Gold nanostars as a photoagent under the antimicrobial action of infrared (808 nm) laser radiation

Gold nanostars with an average core diameter of 122,2 nm and a spike length of 114,6 nm were synthesized and characterized at a concentration of 5,36×1010 pcs/ml with an absorption maximum of 840 nm. Gold nanostars were coated with thiolated polyethylene glycol, its amount was about 8×104 molecules per 1 particle and about 4,4×1015 molecules/ml in the colloid. The zeta potential of gold nanostars coated with PEG-SH was −2.3 mV. The combined eff ect of gold nanostars and low-intensity infrared (808 nm) laser radiation on the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus 209 P and Escherichia coli 113-13 has been studied. Incubation of suspensions of microorganisms in the presence of nanoparticles without access to light did not lead to a signifi cant reduction in the number of bacteria. Irradiation for 30 min of bacterial suspensions containing nanoparticles caused the death of 39% of the S. aureus population and 80% of the E. coli population. During the thermometry of the studied suspensions, it was found that the temperature increase is dose-dependent. The increase in temperature of the control samples that did not contain photothermal agents did not exceed 1 °C in both cases throughout the entire time of the experiment. For suspensions of bacteria (equally S. aureus and E. coli) incubated with gold nanostars during irradiation, an increase in temperature indicators, on average, by 4 °C was revealed. The more pronounced antibacterial activity of the combination of gold nanostars and infrared (808 nm) laser radiation against E. coli can also be explained by the greater sensitivity of gram-negative microorganisms to photothermal exposure

One-Shot Laser-Pulse Modification of Bare and Silica-Coated Gold Nanoparticles of Various Morphologies

Gold nanoparticles are widely used in laser biomedical applications due to their favorable properties, mainly localized plasmon resonance. However, laser radiation can cause a change in the shape and size of plasmonic nanoparticles, thus resulting in an unwanted reduction of their photothermal and photodynamic efficiency due to a drastic alteration of optical properties. Most previously reported experiments were carried out with bulk colloids where different particles were irradiated by different numbers of laser pulses, thus making it difficult to accurately evaluate the laser power photomodification (PM) threshold. Here, we examine the one-shot nanosecond laser-pulse PM of bare and silica-coated gold nanoparticles moving in a capillary flow. Four types of gold nanoparticles, including nanostars, nanoantennas, nanorods, and SiO2@Au nanoshells, were fabricated for PM experiments. To evaluate the changes in the particle morphology under laser irradiation, we combine measurements of extinction spectra with electron microscopy. A quantitative spectral approach is developed to characterize the laser power PM threshold in terms of normalized extinction parameters. The experimentally determined PM threshold increases in series were as follows: nanorods, nanoantennas, nanoshells, and nanostars. An important observation is that even a thin silica shell significantly increases the photostability of gold nanorods. The developed methods and reported findings can be useful for the optimal design of plasmonic particles and laser irradiation parameters in various biomedical applications of functionalized hybrid nanostructures

Nanosecond laser-induced photomodification of gold nanostars of various sizes

Gold nanostars are one of the new types of nanoparticles with advantages such as plasmon resonance tunability and low toxicity. Therefore, gold nanostars are promising candidates for various biomedical applications including bioimaging, cell optoporation and plasmonic photothermal therapy (PTT) in NIR I, II, and III optical transparency windows of biotissues. However, the stability and possible transformation of gold nanostars under laser irradiation still remains unexplored. In this work, we studied the photomodification of gold nanostars under the 1064-nm nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation by the transmission electron microscopy and spectrophotometry. The photostability of nanostars depends on their morphology and the plasmonic properties. Specifically, for large nanostars with a plasmon resonance at 950 nm remarkable changes occur at a threshold pulse energy of 5 μJ. At this threshold, a significant part of nanostars spikes melts and most of the nanostars start to transform into gold spheres. For higher pulse energies of about 50 μJ, all stars transform into spheres. For smaller gold stars with a plasmon resonance at 680 nm, the changes are less pronounced. Up to pulse energy of 50 μJ, they retain the shape of stars and have spikes on their surface. Moreover, the complete transformation of these stars into spheres does not occur up to pulse energy of about 150 μJ. The obtained results can be important for optimization of PTT treatment with gold nanostars and nanosecond laser irradiation

