Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

Nano-injection delivery method for single cells

06 Aug 2012

Voltage controlled delivery of materials for ‘single-cell surgery’

A system that enables controlled delivery of materials into a single cell without the need for highly specialised manual operation has been developed by US scientists.

The system is fully electrical, is based on double-barrel nanopipettes and is capable of injecting a controlled amount of material into a single cell. It uses a scanning ion conductance microscope (SICM) to position a nanopipette within a few hundred nanometres of the cell membrane. The amount of material delivered to the cell is controlled by the amplitude and duration of an applied voltage. The team injected human fibroblasts with carboxyfluorescein as a proof-of-principle experiment.

Traditional micropipettes suffer from several drawbacks, e.g. large size relative to typical cells, low cell viability following injection and requirement of skilled operator. More recently developed atomic force microscopy-based nanoinjectors are limited in terms of throughput and control of injection volumes.

This new system overcomes many of these concerns, including very good cell viability (70-100 %), with normal cell division observed 27 hours post-injection. In addition, the authors were able to inject two different dyes into the cells without any cross-talk observed between the two; this gives rise to the possibility of build in more chambers and customise specific cocktails of molecules for different cells.

Read the ‘HOT’ Communication hot of the press!

Voltage Controlled Nano-injection System for Single-cell Surgery
R. Adam Seger, Paolo Actis, Catherine Penfold, Michelle Maalouf, Boaz Vilozny and Nader Pourmand
Nanoscale, 2012, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR31700A

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Nanoscale Themed Issue: Metallic Clusters

03 Aug 2012

By Aliya Anwar.

Issue 15 of Nanoscale is themed and now online. You can read the full issue here.

This issue on Metallic Clusters was Guest Edited by Rongchao Jin (Carnegie Mellon University, USA), Sang-Kee Eah (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA) and Yong Pei (Xiangtan University, China).

The outside front cover shows The halogen analogs of thiolated gold nanoclusters by De-en Jiang and Michael Walter.

The inside front cover highlights Grain size effects in polycrystalline gold nanoparticles by Chen Zhou, Jing Yu, Yanping Qin and Jie Zheng.

Highlights from this themed issue include the following Editorial, Review Articles and Communications:

Editorial

Quantum-sized metal nanoclusters
Rongchao Jin, Sang-Kee Eah and Yong Pei
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4026-4026
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR90052A

Review articles

Stabilized gold clusters: from isolation toward controlled synthesis
Prasenjit Maity, Songhai Xie, Miho Yamauchi and Tatsuya Tsukuda
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4027-4037
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30900A
Probing the electronic properties and structural evolution of anionic gold clusters in the gas phase
Lei-Ming Wang and Lai-Sheng Wang
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4038-4053
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30186E
Investigating the structural evolution of thiolate protected gold clusters from first-principles
Yong Pei and Xiao Cheng Zeng
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4054-4072
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30685A
Different sized luminescent gold nanoparticles
Jie Zheng, Chen Zhou, Mengxiao Yu and Jinbin Liu
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4073-4083
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR31192E

Communications

AuAg alloy nanomolecules with 38 metal atoms
Chanaka Kumara and Amala Dass
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4084-4086
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11781A
Au₂₅(SG)₁₈ as a fluorescent iodide sensor
Man Wang, Zhikun Wu, Jiao Yang, Guozhong Wang, Hongzhi Wang and Weiping Cai
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4087-4090
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30169E
Ultrafast, 2 min synthesis of monolayer-protected gold nanoclusters (d < 2 nm)
Matthew N. Martin, Dawei Li, Amala Dass and Sang-Kee Eah
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4091-4094
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30890H
One-pot synthesis and characterization of subnanometre-size benzotriazolate protected copper clusters
Kirsi Salorinne, Xi Chen, Ralf W. Troff, Maija Nissinen and Hannu Häkkinen
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4095-4098
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30444A
Ligand symmetry-equivalence on thiolate protected gold nanoclusters determined by NMR spectroscopy
O. Andrea Wong, Christine L. Heinecke, Ashli R. Simone, Robert L. Whetten and Christopher J. Ackerson
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4099-4102
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30259D
Sonochemical synthesis of highly fluorescent glutathione-stabilized Ag nanoclusters and S²⁻sensing
Tingyao Zhou, Mingcong Rong, Zhimin Cai, Chaoyong James Yang and Xi Chen
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4103-4106
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30718A
A DNA-templated fluorescent silver nanocluster with enhanced stability
Jaswinder Sharma, Reginaldo C. Rocha, M. Lisa Phipps, Hsin-Chih Yeh, Kirill A. Balatsky, Dung M. Vu, Andrew P. Shreve, James H. Werner and Jennifer S. Martinez
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4107-4110
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30662J

Fancy submitting an article to Nanoscale? Then why not submit to us today!

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Hot communication on gold nanoclusters highlighted

30 Jul 2012

By Heather Montgomery, Deputy Editor.

