Fabrication and magnetic properties of granular Co/porous InP nanocomposite materials

A novel Co/InP magnetic semiconductor nanocomposite was fabricated by electrodeposition magnetic Co nanoparticles into n-type porous InP templates in ethanol solution of cobalt chloride. The content or particle size of Co particles embedded in porous InP increased with increasing deposition time. Co particles had uniform distribution over pore sidewall surface of InP template, which was different from that of ceramic template and may open up new branch of fabrication of nanocomposites. The magnetism of such Co/InP nanocomposites can be gradually tuned from diamagnetism to ferromagnetism by increasing the deposition time of Co. Magnetic anisotropy of this Co/InP nanocomposite with magnetization easy axis along the axis of InP square channel was well realized by the competition between shape anisotropy and magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Such Co/InP nanocomposites with adjustable magnetism may have potential applications in future in the field of spin electronics

Facile synthesis of superhydrophobic surface of ZnO nanoflakes: chemical coating and UV-induced wettability conversion

This work reports an oriented growth process of two-dimensional (2D) ZnO nanoflakes on aluminum substrate through a low temperature hydrothermal technique and proposes the preliminary growth mechanism. A bionic superhydrophobic surface with excellent corrosion protection over a wide pH range in both acidic and alkaline solutions was constructed by a chemical coating treatment with stearic acid (SA) molecules on ZnO nanoflakes. It is found that the superhydrophobic surface of ZnO nanoflake arrays shows a maximum water contact angle (CA) of 157° and a low sliding angle of 8°, and it can be reversibly switched to its initial superhydrophilic state under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, which is due to the UV-induced decomposition of the coated SA molecules. This study is significant for simple and inexpensive building of large-scale 2D ZnO nanoflake arrays with special wettability which can extend the applications of ZnO films to many other important fields

Fabrication and ultraviolet photoresponse characteristics of ordered SnOx (x ≈ 0.87, 1.45, 2) nanopore films

Based on the porous anodic aluminum oxide templates, ordered SnOx nanopore films (approximately 150 nm thickness) with different x (x ≈ 0.87, 1.45, 2) have been successfully fabricated by direct current magnetron sputtering and oxidizing annealing. Due to the high specific surface area, this ordered nanopore films exhibit a great improvement in recovery time compared to thin films for ultraviolet (UV) detection. Especially, the ordered SnOx nanopore films with lower x reveal higher UV light sensitivity and shorter current recovery time, which was explained by the higher concentration of the oxygen vacancies in this SnOx films. This work presents a potential candidate material for UV light detector

Morphology-dependent field emission properties and wetting behavior of ZnO nanowire arrays

The fabrication of three kinds of ZnO nanowire arrays with different structural parameters over Au-coated silicon (100) by facile thermal evaporation of ZnS precursor is reported, and the growth mechanism are proposed based on structural analysis. Field emission (FE) properties and wetting behavior were revealed to be strongly morphology dependent. The nanowire arrays in small diameter and high aspect ratio exhibited the best FE performance showing a low turn-on field (4.1 V/μm) and a high field-enhancement factor (1745.8). The result also confirmed that keeping large air within the films was an effective way to obtain super water-repellent properties. This study indicates that the preparation of ZnO nanowire arrays in an optimum structural model is crucial to FE efficiency and wetting behavior

Design of Bistable Soft Deployable Structures via a Kirigami-inspired Planar Fabrication Approach

Fully soft bistable mechanisms have shown extensive applications ranging from soft robotics, wearable devices, and medical tools, to energy harvesting. However, the lack of design and fabrication methods that are easy and potentially scalable limits their further adoption into mainstream applications. Here a top-down planar approach is presented by introducing Kirigami-inspired engineering combined with a pre-stretching process. Using this method, Kirigami-Pre-stretched Substrate-Kirigami trilayered precursors are created in a planar manner; upon release, the strain mismatch -- due to the pre-stretching of substrate -- between layers would induce an out-of-plane buckling to achieve targeted three dimensional (3D) bistable structures. By combining experimental characterization, analytical modeling, and finite element simulation, the effect of the pattern size of Kirigami layers and pre-stretching on the geometry and stability of resulting 3D composites is explored. In addition, methods to realize soft bistable structures with arbitrary shapes and soft composites with multistable configurations are investigated, which could encourage further applications. Our method is demonstrated by using bistable soft Kirigami composites to construct two soft machines: (i) a bistable soft gripper that can gently grasp delicate objects with different shapes and sizes and (ii) a flytrap-inspired robot that can autonomously detect and capture objects

Dendritic Polyglycerol-Conjugated Gold Nanostars for Metabolism Inhibition and Targeted Photothermal Therapy in Breast Cancer Stem Cells

Breast cancer stem cells (CSCs) are believed to be responsible for tumor initiation, invasion, metastasis, and recurrence, which lead to treatment failure. Thus, developing effective CSC-targeted therapeutic strategies is crucial for enhancing therapeutic efficacy. In this work, GNSs-dPG-3BP, TPP, and HA nanocomposite particles are developed by simultaneously conjugating hexokinase 2 (HK2) inhibitor 3-bromopyruvate (3BP), mitochondrial targeting molecule triphenyl phosphonium (TPP), and CSCs targeting agent hyaluronic acid (HA) onto gold nanostars-dendritic polyglycerol (GNSs-dPG) nanoplatforms for efficient eradication of CSCs. The nanocomposite particles possess good biocompatibility and exhibit superior mitochondrial-bound HK2 binding ability via 3BP to inhibit metabolism, and further induce cellular apoptosis by releasing the cytochrome c. Therefore, it enhanced the therapeutic efficacy of CSCs-specific targeted photothermal therapy (PTT), and achieved a synergistic effect for the eradication of breast CSCs. After administration of the synergistic treatment, the self-renewal of breast CSCs and the stemness gene expression are suppressed, CSC-driven mammosphere formation is diminished, the in vivo tumor growth is effectively inhibited, and CSCs are eradicated. Altogether, GNSs-dPG-3BP, TPP, and HA nanocomposite particles have been developed, which will provide a novel strategy for precise and highly efficient targeted eradication of CSCs