Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

This week’s HOT articles

17 Jun 2013

These articles are HOT as recommended by the referees.

Take a look at these exciting articles recently published in Nanoscale:

Tunable properties induced by ion exchange in multilayer intertwined CuS microflowers with hierarchal structures
Liwei Mi, Wutao Wei, Zhi Zheng, Yang Gao, Yang Liu, Weihua Chen and Xinxin Guan
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01438J

Tunable properties induced by ion exchange in multilayer intertwined CuS microflowers with hierarchal structures

Structural and electronic studies of metal carbide clusterfullerene Sc2C2@Cs–C72
Yongqiang Feng, Taishan Wang, Jingyi Wu, Lai Feng, Junfeng Xiang, Yihan Ma, Zhuxia Zhang, Li Jiang, Chunying Shu and Chunru Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01739G

Structural and electronic studies of metal carbide clusterfullerene Sc2C2@Cs–C72

High-speed AFM for scanning the architecture of living cells
Jing Li, Zhifeng Deng, Daixie Chen, Zhuo Ao, Quanmei Sun, Jiantao Feng, Bohua Yin, Li Han and Dong Han
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01464A

High-speed AFM for scanning the architecture of living cells

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New nanoscience books from Royal Society of Chemistry

12 Jun 2013

By Rowan Frame, Commissioning Editor.

With the publication of its latest title, Artificial Cilia edited by Jaap den Toonder and Patrick Onck, the RSC Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Series celebrated publishing 30 books in the Series.

The Series is led by Editor-in-Chief Paul O’Brien FRS, University of Manchester, UK with Series Editors Ralph Nuzzo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA;Joao Rocha, University of Aveiro, Portugal and Xiaogang Liu, National University of Singapore.

Recently published titles in this series include:

Nanoscience for the Conservation of Works of Art edited by Piero Baglioni and David Chelazzi, University of Florence, Italy
Polymer Nanofibers by Dario Pisignano, University of Salento, Italy

Recently published titles in the RSC Smart Materials Series are:

Responsive Photonic Nanostructures edited by Yadong Yin, Unversity of California, Riverside, USA
Materials Design Inspired by Nature edited by Peter Fratzl , John Dunlop and Richard Weinkamer, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany

Don’t forget you can freely access the table of contents, preface, front matter and first chapter of every eBook in the Series via the RSC Publishing website.

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This week’s HOT articles

10 Jun 2013

By Rowan Frame, Commissioning Editor.

These articles are HOT as recommended by the referees. Take a look…

Mechanical reinforcement fibers produced by gel-spinning of poly-acrylic acid (PAA) and graphene oxide (GO) composites
Zaixing Jiang, Qiang Li, Menglin Chen, Jingbo Li, Jun Li, Yudong Huang, Flemming Besenbacher and Mingdong Dong
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00288H

Mechanical reinforcement fibers produced by gel-spinning of poly-acrylic acid (PAA) and graphene oxide (GO) composites

Lanthanide-doped NaScF4 nanoprobes: crystal structure, optical spectroscopy and biodetection
Yu Ai, Datao Tu, Wei Zheng, Yongsheng Liu, Jintao Kong, Ping Hu, Zhuo Chen, Mingdong Huang and Xueyuan Chen
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01529G

Lanthanide-doped NaScF4 nanoprobes: crystal structure, optical spectroscopy and biodetection

Bandgap engineering and shape control of colloidal CdxZn1−xO nanocrystals
Xin Wang, Yizheng Jin, Haiping He, Fan Yang, Yefeng Yang and Zhizhen Ye
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01124K

Bandgap engineering and shape control of colloidal CdxZn1−xO nanocrystals

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This week’s HOT articles

03 Jun 2013

By Rowan Frame, Commissioning Editor.

