Prosthetic medical device-associated infections are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality rates. Novel improved materials and surfaces exhibiting inappropriate conditions for microbial development are urgently required in the medical environment. This study reveals the benefit of using natural Mentha piperita essential oil, combined with a 5 nm core/shell nanosystem-improved surfa...

We report the fabrication of near-vertically elongated GaN nanorods on quartz substrates. To control the preferred orientation and length of individual GaN nanorods, we combined molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) with pulsed-mode metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The MBE-grown buffer layer was composed of GaN nanograins exhibiting an ordered surface and preferred orientation along the ...

We theoretically study the optical performance of a layered nanoparticle with a sandwiched gain shell. Based on quasi-static analysis and full-wave numerical simulations, we show that it is possible to achieve a very high scattering cross-section (over 4 orders) accompanied with a negative absorption cross-section by changing the amount of gain in the sandwiched shell layer. This suggests that ...

Colloidal particles with two or more different surface properties (Janus particles) are of interest in catalysis, biological imaging, and drug delivery. Eccentric nanoparticles are a type of Janus particle consisting of a shell that envelops the majority of a core particle, leaving a portion of the core surface exposed. Previous work to synthesize eccentric nanoparticles from silica and polysty...

A bifunctional hybrid nanomaterial, which can show magnetic and luminescent properties, was obtained. A magnetic phase was synthesized as a core/shell type composite. Nanocrystalline magnetite, Fe(3)O(4) was used as the core and was encapsulated in a silica shell. The luminescent phase was GdPO(4) doped with Eu(3+) ions, as the emitter. The investigated materials were synthesized using a coprec...

Anomalous strong resonances in silver and gold nanoporous thin films which conduct are found to arise from isolated metal nano-islands separated from the surrounding percolating metal network by a thin loop of insulator. This observed resonant optical response is modelled. The observed peak position is in agreement with the observed average dimensions of the silver core and insulator shell. As ...

Structural degradation and low conductivity of transition-metal oxides lead to severe capacity fading in lithium-ion batteries. Recent efforts to solve this issue have mainly focused on using nanocomposites or hybrids by integrating nanosized metal oxides with conducting additives. Here we design specific hierarchical structures and demonstrate their use in flexible, large-area anode assemblies...

Polymeric micelles with core-shell-corona nanoarchitecture were designed for intracellular therapeutic anti-cancer drug carriers. Poly(styrene-b-acrylic acid-b-ethylene glycol) (PS-b-PAA-b-PEG) asymmetric triblock copolymer underwent self-assembly in aqueous solution to form spherical micelles with hydrophobic PS core, anionic PAA shell and hydrophilic PEG corona. The anti-cancer drug (doxorubi...

A MIMI (metal–insulator-metal–insulator) nanoparticle was conceived and synthesized. It consists of a core gold nanoparticles different shapes, covered by silica shell in turn layer finally another shell. This hybrid nano-matryoshka, completely dispersed water, characterized UV–Vis TEM spectroscopy, comparing the architecture photophysical properties each synthetic step. Through numerical simul...