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This work reports the study of ZnO-based anodes for the photoelectrochemical regeneration of the oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD + ). The latter is the most important coenzyme for dehydrogenases. However, the high costs of NAD + limit the use of such enzymes at the industrial level. The influence of the ZnO morphologies (flower-like, porous film, and nanowires), showing different surface area and crystallinity, was studied. The detection of diluted solutions (0.1 mM) of the reduced form of the coenzyme (NADH) was accomplished by the flower-like and the porous films, whereas concentrations greater than 20 mM were needed for the detection of NADH with nanowire-shaped ZnO-based electrodes. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO was reduced at increasing concentrations of NAD + because part of the ultraviolet irradiation was absorbed by the coenzyme, reducing the photons available for the ZnO material. The higher electrochemical surface area of the flower-like film makes it suitable for the regeneration reaction. The illumination of the electrodes led to a significant increase on the NAD + regeneration with respect to both the electrochemical oxidation in dark and the only photochemical reaction. The tests with formate dehydrogenase demonstrated that 94% of the regenerated NAD + was enzymatically active.

A facile and sensitive self-powered cathodic photoelectrochemical (PEC) aptasensor is reported for the detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) based on CuO-Cu 2 O nanowire array grown on Cu mesh (CuO-Cu 2 O NWA/CM) as electrode. The mixed narrow band gaps of the CuO-Cu 2 O heterostructure ensured its wide absorption band, effective electron/hole separation, and high photocatalytic activity in the visible region. In addition, nanowires directly grown on the substrate provided high specific surface area and exposed abundant active sites, thus guaranteeing its high photocatalytic efficiency. Therefore, the self-powered sensor exhibited favorable analytical performance with fast response, wide linear ranges of 0.01 to 5 ng/mL and 5 to 100 ng/mL, an acceptable detection limit of 3 pg/mL, and reasonable selectivity and stability. The proposed CuO-Cu 2 O NWA/CM can be considered a promising visible light-responsive photoactive material for fabrication of PEC aptasensor with high performance. Graphical abstract a Schematic illustration of construction process of PEC sensing platform based on the CuO-Cu 2 O composite for PSA detection. b Schematic mechanism of the operating PEC system.

The effect of novel silver nanowire encapsulated NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er hybrid nanocomposite on the upconversion emission and bioimaging properties has been investigated. The upconvension nanomaterials were synthesised by polyol method in the presence of ethylene glycol, PVP and ethylenediamine. The NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er-Ag hybrid was formed with upconverting NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er nanoparticles of size ~ 80 nm and silver nanowires of thickness ~ 30 nm. The surface plasmon induced by the silver ion in the NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er-Ag nanocomposite resulted an intense upconversion green emission at 520 nm and red emission at 660 nm by NIR diode laser excitation at 980 nm wavelength. The UV-Vis-NIR spectral absorption at 440 nm and 980 nm, the intense Raman vibrational modes and the strong upconversion emission results altogether confirm the localised surface plasmon resonance effect of silver ion in the hybrid nanocomposite. MRI study of both NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er nanoparticle and NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er-Ag nanocomposite revealed the T1 relaxivities of 22.13 and 10.39 mM -1  s -1 , which are larger than the commercial Gd-DOTA contrast agent of 3.08 mM -1  s -1 . CT imaging NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er-Ag and NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er respectively showed the values of 53.29 HU L/g and 39.51 HU L/g, which are higher than 25.78 HU L/g of the CT contrast agent Iobitridol. The NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er and NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er-Ag respectively demonstrated a negative zeta potential of 54 mV and 55 mV, that could be useful for biological application. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er tested in HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell line by MTT assay demonstrated a cell viability of 90 and 80 %, respectively. But, the cell viability of NaGdF 4 :Yb,Er-Ag slightly decreased to 80 and 78%. The confocal microscopy imaging showed that the UCNPs are effectively up-taken inside the nucleolus of the cancer cells, and it might be useful for NIR laser-assisted phototherapy for cancer treatment. Graphical abstract.