These articles are HOT as recommended by the referees. Take a look…

Stochastic memristive devices for computing and neuromorphic applications
Siddharth Gaba, Patrick Sheridan, Jiantao Zhou, Shinhyun Choi and Wei Lu
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01176C

Stochastic memristive devices for computing and neuromorphic applications

Electrochemically induced actuation of liquid metal marbles
Shi-Yang Tang, Vijay Sivan, Khashayar Khoshmanesh, Anthony P. O’Mullane, Xinke Tang, Berrak Gol, Nicky Eshtiaghi, Felix Lieder, Phred Petersen, Arnan Mitchell and Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00185G

Electrochemically induced actuation of liquid metal marbles

Efficient Temperature Sensing Platform Based on Fluorescent Block Copolymer-Functionalized Graphene Oxide
Hyunseung Yang, Kwanyeol Paek and Bumjoon J. Kim
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01486J

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A model platform for the optical sensing of proteases

29 May 2013

By Rowan Frame, Commissioning Editor.

Lee Barrett is a guest web-writer for Nanoscale. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Strathclyde, UK.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science have developed a simple and sensitive strategy for the detection of trypsin using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).

Ultrasensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection of trypsin based on anti-aggregation of 4-mercaptopyridine-functionalized silver nanoparticles: an optical sensing platform toward proteases This method is based upon the anti-aggregation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), resulting in a reduced SERS signal in the presence of trypsin. The authors functionalized AgNPs with protamine, a low molecular weight protein, which adsorbs to the negatively charged AgNP surface via electrostatic interaction of the polycationic arginine residues abundant in the protein. Adsorption of protamine resulted in AgNP aggregation due to the neutralization of the negative charge on the NP surface. This resulted in an increase in the SERS signal of a Raman reporter molecule, 4-mercaptopyridine (4-MPY), adsorbed on the NP surface.

The authors observed that upon addition of trypsin, a protease enzyme responsible for the digestion of proteins, AgNP aggregation was reversed. This was due to hydrolysis of the protamine causing it to break down into smaller protein fragments, thereby eliminating its neutralizing effect on the NP surface. Consequently, this resulted in a reduction in the observed SERS signal since the AgNPs were no longer in close enough proximity to one another to facilitate the strong SERS enhancements in NP “hot spots”. The authors cited a detection limit of 0.1 ng ml^-1 and compared their method to other analytical methods for the determination of trypsin, concluding that SERS-based assays provide a simple, rapid, sensitive, selective and reproducible strategy for protease detection.

by Dr Lee Barrett

For more detail, read the full article here:

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Winners of the Nanoscale-sponsored poster awards at ElecNano 5

23 May 2013

By Rowan Frame, Commissioning Editor.

Professor Alexander Kuhn (Chair of the conference) and Dr Laurent Bouffier (Chair of the poster award committee) report on the very successful recent ElecNano 5 international conference, and the winners of the Nanoscale-sponsored poster awards.

The 5^th edition of the international meeting on Nanoelectrochemistry (ElecNano 5) was held in Bordeaux at the ENSCBP Engineering School from 15^th to 17^th May 2013. This conference is organized biannually by the electrochemistry group of the French Chemical Society (SCF). The 2013 edition gathered participants from 20 different countries and the topic was dedicated to “Electroanalysis and the Nanoscale”.

Overall, the program scheduled 42 oral contributions including 4 keynote lectures (Pr. Henry S. White, University of Utah, USA; Pr. Hubert Girault, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland; Pr. Joseph Wang, UCSD, USA and Pr. Richard J. Nichols, University of Liverpool, UK) as well as a poster session with 46 presentations.

For the first time, poster awards were sponsored by RSC Publishing through the journal Nanoscale. More than 30 candidates were competing for the awards and an independent committee nominated three laureates who won a prize of 100 euros each as well as a RSC certificate.

