Co-reporter:Changhong Wang;Feng Hu;Hongchao Yang;Yejun Zhang;Huan Lu
Nano Research 2017 Volume 10( Issue 1) pp:238-246
Publication Date(Web):2017 January
DOI:10.1007/s12274-016-1281-9
Cost-effective electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) play a key role in the field of renewable energy. Although tremendous efforts have been devoted to the search of alternative materials, Pt/C is still the most efficient electrocatalyst for the HER. Nevertheless, decreasing the loading of Pt in the designed eletrocatalysts is of significance. However, with low Pt loading, it is challenging to maintain excellent catalytic performance. Herein, a new catalyst (Pt/NPC) was prepared by dispersing Pt nanoparticles (PtNPs) with an average diameter of 1.8 nm over a three-dimensional (3D) carbon network co-doped with N and P. Because of the high electronegativity of the N and P dopants, PtNPs were uniformly dispersed on the carbon network via high electronic affinity between Pt and carbon, affording a Pt/NPC catalyst; Pt/NPC exhibited superior HER activity, attributed to the down-shift of the Pt d-band caused by the donation of charge from N and P to Pt. The results show that Pt/NPC with an ultralow Pt loading of 1.82 wt.% exhibits excellent HER performance, which corresponds to a HER mass activity 20.6-fold greater than that observed for commercial 20% Pt/C at an overpotential of 20 mV vs. RHE.
Co-reporter:Hongchao Yang 杨红超;Changhong Wang 汪昌红;Feng Hu 胡峰
Science China Materials 2017 Volume 60( Issue 11) pp:1121-1128
Publication Date(Web):08 May 2017
DOI:10.1007/s40843-017-9035-8
The synthesis of atomic-scale metal catalysts is a promising but very challenging project. In this work, we successfully fabricated a hybrid catalyst of Ptc/Ni(OH)2 with atomic-scale Pt clusters uniformly decorated on porous Ni(OH)2 nanowires (NWs) via a facile room-temperature synthesis strategy. The as-obtained Ptc/Ni(OH)2 catalyst exhibits highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance under basic conditions. In 0.1 mol L−1 KOH, the Ptc/Ni(OH)2 has an onset overpotential of ~0 mV vs. RHE, and a significantly low overpotential of 32 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, lower than that of the commercial 20% Pt/C (58 mV). The mass current density data illustrated that the Ptc/Ni(OH)2 reached a high current density of 6.34 AmgPt−1 at an overpotential of 50 mV, which was approximately 28 times higher than that of the commercial Pt/C (0.223 A mgPt−1) at the same overpotential, proving the high-efficiency electrocatalytic activity of the as-obtained Ptc/Ni(OH)2 for HER under alkaline conditions.合成原子级别的催化剂是一项颇具前景但又充满挑战的课题. 本文通过简单的室温反应成功制备了一种原子级别的Pt团簇修饰 的多孔α相氢氧化镍纳米线(Ptc/Ni(OH)2)复合材料. 所得到的Ptc/Ni(OH)2在碱性环境下表现出高效的电催化析氢反应性能. 在氢气饱和 的0.1 mol L−1氢氧化钾溶液中, Ptc/Ni(OH)2的起始过电势很小, 接近于0, 当电流密度为10 mA cm−2时, 其过电势低至32 mV. 此过电位低于同等 条件下商业化20% Pt/C的过电势(58 mV). 通过质量电流密度数据显示, 在过电势为50 mV时, Ptc/Ni(OH)2的质量电流密度高达6.34 A mg, Pt 1 在 同样的过电势条件下, 这一电流是商业化Pt/C (0.223 A mg ) Pt 1 的28倍, 表明我们所制得的Ptc/Ni(OH)2在碱性环境下具有高效的电催化析氢反 应性能.
Co-reporter:Chenqi Shen;Xiang Lan;Chenggan Zhu;Wei Zhang;Leyu Wang
Advanced Materials 2017 Volume 29(Issue 16) pp:
Publication Date(Web):2017/04/01
DOI:10.1002/adma.201606533
Plasmonic motifs with precise surface recognition sites are crucial for assembling defined nanostructures with novel functionalities and properties. In this work, a unique and effective strategy is successfully developed to pattern DNA recognition sites in a helical arrangement around a gold nanorod (AuNR), and a new set of heterogeneous AuNR@AuNP plasmonic helices is fabricated by attaching complementary-DNA-modified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to the predesigned sites on the AuNR surface. AuNR is first assembled to one side of a bifacial rectangular DNA origami, where eight groups of capture strands are selectively patterned on the other side. The subsequently added link strands make the rectangular DNA origami roll up around the AuNR into a tubular shape, therefore giving birth to a chiral patterning of DNA recognition sites on the surface of AuNR. Following the hybridization with the AuNPs capped with the complementary strands to the capture strands on the DNA origami, left-handed and right-handed AuNR@AuNP helical superstructures are precisely formed by tuning the pattern of the recognition sites on the AuNR surface. Our strategy of nanoparticle surface patterning innovatively realizes hierarchical self-assembly of plasmonic superstructures with tunable chiroptical responses, and will certainly broaden the horizon of bottom-up construction of other functional nanoarchitectures with growing complexity.
Co-reporter:Chunyan Li, Feng Li, Yejun Zhang, Wenjing Zhang, ... Qiangbin Wang
Procedia Technology 2017 Volume 27(Volume 27) pp:
Publication Date(Web):1 January 2017
DOI:10.1016/j.protcy.2017.04.027
IntroductionProtein nanocages (PNCs) have been recognized as a promising platform for nanomedicine innovation. Real-time in vivo tracking of PNCs can provide critically important information for the development of PNC-based diagnostics and therapeutics. Here we demonstrate a strategy for monitoring the behaviors of PNCs in vivo by encapsulating a Ag2S quantum dot (QD) with fluorescence in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) inside the PNC, using a simian virus 40 (SV40) PNC (PNCSV40) as a model.MethodsThe Ag2S QD was encapsulated into the PNCSV40 through controllable molecular self-assembly. The dynamic migration of Ag2S@PNCSV40 in living mouse was tracked in real time under an InGaAs-based shortwave infrared imaging system and was further corroborated by ex vivo imaging, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis, and macrophage endocytosis assay.ResultsBenefitting from the high spatiotemporal resolution and deep tissue penetration of NIR-II fluorescence imaging, the dynamic distribution of the PNCSV40 in living mice was tracked in real time with high fidelity, revealing rapid clearance from bloodstream within 5 min post-intravenous injection and selective accumulation in liver, spleen and bone marrow. Furthermore, adopting the PEGylation strategy, PEGylated PNCSV40 presents remarkably different behaviors in vivo with significantly prolonged blood circulation and much less uptake in the reticuloendothelial system (RES), leading to desirable pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of PNC-based nanomedicines.DiscussionThis study represents the first evidence of real-time tracking of the intrinsic behaviors of PNCs in vivo without interference in PNC-host interactions by encapsulating nanoprobes inside, instead of conjugating nanoprobes onto the outer surface of PNCs. The as-described imaging strategy will facilitate the study of interactions between exogenously introduced PNCs and host body, prompting the development of future protein-based drugs, high-efficacy targeted delivery system, sensors, etc.