Bi 4 O 5 I 2 loaded anatase-TiO 2 (B) biphase nanowires composite photocatalysts were fabricated by an in situ calcination method and exhibited outstanding photocatalytic activity. The microstructure, optical performance and band structure of the composite photocatalysts were investigated by relevant characterizations. The results demonstrated the successful formation of heterojunction between anatase-TiO 2 (B) biphase nanowires and Bi 4 O 5 I 2 , which integrated the advantages of homojunction and heterojunction. Therefore, it definitely improved separation efficiency of photo-induced electron-holes because of the formation of multi-junctions. In order to test the enhanced photocatalytic activity, acetaminophen was chosen as target pollutant. The sample with 67% Bi 4 O 5 I 2 (TiO 2 -Bi 4 O 5 I 2 -3) presented the highest photocatalytic activity on the degradation of acetaminophen and its reaction apparent rate constant was 10 and 25 times as that of Bi 4 O 5 I 2 and TiO 2 biphase nanowires, respectively. Through trapping experiments and LC-MS/MS analysis, OH was proved to be the key active specie during the photocatalytic process of acetaminophen degradation. Meanwhile a possible degradation pathway was proposed based on the detected intermediate products., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Increasing concentrations of anthropogenic antibiotics and their metabolites in aqueous environments has caused growing concerns over the proliferation of antibiotic resistance and potential adverse impacts to agro-environmental quality and human health. Photocatalysis using novel engineered nanomaterials such as ZnO nanowires may be promising for removing antibiotics from waters. However, much remains to be learned about efficiency and mechanism for photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics by ZnO nanowires. This study systematically investigated photodegradation of cephalexin using ZnO nanowires under simulated sunlight. The degradation efficiency of cephalexin was substantially increased in the presence of ZnO nanowires especially at circumneutral and alkaline condition (solution pH of 7.2-9.2). The photodegradation followed the first-order kinetics with degradation rate constants (k) ranging between 1.19 × 10 -1 and 2.52 × 10 -1  min -1 at 20-80 mg L -1 ZnO nanowires. Radical trapping experiments demonstrated that hydroxyl radicals (OH) and superoxide radicals (O 2 - ) predominantly contributed to the removal of cephalexin. With the addition of HCO 3 - (1-5 mM) or Suwannee River natural organic matter (SRNOM, 2-10 mg L -1 ), the k values were substantially decreased by a factor of 1.8-70 to 1.69 × 10 -3 -6.67 × 10 -2  min -1 , probably due to screening effect of HCO 3 - or SRNOM sorbed on ZnO nanowires and scavenging of free radicals by free HCO 3 - or SRNOM in solution. Combining product identification by mass spectrometry and molecular computation, cephalexin photodegradation pathways were identified, including hydroxylation, demethylation, decarboxylation, and dealkylation. Overall, the novel ZnO nanowires have the potential to be used for removing antibiotics from contaminated waters., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The continuing emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria due to the excessive use of antibiotics has produced a strong demand for novel strategies and new materials that do not lead to bacterial resistance. In the present work silicon nanowire arrays modified with gold-silver alloy nanoparticles (SN-Au/Ag) was investigated as a photo-induced antibacterial material. It was shown that SN-Au/Ag can kill bacteria with high efficiency under sunlight in times of the order of a few minutes, and this is achieved through synergism between photothermal and photocatalytic effects. It appears that the combined effect of heat and reactive oxygen species (ROS) causes bacteria killing through damage to the cell membrane and leakage of cytoplasm contents. Both gold and silver in the alloy nanoparticles are required for the observed bactericidal action. Moreover, the SN-Au/Ag material can be "recycled" without loss of bactericidal activity. It is concluded that the silicon nanowire arrays modified with gold-silver alloy nanoparticles developed in this work has promise as an antibacterial nanomaterial for the development of novel antibiotics.

InGaN/GaN nanowire arrays (NWA) exhibit efficient photoluminescence (PL) in the green spectral range, which extends to temperatures well beyond 200 °C. Previous work has shown that their PL is effectively quenched when oxidizing gas species such as O 2 , NO 2 , and O 3 abound in the ambient air. In the present work we extend our investigations to reducing gas species, in particular to alcohols and aliphatic hydrocarbons with C 1 to C 3 chain lengths. We find that these species give rise to an enhancing PL response which can only be observed when the NWAs are operated at elevated temperature and in reactive synthetic air backgrounds. Hardly any response can be observed when the NWAs are operated in inert N 2 backgrounds, neither at room temperature nor at elevated temperature. We attribute such enhancing PL response to the removal of quenching oxygen and the formation of enhancing water adsorbates as hydrocarbons interact with oxygen species coadsorbed on the heated InGaN surfaces.

