2 research outputs found

    Janus Liposomes: Gel-Assisted Formation and Bioaffinity-Directed Clustering

    No full text
    This article reports a high-yield procedure for preparing microsized (giant) Janus liposomes via gel-assisted lipid swelling and clustering behavior of these liposomes directed by biotin-avidin affinity binding. Confocal fluorescence microscopy reveals in detail that these new lipid colloidal particles display broken symmetry and heterogeneous surface chemistry similar to other types of Janus particles. An optimized formation procedure is presented, which reproducibly yields large liposome populations dominated by a single-domain configuration. This work further demonstrates that biotin-conjugated 1,2-dioleoyl-<i>sn</i>-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine preferentially partitions into the liquid-disordered phase of the lipid matrix, rendering these Janus liposomes asymmetrical binding capacity toward avidin. This affinity binding drives irreversible and domain-specific cluster formation among Janus liposomes, whose structure and size are found to depend on the domain configuration of individual liposomes and incubation time

    Rational Design of Wide Spectral-Responsive Heterostructures of Au Nanorod Coupled Ag<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> with Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

    No full text
    Noble metallic nanomaterials with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effects and hot electron cell effects open new opportunities for designing efficient visible-light-driven hybrid photocatalysts. In this work, we reported a broadband visible-light responsive photocatalyst by incorporating Au nanorods (AuNRs) into Ag<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> nanostructures. The longitudinal plasma of AuNRs enabled AuNRs/Ag<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> heterostructures to harvest light energy up to 800 nm. The obtained AuNRs/Ag<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> hybrid exhibited enhanced photocatalytic efficiency toward the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under solar irradiation. Ag<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub>, RhB, and AuNRs played different roles according to the distinct optical properties of each individual component. The dominant photocatalytic process in the different light regions were divided as follows: direct excitation of Ag<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> for λ ≥ 420 nm, RhB sensitization for λ ≥ 550 nm, and SPR effect for λ ≥ 600 nm. The relationship between the pathway of charge transfer and the photocatalytic activity of the AuNRs/Ag<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> heterostructures was investigated systematically, revealing the specific role of AuNRs in regulating the photocatalytic activity. This work presents an innovative strategy for determining the comprehensive function of the SPR effect in relevant semiconductor-based photocatalysis and functional nanodevices with a broadband light responses
    corecore