Co-reporter:Chenqi Shen; Xiang Lan; Xuxing Lu; Travis A. Meyer; Weihai Ni; Yonggang Ke
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2016 Volume 138(Issue 6) pp:1764-1767
Publication Date(Web):January 29, 2016
DOI:10.1021/jacs.5b11566
Precise control over surface functionalities of nanomaterials offers great opportunities for fabricating complex functional nanoarchitectures but still remains challenging. In this work, we successfully developed a novel strategy to modify a gold nanorod (AuNR) with specific surface recognition sites using a DNA origami clamp. AuNRs were encapsulated by the DNA origami through hybridization of single-stranded DNA on the AuNRs and complementary capture strands inside the clamp. Another set of capture strands on the outside of the clamp create the specific recognition sites on the AuNR surface. By means of this strategy, AuNRs were site-specifically modified with gold nanoparticles at the top, middle, and bottom of the surface, respectively, to construct a series of well-defined heterostructures with controlled “chemical valence”. Our study greatly expands the utility of DNA origami as a tool for building complex nanoarchitectures and represents a new approach for precise tailoring of nanomaterial surfaces.
Co-reporter:Chenghua Song;Yejun Zhang;Chunyan Li;Guangcun Chen;Xiaofeng Kang
Advanced Functional Materials 2016 Volume 26( Issue 23) pp:4192-4200
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/adfm.201600417
Tumor angiogenesis is a hallmark of tumor growth and metastasis, and inhibition of tumor angiogenesis is an effective strategy for tumor therapy. The high expression levels of specific biomarkers such as integrin receptors (e.g., αvβ3) in the endothelium of tumor vessels make angiogenesis an ideal target for drug delivery and thus tumor therapy. Herein, a new nanodrug (T&D@RGD-Ag2S) is presented, which can effectively inhibit tumor growth by integrating the specific recognition peptide cyclo(Arg-Gly-Asp-d-Phe-Cys) (cRGD) for tumor vascular targeting, the broad-spectrum endothelial inhibitor O-(chloroacetyl-carbamoyl) fumagillol (TNP-470), and chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX) for synergetic tumor therapy. The results show that the T&D@RGD-Ag2S nanodrug rapidly and specifically binds to the tumor vasculature after intravenous injection. Tumor vascular density is greatly reduced following effective angiogenesis inhibition by TNP-470. Meanwhile, increased delivery of DOX deep into the tumor induces extensive tumor apoptosis, resulting in remarkable tumor growth inhibition in a human U87-MG malignant glioma xenograft model. In addition, the therapeutic effects of T&D@RGD-Ag2S on inhibiting tumor growth and decreasing vessel density are monitored in situ using near-infrared II (NIR-II) fluorescence imaging of Ag2S quantum dots. This tumor vasculature-targeted strategy can be extended as a general method for treating a broad range of tumors and holds promise for future clinical applications.
Co-reporter:Chenxin Wu, Yejun Zhang, Zhen Li, Chunyan Li and Qiangbin Wang
Nanoscale 2016 vol. 8(Issue 25) pp:12531-12539
Publication Date(Web):28 Jan 2016
DOI:10.1039/C6NR00060F
Atherosclerosis is a major cause of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases that have high mortality and disability rates. Because of its unclear pathogenic mechanism and heterogeneous distribution feature, it is still a big challenge to achieve precise diagnosis and therapy of atherosclerosis at its early stage in vivo. Herein, we fabricated a new ICG@PEG-Ag2S nanoprobe by a simple self-assembly of DT-Ag2S QDs, amphipathic C18/PEG polymer molecules and ICG. The ICG@PEG-Ag2S nanoprobe showed relatively long blood retention and was selectively accumulated in the region of atherosclerotic plaque due to the lipophilicity of the C18 chain to the atherosclerosis microenvironment, and thus the atherosclerosis was real-time monitored by high contrast-enhanced photoacoustic (PA) imaging of ICG. Combining the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and high spatial resolution fluorescence imaging of Ag2S QDs in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II) and related histological assessment in vitro, the feasibility of this new nanoprobe for atherosclerosis targeting in an Apoe−/− mouse model was verified. Additionally, hemolysis and coagulation assays of the ICG@PEG-Ag2S revealed its decent hemocompatibility and no histological changes were observed in the main organs of the mouse. Such a simple, multifunctional nanoprobe for targeting and PA imaging of atherosclerosis will have a great potential for future clinical applications.
Co-reporter:Kun Zhou, Sabine Eiben, and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2016 Volume 8(Issue 21) pp:13192-13196
Publication Date(Web):May 18, 2016
DOI:10.1021/acsami.6b04321
Using tobacco mosaic virus coat proteins (TMVcp) from both sources of the plant and bacterial expression systems as building blocks, we demonstrate here a coassembly strategy of TMV nanotubes in the presence of RNA. Specifically, plant-expressed cp (cpp) efficiently dominates the genomic RNA encapsidation to determine the length of assembled TMV nanotubes, whereas the incorporated Escherichia coli-expressed cp (cpec) improves the physical stability of TMV nanotubes by introducing disulfide bonds between the interfaces of subunits. We expect this coassembly strategy can be expanded to other virus nanomaterials to obtain desired properties based on rationally designed protein–RNA and protein–protein interfacial interactions.
Co-reporter:Hongchao Yang;Feng Hu;Yejun Zhang;Liyi Shi
Nano Research 2016 Volume 9( Issue 1) pp:207-213
Publication Date(Web):2016 January
DOI:10.1007/s12274-016-0982-4
In this article, we report a facile precursor pyrolysis method to prepare porous spinel-type cobalt manganese oxides (CoxMn3-xO4) with controllable morphologies and crystalline structures. The capping agent in the reaction was found to be crucial on the formation of the porous spinel cobalt manganese oxides from cubic Co2MnO4 nanorods to tetragonal Co2Mn4 microspheres and tetragonal Co2Mn4 cubes, respectively. All of the prepared spinel materials exhibit brilliant oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysis along with high stability. In particular, the cubic Co2MnO4 nanorods show the best performance with an onset potential of 0.9 V and a half-wave potential of 0.72 V which are very close to the commercial Pt/C. Meanwhile, the cubic Co2MnO4 nanorods present superior stability with negligible degradation of their electrocatalytic activity after a continuous operation time of 10,000 seconds, which is much better than the commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst.
Co-reporter:Xiang Lan and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2016 Volume 8(Issue 50) pp:
Publication Date(Web):November 29, 2016
DOI:10.1021/acsami.6b13280
To manipulate the chiroptical activity of plasmonic metal nanoparticles (MNPs) and control their hierarchical self-assembly are of great fundamental and technological significance; however, they remain a big challenge. Here, we in situ fabricated anisotropic bimetallic AuNR@Ag core–shell nanoparticles (AuNR@Ag NPs) capped with designed DNA molecules and systematically studied the plasmonic chiroptical properties of the individual AuNR@Ag NPs and their assemblies. The AuNR@Ag NPs were facilely prepared by employing DNA-capped Au nanorods (AuNRs) as seeds to grow Ag shells, and it was found that the as-prepared AuNR@Ag NP surfaces were encoded by the original DNA molecules through an in situ DNA “desorption and re-adsorption” dynamic process during shell overgrowth. This observation is distinctly different from the previous results that DNA molecules were embedded in the Ag shell. Interestingly, with this in situ DNA-mediated surface chemistry, plasmonic chiroptical activities were observed from individual AuNR@Ag NPs, and the chiroptical responses were conveniently manipulated over a broad optical window by simply modifying the shape anisotropy of the building blocks. Furthermore, the DNA molecules capped on the AuNR@Ag NP surface facilitate the hierarchical assembly of homogeneous and heterogeneous nanostructures with distinct chiral optical responses.Keywords: Au nanorod; chiral optics; DNA self-assembly; plasmonic nanoparticle; surface chemistry;
Co-reporter:Qiangbin Wang
Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine 2016 Volume 12(Issue 2) pp:464
Publication Date(Web):February 2016
DOI:10.1016/j.nano.2015.12.053
Co-reporter:Delu Li;Yejun Zhang;Lun Li;Feng Hu;Hongchao Yang
Science China Chemistry 2016 Volume 59( Issue 1) pp:122-127
Publication Date(Web):2016 January
DOI:10.1007/s11426-015-5439-1
In this work, a facile process was reported to fabricate amorphous carbon-coated MnO micropeanuts (MPs) with 1.8 µm in length and 1.0 µm in width using hydrothermal reaction followed by heat treatment in the oxygen-free environment. With MnCl2 and KMnO4 dissolved in the mixture of ethylene glycol and water, MnCO3 MP precursors were obtained via the hydrothermal reaction with dopamine as surfactant. Then MnCO3 MP was annealed at 600 °C in the N2 atmosphere and was transformed into MnO MP, and simultaneously the formed polydopamine during the hydrothermal reaction was carbonized to produce amorphous carbon-coating on the MnO MP surface. In contrast, MnCO3 nanoparticle (NP) precursor was formed without the addition of dopamine and MnO NP agglomerates were prepared after pyrolysis. The carbonization of polydopamine during thermolysis improves the electrical conductivity and thermal stability of the MnO MP and thus its electrochemical performance as electrode materials for lithium ion battery. Hopefully, this facile strategy for fabricating and designing carbon-coated materials would inspire more novel nanostructures and applications thereof.