The three winners are:

Izabela Kaminska, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland: “Indium tin oxide nanoparticulate film decorated with gold”
Lita Lee, MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Department of Chemistry, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: “Preparation of a monolayer of carboxylate groups based on the electroreduction of a protected aryldiazonium salt”
Milica Sentic, University of Bordeaux, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Pessac, France: “Electrochemiluminescence imaging at the single bead level: New approach to investigate the ECL mechanism”

From left: Alexander Kuhn (Chair of the conference), Izabela Kaminska (Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland), Lita Lee (University of Canterbury, New Zealand), Milica Sentic (University of Bordeaux, France), Laurent Bouffier (Chair of the poster award committee)

By Prof. Alexander Kuhn (Chair of the conference), Dr Laurent Bouffier (Chair of the poster award committee)

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Recently published HOT articles in Nanoscale

22 May 2013

By Rowan Frame, Commissioning Editor.

These articles are HOT as recommended by the referees.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles as antigen carriers and adjuvants for vaccine delivery
Karishma T. Mody, Amirali Popat, Donna Mahony, Antonino S. Cavallaro, Chengzhong Yu and Neena Mitter
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00357D, Review Article

Impurity doping: a novel strategy for controllable synthesis of functional lanthanide nanomaterials
Daqin Chen and Yuansheng Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00368J, Feature Article

Long-life and high-rate Li3V2(PO4)3/C nanosphere cathode materials with three-dimensional continuous electron pathways
Liqiang Mai, Shuo Li, Yifan Dong, Yunlong Zhao, Yanzhu Luo and Hongmei Xu
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01490H, Paper

Identification of vibrational signatures from short chains of interlinked molecule–nanoparticle junctions obtained by inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy
S. H. M. Jafri, H. Löfås, J. Fransson, T. Blom, A. Grigoriev, A. Wallner, R. Ahuja, H. Ottosson and K. Leifer
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00505D, Communication

Phase transformation and thermoelectric properties of bismuth-telluride nanowires
Cheng-Lun Hsin, Matthew Wingert, Chun-Wei Huang, Hua Guo, Ten-Jen Shih, Joonki Suh, Kevin Wang, Junqiao Wu, Wen-Wei Wu and Renkun Chen
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00876B, Communication

Simultaneous electrical and plasmonic monitoring of potential induced ion adsorption on metal nanowire arrays
Robert MacKenzie, Corrado Fraschina, Bernd Dielacher, Takumi Sannomiya, Andreas B. Dahlin and Janos Vörös
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR34172K, Paper

The unusual effect of AgNO3 on the growth of Au nanostructures and their catalytic performance
Xingliang Li, Yun Yang, Guangju Zhou, Shuhua Han, Wenfang Wang, Lijie Zhang, Wei Chen, Chao Zou and Shaoming Huang
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00603D, Paper

High-energy supercapacitors based on hierarchical porous carbon with an ultrahigh ion-accessible surface area in ionic liquid electrolytes
Hui Zhong, Fei Xu, Zenghui Li, Ruowen Fu and Dingcai Wu
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00738C, Communication

Seawater-driven magnesium based Janus micromotors for environmental remediation
Wei Gao, Xiaomiao Feng, Allen Pei, Yonge Gu, Jinxing Li and Joseph Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01458D, Communication

An associative capacitive network based on nanoscale complementary resistive switches for memory-intensive computing
Omid Kavehei, Eike Linn, Lutz Nielen, Stefan Tappertzhofen, Efstratios Skafidas, Ilia Valov and Rainer Waser
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00535F, Paper

Controlled 3D-coating of the pores of highly ordered mesoporous antiferromagnetic Co3O4 replicas with ferrimagnetic FexCo3−xO4 nanolayers
Eva Pellicer, Moisés Cabo, Alberto López-Ortega, Marta Estrader, Lluís Yedra, Sònia Estradé, Francesca Peiró, Zineb Saghi, Paul Midgley, Emma Rossinyol, Igor V. Golosovsky, Alvaro Mayoral, Joan D. Prades, Santiago Suriñach, Maria Dolors Baró, Jordi Sort and Josep Nogués
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00989K, Paper

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Nanoscale article in Chemistry World: Manipulating liquid metal marbles

22 May 2013

By Hannah Porter, Publishing Assistant.