A Nanoscale communication by Richard Palmer et al. in which they report Scanning Transmission
Electron Microscopy images of tetrahedral gold nanoclusters has been highlighted on Phys.org.

Read more details in this exciting Nanoscale communication today:

Direct atomic imaging and dynamical fluctuations of the tetrahedral Au₂₀ cluster
Z. W. Wang and R. E. Palmer
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4947-4949
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR31071F

Table of contents image

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Nanoscale Editor reports artificial potassium ion channel

18 Jul 2012

By Heather Montgomery, Deputy Editor.

Nanoscale‘s newest Associate Editor Professor Xiao Cheng Zeng and collaborators in the US and China have reported a novel nanopore which has similar selective ion transport properties as the potassium ion channels found in nature. The work reported in Nature Communications could have potential applications in desalination technology or drug delivery.

Also check our Professor Zeng’s recent Nanoscale articles:

Investigating the structural evolution of thiolate protected gold clusters from first-principles
Yong Pei and Xiao Cheng Zeng
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 4054-4072
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30685A

Edge-decorated graphene nanoribbons by scandium as hydrogen storage media
Menghao Wu, Yi Gao, Zhenyu Zhang and Xiao Cheng Zeng
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 915-920
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11257D

Mn monolayer modified Rh for syngas-to-ethanol conversion: a first-principles study
Fengyu Li, De-en Jiang, Xiao Cheng Zeng and Zhongfang Chen
Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 1123-1129
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11121C

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Pinning down cancer

18 Jul 2012

By Aliya Anwar.

US scientists have synthesised pin-shaped nanoparticles with magnetic and optical properties. The team, led by Xiaohua Huang at the University of Memphis, says that the nanoparticles ‘could be used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), early detection and photothermal therapy of cancer and other diseases’.

Nanoparticles with both magnetic and optical properties are highly sought after in a number of fields, particularly medicine, where they could be efficient agents for imaging tumour cells using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and MRI.

To read the full article visit Chemistry World.

Synthesis and properties of near infrared-absorbing magnetic–optical nanopins
Saheel Bhana, Binod K. Rai, Sanjay R. Mishra, Yongmei Wang and Xiaohua Huang
Nanoscale, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR31291C

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Celebrating high impact research in Nanoscale

16 Jul 2012

By Heather Montgomery, Deputy Editor.

Free access to some of the excellent articles in Nanoscale for a limited period.

We are delighted that Nanoscale’s 2011 Impact Factor is 5.914. This is an impressive rise from last year and demonstrates the outstanding research being published in the journal.

To celebrate, we would like to share with you some of the great reviews and original research articles we have published in Nanoscale which are free to access for a limited period.

Be among the first to hear about the newest articles being published in Nanoscale – sign up to receive our free table of contents e-alerts.

The Editors—Chunli Bai (CAS), Jie Liu (Duke University), Wei Lu (University of Michigan), Markus Niederberger (ETH Zurich), Francesco Stellacci (EPFL), Jianfang Wang (Hong Kong) and Xiao Cheng Zeng (University of Nebraska–Lincoln)—enforce very high standards for acceptance in Nanoscale. Articles must report extremely novel, very high quality work of broad general interest. We aspire to even higher quality and impact in future years.

Submit your best work to Nanoscale.

Read these excellent Nanoscale articles for free today:

Reviews

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

Recent progress on metal core@semiconductor shell nanocomposites as a promising type of photocatalyst
Nan Zhang, Siqi Liu and Yi-Jun Xu
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR00009A

Gold nanoparticles: preparation, properties, and applications in bionanotechnology
Yi-Cheun Yeh, Brian Creran and Vincent M. Rotello
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11188D

Nanostructured metal oxide-based materials as advanced anodes for lithium-ion batteries
Hao Bin Wu, Jun Song Chen, Huey Hoon Hng and Xiong Wen (David) Lou
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11966H

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

The role of nanomaterials in redox-based supercapacitors for next generation energy storage devices
Xin Zhao , Beatriz Mendoza Sánchez , Peter J. Dobson and Patrick S. Grant
DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00594K

Graphene: nanoscale processing and recent applications
László P. Biró , Péter Nemes-Incze and Philippe Lambin
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11067E

Li ion battery materials with core–shell nanostructures
Liwei Su , Yu Jing and Zhen Zhou
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10550G

Theranostic nanoplatforms for simultaneous cancer imaging and therapy: current approaches and future perspectives
Ki Young Choi , Gang Liu , Seulki Lee and Xiaoyuan Chen
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11277E

Microwave chemistry for inorganic nanomaterials synthesis
Idalia Bilecka and Markus Niederberger
DOI: 10.1039/B9NR00377K

Original research

3D branched nanowire heterojunction photoelectrodes for high-efficiency solar water splitting and H₂ generation
Ke Sun, Yi Jing, Chun Li, Xiaofeng Zhang, Ryan Aguinaldo, Alireza Kargar, Kristian Madsen, Khaleda Banu, Yuchun Zhou, Yoshio Bando, Zhaowei Liu and Deli Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11952H

