Hollow/porous nanoparticles, including nanocarriers, nanoshells, and mesoporous materials have applications in catalysis, photonics, biosensing, and delivery of theranostic agents. Using a hierarchical template synthesis scheme, we have synthesized a nanocarrier mimicking a golf ball, consisting of (i) solid silica core with a pitted gold surface and (ii) a hollow/porous gold shell without sili...

Anodization of Al is used to produce optically smooth porous alumina (Al(2)O(3)) films with pores approximately 60 nm in diameter and approximately 6 mum deep. The capture protein, protein A, is adsorbed to the pore walls by noncovalent, electrostatic interactions, and thin film interference spectroscopy is used to detect binding of immunoglobulin (IgG). The porous alumina films are stable agai...

With the aim of developing a process for surface enlargement on an electrode for measuring brain activity attempts have been made to fabricate a porous anodic alumina membrane directly on the electrode. The porous membrane was intended to be used as scaffold for deposition of an electrically conducting polymer on the electrode surface. A silicon wafer with gold electrodes was the base onto whic...

c-Alumina-based materials with high porous volume, tunable pore size, were synthesized by the addition of both PEO/PPO/PEO triblock copolymers (Pluronics F127 and P123) and metal nitrates (Al, Mn, Cu) in a boehmite (AlOOH) nanoparticle hydrosol. During the subsequent thermal treatment, the surfactant was removed leaving a highly porous framework. The pore size distribution was strongly dependen...

An efficient method based in template wetting is applied for fabrication of ordered Poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO) nanopillars with β-phase morphology. In this process, nanoporous alumina obtained by anodization process is used as template. PFO nanostructures are prepared under ambient conditions via infiltration of the polymeric solution into the pores of the alumina with an average pore diam...

We determined the surface-enhanced Raman scattering of the plasmonic hybrid nanotubes of fullerene C60-polythiophene-Ag or Au nanoparticles (NPs) which were synthesized via the template-based electrocopolymerization of terthiophene-linked fullerene C60 and terthiophene-modified Ag NPs or Au NPs using a nanoporous alumina membrane as the template. The combination of plasmonic activity and chemic...

We employ a combination of Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy (ZSTEM) and first-principles density-functional calculations to investigate the interaction between metal atoms and cubic alumina catalytic supports. We show that there are two observed La sites at the porous γalumina surface, and that single La atoms do not exhibit a tendency to cluster. Cr behaves very differently...

Interfacial nanodroplets were grafted to the surfaces of self-sacrificed template particles in a galvanic reaction system to assist the construction of 3D Au porous structures. The interfacial nanodroplets were formed via direct adsorption of surfactant-free emulsions onto the particle surfaces. The interfacial nanodroplets discretely distributed at the template particle surfaces and served as ...