Anisotropic Self-Assembly of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Microtoroids.

Toroidal structures based on self-assembly of predesigned building blocks are well-established in the literature, but spontaneous self-organization to prepare such structures has not been reported to date. Here, organic-inorganic hybrid microtoroids synthesized by simultaneous coordination-driven assembly of amphiphilic molecules and hydrophilic polymers are reported. Mixing amphiphilic molecules with iron(III) chloride and hydrophilic polymers in water leads, within minutes, to the formation of starlike nanostructures.

Probing structural changes of self assembled i-motif DNA.

We report an i-motif structural probing system based on Thioflavin T (ThT) as a fluorescent sensor. This probe can discriminate the structural changes of RET and Rb i-motif sequences according to pH change.

Applications of nanodiamonds in drug delivery and catalysis.

The interest of researchers in utilizing nanomaterials as carriers for a wide spectrum of molecules has exploded in the last two decades. Nanodiamonds are one class of carbon-based nanomaterials that have emerged as promising drug delivery vehicles and imaging probes. Their ease of functionalization also led to the generation of stimuli-responsive nanodiamonds that deliver drugs on demand in a controlled manner.