Synthesis and characterization of GaP nanochains with a twin-modulated quasi-periodic structure

GaP nanochains have been synthesized by hydrogen-assisted thermal evaporation, and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), photoluminescence (PL), and Raman spectroscopy. GaP nanochains possess a (111) twin crystal plane-modulated quasi-periodic structure, that gives a strong green photoluminescence at 618 nm. While the Raman spectrum of the nanochains is similar to that of the GaP crystal, the intensity of the longitudinal optical (LO) peak is stronger than that of the transverse optical (TO) peak, which is supposedly related to the nanochain microstructures.     

Magneto-optical Kerr effect enhancement at the Wood's anomaly in magnetoplasmonic crystals

Magneto-optical Kerr effect enhancement in longitudinal and transversal configurations is systematically studied in one- and two-dimensional magnetoplasmonic crystals based on the nanostructured nickel films. Spectral dependences of magneto-optical effects demonstrate resonant features with the Fano-type lineshape in the spectral vicinity of the Wood's anomaly associated with excitation of surface magnetoplasmons in Voigt and Faraday configurations, respectively.     

Seed-mediated shape evolution of gold nanomaterials: from spherical nanoparticles to polycrystalline nanochains and single-crystalline nanowires

We studied the kinetics of the reduction of a gold precursor (HAuCl₄) and the effect of the molar ratio (R) of sodium citrate, which was introduced from a seed solution, and the gold precursor on the shape evolution of gold nanomaterials in the presence of preformed 13 nm gold nanoparticles as seeds. The reduction of the gold precursor by sodium citrate was accelerated due to the presence of gold seeds. Nearly single-crystalline gold nanowires were formed at a very low R value (R = 0.16) in the presence of the seeds as a result of the oriented attachment of the growing gold nanoparticles. At a higher R value (R = 0.33), gold nanochains were formed due to the non-oriented attachment of gold nanoparticles. At a much higher R value (R = 1.32), only larger spherical gold nanoparticles grown from the seeds were found. In the absence of gold seeds, no single-crystalline nanowires were formed at the same R value. Our results indicate that the formation of the 1D nanostructures (nanochains and nanowires) at low R values is due to the attachment of gold nanoparticles along one direction, which is driven by the surface energy reduction, nanoparticle attraction, and dipole–dipole interaction between adjacent nanoparticles.     

Silver ionic conductivity enhancement by network former mixed in oxide-based glasses

Glasses in the binary system xAg₂P₂O₆ − (1 − x)Ag₂Te₂O₅ have been prepared for 0 x 1. For each composition only one glass transition temperature is observed in the temperature range of 180–220 °C. All glasses appear homogeneous considering their optical and electrical properties. Nevertheless, in SEM observations, some glass compositions appear to be heterogeneous after decoration following short nitric acid etching. For each composition, conductivity data obtained in the temperature range of 25–200 °C using impedance techniques obey an Arrhenius relationship with a composition independent pre-exponential term. Variation of the conductivity activation energy with x induces correlative variations of isothermal conductivity curves leading to an increase of the ionic conductivity of about one order of magnitude compared with linearity at 25 °C. This behaviour is discussed with respect to the thermodynamic properties of the glassy solutions.     

Preparation and optical properties of silver chromate self-assembly necklace structures

The silver chromate self-assembly necklace structures were synthesized using high-active acrylicamide template. The whole length of the necklace structure was between 1.2 and 1.5 μm. The product was composed of single crystalline nanorods with diameters of about 40 nm and lengths of 300 nm. The synthetic mechanism and product’s optical properties were also studied.     

Organic SIMS with single massive gold projectile: Ion yield enhancement by silver metallization

The yield of CN from glycine rises from one CN per projectile impact to two when the sample is covered with a nominally 1 nm thick layer of silver. These yields were obtained for bombardment with Au₄₀₀⁴⁺ projectile with 136 keV impact energy. A multitude of CN-based clusters, e.g. Ag_xO_y(CN)_z are produced concurrently. As a result, a total of three CN-based secondary ions are generated per projectile impact. The exceptionally high yield for CN is of interest for biological SIMS.     

