An effective approach is demonstrated for growing large-area, hexagonally patterned, aligned ZnO nanorods. The synthesis uses a catalyst template produced by a self-assembled monolayer of submicron spheres and guided vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth on a single crystal alumina substrate. The ZnO nanorods have uniform shape and length, align vertically on the substrate, and are distributed accord...

A highly sensitive electrochemical nanosensor was developed using covalent modification of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by self-assembly of a novel Schiff base. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electrochemical techniques were used to investigate the immobilization of the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on the GCE. The electrochemical behavior of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the presence ...

In this work, the first CdSe/ZnS quantum dot (QD) photoluminescence lifetime based chloride ion nanosensor is reported. The acridinium dication lucigenin was self-assembled on the surface of negatively charged mercaptopropionic acid capped QDs to achieve QD-lucigenin conjugates. Upon attachment, a drastic decrease of the photoluminescence lifetime of both QD nanoparticles and lucigenin is obser...

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used to deposit 1-600 monolayers of Al(2)O(3) on Ag nanotriangles fabricated by nanosphere lithography (NSL). Each monolayer of Al(2)O(3) has a thickness of 1.1 A. It is demonstrated that the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) nanosensor can detect Al(2)O(3) film growth with atomic spatial resolution normal to the nanoparticle surface. This is approximat...

The detection of environmental mercury (Hg) contamination requires complex and expensive instruments and professional technicians. We present a simple, sensitive, and portable Hg2+ detection system based on a smartphone and colorimetric aptamer nanosensor. A smartphone equipped with a light meter app was used to detect, record, and process signals from a smartphone-based microwell reader (MR S-...

The ability to identify cancer lesions with endogenous biomarkers is currently limited to tumours ~1 cm in diameter. We recently reported an exogenously administered tumour-penetrating nanosensor that sheds, in response to tumour-specific proteases, peptide fragments that can then be detected in the urine. Here, we report the optimization, informed by a pharmacokinetic mathematical model, of th...