The past few decades have witnessed significant advances in the development of functionalized metal/metal oxide nanoparticles including those of inorganic noble metals and magnetic materials stabilized by various polymeric ligands. Recent applications of such functionalized nanoparticles, including those in bio-imaging, sensing, catalysis, drug delivery, and other biomedical applications have t...

Syntaxin1A is organized in nanoclusters that are critical for the docking and priming of secretory vesicles from neurosecretory cells. Whether and how these nanoclusters are affected by neurotransmitter release in nerve terminals from a living organism is unknown. Here we imaged photoconvertible syntaxin1A-mEos2 in the motor nerve terminal of Drosophila larvae by single-particle tracking photoa...

Gold nanoclusters are promising candidates as biological markers without having toxic effects like fluorescent quantum dots. Herein, bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein stabilized gold nanoclusters of two different sizes emitting at 410 and 645 nm have been synthesized. These nanoclusters have been shown to interact with molecular oxygen differentially. Spectroscopic and chemical evidences show ...

The synthesis, structural characteristics, and photophysical properties of luminescent Cu-rich bimetallic superatomic clusters [Au@Cu12(S2CNnPr2)6(C?CPh)4]+ (1a+), [Au@Cu12{S2P(OR)2}6(C?CPh)4]+ (2+), (2a+ = iPr; 2b+ nPr), [Au@Cu12{S2P(C2H4Ph)2}6(C?CPh)4]+ (2c+), [Ag@Cu12{S2P(OnPr)2}6(C?CPh)4]+ (3+) were studied. Compositionally uniform 1+–3+ isolated from the reaction dithiolato-stabilized, pol...

In this study, we generated gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) using inexpensive chicken egg white proteins (AuNCs@ew) as reagents. AuNCs@ew were generated by reacting aqueous tetrachloroauric acid with diluted chicken egg white under microwave heating (90W) through subsequent heating cycles (5 min/cycle). Within 10 cycles, red photoluminescent AuNCs@ew with maximum emission wavelength at ~640 nm (λex=3...

Impact processes of nanoclusters subject to thermal fluctuations are investigated, theoretically. In the former half of the paper, we discuss the basis of quasi-static theory. In the latter part, we carry out the molecular dynamics simulation of collisions between two identical nanoclusters, and report some statistical properties of impacts of nanoclusters.

The dynamic and thermodynamic properties of nanoclusters are studied in two different environments: the canonical and microcanonical ensembles. A comparison is made to thermodynamic properties of the bulk. It is shown that consistent and reproducible results on nanoclusters can only be obtained in the canonical ensemble. Nanoclusters in the microcanonical ensemble are trapped systems, and incon...

Ag nanoclusters consisting of several AQ:1 to a hundred atoms with diameters less than 2 nm show molecule-like properties, including discrete electronic AQ:2 transitions and strong fluorescence. They have received considerable research interest due to their unique optical, electrical and chemical properties and potential applications in chemicaland biosensing. Ag nanoclusters exhibit excellent ...

A new class of advanced structural materials, based on the Fe-O-vacancy system, has exceptional resistance to high-temperature creep and excellent tolerance to extremely high-dose radiation. Although these remarkable improvements in properties compared to steels are known to be associated with the Y-Ti-O-enriched nanoclusters, the roles of vacancies in facilitating the nucleation of nanocluster...

Focused-electron-beam-induced deposition (FEBID) is used as a direct-write approach to decorate ultrasmall Pt nanoclusters on carbon nanotubes at selected sites in a straightforward maskless manner. The as-deposited nanostructures are studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in 2D and 3D, demonstrating that the Pt nanoclusters are well-dispersed, covering the selected areas of the CNT ...