Co-reporter:Hongchao Yang, Yejun Zhang, Feng Hu, and Qiangbin Wang
Nano Letters 2015 Volume 15(Issue 11) pp:7616-7620
Publication Date(Web):October 16, 2015
DOI:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b03446
High-performance electrocatalysts with superior stability are critically important for their practical applications in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Herein, we report a facile method to fabricate urchin-like CoP nanocrystals (NCs) as catalyst for both HER and ORR with desirable electrocatalytic activities and long-term stability. The urchin-like CoP NCs with a diameter of 5 μm were successfully prepared by a hydrothermal reaction following a phosphidation treatment in N2 atmosphere and present excellent HER catalytic performance with a low onset overpotential of 50 mV, a small Tafel slope of 46 mV/decade, and an exceptional low overpotential of ∼180 mV at a current density of 100 mA cm–2 with a mass loading density of 0.28 mg/cm2. Meanwhile, a remarkable ORR catalytic activity was observed with a half-potential of 0.7 V and an onset potential of 0.8 V at 1600 rpm and a scan rate of 5 mV s–1. More importantly, the urchin-like CoP NCs present superior stability and keep their catalytic activity for at least 10 000 CV cycles for HER in 0.5 M H2SO4 and over 30 000 s for ORR in 0.1 M KOH, which is ascribed to their robust three-dimensional structure. This urchin-like CoP NCs might be a promising replacement to the Pt-based electrocatalysts in water splitting and fuel cells.
Co-reporter:Chenqi Shen, Xiang Lan, Xuxing Lu, Weihai Ni and Qiangbin Wang
Chemical Communications 2015 vol. 51(Issue 71) pp:13627-13629
Publication Date(Web):21 Jul 2015
DOI:10.1039/C5CC05295E
A series of 3D AuNR dimers and trimers were fabricated under the guidance of DNA origami. By tuning the size, number and spatial configuration of AuNRs, their structural and componential asymmetries were rationally designed. Circular dichroism measurements showed that the resultant plasmonic chiroptical activities of these nanorod assemblies can be precisely tailored.
Co-reporter:Lingzhi Ma, Feng Li, Ti Fang, Jianting Zhang, and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2015 Volume 7(Issue 20) pp:11024
Publication Date(Web):May 6, 2015
DOI:10.1021/acsami.5b02823
Designed rational assembly of proteins promises novel properties and functionalities as well as new insights into the nature of life. De novo design of artificial protein nanostructures has been achieved using protein subunits or peptides as building blocks. However, controlled assembly of protein nanostructures into higher-order discrete nanoarchitectures, rather than infinite arrays or aggregates, remains a challenge due to the complex or symmetric surface chemistry of protein nanostructures. Here we develop a facile strategy to control the hierarchical assembly of protein nanocages into discrete nanoarchitectures with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as scaffolds via rationally designing their interfacial interaction. The protein nanocage is monofunctionalized with a polyhistidine tag (Histag) on the external surface through a mixed assembly strategy, while AuNPs are modified with Ni2+−NTA chelates, so that the protein nanocage can controllably assemble onto the AuNPs via the Histag−Ni2+ affinity. Discrete protein nanoarchitectures with tunable composition can be generated by stoichiometric control over the ratio of protein nanocage to AuNP or change of AuNP size. The methodology described here is extendable to other protein nanostructures and chemically synthesized nanomaterials, and can be borrowed by synthetic biology for biomacromolecule manipulation.Keywords: discrete nanoarchitecture; gold nanoparticle; monofunctionalization; protein nanostructure; self-assembly;
Co-reporter:Zhong Chen, Xiang Lan, Yu-Che Chiu, Xuxing Lu, Weihai Ni, Hanwei Gao, and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Photonics 2015 Volume 2(Issue 3) pp:
Publication Date(Web):February 3, 2015
DOI:10.1021/ph500434f
Asymmetric three-dimensional (3D) nanoarchitectures that cannot coincide with their mirrored-symmetric counterparts are known as chiral objects. Numerous studies have focused on chiral plasmonic nanoarchitectures created intentionally with 3D asymmetric configurations, whose plasmonic chirality is promising for various nanoplasmonic and nanophotonic applications. Here, we show that gold nanorod (AuNR) plasmonic nanoarchitectures assembled on a soft 2D DNA origami template, which was often simplified to be a rigid rectangle, can exhibit strong chiroptical activities. The slight flexibility of the origami templates was found to play a critical role in inducing the plasmonic chirality of the assembled nanoarchitectures. Our study set a new example of reflecting the native conformation of nanostructures using chiral spectroscopy and can inspire the exploration of the softness of DNA templates for the future design of assembled chiral nanoarchitectures.
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang;Qiufang Gong;Lun Li;Hongchao Yang;Yanguang Li
Nano Research 2015 Volume 8( Issue 4) pp:1108-1115
Publication Date(Web):2015 April
DOI:10.1007/s12274-014-0590-0
A facile colloidal route to synthesize MoSe2 porous microspheres with diameters of 400–600 nm made up of MoSe2 monolayer flakes (∼0.7 nm in thickness) is reported. The solvents trioctylamine (TOA) and oleylamine (OAM) are found to play important roles in the formation of MoSe2 microspheres, whereby TOA determines the three-dimensional (3D) microspherical morphology and OAM directs the formation of MoSe2 monolayer flakes. The robust 3D MoSe2 microspheres exhibit remarkable activity and durability for the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acid, maintaining a small onset overpotential of ∼77 mV and keeping a small overpotential of 100 mV for a current density of 5 mA/cm2 after 1,000 cycles. In addition, similar 3D WSe2 microspheres can also be prepared by using this method. We expect this facile colloidal route could further be expanded to synthesize other porous structures which will find applications in fields such as in energy storage, catalysis, and sensing.
Co-reporter:Feng Hu;Chunyan Li;Yejun Zhang;Mao Wang;Dongming Wu
Nano Research 2015 Volume 8( Issue 5) pp:1637-1647
Publication Date(Web):2015 May
DOI:10.1007/s12274-014-0653-2
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2015 Volume 119(Issue 3) pp:1496-1499
Publication Date(Web):December 23, 2014
DOI:10.1021/jp5113747
Alloying nanocrystals with multicomponent has been an effective way to tune the band gap of semiconductor nanocrystals, which promises their wide applications in optoelectronics, photovoltaics, etc. However, colloidal synthesis of homogeneous phase multicomponent nanocrystals in a large scale remains great challenge. Here, we declare the successful preparation of single-crystalline quaternary CuSb(SxSe1–x)2 nanosheets in a facile one-pot reaction with yield >3 g. The molar ratio of S/(S + Se) in CuSb(SxSe1–x)2 could be easily tuned from 1.5% to 13.7% by increasing the reaction temperature which enhances the reactivity of S source in the reaction, and accordingly, the band gap of the obtained CuSb(SxSe1–x)2 varies from 0.9 to 1.1 eV.
