Fabrication of a self-standing supramolecular membrane by a "soft spray" technique

We report a one-step method to fabricate a free-standing supramolecular membrane composed of melamine and barbituric acid coordinated with silver nitrate (Mba-Ag) at the gas/liquid interface by a soft spray technique. MBa-Ag exhibits a folded two-dimensional layered morphology and thickness of 4.5 μm. The shortwave IR transmittance of MBa-Ag is as high as 95%, which is much higher than the transmittance of UV and visible light, and has the potential for electromagnetic wave transmission.

Hydrazine Hydrate Induced Three-Dimensional Interconnected Porous Flower-like 3D-NiCo-SDBS-LDH Microspheres for High-Performance Supercapacitor

Porous structure and surface defects are important to improve the performance of supercapacitors. In this study, a facile pathway was developed for high-performance supercapacitors, which can produce transition metal hydroxides (LDHs) with abundant porous structure and surface defects. The NiCo-SDBS-LDH was prepared by one-step hydrothermal reaction using sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) as anionic surfactant. And then, three dimensional (3D) interconnected porous flower-like 3D-NiCo-SDBS-LDH microspheres were designed and synthesized using the gas-phase hydrazine hydrate reduction method. Results showed that the hydrazine hydrate reduction not only introduces a large number of pores into 3D-NiCo-SDBS-LDH microspheres and causes the formation of oxygen vacancies, but it also roughens the surface of the microspheres. All these changes contribute to the enhancement of electrochemical activity of 3D-NiCo-SDBS-LDH; the NiCo-SDBS-LDH electrode after hydrazine hydrate treatment (3D-NiCo-SDBS-LDH) exhibits a higher specific capacitance of 1148 F·g^-1 at 1 A·g^-1 (about 1.46 times larger than that of NiCo-SDBS-LDH) and excellent long cycle life with 94% retention after 4000 cycles. Moreover, the assembled 3D-NiCo-SDBS-LDH//AC (active carbon) asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) achieves remarkable energy density of 73.14 W h·kg^-1 at 800 W·kg^-1 and long-term cycling stability of 95.5% retention for up to 10,000 cycles. The outstanding electrochemical performance can be attributed to the synergy between the rich porous structure and the roughened surface that has been created by the hydrazine hydrate treatment.

Bimetallic Nanomaterials-Based Electrochemical Biosensor Platforms for Clinical Applications

Diabetes is a foremost health issue that results in ~4 million deaths every year and ~170 million people suffering globally. Though there is no treatment for diabetes yet, the blood glucose level of diabetic patients should be checked closely to avoid further problems. Screening glucose in blood has become a vital requirement, and thus the fabrication of advanced and sensitive blood sugar detection methodologies for clinical analysis and individual care. Bimetallic nanoparticles (BMNPs) are nanosized structures that are of rising interest in many clinical applications. Although their fabrication shares characteristics with physicochemical methodologies for the synthesis of corresponding mono-metallic counterparts, they can display several interesting new properties and applications as a significance of the synergetic effect between their two components. These applications can be as diverse as clinical diagnostics, anti-bacterial/anti-cancer treatments or biological imaging analyses, and drug delivery. However, the exploitation of BMNPs in such fields has received a small amount of attention predominantly due to the vital lack of understanding and concerns mainly on the usage of other nanostructured materials, such as stability and bio-degradability over extended-time, ability to form clusters, chemical reactivity, and biocompatibility. In this review article, a close look at bimetallic nanomaterial based glucose biosensing approaches is discussed, concentrating on their clinical applications as detection of glucose in various real sample sources, showing substantial development of their features related to corresponding monometallic counterparts and other existing used nanomaterials for clinical applications.

Nanoarchitectonics for Hierarchical Fullerene Nanomaterials

Nanoarchitectonics is a universal concept to fabricate functional materials from nanoscale building units. Based on this concept, fabrications of functional materials with hierarchical structural motifs from simple nano units of fullerenes (C60 and C70 molecules) are described in this review article. Because fullerenes can be regarded as simple and fundamental building blocks with mono-elemental and zero-dimensional natures, these demonstrations for hierarchical functional structures impress the high capability of the nanoarchitectonics approaches. In fact, various hierarchical structures such as cubes with nanorods, hole-in-cube assemblies, face-selectively etched assemblies, and microstructures with mesoporous frameworks are fabricated by easy fabrication protocols. The fabricated fullerene assemblies have been used for various applications including volatile organic compound sensing, microparticle catching, supercapacitors, and photoluminescence systems.

Facile copper-based nanofibrous matrix for glucose sensing: Eenzymatic vs. non-enzymatic

The current study aims to provide a valid comparison between glucose detection efficiency with an enzymatic and a non-enzymatic sensing platform. A low-cost nano-matrix for glucose sensing was developed by drop-coating copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) onto a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) electrospun nanofibrous assembly. The PAN NFs/Cu NPs matrix was optimized regarding electrospinning time and Cu NPs content and employed as a non-enzymatic sensor or further modified by cross-linking of glucose oxidase (GOD) for the development of an enzymatic sensor. The non-enzymatic glucose sensor was three times more sensitive (300 mAM^-1cm^-2) than the enzymatic one (81 mAM^-1cm^-2) with similar limit of detection values (5.9 and 5.6 µM, respectively). Incorporation of MWCNTs improved both the LOD (3.3 µM) and the operational stability of the non-enzymatic configuration (RSD 7.3%). The interference effect proved insignificant for the enzymatic sensor due to the innate catalytic selectivity whilst the non-enzymatic sensor acquired selectivity due to the nanofibrous PAN matrix and Nafion coating. The non-enzymatic PAN NFs/Cu NPs sensor was chosen for the detection of glucose in real blood serum samples whilst the PAN NFs/Cu NPs/GOD sensor was applied for glucose detection in fruit juices, both proving recovery results close to 100%.