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.     

Ratiometric Detection of microRNA Using Hybridization Chain Reaction and Fluorogenic Silver Nanoclusters

miRNA (miR)-155 is a potential biomarker for breast cancers. We aimed at developing a nanosensor for miR-155 detection by integrating hybridization chain reaction (HCR) and silver nanoclusters (AgNCs). HCR serves as an enzyme-free and isothermal amplification method, whereas AgNCs provide a built-in fluorogenic detection probe that could simplify the downstream analysis. The two components were integrated by adding a nucleation sequence of AgNCs to the hairpin of HCR. The working principle was based on the influence of microenvironment towards the hosted AgNCs, whereby unfolding of hairpin upon HCR has manipulated the distance between the hosted AgNCs and cytosine-rich toehold region of hairpin. As such, the dominant emission of AgNCs changed from red to yellow in the absence and presence of miR-155, enabling a ratiometric measurement of miR with high sensitivity. The limit of detection (LOD) of our HCR-AgNCs nanosensor is 1.13 fM in buffered solution. We have also tested the assay in diluted serum samples, with comparable LOD of 1.58 fM obtained. This shows the great promise of our HCR-AgNCs nanosensor for clinical application.     

Tips and Tricks for the Surface Engineering of Well-Ordered Morphologically Driven Silver-Based Nanomaterials

Particularly-shaped silver nanostructures are successfully applied in many scientific fields, such as nanotechnology, catalysis, (nano)engineering, optoelectronics, and sensing. In recent years, the production of shape-controlled silver-based nanostructures and the knowledge around this topic has grown significantly. Hence, on the basis of the most recent results reported in the literature, a critical analysis around the driving forces behind the synthesis of such nanostructures are proposed herein, pointing out the important role of surface-regulating agents in driving crystalline growth by favoring (or opposing) development along specific directions. Additionally, growth mechanisms of the different morphologies considered here are discussed in depth, and critical points highlighted.     

A technical review of face mask wearing in preventing respiratory COVID-19 transmission

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries have recommended their citizens to adopt social distance, hand hygiene, and face mask wearing. However, wearing face masks has not been well adopted by many citizens. While the reasons are complex, there is a general perception that the evidence to support face mask wearing is lacking, especially for the general public in a community setting. Face mask wearing can block or filter airborne virus-carrying particles through the working of colloid and interface science. This paper assesses current knowledge behind the design and functioning of face masks by reviewing the selection of materials, mask specifications, relevant laboratory tests, and respiratory virus transmission trials, with an overview of future development of reusable masks for the general public. This review highlights the effectiveness of face mask wearing in the prevention of COVID-19 infection.     

Functionalized Silver-Ion-Mediated α-dC/β-dC Hybrid Base Pairs with Exceptional Stability: α-d-5-Iodo-2′-Deoxycytidine and Its Octadiynyl Derivative in Metal DNA

Silver-mediated α-dC–Ag⁺–β-dC hybrid base pairs decorated with 5-iodo- or 5-octadiynyl residues are well accommodated in duplex DNA. A strong T_m increase and favorable thermodynamic data for duplex DNA were observed after addition of silver ions. The phenomenon is particularly obvious when both nucleobases of the base pairs are functionalized. Neither the position of the base pair, nor the type of 5-substituent had a negative influence. On the contrary, functionalization of conventional silver-mediated β-dC–Ag⁺–β-dC homo base pairs showed a negative impact induced by the bulky substituents. To this end, cytosine modified 12-mer oligodeoxynucleotides were prepared by solid-phase synthesis employing new α-anomeric 2′-deoxycytidine phosphoramidites. A multigram scale synthesis was developed for 5-iodo-α-d -2′-deoxycytidine ( 1 ) employing the direct glycosylation of cytosine with Hoffer's α-d -halogenose followed by separation of anomeric DMT nucleosides. Regarding base-pair stability and functionalization silver-mediated α/β-dC hybrid base pairs were found to be superior to β/β-dC homo pairs. According to their extraordinary properties, they might find applications in DNA diagnostics, material science, or nanotechnology.     

Probability Collectives for Unstable Particles

Unstable particles, together with their stable decay products, constitute probability collectives that are defined as Hilbert spaces with dimension higher than one, nondecomposable in a particle basis. Their structure is considered in the framework of Birkhoff-von Neumann's Hilbert subspace lattices. Bases with particle states are related to bases with a diagonal scalar product by a Hilbert-bein involving the characteristic decay parameters (in some analogy to the n-bein structures of metrical manifolds). Probability predictions as expectation values, involving unstable particles, have to take into account all members of the higher dimensional collective. For example, the unitarity structure of the S-matrix for an unstable particle collective can be established by a transformation with its Hilbert-bein.     

Generic entangling through quantum indistinguishability

We present a general scheme for entangling any degree of freedom of two uncorrelated identical particles from independent sources by a combination of two-particle interferometry and which-way detection. We show that this entanglement generation procedure works for completely random initial states of the variable to be entangled. We also demonstrate a curious complementarity exhibited by our scheme and its applications in estimating the generated entanglement as a function of wave packet overlap at the beamsplitter.     

粒子-转子模型和推转壳模型中的能谱统计分析

用粒子–转子模型和推转壳模型研究了6个粒子分别填充在单j壳和双j壳上的混沌行为.分析了单j壳和双j壳情况下能谱的最近邻能级间距分布和谱刚度随自旋及推转频率的变化,结果表明,当组态空间大小不变时,系统在双j壳(g_7/2+d_5/2)情况下比在单j壳(i_13/2)情况下更规则,而当组态空间从单j壳(i_13/2)扩大到双j壳(i_13/2+g_9/2)时,系统的混沌程度变化不大.同时比较了将6个粒子的两体相互作用分别取为δ力和对力时的系统的混沌行为     

纳米颗粒团聚物流化特性的数值研究

基于气固两相流体动力学理论,建立气体纳米颗粒团聚物两相流动双流体模型.模型中采用了Jung ＆ Gidaspow (2002)测量的固相应力模量和王垚等(2001)提出的聚团曳力系数计算模型.对纳米颗粒团聚物的流化过程进行了数值模拟,得到纳米颗粒团聚物的流化特性.模拟得出的床层膨胀比与文献中实验的结果较为接近.     

The production of slow particles in 16O－Em interactions at 4.5 A GeV/c

A sample of 1233 events is used to study the general characteristics of {}^{16}O－Em interactions at 4.5 A GeV/c. Multiplicity and angular distributions of slow particles and correlations among them are discussed. The present data are compared with the corresponding results from the interactions of other projectiles at the same energy and also the same projectile at different energies. The results indicate that black particle production is independent of the energy and mass of the projectile, but for grey particles it is dependent on the mass of projectile.