Jane Hordern, Deputy Editor – Page 7 – Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

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Nanoparticles make glowing leaves

22 Oct 2010

Can street lights be replaced by trees? Scientists report in Nanoscale they believe they can by using gold nanoparticles.

Light emitting diodes are used in street and bicycle lights and have a higher efficiency than traditional light bulbs. Now Yen Hsun Su has synthesised gold nanoparticles shaped like sea urchins and diffused them into Bacopa caroliniana chloroplast which creates a bio-LED.

Chlorophyll shows bioluminescence upon high wavelength (400 nm) ultra violet excitation. In contrast, the gold nanoparticles are excited at shorter wavelengths and emit at 400 nm. By implanting the nanoparticles in the plants, the chlorophyll in the leaves can be induced to produce a red emission.

In addition, the nanoparticles were able to suppress emission blinking – a known problem for gold nanoparticles –as they have a strong surface plasmon resonance. Su says that this bio-LED could be used to make roadside trees luminescent at night once the efficiency is improved and are also planning to apply the same strategy to other plant biomolecules.

Read this exciting paper today for free:
Influence of surface plasmon resonance on the emission intermittency of photoluminescence from gold nano-sea-urchins
Y. H. Su, S.-L. Tu, S.-W. Tseng, Y.-C. Chang, S.-H. Chang and W.-M. Zhang, Nanoscale, 2010
DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00330A

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Lithography themed issue

24 Sep 2010

We are delighted to announce a high-profile themed issue on Lithography, to be published in the exciting new journal Nanoscale in 2011. The themed issue will be Guest Edited by Karl Berggren (MIT).

Submit to this themed issue – submission deadline 14 January 2011

The aim of this issue is to present the latest results in the area of lithography, with a particular focus on emerging methods.

The field of nanotechnology has grown extensively in recent years, with tremendous progress being made both in the areas of devices and materials. Further technology development requires new methods of patterning and control, i.e. lithography.

To keep up with the demands of both large-scale manufacturing, small-scale industrial prototyping, and most importantly, the pace of new developments in the research community, a broad array of nanolithography tools and techniques must be developed. These tools and methods span length scales from microns to angstroms, ranging from top-down control to bottom-up self-assembly.

Techniques of interest to this issue include:

templated self-assembly
ultra-high-resolution resists
nano-optical methods
novel charged-particle-beam methods
directed assembly at the nano and atomic scales using mechanical probes
self-assembly using directed biological systems
Lithographic modalities both with and without resists
chemical patterning
beam-induced etching
beam-induced deposition

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Nanoscale now listed in MEDLINE/PubMed

13 Sep 2010

We are delighted to announce that Nanoscale is now listed in the prestigious MEDLINE abstracting / indexing service.

All articles published in Nanoscale (going back to the very first issue) are now included, and are searchable using PubMed. This will provide even greater visibility to the great research being published in the journal, particularly in the bio / medical communities.

Nanoscale is already fully-indexed in other leading databases, including Web of Science, and Scopus. ISI have confirmed Nanoscale will appear in the 2010 Journal Citation Report (and receive an official Impact Factor) – this will be published in June 2011.

Nanoscale publishes leading research in nanoscience and nanotechnology, including the areas of nanobiotechnology; bionanomaterials and nanomedicine.

Read some of the great work published so far in these areas:

Mechanised nanoparticles for drug delivery
Karla K. Cotí, Matthew E. Belowich, Monty Liong, Michael W. Ambrogio, Yuen A. Lau, Hussam A. Khatib, Jeffrey I. Zink, Niveen M. Khashab and J. Fraser Stoddart,
Nanoscale, 2009, 1, 16

Electrospun nanofibers for neural tissue engineering
Jingwei Xie, Matthew R. MacEwan, Andrea G. Schwartz and Younan Xia,
Nanoscale, 2010, 2, 35

Multimodal drug delivery using gold nanoparticles
Chae-kyu Kim, Partha Ghosh and Vincent M. Rotello
Nanoscale, 2009, 1, 61

Nanotechnology for in vitro neuroscience
Daniel R. Cooper and Jay L. Nadeau
Nanoscale, 2009, 1, 183

Nanoscale will also be publishing a themed issue in late 2010 on Surface Nanotechnology for Biological and Medical Applications. The Guest Editors are Darrell Irvine (MIT), Marcus Textor (ETH Zurich) and Xingyu Jiang (NCNST, Beijing). Sign-up to our contents e-alerts to receive this issue direct to your inbox.

