Publications by authors named "Francesco de Donato"

Background: Diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) indicates an abnormal separation of the rectus abdominal muscles from the midline, resulting in abdominal bulging. Recent literature shows a correlation between DRA and back pain, stress urinary incontinence. Primary goal of this study is to check the correlation between DRA correction in abdominoplasty and improvement of urinary symptoms.

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CuFeS chalcopyrite nanoparticles (NPs) can generate heat under exposure to near-infrared laser irradiation. Here, we develop a protocol to decorate the surface of CuFeS NPs (13 nm) with a thermoresponsive (TR) polymer based on poly(ethylene glycol methacrylate) to combine heat-mediated drug delivery and photothermal heat damage. The resulting TR-CuFeS NPs feature a small hydrodynamic size (∼75 nm), along with high colloidal stability and a TR transition temperature of 41 °C in physiological conditions.

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Here, cation exchange (CE) reactions are exploited to radiolabel ZnSe, ZnS, and CuFeS metal chalcogenide nanocrystals (NCs) with Cu. The CE protocol requires one simple step, to mix the water-soluble NCs with a Cu solution, in the presence of vitamin C used to reduce Cu(II) to Cu(I). Given the quantitative cation replacement on the NCs, a high radiochemical yield, up to 99%, is reached.

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Article Synopsis
  • Nanocrystals (NCs) of F, In-codoped CdO (FICO) exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in the near-infrared (NIR) range, making them ideal for next-generation electrochromic "smart windows."
  • By adjusting dopant concentrations in FICO NCs, researchers can fine-tune the LSPR, leading to highly transparent mesoporous thin films that maintain optimal optical and electrical properties without scattering.
  • These FICO NC-based films can dynamically control LSPR frequencies through electrochemical doping, allowing for selective regulation of NIR light transmittance, which can significantly reduce solar heat gain while preserving visible light clarity.
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Phonons (quanta of collective vibrations) are a major source of energy dissipation and drive some of the most relevant properties of materials. In nanotechnology, phonons severely affect light emission and charge transport of nanodevices. While the phonon response is conventionally considered an inherent property of a nanomaterial, here we show that the dipole-active phonon resonance of semiconducting (CdS) nanocrystals can be drastically reshaped inside a terahertz plasmonic nanocavity, via the phonon strong coupling with the cavity vacuum electric field.

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Nanoparticles (NPs) are increasingly used in biomedical applications, but the factors that influence their interactions with living cells need to be elucidated. Here, we reveal the role of NP surface charge in determining their neuronal interactions and electrical responses. We discovered that negatively charged NPs administered at low concentration (10 nM) interact with the neuronal membrane and at the synaptic cleft, whereas positively and neutrally charged NPs never localize on neurons.

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Two-color emitting colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) are of interest for applications in multimodal imaging, sensing, lighting, and integrated photonics. Dual color emission from core- and shell-related optical transitions has been recently obtained using so-called dot-in-bulk (DiB) CdSe/CdS NCs comprising a quantum-confined CdSe core embedded into an ultrathick (∼7-9 nm) CdS shell. The physical mechanism underlying this behavior is still under debate.

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Among the different synthesis approaches to colloidal nanocrystals, a recently developed toolkit is represented by cation exchange reactions, where the use of template nanocrystals gives access to materials that would be hardly attainable via direct synthesis. Besides, postsynthetic treatments, such as thermally activated solid-state reactions, represent a further flourishing route to promote finely controlled cation exchange. Here, we report that, upon in situ heating in a transmission electron microscope, Cu2Se or Cu nanocrystals deposited on an amorphous solid substrate undergo partial loss of Cu atoms, which are then engaged in local cation exchange reactions with Cu "acceptor" phases represented by rod- and wire-shaped CdSe nanocrystals.

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We studied cation exchange (CE) in core/shell Cu2-xSe/Cu2-xS nanorods with two cations, Ag(+) and Hg(2+), which are known to induce rapid exchange within metal chalcogenide nanocrystals (NCs) at room temperature. At the initial stage of the reaction, the guest ions diffused through the Cu2-xS shell and reached the Cu2-xSe core, replacing first Cu(+) ions within the latter region. These experiments prove that CE in copper chalcogenide NCs is facilitated by the high diffusivity of guest cations in the lattice, such that they can probe the whole host structure and identify the preferred regions where to initiate the exchange.

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Recently, plasmonic copper sulfide (Cu2-xS) nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted much attention as materials for photothermal therapy (PTT). Previous reports have correlated photoinduced cell death to the photothermal heat mechanism of these NCs, and no evidence of their photodynamic properties has been reported yet. Herein we have prepared physiologically stable near-infrared (NIR) plasmonic copper sulfide NCs and analyzed their photothermal and photodynamic properties, including therapeutic potential in cultured melanoma cells and a murine melanoma model.

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Terahertz spectroscopy has vast potentialities in sensing a broad range of elementary excitations (e.g., collective vibrations of molecules, phonons, excitons, etc.

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We report the synthesis of colloidal CdSe/Cu(3)P/CdSe nanocrystal heterostructures grown from hexagonal Cu(3)P platelets as templates. One type of heterostructure was a sort of "coral", formed by vertical pillars of CdSe grown preferentially on both basal facets of a Cu(3)P platelet and at its edges. Another type of heterostructure had a "sandwich" type of architecture, formed by two thick, epitaxial CdSe layers encasing the original Cu(3)P platelet.

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