Sequential snaptshots of a liquid metal marble in motion when a voltage is applied

Researchers in Australia and Germany have made highly controllable actuators in the form of liquid metal marbles. The marbles have a nanoparticle coating that can be electrochemically manipulated to control their movement.

Actuation involves converting an input signal into motion to drive a mechanism or system. Micro- and nano-scale actuators are crucial components in consumer electronics, amongst other things.

Now, Shi-Yang Tang, under the supervision of Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh and Arnan Mitchell, at RMIT University, Melbourne, has demonstrated that liquid metal marbles can act as actuators in aqueous media when an electrical current is applied. The marbles consist of a galinstan (an alloy of gallium, indium and tin) core that has been coated with tungsten oxide nanoparticles. An applied current causes the nanoparticles to migrate along the surface of the galinstan, creating an asymmetry in the surface tension that makes the marbles move.

Read the full article by Yuandi Li in Chemistry World!

Read the article in Nanoscale:

Electrochemically Induced Actuation of Liquid Metal Marbles
Shiyang Tang, Vijay Sivan, Khashayar Khoshmanesh, Anthony Peter O’Mullane, Xinke Tang, Berrak Gol, Nicky Eshtiaghi, Felix Lieder, Phred Petersen, Arnan Mitchell and Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh
Nanoscale, 2013, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00185G

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International Workshop on Photonics of Functional Nanomaterials

21 May 2013

By Rowan Frame, Commissioning Editor.

Nanoscale was proud to sponsored poster awards at the International Workshop on Photonics of Functional Nanomaterials, which was held on the 6-9th May 2013 in Hong Kong. Nanoscale Associate Editor Jianfang Wang was a co-organiser of the workshop.

Here are the prizewinners…

…and the group that attended the conference…

International Workshop on Photonics of Functional Nanomaterials

Here are some recent research highlights in the area of photonics and functional nanomaterials:

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

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, Feature Article

Fabrication of Au nanotube arrays and their plasmonic properties
Haojun Zhu, Huanjun Chen, Jianfang Wang and Quan Li
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR33658A, Paper

Check out more Nanoscale articles at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/journalissues/nr

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On-off temperature sensing with graphene oxide

16 May 2013

By Heather Montgomery, Deputy Editor.

Researchers in Korea have developed a new temperature sensing platform based on graphene oxide (GO). The sensor uses GO’s functionality as an efficient Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) acceptor to deliver a fast optical on-off signal in response to temperature change.

The article describes how the scientists functionalised GO sheets with thermally-responsive triblock copolymers for the first time. The triblock copolymer brush was designed to contain a component for covalent grafting to GO, a thermally-responsive component and a fluorescent component. At elevated temperatures, the thermally-responsive component (poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) undergoes a conformational change that reduces the distance between the fluorophore and GO. This quenches the photoluminescence (PL) of the flurophore component.

The scientists tested a dispersion of the functionalised GO sensing platform in water. PL spectra showed a decrease in intensity as the temperature was increased. A marked decrease in PL intensity was evident at temperatures above 32 ^oC, demonstrating an on-off switching behaviour of the sensor. The functionalised graphene oxide composites demonstrated excellent stability in water, opening up the possibility for their use as optical indicators of temperature change in biologically and environmentally compatible sensing systems.

Read the full details of this HOT Nanoscale article today:

Efficient temperature sensing platform based on fluorescent block copolymer-functionalized graphene oxide
Bumjoon Kim, Hyunseung Yang and Kwanyeol Paek
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01486J

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Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

This week’s HOT articles

New nanoscience books from Royal Society of Chemistry

This week’s HOT articles

This week’s HOT articles

A model platform for the optical sensing of proteases

Winners of the Nanoscale-sponsored poster awards at ElecNano 5

Recently published HOT articles in Nanoscale

Nanoscale article in Chemistry World: Manipulating liquid metal marbles

International Workshop on Photonics of Functional Nanomaterials

On-off temperature sensing with graphene oxide

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