Flexible organic fabrics coated with titania find wide applications in pollutant degradations and antibiosis. Because of the enhanced charge separations, TiO 2 with one-dimensional nanostructures exhibits photocatalytic activity superior to that of nanoparticulate films; however, only the later has been achieved on organic substrates through commonly sol-gel techniques till now. In this study, radially aligned TiO 2 nanowires were precipitated on polyester fabrics through multi-steps of surface roughening, sol-gel TiO 2 seeding, hydrogen titanate nanobelts precipitation, and finally sulfuric acid treatment. Both mesoporous anatase TiO 2 nanowires and single-crystalline rutile TiO 2 nanorods have been achieved, which, together with some unchanged titanate nanobelts, exhibited an overall narrowed band gap of ca. 2.50eV. The TiO 2 nanowires on flexible PET fabrics showed higher photocatalytic activity towards degradations of not only rhodamine B in water but also toluene gas in air under UV light illumination, when compared with either TiO 2 nanotube array or commercial Degussa P25 nanoparticulate films on metallic Ti substrates. Remarkable sterilization of E. coli and S. epidermidis under visible light irradiation was also achieved. The excellent photocatalytic and antibacterial performances were attributed to the unique mixed 1D nanostructures, phase junctions, abundant surface hydroxyl groups, and the narrowed band gap., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Long-term stability of a chemical sensor is an essential quality for long-term collection of data related to exhaled breath, environmental air, and other sources in the Internet of things (IoT) era. Although an oxide nanowire sensor has shown great potential as a chemical sensor, the long-term stability of sensitivity has not been realized yet due to electrical degradation under harsh sensing conditions. Here, we report a rational concept to accomplish long-term electrical stability of metal oxide nanowire sensors via introduction of a heavily doped metal oxide contact layer. Antimony-doped SnO 2 (ATO) contacts on SnO 2 nanowires show much more stable and lower electrical contact resistance than conventional Ti contacts for high temperature (200 °C) conditions, which are required to operate chemical sensors. The stable and low contact resistance of ATO was confirmed for at least 1960 h under 200 °C in open air. This heavily doped oxide contact enables us to realize the long-term stability of SnO 2 nanowire sensors while maintaining the sensitivity for both NO 2 gas and light (photo) detections. The applicability of our method is confirmed for sensors on a flexible polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate. Since the proposed fundamental concept can be applied to various oxide nanostructures, it will give a foundation for designing long-term stable oxide nanomaterial-based IoT sensors.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are recognized as promising biomarkers for diagnosis and indication of the prognosis of several epithelial cancers. However, at present, CTC monitoring is available only for advanced-stage patients rather than for those at an early stage of cancer. This is because of the extraordinary rarity of CTCs and the limited sensitivity of current methods. Herein, we report the development of multifunctional magnetic nanowires for the efficient isolation and detection of CTCs from the blood of patients, especially those with non-metastatic early-stage cancer. The nanowires, which are equipped with a high density of magnetic nanoparticles and five different types of antibodies (Ab mixture_mPpyNWs), offer a significant improvement in cell-isolation efficiency, even from very small amounts of blood (250 μL-1 mL). Notably, CTCs were isolated and identified in 29 out of 29 patients (100%) with non-metastatic early breast cancer, indicating that this procedure allowed detection of CTCs with greater accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. In addition, we demonstrated in situ "naked eye" identification of the captured cancer cells via a simple colorimetric immunoassay. Our results show that antibody-functionalized magnetic nanowires offer great potential for a broad range of practical clinical applications, including early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A novel one-dimensional MgFe2O4/MoS2 heterostructure has been successfully designed and fabricated. The bare MgFe2O4 was obtained as uniform nanowires through electrospinning, and MoS2 thin film appeared on the surface of MgFe2O4 after further chemical vapor deposition. The structure of the MgFe2O4/MoS2 heterostructure was systematic investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS), and Raman spectra. According to electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results, the MgFe2O4/MoS2 heterostructure showed a lower charge-transfer resistance compared with bare MgFe2O4, which indicated that the MoS2 played an important role in the enhancement of electron/hole mobility. MgFe2O4/MoS2 heterostructure can efficiently degrade tetracycline (TC), since the superoxide free-radical can be produced by sample under illumination due to the active species trapping and electron spin resonance (ESR) measurement, and the optimal photoelectrochemical degradation rate of TC can be achieved up to 92% (radiation intensity: 47 mW/cm(2), 2 h). Taking account of its unique semiconductor band gap structure, MgFe2O4/MoS2 can also be used as an photoelectrochemical anode for hydrogen production by water splitting, and the hydrogen production rate of MgFe2O4/MoS2 was 5.8 mmol/h·m(2) (radiation intensity: 47 mW/cm(2)), which is about 1.7 times that of MgFe2O4.

