Fibroblasts Cultured on Nanowires Exhibit Low Motility,Impaired Cell Division,and DNA Damage

Nanowires are commonly used as tools for interfacing living cells, acting as biomolecule‐delivery vectors or electrodes. It is generally assumed that the small size of the nanowires ensures a minimal cellular perturbation, yet the effects of nanowires on cell migration and proliferation remain largely unknown. Fibroblast behaviour on vertical nanowire arrays is investigated, and it is shown that cell motility and proliferation rate are reduced on nanowires. Fibroblasts cultured on long nanowires exhibit failed cell division, DNA damage, increased ROS content and respiration. Using focused ion beam milling and scanning electron microscopy, highly curved but intact nuclear membranes are observed, showing no direct contact between the nanowires and the DNA. The nanowires possibly induce cellular stress and high respiration rates, which trigger the formation of ROS, which in turn results in DNA damage. These results are important guidelines to the design and interpretation of experiments involving nanowire‐based transfection and electrical characterization of living cells.     

Si Nanowires Forest-Based On-Chip Biomolecular Filtering, Separation and Preconcentration Devices: Nanowires Do it All

The development of efficient biomolecular separation and purification techniques is of critical importance in modern genomics, proteomics, and biosensing areas, primarily due to the fact that most biosamples are mixtures of high diversity and complexity. Most of existent techniques lack the capability to rapidly and selectively separate and concentrate specific target proteins from a complex biosample, and are difficult to integrate with lab-on-a-chip sensing devices. Here, we demonstrate the development of an on-chip all-SiNW filtering, selective separation, desalting, and preconcentration platform for the direct analysis of whole blood and other complex biosamples. The separation of required protein analytes from raw biosamples is first performed using a antibody-modified roughness-controlled SiNWs (silicon nanowires) forest of ultralarge binding surface area, followed by the release of target proteins in a controlled liquid media, and their subsequent detection by supersensitive SiNW-based FETs arrays fabricated on the same chip platform. Importantly, this is the first demonstration of an all-NWs device for the whole direct analysis of blood samples on a single chip, able to selectively collect and separate specific low abundant proteins, while easily removing unwanted blood components (proteins, cells) and achieving desalting effects, without the requirement of time-consuming centrifugation steps, the use of desalting or affinity columns. Futhermore, we have demonstrated the use of our nanowire forest-based separation device, integrated in a single platform with downstream SiNW-based sensors arrays, for the real-time ultrasensitive detection of protein biomarkers directly from blood samples. The whole ultrasensitive protein label-free analysis process can be practically performed in less than 10 min.     

Planar Growth,Integration, and Applications of Semiconducting Nanowires

Silicon and other inorganic semiconductor nanowires (NWs) have been extensively investigated in the last two decades for constructing high-performance nanoelectronics, sensors, and optoelectronics. For many of these applications, these tiny building blocks have to be integrated into the existing planar electronic platform, where precise location, orientation, and layout controls are indispensable. In the advent of More-than-Moore's era, there are also emerging demands for a programmable growth engineering of the geometry, composition, and line-shape of NWs on planar or out-of-plane 3D sidewall surfaces. Here, the critical technologies established for synthesis, transferring, and assembly of NWs upon planar surface are examined; then, the recent progress of in-plane growth of horizontal NWs directly upon crystalline or patterned substrates, constrained by using nanochannels, an epitaxial interface, or amorphous thin film precursors is discussed. Finally, the unique capabilities of planar growth of NWs in achieving precise guided growth control, programmable geometry, composition, and line-shape engineering are reviewed, followed by their latest device applications in building high-performance field-effect transistors, photodetectors, stretchable electronics, and 3D stacked-channel integration.     

Ferromagnetic GaN--Cr Nanowires

Using first-principles theory, we predict ferromagnetism in Cr-doped GaN nanowires irrespective of the sites that the Cr atoms occupy. This is in contrast to Mn-doped GaN nanowires in which the magnetic coupling between the Mn atoms is sensitive to the Mn--Mn and Mn--N distances, although the ground state of Mn-doped GaN nanowires is ferromagnetic. Each Cr atom carries a magnetic moment of about 2.5 micro(B). The magnetic moment at the N site, however, is small and is aligned antiferromagnetically to the moments at the Cr atom. The magnetization axis is perpendicular to the axis of the wire, but the anisotropy energy is rather small. The easy solubility of Cr in GaN and the lack of sensitivity of ferromagnetic coupling to Cr distribution suggest that Cr-doped GaN nanowires may be a more suitable system for applications in spintronics than Mn-doped GaN nanowires.     