Light transmission and local field enhancement in arrays of silver nanocylinders

Vertical silver nanocylinders have been fabricated by two-photon microfabrication technique. The three-dimensional propagation of visible light along and between the nanocylinders has been characterized by wide-field transmission microscopy. Transmission spectra were collected with a fiber coupled spectrometer and optical images were taken with a camera using an inverted microscope. Intensity enhancements occur along the nanocylinders surfaces for wavelengths in the visible range. Finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results. The electromagnetic field enhancement was evaluated, in order to analyze the suitability of the studied structures for sensing applications.     

Electrical conductivity of Ag/Na ion-exchanged titanosilicate glasses

The Ag₂O–TiO₂–SiO₂ glasses were prepared by Ag⁺/Na⁺ ion-exchange method from Na₂O–TiO₂–SiO₂ glasses at 380–450 °C below their glass transition temperatures (T_g), and their electrical conductivities were investigated as functions of TiO₂ content and the ion-exchange ratio (Ag/(Ag+Na)). In a series of glasses 20R₂O·xTiO₂·(80−x)SiO₂ with x=10, 20, 30 and 40 in mol%, the electrical conductivities at 200 °C of the fully ion-exchanged glasses of R=Ag were in the order of 10⁻⁵ or 10⁻⁴ S cm⁻¹ and were 1 or 2 orders of magnitude higher than those of the initial glasses of R=Na. The glass of x=30 exhibited the highest increase of conductivity from 3.8×10⁻⁷ to 1.3×10⁻⁴ S cm⁻¹ at 200 °C by Ag⁺/Na⁺ ion exchange among them. When the ion-exchange ratio was changed in 20R₂O·30TiO₂·50SiO₂ system, the electrical conductivity at 200 °C exhibited a minimum value of 7.6×10⁻⁸ S cm⁻¹ around Ag/(Ag+Na)=0.3 and increased steeply in the region of Ag/(Ag+Na)=0.5–1.0. When the ion-exchange temperature was changed from 450 to 400 °C, the conductivity of the ion-exchanged glass of x=30 decreased. The infrared spectroscopy measurement revealed that the ion-exchange temperature of 450 °C induced a structural change in the glass of x=30. The T_g of the fully ion-exchanged glass of x=30 was 498 °C. It was suggested that the incorporated silver ions changed the average coordination number of titanium ions to form higher ion-conducting pathway and resulted in high conductivity in the titanosilicate glasses.     

二维自组装结构中银纳米粒子的吸收光谱特征

通过静电相互作用在聚乙烯吡啶修饰的玻璃表面组装了银纳米粒子的二维结构。吸收光谱结果表明,组装银粒子间的相互作用导致银粒子的偶极子表面等离子体共振发生较大的位移,但基本不改变四极子表面等离子体共振。银粒子表面吸附分子及周围介质直接影响其表面等离子体共振。     

Self-assembled silver nanoparticles in glass microstructured by poling for SERS application

A simple technique to fabricate microchannels in glasses with self-assembled silver nanoparticles (NPs) in the channels is presented. It combines thermal-electric poling of silver-to-sodium ion-exchanged glass slides with a patterned anodic electrode, formation of the microchannels via selective etching off the unpoled slide regions, and hydrogen annealing. The annealing results in the growth of NPs only on the bottom of the channels. The studies performed allowed optimizing the channels’ depth and NPs surface density for Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) based sensing and microfluidic applications. We have demonstrated that the formed NPs allow detection of 1/20 of BPE (1,2-Di(4-pyridyl)ethylene 97%) monolayer, the evaluated Raman enhancement factor being ~4·10⁷. The proposed approach based on the glass poling allowed us the fabrication of ~1 μm deep channels and easy multiplication of the structures because the anodic electrodes used for the poling are capable of multiple usage.     

银纳米粒子对组装阵列中耦联分子拉曼散射的影响

分别用硼氢化钠和氢气还原法制备了两种不同的银溶胶(I和II),并采用自组装技术将银纳米粒子组装到对巯基苯胺(PATP)修饰的光滑银基底表面,形成银纳米粒子亚单层二维阵列。比较两种阵列中PATP的表面增强拉曼光谱发现,溶胶II所得阵列中的PATP的b2振动得到了较大的增强,即存在较大程度的电荷转移,说明银纳米粒子的性质直接影响了耦联分子的光谱特征。对溶胶Ⅰ进行离心处理,组装,得到的拉曼特征与阵列II类似。就溶胶II的银纳米粒子而言,组装结构中可能形成Ag-N化学键,从而导致更强的氨基与银粒子的相互作用。     