A nanomotor-based strategy for rapid single-step intracellular biosensing of a target miRNA, expressed in intact cancer cells, at the single cell level is described. The new concept relies on the use of ultrasound (US) propelled dye-labeled single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)/graphene-oxide (GO) coated gold nanowires (AuNWs) capable of penetrating intact cancer cells. Once the nanomotor is internalized into the cell, the quenched fluorescence signal (produced by the π-π interaction between GO and a dye-labeled ssDNA) is recovered due to the displacement of the dye-ssDNA probe from the motor GO-quenching surface upon binding with the target miRNA-21, leading to an attractive intracellular "OFF-ON" fluorescence switching. The faster internalization process of the US-powered nanomotors and their rapid movement into the cells increase the likelihood of probe-target contacts, leading to a highly efficient and rapid hybridization. The ability of the nanomotor-based method to screen cancer cells based on the endogenous content of the target miRNA has been demonstrated by measuring the fluorescence signal in two types of cancer cells (MCF-7 and HeLa) with significantly different miRNA-21 expression levels. This single-step, motor-based miRNAs sensing approach enables rapid "on the move" specific detection of the target miRNA-21, even in single cells with an extremely low endogenous miRNA-21 content, allowing precise and real-time monitoring of intracellular miRNA expression.

Titanium oxide (TiO2) represents one of most widely studied materials for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting but is severely limited by its poor efficiency in the visible light range. Here, we report a significant enhancement of visible light photoactivity in nitrogen-implanted TiO2 (N-TiO2) nanowire arrays. Our systematic studies show that a post-implantation thermal annealing treatment can selectively enrich the substitutional nitrogen dopants, which is essential for activating the nitrogen implanted TiO2 to achieve greatly enhanced visible light photoactivity. An incident photon to electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) of ∼10% is achieved at 450 nm in N-TiO2 without any other cocatalyst, far exceeding that in pristine TiO2 nanowires (∼0.2%). The integration of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) cocatalyst with N-TiO2 can further increase the IPCE at 450 nm to ∼17% and deliver an unprecedented overall photocurrent density of 1.9 mA/cm(2), by integrating the IPCE spectrum with standard AM 1.5G solar spectrum. Systematic photoelectrochemical and electrochemical studies demonstrated that the enhanced PEC performance can be attributed to the significantly improved visible light absorption and more efficient charge separation. Our studies demonstrate the implantation approach can be used to reliably dope TiO2 to achieve the best performed N-TiO2 photoelectrodes to date and may be extended to fundamentally modify other semiconductor materials for PEC water splitting.