Insertion of Vertically Aligned Nanowires into Living Cells by Inkjet Printing of Cells

Effective insertion of vertically aligned nanowires (NWs) into cells is critical for bioelectrical and biochemical devices, biological delivery systems, and photosynthetic bioenergy harvesting. However, accurate insertion of NWs into living cells using scalable processes has not yet been achieved. Here, NWs are inserted into living Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells (Chlamy cells) via inkjet printing of the Chlamy cells, representing a low‐cost and large‐scale method for inserting NWs into living cells. Jetting conditions and printable bioink composed of living Chlamy cells are optimized to achieve stable jetting and precise ink deposition of bioink for indentation of NWs into Chlamy cells. Fluorescence confocal microscopy is used to verify the viability of Chlamy cells after inkjet printing. Simple mechanical considerations of the cell membrane and droplet kinetics are developed to control the jetting force to allow penetration of the NWs into cells. The results suggest that inkjet printing is an effective, controllable tool for stable insertion of NWs into cells with economic and scale‐related advantages.     

钛酸钠纳米线制备TiO_2纳米线的反应条件

结合离子交换-高温烧结法,由钛酸钠纳米线制备了TiO_2纳米线。通过XRD、Uv-vis漫反射和SEM等测试手段,探讨离子交换时间和高温烧结温度对制备TiO_2纳米线的影响,并以甲基橙为目标污染物测试其光催化性能。结果表明:离子交换时间越长越有利于钛酸纳米线的形成,离子交换48h时钛酸钠纳米线基本转换成为钛酸纳米线;过低的烧结温度不利于TiO_2纳米线的形成,烧结温度650℃时钛酸纳米线基本分解成为TiO_2纳米线;钛酸钠纳米线几乎没有光催化性能,而TiO_2纳米线具有很强的光催化性能。     

纳米线透明导电薄膜的制备及在光电器件中的应用

基于纳米线的透明导电薄膜具有光电性能优异、制备成本低廉以及可用于制备柔性器件等优点,在透明导电薄膜材料领域占据重要地位。文章着眼于阐述纳米线透明导电薄膜的制备及其在光电器件中的应用。首先详细介绍了滴涂、浸渍、抽滤、迈耶棒涂布、旋涂、喷印、印刷等7种制备纳米线透明导电薄膜的方法。光电器件是应用透明导电薄膜的重要领域,文章还介绍了纳米线透明导电薄膜在太阳能电池和电致发光器件中的应用。纳米线透明导电薄膜中,银纳米线和铜纳米线透明导电薄膜最受关注,其制备工艺日趋完善,有望率先在工业应用中取得突破。     

纳米线研究进展(2):纳米线的表征与性能(续上期)

本文从纳米线的制备与生长机制、表征、性能和应用几方面综述了纳米线的最新研究进展。着重阐述了激光烧蚀法和模板法制备纳米线的过程及各自的生长机制。对纳米线的电、光、磁性能 ,及其潜在的应用前景作了介绍     

Noise in Silicon Nanowires

The current–voltage and noise characteristics of bridging silicon wires have been measured at room temperature. From the linear current–voltage characteristics the bulk and contact resistance contributions are extracted and modeled. The excess noise observed at low frequencies is interpreted in terms of bulk and contact noise contributions, with the former comparable, in terms of Hooge parameter values, to the low noise levels observed in high-quality silicon devices. The contact noise is significant in some devices and is attributed to the impinging end of the bridging nanowires.     

Sn掺杂ZnO半导体纳米线的制备、表征及光学性能

采用化学气相沉积法获得了Sn掺杂含量约为2.4%(原子分数)的Sn掺杂ZnO半导体纳米线。X射线衍射结果表明,Sn的掺杂并没有改变ZnO的纤锌矿结构。掺杂纳米线的室温光致发光光谱在409.2nm和498.0nm处出现了蓝绿光发光峰。探讨了其发光机制,认为前者可能来源于从导带到Zn空位形成的浅受主能级的跃迁以及从氧空位形成的浅施主能级到价带的跃迁;而后者来源于从氧空位形成的浅施主能级到锌空位浅受主能级的跃迁。