Identification of the binding site between bovine serum albumin and ultrasmall SiC fluorescent biomarkers.

Ultrasmall silicon carbide nanoparticles (SiC USNPs) are very promising biomarkers for developing new applications in diagnostics, cell monitoring or drug delivery, even though their interaction with biological molecules such as different proteins has not yet been investigated in detail. In this study, the biological behaviour of SiC USNPs in a medium modeling a living organism was investigated in detail through the dependence of the fluorescence on interactions between bovine serum albumin (BSA) and SiC USNPs. The interaction shows transient nanoparticle-protein associations due to the restricted diffusion behaviour of the nanoparticles in the vicinity of a protein. The transient association manifests in a complex fluorescence quenching mechanism where the dynamic component was dominated by Förster resonance energy transfer. By studying SiC nanoparticles of different sizes, it can be concluded that the transient effect is an ultrasmall nanoparticle behaviour.

Surface-Mediated Energy Transfer and Subsequent Photocatalytic Behavior in Silicon Carbide Colloid Solutions.

We demonstrate that particle-particle interaction affects the photocatalytic efficiency of colloids. Colloid silicon carbide nanoparticles were examined by varying their size, size distribution, and surface chemistry, and we found that surface moieties show no effect on the individual particles but dramatically affect the collective photocatalytic efficiency of the system.

Tuning the color of high-karat gold in Au-TiO2 nanoparticle composites all the way to black.

For centuries, artisans have harnessed gold nanoparticles to imbue their creations with the vibrant hues that captivate the eye through interactions with visible light. In modern times, these distinct optoelectronic characteristics have pivoted toward the forefront of innovative technologies, finding their niche in advanced applications from solar energy to medicine, overshadowing their artistic heritage. This investigation reimagines the utilitarian scope of gold by innovating the optical characteristics of gold-titania nanostructures. This allows for an expanded palette of colors that retain the value of the precious metal. We employ nanostructured TiO2 in a high-pressure-high-temperature sintering technique that stabilizes Au nanoparticles, thwarting coalescence, and Oswald ripening. Further refinement is possible by engineering TiO2 color centers through the introduction of oxygen vacancies and Ti3+ ions, which aid in creating an opulent high-karat black-gold, but preserve the mechanical attributes essential to the integrity and function of the final product.

Formation of Paramagnetic Defects in the Synthesis of Silicon Carbide.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a very promising platform for quantum information processing, as it can host room temperature solid state defect quantum bits. These room temperature quantum bits are realized by paramagnetic silicon vacancy and divacancy defects in SiC that are typically introduced by irradiation techniques. However, irradiation techniques often introduce unwanted defects near the target quantum bit defects that can be detrimental for the operation of quantum bits. Here, we demonstrate that by adding aluminum precursor to the silicon and carbon sources, quantum bit defects are created in the synthesis of SiC without any post treatments. We optimized the synthesis parameters to maximize the paramagnetic defect concentrations-including already established defect quantum bits-monitored by electron spin resonance spectroscopy.

Amino-Termination of Silicon Carbide Nanoparticles.

Silicon carbide nanoparticles (SiC NPs) are promising inorganic molecular-sized fluorescent biomarkers. It is imperative to develop methods to functionalize SiC NPs for certain biological applications. One possible route is to form amino groups on the surface, which can be readily used to attach target biomolecules. Here, we report direct amino-termination of aqueous SiC NPs. We demonstrate the applicability of the amino-terminated SiC NPs by attaching bovine serum albumin as a model for functionalization. We monitor the optical properties of the SiC NPs in this process and find that the fluorescence intensity is very sensitive to surface termination. Our finding may have implications for a few nanometers sized SiC NPs containing paramagnetic color centers with optically read electron spins.

Enhancement of X-ray-Excited Red Luminescence of Chromium-Doped Zinc Gallate via Ultrasmall Silicon Carbide Nanocrystals.

X-ray-activated near-infrared luminescent nanoparticles are considered as new alternative optical probes due to being free of autofluorescence, while both their excitation and emission possess a high penetration efficacy in vivo. Herein, we report silicon carbide quantum dot sensitization of trivalent chromium-doped zinc gallate nanoparticles with enhanced near-infrared emission upon X-ray and UV-vis light excitation. We have found that a ZnGa2O4 shell is formed around the SiC nanoparticles during seeded hydrothermal growth, and SiC increases the emission efficiency up to 1 order of magnitude due to band alignment that channels the excited electrons to the chromium ion.

Silicon-Carbide (SiC) Nanocrystal Technology and Characterization and Its Applications in Memory Structures.

Colloidal cubic silicon-carbide nanocrystals have been fabricated, characterized, and introduced into metal-insulator-semiconductor and metal-insulator-metal structures based on hafnium oxide layers. The fabricated structures were characterized through the stress-and-sense measurements in terms of device capacitance, flat-band voltage shift, switching characteristics, and retention time. The examined electrical performance of the sample structures has demonstrated the feasibility of the application of both types of structures based on SiC nanoparticles in memory devices.

Novel Method for Electroless Etching of 6H-SiC.

In this article, we report an electroless method to fabricate porous hexagonal silicon carbide and hexagonal silicon carbide nanoparticles (NPs) as small as 1 nm using wet chemical stain etching. We observe quantum confinement effect for ultrasmall hexagonal SiC NPs in contrast to the cubic SiC NPs. We attribute this difference to the various surface terminations of the two polytypes of SiC NPs.

Immunomodulatory Potential of Differently-Terminated Ultra-Small Silicon Carbide Nanoparticles.

