Freestanding lipid bilayers were challenged with 15 nm Au nanospheres either coated by a citrate layer or passivated by a protein corona. The effect of Au nanospheres on the bilayer morphology, permeability and fluidity presents strong differences or similarities, depending on the observation length scale, from the colloidal to the molecular domains. These findings suggest that the interaction ...

Fabrication of intrinsically fluorescent porous nanocarriers that are simultaneously stable in aqueous solutions and photostable is critical for their application in drug delivery and optical imaging but remains a challenge. In this study, fluorescent porous zinc sulfide nanospheres were synthesized by a facile gum arabic-assisted hydrothermal procedure. The morphology, composition and properti...

Insulin-loaded alginate-dextran nanospheres were prepared by nanoemulsion dispersion followed by triggered in situ gelation. Nanospheres were characterized for mean size and distribution by laser diffraction spectroscopy and for shape by transmission electron microscopy. Insulin encapsulation efficiency and in vitro release were determined by Bradford protein assay and bioactivity determined in...

Femtosecond lasers (FSL) are playing an increasingly important role in materials research, characterization, and modification. Due to an extremely short pulse width, interactions of FSL irradiation with solid surfaces attract special interest, and a number of unusual phenomena resulted in the formation of new materials are expected. Here, we report on a new nanostructure observed after the inte...

The stability of surface structure and space-charge distribution in free TiO2 nanoparticles are investigated for both rutile and anatase phases using a variable-charge interaction potential in which atomic charges vary dynamically depending on their environment. We find the dynamic charge transfer: ~i! enhances atomic diffusion at surfaces of the spherical nanoparticles at high temperatures; an...

Worm-like nanorods and nanospheres of silver have been synthesized by photochemical decomposition of silver oxalate in water by UV irradiation in the presence of CTAB and PVP, respectively. No external seeds have been employed for the synthesis of Ag nanorods. The synthesized Ag colloids have been characterized by UV-visible spectra, powder XRD, HRTEM, and selected area electron diffraction (SA...

Hierarchical structured nanomaterials with diverse functionality, such as magnetic susceptibility, stimuli-responsiveness, environmental sensing and biocompatibility, are highly sought after for biomedicine and biodetection alike. In this study, we designed and fabricated a new kind of multifunctional core/shell nanospheres as biodegradable targeted drug carriers, the controlled drug release pr...

Simultaneous application of colloidal processing and liquidforming additives to alumina resulted in a sintered density of >99% in 1 h at a temperature as low as 1070°C for a commercial high-purity alumina powder at a total dopant level of 2 mol%. The additives were 0.9% CuO + 0.9% TiOz + 0.1% B 2 0 3 + 0.1% MgO. At higher temperatures or after prolonged sintering, the doped alumina ceramic deve...

A comparison has been made of the infrared spectra of alumina with molybdenum oxide alumina in both the oxidized and reduced forms. In the case of molybdena-alumina prepared via adsorption of gaseous MoOp(OH)t, the spectra show that a practically complete monolayer of Mo6+ oxide covers the alumina. After reduction with hydrogen the hydroxyls of the carrier appear. From the reversibility of redu...

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...