BACKGROUND There is an unmet need for specific and sensitive imaging techniques to assess the efficacy of breast cancer therapy, particularly Her-2-expressing cancers. Ultrasonic microbubbles are being developed for use as diagnostic and therapeutic tools. However, nanobubbles circulate longer, are smaller, and diffuse into extravascular tissue to specifically bind target molecules. Here, we ch...

The electrokinetic behaviors of nanobubbles internally generated by ultrasonication were investigated in terms of the stability of bubble, size distribution and zeta-potentials. When aqueous solutions were sonicated with a palladium electrode, stable nanobubbles having effective diameters of several hundreds nanometer were formed within a few minutes, and the sizes and size distributions remain...

Nanobubbles on a hydrophilic surface immersed in water and ethanol are inferred from the response of the surface to two consecutive heat pulses with a variable separation time. Bubble nucleation occurs at specific positions on the surface during the first heat pulse but at lower nucleation temperatures and random locations on the second. Nanobubbles are hypothesized to form on collapse of the b...

Using IR spectroscopy, high-pressure reactions of molecules were observed in liquids entrapped by graphene nanobubbles formed at the graphene-diamond interface. Nanobubbles formed on graphene as a result of thermally induced bonding of its edges with diamond are highly impermeable, thus providing a good sealing of solvents within. Owing to the optical transparency of graphene and diamond, high-...

Nanobubbles are a mystery as to their stability and longevity. So far their uses are limited to high value applications, such as medical imaging and controlled drug delivery and release. The current methods of nanobubble generation and understanding of nanobubble interfacial structure are reviewed. The analysis of the potential benefits of nanobubbles leads to the conclusion that if energy effi...

The generation, measurement, and applied technologies of so-called nanobubbles or ultra-fine bubbles, with diameter ranging from tens to hundreds of nanometers, are evolving dramatically in recent years. The unique properties of nanobubbles makes them attractive for a number of applications such as facility cleaning, food disinfection, and water treatment, as well as possibilities in fields suc...

It is the aim of this paper to quantitatively characterize the capability of surface nanobubbles for surface cleaning, i.e., removal of nanodimensioned polystyrene particles from the surface. We adopt two types of substrates: plain and nanopatterned (trench/ridge) silicon wafer. The method used to generate nanobubbles on the surfaces is the so-called alcohol-water exchange process (use water to...

In this paper we propose a scaling argument to quantify the role of added electrolyte salt in affecting the stability and the morphology of preformed surface nanobubbles on hydrophobic substrates like the water-OTS-silicon or the water-HOPG interfaces. The added salt controls the electric double layer formation as well as affects the zeta (ζ) potential at the air-water and solid-water interface...

Formation of stable nanobubbles in aqueous solutions of water-soluble organic molecules is a spontaneous process. Using a combination of laser light scattering (LLS) and zeta-potential measurements, we investigated the effects of salt concentration and pH on their stability in alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CD) aqueous solutions. Our results reveal that the nanobubbles are unstable in solution with ...