Coating Carbon Nanosphere with Patchy Gold for Production of Highly Efficient Photothermal Agent.

Gold- or carbon-based photothermal therapy (PTT) agents have shown encouraging therapeutic effects of PTT in the near-infrared region (NIR) in many preclinical animal experiments. It is expected that gold/carbon hybrid nanomaterial will possess combinational NIR light absorption and can achieve further improvement in photothermal conversion efficiency. In this work, we design and construct a novel PTT agent by coating a carbon nanosphere with patchy gold. To synthesize this composite particle with Janus structure, a new versatile approach based on a facile adsorption-reduction method was presented. Different from the conventional fabrication procedures, the formation of patchy gold in this approach is mainly a thermodynamics-driven spontaneous process. The results show that when compared with the conventional PTT agent gold nanorod the obtained nanocomposites not only have higher photothermal conversion efficiency but also perform more thermally stable. On the basis of these outstanding photothermal effects, the in vitro and in vivo photothermal performances in a MCF-7 cells (human breast adenocarcinoma cell line) and mice were investigated separately. Additionally, to further illustrate the advantage of this asymmetric structure, their potential was explored by selective surface functionalization, taking advantage of the affinity of both patchy gold and carbon domain to different functional molecules. These results suggest that this new hybrid nanomaterial can be used as an effective PTT agent for cancer treatment in the future.

Halloysite-nanotubes supported FeNi alloy nanoparticles for catalytic decomposition of toxic phosphine gas into yellow phosphorus and hydrogen.

The FeNi alloy nanoparticles (FeNi and BFeNi) supported on natural halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were prepared for catalytic decomposition of toxic phosphine (PH3) to yellow phosphorus and hydrogen. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma, scanning electron microscope, and hydrogen temperature-programmed reduction tests were carried out to characterize the physicochemical properties of HNTs and the prepared nano-catalysts. Nearly 100% PH3 was decomposed into yellow phosphorus and hydrogen at 420 °C with prepared FeNi/HNTs catalysts. Metallic Ni and Fe3O4 could be the catalytic active sites in FeNi/HNTs for PH3 decomposition under the low temperature. The boron (B) additives decrease the catalytic activity of FeNi/HNTs for PH3 decomposition due to the formation of the spinal NiFe2O4 and Fe2B which replace the active Fe3O4 and metallic Ni in catalysts. The developed FeNi/HNTs are low-cost and effective catalysts for air-pollution control and recycle of the hazardous waste PH3 gas in industry.