We demonstrate that incorporation of octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS)-functionalized, spectrally tuned, gold/silica (Au/SiO2) core/shell nanospheres and nanorods into the active layer of an organic photovoltaic (OPV) device led to an increase in photoconversion efficiency (PCE). A silica shell layer was added onto Au core nanospheres and nanorods in order to provide an electrically insulating s...

In this paper, single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) suspensions were added dropwise to silica particles before volatising the solvent to prepare a core-shell composite adsorbent with SWCNTs wrapped around silica particles (SWCNTs@Silica). The composite adsorbent was used as packing for the solid phase extraction (SPE) and the enrichment of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) in water. The results...

Silica-based materials with favourable biocompatibility are generally considered as excellent candidates for applications in biomedical fields. However, previous researches mainly focused on the safety of silica-based materials, their effects on osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) still need further investigations. In this study, core-shell fluorescent silica nano...

We have fabricated diamond-like silicon photonic crystals through a sequential silica/silicon chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process from the corresponding polymer templates photopatterned by holographic lithography. Core-shell morphology is revealed due to the partial backfilling of the interstitial pores. To model the shell formation and investigate its effect to the bandgap properties, we d...

We examine the effect of an embedding medium refractive index on the plasmon resonant properties of silica core-gold shell nanoshells. The plasmon response is shifted to longer wavelengths with increasing refractive index of the dielectric host matrix, increasing in overall amplitude for nanoparticles in the dipole limit. For nanoshells of constant core-shell ratio, this plasmon shift increases...

Combined chemo and photothermal therapy in in vitro testing has been achieved by means of multifunctional nanoparticles formed by plasmonic gold nanoclusters with a protecting shell of porous silica that contains an antitumor drug. We propose a therapeutic nanoplatform that associates the optical activity of small gold nanoparticles aggregates with the cytotoxic activity of 20(S)-camptothecin s...

We successfully immobilized metalloporphyrins (MeP) in mesoporous silica coating magnetite spheres. In this sense, we prepared two different classes of core@shell supports, which comprise aligned (Fe3O4-AM-MeP, MeP=FeP or MnP) and non-aligned (Fe3O4-NM-MeP, MeP=FeP or MnP) mesoporous magnetic structures. X-ray diffractometry and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy confirmed the mesoporous natu...

We study the optical properties of the nanosphere-in-a-nanoegg structure (NSNE) by the three-dimensional finite difference time domain method. We demonstrate the suppression of the high-order plasmon modes in NSNE, which is induced by the plasmon interaction between the inner nanosphere and the outer nanoegg shell. A two-layer plasmon hybridization model is presented to explain this mechanism. ...

Ovarian cancer is the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women as a result of late diagnosis. For survival rates to improve, more sensitive and specific methods for earlier detection of ovarian cancer are needed. This study presents the development of rapid and specific one-step circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection using flow cytometry in a whole-blood sample with fluorescent ...