Core-shell Ag@ZIF-8 nanowires, where single Ag nanowires are coated with uniform zeolitic-imidazolate-framework-8 (ZIF-8) shells, successfully realize renewable adsorptive separation of low concentrations of butanol from an aqueous medium under solar light irradiation by taking advantage of the exceptional adsorption capability of the ZIF-8 shells toward butanol and the unique plasmonic photothermal effect of the Ag nanowire cores. Impressively, the high separation efficiency is maintained as almost unchanged, even after 10 adsorption/desorption cycles., (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The development of sensitive and convenient methods for detection, enrichment, and analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which serve as an importance diagnostic indicator for metastatic progression of cancer, has received tremendous attention in recent years. In this work, a new approach characteristic of simultaneous CTC capture and detection is developed by integrating a microfluidic silicon nanowire (SiNW) array with multifunctional magnetic upconversion nanoparticles (MUNPs). The MUNPs were conjugated with anti-EpCAM antibody, thus capable to specifically recognize tumor cells in the blood samples and pull them down under an external magnetic field. The capture efficiency of CTCs was further improved by the integration with a microfluidic SiNW array. Due to the autofluorescence free nature in upconversion luminescence (UCL) imaging, our approach allows for highly sensitive detection of small numbers of tumor cells, which afterward could be collected for further analysis and re-culturing. We have further demonstrated that this approach can be applied to detect CTCs in clinical blood samples from lung cancer patients, and obtained consistent results by analyzing the UCL signals and the clinical outcomes of lung cancer metastasis. Therefore our approach represents a promising platform in CTC capture and detection with potential clinical utilization in cancer diagnosis and prognosis., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this paper, we report on the synthesis of FeCo/Cu multisegmented nanowires by means of pulse electrodeposition in nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide arrays supported on silicon chips. By adjustment of the electrodeposition conditions, such as the pulse scheme and the electrolyte, alternating segments of Cu and ferromagnetic FeCo alloy can be fabricated. The segments can be built with a wide range of lengths (15-150 nm) and exhibit a close-to-pure composition (Cu or FeCo alloy) as suggested by energy-dispersive X-ray mapping results. The morphology and the crystallographic structure of different nanowire configurations have been assessed thoroughly, concluding that Fe, Co, and Cu form solid solution. Magnetic characterization using vibrating sample magnetometry and magnetic force microscopy reveals that by introduction of nonmagnetic Cu segments within the nanowire architecture, the magnetic easy axis can be modified and the reduced remanence can be tuned to the desired values. The experimental results are in agreement with the provided simulations. Furthermore, the influence of nanowire magnetic architecture on the magnetically triggered protein desorption is evaluated for three types of nanowires: Cu, FeCo, and multisegmented FeCo15nm/Cu15nm. The application of an external magnetic field can be used to enhance the release of proteins on demand. For fully magnetic FeCo nanowires the applied oscillating field increased protein release by 83%, whereas this was found to be 45% for multisegmented FeCo15nm/Cu15nm nanowires. Our work suggests that a combination of arrays of nanowires with different magnetic configurations could be used to generate complex substance concentration gradients or control delivery of multiple drugs and macromolecules.

A unique Ag-bridged Ag2O nanowire network/TiO2 nanotube array p-n heterojunction (Ag-Ag2O/TiO2 NT) was fabricated by simple electrochemical method. Ag nanoparticles were firstly electrochemically deposited onto the surface of TiO2 NT and then were partly oxidized to Ag2O nanowires while the rest of Ag mother nanoparticles were located at the junctions of Ag2O nanowire network. The Ag-Ag2O/TiO2 NT heterostructure exhibited strong visible-light response, effective separation of photogenerated carriers, and high adsorption capacity. The integration of Ag-Ag2O self-stability structure and p-n heterojunction permitted high and stable photocatalytic activity of Ag-Ag2O/TiO2 NT heterostructure photocatalyst. Under 140-min visible light irradiation, the photocatalytic removal efficiency of both dye acid orange 7 (AO7) and industrial chemical p-nitrophenol (PNP) over Ag-Ag2O/TiO2 NT reached nearly 100% much higher than 17% for AO7 or 13% for PNP over bare TiO2 NT. After 5 successive cycles under 600-min simulated solar light irradiation, Ag-Ag2O/TiO2 NT remained highly stable photocatalytic activity., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The photoelectroenzymatic synthesis of chemical compounds employing platinum nanoparticle-decorated silicon nanowires (Pt-SiNWs) is presented. The Pt-SiNWs proved to be an efficient material for photoelectrochemical cofactor regeneration because the silicon nanowires absorbs a wide range of the solar spectrum while the platinum nanoparticle serve as an excellent catalyst for electron and proton transfer. By integrating the platform with redox enzymatic reaction, visible-light-driven electroenzymatic synthesis of L-glutamate was achieved. Compared to electrochemical and photochemical methods, this approach is free from side reactions caused by sacrificial electron donors and has the advantage of applying low potential to realize energy-efficient and sustainable synthesis of chemicals by a photoelectroenzymatic system., (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

We analyze mesoscale light absorption and carrier collection in a tandem junction photoelectrochemical device using electromagnetic simulations. The tandem device consists of silicon (E(g,Si) = 1.1 eV) and tungsten oxide (E(g,WO3) = 2.6 eV) as photocathode and photoanode materials, respectively. Specifically, we investigated Si microwires with lengths of 100 µm, and diameters of 2 µm, with a 7 µm pitch, covered vertically with 50 µm of WO3 with a thickness of 1 µm. Many geometrical variants of this prototypical tandem device were explored. For conditions of illumination with the AM 1.5G spectra, the nominal design resulted in a short circuit current density, J(SC), of 1 mA/cm(2), which is limited by the WO3 absorption. Geometrical optimization of photoanode and photocathode shape and contact material selection, enabled a three-fold increase in short circuit current density relative to the initial design via enhanced WO3 light absorption. These findings validate the usefulness of a mesoscale analysis for ascertaining optimum optoelectronic performance in photoelectrochemical devices.

