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This paper reports that extremely strongly coupled excitonic states were formed in H-aggregated monocrystalline nanosheets and semicrystalline nanowires of coplanar organic molecules of 2,5-bis(4-methoxybenzylidene) cyclopentanone, due to the highly regular face-to-face stacking of molecular excitons. It was demonstrated that the spectral absorption and fluorescence emission behaviors are dependent on the routes of molecular aggregation and the ordered degree of molecular arrangement in aggregated nanoparticles. In particular, the H-type aggregation of molecules through a highly ordered molecular arrangement in the monocrystalline nanosheets led to the formation of a new exciton coupling state with an energy band higher than that in normal semi-/noncrystalline H-aggregation. A strong symmetric absorption at higher energy bands was thus observed in the solution of nanosheets. Furthermore, the strongly coupled excitonic state may hold all the oscillator strength, leading to the extinction of the original intramolecular electronic transitions of individual molecules and the appearance of new strong absorption and fluorescence emissions at high-energy bands. These results show a perspective that the ability to control the molecular structure and its arrangement in aggregates holds promise for creating novel optical properties in molecular materials.

In this paper, we report a simple polypeptide-directed strategy for fabricating large spherical assembly of CaCO(3) nanoparticles. Stepwise growth and assembly of a large number of nanoparticles have been observed, from the formation of an amorphous liquidlike CaCO(3)-polypeptide precursor, to the crystallization and stabilization of polypeptide-capped nanoparticles, and eventually, the spherical assembly of nanoparticles. The "soft" poly(aspartate)-capping layer binding on a nanoparticle surface resulted in the unusual soft nature of nanoparticle assembly, providing a reservoir of primary nanoparticles with a moderate mobility, which is the basis of a new strategy for reconstructing nanoparticle assembly into complex nanoparticle architectures. Moreover, the findings of the secondary assembly of nanoparticle microspheres and the morphology transformation of nanoparticle assembly demonstrate a flexible and controllable pathway for manipulating the shapes and structures of nanoparticle assembly. In addition, the combination of the polypeptide with a double hydrophilic block copolymer (DHBC) allows it to possibly further control the shape and complexity of the nanoparticle assembly. A clear perspective is shown here that more complex nanoparticle materials could be created by using "soft" biological proteins or peptides as a mediating template at the organic-inorganic interface.

Abstract: Trace penicilloic acid allergen frequently leads to various fatal immune responses to many patients, but it is still a challenge to directly discriminate and detect its residue in penicillin by a chemosensing way. Here, we report that silver-coated gold nanoparticles (Au@Ag NPs) exhibit a structure-selective hot-spot Raman enhancement capability for direct identification and detection of trace penicilloic acid in penicillin. It has been demonstrated that penicilloic acid can very easily link Au@Ag NPs together by its two carboxyl groups, locating itself spontaneously at the interparticle of Au@Ag NPs to form strong Raman hot-spot. At the critical concentration inducing the nanoparticle aggregation, Raman-enhanced effect of penicilloic acid is ~60,000 folds higher than that of penicillin. In particular, the selective Raman enhancement to the two carboxyl groups makes the peak of carboxyl group at C6 of penicilloic acid appear as a new Raman signal due to the opening of β-lactam ring of penicillin. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticle sensor reaches a sensitive limit lower than the prescribed 1.0‰ penicilloic acid residue in penicillin. The novel strategy to examine allergen is more rapid, convenient and inexpensive than the conventional separation-based assay methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]