The design and use of materials in the nanoscale size range for addressing medical and health-related issues continues to receive increasing interest. Research in nanomedicine spans a multitude of areas, including drug delivery, vaccine development, antibacterial, diagnosis and imaging tools, wearable devices, implants, high-throughput screening platforms, etc. using biological, nonbiological, biomimetic, or hybrid materials. Many of these developments are starting to be translated into viable clinical products. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in nanomedicine and highlight the current challenges and upcoming opportunities for the field and translation to the clinic.

Quantum-dot-based photoelectrochemical sensors are powerful alternatives for the detection of chemicals and biochemical molecules compared to other sensor types, which is the primary reason as to why they have become a hot topic in nanotechnology-related analytical methods. These sensors basically consist of QDs immobilized by a linking molecule (linker) to an electrode, so that upon their illumination, a photocurrent is generated which depends on the type and concentration of the respective analyte in the immediate environment of the electrode. The present review provides an overview of recent developments in the fabrication methods and sensing concepts concerning direct and indirect interactions of the analyte with quantum dot modified electrodes. Furthermore, it describes in detail the broad range of different sensing applications of such quantum-dot-based photoelectrochemical sensors for inorganic and organic (small and macro-) molecules that have arisen in recent years. Finally, a number of aspects concerning current challenges on the way to achieving real-life applications of QD-based photochemical sensing are addressed.

Synthesis, characterization, and applications of colloidal nanoparticles have been a prominent topic of current research interests within the last two decades. Available reports in the literature that describe the synthesis of colloidal nanoparticles are abundant with various degrees of reproducibility and simplicity. Moreover, different methods for the characterization of colloidal nanoparticles' basic properties are employed, resulting in conflicting results in many cases. Herein, we describe "in detail" selected standard protocols for the synthesis, purification, and characterization of various types of colloidal inorganic nanoparticles including gold nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles, iron oxide nanoparticles, and quantum dots. This report consists of five main parts: The first and the second part are dedicated to describing the synthesis of various types of hydrophobic and hydrophilic nanoparticles in organic solvents and in aqueous solutions, respectively. The third part describes surface modification of nanoparticles with focus on ligand exchange reactions, to allow phase transfer of nanoparticles from aqueous to organic solvents and vice versa. The fourth and the fifth part describe various general purification and characterization techniques used to purify and characterize nanoparticles, respectively. Collectively, this contribution does not aim to cover all available protocols in the literature to prepare inorganic nanoparticles, but rather provides detailed synthetic procedures to important inorganic nanocrystals with full description of their purification and characterization process.

Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly is a widely used tool for engineering materials and coatings. In this Perspective, dedicated to the memory of ACS Nano associate editor Prof. Dr. Helmuth Möhwald, we discuss the developments and applications that are to come in LbL assembly, focusing on coatings, bulk materials, membranes, nanocomposites, and delivery vehicles.

Precisely known ligand-induced conformation change and complex chemical labeling of the DNA sequence with probe molecules are often needed for the signal generation in most of the previous aptasensors. Herein, a solution to the above problems was reported by the use of the Ru(phen)(3)(2+) intercalated into double strand DNA (ds-DNA) as an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) probe with thrombin as the target. After the antithrombin thiolated aptamer (27-mer) was attached to a gold electrode, ds-DNA structure was formed with its complementary 20-mer single strand DNA. Instead of the chemical modification of the aptamer or target with the probe molecule, Ru(phen)(3)(2+), as the probe, was intercalated into the ds-DNA structure. After thrombin hybridized with its aptamer, the ds-DNA dissociated and the intercalated Ru(phen)(3)(2+) released because of the higher stability of the aptamer-thrombin complex than that of the aptamer-complementary strand hybrid. The difference in ECL intensity with tripropylamine (TPA) as coreactant before and after the hybridization of thrombin and its aptamer was used to quantify thrombin. Besides the increase in the number of probe molecules over the single-site labeling, a ca. 80-fold improvement on the TPA oxidation at the ds-DNA modified electrode was found over the bare gold electrode. With the two amplification factors, the mass detection limits of 0.2 attomolar for thrombin are obtained. Because of the independence of conformational changes, the present method is readily extended to the targets whose aptamers have no specific conformational changes or other DNA-related detection without the need for chemical labeling.

A quantum dot-electrode system was developed which allows the sensitive detection of NADH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). The colloidal semiconductive CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals (quantum dots) are attached to gold by chemisorption via a dithiol compound. The current signal can be triggered by illumination of the quantum-dot-modified electrode surface. Because of photoexcitation, electron-hole pairs are generated in the quantum dots, which can be detected as anodic or cathodic photocurrent. The immobilization of the nanocrystals is verified by amperometric photocurrent and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements. This study shows that CdSe/ZnS quantum dot-modified electrodes allow concentration dependent NADH detection in the range of 20 microM to 2 mM already at rather low potentials (around 0 V vs. Ag/AgCl, 1 M KCl). Therefore such electrodes can be used in combination with NADH-producing enzyme reactions for the light-triggered analysis of the respective substrates of the biocatalyst. It can be shown that glucose detection is feasible with such an electrode system and photocurrent measurements.

A light-addressable gold electrode modified with CdS and FePt or with CdS@FePt nanoparticles via an interfacial dithiol linker layer is presented. XPS measurements reveal that trans-stilbenedithiol provides high-quality self-assembled monolayers compared to benzenedithiol and biphenyldithiol, in case they are formed at elevated temperatures. The CdS nanoparticles in good electrical contact with the electrode allow for current generation under illumination and appropriate polarization. FePt nanoparticles serve as catalytic sites for the reduction of hydrogen peroxide to water. Advantageously, both properties can be combined by the use of hybrid nanoparticles fixed on the electrode by means of the optimized stilbenedithiol layer. This allows a light-controlled analysis of different hydrogen peroxide concentrations.

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