Co-reporter:Chunyan Li, Feng Li, Yejun Zhang, Wenjing Zhang, Xian-En Zhang, and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Nano 2015 Volume 9(Issue 12) pp:12255
Publication Date(Web):October 23, 2015
DOI:10.1021/acsnano.5b05503
Protein nanocages (PNCs) have been recognized as a promising platform for nanomedicine innovation. Real-time in vivo tracking of PNCs can provide critically important information for the development of PNC-based diagnostics and therapeutics. Here we demonstrate a general strategy for monitoring the behaviors of PNCs in vivo by encapsulating a Ag2S quantum dot (QD) with fluorescence in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm) inside the PNC, using simian virus 40 (SV40) PNC (PNCSV40) as a model. Benefiting from the high spatiotemporal resolution and deep tissue penetration of NIR-II fluorescence imaging, the dynamic distribution of the PNCSV40 in living mice was tracked in real time with high fidelity, and adopting the PEGylation strategy, surface chemistry-dependent in vivo behaviors of PNCSV40 were clearly revealed. This study represents the first evidence of real-time tracking of the intrinsic behaviors of PNCs in vivo without interference in PNC-host interactions by encapsulating nanoprobes inside. The as-described imaging strategy will facilitate the study of interactions between exogenously introduced PNCs and host body and prompt the development of future protein-based drugs, sensors, and high-efficacy targeted delivery systems.Keywords: Ag2S quantum dots; in vivo imaging; near-infrared fluorescence; protein nanocage; surface chemistry;
Co-reporter:Guangcun Chen, Fei Tian, Chunyan Li, Yejun Zhang, Zhen Weng, Yan Zhang, Rui Peng, Qiangbin Wang
Biomaterials 2015 53() pp: 265-273
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.02.090
Co-reporter:Xiang Lan; Xuxing Lu; Chenqi Shen; Yonggang Ke; Weihai Ni
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2014 Volume 137(Issue 1) pp:457-462
Publication Date(Web):December 16, 2014
DOI:10.1021/ja511333q
A great challenge for nanotechnology is to controllably organize anisotropic nanomaterials into well-defined three-dimensional superstructures with customized properties. Here we successfully constructed anisotropic Au nanorod (AuNR) helical superstructures (helices) with tailored chirality in a programmable manner. By designing the ‘X’ pattern of the arrangement of DNA capturing strands (15nt) on both sides of a two-dimensional DNA origami template, AuNRs functionalized with the complementary DNA sequences were positioned on the origami and were assembled into AuNR helices with the origami intercalated between neighboring AuNRs. Left-handed (LH) and right-handed (RH) AuNR helices were conveniently accomplished by solely tuning the mirrored-symmetric ‘X’ patterns of capturing strands on the origami. The inter-rod distance was precisely defined as 14 nm and inter-rod angle as 45°, thus a full helix contains 9 AuNRs with its length up to about 220 nm. By changing the AuNR/origami molar ratio in the assembly system, the average number of AuNR in the helices was tuned from 2 to 4 and 9. Intense chiroptical activities arose from the longest AuNR helices with a maximum anisotropy factor of ∼0.02, which is highly comparable to the reported macroscopic AuNR assemblies. We expect that our strategy of origami templated assembly of anisotropic chiral superstructures would inspire the bottom-up fabrication of optically active nanostructures and shed light on a variety of applications, such as chiral fluids, chiral signal amplification, and fluorescence combined chiral spectroscopy.
Co-reporter:Guangcun Chen;Fei Tian;Yan Zhang;Yejun Zhang;Chunyan Li
Advanced Functional Materials 2014 Volume 24( Issue 17) pp:2481-2488
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/adfm.201303263
Stem cell therapeutics has emerged as a novel regenerative therapy for tissue repair in the last decade. However, dynamically tracking the transplanted stem cells in vivo remains a grand challenge for stem cell-based regeneration medicine in full understanding the function and the fate of the stem cells. Herein, Ag2S quantum dots (QDs) in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1.0–1.4 μm) are employed for dynamically tracking of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) in vivo with high sensitivity and high spatial and temporal resolution. As few as 1000 Ag2S QDs-labeled hMSCs are detectable in vivo and their fluorescence intensity can maintain up to 30 days. The in situ translocation and dynamic distribution of transplanted hMSCs in the lung and liver can be monitored up to 14 days with a temporal resolution of 100 ms. The in vivo high-resolution imaging indicates the heparin-facilitated translocation of hMSCs from lung to liver as well as the long-term retention of hMSCs in the liver contribute to the treatment of liver failure. The novel NIR-II imaging offers a possibility of tracking stem cells in living animals with both high spatial and temporal resolution, and encourages the future clinical applications in imaging-guided cell therapies.
Co-reporter:Xiang Lan and Qiangbin Wang
NPG Asia Materials 2014 6(4) pp:e97
Publication Date(Web):2014-04-01
DOI:10.1038/am.2014.16
Rational design and self-assembly of photonic nanoarchitectures with well-defined structures and geometries allows precisely manipulating light on the nanoscale, which has been the focus of nanophotonics in recent decades. DNA self-assembly is a powerful strategy in constructing desired photonic nanoarchitectures owing to the unique structural features of DNA, such as programmable sequence, predictable structure and precise molecule length (0.34 nm bp−1). The high addressability of DNA nanoscaffolds enables fine control over the locations of the photonic building blocks and thus the structure and geometry of the assembled photonic nanoarchitectures, which facilitates the quantitative study of the interactions among these photonic building blocks that are precisely organized on the DNA nanoscaffolds. This review summarizes the recent achievements in DNA-programmed self-assembly of photonic nanoarchitectures, where metallic nanocrystals and semiconductor quantum dots act as building blocks and are assembled into homo- and hetero-nanoarchitectures from one to two and three dimensions.
Co-reporter:Gaole Dai, Xuxing Lu, Zhong Chen, Chun Meng, Weihai Ni, and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2014 Volume 6(Issue 8) pp:5388
Publication Date(Web):April 9, 2014
DOI:10.1021/am501599f
Discrete, three-dimensional (3D) gold nanoparticle (AuNP) tetrahedron nanoarchitectures are successfully self-assembled with DNA origami as template with high purity (>85%). A distinct plasmonic chiral response is experimentally observed from the AuNP tetrahedron nanoarchitectures and appears in a configuration-dependent manner. The chiral optical properties are then rationally engineered by modifying the structural parameters including the AuNP size and interparticle distance. Theoretical study of the AuNP tetrahedron nanoarchitectures shows the dependence of the chiral optical property on the AuNP size and interparticle distance, consistent with the ensemble averaged measurements.Keywords: chiral optical property; DNA self-assembly; gold nanoparticle; tetrahedron nanostructure;
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang, Shuling Shen and Qiangbin Wang
CrystEngComm 2014 vol. 16(Issue 40) pp:9501-9505
Publication Date(Web):27 May 2014
DOI:10.1039/C4CE00694A
High quality Ag2S–CdS heteronanostructures were prepared via a facile one-pot method, which is based on the co-thermal decomposition of two single-source precursors of (C2H5)2NCS2Ag and ((C2H5)2NCS2)2Cd in a mixture of oleylamine and oleic acid. Ag2S–CdS heteronanostructures with spherical and matchstick-like structures can be easily obtained in high yields by careful control of the growth kinetics. It was found that oleic acid is conducive to the formation of spherical Ag2S–CdS heteronanostructures and oleylamine helps towards the formation of matchstick-like Ag2S–CdS heteronanostructures. Variable-temperature powder X-ray diffraction studies confirmed the heteroepitaxial growth of CdS on tiny Ag2S nanocrystals, in which the Ag2S nanocrystal plays a catalytic role in the epitaxial growth of the CdS segments.
