学術雑誌リスト

With ever increasing interest in layered materials, molybdenum disulfide has been widely investigated due to its unique optoelectronic properties. Pressure is an effective technique to tune the lattice and electronic structure of materials such that high pressure studies can disclose new structural and optical phenomena. In this study, taking MoS2 as an example, we investigate the pressure confinement effect on monolayer MoS2 by in situ high pressure Raman and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Our results reveal a structural deformation of monolayer MoS2 starting from 0.84 GPa, which is evidenced by the splitting of E12g and A1g modes. A further compression leads to a transition from the 1H-MoS2 phase to a novel structure evidenced by the appearance of two new peaks located at 200 and 240 cm−1. This is a distinct feature of monolayer MoS2 compared with bulk MoS2. The new structure is supposed to have a distorted unit with the S atoms slided within a single layer like that of metastable 1T′-MoS2. However, unlike the non-photoluminescent 1T′-MoS2 structure, our monolayer shows a remarkable PL peak and a pressure-induced blue shift up to 13.1 GPa. This pressure-dependent behavior might enable the development of novel devices with multiple phenomena involving the strong coupling of the mechanical, electrical and optical properties of layered nanomaterials.

Reducing bacterial density on titanium implant surfaces has been a major concern because of the increasing number of nosocomial infections. Controlling the inflammatory response post implantation has also been an important issue for medical devices due to the detrimental effects of chronic inflammation on device performance. It has recently been demonstrated that manipulating medical device surface properties including chemistry, roughness and wettability can control both infection and inflammation. Here, we synthesized nanophase (that is, materials with one dimension in the nanoscale) hydroxyapatite coatings on titanium to reduce bacterial adhesion and inflammatory responses (as measured by macrophage functions) and compared such results to bare titanium and plasma sprayed hydroxyapatite titanium coated surfaces used clinically today. This approach is a pharmaceutical-free approach to inhibit infection and inflammation due to the detrimental side effects of any drug released in the body. Here, nanophase hydroxyapatite was synthesized in sizes ranging from 110–170 nm and was subsequently coated onto titanium samples using electrophoretic deposition. Results indicated that smaller nanoscale hydroxyapatite features on titanium surfaces alone decreased bacterial attachment in the presence of gram negative (P. aeruginosa), gram positive (S. aureus) and ampicillin resistant gram-negative (E. coli) bacteria as well as were able to control inflammatory responses; properties which should lead to their further investigation for improved medical applications.

Hydrogen plays a crucial role in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of graphene. Here, we have revealed the roles of hydrogen in the two-step CVD growth of MoS2. Our study demonstrates that hydrogen acts as the following: (i) an inhibitor of the thermal-induced etching effect in the continuous film growth process; and (ii) a promoter of the desulfurization reaction by decreasing the S/Mo atomic ratio and the oxidation reaction of the obtained MoSx (0 < x < 2) films. A high hydrogen content of more than 100% in argon forms nano-sized circle-like defects and damages the continuity and uniformity of the film. Continuous MoS2 films with a high crystallinity and a nearly perfect S/Mo atomic ratio were finally obtained after sulfurization annealing with a hydrogen content in the range of 20%–80%. This insightful understanding reveals the crucial roles of hydrogen in the CVD growth of MoS2 and paves the way for the controllable synthesis of two-dimensional materials.

A size and shape tuned, multifunctional metal chalcogenide, Cu2S-based nanotheranostic agent is developed for trimodal imaging and multimodal therapeutics against brain cancer cells. This theranostic agent was highly efficient in optical, photoacoustic and X-ray contrast imaging systems. The folate targeted NIR-responsive photothermal ablation in synergism with the chemotherapeutic action of doxorubicin proved to be a rapid precision guided cancer-killing module. The multi-stimuli, i.e., pH-, thermo- and photo-responsive drug release behavior of the nanoconjugates opens up a wider corridor for on-demand triggered drug administration. The simple synthesis protocol, combined with the multitudes of interesting features packed into a single nanoformulation, clearly demonstrates the competing role of this Cu2S nanosystem in future cancer treatment strategies.

