Cui Ye

One-pot synthesis and enhanced catalytic performance of Pd and Pt nanocages via galvanic replacement reactions

A one-pot approach for the synthesis of Pd and Pt nanocages has been demonstrated via galvanic replacement reactions, in which the nanocage sizes and shapes can be effectively controlled through modifying the sizes of Ag nanocubes and reaction temperatures. Moreover, the Pd and Pt nanocages have excellently monodispersed feature in aqueous solution, and show outstanding electrocatalytic activities without introducing any loading materials.

Internal-Modified Dithiol DNA-Directed Au Nanoassemblies: Geometrically Controlled Self-Assembly and Quantitative Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Properties.

In this work, a hierarchical DNA–directed self–assembly strategy to construct structure–controlled Au nanoassemblies (NAs) has been demonstrated by conjugating Au nanoparticles (NPs) with internal–modified dithiol single-strand DNA (ssDNA) (Au–B–A or A–B–Au–B–A). It is found that the dithiol–ssDNA–modified Au NPs and molecule quantity of thiol–modified ssDNA grafted to Au NPs play critical roles in the assembly of geometrically controlled Au NAs. Through matching Au–DNA self–assembly units, geometrical structures of the Au NAs can be tailored from one–dimensional (1D) to quasi–2D and 2D. Au–B–A conjugates readily give 1D and quasi–2D Au NAs while 2D Au NAs can be formed by A–B–Au–B–A building blocks. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurements and 3D finite–difference time domain (3D-FDTD) calculation results indicate that the geometrically controllable Au NAs have regular and linearly “hot spots”–number–depended SERS properties. For a certain number of NPs, the number of “hot spots” and accordingly enhancement factor of Au NAs can be quantitatively evaluated, which open a new avenue for quantitative analysis based on SERS technique.

Al3+-directed electrostatic self-assembly and their surface plasmon resonance properties of Au nanocrystals

A straightforward and effective Al3+-directed electrostatic self-assembly strategy for linking Au nanoparticles (NPs) into one-dimensional (1D) or 2D nanoarrays has been demonstrated. In the self-assembly, Al3+ concentration played an important role in the Au NPs self-assembly, varying which size, shape, and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) properties of the Au nanoassemblies (NAs) could be well tuned.

A simple and effective strategy for the directed and high-yield assembly of large-sized gold nanoparticles driven by bithiol-modified complementary dsDNA architectures

A simple and effective strategy for the directed and high-yield assembly of large-sized Au NPs has been demonstrated by bithiol-modified complementary dsDNA architectures. The dsDNA architectures were formed by mixing two complementary thiol-modified ssDNA (only 36 bases) and played an important role in the high-yield self-assembly of the large-sized Au NPs. Compared with traditional methods, this strategy was simple, effective, low-cost and enabled excellent self-assembly of large-sized Au NPs, while obviating the need for the conjugate of Au NPs to ssDNA and the use of long chain DNA. Therefore, this straightforward and high efficiency methodology opens a new avenue of DNA-induced self-assembly of large-sized metal NPs.

Inlaid Nd-substituted bismuth titanate nanoplates for protein immobilization and Nd-controlled electrochemical properties

Neodymium (Nd) substituted bismuth titanate (Bi(4-x)Nd(x)Ti(3)O(12), BNTO-x) nanoplates inlaid one another were prepared by sol-gel hydrothermal method, which was explored for protein immobilization and biosensor fabrication. Comparative experiments witnessed that Bi(3+) ions in bismuth titanate (Bi(4)Ti(3)O(12), BTO) were successfully substituted with Nd(3+) ions, and the electrochemical properties of the Hb-Chi-BNTO biosensors closely depended on the Nd(3+) ion content. With increasing the Nd(3+) doping content, the electrochemical performance of the Hb-Chi-BNTO-x biosensors showed regularly variable. Moreover, compared with the Hb-Chi-BTO and other Hb-Chi-BNTO-x biosensors, the Hb-Chi-BNTO-0.85 biosensor had more excellent electrochemical and electrocatalytic properties such as stronger redox peak currents (approximately three-fold), smaller peak-to-peak separation (50 mV), larger heterogeneous electron transfer rate (14.1 ± 3.8s(-1)), higher surface concentration of electroactive redox protein (about 8.16 × 10(-11)mol/cm(2)), and better reproducibility and stability. The Nd-depended electrochemical properties of the Hb-Chi-BNTO biosensors may open up a new idea for designing third-generation electrochemical biosensors, and the BNTO-0.85-based biosensor is also expected to find potential applications in many areas such as biomedical, food, and environmental detection.