Facile synthesis of highly efficient one-dimensional plasmonic photocatalysts through Ag@Cu₂O core-shell heteronanowires

A novel class of one-dimensional (1D) plasmonic Ag@Cu2O core-shell heteronanowires have been synthesized at room temperature for photocatalysis application. The morphology, size, crystal structure and composition of the products were investigated by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, and UV-vis instruments. It was found the reaction time and the amount of Ag nanowires play crucial roles in the formation of well-defined 1D Ag@Cu2O core-shell heteronanowires. The resultant 1D Ag@Cu2O NWs exhibit much higher photocatalytic activity toward degradation of organic contaminants than Ag@Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles or pure Cu2O nanospheres under solar light irradiation. The drastic enhancement in photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the surface plasmon resonance and the electron sink effect of the Ag NW cores, and the unique 1D core-shell nanostructure.

Ultra-small fluorescent inorganic nanoparticles for bioimaging

The recent advances of ultra-small fluorescence inorganic nanoparticles including quantum dots, metal nanoclusters, carbon and graphene dots, up-conversion nanocrystals, and silicon nanoparticles have been comprehensively reviewed.

Field-effect transistors fabricated from diluted magnetic semiconductor colloidal nanowires

Field-effect transistors (FETs) fabricated from undoped and Co(2+)-doped CdSe colloidal nanowires show typical n-channel transistor behaviour with gate effect. Exposed to microscope light, a 10 times current enhancement is observed in the doped nanowire-based devices due to the significant modification of the electronic structure of CdSe nanowires induced by Co(2+)-doping, which is revealed by theoretical calculations from spin-polarized plane-wave density functional theory.