Growth of Ag nanoclusters on a 1D template

Bi nanolines, which are 1.5 nm wide and can be over 500 nm long, have been used as a 1D template for the formation of arrays of small clusters of silver. Distinct nucleation and growth phases are observed. At room temperature, silver atoms preferentially adsorb onto the Bi nanoline templates to form arrays of spheroidal nanoclusters 0.55 nm in height, up to a saturation density of 6.7 clusters per 100 nm of nanoline. Further deposition of Ag results in the growth of the clusters on the nanolines up to 1.4 nm, accompanied by the formation of 0.55 nm clusters on the background. At 400 K, however, deposition of Ag results in the formation of clusters up to 4 nm in height, with the majority formed on the nanoline template.     

Self-aligned silicon quantum wires on Ag(1 1 0)

Upon deposition of silicon onto the (1 1 0) surface of a silver crystal we have grown massively parallel one-dimensional Si nanowires. They are imaged in scanning tunnelling microscopy as straight, high aspect ratio, nanostructures, all with the same characteristic width of 16 Å, perfectly aligned along the atomic troughs of the bare surface. Low energy electron diffraction confirms the massively parallel assembly of these self-organized nanowires. Photoemission reveals striking quantized states dispersing only along the length of the nanowires, and extremely sharp, two-components, Si 2p core levels. This demonstrates that in the large ensemble each individual nanowire is a well-defined quantum object comprising only two distinct silicon atomic environments. We suggest that this self-assembled array of highly perfect Si nanowires provides a simple, atomically precise, novel template that may impact a wide range of applications.     

Silver Enhancement of Gold Nanoparticles for Biosensing: From Qualitative to Quantitative

Abstract

The establishment and rapid progress in sensitive biosensing using immunogold silver enhancement has occurred in the past 30 years. Its high sensitivity and simplicity have made immunogold silver enhancement a revolutionary technique for signal amplification in biosensing. This review focuses on the major applications of immunogold silver enhancement, with special emphasis on quantitative biosensing. In this review, the combinations of immunogold silver enhancement with a series of quantitative techniques, such as colorimetry, electrical and electrochemical methods, gravimetry, chemiluminescence, Raman spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), are discussed in detail. Immunogold silver enhancement has become one of the most useful methods in highly sensitive quantitative bioanalysis. The recent development of ICP-MS detection shows great potential in combination with immunogold silver enhancement.     

Controlled synthesis of titanium nanochains using a template

Nanochains have unique properties due to their organized structures. We synthesized nanochains of titanium using crown ether as a template exploiting a simple sliding technique. The nanochains of Ti were formed with an average diameter of the sphere nodes around 80 nm separated by organic molecules with a space of 1–5 nm. The method developed here is the simplest reported to date. This process can be used for making nanostructures of different metallic materials. Trapping titanium ion particles is important to reduce the risk of the same material in the biomedical applications. The metallic nanochains are potentially applicable for making electronic and optical devices.     

Frequency and temperature dependence of a.c. conductivity of vitreous silver phosphate electrolytes

The a.c. conductivity behaviour in the 20–300 K temperature range has been investigated for (Ag₂S)_x(AgPO₃)_1−x and (Ag₂SO₄)_x(AgPO₃)_1−x glasses at various salt contents (x). The temperature dependence at selected frequencies in the radioand micro-wave region displays several relaxational contributions which are indistinct in the frequency domain. The low temperature experimental data are discussed and a proposed ‘new universality’ has been examined.     

银纳米颗粒对胆固醇荧光的增强效用研究

在传统荧光光谱技术的基础上,结合金属纳米颗粒的增强荧光技术,探索提高荧光光谱技术检测人全血溶液中胆固醇含量的精度和分辨率的方法。实验研究方面,采用波长为407 nm的激光作为激发光,照射加入一定量银纳米颗粒作为荧光增强剂的人全血溶液,研究了银纳米颗粒对人全血溶液在可见光波段的荧光增强作用。结果表明,胶体状态的银纳米颗粒可以显著增强低浓度的人全血溶液荧光光谱的强度,且不同位置荧光发射峰的荧光增强效率随银胶加入量的增加均呈现先增后减的趋势,但不同峰位置的最强增强效率对应的银胶加入量不同。理论分析方面,根据实验结果及胆固醇分子和银纳米颗粒在溶液中的分布情况,建立了分子间距模型,并根据模型计算得出胆固醇分子和银纳米粒子之间的最佳增强荧光效果间距在12.19～25 nm范围内,这个结果和其他文献中的理论值吻合较好。综上所述,使用银纳米颗粒可实现全血溶液荧光的增强,研究结果为提高检测血液中多种物质的灵敏度和精度提供了有价值的参考作用。     