Co-reporter:Manjiao Deng, Shuling Shen, Yejun Zhang, Huarui Xu and Qiangbin Wang
New Journal of Chemistry 2014 vol. 38(Issue 1) pp:77-83
Publication Date(Web):03 Oct 2013
DOI:10.1039/C3NJ00928A
Ternary metal sulfide nanocrystals (TMS NCs) have drawn intense attention for their wide applications in photovoltaics and nanophotonics, etc. However, a facile and general method for controlled synthesis of TMS NCs with uniform size and pure crystal phase is yet to be realized. Here we report a simple and versatile one-pot method for preparing high quality TMS NCs with controlled morphologies, sizes, crystalline structures and compositions, including orthorhombic Cu3BiS3 nanosheets and nanoparticles, orthorhombic Cu4Bi4S9 nanowires and nanoribbons, wurtzite CuInS2 nanopencils, cubic AgBiS2 nanocubes, orthorhombic Ag8SnS6 nanoparticles, and orthorhombic Cu3SnS4 nanorods, based on the co-thermal decomposition of metal-diethyl dithiocarbamate (metal-DDTC) precursors. We expect that this methodology will be broadly applicable for synthesizing new metal sulfide NCs and play an important role in exploring their new properties for various applications.
Co-reporter:Chunyan Li, Yejun Zhang, Mao Wang, Yan Zhang, Guangcun Chen, Lun Li, Dongmin Wu, Qiangbin Wang
Biomaterials 2014 35(1) pp: 393-400
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.10.010
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang ; Yongsheng Liu ; Chunyan Li ; Xueyuan Chen
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2014 Volume 118(Issue 9) pp:4918-4923
Publication Date(Web):February 19, 2014
DOI:10.1021/jp501266d
Ag2S quantum dots (QDs) have attracted increasing attention due to their appealing optical properties in the near-infrared regime. However, a full understanding of the quantum confinement effect of Ag2S QDs has not been achieved so far. Herein, for the first time, the size-dependent excited state optical properties of Ag2S QDs are systematically investigated by photoluminescence (PL), PL excitation (PLE), and time-resolved PL spectroscopy. Experimentally, we determine the exciton Bohr radius of Ag2S QDs as 2.2 nm, which is highly consistent with theoretical results.
Co-reporter:Fei Tian, Guangcun Chen, Peiwei Yi, Jichao Zhang, Aiguo Li, Jing Zhang, Lirong Zheng, Zongwu Deng, Qin Shi, Rui Peng, Qiangbin Wang
Biomaterials 2014 35(24) pp: 6412-6421
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2014.04.052
Co-reporter:Xiang Lan ; Zhong Chen ; Gaole Dai ; Xuxing Lu ; Weihai Ni
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2013 Volume 135(Issue 31) pp:11441-11444
Publication Date(Web):July 23, 2013
DOI:10.1021/ja404354c
Discrete three-dimensional (3D) plasmonic nanoarchitectures with well-defined spatial configuration and geometry have aroused increasing interest, as new optical properties may originate from plasmon resonance coupling within the nanoarchitectures. Although spherical building blocks have been successfully employed in constructing 3D plasmonic nanoarchitectures because their isotropic nature facilitates unoriented localization, it still remains challenging to assemble anisotropic building blocks into discrete and rationally tailored 3D plasmonic nanoarchitectures. Here we report the first example of discrete 3D anisotropic gold nanorod (AuNR) dimer nanoarchitectures formed using bifacial DNA origami as a template, in which the 3D spatial configuration is precisely tuned by rationally shifting the location of AuNRs on the origami template. A distinct plasmonic chiral response was experimentally observed from the discrete 3D AuNR dimer nanoarchitectures and appeared in a spatial-configuration-dependent manner. This study represents great progress in the fabrication of 3D plasmonic nanoarchitectures with tailored optical chirality.
Co-reporter:Lun Li ; Zhong Chen ; Ying Hu ; Xuewen Wang ; Ting Zhang ; Wei Chen
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2013 Volume 135(Issue 4) pp:1213-1216
Publication Date(Web):January 12, 2013
DOI:10.1021/ja3108017
Single-layer single-crystalline SnSe nanosheet with four-atomic thickness of ∼1.0 nm and lateral size of ∼300 nm is presented here by using a one-pot synthetic method. It is found that 1,10-phenanthroline plays an important role in determining the morphology of the SnSe product as three-dimensional SnSe nanoflowers are obtained in the absence of 1,10-phenanthroline while keeping other reaction parameters the same. The evolution process study discloses that single-crystalline nanosheets are obtained from the coalescence of the SnSe nucleus in an orientated attachment mechanism. Band gap determination and optoelectronic test based on hybrid films of SnSe and poly(3-hexylthiophene) indicate the great potential of the ultrathin SnSe nanosheets in photodector and photovoltaic, and so forth.
Co-reporter:Bohua Dong, Chunyan Li, Guangcun Chen, Yejun Zhang, Yan Zhang, Manjiao Deng, and Qiangbin Wang
Chemistry of Materials 2013 Volume 25(Issue 12) pp:2503
Publication Date(Web):May 24, 2013
DOI:10.1021/cm400812v
A facile solvothermal method is reported to synthesize highly photoluminescent Ag2Se quantum dots (QDs) with emission at 1300 nm in the second near-infrared window. After surface modification of C18-PMH-PEG, the Ag2Se QDs possess bright photoluminescence, good water-solubility, high colloidal stability and photostability, as well as decent biocompatibility, which are further successfully performed in in vivo deep imaging of organs and vascular structures with high spatial resolution. This new NIR-II fluorescent nanoprobe with small sizes, ideal optical properties, and decent biocompatibility opens up exciting opportunities for future biomedical applications.Keywords: Ag2Se quantum dot; fluorescence; in vivo imaging; near-infrared;
Co-reporter:Shuling Shen and Qiangbin Wang
Chemistry of Materials 2013 Volume 25(Issue 8) pp:1166
Publication Date(Web):November 19, 2012
DOI:10.1021/cm302482d
This short review provides an overview of recent progress in rational tuning of the optical properties of metal sulfide nanocrystals. Three kinds of tuning strategy are discussed in detail: composition control, doping, and manufacturing heterostructured metal sulfide nanocrystals. We lay emphases on the tuning of optical properties of metal sulfide nanocrystals and the novel properties generating during these tuning processes that have provided scientists with new opportunities for tailoring and designing the properties of metal sulfide nanocrystals. Examples of applications of metal sulfide nanomaterials with unique optical properties are provided to demonstrate the end goals of such research.Keywords: applications; band gap tuning; metal sulfide; optical property;
Co-reporter:Xiang Lan, Zhong Chen, Xuxing Lu, Gaole Dai, Weihai Ni, and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2013 Volume 5(Issue 21) pp:10423
Publication Date(Web):October 11, 2013
DOI:10.1021/am404016h
Gold nanodimers (GNDs) are assembled with high uniformity as ideal surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates through DNA-directed self-assembly of gold nanoparticles. The interparticle distance within GNDs is precisely tailored on the order of a few nanometers with changing the molecule length of DNA bridge. The ensemble SERS activity of monodispersed GNDs is then rationally engineered by modifying the structural parameters of GNDs including the particle size and interparticle distance. Theoretical studies on the level of single GND evidence the particle size- and interparticle-distance-dependent SERS effects, consistent with the ensemble averaged measurements.Keywords: DNA self-assembly; gold nanoparticle; nanostructure; surface-enhanced Raman scattering;
Co-reporter:Dongying Xu ; Shuling Shen ; Yejun Zhang ; Hongwei Gu
Inorganic Chemistry 2013 Volume 52(Issue 22) pp:12958-12962
Publication Date(Web):October 31, 2013
DOI:10.1021/ic401291a
Ternary copper–antimony sulfide nanocrystals (CAS NCs) have attracted increasing attention in photovoltaics and photoelectric nanodevices due to their tunable band gaps in the near-IR regime. Although much progress in the synthesis of CAS NCs has been achieved, the selective synthesis of CAS NCs with controllable morphologies and compositions is preliminary: in particular, a facile method is still in demand. In this work, we have successfully selectively synthesized high-quality CAS NCs with diverse morphologies, compositions, and band gaps, including rectangular CuSbS2 nanosheets (NSs), trigonal-pyramidal Cu12Sb4S13 NCs, and rhombic Cu3SbS3 NSs, by cothermodecomposition of copper diethyldithiocarbamate trihydrate (Cu(Ddtc)2) and antimony diethyldithiocarbamate trihydrate (Sb(Ddtc)3). The direct and indirect band gaps of the obtained CAS NCs were systematically studied by performing Kubelka–Munk transformations of their solid-state diffuse reflectance spectra.