We demonstrate one-step gold nanoparticle (AuNP) coating and the surface nitridation of TiO2 nanowires (TiO2-NWs) to amplify visible-light photon reflection. The surface nitridation of TiO2-NW arrays maximizes the anchoring of AuNPs, and the subsequent reduction of the band gap energy from 3.26 eV to 2.69 eV affords visible-light activity. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation method clearly exhibits the enhancement in the strengths of localized electric fields between AuNPs and the nanowires, which significantly improves the photocatalytic (PC) performance. Both nitridation and AuNP decoration of TiO2-NWs result in beneficial effects of high (e(-)/h(+)) pair separation through healing of the oxygen vacancies. The combined effect of harvesting visible-light photons and reducing recombination in Au/N-doped TiO2-NWs promotes the photocatalytic activity towards degradation of methyl orange to an unprecedented level, ∼4 fold (1.1 × 10(-2) min) more than does TiO2-NWs (2.9 × 10(-3) min(-1)). The proposed AuNP decoration of nitridated TiO2-NW surfaces can be applied to a wide range of n-type metal oxides for photoanodes in photocatalytic applications.

We report on micropillar-based terahertz lasers with active pillars that are much smaller than the emission wavelength. These micropillar array lasers correspond to scaled-down band-edge photonic crystal lasers forming an active photonic metamaterial. In contrast to photonic crystal lasers which use significantly larger pillar structures, lasing emission is not observed close to high-symmetry points in the photonic band diagram, but in the effective medium regime. We measure stimulated emission at 4 THz for micropillar array lasers with pillar diameters of 5 µm. Our results not only demonstrate the integration of active subwavelength optics in a terahertz laser, but are also an important step towards the realization of nanowire-based terahertz lasers.

ZnO nanowires have relatively high sensitivity as ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors, while the bandgap of 3.37 eV is an important limitation for their applications in solar-blind UV (SBUV), visible (VIS) and near infrared (NIR) range. Besides UV response, in this study, we demonstrate the promising applications of individual undoped ZnO NWs as high performance SBUV-VIS-NIR broad-spectral-response photodetectors, strongly depended on applied bias voltage and illumination intensity. The dominant mechanism is attributed to the existence of surface states in nanostructured ZnO. At a negative bias voltage electrons can be injected into surface states from electrode, and moreover, under light illumination photogenerated electron-hole pairs can be separated efficiently by surface built-in electric field, resulting into a decrease of potential barrier height and depletion region width, and simultaneously accompanying a filling of oxygen vacancy and a rise of ZnO Fermi level.

We study the Casimir torque arising from the quantum electromagnetic fluctuations due to the interaction of two interfaces in a system formed by a dense array of metallic nanorods embedded in dielectric fluids. It is demonstrated that as a consequence of the ultrahigh density of photonic states in the nanowire array it is possible to channel the quantum fluctuations, and thereby boost the Casimir torque by several orders of magnitude as compared to other known systems (e.g., birefringent parallel plates).

Purpose: The targeting of ferromagnetic drug carrier nanoparticles (DCNPs) by dilute microferromagnetic wires implanted within blood vessels and subjected to an externally applied uniform magnetic field of 0.1-0.8 T was evaluated to determine their effectiveness in increasing the concentration of the DCNPs around the target wires., Methods: The transport of DCNPs under the influences of diffusion, blood convection, and magnetic force was simulated by solving the continuity equation using the finite difference method. Then the spatial distribution and time evolution of the particle concentration was determined. The effectiveness of implant-assisted magnetic drug targeting was evaluated from the average concentration of DCNPs around the representative target wire., Results: The average concentration of DCNPs of an average radius larger than 80 nm carried by blood flow with an average inlet flow rate of 1.1 cm s(-1) was increased to more than 60% of the injected concentration by using an externally applied magnetic field strength of 0.1 T., Conclusions: The effectiveness of concentrating DCNPs of an average radius not larger than 100 nm around the target wire within a small vein was significantly improved using an externally applied magnetic field strength of not greater than 0.8 T.

