No abstract

Thermoelectric material Bi2Te3 nanowire arrays have been successfully prepared by pulsed electrochemical deposition into the nanochannels of porous anodic alumina membranes. X-ray diffraction analyses show that the as-synthesized nanowires have a highly preferential orientation. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy observations indicate that the high-filling-rate and uniform Bi2Te3 nanowires are single crystalline. Energy dispersive spectrometer analyses indicate that the compositions of the nanowires can be controlled by changing the potentials and the solution concentrations. The electrical resistance measurements indicate that the resistances increase with decreasing temperature and show a typical semiconductor characteristic. The growth mechanism is discussed together with the electrochemical deposition process studies.

No abstract

No abstract

Pyrophosphate ion (PPi) is crucial in varieties of biological processes and industrial applications, and thus it is very important how to recognize it with high selectivity. In this contribution, one terpyridine (tpy)-based fluorescent molecule, 4-(methylphenyl)-2,2':6',2''-terpyridine (mptpy), has been reported to display a highly selective recognition for PPi in the presence of Zn(II). After exposure toward the Zn(II) ion, the characteristic emission of mptpy at 376 nm red-shifted to 406 nm with a strong enhancement upon an excitation at 280 nm, and then blue-shifted to 388 nm with the further addition of PPi. Absorption and fluorescence measurements showed that other phosphates including phosphate (Pi) as well as nucleotide triphosphates could not induce the spectral changes similar to PPi, demonstrating the unique binding effect between mptpy-Zn(II) and PPi. This process could also discriminate PPi from other inorganic anions. Therefore, a tpy-based fluorescence method for the highly selective recognition of PPi could be developed.

A new type of coordination polymer sphere prepared by combining 1,1 0 -(1,4-butanediyl)bis(imidazole) (bbi) and ferrous ions has been demonstrated as a targeted delivery system for in situ encapsulating anticancer drugs. These stable coordination polymer spheres can be fabricated simply by a deposition method. Drugs, doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX$HCl) for example, can be easily in situ encapsulated by simply mixing the drug with bbi ligand through the deposition method and results in a high drug loading efficiency up to 98% and a drug loading content of nearly 40%, which is remarkably high for not only metal-organic but also other materials. A noticeable feature of the drug loaded coordination polymer spheres is that they show sustainable drug release for several days due to their superior stability, and are sensitive to external pH owing to the coordination bonds. The drug can be released faster in mild acidic conditions in comparison to physiological acidity. By conjugating folic acid to the surface of the coordination polymer spheres, the vehicles can be taken up selectively by cancer cells through cell surface receptor-mediated mechanisms. Cell viability experiments with HeLla cells demonstrated the low toxicity of the delivery vehicles and the good anticancer efficacy of the drugloaded coordination polymer spheres.

No abstract

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are of great promise for various nonlinear optical (NLO) applications due to their unique electronic and optoelectronic properties, such as tunable optical bandgap, strong spin-orbit coupling, and exciton effects. However, the desired NLO performances of regular 2H-TMDs are usually restricted by their limited absorption at atomic thickness. With this regard, a structurally novel spiral MoTe 2 (s-MoTe 2 ) nanopyramids is reported with unique and superior NLO response, enabled by their broken inversion symmetry, weak interlayer coupling, exciton resonance, and strong light-matter interaction from the edge-rich 3R-like quasi-multilayer structure. The excellent NLO response over a wide spectral range from the near-infrared to visible region is demonstrated, where second-and third-order NLO responses have been simultaneously observed. Moreover, the secondorder nonlinear susceptibility of s-MoTe 2 is estimated to be around 1-2 order(s) of magnitude larger than those of most reported TMDs. The demonstration of a superior NLO response in such s-MoTe 2 not only paves a new way for designing the best NLO TMD structures, but also greatly prompts their practical applications in micro-nano NLO devices on chips in future.