Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

This high-profile Feature Article discusses the balance between beneficial and adverse health effects of engineered nanomaterials.

It concludes that current evidence suggests that the beneficial effects of engineered nanomaterials far outweigh the concerns for their safety.

Read this highly topical feature review article today:

Feature Article
Health implications of engineered nanomaterials
Antonio Pietroiusti
Nanoscale, 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11688J

This Feature Article forms part of a series of review articles which cover the theme ‘Nanotechnology: Health, Environmental and Societal Impacts’.

Further articles will be published soon so watch this space!

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Carbon quantum dots with honeycomb structures have been made by scientists in China and the US to support gold nanoparticles in surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) applications. The dots enable SERS sensitivity 8–11 times stronger than the currently used gold nanoparticles.

SERS is an ultrasensitive technique used to detect trace molecules. The gold’s function is to enhance Raman scattering to result in the surface enhanced Raman scattering effect. A current way to improve this effect for a more sensitive signal is to replace the planar surface on which the gold nanoparticles are placed with unique nanoporous superaligned carbon nanotube films with cross-stacking.

Now, the team have achieved further enhancement with their honeycomb quantum dots.

Read the ‘HOT’ Nanoscale article:

Honeycomb Architecture of Carbon Quantum Dots: A New Efficient Substrate to Support Gold for Stronger SERS
Y Fan et al, Nanoscale, 2012
DOI: 10.1039/c2nr12015a

Researchers at Lanzhou University, China, have designed a nanocomposite to effectively remove cadmium ions from human blood.

Previous materials designed for this purpose have either had good selectivity, high saturation magnetisation or good water dispersibility, but the new material has all three properties. And, the composite is highly supermagnetic, making subsequent removal of the nanoparticles easier.

Removing cadmium (which is produced during industrial processes) from the blood is important because they bind to proteins in the body, affecting their functions.

The nanocomposite consists of four components; The first is magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, chosen for their low toxicity. They are coated with polyethylenimine to increase the amino groups on the particles’ surface to bind Cd²⁺, but also to lower nanoparticle uptake by red blood cells, maximising the circulation time of the composites in the blood. Polyethylene glycol is grafted onto this as an anchor for negatively charged 2,2’-phenylazanediyl, which counteracts the hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions between the nanoparticles and plasma proteins or white blood cells.

Read the Nanoscale article now:

2, 2′-(phenylazanediyl) diacetic acid modified Fe3O4@PEI for selective removal of cadmium ions from blood
Jun Jin, Fang Yang, Fengwei Zhang, Wuquan Hu, Shao-bo Sun and Jiantai Ma
Nanoscale, 2012
DOI: 10.1039/c2nr11481j