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Current
Nanoscience
ISSN: 1573-4137
OPEN ACCESS PLUS
Contents
Understanding the Design Principles of Living Systems at the
Nanoscale, 2009, 5, 45-50
Amy Jacobs and Robert Blumenthal
[Abstract] [Full
text article]
Synthesis of Morphology-Controlled Titania Nanocrystals and
Application for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells,
2007, 3, 285-295
Motonari Adachi, Jinting Jiu and Seiji Isoda
[Abstract] [Full
text article]
Ostwald Ripening: A Synthetic Approach for Hollow Nanomaterials,
2007, 3, 177-181
Hua Chun Zeng
[Abstract] [Full
text article]
Abstracts
[Back to top]
Understanding the Design
Principles of Living Systems at the Nanoscale
Amy Jacobs and Robert Blumenthal
[Full
text article]
This is a summary of the Third Annual Cancer Nanobiology Think
Tank hosted by the Nanobiology Program at the Center for Cancer
Research at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick, National
Institutes of Health. The Third Annual Nanobiology Think Tank
was held in May of 2008 and was entitled “Understanding
the Design Principles of Living Systems at the Nanoscale.”
[Back to top]
Synthesis of Morphology-Controlled Titania Nanocrystals
and Application for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Motonari Adachi, Jinting Jiu and Seiji Isoda
[Full
text article]
Development of renewable energy resources in the near future
is an urgent issue. One attractive strategy is the development
of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs); they are extremely
promising, because they are made of low-cost materials and
do not need elaborate apparatus to manufacture. Titania is
the most promising material for the electrode of DSSCs, and
then morphological control and carrier transport optimization
are the key properties needed in titanium oxide materials
for DSSCs. We review the formation procedures and characteristics
of titanium oxide nanocrystalline products, which exhibit
various morphological shapes in nanometer scale, i. e., nanotubes,
nanorods, nanowires and nanosheets, and their arrays. We also
present new findings in our laboratory on the formation of
titania nanorods and network structures of single-crystal-like
titania nanowires as well as their application for DSSCs.
In order to evaluate the electrical properties of DSSCs with
electrodes composed of various nanoscale titania materials,
measurement procedures for electron transport processes in
DSSCs are also reviewed, together with our results in electrochemical
impedance spectroscopy to determine various parameters concerning
about electron transport.
[Back to top]
Ostwald Ripening: A Synthetic Approach for Hollow
Nanomaterials
Hua Chun Zeng
[Full
text article]
Fabrication of nanomaterials with hollow interiors is an important
research area in nanoresearch, owing to their potential applications
in photonic devices, drug delivery, material encapsulation,
ionic intercalation, surface functionalization, nanocatalysts,
membrane nanoreactors, and many other technologies. The common
preparative methods for this new class of materials can be
broadly divided into hard and soft template-assisted syntheses.
In recent years, furthermore, the interest in template-free
techniques for these materials has also increased, as the
new processes involved in these techniques are relatively
simple and less demanding, compared to the template-assisted
processes. In this short review, we will introduce the application
of a well-known physical phenomenon of crystal growth –
Ostwald ripening – in the fabrication of hollow nanomaterials.
It has been demonstrated that formation of the interior spaces
of nanostructures depends on the aggregative states of the
primary crystallites during the synthesis. With this new development,
many inorganic nanomaterials with interior spaces can now
be fabricated in solution media together with the materials
synthesis. Different types of Ostwald ripening observed in
this synthetic approach have been reviewed. In particular,
various geometric structures and configurations prepared with
these methods have been discussed. The prepared hollow materials
also allow further compositional and structural modifi-cations
under the similar process conditions. Future directions in
this research area are also discussed.
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