Observation of stable mixed alkanethiolate-chloride adlayer on Ag(1 1 1): structural correlation with pure alkanethiolate monolayers

The self-assembly of 1-alkanethiols, CH₃(CH₂)_n−1SH (n=2-16), on Ag(1 1 1) film initially covered with a native oxide monolayer and that on a chloride-covered Ag(1 1 1) were comparatively studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy. The native oxide monolayer was readily substituted completely by thiolates irrespective of chain length, leading to a dense (√7×√7)R19.1° monolayer for n<3, or a distorted (√7×√7)R19.1° structure for n>3 accompanied by distinct island and fine domain structures previously reported by other groups. In contrast, the chloride-to-thiolate conversion was far from complete for long alkanethiols (n?8), and at sufficiently high conversion temperature (>50 °C), we found a highly stable mixed thiolate-chloride monolayer with a well-defined 2:1 S/Cl atomic ratio, suggesting the occurrence of a mixed (√7×√7)R19.1° adlayer ordering. The combined effects of substrate-molecule and intermolecular interactions behind these contrastive phenomena are discussed.     

Immunoreactivity to the pre-core box antibody shows that most glycine-rich beta-proteins accumulate in lepidosaurian beta-layer and in the corneous layer of crocodilian and turtle epidermis

The differentiation of the corneous layers of reptilian epidermis has been analyzed by ultrastructural immunocytochemistry using specific antibodies against the conserved pre-core box region of their keratin-associated beta-proteins (KAbetaPs, formerly indicated as beta-keratins) and silver-intensification. The epitope analysis in the sequences of different reptilian KAbetaPs indicates that this antibody recognizes mainly glycine-rich beta-proteins in lizards and snakes. The immunoreactivity of the beta-layer of the tuatara to this antibody also suggests that a similar epitope is present in beta-proteins of this relict species. In crocodilians the antibody recognizes glycine-rich beta-proteins, so far representing all the known crocodilian KAbetaPs. In hard-shelled turtle the antibody labels mainly type 1 KAbetaPs that represent most types found in this turtle. The antibody does not label the corneous layer of the soft-shelled turtle that contains exclusively type 2 KAbetaPs, with a low identity to the epitope recognized by the antibody. The prevalent labeling of the beta-layers in lepidosaurian epidermis and of the corneous layer in turtle and crocodilian epidermis suggest that this antibody is mainly directed toward KAbetaPs rich in glycine. The latter are main constituents of the corneous layer in turtles and crocodilians and of the beta-layer in lizards, snakes and the tuatara. These proteins are largely responsible for the inflexibility, mechanical resistance, chromophobicity and relative hydrophobicity of the reptilian corneous layer.     

纳米银粒子对表面吸附罗丹明B的光谱学性质的影响及电解质效应研究

基于贵金属纳米粒子的局域场增强效应,利用透射电子显微镜、紫外-可见分光光度计和荧光分光光度计等分析手段研究了纳米银粒子对表面吸附罗丹明B的光谱学性质的影响以及罗丹明B-纳米银体系中加入电解质离子后,电解质离子与纳米银、染料分子间的相互关系和作用.研究结果表明,当罗丹明B溶液的浓度小于0.6 μmol·L－1时,微量纳米银可使其荧光强度略增加,继续增加纳米银浓度则造成荧光强度下降.当罗丹明B溶液的浓度高于0.6 μmol·L－1时,纳米银总是引起溶液的荧光强度下降.KNO3、KCl、Ca(NO3)2、MgCl2和CaCl2电解质可造成纳米银粒子不同程度的聚集和生长.引起的纳米银粒子的聚集程度关系为:CaCl2>MgCl2>KCl>Ca(NO3)2>KNO3.随着电解质加入量的增加,溶液的荧光强度先下降,而后又逐渐增强,直至达到定值.各电解质对罗丹明B-Ag溶液的荧光强度影响强弱关系为Ca(NO3)2>CaCl2>MgCl2>Cl>KNO3.