Novel Nanofluidic Cells Based on Nanowires and Nanotubes for Advanced Chemical and Bio-Sensing Applications

A comprehensive review on the biomedical frontiers of nanowire applications

This comprehensive review examines the immense capacity of nanowires, nanostructures characterized by unbounded dimensions, to profoundly transform the field of biomedicine. Nanowires, which are created by combining several materials using techniques such as electrospinning and vapor deposition, possess distinct mechanical, optical, and electrical properties. As a result, they are well-suited for use in nanoscale electronic devices, drug delivery systems, chemical sensors, and other applications. The utilization of techniques such as the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) approach and template-assisted approaches enables the achievement of precision in synthesis. This precision allows for the customization of characteristics, which in turn enables the capability of intracellular sensing and accurate drug administration. Nanowires exhibit potential in biomedical imaging, neural interfacing, and tissue engineering, despite obstacles related to biocompatibility and scalable manufacturing. They possess multifunctional capabilities that have the potential to greatly influence the intersection of nanotechnology and healthcare. Surmounting present obstacles has the potential to unleash the complete capabilities of nanowires, leading to significant improvements in diagnostics, biosensing, regenerative medicine, and next-generation point-of-care medicines.

Impact of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Functionalization on Ion and Water Molecule Transport at the Nanoscale

Nanofluidics has a very promising future owing to its numerous applications in many domains. It remains, however, very difficult to understand the basic physico-chemical principles that control the behavior of solvents confined in nanometric channels. Here, water and ion transport in carbon nanotubes is investigated using classical force field molecular dynamics simulations. By combining one single walled carbon nanotube (uniformly charged or not) with two perforated graphene sheets, we mimic single nanopore devices similar to experimental ones. The graphitic edges delimit two reservoirs of water and ions in the simulation cell from which a voltage is imposed through the application of an external electric field. By analyzing the evolution of the electrolyte conductivity, the role of the carbon nanotube geometric parameters (radius and chirality) and of the functionalization of the carbon nanotube entrances with OH or COO- groups is investigated for different concentrations of group functions.

Insight on the regulation mechanism of the nanochannels in hard and brittle materials induced by sparially shaped femtosecond laser

The efficient fabrication of nanochannels on hard and brittle materials is a difficult task in the field of micro and nano processing. We have realized nanochannel arrays on silica with characteristic scales varying from 50–230 nm using a single femtosecond Bessel beam pulse of 515 nm. By characterizing the surface openings, we found that the characteristic scales of the nanopore openings are inextricably linked to the surface energy deposition effect. We achieved not only three asymmetric channel profiles by adjusting the laser-sample interaction region, but also high aspect ratio nanochannels with characteristic scales about 50 nm and aspect ratios over 100. These results on hard and brittle materials provide a broader platform and application scenarios for smart particle rectifiers, DNA molecular sequencing, biosensors, and nanofluidic devices, which are also more suitable for future practical applications due to their low cost, good durability, and high productivity.

Evolution of High Symmetry Points of Photonic Alumina Superlattices in a Lithography-Free Approach

Ceaselessly increasing demands for elaborate nanostructures prompt advanced structure fabrication with good practicability, especially, subwavelength ordered structures in simple lattices even in superlattices over a large area, namely, large-scale photonic lattices, in which lattice arrangement, geometry, and components of unit cells are key factors for their macroscopic optical properties. Moreover, exciting properties always occur at high symmetry points of the lattice; therefore, straightforward modulation of symmetry points over a large area is very important for the investigation and application of photonic lattices. Here, this work establishes a lithography-free approach of undervoltage oxidation (UVO) for regulating high symmetry points in the reciprocal space of a dielectric alumina superlattice. Embedding subunit cells at high symmetry points Γ (M) result in the degenerate energy changing from 1.34 eV (924.6 nm) to 1.87 eV (662.6 nm) under normal excitation at the Γ point, and the degeneracy lifting under off-normal excitation along the Γ-X high symmetry orientation. Furthermore, systematic characterizations of the alumina membrane are presented to learn its dynamic evolution of the morphology on a centimeter scale, and the pore array changes from a hierarchical period to a form of hexagonal close packing, especially at Γ and M points of the square lattice. Therefore, the reported lithography-free alumina-based nanofabrication offers an ability for varying the spatial structure at high symmetry points of photonic lattices, which is of great significance in the fields of nanomanufacturing and has great potential to bring about preferable performances in nanodevices.