Search Results
Magnetic Nanoparticle Chains in Gelatin Ferrogels: Bioinspiration from Magnetotactic Bacteria
2019, Sturm, Sebastian, Siglreitmeier, Maria, Wolf, Daniel, Vogel, Karin, Gratz, Micha, Faivre, Damien, Lubk, Axel, Büchner, Bernd, Sturm, Elena V., Cölfen, Helmut
Inspired by chains of ferrimagnetic nanocrystals (NCs) in magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), the synthesis and detailed characterization of ferrimagnetic magnetite NC chain-like assemblies is reported. An easy green synthesis route in a thermoreversible gelatin hydrogel matrix is used. The structure of these magnetite chains prepared with and without gelatin is characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy, including electron tomography (ET). These structures indeed bear resemblance to the magnetite assemblies found in MTB, known for their mechanical flexibility and outstanding magnetic properties and known to crystallographically align their magnetite NCs along the strongest <111> magnetization easy axis. Using electron holography (EH) and angular dependent magnetic measurements, the magnetic interaction between the NCs and the generation of a magnetically anisotropic material can be shown. The electro- and magnetostatic modeling demonstrates that in order to precisely determine the magnetization (by means of EH) inside chain-like NCs assemblies, their exact shape, arrangement and stray-fields have to be considered (ideally obtained using ET). © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Erratum: Exploring the 3D structure and defects of a self-assembled gold mesocrystal by coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (Nanoscale (2021) DOI: 10.1039/D1NR01806J)
2021, Carnis, Jerome, Kirner, Felizitas, Lapkin, Dmitry, Sturm, Sebastian, Kim, Young Yong, Baburin, Igor A., Khubbutdinov, Ruslan, Ignatenko, Alexandr, Iashina, Ekaterina, Mistonov, Alexander, Steegemans, Tristan, Wieck, Thomas, Gemming, Thomas, Lubk, Axel, Lazarev, Sergey, Sprung, Michael, Vartanyants, Ivan A., Sturm, Elena V.
Correction for ‘Exploring the 3D structure and defects of a self-assembled gold mesocrystal by coherent X-ray diffraction imaging’ by Jerome Carnis et al., Nanoscale, 2021, DOI: 10.1039/D1NR01806J.
Tailoring Plasmonics of Au@Ag Nanoparticles by Silica Encapsulation
2021, Schultz, Johannes, Kirner, Felizitas, Potapov, Pavel, Büchner, Bernd, Lubk, Axel, Sturm, Elena V.
Hybrid metallic nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated in oxide shells are currently intensely studied for plasmonic applications in sensing, medicine, catalysis, and photovoltaics. Here, a method for the synthesis of Au@Ag@SiO2 cubes with a uniform silica shell of variable and adjustable thickness in the nanometer range is introduced and their excellent, highly reproducible, and tunable optical response is demonstrated. Varying the silica shell thickness, the excitation energies of the single NP plasmon modes can be tuned in a broad spectral range between 2.55 and 3.25 eV. Most importantly, a strong coherent coupling of the surface plasmons is revealed at the silver–silica interface with Mie resonances at the silica–vacuum interface leading to a significant field enhancement at the encapsulated NP surface in the range of 100% at shell thicknesses t ≃ 20 nm. Consequently, the synthesis method and the field enhancement open pathways to a widespread use of silver NPs in plasmonic applications including photonic crystals and may be transferred to other non-precious metals. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Optical Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
Nonclassical Recrystallization
2020, Brunner, Julian, Maier, Britta, Rosenberg, Rose, Sturm, Sebastian, Cölfen, Helmut, Sturm, Elena V.
Applications in the fields of materials science and nanotechnology increasingly demand monodisperse nanoparticles in size and shape. Up to now, no general purification procedure exists to thoroughly narrow the size and shape distributions of nanoparticles. Here, we show by analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) as an absolute and quantitative high-resolution method that multiple recrystallizations of nanocrystals to mesocrystals is a very efficient tool to generate nanocrystals with an excellent and so-far unsurpassed size-distribution (PDIc=1.0001) and shape. Similar to the crystallization of molecular building blocks, nonclassical recrystallization removes “colloidal” impurities (i.e., nanoparticles, which are different in shape and size from the majority) by assembling them into a mesocrystal. In the case of nanocrystals, this assembly can be size- and shape-selective, since mesocrystals show both long-range packing ordering and preferable crystallographic orientation of nanocrystals. Besides the generation of highly monodisperse nanoparticles, these findings provide highly relevant insights into the crystallization of mesocrystals. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH