A combination of dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction and surface plasmon resonance sensing of gold nanoparticles for the determination of ziram pesticide

We have developed a reliable, fast, and highly sensitive analytical method utilizing dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction and gold nanoparticles probes for ziram (zinc bis(dimethyldithiocarbamate)) determination. The method is based on the in situ formation of gold nanoparticles in carbon tetrachloride as an organic phase. It was found that the trace levels of ziram influenced the formation of gold nanoparticles, leading to absorbance change of a sedimented phase. The results of the colorimetric ziram determination were in the concentration range of 0.12–2.52 ng/mL with a limit of detection of 0.06 ng/mL. The formation of the stable and dispersed gold nanoparticles in the organic phase provides a good precision for dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method, resulting in the relative standard deviation of 3.8 and 1.2% for 0.56 and 1.58 ng/mL of ziram, respectively. This method has been successfully used for the ziram determination in samples of well and river water, soil, potato, carrot, wheat, and paddy soil.     

Probing nanocolumnar silver nanoparticle/zinc oxide hierarchical assemblies with advanced surface plasmon resonance and their enhanced photocatalytic performance for formaldehyde removal

Recent advances in photocatalysis focus on the development of materials with hierarchical structure and on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon exhibited by metal nanoparticles (NPs). In this work, both are combined in a material where size‐controllable Ag‐NPs are uniformly loaded onto the hierarchical microporous and mesoporous and nanocolumnar structures of ZnO, resulting in Ag‐NP/ZnO nanocomposites. The embedded Ag‐NPs slightly decrease the hydrophobicity of fibrous ZnO, improve its wettability, and increase the absorption of formaldehyde (H₂CO) onto the photocatalyst, all of this resulting in excellent photodegradation of formaldehyde in aqueous solution. Besides, we found that Ag‐NPs with optimal size not only accelerate the charge transfer to the surface of ZnO, but also strengthen the SPR effect in the intercolumnar channels of fibrous ZnO particles combining with high concentration of photo‐generated radical species. The micro‐to‐mesoporous ZnO is like a nanoarray packed Ag‐NPs. With Ag‐NPs of diameter 2.5 < ? < 6.5 nm, ZnO exhibits the most superior photodegradation rate constant value of 0.0239 min^?1 with total formaldehyde removal of 97%. This work presents a new feasible approach involving highly sophisticated Ag‐NP/ZnO architecture combining the SPR effect and hierarchically ordered structures, which results in high photocatalytic activity for formaldehyde photodegradation.     

Sensitivity improvement of aluminum-based far-ultraviolet nearly guided-wave surface plasmon resonance sensor

An aluminum (Al) based nearly guided-wave surface plasmon resonance (NGWSPR) sensor is investigated in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) region. By simultaneously optimizing the thickness of Al and dielectric films, the sensitivity of the optimized Al-based FUV-NGWSPR sensor increases from 183°/RIU to 309°/RIU, and its figure of merit rises from 26.47 RIU^-1 to 32.59 RIU^-1 when the refractive index of dielectric increases from 2 to 5. Compared with a traditional FUV-SPR sensor without dielectric, the optimized FUV-NGWSPR sensor can realize simultaneous improvement of sensitivity and figure of merit. In addition, the FUV-NGWSPR sensor with realistic materials (diamond, Ta₂O₅, and GaN) is also investigated, and 137.84%, 52.70%, and 41.89% sensitivity improvements are achieved respectively. This work proposes a method for performance improvement of FUV-SPR sensors by exciting nearly guided-wave, and could be helpful for the high-performance SPR sensor in the short-wavelength region.     

Stochastic sensitivity analysis of coupled acoustic-structural systems under non-stationary random excitations

This paper presents a new sensitivity analysis method for coupled acoustic–structural systems subjected to non-stationary random excitations. The integral of the response power spectrum density (PSD) of the coupled system is taken as the objective function. The thickness of each structural element is used as a design variable. A time-domain algorithm integrating the pseudo excitation method (PEM), direct differentiation method (DDM) and high precision direct (HPD) integration method is proposed for the sensitivity analysis of the objective function with respect to design variables. Firstly, the PEM is adopted to transform the sensitivity analysis under non-stationary random excitations into the sensitivity analysis under pseudo transient excitations. Then, the sensitivity analysis equation of the coupled system under pseudo transient excitations is derived based on the DDM. Moreover, the HPD integration method is used to efficiently solve the sensitivity analysis equation under pseudo transient excitations in a reduced-order modal space. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.     

