The recent issue of Journal ChemNanoMat features a cover art made by Jan. The illustration corresponds to the recent paper published in this journal, a result of a collaboration of N&N Group and Smart Nano-Bio-Devices group at Bioengineering Institute of Catalonia (IBEC).
This study has been carried out in collaboration with NanoChemLab from Montpellier, France. Congratulations to Qianzhe Zhang and Martí Gich for being authors of this work!
Abstract: An ultrafast route to prepare up-converting single β-phase NaYF4:Yb3+,Ln3+ (Ln: Er, Tm, or Tb) short nanorods (UCNRs) of high quality was developed. This new procedure affords reactive surface nanorods that are easily coated by direct injection of suitable capping ligands. Thus highly crystalline nanorods with excellent UC fluorescence and good solvent-selective dispersion are obtained, which represents a significant advance in the field and enlarges their use for biomedical and other technological applications. Unlike other methodologies, the short reaction time provides a kinetic control over crystallization processes, and the β-phase and rod morphology is preserved regardless of the optically active Ln3+ ion. The UC emission was finely tuned by using the most popular Yb3+/Tm3+ and Yb3+/Er3+ pairs. More importantly, UCNRs doped with the unusual Yb3+/Tb3+ pair, with no ladder-like energy levels, provided a nice emission upon near-infrared excitation, which constitutes the first example of phonon-assisted cooperative sensitization to date in pure β-NaYF4 nanocrystals.
Congratulations to Martí Gich, tenured researcher at the N&N group, and the rest of the authors for the recently published paper: Electric and Mechanical Switching of Ferroelectric and Resistive States in Semiconducting BaTiO3–δ Films on Silicon. Moreover, the paper was on the cover of the journal Small (Volume 13, Issue 39, October 18, 2017).
Abstract:
In article number 1701614, Andrés Gómez, Adrián Carretero-Genevrier, and co-workers report a novel approach to integrate epitaxial nanostructured n-type semiconducting BaTiO3−δ films on silicon by combining molecular beam epitaxy and a water-based chemical method. This growth strategy results into epitaxial BaTiO3−δ/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/SrTiO3/Si columnar nanostructures that enhance the flexoelectric response of the system and enables the control of the ferroelectric polarization and local conductivity (resistive switching) of this functional oxide upon applying a mechanical load.
The paper reports a novel hybrid T1/T2 dual MRI contrast agent by the encapsulation of SPIONs (T2 contrast agent) into an iron-based coordination polymer with T1-weighted signal. This new hybrid material presents improved relaxometry and low cytotoxicity, which make it suitable for its use as contrast agent for MRI.
Anna and Muling showed the bacterial cellulose paper developed in our group during the last episode of QUÈQUICOM, a science popularization program of the Catalan TV (TV3 and Canal 33).
A Nanoscale paper on “Ultrafast continuous synthesis of crystalline ferrite nanoparticles in supercritical ethanol” (Oana Pascu, Samuel Marre,Cyril Aymonier and Anna Roig) has recently been published. It is the result from the collaboration with the group of Cyril Aymonier from the ICMB-CNRS in Bordeaux, where Oana Pascu spent an internship during her Ph.D. and now she holds a post-doctoral contract.
Magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) are of increasing interest in various industrially relevant products. For these, the development of greener and faster approaches facilitating scaling-up production is of paramount importance. Here, we report a novel, green and potentially scalable approach for the continuous and ultrafast (90 s) synthesis of superparamagnetic ferrite NPs (MnFe2O4, Fe3O4) in supercritical ethanol (scEtOH) at a fairly moderate temperature (260 °C). ScEtOH exhibits numerous advantages such as its production from bio-resources, its lack of toxicity and its relatively low supercritical coordinates (pc = 6.39 MPa and Tc = 243 °C), being therefore appropriate for the development of sustainable technologies. The present study is completed by the investigation of both in situ and ex situ NP surface functionalization. The as-obtainednanoparticles present good crystallinity, sizes below 8 nm, superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature and high saturation magnetization. Moreover, depending on the capping strategy, the ferrite NPs present extended (for in situ coated NPs) or short-term (for ex situ coated NPs) colloidal stability.