One-step seeded growth of Au nanoparticles with widely tunable sizes
Chuanbo Gao, John Vuong, Qiao Zhang, Yiding Liu and Yadong Yin
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30300K

Graphene-based composite materials beneficial to wound healing
Bingan Lu, Ting Li, Haitao Zhao, Xiaodong Li, Caitian Gao, Shengxiang Zhang and Erqing Xie
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11958G

The effect of nanowire length and diameter on the properties of transparent, conducting nanowire films
Stephen M. Bergin, Yu-Hui Chen, Aaron R. Rathmell, Patrick Charbonneau, Zhi-Yuan Li and Benjamin J. Wiley
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30126A

Graphene decoration with metal nanoparticles: Towards easy integration for sensing applications
Albert Gutés, Ben Hsia, Allen Sussman, Willi Mickelson, Alex Zettl, Carlo Carraro and Roya Maboudian
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11537E

Graphene oxide modified TiO₂ nanotube arrays: enhanced visible light photoelectrochemical properties
Peng Song, Xiaoyan Zhang, Mingxuan Sun, Xiaoli Cui and Yuehe Lin
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11938B

CdS/CdSe quantum dot co-sensitized graphene nanocomposites via polymer brush templated synthesis for potential photovoltaic applications
Junfeng Yan, Qian Ye, Xiaolong Wang, Bo Yu and Feng Zhou
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11893A

Surface charge of gold nanoparticles mediates mechanism of toxicity
Nicole M. Schaeublin, Laura K. Braydich-Stolle, Amanda M. Schrand, John M. Miller, Jim Hutchison, John J. Schlager and Saber M. Hussain
DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00478B

Facile synthesis of metal oxide/reduced graphene oxide hybrids with high lithium storage capacity and stable cyclability
Jixin Zhu, Ting Zhu, Xiaozhu Zhou, Yanyan Zhang, Xiong Wen Lou, Xiaodong Chen, Hua Zhang, Huey Hoon Hng and Qingyu Yan
DOI: 10.1039/C0NR00744G

A new ultrahigh-speed method for the preparation of nanofibers containing living cells: A bridge towards industrial bioengineering applications
Bingan Lu, Yongmin He, Huigao Duan, Yijie Zhang, Xiaodong Li, Chenquan Zhu and Erqing Xie
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11430E

Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the ISACS9 Challenges in Nanoscience conference:

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Poster Prize: Noble Metal Nanoparticles Gordon Research Conference

09 Jul 2012

By Aliya Anwar.

Nanoscale was delighted to recently award prize certificates and a year’s personal subscription to Nanoscale to Nisha Mammen (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India) and Sam Jones (University of Cambridge, UK) at the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Noble Metal Nanoparticles which took place at South Hadley, Massachusetts last month.

Nisha Mammen (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India)

Sam Jones (University of Cambridge, UK)

The prizes were presented by Francesco Stellacci (EPFL), Editor-in-Chief of Nanoscale and Vice Chair of the conference.

Nanoscale will be awarding further Prizes over the summer so watch this space!

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Optofluidics offers health, food, water and energy solutions

06 Jul 2012

By Heather Montgomery, Deputy Editor.

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

Table of contents graphic

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Doughnut-like composite for pseudocapacitors

03 Jul 2012

By RSC Internet Services.

Nanoscale ‘HOT’ Article

Zhen Zhou and co-workers have synthesised and characterised a doughnut-like Ni(OH)₂–Co(OH)₂ composite for use in pseudocapacitors.

The specific capacitance for the first discharge of the composite was calculated as 2193 F g^-1 at a discharge current density of 2 A g^-1, which is significantly larger than the corresponding value of 1914 F g^-1 for pristine Ni(OH)₂ at the same current density. The composite also exhibited better cycling performance and rate capability than Ni(OH)₂.

This study has shown that the overall electrochemical performance is considerably enhanced for the doughnut-like Ni(OH)₂–Co(OH)₂ composite.

Read the Nanoscale Article today:

Preparation and electrochemical performances of doughnut-like Ni(OH)₂–Co(OH)₂ composites as pseudocapacitor materials
Jinxiu Li, Mei Yang, Jinping Wei and Zhen Zhou
Nanoscale, 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2NR30936J

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Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

Nano-injection delivery method for single cells

Nanoscale Themed Issue: Metallic Clusters

Hot communication on gold nanoclusters highlighted

Nanoscale Editor reports artificial potassium ion channel

Pinning down cancer

Celebrating high impact research in Nanoscale

Poster Prize: Noble Metal Nanoparticles Gordon Research Conference

Optofluidics offers health, food, water and energy solutions

Top 10 most-read Nanoscale articles in May

Doughnut-like composite for pseudocapacitors

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