Comparison of the Controlled Atmosphere Treatment for Submerged and Solid-State Fermentation of Inonotus obliquus.

In this study, a controlled atmosphere (CA) treatment was used in the submerged (SM) and solid-state (SS) fermentation of Inonotus obliquus to determine the optimal conditions. The goal was to accelerate the artificial fermentation to obtain I. obliquus as an ingredient for dietary supplements. The results indicated that when CA treatment was used, the SM and SS fermentation of I. obliquus yielded polysaccharide and betulinic acid contents 2-2.5 times higher than those obtained when such treatment was not used. The two fermentation methods yielded similar outcomes in terms of DPPH scavenging ability, bioactivity, and antioxidant activity. Although SS fermentation yielded highly bioactive fruiting bodies when the period of fermentation was extended to 60 days, the mycelia produced by SM reached a similar bioactivity quality with only 30 days of fermentation. It was indicated that SM fermentation is more economically feasible than SS fermentation in the production of I. obliquus.

Luminescent properties and characterization of one dimensional Gd(2)O(3):Eu(3+) phosphor nano-wire for field emission application.

Gd(2)O(3):Eu(3+) nano-wire phosphors embedded in SBA-15 silica templates were synthesized using a combination of the sol-gel method and hydrothermal reactions followed by a sintering process at 1000 °C. The crystal structure of Gd(2)O(3):Eu(3+) was confirmed using x-ray diffraction. Observation using transmission electron microscopy shows that the nano-wire diameters were very uniform in the 7-9 nm range. In comparison with bulk Gd(2)O(3):Eu(3+) materials, we found that the photo-luminescent property of the nano-wire was different. The analysis shows that the main nano-wire emission peaks were at 585, 597, 613 and 620 nm. The CIE value (x = 0.62, y = 0.38) indicates that the nano-wire emitted a pink colour and not red as for the bulk material. The field emission experimental results agreed well with the photo-luminescent analysis results.

Luminescent properties and characterization of Gd2O3:Eu(3+)@SiO2 and Gd2Ti2O7:Eu(3+)@SiO2 core-shell phosphors prepared by a sol-gel process.

Gd2O3:Eu(3+) and Gd2Ti2O7:Eu(3+) films 10 nm in thickness were individually coated onto silica spheres (particle size of 150-170 nm) using the sol-gel method. The synthesized materials were addressed as Gd2O3:Eu(3+)@SiO2 and Gd2Ti2O7:Eu(3+)@SiO2 phosphors. An x-ray powder diffractometer (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM), and photoluminescence spectrophotometer (PL) were employed to characterize the core-shell phosphors. Uniform core-shell phosphor particles were observed using FE-SEM. The XRD and HR-TEM results indicated that the coated-shell layer was well crystallized after sintering at 1000 °C. The Gd2O3:Eu(3+)@SiO2 PL measurement showed a red emission at the main 615 nm wavelength. The Gd2Ti2O7:Eu(3+)@SiO2 phosphor showed an orange-red emission at the 588 and 615 nm wavelengths. In comparison with the Gd2O3:Eu(3+) and Gd2Ti2O7:Eu(3+) bulk material results, the core-shell phosphors maintained the same emission ability as the bulk materials and the novel core-shell phosphors possessed great potential in quantum phosphor applications.