Hybrid nanoparticles are of significant interest primarily because of their innate multifunctional capabilities. These capabilities can be exploited when hybrid nanoparticles are used for applications in the biomedical sciences in particular, where they are utilized as multimodal nanoplatforms for sensing, imaging, and therapy of biological targets. However, the realization of their biomedical applications has been difficult, in part because of a lack of high quality hybrid nanoparticles which possess high aqueous colloidal stability and biocompatibility while retaining their multifunctionalities. Here, we present the development of inorganic heterodimer nanoparticles of FePt-Au with multifunctional capabilities including catalytic growth effects, magnetic resonance (MR) contrast effects, optical signal enhancing properties, and high colloidal stability and biocompatibility. Their multimodal capabilities for biological detection are demonstrated through their utilizations in the patterned biochip based detection of avidin-biotin interaction as well as in molecular MR imaging of neuroblastoma cells.

Research on single-molecule magnets (SMMs) has attracted intensive attention because of the intriguing physical properties associated with the quantum tunneling of magnetization effects and their potential applications in high-density information storage.[1] Since the slow magnetization relaxation in [Mn 12 O 12 (CH 3 COO) 16 (H 2 O) 4 ] (Mn12ac) was discovered, much effort has been made to fabricate metal-oxido clusters with the aim of generating properties analogous to those of the archetypical Mn 12 cluster. [2, 3] Recently, a giant Mn 84 cluster with a diameter of around 4 nm that exhibits SMM behavior was characterized structurally and magnetically. [4] Despite the high nuclearity of the Mn 84 supramolecular nanotube, its ground state (S) and energy barrier (U eff ) remain relatively small compared with the Mn12ac cluster. [4] Alternatively, cyanides are frequently utilized for the construction of high-spin molecules because of their structural and magnetic predictability.[5] To attain SMMs with cyanides, it would be a rational approach to combine) units as building blocks with magnetic anisotropy sources. In fact, when a metal ion with single-ion anisotropy is incorporated into a cluster, the magnetization at low temperatures relaxes slowly in some cases. [6, 7] Given that U eff is proportional to S 2 j D j for an integral spin state (D is the axial zero-field splitting parameter of a cluster), it is appropriate to seek high-spin clusters with negative values of D for the purpose of obtaining SMMs with increased values of U eff . Sizable high-spin ground states were established in octacyanidometallate-based M 9 M' 6 (M = Mn [8]

A silicon carbide (SiC) powder compact was prepared with submicrometer β‐SiC, yttrium nitrate as a sintering additive, and polysiloxane‐phenol resin as precursors for nanosized SiC. By hot‐pressing, fully dense SiC ceramics with good electrical conductivity, as high as 3 × 104 (Ω·m)−1 at room temperature, were obtained. The ceramics could be machined to complex shapes by electrodischarge machining.

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