Photochemistry in a soft-glass single-ring hollow-core photonic crystal fibre

A hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HC-PCF), guided by photonic bandgap effects or anti-resonant reflection, offers strong light confinement and long photochemical interaction lengths in a microscale channel filled with a solvent of refractive index lower than that of glass (usually fused silica). These unique advantages have motivated its recent use as a highly efficient and versatile microreactor for liquid-phase photochemistry and catalysis. In this work, we use a single-ring HC-PCF made from a high-index soft glass, thus enabling photochemical experiments in higher index solvents. The optimized light–matter interaction in the fibre is used to strongly enhance the reaction rate in a proof-of-principle photolysis reaction in toluene

Stable Immobilization of Size-Controlled Bimetallic Nanoparticles in Photonic Crystal Fiber Microreactor

© 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. The possibility of immobilizing ex situ-synthesized colloidal bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) of well-defined characteristics inside hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) microreactors is demonstrated. With the developed method, PtNi clusters remain strongly attached to the fiber core and can be used as active catalysts for the hydrogenation of an azobenzene dye. The study revealed that optical transmission exhibits a size-dependent behavior, i.e., smaller NPs bring in less optical signal loss. Sufficient light transmission was achieved for all particle sizes. Furthermore, with these catalytic PCF microreactors, kinetic data can be obtained with a much lower amount of precious metals compared to a conventional batch reactor, opening a new pathway for in situ catalyst screening

Nanomaterials in drug delivery system

In this article, nanomaterials that are currently being investigated for their potentials in biomedical field and have established to be drug carriers are elaborated. Liposome for example, has already been utilised in biomedical applications for a long time ago but extensive studies are still conducted in order to optimize its properties for better results. Each nanomaterials discussed in this article exhibits unique physiochemical and biological characteristics which give them flexibility to be used in many applications. Some exist as natural nanomaterials such as liposome, while some can be synthesized from certain compounds. Some nanomaterials can be functionalized to enhance their efficiency as drug carriers. However, not all synthetic nanomaterials are safe to be consumed by human. Therefore, further investigations and evaluations of each nanomaterial in term of long term effect in vivo must be carried out