Uniform hollow silica nanospheres (HSNs) synthesized with reverse microemulsion have great application potential as nanoreactors because enzymes or nanocatalysts can be easily encapsulated de novo in synthesis. Water-in-oil (w/o) reverse microemulsions comprising the polymeric surfactant polyoxyethylene (5) isooctylphenyl ether (Igepal CA-520), ammonia and water in a continuous oil phase (alkan...

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is the coherent oscillation of conductive electrons confined in noble metallic nanoparticles excited by electromagnetic radiation, and nanosphere lithography (NSL) is one of the cost-effective methods to fabricate metal nanostructures for LSPR. NSL can be categorized into two major groups: dispersed NSL and closely pack NSL. In recent years, gold nanoc...

A convergent [3+2] block synthetic strategy was developed for the synthesis of the pentasaccharide repeating unit of the cell wall O-antigen of Escherichia coli O11 strain in excellent yield in a minimum number of steps. Several suitably functionalized thioglycoside derivatives were used as glycosyl donors during the synthesis of the target compound. A thioglycoside was the glycosyl donor used ...

Light trapping by gold (Au)-silica nanospheres and nanorods embedded in the active layer of small-molecule (SM) organic solar cell has been systematically compared. Nanorod significantly outperforms nanosphere because of more light scattering and higher quality factor for localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) triggered by nanorods. The optimum concentration of nanorod was characterized by ...

The potential of nanosphere lithography utilizing di-block copolymers is demonstrated. The starting configuration is a single layer of micelles, filled with silica, deposited on a ferromagnetic system. After removing the organic shell the SiO2 cores remain on the surface and are used as shadow mask for a succeeding ion milling process. It is demonstrated how the magnetic properties of the dots ...

Diatom cell walls are regarded as a paradigm for controlled production of nanostructured silica, but the mechanisms allowing biosilicification to proceed at ambient temperature at high rates have remained enigmatic. A set of polycationic peptides (called silaffins) isolated from diatom cell walls were shown to generate networks of silica nanospheres within seconds when added to a solution of si...

Reusable silica supported perchloric acid and potassium bisulphate have been prepared and explored as green catalysts for thiocyanation of aromatic compounds under conventional and solvent free microwave assisted conditions. The microwave assisted protocol exhibited remarkable rate accelerations and offered selective thiocyanation of aromatic and hetero aromatic compounds in good yields. Reacti...

We theoretically study the low-energy scattering of ultracold atoms by a dielectric nanosphere silica glass levitated in vacuum. The atom and surface interact via dispersion force which strength sensitively depends on polarizability, function, geometry. For cesium rubidium atoms, respectively, we compute atom-surface interaction characterize stationary states taking adsorption onto into account...