Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

In their HOT Nanoscale feature article, scientists from Taiwan and the USA discuss the potential applications of optofluidics – where optics and microfluidics are integrated – in some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century: healthcare, food shortages, malnutrition, water purification, and energy.

Their review highlights current progress in optofluidic techniques and their potential to provide low-cost solutions to these problems.

Read this exciting Nanoscale Feature article today:

Optofluidic opportunities in global health, food, water and energy
Yih-Fan Chen , Li Jiang , Matthew Mancuso , Aadhar Jain , Vlad Oncescu and David Erickson
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30859B

Nanoscale Associate Editor Professor Jianfang Wang, an expert in the field of plasmonics, has highlighted some excellent plasmonics articles recently published in Nanoscale.

You can read these articles for free for a limited period by clicking on the links below.

Prof. Wang and Nanoscale co-Editor-in-Chief Francesco Stellacci will be attending the Gordon Research Conference on Noble Metal Nanoparticles – do say hello if you are there. Nanoscale is delighted to be a sponsor of the meeting.

With an international readership, across the many disciplines involved with nanoscience and nanotechnology, Nanoscale is the ideal place to publish your research.

Submit you best research to Nanoscale.

Read Professor Wang’s Editor’s choice selection for free today:

Review Articles

Controlled assembly of plasmonic colloidal nanoparticle clusters
José M. Romo-Herrera, Ramón A. Alvarez-Puebla and Luis M. Liz-Marzán
DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00804D

Free-standing one-dimensional plasmonic nanostructures
Lin Jiang, Yinghui Sun, Fengwei Huo, Hua Zhang, Lidong Qin, Shuzhou Li and Xiaodong Chen
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11445J

Molding the flow of light on the nanoscale: from vortex nanogears to phase-operated plasmonic machinery
Svetlana V. Boriskina and Björn M. Reinhard
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11406A

Emerging fabrication techniques for 3D nano-structuring in plasmonics and single molecule studies
F. De Angelis, C. Liberale, M. L. Coluccio, G. Cojoc and E. Di Fabrizio
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10124B

Original Research

Three-tiered Au nano-disk array for broadband interaction with light
Jung-Sub Wi, Masud Rana and Tadaaki Nagao
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30179B

Nanoplasmonic sensing of metal–halide complex formation and the electric double layer capacitor
Andreas B. Dahlin, Raphael Zahn and Janos Vörös
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11950A

Light concentration and redistribution in polymer solar cells by plasmonic nanoparticles
Jinfeng Zhu, Mei Xue, Ryan Hoekstra, Faxian Xiu, Baoqing Zeng and Kang L. Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11920J

High-throughput ultrasensitive characterization of chemical, structural and plasmonic properties of EBL-fabricated single silver nanoparticles
Tao Huang, Wei Cao, Hani E. Elsayed-Ali and Xiao-Hong Nancy Xu
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11368B

Mechanism of nanoparticle actuation by responsive polymer brushes: from reconfigurable composite surfaces to plasmonic effects
Yuri Roiter, Iryna Minko, Dmytro Nykypanchuk, Ihor Tokarev and Sergiy Minko
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10932D

Surface plasmon resonance-induced visible light photocatalytic reduction of graphene oxide: Using Ag nanoparticles as a plasmonic photocatalyst
Tongshun Wu, Sen Liu, Yonglan Luo, Wenbo Lu, Lei Wang and Xuping Sun
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10128E

Strong photoluminescence enhancement of silicon quantum dots by their near-resonant coupling with multi-polar plasmonic hot spots
T. Nychyporuk, Yu. Zakharko, T. Serdiuk, O. Marty, M. Lemiti and V. Lysenko
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10241A

Enhancement of dye-sensitized photocurrents by gold nanoparticles: effects of dye–particle spacing
Tokuhisa Kawawaki, Yukina Takahashi and Tetsu Tatsuma
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10416K

Facile solvothermal synthesis of cube-like Ag@AgCl: a highly efficient visible light photocatalyst
Lei Han, Ping Wang, Chengzhou Zhu, Yueming Zhai and Shaojun Dong
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10247H

Nanoscale semiconductor–insulator–metal core/shell heterostructures: facile synthesis and light emission
Gong Ping Li, Rui Chen, Dong Lai Guo, Lai Mun Wong, Shi Jie Wang, Han Dong Sun and Tom Wu
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10352K

Dark-field microscopy studies of polarization-dependent plasmonic resonance of single gold nanorods: rainbow nanoparticles
Youju Huang and Dong-Hwan Kim
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10336A

Au@Ag core–shell nanoparticles: efficient all-plasmonic Fano-resonance generators
Ovidio Peña-Rodríguez and Umapada Pal
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10625B

Highly effective SERS substrates based on an atomic-layer-deposition-tailored nanorod array scaffold
Monan Liu, Li Sun, Chuanwei Cheng, Hailong Hu, Zexiang Shen and Hong Jin Fan
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10595G

Plasmon-induced modulation of the emission spectra of the fluorescent molecules near gold nanorods
Lei Zhao, Tian Ming, Huanjun Chen, Yao Liang and Jianfang Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10544B

Can information of chemical reaction propagate with plasmonic waveguide and be detected at remote terminal of nanowire?
Mengtao Sun, Yanxue Hou and Hongxing Xu
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10981B

Development of a mass-producible on-chip plasmonic nanohole array biosensor
Kohei Nakamoto, Ryoji Kurita, Osamu Niwa, Toshiyuki Fujii and Munehiro Nishida
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10883B

Enhancing photocatalytic activity of one-dimensional KNbO₃ nanowires by Au nanoparticles under ultraviolet and visible-light
Jinyao Lan, Xuemei Zhou, Gang Liu, Jiaguo Yu, Jingchang Zhang, Linjie Zhi and Guangjun Nie
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10953G

Excitation profile of surface-enhanced Raman scattering in graphene–metal nanoparticle based derivatives
Xiaoqi Fu, Fengli Bei, Xin Wang, Stephen O’Brien and John R. Lombardi
DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00135J

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Professor Mildred S. Dresselhaus has been awarded the 2012 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience “for her pioneering contributions to the study of phonons, electron-phonon interactions, and thermal transport in nanostructures.”

