Thermo-responsive and aqueous dispersible ZnO/PNIPAM core/shell nanoparticles.

In this work, we developed a new process to covalently graft a thermoresponsive polymer on the surface of fluorescent nanocrystals in order to synthesize materials that combine both responsive and fluorescent properties. For the first time, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) was grown by activator regenerated by electron transfer-atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET-ATRP) from ZnO quantum dots (QDs) by surface-initiated polymerization. This process allowed the formation of fluorescent and responsive ZnO/PNIPAM core/shell QDs while only requiring the use of a ppm amount of copper for the synthesis.

Fe3O4@ZIF-8: magnetically recoverable catalysts by loading Fe3O4 nanoparticles inside a zinc imidazolate framework.

A simple methodology for encapsulating ca. 10 nm-sized superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles in zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-8) crystals was developed. The corresponding Fe3O4@ZIF-8 heterostructured material exhibits bifunctional properties with both high magnetization (Fe3O4) and high thermal stability, large specific surface, and catalytic properties (ZIF-8).

Size-controlled synthesis of ZnO quantum dots in microreactors.

In this paper, we report on a continuous-flow microreactor process to prepare ZnO quantum dots (QDs) with widely tunable particle size and photoluminescence emission wavelengths. X-ray diffraction, electron diffraction, UV-vis, photoluminescence and transmission electron microscopy measurements were used to characterize the synthesized ZnO QDs. By varying operating conditions (temperature, flow rate) or the capping ligand, ZnO QDs with diameters ranging from 3.