Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

A simple and inexpensive method for the controlled loading of silica particles with dyes and nanocrystals is presented. Polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride is used as a positively charged bridge to facilitate electrostatic adsorption of negatively charged dyes onto negatively charged silica microspheres. The particles are subsequently coated with a further silica shell to protect the dyes against chemical degradation and leakage and this shell affords a unform particle surface independent of its doping. This encapsulation method is highly versatile and can be extended to doping with semiconductor nanocrystals, which we demonstrate using CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots. The synthesis steps and end products are characterized with electron microscopy, optical spectroscopy and the electrokinetic potential of the colloidal suspensions. We show that the particles adapt the optical properties of their dopants and are resistant to degradation, dopant leakage and show reasonable emission even at acidic pH values due to the protective shell.

Silica particles, Dye, Quantum dot, Polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride, Doping

Until now, the growth of periodic vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube (VA-
MWCNT) arrays was dependent on at least one lithography step during fabrication. Here, we demonstrate a lithography-free fabrication method to grow hexagonal arrays of self-standing VA-MWCNTs with tunable pitch and MWCNT size. The MWCNTs are synthesized by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) from Ni catalyst particles. Template guided dewetting of a thin Ni film on a hexagonally close-packed silica particle monolayer provides periodically distributed Ni catalyst particles as seeds for the growth of the periodic MWCNT arrays. The diameter of the silica particles directly controls the pitch of the periodic VA-MWCNT arrays from 600 nm to as small as 160 nm. The diameter and length of the individual MWCNTs can also be readily adjusted and are a function of the Ni particle size and PECVD time. This unique method of lithography-free growth of periodic VA-MWCNT arrays can be utilized for the fabrication of large-scale biomimetic materials

periodic, ithography free, nanofabrication, template guided, vertically-aligned multi- walled carbon nanotubes, self-standing

We propose a simple and inexpensive SiO2 submicron particle synthesis method based on a PTFE helical capillary microreactor. The device is based on Dean flow mediated, ultrafast mixing of two liquid phases in a microfluidic spiral pipe. Excellent control of particle size between 100 nm and 600 nm and narrow polydispersity can be achieved by controlling the device and process parameters. Numerical simulations are performed to determine the optimal device dimensions. In the mother liquor the silica particles exhibit zeta potentials < -60 mV, rendering them very stable even at high particle volume fractions. The current device typically produces around 0.234 g/h of the silica particles.

SiO2 particle synthesis, continuous flow synthesis, helical capillary microreactor

Ultrasensitive sensors of various physical properties can be based on percolation systems, e.g., insulating media filled with nearly touching conducting particles. Such a system at its percolation threshold featuring the critical particle concentration, changes drastically its response (electrical conduction, light transmission, etc.) when subjected to an external stimulus. Due to the critical nature of this threshold, a given state at the threshold is typically very unstable. However, stability can be restored without significantly sacrificing the structure sensitivity by forming weak connections between the conducting particles. In this work, we employed nano-bridged nanosphere lithography to produce such a weakly connected percolation system. It consists of two coupled quasi-Babinet complementary arrays, one with weakly connected, and the other with disconnected metallic islands. We demonstrate via experiment and simulation that the physics of this plasmonic system is non-trivial, and leads to the extraordinary optical transmission at narrowly defined peaks sensitive to system parameters, with surface plasmons mediating this process. Thus, our system is a potential candidate for percolation effect based sensor applications. Promising detection schemes could be based on these effects.