Search results for "nanotechnology"

DNA Designer Defects in Photonic Crystals: Optically Monitored Biochemistry

2006

Growth Mechanism and Surface Functionalization of Metal Chalcogenides Nanostructures

2014

Following the discovery of carbon fullerenes and nanotubes (NTs), nanostructured materials and their synthesis have attracted tremendous attention due to their superior mechanical properties, their unique electronic behavior, and their high potential in making technologically advanced nanodevices. Among different classes, layered metal chalcogenides nanostructures are of interest for a variety of applications ranging from nanoelectronics or as source materials for energy applications, nanotribology and in heterogeneous catalysis. These nanoparticles are metastable phases. Therefore, equilibrium methods are necessary to prevent the formation of the thermodynamically stable bulk phase. On the…

Defect-Free Chemical Functionalization of Magnetic Monolayers Based on Coordination Polymers

2018

<p>Chemical functionalization has demonstrated to be a powerful approach to tailor the physical and chemical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials, to increase their processability and</p> <p>stability, to add new functionalities and, even, to create new 2D materials. However, this post synthetic method – which involves the anchoring of molecules on the surface of an exfoliated 2D crystal – inevitably leads to defective materials, which lack long-range structural order. If defect-free functionalized monolayers are required, a radically new approach needs to be developed. Here we present a pre-synthetic method based on coordination chemistry that affords the isolatio…

Phthalocyanine-based hybrid materials for chemosensing

2013

In the present review, we show how the chemical variability of phthalocyanines allowed to synthesize a broad range of hybrid materials. The combination of phthalocyanines or related derivatives with polymers or carbonaceous materials led to efficient chemical sensors. It is shown how the incorporation of macrocyclic molecules in hybrid materials highly modifies the structural and morphological characteristics of the materials. Rugosity, specific surface and porosity being key parameters in the analyte-sensing material interactions, these modifications highly improve the performance of chemical sensors. This is the reason why they are particularly promising materials for the development of …

Lithium Ion Recognition with Nanofluidic Diodes through Host-Guest Complexation in Confined Geometries

2018

[EN] The lithium ion recognition is receiving significant attention because of its application in pharmaceuticals, lubricants and, especially, in energy technology. We present a nanofluidic device for specific lithium ion recognition via host guest complexation in a confined environment. A lithium-selective receptor molecule, the aminoethyl-benzo-12-crown-4 (BC12C4-NH2), is designed and functionalized on single conical nanopores in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membranes. The native carboxylic acid groups on the pore walls are covalently linked with the crown ether moieties and the process is monitored from the changes in the current voltage (I-V) curves. The B12-crown-4 moieties are kno…

2020

Biomolecules, and particularly proteins, bind on nanoparticle (NP) surfaces to form the so-called protein corona. It is accepted that the corona drives the biological distribution and toxicity of NPs. Here, the corona composition and structure were studied using silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) of different sizes interacting with soluble yeast protein extracts. Adsorption isotherms showed that the amount of adsorbed proteins varied greatly upon NP size with large NPs having more adsorbed proteins per surface unit. The protein corona composition was studied using a large-scale label-free proteomic approach, combined with statistical and regression analyses. Most of the proteins adsorbed on the N…

Complexes of star-shaped cationic polyelectrolytes with anionic liposomes: Towards multi-liposomal assemblies with controllable stability

2016

Abstract Complexes were formed via the electrostatic interaction between 30–50 nm anionic liposomes and a star-shaped polyelectrolyte, poly{[2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethyl ammonium iodide}, having cationic arms that radiate from a silicon-based central core. The complexation was investigated with attention given to assessing the capacity of the cationic stars for the anionic liposomes (both liquid and solid); the integrity of the complexed liposomes; and the stability of the resulting star/liposome complexes in aqueous salt solutions. We have found that by changing the content of anionic groups in the liposomal membrane as well as the phase-state of membrane, the stability of star/lipos…

Stratification in Drying Polymer–Polymer and Colloid–Polymer Mixtures

2017

Drying polymer-polymer and colloid-polymer mixtures were studied using Langevin dynamics computer simulations. Polymer-polymer mixtures vertically stratified into layers, with the shorter polymers enriched near the drying interface and the longer polymers pushed down toward the substrate. Colloid-polymer mixtures stratified into a polymer-on-top structure when the polymer radius of gyration was comparable to or smaller than the colloid diameter, and a colloid-on-top structure otherwise. We also developed a theoretical model for the drying mixtures based on dynamical density functional theory, which gave excellent quantitative agreement with the simulations for the polymer-polymer mixtures a…

Effective conjugation in conjugated polymers with strongly twisted backbones: A case study on fluorinated MEHPPV

2016

Conjugated polymers with strongly twisted backbones, such as MEHPPV with fluorinated vinylene units (F-MEHPPV), demand a redefinition of the all-important ‘effective conjugation length’ ECL, which we extract here by a facile graphical method. In MEHPPV (being essentially planar), the ECL coincides with the ‘maximum conducive chain length’ MCC and extends over about n ≈ 9 repetition units (RU). In F-MEHPPV, the MCC is similarly long with n ≈ 8, but the ECL localizes on just one RU. The strong twist in F-MEHPPV persists in the excited state, broadening the emission spectrum and quenching the fluorescence with reduced radiative and enhanced non-radiative rates.

Carbon nanostructures incorporated on methacrylate monoliths for separation of small molecules by nano-liquid chromatography

2018

Abstract Carbon nanostructures have been incorporated to polymethacrylate monoliths to develop novel stationary phases with enhanced separation performance in nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC). Two incorporation approaches of these nanomaterials in monoliths were investigated. Single-walled carbon nanohorns (SWNHs) were first incorporated to the polymerization mixture, followed by UV initiation. The resulting stationary phases with embedded SWNHs led to an increase in the separation performance of analytes compared to the parent monolith. Alternatively, a two-step photo-grafting approach was also adopted to attach the carbon nanoparticles onto the polymer monolith surface. The effect of …