The Kavli Prize is awarded biannually to scientists who have made a seminal contribution to the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience.

Read a selection of Prof. Dresselhaus’ recent articles including her popular Nanoscale review on graphene edges and her review of progress in the field of thermoelectrics in Energy & Environmental Science:

Graphene edges: a review of their fabrication and characterization
Xiaoting Jia, Jessica Campos-Delgado, Mauricio Terrones, Vincent Meunier and Mildred S. Dresselhaus
DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00600A

Perspectives on thermoelectrics: from fundamentals to device applications
M. Zebarjadi, K. Esfarjani, M. S. Dresselhaus, Z. F. Ren and G. Chen
DOI: 10.1039/C1EE02497C

Wall-to-wall stress induced in (6,5) semiconducting nanotubes by encapsulation in metallic outer tubes of different diameters: A resonance Raman study of individual C₆₀-derived double-wall carbon nanotubes
Federico Villalpando-Paez, Hiroyuki Muramatsu, Yoong Ahm Kim, Hootan Farhat, Morinobu Endo, Mauricio Terrones and Mildred S. Dresselhaus
DOI: 10.1039/B9NR00268E

Functionalization of single-wall carbon nanotubes through chloroform adsorption: theory and experiment
Eduardo C. Girão, Yvonne Liebold-Ribeiro, Jerias A. Batista, Eduardo B. Barros, Solange B. Fagan, Josué Mendes Filho, Mildred S. Dresselhaus and Antonio G. Souza Filho
DOI: 10.1039/B916955E

Yadon Yin and coworkers of the University of California, Riverside have studied the magnetic properties of  Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ core/shell particles. They found that the packing of the particles changed from a polycrystalline fcc to a single-crystalline-like hexagonal arrangement depending on the applied magnetic field.

The authors suggest their finding may have important implications in the creation of new materials based on colloids.

Read this exciting Nanoscale Communication in full today:

Self-assembly and magnetically induced phase transition of three-dimensional colloidal photonic crystals
Le He, Vikas Malik, Mingsheng Wang, Yongxing Hu, Francesca Edith Anson and Yadong Yin
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR31068F

Fabrizio Gelain and co-workers have developed a biocompatible scaffold which is capable of encouraging the regeneration of neural precursor cells derived from neural stem cell in mice. The regeneration of nerve tissue after spinal injury is important but difficult to achieve. The groups reports a promising strategy for neural cell regeneration and they suggest that the approach may have wider applications in other areas of tissue engineering.

One of the stunning images of the mouse neurons they studied has been selected to feature in Chemistry World‘s Chemistry through the lens feature.

Zeiss Apotome microscopy showing a highly organised network of beta-tubulin positive (green) murine neurons, GFAP (red) astrocytes and nuclei marked with DAPI (blue).

Read this exciting research paper in full today:

New bioactive motifs and their use in functionalized self-assembling peptides for NSC differentiation and neural tissue engineering
F. Gelain , D. Cigognini , A. Caprini , D. Silva , B. Colleoni , M. Donegá , S. Antonini , B. E. Cohen and A. Vescovi
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30220A

Following on from their discovery of graphene “speakers”, scientists in China have done more detailed study of the amplitude and frequency of the sound at different distances and angles, and the temperature dependence of the sound frequency. The authors are optimistic about the applications of these devices in  multimedia and consumer electronics as well as biological and medical devices.

Read the full details of their exciting work:

Static behavior of graphene-based sound-emitting device
He Tian, Dan Xie, Yi Yang, Tian-Ling Ren, Yu-Feng Wang, Chang-Jian Zhou, Ping-Gang Peng, Li-Gang Wang and Li-Tian Liu
Nanoscale, 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30417A

You may also be interested in the authors’ original communication:

Single-layer graphene sound-emitting devices: experiments and modeling
He Tian, Dan Xie, Yi Yang, Tian-Ling Ren, Yu-Feng Wang, Chang-Jian Zhou, Ping-Gang Peng, Li-Gang Wang and Li-Tian Liu
Nanoscale, 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11572G

Dongsheng Guan and Ying Wang of Louisiana State University report a novel way to prepare multilayered TiO₂ nanotube arrays. In this study, TiO₂ nanotubes grow at a steady ready under stable pH and ion-diffusion conditions but, when the voltage is first reduced and then subsequently increased again, a second layer of nanotubes can be grown on top of the first.

The work casts light on the mechanism of TiO₂ nanotube growth and could see applications from batteries to solar cells.

Read this HOT Nanoscale article today:

Synthesis and growth mechanism of multilayer TiO₂ nanotube arrays
Dongsheng Guan and Ying Wang
Nanoscale, 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30315A