Ultra-small nanoparticles with sizes comparable to those of pores in the cellular membrane possess significant potential for application in the field of biomedicine. Silicon carbide ultra-small nanoparticles with varying surface termination were tested for the biological system represented by different human cells (using a human osteoblastic cell line as the reference system and a monocyte/macrophage cell line as immune cells). The three tested nanoparticle surface terminations resulted in the observation of different effects on cell metabolic activity. These effects were mostly noticeable in cases of monocytic cells, where each type of particle caused a completely different response ('as-prepared' particles, i.e., were highly cytotoxic, -OH terminated particles slightly increased the metabolic activity, while -NH2 terminated particles caused an almost doubled metabolic activity) after 24 h of incubation. Subsequently, the release of cytokines from such treated monocytes and their differentiation into activated cells was determined. The results revealed the potential modulation of immune cell behavior following stimulation with particular ultra-small nanoparticles, thus opening up new fields for novel silicon carbide nanoparticle biomedical applications.

Room-Temperature Defect Qubits in Ultrasmall Nanocrystals.

There is an urgent quest for room-temperature qubits in nanometer-sized, ultrasmall nanocrystals for quantum biosensing, hyperpolarization of biomolecules, and quantum information processing. Thus far, the preparation of such qubits at the nanoscale has remained futile. Here, we present a synthesis method that avoids any interaction of the solid with high-energy particles and uses self-propagated high-temperature synthesis with a subsequent electrochemical method, the no-photon exciton generation chemistry to produce room-temperature qubits in ultrasmall nanocrystals of sizes down to 3 nm with high yield. We first create the host silicon carbide (SiC) crystallites by high-temperature synthesis and then apply wet chemical etching, which results in ultrasmall SiC nanocrystals and facilitates the creation of thermally stable defect qubits in the material. We demonstrate room-temperature optically detected magnetic resonance signal of divacancy qubits with 3.5% contrast from these nanoparticles with emission wavelengths falling in the second biological window (1000-1380 nm). These results constitute the formation of nonperturbative bioagents for quantum sensing and efficient hyperpolarization.

Harnessing no-photon exciton generation chemistry to engineer semiconductor nanostructures.

Production of semiconductor nanostructures with high yield and tight control of shape and size distribution is an immediate quest in diverse areas of science and technology. Electroless wet chemical etching or stain etching can produce semiconductor nanoparticles with high yield but is limited to a few materials because of the lack of understanding the physical-chemical processes behind. Here we report a no-photon exciton generation chemistry (NPEGEC) process, playing a key role in stain etching of semiconductors. We demonstrate NPEGEC on silicon carbide polymorphs as model materials. Specifically, size control of cubic silicon carbide nanoparticles of diameter below ten nanometers was achieved by engineering hexagonal inclusions in microcrystalline cubic silicon carbide. Our finding provides a recipe to engineer patterned semiconductor nanostructures for a broad class of materials.

Determination of silicon and aluminum in silicon carbide nanocrystals by high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry.

The determination of Al contaminant and the main component Si in silicon carbide (SiC) nanocrystals with the size-distribution of 1-8nm dispersed in an aqueous solution was developed using high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (HR-CS-GFAAS). The vaporization/atomization processes were investigated in a transversally heated graphite atomizer by evaporating solution samples of Al and Si preserved in various media (HCl, HNO3). For Si, the best results were obtained by applying a mixture of 5µg Pd plus 5µg Mg, whereas for Al, 10µg Mg (each as nitrate solution) was dispensed with the samples, but the results obtained without modifier were found to be better. This way a maximum pyrolysis temperature of 1200°C for Si and 1300°C for Al could be used, and the optimum (compromise) atomization temperature was 2400°C for both analytes. The Si and Al contents of different sized SiC nanocrystals, dispersed in aqueous solutions, were determined against aqueous (external) calibration standards. The correlation coefficients (R values) of the calibrations were found to be 0.9963 for Si and 0.9991 for Al. The upper limit of the linear calibration range was 2mg/l Si and 0.25mg/l Al. The limit of detection was 3µg/l for Si and 0.5µg/l for Al. The characteristic mass (m0) was calculated to be 389pg Si and 6.4pg Al. The Si and Al content in the solution samples were found to be in the range of 1.0-1.7mg/l and 0.1-0.25mg/l, respectively.

Dominant luminescence is not due to quantum confinement in molecular-sized silicon carbide nanocrystals.

Molecular-sized colloid silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles are very promising candidates to realize bioinert non-perturbative fluorescent nanoparticles for in vivo bioimaging. Furthermore, SiC nanoparticles with engineered vacancy-related emission centres may realize magneto-optical probes operating at nanoscale resolution. Understanding the nature of molecular-sized SiC nanoparticle emission is essential for further applications. Here we report an efficient and simple method to produce a relatively narrow size distribution of water soluble molecular-sized SiC nanoparticles. The tight control of their size distribution makes it possible to demonstrate a switching mechanism in the luminescence correlated with particle size. We show that molecular-sized SiC nanoparticles of 1-3 nm show a relatively strong and broad surface related luminescence whilst the larger ones exhibit a relatively weak band edge and structural defect luminescence with no evidence of quantum confinement effect.

Room temperature quantum emission from cubic silicon carbide nanoparticles.

The photoluminescence (PL) arising from silicon carbide nanoparticles has so far been associated with the quantum confinement effect or to radiative transitions between electronically active surface states. In this work we show that cubic phase silicon carbide nanoparticles with diameters in the range 45-500 nm can host other point defects responsible for photoinduced intrabandgap PL. We demonstrate that these nanoparticles exhibit single photon emission at room temperature with record saturation count rates of 7 × 10(6) counts/s. The realization of nonclassical emission from SiC nanoparticles extends their potential use from fluorescence biomarker beads to optically active quantum elements for next generation quantum sensing and nanophotonics. The single photon emission is related to single isolated SiC defects that give rise to states within the bandgap.