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Fundamental to all living organisms and living soft matter are emergent processes in which the reorganization of individual constituents at the nanoscale drives group-level movements and shape changes at the macroscale over time. However, light-induced degradation of fluorophores, photobleaching, is a significant problem in extended bioimaging in life science. Here, we report opening a long-time investigation window by nonbleachingphaseintensitynanoscope: PINE. We accomplish phase-intensity separation such that nanoprobe distributions are distinguished by an integrated phase-intensity multilayer thin film (polyvinyl alcohol/liquid crystal). We overcame a physical limit to resolve sub-10 nm cellular architectures, and achieve the first dynamic imaging of nanoscopic reorganization over 250 h using PINE. We discover nanoscopic rearrangements synchronized with the emergence of group-level movements and shape changes at the macroscale according to a set of interaction rules with importance in cellular and soft matter reorganization, self-organization, and pattern formation.

 

Along with the increasing interest in MoS 2 as a promising electronic material, there is also an increasing demand for nanofabrication technologies that are compatible with this material and other relevant layered materials. In addition, the development of scalable nanofabrication approaches capable of directly producing MoS 2 device arrays is an imperative task to speed up the design and commercialize various functional MoS 2 -based devices. The desired fabrication methods need to meet two critical requirements. First, they should minimize the involvement of resist-based lithography and plasma etching processes, which introduce unremovable contaminations to MoS 2 structures. Second, they should be able to produce MoS 2 structures with in-plane or out-of-plane edges in a controlled way, which is key to increase the usability of MoS 2 for various device applications. Here, we introduce an inkjet-defined site-selective (IDSS) method that meets these requirements. IDSS includes two main steps: (i) inkjet printing of microscale liquid droplets that define the designated sites for MoS 2 growth, and (ii) site-selective growth of MoS 2 at droplet-defined sites. Moreover, IDSS is capable of generating MoS 2 with different structures. Specifically, an IDSS process using deionized (DI) water droplets mainly produces in-plane MoS 2 features, whereas the processes using graphene ink droplets mainly produce out-of-plane MoS 2 features rich in exposed edges. Using out-of-plane MoS 2 structures, we have demonstrated the fabrication of miniaturized on-chip lithium ion batteries, which exhibit reversible lithiation/delithiation capacity. This IDSS method could be further expanded as a scalable and reliable nanomanufacturing method for generating miniaturized on-chip energy storage devices. 

We report on system integration of plasmonic nanoparticles and a few-layered molybdenum disulfide (M0S2) photoconductive nanochannel sheet on a silicon substrate. Plasma-assisted electrostatic bonding and van der Waals bonding are employed to create a high-sensitivity photoelectronic biosensor for immunological analysis. 

The crowded intracellular environment of biomolecules, including organelles, solutes, proteins, and membranes, presents distinct biomolecular dynamics crucial for the functions of biomolecules within living cells. However, background suppression is critical to uncover nanoscale dynamics in living cells. Herein, a new method for enabling rapid, nanoscale background elimination of cellular metallic nanoprobes is presented. By employing integrated nanoscopic correction (iNC) designed to eliminate depolarization effects, which compromise background elimination, a real‐time algorithm to subtract and increment orthogonal pairs of polarizations for real‐time nanoscale background elimination is introduced. The ability to analyze orthogonal pairs at high speed over the entire polarization range is currently difficult to achieve using conventional methods. By processing orthogonal pairs in real time, this method minimizes movement artifacts during the background elimination process. Nanometer spatial stability which enables two orders of magnitude increase in signal‐to‐noise ratio of cellular metallic nanoprobes is shown. Nanoscale background elimination aiding the ability to accurately track biomolecules and their dynamics in living cells is anticipated.

 

Optical manipulation and imaging of nano‐objects with nanometer precision is highly desirable for nanomaterial and biological studies due to inherent noninvasiveness. However, time constraints and current segregated experimental systems for nanoimaging and nanomanipulation limits real‐time super‐resolution imaging with spatially enhanced manipulation. Here, an integrated nanoscopic correction (iNC) method to enable multimodal nanomanipulation‐nanoimaging is reported. The iNC consists of a multimodal voltage‐tunable power modulator, polarization rotator, and polarizer. Using the iNC, plasmonic nano‐objects which are below the diffraction limit and which can be distinguished by direct observation without post processing are demonstrated. Furthermore, such direct observations with enhanced nanometer spatial stability and millisecond high speed are shown. Precise trapping and rapid rotation of gold nanorods with the iNC are demonstrated successfully. With non‐invasive post‐processing free nanoimaging and nanomanipulation, it is anticipated that the iNC will make contributions in the nanomaterial and biological sciences requiring precision optics.

 

The ability to detect low‐abundance proteins in human body fluids plays a critical role in proteomic research to achieve a comprehensive understanding of protein functions and early‐stage disease diagnosis to reduce mortality rates. Ultrasensitive (sub‐fM), rapid, simple “mix‐and‐read” plasmonic colorimetric biosensing of large‐size (≈180 kDa) proteins in biofluids using an ultralow‐noise multilayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) photoconducting channel is reported here. With its out‐of‐plane structure optimized to minimize carrier scattering, the multilayer MoS₂channel operated under near‐infrared illumination enables the detection of a subtle plasmonic extinction shift caused by antigen‐induced nanoprobe aggregation. The demonstrated biosensing strategy allows quantifying carcinoembryonic antigen in unprocessed whole blood with a dynamic range of 10⁶, a sample‐to‐answer time of 10 min, and a limit of detection of 0.1–3 pg mL⁻¹, which is ≈100‐fold more sensitive than the clinical‐standard enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays. The biosensing methodology can be broadly used to realize timely personalized diagnostics and physiological monitoring of diseases in point‐of‐care settings.

 

The development of sustainable methods for energy‐intensive water treatment processes continues to be a challenging issue. Plasmonic‐semiconductor nanoparticles, which absorb large amounts of sunlight in the visible range for conversion into chemical energy efficiently, can form the basis of a sustainable water treatment method. However, the potential uses of plasmonic semiconductor particles for water treatment have not been fully explored yet because of the limitations associated with the imbalance between light capture, charge transfer, and the required recycling steps for the particles themselves. Herein, a significantly improved visible‐light‐induced water treatment method that uses a plasmo‐semiconductor nanogap bridge array (PNA) is reported. As an arrangement of antenna‐reactors, the PNA enables the balancing of the largely enhanced electromagnetic field in the plasmonic nanogap coupling region and optimal separation of charge carriers in the semiconductor. The simultaneous effects of visible‐light absorption and charge transfer lead to the generation of a highly enhanced visible‐light‐induced OH radical (•OH). Consequently, visible‐light‐induced 5‐logN/N₀water disinfection and 100% chemical decomposition for sustainable water treatment were demonstrated. Owing to the large light absorption, charge carrier utilization, and array‐oriented scalability, the PNA will be valuable in various sustainable energy and environmental applications.