Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has demonstrated single-molecule sensitivity and is becoming intensively investigated due to its significant potential in chemical and biomedical applications. SERS sensing is highly dependent on the substrate, where excitation of the localized surface plasmons (LSPs) enhances the Raman scattering signals of proximate analyte molecules. This paper review...

Nanomaterial which has high activity is widely used in the modification of cement-based materials due to its physical filling and chemical bonding. This paper mainly studied the influence of nano-SiO2 on the compressive strength of the alkali-activated materials, using XRD and SEM technology to analyze the mineral composition microstructure of alkali-activated materials, modification effect, et...

We propose the nano-scale displacement sensor with high resolution for weak-force systems could be realized based on vertical stacked two-dimensional (2D) atomic corrugated layer materials bound through Van der Waals (VdW) interaction. Using first-principles calculations, we found the electronic structure of bi-layer blue phosphorus (BLBP) varies appreciably to both the lateral and vertical int...

Electromagnetic properties of cylindrical active coated nano-particles comprised of a silica nano-cylinder core layered with a plasmonic concentric nano-shell are investigated for potential nano-sensor applications. Particular attention is devoted to the near-field properties of these particles, as well as to their far-field radiation characteristics, in the presence of an electric or a magneti...

Self-assembled supramolecular organization of nano-structured biomimetic light-harvesting modules inside solid-state nano-templates can be exploited to develop excellent light-harvesting materials for artificial photosynthetic devices. We present here a hybrid light-harvesting system mimicking the chlorosomal structures of the natural photosynthetic system using synthetic zinc chlorin units (Zn...

Metal matrix composites reinforced by nano-particles are very promising materials, suitable for a large number of applications. These composites consist of a metal matrix filled with nano-particles featuring physical and mechanical properties very different from those of the matrix. The nano-particles can improve the base material in terms of wear resistance, damping properties and mechanical s...

We present a comparative study of thermomechanical properties of nano-polycrystalline nickel (nano-Ni) and micrometer-polycrystalline nickel (micron-Ni) by in situ high pressure-temperature (P-T) diffraction experiments. The yield strength of 2.35 GPa for the nano-Ni measured under high-pressure triaxial compression is more than three times that of the micron-Ni value. Contrary to tensile exper...