Co-reporter:Manjiao Deng, Shuling Shen, Xuewen Wang, Yejun Zhang, Huarui Xu, Ting Zhang and Qiangbin Wang
CrystEngComm 2013 vol. 15(Issue 33) pp:6443-6447
Publication Date(Web):18 Mar 2013
DOI:10.1039/C3CE40173A
High quality AgInS2 nanocrystals (NCs) are synthesized using a simple single-source precursor method, in which the size and morphology of the products can be precisely controlled from heliotrope seed-like NCs of 6 × 12 nm to heliotrope seed-like dimer NCs of 8 × 16 nm by tuning the composition of the coordinating solvents of oleic acid and 1-dodecanethiol. The results show that 1-dodecanethiol plays a dominant role in determining the morphology of AgInS2 NCs due to its strong absorption onto the {001} crystal plane of AgInS2 NCs. The photoelectric properties of the as-prepared AgInS2 NCs have been characterized using AgInS2-poly(3-hexylthiophene) hybrid nanodevices. The results illustrate that the AgInS2 NCs present very high photosensitivity and photostability to outside illumination. The high sensitivity and stability of the hybrid nanodevice indicate a broad spectrum of applications in the photoelectric nanodevices.
Co-reporter:Yan Zhang, Yejun Zhang, Guosong Hong, Wei He, Kun Zhou, Kai Yang, Feng Li, Guangcun Chen, Zhuang Liu, Hongjie Dai, Qiangbin Wang
Biomaterials 2013 34(14) pp: 3639-3646
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.01.089
Co-reporter:Kun Zhou, Feng Li, Gaole Dai, Chun Meng, and Qiangbin Wang
Biomacromolecules 2013 Volume 14(Issue 8) pp:
Publication Date(Web):June 13, 2013
DOI:10.1021/bm400445m
Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a classical viral nanoarchitecture that has been extensively employed as a promising template for the fabrication of novel nanomaterials and nanostructures. Despite being an ideal source, the Escherichia coli-derived TMV nanorod is suffering from tenuous assembly capability and stability. Inspired by the disulfide bond widely employed in biosystems, here we rationally introduce a cysteine into TMV coat protein (TMV-CP) to enable disulfide bond formation between adjacent subunits, thereby radically altering the behaviors of original noncovalent assembling system of wild type TMV-CP. The dramatically enhanced self-assembly capability and stability of the engineered TMV nanorods are observed and the essential roles of disulfide bonds are verified, illustrating a promising strategy to obtain desired genetic-modified nanorods that are inaccessible in plants. We expect this work will benefit the development of TMV-based nanotechnology and encourage the utilization of disulfide bonds in other biomacromolecules for improved properties as nanoscaffolds.
Co-reporter:Lun Li and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Nano 2013 Volume 7(Issue 4) pp:3053
Publication Date(Web):March 23, 2013
DOI:10.1021/nn304450b
Uniform lamellar silver nanoleaves (AgNLs) were spontaneously assembled from 4 nm silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with p-aminothiophenol (PATP) as mediator under mild shaking at room temperature. The compositions of the AgNLs were verified to be ∼1 nm Ag25 nanoclusters and PATP molecules in quinonoid model. The underlying assembly mechanism was systematically investigated and a two-step reaction process was proposed. First, the 4 nm AgNPs were quickly etched to ∼1 nm Ag25 nanoclusters by PATP in the form of [Ag25(PATP)n]n+ (n < 12), which were then further electrostatically or covalently interconnected by PATP to form the repeated unit cells of [Ag25(PATP)n−1](n−1)+–PATP–[Ag25(PATP)n−1](n−1)+ (abbreviated as Ag25–PATP–Ag25). Second, these Ag25–PATP–Ag25 complexes were employed as building blocks to construct lamellar AgNLs under the directions of the strong dipole–dipole interaction and the π–π stacking force between the neighboring benzene rings of PATP. Different reaction parameters including the types and concentrations of ligands, solvents, reaction temperature, ionic strength, and pH, etc., were carefully studied to confirm this mechanism. Finally, the preliminary investigations of the applications for AgNLs as “molecular junctions” and SERS properties were demonstrated. We expect that this convenient and simple method can be in principle extended to other systems, or even mixture system with different types of NPs, and will provide an important avenue for designing metamaterials and exploring their physicochemical properties.Keywords: lamellar nanostructures; metamaterials; self-assembly; silver nanoleaves; silver nanoparticles
Co-reporter:Peiwei Yi, Guangcun Chen, Hailu Zhang, Fei Tian, Bo Tan, Jianwu Dai, Qiangbin Wang, Zongwu Deng
Biomaterials 2013 34(12) pp: 3010-3019
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.01.022
Co-reporter:Shuling Shen, Yejun Zhang, Yongsheng Liu, Long Peng, Xueyuan Chen, and Qiangbin Wang
Chemistry of Materials 2012 Volume 24(Issue 12) pp:2407
Publication Date(Web):May 31, 2012
DOI:10.1021/cm301342z
Doping semiconductor nanocrystals and integrating disparate components together are two effective ways for modulating the optical properties of semiconductor nanocrystals. For the first time, we successfully synthesized Mn-doped Ag2S-ZnS heteronanostructures (HNSs) by combining these two strategies together. The obtained Mn-doped Ag2S-ZnS HNSs exhibit multicolor emissions of blue, orange, and near-infrared (NIR), in which the blue emission originates from ZnS trap state, the orange emission is induced by the 4T1–6A1 transition in Mn2+ dopant, and the NIR emission is attributed to the band gap emission of Ag2S. Reaction temperature-dependent and Mn2+ dopant concentration-dependent optical properties, as well as the growth kinetics of Ag2S-ZnS HNSs during doping process, were systemically studied to achieve the desirable optical properties and preserve well-defined HNSs simultaneously. We expect that the prepared Mn-doped Ag2S-ZnS HNSs with tunable multicolor emissions will create numerous opportunities for potential applications in bioimaging and optoelectronic devices, and the facile methodology modulating Ag2S-ZnS HNSs with desirable properties will be general and be ready to other complex semiconductor nanostructures.Keywords: Ag2S; heteronanostructures; manganese dopant; multicolor emissions; ZnS;
Co-reporter:Lun Li, Feng Hu, Dongying Xu, Shuling Shen and Qiangbin Wang
Chemical Communications 2012 vol. 48(Issue 39) pp:4728-4730
Publication Date(Web):20 Mar 2012
DOI:10.1039/C2CC18152E
A facile method is developed to prepare monodisperse silver nanoparticles in a much enhanced yield by adding a trace amount of Fe3+ ions into the reaction of AgNO3 with oleic acid and oleylamine. We propose that Fe2+ ions speed up the nucleation and growth of silver nanoparticles due to the electron-transfer between Ag+ and Fe2+, in which Fe2+ is from Fe3+ reduced by oleylamine.