We have performed a comparative study of ultrafast charge carrier dynamics in a range of III-V nanowires using optical pump-terahertz probe spectroscopy. This versatile technique allows measurement of important parameters for device applications, including carrier lifetimes, surface recombination velocities, carrier mobilities and donor doping levels. GaAs, InAs and InP nanowires of varying diameters were measured. For all samples, the electronic response was dominated by a pronounced surface plasmon mode. Of the three nanowire materials, InAs nanowires exhibited the highest electron mobilities of 6000 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, which highlights their potential for high mobility applications, such as field effect transistors. InP nanowires exhibited the longest carrier lifetimes and the lowest surface recombination velocity of 170 cm s⁻¹. This very low surface recombination velocity makes InP nanowires suitable for applications where carrier lifetime is crucial, such as in photovoltaics. In contrast, the carrier lifetimes in GaAs nanowires were extremely short, of the order of picoseconds, due to the high surface recombination velocity, which was measured as 5.4 × 10⁵  cm s⁻¹. These findings will assist in the choice of nanowires for different applications, and identify the challenges in producing nanowires suitable for future electronic and optoelectronic devices.

The development of self-assembled nanostructure technologies has recently opened the way towards a wide class of semiconductor integrated devices, with progressively optimized performances and the potential for a widespread range of electronic and photonic applications. Here we report on the development of field effect transistors (FETs) based on semiconductor nanowires (NWs) as highly-sensitive room-temperature plasma-wave broadband terahertz (THz) detectors. The electromagnetic radiation at 0.3 THz is funneled onto a broadband bow-tie antenna, whose lobes are connected to the source and gate FET electrodes. The oscillating electric field experienced by the channel electrons, combined with the charge density modulation by the gate electrode, results in a source-drain signal rectification, which can be read as a DC signal output. We investigated the influence of Se-doping concentration of InAs NWs on the detection performances, reaching responsivity values higher than 100 V W⁻¹, with noise-equivalent-power of ∼10⁻⁹ W Hz(⁻½). Transmission imaging experiments at 0.3 THz show the good reliability and sensitivity of the devices in a real practical application.

We present high performance fiber-coupled niobium titanium nitride superconducting nanowire single photon detectors fabricated on thermally oxidized silicon substrates. The best device showed a system detection efficiency (DE) of 74%, dark count rate of 100 c/s, and full width at half maximum timing jitter of 68 ps under a bias current of 18.0 μA with a practical Gifford-McMahon cryocooler system. We also introduced six detectors into the cryocooler and confirmed that the system DE of all detectors was higher than 67% at the dark count rate of 100 c/s.

A very fast, electroless, microwave method is described to synthesize electrically conductive CdS nanowires on DNA just within 60 s. The electrical characterization indicates that the CdS wires are continuous, have very low contact resistance, and exhibit Ohmic behavior. Highly selective deposition on DNA is obtained by specific complexation between the Cd(II) ion and DNA, followed by decomposition of thioacetamide to S(2-) to form CdS. The nanowires are found to have a diameter of 140-170 nm and a length of approximately 8-12 microm. The one-step process developed here does not perturb the overall conformation of the DNA chain. The nanowires we fabricated can be used as building blocks for functional nanodevices, tiny computers, sensors, and optoelectronics.

Uniform Gd2O3 : Eu3+ nanowires were fabricated by using anodic aluminum oxide template (AAO). The spectral measurements indicate that with the increasing annealing temperature the excitation band of Eu3+ in Gd2O3 : Eu3+ nanowires/AAO shifted blue, the intensity ratio of 5D0-7F2 to 5D0-7F1, decreased, and the lifetime became longer. In the sample annealed at 1000 degrees C two spectral components, the sharper and broader lines were identified, corresponding to two different local environments, the Eu3+ ions in cubic phase and in amorphous phase, respectively. The 5D0-7F1 transitions of Eu3+ ions in cubic phase had longer lifetime than that in amorphous phase. In contrast to the lifetime of the 5D0-7F(j) transitions in the bulk, that in Gd2O3 : Eu3+/AAO composite films increased due to influence of the surrounding media (AAO).

High-density single-crystalline Zn2SnO4 nanowires have been successfully synthesized by using a simple thermal evaporation method by heating a mixture of ZnO and SnO2 nano powders. The products in general contain various geometries of wires, with an average diameter of 80-100 nm. These nanowires are ultra-long, up to 100 microns. The transmission electron microscopy study showed that these nanowires exhibited zigzag twinned geometry, and grow along the (111) direction. Low-temperature photoluminescence properties of the nanowires were measured, showing a strong green emission band at about 515 nm and a weak peak corresponding to UV emission at about 378 nm, which have not been reported before.