Charge transport in nanoparticle-based materials underlies many emerging energy-conversion technologies, yet assessing the impact of nanometre-scale structure on charge transport across micrometre-scale distances remains a challenge. Here we develop an approach for correlating the spatial distribution of crystalline and current-carrying domains in entire nanoparticle aggregates. We apply this a...

Au nanoparticles decorated with mononuclear Ti-oxo units dispersed in silica clusters were formed by activating Au nanoparticles (~2 nm) stabilized with Ti- and amine-functionalized siloxane oligomers. These Au nanoparticles were active catalysts for selective oxidation of propane to acetone, and the activity increased with increasing Ti density.

Near-field plasmonic coupling and local field enhancement in metal nanoarchitectures, such as arrangements of nanoparticle clusters, have application in many technologies from medical diagnostics, solar cells, to sensors. Although nanoparticle-based cluster assemblies have exhibited signal enhancements in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensors, it is challenging to achieve high reprod...

Integration of noble metal nanoparticles with proteins offers promising potential to create a wide variety of biosensors that possess both improved selectivity and versatility. The multitude of functionalities that proteins offer coupled with the unique optical properties of noble metal nanoparticles can allow for the realization of simple, colorimetric sensors for a significantly larger range ...

Nanoparticle superlattices are periodic arrays of nanoscale inorganic building blocks including metal nanoparticles, quantum dots and magnetic nanoparticles. Such assemblies can exhibit exciting new collective properties different from those of individual nanoparticle or corresponding bulk materials. However, fabrication of nanoparticle superlattices is nontrivial because nanoparticles are noto...

The transition from localized to delocalized plasmons (i.e. the transition from a situation where the decay length of a travelling surface plasma wave is greater than its propagation distance to a situation where it is smaller) and hence the onset of plasmon delocalization is studied in a single 2D silver nanoparticle of increasing length. A fourier analysis in the near-field of the nanoparticl...

This study compared respirable dust and nanoparticle concentrations measured by different sampling devices at a titanium dioxide pigment factory. Respirable particle mass concentrations, nanoparticle concentrations, particle size distribution and particle metallic content were measured at different sampling locations. The sampling results of the Multi-orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor (MOUDI) sh...

A simple method for the fabrication of porous silicon (Si) by metal-assisted etching was developed using gold nanoparticles as catalytic sites. The etching masks were prepared by spin-coating of colloidal gold nanoparticles onto Si. An appropriate functionalization of the gold nanoparticle surface prior to the deposition step enabled the formation of quasi-hexagonally ordered arrays by self-ass...

Metal nanoparticles are being actively explored for applications that use localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance for optical sensing. Here we report an electrostatic field sensing technique which has been applied to detection of mammalian brain cell activity, by optically measuring the cellular potential induced shift in the SP resonance mode of an adjacent planar gold nanoparticle array. An...