Co-reporter:Long Peng, Shuling Shen, Yejun Zhang, Huarui Xu, Qiangbin Wang
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 2012 Volume 377(Issue 1) pp:13-17
Publication Date(Web):1 July 2012
DOI:10.1016/j.jcis.2012.03.052
A facile single-source precursor method has been applied for the selective synthesis of MnS nanocrystals (NCs) with well-defined shapes and crystal structures such as hexapod, octahedral, hexagonal shaped α-MnS NCs, and pencil-shaped γ-MnS NCs. The effects of the composition of precursor, reaction temperature, and the heating rate on the morphologies, and crystal structures of MnS NCs were systematically studied for the first time.Graphical abstractHighlights► High quality MnS NCs are synthesized using a facile single-source precursor method. ► MnS NCs with well-defined shapes and crystal structures can be selectively synthesized. ► Precursor, temperature, and heating rate play key roles in the synthesis of MnS NCs.
Co-reporter:Lun Li, Jie Sun, Xiaoran Li, Yan Zhang, Zhaoxu Wang, Chunren Wang, Jianwu Dai, Qiangbin Wang
Biomaterials 2012 33(6) pp: 1714-1721
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.11.030
Co-reporter:Guosong Hong;Dr. Joshua T. Robinson;Yejun Zhang;Shuo Diao;Alexer L. Antaris; Qiangbin Wang; Hongjie Dai
Angewandte Chemie 2012 Volume 124( Issue 39) pp:9956-9959
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/ange.201206059
Co-reporter:Yan Zhang, Guosong Hong, Yejun Zhang, Guangcun Chen, Feng Li, Hongjie Dai, and Qiangbin Wang
ACS Nano 2012 Volume 6(Issue 5) pp:3695
Publication Date(Web):April 20, 2012
DOI:10.1021/nn301218z
Ag2S quantum dots (QDs) emitting in the second near-infrared region (NIR-II, 1.0–1.4 μm) are demonstrated as a promising fluorescent probe with both bright photoluminescence and high biocompatibility for the first time. Highly selective in vitro targeting and imaging of different cell lines are achieved using biocompatible NIR-II Ag2S QDs with different targeting ligands. The cytotoxicity study illustrates the Ag2S QDs with negligible effects in altering cell proliferation, triggering apoptosis and necrosis, generating reactive oxygen species, and causing DNA damage. Our results have opened up the possibilities of using these biocompatible Ag2S QDs for in vivo anatomical imaging and early stage tumor diagnosis with deep tissue penetration, high sensitivity, and elevated spatial and temporal resolution owing to their high emission efficiency in the unique NIR-II imaging window.Keywords: Ag2S quantum dot; biocompatibility; cellular imaging; cytotoxicity; near-infrared
Co-reporter:Guosong Hong;Dr. Joshua T. Robinson;Yejun Zhang;Shuo Diao;Alexer L. Antaris; Qiangbin Wang; Hongjie Dai
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2012 Volume 51( Issue 39) pp:9818-9821
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/anie.201206059
Co-reporter:Feng Li ; Yanhua Chen ; Huiling Chen ; Wei He ; Zhi-Ping Zhang ; Xian-En Zhang
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2011 Volume 133(Issue 50) pp:20040-20043
Publication Date(Web):November 10, 2011
DOI:10.1021/ja207276g
Surface monofunctionalization of protein nanostructures will enable precise topological control over the protein-templated assembly of nanoscale motifs, however, this remains a formidable challenge. Here we demonstrated a novel strategy for this purpose with a protein nanocage, virus-based nanoparticle (VNP) of simian virus 40 as a model system. By simultaneously incorporating a function modality (cysteine) and a purification modality (polyhistidine tag) into the building block (VP1) of VNPs through rational design and genetic engineering, the monofunctionalized cysteine-VNPs are readily obtained through a routine affinity chromatography in virtue of the purification modality of polyhistidine tag, after the coassembly of the functional VP1 and the nonfunctional VP1 at an optimal ratio. This strategy has proved to be highly efficient in constructing monofunctionalized protein nanostructures as highlighted by the monofunctionalized-VNP-guided Au/QD-VNP nanostructures. These nanostructures could be utilized in a wide range of disciplines, including basic biological research, novel nanostructures, and nanodevices fabrication, etc.
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang, Jun Lu, Shuling Shen, Huarui Xu and Qiangbin Wang
Chemical Communications 2011 vol. 47(Issue 18) pp:5226-5228
Publication Date(Web):22 Mar 2011
DOI:10.1039/C0CC05528J
Uniform ultralarge single crystal SnS rectangular nanosheets (7000 nm × 3000 nm × 20 nm) have been synthesized by thermodecomposing a single-source precursor (Sn-diethyldithiocarbamate-1,10-phenanthroline). The obtained SnS nanosheets exhibit excellent electrochemical properties which have promising applications in lithium ion batteries.
Co-reporter:Shuling Shen, Yejun Zhang, Long Peng, Bing Xu, Yaping Du, Manjiao Deng, Huarui Xu and Qiangbin Wang
CrystEngComm 2011 vol. 13(Issue 14) pp:4572-4579
Publication Date(Web):09 May 2011
DOI:10.1039/C0CE00982B
A general and facile method is reported for the synthesis of a wide range of metal sulfide nanocrystals including silver sulfide, zinc sulfide, cadmium sulfide, lead sulfide, bismuth sulfide, tin sulfide, iron sulfide and copper sulfide, etc. This method is based on the thermal decomposition of single-source precursors composed of metal-diethyldithiocarbamate in solution phase. By this method, not only the size and shape but also the chemical composition of the products can be easily controlled. Furthermore, these as-synthesized metal sulfides with different sizes, shapes and chemical compositions exhibit novel optical, electronic and magnetic properties, such as near-infrared (NIR) photoluminescence (PL), strong ferromagnetism and excellent electrochemical properties. We expect that this facile methodology for metal sulfides synthesis can be generalized to other nanocrystals synthesis, and be of high importance to explore the new properties.
Co-reporter:Dr. Shuling Shen;Yejun Zhang;Long Peng;Dr. Yaping Du ;Dr. Qiangbin Wang
Angewandte Chemie 2011 Volume 123( Issue 31) pp:7253-7256
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/ange.201101084
Co-reporter:Dr. Feng Li;Ding Gao;Dr. Xiaomin Zhai;Yanhua Chen;Dr. Tao Fu;Dr. Dongmin Wu; Zhi-Ping Zhang;Dr. Xian-En Zhang;Dr. Qiangbin Wang
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2011 Volume 50( Issue 18) pp:4202-4205
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/anie.201007433
Co-reporter:Dr. Shuling Shen;Yejun Zhang;Long Peng;Dr. Yaping Du ;Dr. Qiangbin Wang
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2011 Volume 50( Issue 31) pp:7115-7118
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/anie.201101084
Co-reporter:Yaping Du ; Bing Xu ; Tao Fu ; Miao Cai ; Feng Li ; Yan Zhang
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2010 Volume 132(Issue 5) pp:1470-1471
Publication Date(Web):January 15, 2010
DOI:10.1021/ja909490r
Monodisperse Ag2S quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized via pyrolysis of Ag(DDTC) in oleic acid, octadecylamine, and 1-octadecene. The uniform alkyl-capped Ag2S QDs with a size of 10.2 nm emit near-IR emission at 1058 nm under 785 nm excitation.
