The application of nanoscale materials and structures, usually ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm), is an emerging area of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles for applications such as catalysis, electronics, textiles, environmental protection, and biotechnology is an area of constant interest. Recently, an awareness of general sanitation, contact disease transmission, and personal protection has led to the development of antimicrobial textiles. The development of antimicrobial cotton fabrics using Zinc oxide nanoparticles has been investigated in this present work. The ZnO nanoparticles were prepared by wet chemical method and were directly applied on to the 100% cotton woven fabric using pad-dry-cure method. The antibacterial activity of the finished fabrics was assessed qualitatively by agar diffusion and parallel streak method, quantitatively by percentage reduction test. The topographical analysis of the treated fabric and untreated fabric were studied and compared. The results show that the finished fabric demonstrated significant antibacterial activity against S. aureus in both qualitative and quantitative tests. The SEM analysis revealed the embedding of ZnO nanoparticles in treated fabrics. The wash durability study of the treated fabric was also carried out and found to withstand up to 25 wash cycles.

(MOFs) in common organic solvents which heavily limits thin-film processing on various support substrates for fabrication of devices. SURMOFs are in principle possible to achieve virtually on any support including flexible plastic and cloth substrates with molecular-level control of the dimensionality as well as functionality. [2] Subsequent loading of guest molecules opens-up an immense opportunity of SURMOFs for applications in storage and separation of gas and liquid, making highly specific sensors, performing unconventional catalysis, and overall, for the development of stimuli responsive electronic and magnetic thin-film devices. [3] As for the electronic applications of metal-organics, the experimental challenges are, in general, i) patterning feasibility as thin-films by employing standard lithographic techniques, ii) controllable thickness and orientation, iii) film homogeneity, iv) reasonable porosity, v) desirable electrical conductivity, vi) tuning electrical conductivity of thin-films by physical and chemical stimuli, and finally, vii) stability of the thin-films at ambient conditions, specifically against moisture and heat. At a glance, SURMOFs appear suitable platforms to overcome all these challenges to a considerable extent except the facts that MOFs are i) intrinsically poor conductors of electricity (due to insulating nature of the organic ligands and an energy mismatch in the overlap between ligand's p orbitals and metal ion's d orbitals); and ii) usually nonhydrophobic and sensitive to moisture. [4] Such important issues bring to the origin of this work: How to fabricate SURMOF thin-film devices hydrophobic as well electrically conductive?In order to achieve reasonably good electrical conductivity, so far, HKUST-1-based (a porous metal-organic coordination polymer comprised of Cu ion and 1,3,5-benzene tricarboxylic acid (BTC) ligand (benzene tricarboxylic acid) SURMOF thinfilm device was infiltrated with organic electrophile guest tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and the subsequent redoxreaction between Cu 2+ ions and TCNQ molecules resulted in a significant increase in the conductivity value within the semiconducting span. [5] However, HKUST-1-based SURMOF thin-films are not really hydrophobic. Another disadvantage

Wet-chemical methods involving the coreduction of HAuCl 4 and AgNO 3 have been proven particularly suitable for producing stable Au−Ag alloy NPs with controllable structure−property relationship. However, very poor-solubility of AgCl in aqueous medium and intrinsically different surface energies of Au and Ag remained detrimental-factors in synthesizing so-called "alloy" NPs above the solubility-product of AgCl. Here, we report a robust coreduction procedure for producing citrate-stabilized "homogeneously alloyed" Au−Ag NPs of average size sub-10 nm at room-temperature upon simultaneously overcoming the detrimental factors by a simple reagent NH 4 OH. The alloy NPs revealed a high-degree of crystallinity, composition-tunable surface plasmon resonance (SPR) behavior, controlled-catalysis, biocompatibility, surface enhance Raman scattering (SERS) activity and high-chemical stability. The alloy NPs could withstand corrosive chemical environment and be easily transferred from aqueous medium to various organic media. Fusion of NPs under high-energy electron-beam suggested an inertial coalescence. Our method may lead to the developments of metallic and bimetallic alloy NPs in the fulfillment of various applications in the future.

We introduce a new and naturally abundant mild reducing agent, tannic acid, to improve the seed-mediated growth method for the synthesis of elongated tetrahexahedral Au nanocrystals enclosed with high-index (730) planes, at room-temperature. The control of the dimensions, plasmonics and electro-catalysis of such high-index faceted nanocrystals is remarkable.

Bismuth ferrite nanoparticles have been extensively investigated over the last few years due to their potential candidacy for application in future memory devices. However, all the work reported so far on bismuth ferrite nanoparticles is on agglomerated nanoparticles. Agglomerated particles can magnetically interact with each other. To utilize them for device application, it is useful to know the properties of the individual particles. Here, de-agglomeration of ∼75 nm bismuth ferrite nanoparticles is achieved by polyaniline coating on the surface. The structural and magnetic properties of agglomerated and de-agglomerated nanoparticles are compared. It is observed that there is a change in the lattice parameters and Fe-O-Fe and O-Bi-O bond angles due to polyaniline shell. The coercivity of the bismuth ferrite/polyaniline core shell particles is reduced as compared to pure and agglomerated bismuth ferrite particles. The observed changes in the magnetic properties of coated particles are attributed to the shell induced isolation of individual bismuth ferrite nanoparticles as well as structural changes due to polyaniline coating.