke, R. Balzer, C. Wittee Lopes, D. Motta Meira, U. Díaz, A. Corma, S. Pergher, Chem. Eur. J. 2020, 26, 10459, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202000862. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. ; [EN] In this work, an MWW-type zeolite with pillars containing silicon and niobium oxide was synthesized to obtain a hierarchical zeolite. The effect of niobium insertion in the pillaring process was determined by combining a controllable acidity and accessibility in the final material. All pillared materials had niobium occupying framework positions in pillars and extra-framework positions. The pillared material, Pil-Nb-4.5 with 4.5 wt % niobium, did not compromise the mesoporosity formed by pillaring, while the increase of niobium in the structure gradually decreased the mesoporosity and ordering of lamellar stacking. The morphology of the pillared zeolites and the niobium content were found to directly affect the catalytic activity. Specifically, we report on the activity of the MWW-type zeolites with niobium catalyzing the gas-phase oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which is an important reaction for clean environmental. All produced MWW-type zeolites with niobium were catalytically active, even at low temperatures and low niobium loading, and provided excellent conversion efficiencies. ; A.J.S. thanks the CordenacAo de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior-Brasil (CAPES)-Finance Code 001, the PDSE program (process number 99999.004779/2014-02) and the prof. Claudio Radtke from the PPGQ-UFRGS for the XPS analyses. C.W.L. is grateful to INOMAT/CAPES for a postdoctoral fellowship. U.D. thanks the funding by the Spanish Government (MAT2017-82288-C2-1-P). ; Schwanke, AJ.; Balzer, R.; Lopes, CW.; Meira, DM.; Díaz Morales, UM.; Corma Canós, A.; Pergher, S. (2020). A Lamellar MWW Zeolite With Silicon and Niobium Oxide ...

A sensor device based on a single polymer cantilever and optical readout has been developed for detection of molecular recognition reactions without the need of a reference cantilever for subtraction of unspecific signals. Microcantilevers have been fabricated in the photoresist SU-8 with one surface passivated with a thin fluorocarbon layer. The SU-8 surface is sensitized with biological receptors by applying silanization methods, whereas the fluorocarbon surface remains inert to these processes. The thermal and mechanical properties of the chosen materials allow overcoming the main limitations of gold-coated silicon cantilevers: the temperature, pH, and ionic strength cross sensitivities. This is demonstrated by comparing the response of SU-8 cantilevers and that of gold-coated silicon nitride cantilevers to variations in temperature and pH. The sensitivity of the developed polymeric nanomechanical sensor is demonstrated by real-time detection of the human growth hormone with sensitivity in differential surface stress of about 1 mN/m. ; The authors acknowledge J. M. Rodríguez-Prado and M. Mellado for providing reagents for the molecular recognition experiments and J. Treviño, E. Mauriz, and D. Haefliger for fruitful discussion. J.T. and M.C. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science (MERG-CT-2004- 510638) and the European Union (GEN2001-4856-C13-11). ; Peer reviewed

The crystal structures and properties of boron-silicon (B-Si) compounds under pressure have been systematically explored using particle swarm optimization structure prediction method in combination with first-principles calculations. Three new stoichiometries, B2Si, BSi, and BSi2, are predicted to be stable gradually under pressure, where increasing pressure favors the formation of silicon rich B-Si compounds. In the boron-rich compounds, the network of boron atoms changes from B12 icosahedron in the ambient phases to the similar buckled graphenelike layers in the high-pressure phases, which crystalize in the same P¯3m1 symmetry but with different numbers of boron layers between adjacent silicon layers. Phonon calculations show that these structures might be retained to ambient conditions as metastable phases. Further electron-phonon coupling calculations indicate that the high-pressure phases of boron-rich compounds might superconduct at 1 atm, with the highest Tc value of 21 K from the Allen-Dynes equation in P¯3m1 B2Si, which is much higher than the one observed in boron doped diamond-type silicon. Moreover, further fully anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg calculations indicate that B2Si is a two-gap anisotropic superconductor and the estimated Tc might reach up to 30 K at 1 atm. On the silicon-rich side, BSi2 is predicted to be stable in the CuAl2-type structure. Our current results significantly enrich the phase diagram of the B-Si system and will stimulate further experimental study. ; The work was supported by Fostering Program of Major Research Plan of NSFC (91963115), National Key R & D Program of China (2018YFA0703400), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51732010, 11674176, 11874224), Funding Program for Recruited Oversea Scholars of Hebei Province (Grant No. CL201729), and the Ph.D. Foundation by Yanshan University (Grant No. B970). A.B. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grant No. FIS2016-76617-P) and the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government and the University of the Basque Country (Grant No. IT756-13). ; Peer reviewed

Hybrid organic-inorganic self-powered photodetectors with three different configurations were fabricated and their optoelectronic performance was determined. Si is the inorganic active layer and the transparent conductor poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is the organic layer. The basic photodetector structure under study is Au/PEDOT:PSS/Si/Al. This device shows high responsivity under low irradiation levels, as well as a wideband response in the visible and near-infrared wavelength ranges. To improve the performance of this basic device, its structure was modified by the addition of a nanostructured porous silicon (PSi) layer on top of the Si substrate. The resulting Au/PEDOT:PSS/PSi/Si/Al devices have been found to show improved photoresponse under high irradiation levels together with narrowband spectral responsivity in the infrared region. To further improve the optoelectronic performance of the photodetectors, Si + PSi micro-arrays were used instead of single PSi layers, leading to devices with the structure Au/PEDOT:PSS/(Si + PSi micro-arrays)/Si/Al. These devices possess a much improved performance, showing a responsivity of 1172.87 mA W-1, a specific detectivity of 5.81 × 1013 Jones, and a fast response speed of 396/412 μs at 0 V bias under white-light illumination (100 μW). Furthermore, a broadband spectral responsivity was achieved, with a maximum value of 473 mA W-1 at 853 nm. This improved behavior is associated with the combined effect of an effective reduction of the reflectance due to the presence of PSi and an improvement of the electrical conduction given by the presence of heavily-doped Si regions ; This research was partially funded by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, FPI-UAM grant and by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education, Missions Section under Egyptian Joint Supervision Grant. This work was part of ATTRACT that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme