Reactivity is of great importance for metal nanoparticles used as catalysts, biomaterials and advanced sensors, but seeking for high reactivity seems to be conflict with high chemical stability required for metal nanoparticles. There is a subtle balance between reactivity and stability. This could be reached for colloidal metal nanoparticles using organic capping reagents, whereas it is challen...

Metals, such as copper and silver, can be extremely toxic to bacteria at exceptionally low concentrations. Because of this biocidal activity, metals have been widely used as antimicrobial agents in a multitude of applications related with agriculture, healthcare, and the industry in general. Unlike other antimicrobial agents, metals are stable under conditions currently found in the industry al...

Electromagnetic coupling between plasmonic resonances in metallic nanoparticles allows for engineering of the optical response and generation of strong localized near-fields. Classical electrodynamics fails to describe this coupling across sub-nanometer gaps, where quantum effects become important owing to non-local screening and t...

A motion-induced optical bistability is shown for a metal nanoparticle dimer that is plasmon coupled and bound with dispersion (colloidal) forces. The effect does not require any material nonlinearity.

We prepare arrays of gold nanoparticles that include both noncentrosymmetric particles with a second-order nonlinear optical response (active particles) and centrosymmetric particles with no second-order response (passive particles). The plasmon resonances of the active and passive particles are at distinct wavelengths, yet the passive particles modify the electromagnetic modes of the structure...

Topochemical synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was achieved on crystalline cellulose single nanofibers (CSNFs), which were tailored from native cellulose. Exposed AuNPs@CSNFs composite exhibited an excellent catalytic efficiency: the turnover frequency of the AuNPs@CSNFs was up to 840 times that of conventional polymer-supported AuNPs, for a model aqueous reduction reaction. Our novel str...

The geometrical arrangement of metallic nanoparticles plays a crucial role on the optical response of nanoplasmonic samples due to particle-particle interactions. In this work, large-area, two-dimensional meta-glasses (random arrangements) and meta-crystals (periodic arrangements) made of identical metallic nanoparticles are investigated for three different particle densities of 5, 10, and 15 d...

Zinc-based adsorbents currently in use for H2S removal from tail gas in the oil and gas industry have limited regenerability and reduced performance over multiple cycles [1,2]. Spatially well-distributed metal nanoparticles in mesoporous substrates can be effective in achieving better performance over multiple adsorption and regeneration cycles [3,4]. One of the critical aspects of understandin...

We investigate the optical forces acting on a metallic nanoparticle when the nanoparticle is introduced within a photonic nanojet (PNJ). Optical forces at resonance and off-resonance conditions of the microcylinder or nanoparticle are investigated. Under proper polarization conditions, the whispering gallery mode can be excited in the microcylinder, even at off resonance provided that scatterin...