Supercritical carbon dioxide is an efficient solvent for adsorptive separations because it can potentially be used as both the carrier solvent for adsorption and the desorbent for regeneration. Recent results have demonstrated an anomalous peak or "hump" in the adsorption isotherm near the bulk critical point when the adsorption isotherm is plotted as a function of bulk density. This work presents new data for the adsorption and desorption of carbon dioxide in the near-critical region on a crystalline, well-structured adsorbent (NaY zeolite). The results indicate a strong affinity for CO(2) as well as a significant hump near the critical point. The lattice model previously developed by Aranovich and Donohue is applied to analyze the adsorption.

Colloidal crystal (CC) thin films that produce structural colours over a wide visible spectrum have been self-assembled from silica nanoparticles (SNPs) using a natural sedimentation method. A series of colloidal suspensions containing uniform SNPs (207-350 nm) were prepared using the Stöber method. The prepared silica suspensions were directly subjected to natural sedimentation at an elevated temperature. The SNPs were deposited under the force of gravity and selfassembled into an ordered array. The solid CC thin films produced structural colours over a wide visible spectrum from red to violet. Visual inspection and colorimetric measurements indicated that the structural colour of the CC thin film is tuneable by varying the SNPs diameters and the viewing angles. The closely packed face-centred cubic (fcc) structure of the CC thin film was confirmed using SEM imaging and was in agreement with the intense colour observed from the film surface.

In this work, the Stöber process was applied to produce uniform silica nanoparticles (SNPs) in the meso-scale size range. The novel aspect of this work was to control the produced silica particle size by only varying the volume of the solvent ethanol used, whilst fixing the other reaction conditions. Using this one-step Stöber-based solvent varying (SV) method, seven batches of SNPs with target diameters ranging from 70 to 400 nm were repeatedly reproduced, and the size distribution in terms of the polydispersity index (PDI) was well maintained (within 0.1). An exponential equation was used to fit the relationship between the particle diameter and ethanol volume. This equation allows the prediction of the amount of ethanol required in order to produce particles of any target diameter within this size range. In addition, it was found that the reaction was completed in approximately 2 h for all batches regardless of the volume of ethanol. Structurally coloured artificial opal photonic crystals (PCs) were fabricated from the prepared SNPs by self-assembly under gravity sedimentation. Figureᅟ  Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11051-016-3691-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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The work presented investigates how to produce structural colours on textile materials by applying a surface coating of silica nanoparticles (SNPs). Uniform SNPs with particle diameters in a controlled micron size range (207–350 nm) were synthesized using a Stöber-based solvent varying (SV) method which has been reported previously. Photonic crystals (PCs) were formed on the surface of a piece of textile fabric through a process of natural sedimentation self-assembly of the colloidal suspension containing uniform SNPs. Due to the uniformity and a particular diameter range of the prepared SNPs, structural colours were observed from the fabric surface due to the Bragg diffraction of white light with the ordered structure of the silica PCs. By varying the mean particle diameter, a wide range of spectral colours from red to blue were obtained. The comparison of structural colours on fabrics and on glasses suggests that a smooth substrate is critical when producing materials with high colour intensity and spatial uniformity. This work suggested a promising approach to colour textile materials without the need for traditional dyes and/or pigments. Graphical abstract