Close‐Packed Two‐Dimensional Silver Nanoparticle Arrays: Quadrupolar and Dipolar Surface Plasmon Resonance Coupling

Silver nanoparticles (NPs) ranging in size from 40 to 100 nm were prepared in high yield by using an improved seed‐mediated method. The homogeneous Ag NPs were used as building blocks for 2D assembled Ag NP arrays by using an oil/water interface. A close‐packed 2D array of Ag NPs was fabricated by using packing molecules (3‐mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane) to control the interparticle spacing. The homogeneous 2D Ag NP array exhibited a strong quadrupolar cooperative plasmon mode resonance and a dipolar red‐shift relative to individual Ag NPs suspended in solution. A well‐arranged 2D Ag NP array was embedded in polydimethylsiloxane film and, with biaxial stretching to control the interparticle distance, concomitant variations of the quadrupolar and dipolar couplings were observed. As the interparticle distance increased, the intensity of the quadrupolar cooperative plasmon mode resonance decreased and dipolar coupling completely disappeared. The local electric field of the 2D Ag NP array was calculated by using finite difference time domain simulation and qualitatively showed agreement with the experimental measurements.     

Probing the Catalytic Activity of Reduced Graphene Oxide Decorated with Au Nanoparticles Triggered by Visible Light

Hybrid materials in which reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is decorated with Au nanoparticles (rGO–Au NPs) were obtained by the in situ reduction of GO and AuCl₄^?_(aq) by ascorbic acid. On laser excitation, rGO could be oxidized as a result of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) excitation in the Au NPs, which generates activated O₂ through the transfer of SPR‐excited hot electrons to O₂ molecules adsorbed from air. The SPR‐mediated catalytic oxidation of p‐aminothiophenol (PATP) to p,p′‐dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB) was then employed as a model reaction to probe the effect of rGO as a support for Au NPs on their SPR‐mediated catalytic activities. The increased conversion of PATP to DMAB relative to individual Au NPs indicated that charge‐transfer processes from rGO to Au took place and contributed to improved SPR‐mediated activity. Since the transfer of electrons from Au to adsorbed O₂ molecules is the crucial step for PATP oxidation, in addition to the SPR‐excited hot electrons of Au NPs, the transfer of electrons from rGO to Au contributed to increasing the electron density of Au above the Fermi level and thus the Au‐to‐O₂ charge‐transfer process.     

银纳米颗粒对聚合物太阳能电池性能的提高

采用水溶性银纳米颗粒附着在反型太阳能电池的电子传输层上,用以提高有机太阳能电池的短路电流。所制备的器件结构为ITO/ZnO/Ag NPs/P3HT(Poly 3-hexylthiophene):PC_[60]BM/MoO₃/Ag。其金属银纳米颗粒的表面等离激元在410 nm处出现了共振吸收峰,半峰全宽约为60 nm。器件的光电流在可见光范围内均有所增加,短路电流相对于标准器件提高了20.2%,光电转化效率相对提高了17.2%。     

Mixed Fano-SP resonant absorption of THz electromagnetic waves in a photonic resonator contacting with a metal film

In terahertz frequency region, we have investigated theoretically the correlation between spectra of a free photonic structure and that deposited on a metal for several models of metal. It was found that for quasi-normal incidence of p-polarized electromagnetic field the presence of metal generates narrow spectral wells in the middle of reflection windows existing in a free photonic crystal. Quite another manifestation of metal-resonator inter-influence takes place at incident angles exceeding the Brewster angle when reflection spikes coincide with modes of photonic crystal resonator and they are absent throughout the stopband areas. The effects are strongly depended on polarization, number of periods and angle of incidence.     

超越SNOM探针通光孔径尺寸的金属纳米间隙超分辨测量

采用电磁场有限元方法,数值模拟了孔径型扫描近场光学显微镜(aperture Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy,a-SNOM)在照明模式下的工作过程.针对金偶极天线结构,改变天线长度和纳米间隙尺寸,计算了a-SNOM探针孔径的远场辐射速率随探针端面中心坐标变化的扫描曲线,实现了超越a-SNOM探针通光孔径尺寸的天线金属纳米间隙的超分辨测量,对于100nm通光孔径的探针,可分辨最小尺寸为10nm(0.016倍波长)的金属间隙.通过对比金属和介质偶极天线的a-SNOM探针远场辐射速率测量的计算结果,表明天线金属纳米间隙的超分辨测量的实现是由于金属间隙表面等离激元的激发.