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.     

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.     

New Electroweak Model Without a Higgs Particle

A new unified electroweak model is proposed in this paper. In this unified electroweak model, Higgsmechanism is not used, so no Higgs particle exists in the model. In order to keep the masses of intermediate gaugebosons non-zero, two sets of gauge fields will be introduced. In order to introduce symmetry breaking and to help tointroduce the masses of all fields, a vacuum potential is needed. Except for those terms concerning Higgs particle, thefundamental dynamical properties of this model are similar to those of the standard model. And in a proper limit, thismodel will approximately return to the standard model. The purpose of this paper is not to say that the Higgs particledoes not exist in Nature, it is only to prove that, without a Higgs particle, we can also set up a unified electroweak modelwhich is consistent with present experiments.     

束晕-混沌的复杂性理论与控制方法及其应用前景

本文系统论述涉及强流加速器等强流离子束装置中产生的束晕-混沌的复杂性理论与控制方法及其应用前景。强流离子束在核材料生产与增殖、洁净核能、放射性废物嬗变、放射性药物生产、重离子聚变、高能物理、核科学与工程、国防与民用工业和医疗等许多方面都有极其重要的应用潜力和诱人的发展前景。尤其是，近年来强流加速器驱动的放射性洁净核能系统是国内外关注的热门课题，因为它比常规核电更安全、更干净、更便宜。但是，强流离子束形成的束晕-混沌的复杂性现象已引起了国内外广泛关注，需要加以抑制、控制和消除这类现象，解决这一难题已经成为强流离子束应用中的关键问题之一。目前不仅必须深入研究这类束晕-混沌的复杂特性及其产生的物理机制，而且需要研究如何实现对束晕-混沌的有效控制，并寻求和发展其新理论、新方法和新技术。这就向强流离子束物理和非线性-复杂性科学及其技术提出了一系列极富挑战性的新课题。本文结合国内外的研究概况，根据我们多年来的研究成果，特别是我们首创性地提出了一些束晕-混沌的有效控制方法，它们包括：非线性反馈控制法，小波反馈控制法，变结构控制法，延迟反馈控制法，参数自适应控制法等，进行重点的介绍。对上述课题当前的主要进展及相关问题进行系统的总结和比较全面综述的评论。最后，指出该领域今后的研究方向，以推动这个崭新领域的深入研究和应用发展。     

Transport of Neutrally Buoyant and Dense Variably Sized Colloids in a Two-Dimensional Fracture with Anisotropic Aperture

The transport of monodisperse as well as polydisperse colloid suspensions in a two-dimensional, water saturated fracture with spatially variable and anisotropic aperture is investigated with a particle tracking model. Both neutrally buoyant and dense colloid suspensions are considered. Although flow and transport in fractured subsurface formations have been studied extensively by numerous investigators, the transport of dense, polydisperse colloid suspensions in a fracture with spatially variable and anisotropic aperture has not been previously explored. Simulated snapshots and breakthrough curves of ensemble averages of several realizations of a log-normally distributed aperture field show that polydisperse colloids exhibit greater spreading than monodisperse colloids, and dense colloids show greater retardation than neutrally buoyant colloids. Moreover, it is demonstrated that aperture anisotropy oriented along the flow direction substantially increases colloid spreading; whereas, aperture anisotropy oriented transverse to the flow direction retards colloid movement.     

CFD在燃煤细粒子凝聚过程中的应用

燃煤产生的细粒子富集了大量的有毒痕量元素,对大气环境和人类健康造成严重危害。本文针对燃煤细粒子的形成过程,在计算流体力学(CFD)的基础上,结合气溶胶动力学理论,模拟了烟气中细粒子在圆柱形流场中由于碰撞而凝聚的过程,并通过计算结果分析细粒子颗粒特征参量(速度、质量、直径和颗粒数目)随流场的变化趋势,为深入研究燃煤细粒子的形成演化机理提供理论基础。