Search results for " Gold"

Donor–Acceptor Interfaces by Engineered Nanoparticles Assemblies for Enhanced Efficiency in Plastic Planar Heterojunction Solar Cells

2016

Precisely positioning functionalized gold nanoparticles assemblies at planar donor-acceptor interfaces results in 14-fold enhancement of power conversion efficiency in P3HT/PCBM organic solar cells on plastic (ITO/PET) substrates. This result has been achieved by employing naphthalenethiol-capped gold nanoparticles (NT-Au-NPs) produced by laser ablation in liquid and size varied in the 10-30 nm range. Upon surface functionalization with the aromatic thiol, these particles self-assemble in submicrometer aggregates, which give increased light scattering. When these aggregates are deposited in the planar heterojunction between the donor and the acceptor systems, the localized scattering leads …

Photothermal Ablation of Cancer Cells Using Folate-Coated Gold/ Graphene Oxide Composite

2017

Objective: A new tumor targeted polymer-coated gold/graphene hybrid has been developed for achieving simultaneously thermoablation and chemoterapy of folate receptor-positive cancer cells. Methods: The gold/graphene hybrid was prepared by depositing gold nanospheres onto graphene oxide and coating it with an inulin-folate conjugate. Paclitaxel was loaded by sonication. The hybrid was characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, DSC analysis and SEM microscopy. The cytotoxicity, thermoablation and anticancer activity were evaluated in vitro on MCF-7 and 16 HBE. Results: In vitro tests showed that the paclitaxel-loaded hybrid improved the effectiveness of the drug especially after photothermal treat…

Gold nanoparticles decorated zinc oxide nanorods as electrodes for a highly sensitive non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose detection

2019

Hybrid magnetite–gold nanoparticles as bifunctional magnetic–plasmonic systems: three representative cases

2020

Hybrid systems based on magnetite and gold nanoparticles have been extensively used as bifunctional materials for bio- and nano-technology. The properties of these composites are assumed to be closely related to the magnetite to gold mass ratio and to the geometry of the resulting hetero-structures. To illustrate this, we compare and analyze the optical and magnetic properties of core-shell, dumbbell-like dimers and chemical cross-linked pairs of magnetite and gold nanoparticles in detail. We explore how the combination of gold with magnetite can lead to an improvement of the optical properties of these systems, such as tunability, light scattering enhancement or an increase of the local el…

Development of a three-dimensional cell culture system based on microfluidics for nuclear magnetic resonance and optical monitoring

2014

A new microfluidic cell culture device compatible with real-time nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is presented here. The intended application is the long-term monitoring of 3D cell cultures by several techniques. The system has been designed to fit inside commercially available NMR equipment to obtain maximum readout resolution when working with small samples. Moreover, the microfluidic device integrates a fibre-optic-based sensor to monitor parameters such as oxygen, pH, or temperature during NMR monitoring, and it also allows the use of optical microscopy techniques such as confocal fluorescence microscopy. This manuscript reports the initial trials culturing neurospheres inside the micro…

Supported Au catalysts for low-temperature abatement of propene and toluene, as model VOCs: Support effect

2011

3-4 Ousmane, M. Liotta, L. F. Di Carlo, G. Pantaleo, G. Venezia, A. M. Deganello, G. Retailleau, L. Boreave, A. Giroir-Fendler, A.; In this work gold nanoparticles supported over ceria (Au/CeO2), titania (Au/TiO2), alumina (Au/Al2O3) and Ce doped alumina (Au/7.5Ce/Al2O3) were prepared by deposition-precipitation (DP) method with NaOH solution and characterized by BET, XRD, H-2-TPR, TEM and XPS techniques. The catalytic activity was evaluated in the total oxidation of propene and toluene, chosen as model VOC molecules. The attention was focused on the catalyst stability. To this aim, three consecutive catalytic cycles in propene and toluene oxidation were performed for each catalyst. The act…

Energy scales and dynamics of electronic excitations in functionalized gold nanoparticles measured at the single particle level.

2019

The knowledge of the electronic structure and dynamics of nanoparticles is a prerequisite to develop miniaturized single-electron devices based on nanoparticles. Low-temperature transport measurements of individual stable metallic nanoparticles enable unravelling the system specific electronic structure while ultrafast optical spectroscopy gives access to the electron dynamics. In this work, we investigate bare and thiol-functionalized gold nanoparticles. For the latter, we employ a fast and low-cost fabrication technique which yields nanoparticles with narrow size distribution. Using relatively long thiol-ended alkane chains for the functionalization modifies the electronic density of stat…

Nano-composite thermochromic thin films and their application in Energy-efficient glazing

2010

A hybrid atmospheric pressure and aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition strategy is presented as a facile route for the production of vanadium dioxide nano-composite thin films. The effect of the inclusion of gold nanoparticles and the use of a surfactant molecule, tetraoctylammonium bromide, is discussed. The films were fully characterised using a wide variety of techniques, including scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV/vis/NIR spectroscopy. It is shown that micro-structural changes brought about by careful control of film growth conditions, and/or the use of surfactant, lead to an enhancement of thermochromic properties. Gold nano…

Novel Method of Preparation of Gold-Nanoparticle-Doped TiO2 and SiO2 Plasmonic Thin Films: Optical Characterization and Comparison with Maxwell-Garne…

2011

SiO2 and TiO2 thin films with gold nanoparticles (NPs) are of particular interest as photovoltaic materials. A novel method for the preparation of spin-coated SiO2–Au and TiO2–Au nanocomposites is presented. This fast and inexpensive method, which includes three separate stages, is based on the in situ synthesis of both the metal-oxide matrix and the Au NPs during a baking process at relatively low temperature. It allows the formation of nanocomposite thin films with a higher concentration of Au NPs than other methods. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy studies revealed a homogeneous distribution of NPs over the film volume along with their narrow size distribution. The optica…

Toxicity of gold-nanoparticles: Synergistic effects of shape and surface functionalization on micromotility of epithelial cells

2010

Nanoparticle exposure is monitored by a combination of two label-free and non-invasive biosensor devices which detect cellular shape and viscoelasticity (quartz crystal microbalance), cell motility and the dynamics of epithelial cell-cell contacts (electric cell-substrate impedance sensing). With these tools we have studied the impact of nanoparticle shape on cellular physiology. Gold (Au) nanoparticles coated with CTAB were synthesized and studied in two distinct shapes: Spheres with a diameter of (43 ± 4) nm and rods with a size of (38 ± 7) nm × (17 ± 3) nm. Dose-response experiments were accompanied by conventional cytotoxicity tests as well as fluorescence and dark-field microscopy to v…