Current Nanoscience - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2007

The assembly of two or more inorganic nanoparticles results in hybrid materials with enhanced properties. These include improvements in catalytic activity, changes in optical behavior, and potential gains in electronic properties. However, these are only attained through precise synthetic control of the resulting material with respect to structure, organization, size, and composition. Fortunately, biological systems are exceptional at Read More

Pd/ZrO2 nanocomposite materials were synthesised following a two-step procedure. Firstly, tetragonal zirconia was prepared via a chemical route; then it was subjected to an in-situ electrochemical impregnation with palladium nanoparticles. Different process times lead to a different Pd loading in the resulting material. Pd/ZrO2 powders were subjected to morphological and spectroscopic characterisation. Transmission electron Read More

Although many sophisticated methods for specific detection of a biological material (from cells, through viruses to nucleic acids and proteins) are available, there is still a need for their improvement. Particularly, an optimal method should be sensitive, rapid and quantitative. However, it appears that traditional molecular biology procedures are often either too long or semi-quantitative at best. This makes particular probl Read More

The instrumentation literature associated with nanoscience and nanotechnology research was examined. About 65000 nanotechnology records for 2005 were retrieved from the Science Citation Index/ Social Science Citation Index (SCI/SSCI) [1], and ∼27000 of those were identified as instrumentation-related. All the diverse instruments were identified, and the relationships among the instruments, and among the instru Read More

A molecularly alternating self-assembled film and heterostructured capsule of titania nanosheets/gold nanoparticles has been successfully fabricated by layer-by-layer self-assembly of titania nanosheets and positively charged gold nanoparticles as electrostatic building blocks. The films were characterized with atomic force microscopy and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. The nearly linear increase in both UV-vis absorba Read More

DNA, the blueprint of life, has taken centre stage in biological research during the past few decades. DNA plays an important role in molecular biology as the carrier of genetic information in all living species. Bio-physicists and chemists have become increasingly interested in the electronic properties of the “molecule of life”; DNA. Experiments are now starting to provide the first clues about the mechanisms that underlie ch Read More

Metal nanoshells have found promising applications in biomedical imaging and cancer therapy. To facilitate the application of nanoshells in scattering based imaging techniques, it is essential to characterize their light scattering properties. We have studied the light scattering from nanoshells at the quadrupolar and octupolar frequencies of the surface plasmon resonance, and our measurements are in good agree Read More

Magnetite (Fe3O4) nanosheets have been prepared by a simple microwave heating method using ferrous sulfate and sodium hydroxide in mixed solvents of ethylene glycol and water. Fe3O4 nanosheets were obtained by the oxidation of the deep green precursor with the sheet morphology in an alkaline solution. Our experiments show that iron salt, the ratio of OH- to iron ions and the heating method have effects on the morp Read More

Fabrication of nanomaterials with hollow interiors is an important research area in nanoresearch, owing to their potential applications in photonic devices, drug delivery, material encapsulation, ionic intercalation, surface functionalization, nanocatalysts, membrane nanoreactors, and many other technologies. The common preparative methods for this new class of materials can be broadly divided into hard and soft template Read More

An increasing percentage of drug development candidates suffer from poor aqueous solubility which in turn often times leads to poor oral absorption. This poses significant challenges in formulation development to ensure bioavailability following oral administration. Traditional approaches to increase dissolution of immediate release formulations include incorporation of surfactants, reduction of particle size and Read More

Albendazole, a lipophilic anthelmintic drug, has low solubility and bioavailability. Albendazole nanosuspensions (ABZNS) were developed using different surfactants (Polysorbate 80 & Poloxamer 188) and hydrophilic mucoadhesive polymers (Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose) by pre-homogenization followed by high pressure homogenization. Particle size and charge measurements were made with a Malvern Zetasize Read More