Platinum Based Nanoparticles Produced by a Pulsed Spark Discharge as a Promising Material for Gas Sensors

We have applied spark ablation technology for producing nanoparticles from platinum ingots (purity of 99.97 wt. %) as a feed material by using air as a carrier gas. A maximum production rate of about 400 mg/h was achieved with an energy per pulse of 0.5 J and a pulse repetition rate of 250 Hz. The synthesized nanomaterial, composed of an amorphous platinum oxide PtO (83 wt. %) and a crystalline metallic platinum (17 wt. %), was used for formulating functional colloidal ink. Annealing of the deposited ink at 750 °C resulted in the formation of a polycrystalline material comprising 99.7 wt. % of platinum. To demonstrate the possibility of application of the formulated ink in printed electronics, we have patterned conductive lines and microheaters on alumina substrates and 20 μm thick low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) membranes with the use of aerosol jet printing technology. The power consumption of microheaters fabricated on LTCC membranes was found to be about 140 mW at a temperature of the hot part of 500 °C, thus allowing one to consider these structures as promising micro-hotplates for metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors. The catalytic activity of the synthesized nanoparticles was demonstrated by measuring the resistance transients of the non-sintered microheaters upon exposure to 2500 ppm of hydrogen

Reducing Humidity Response of Gas Sensors for Medical Applications: Use of Spark Discharge Synthesis of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles

The application of gas sensors in breath analysis is an important trend in the early diagnostics of different diseases including lung cancer, ulcers, and enteric infection. However, traditional methods of synthesis of metal oxide gas-sensing materials for semiconductor sensors based on wet sol-gel processes give relatively high sensitivity of the gas sensor to changing humidity. The sol-gel process leading to the formation of superficial hydroxyl groups on oxide particles is responsible for the strong response of the sensing material to this factor. In our work, we investigated the possibility to synthesize metal oxide materials with reduced sensitivity to water vapors. Dry synthesis of SnO2 nanoparticles was implemented in gas phase by spark discharge, enabling the reduction of the hydroxyl concentration on the surface and allowing the production of tin dioxide powder with specific surface area of about 40 m2/g after annealing at 610 °C. The drop in sensor resistance does not exceed 20% when air humidity increases from 40 to 100%, whereas the response to 100 ppm of hydrogen is a factor of 8 with very short response time of about 1 s. The sensor response was tested in mixtures of air with hydrogen, which is the marker of enteric infections and the marker of early stage fire, and in a mixture of air with lactate (marker of stomach cancer) and ammonia gas (marker of Helicobacter pylori, responsible for stomach ulcers)

Tevatron Run II combination of the effective leptonic electroweak mixing angle

International audienceDrell-Yan lepton pairs produced in the process pp¯→ℓ+ℓ-+X through an intermediate γ*/Z boson have an asymmetry in their angular distribution related to the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the electroweak force and the associated mixing of its neutral gauge bosons. The CDF and D0 experiments have measured the effective-leptonic electroweak mixing parameter sin2θefflept using electron and muon pairs selected from the full Tevatron proton-antiproton data sets collected in 2001-2011, corresponding to 9–10  fb-1 of integrated luminosity. The combination of these measurements yields the most precise result from hadron colliders, sin2θefflept=0.23148±0.00033. This result is consistent with, and approaches in precision, the best measurements from electron-positron colliders. The standard model inference of the on-shell electroweak mixing parameter sin2θW, or equivalently the W-boson mass MW, using the zfitter software package yields sin2θW=0.22324±0.00033 or equivalently, MW=80.367±0.017  GeV/c2