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Butterfly wing and peacock feather nanostructures

17 Aug 2010

HOT Nanoscale paper – read it for free…

Controllable reflection properties of nanocomposite photonic crystals constructed by semiconductor nanocrystallites and natural periodic bio-matrices
Jie Han, Huilan Su, Fang Song, Di Zhang and Zhixin Chen
Nanoscale, 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00103A

The subtle periodic nanostructures in butterfly wings and peacock feathers are applied as natural PhC matrices to in situ embed CdS nanocrystallites (nano-CdS) on the structure surface via a convenient solution process. The resulting nano-CdS/natural PhCs nanocomposites show typical 1D, quasi 1D and 2D PhC structures at the nanoscale, which is inherited from the corresponding natural periodic bio-matrices.

This work suggests that natural periodic bio-structures could be perfect matrices to construct novel nanocomposite PhCs, whose photonic band structures are tunable and thus achieve controllable optical properties. Related ideas could inspire the design and synthesis of future nanocomposite PhCs.

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MRI contrast nano-probes

09 Aug 2010

Read this FREE ‘HOT’ review article by Thomas J. Meade and colleagues on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) probes on the nanoscale:

High-performance nanostructured MR contrast probes
Fengqin Hu, Hrushikesh M. Joshi, Vinayak P. Dravid and Thomas J. Meade
Nanoscale, 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00173B

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Meet the team at ACS Fall 2010

06 Aug 2010

Managing Editor, Philip Earis, will be at the ACS Fall 2010 National Meeting and Exposition in Boston.

Let us know if you are going to be there and visit Booth 801, where you can find out the latest news from RSC Publishing.

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ZnS nano-photocatalysts

06 Aug 2010

Nanoscale Communication article hot off the press – read it now for free:

ZnS nano-architectures: photocatalysis, deactivation and regeneration
Dagui Chen, Feng Huang, Guoqiang Ren, Dongsong Li, Meng Zheng, Yongjing Wang and Zhang Lin
Nanoscale, 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00171F

Recycling of ZnS nano-photocatalyst

Zhang Lin and colleagues show an “infinite recycling” method for enhancing the durable applications of a ZnS nano-photocatalyst.

They design a strategy in which the deactivated ZnS nano-photocatalyst could be recovered into its original state, which can be used repeatedly without being released into environment as nano-waste.

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Nanosubmarines: self-propelled electrophoretic nanomachines

03 Aug 2010

Nanoscale Minireview – read this for FREE now!

Electrochemically powered self-propelled electrophoretic nanosubmarines
Martin Pumera
Nanoscale, 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00287A

In the past few years, we have witnessed rapid developments in the realization of the old nanotechnology dream, autonomous nanosubmarines. This minireview focuses on a discussion of the fundamentals of the electrophoretic mechanism underlying the propulsion of this sort of nanosub, as well as a demonstration of the proof-of-concept capabilities of nanosubmarines.

These nanomachines are self-powered, taking energy from their environment by electrocatalytic conversion of chemicals present in the solution, self-propelled by flux of the electrons within the submarine and the hydronium ions on the surface of the nanosub, powering it in the direction opposite to that of the flux of the hydronium. These nanosubmarines are responsive to external fields, able to follow complex magnetic patterns, navigate themselves in complex microfluidic channels, follow chemical gradients, carry cargo, and communicate with each other.

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Single metal nanoparticle spectroscopy

28 Jul 2010

Read for free this review on recent advances in single nanoparticles spectroscopy by Abhijit Biswas and colleagues:

Single metal nanoparticle spectroscopy: optical characterization of individual nanosystems for biomedical applications
Abhijit Biswas, Tao Wang and Alexandru S. Biris
Nanoscale, 2010, DOI: 10.1039/c0nr00133c

This paper reviews recent advances in single nanoparticles spectroscopy using both near-field and far-field optics. It covers spectroscopy methods for extremely small ( 1 nm) to relatively large nanoparticles ( 200 nm) and their optical properties. Different optical techniques are described. Finally, a perspective on possible practical applications of single nanoparticle spectroscopy focusing on biomedical fields is given.

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Doped nanostructures

15 Jul 2010

Read July’s issue of Nanoscale – which is all about Doped Nanosctructures and is our first ever themed issue!

This issue, Guest Edited by Stephen Pearton (University of Florida), covers the fascinating field of the doping of nanoparticles or nanostructures: a simple but powerful tool to tailor the chemical and physical properties of functional materials.

Visit our website to find out about our upcming themed issues on Crystallisation and Surface Nanotechnology for Biological and Medical Applications.

TEM images of ZnMgO nanorods courtesy of David Norton

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