Co-reporter:Qiangbin Wang, Haining Wang, Chenxiang Lin, Jaswinder Sharma, Shengli Zou and Yan Liu
Chemical Communications 2010 vol. 46(Issue 2) pp:240-242
Publication Date(Web):18 Nov 2009
DOI:10.1039/B915712C
Discrete nanostructures of CdSe@ZnS QDs and Au NPs were prepared and the photonic interactions between the QDs and Au NPs were systematically investigated. We found that the Au/QD ratio, separation distances between Au NPs and QDs, and the size of the Au NPs in a given discrete nanostructure all affect the interaction between Au NPs and QDs.
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang, Huarui Xu and Qiangbin Wang
Chemical Communications 2010 vol. 46(Issue 47) pp:8941-8943
Publication Date(Web):04 Nov 2010
DOI:10.1039/C0CC02549F
A facile synthesis of ultrathin single crystal ZnS nanowires with an average diameter of 4.4 nm in high yield (close to 100%) was firstly reported through the pyrolysis of a single-source precursor (zinc diethyldithiocarbamate). The obtained ultrathin ZnS nanowires exhibit good optical properties and hold promise for future applications in nanodevices.
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang, Yaping Du, Huarui Xu and Qiangbin Wang
CrystEngComm 2010 vol. 12(Issue 11) pp:3658-3663
Publication Date(Web):07 Jul 2010
DOI:10.1039/C002824J
Iron sulfide nanostructures with diverse shapes (nanoparticles, nanoribbons and nanoplates) have been synthesized via a single-source precursor of Fe(Ddtc)3 or Fe(Ddtc)2(Phen) (Phen = 1,10-phenanthroline; Ddtc = diethyldithiocarbamate) in the mixture solvents of oleic acid (OA)/oleylamine (OM)/1-octadecene (ODE). The chemical compositions of the as-formed iron sulfide nanostructures are found to be determined by the valencies of iron in the precursors. For phase-pure Fe3S4 and Fe7S8 nanostructures, their shape-selective syntheses could be realized mainly by modifying the ratio of reaction solvent compositions and the chemical composition of precursors. The growth of nanoparticles and nanoplates of iron sulfide is likely due to the selective adsorption of the capping ligands on specific crystal planes of the nanocrystals. Meanwhile, for FeSx nanoribbons, the growth of nanoribbons may come from the template-direction of micellar structures formed by self-assembly of capping ligands. Furthermore, the Fe3S4 and Fe7S8 nanostructures display strong ferromagnetic properties at room temperature.
Co-reporter:Miao Cai;Feng Li;Yan Zhang
Nano Research 2010 Volume 3( Issue 8) pp:557-563
Publication Date(Web):2010 August
DOI:10.1007/s12274-010-0016-6
We report a novel method for rapid, colorimetric detection of a specific deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence by carrying out a polymerase chain reaction in the presence of gold nanoparticles functionalized with two primers. Extension of the primers when the target DNA is present as a template during the polymerase chain reaction process affords the complementary sequences on the gold nanoparticle surfaces and results in the formation of gold nanoparticle aggregates with a concomitant color change from red to pinkish/purple. This method provides a convenient and straightforward solution for ultrasensitive DNA detection without any further post-treatment of the polymerase chain reaction products being necessary, and is a promising tool for rapid disease diagnostics and gene sequencing.
Co-reporter:Chenqi Shen, Xiang Lan, Xuxing Lu, Weihai Ni and Qiangbin Wang
Chemical Communications 2015 - vol. 51(Issue 71) pp:NaN13629-13629
Publication Date(Web):2015/07/21
DOI:10.1039/C5CC05295E
A series of 3D AuNR dimers and trimers were fabricated under the guidance of DNA origami. By tuning the size, number and spatial configuration of AuNRs, their structural and componential asymmetries were rationally designed. Circular dichroism measurements showed that the resultant plasmonic chiroptical activities of these nanorod assemblies can be precisely tailored.
Co-reporter:Lun Li, Feng Hu, Dongying Xu, Shuling Shen and Qiangbin Wang
Chemical Communications 2012 - vol. 48(Issue 39) pp:NaN4730-4730
Publication Date(Web):2012/03/20
DOI:10.1039/C2CC18152E
A facile method is developed to prepare monodisperse silver nanoparticles in a much enhanced yield by adding a trace amount of Fe3+ ions into the reaction of AgNO3 with oleic acid and oleylamine. We propose that Fe2+ ions speed up the nucleation and growth of silver nanoparticles due to the electron-transfer between Ag+ and Fe2+, in which Fe2+ is from Fe3+ reduced by oleylamine.
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang, Jun Lu, Shuling Shen, Huarui Xu and Qiangbin Wang
Chemical Communications 2011 - vol. 47(Issue 18) pp:NaN5228-5228
Publication Date(Web):2011/03/22
DOI:10.1039/C0CC05528J
Uniform ultralarge single crystal SnS rectangular nanosheets (7000 nm × 3000 nm × 20 nm) have been synthesized by thermodecomposing a single-source precursor (Sn-diethyldithiocarbamate-1,10-phenanthroline). The obtained SnS nanosheets exhibit excellent electrochemical properties which have promising applications in lithium ion batteries.
Co-reporter:Qiangbin Wang, Haining Wang, Chenxiang Lin, Jaswinder Sharma, Shengli Zou and Yan Liu
Chemical Communications 2010 - vol. 46(Issue 2) pp:NaN242-242
Publication Date(Web):2009/11/18
DOI:10.1039/B915712C
Discrete nanostructures of CdSe@ZnS QDs and Au NPs were prepared and the photonic interactions between the QDs and Au NPs were systematically investigated. We found that the Au/QD ratio, separation distances between Au NPs and QDs, and the size of the Au NPs in a given discrete nanostructure all affect the interaction between Au NPs and QDs.
Co-reporter:Yejun Zhang, Huarui Xu and Qiangbin Wang
Chemical Communications 2010 - vol. 46(Issue 47) pp:NaN8943-8943
Publication Date(Web):2010/11/04
DOI:10.1039/C0CC02549F
A facile synthesis of ultrathin single crystal ZnS nanowires with an average diameter of 4.4 nm in high yield (close to 100%) was firstly reported through the pyrolysis of a single-source precursor (zinc diethyldithiocarbamate). The obtained ultrathin ZnS nanowires exhibit good optical properties and hold promise for future applications in nanodevices.
![1,4,7,10-Tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7-triacetic acid,10-[2-[(2,5-dioxo-1-pyrrolidinyl)oxy]-2-oxoethyl]-](http://img.cochemist.com/ccimg/171000/170908-81-3.png)
![1,4,7,10-Tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7-triacetic acid,10-[2-[(2,5-dioxo-1-pyrrolidinyl)oxy]-2-oxoethyl]-](http://img.cochemist.com/ccimg/171000/170908-81-3_b.png)
![Cyclohexanecarboxylic acid, 4-[(2,5-dihydro-2,5-dioxo-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)methyl]-, 2,5-dioxo-3-sulfo-1-pyrrolidinyl ester](/data/chemimg/105000/103708-09-4.png)
![Cyclohexanecarboxylic acid, 4-[(2,5-dihydro-2,5-dioxo-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)methyl]-, 2,5-dioxo-3-sulfo-1-pyrrolidinyl ester](/data/chemimg/105000/103708-09-4_b.png)