A facile synthesis of rose-like Pd–Fe3O4 nanocomposites via controlled thermal decomposition of Fe(CO)5 and reduction of Pd(OAc)2, followed by the immobilization of Au nanoparticles (NPs) onto the Pd–Fe3O4 supports, is reported. The morphology of these hybrid nanostructures could be easily controlled by varying the amount of Fe(CO)5 and the reaction temperature. Moreover, the synthesized Au/Pd–Fe3O4 catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity for the tandem synthesis of 2-phenylindoles and demonstrated magnetic recyclability.

To develop carriers for anti-cancer drug delivery, this study reports a biocompatible and thermal responsive controlled drug delivery system based on hollow magnetic nanoparticles (HMNPs). The system is constructed simply by filling the hollow interiors of HMNPs with a phase-change material (PCM), namely, 1-tetradecanol, which has a melting point of 38 °C. The system achieves near “zero release” of both hydrophobic paclitaxel (PTX) and hydrophilic doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) and precise “on” or “off” drug delivery in vitro to efficiently induce cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the system displays both infrared thermal imaging and magnetic resonance imaging properties. More importantly, the system demonstrates great potential for thermo-chemo combination cancer therapy in vivo when an alternating magnetic field is applied.

Mesoporous hollow fibres of MnCo2O4 and CoMn2O4 were synthesized by electrospinning and highly exothermic oxygen-mediated combustion reactions during calcination, in which the heating rate affected the final fibre morphology (e.g., single- or double-shell). The anodes consisting of hollow fibres showed excellent electrochemical properties for lithium-ion batteries.

We report a facile approach for the in situ synthesis of very small iron oxide nanoparticles on the surface of high-quality graphene sheets. Our synthetic strategy involved the direct, liquid-phase exfoliation of highly crystalline graphite (avoiding any oxidation treatment) and the subsequent chemical functionalization of the graphene sheets via the well-established 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. The resulting graphene derivatives were employed for the immobilization of the nanoparticle precursor (Fe cations) at the introduced organic groups by a modified wet-impregnation method, followed by interaction with acetic acid vapours. The final graphene-iron oxide hybrid material was achieved by heating (calcination) in an inert atmosphere. Characterization by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron and atomic force microscopy, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy gave evidence for the formation of rather small (<12 nm), spherical, magnetite-rich nanoparticles which were evenly distributed on the surface of few-layer (<1.2 nm thick) graphene. Due to the presence of the iron oxide nanoparticles, the hybrid material showed a superparamagnetic behaviour at room temperature.

Colloidal self-assembly has enormous potential as a bottom-up means of structure fabrication. Here we demonstrate hierarchical self-assembly of rationally designed charge-stabilised colloidal magnetic particles into ground state structures that are topologically equivalent to a snub cube and a snub dodecahedron, the only two chiral Archimedean solids, for size-selected clusters. These spherical structures open up in response to an external magnetic field and demonstrate controllable porosity. Such features are critical to their applications as functional materials.

The hard corona, the protein shell that is strongly attached to the surface of nano-objects in biological fluids, is recognized as the first layer that interacts with biological objects (e.g., cells and tissues). The decoration of the hard corona (i.e., the type, amount, and conformation of the attached proteins) can define the biological fate of the nanomaterial. Recent developments have revealed that corona decoration strongly depends on the type of disease in human patients from which the plasma is obtained as a protein source for corona formation (referred to as the ‘personalized protein corona’). In this study, we demonstrate that graphene oxide (GO) sheets can trigger different biological responses in the presence of coronas obtained from various types of diseases. GO sheets were incubated with plasma from human subjects with different diseases/conditions, including hypofibrinogenemia, blood cancer, thalassemia major, thalassemia minor, rheumatism, fauvism, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, and pregnancy. Identical sheets coated with varying protein corona decorations exhibited significantly different cellular toxicity, apoptosis, and uptake, reactive oxygen species production, lipid peroxidation and nitrogen oxide levels. The results of this report will help researchers design efficient and safe, patient-specific nano biomaterials in a disease type-specific manner for clinical and biological applications.