Centrifugation-Mediated Crystal Growth of Attractive Colloids for Band Edge Lasing.

Attractive depletion interactions are utilized to organize colloidal particles into crystalline arrays with high crystallinity through spontaneous phase separation. However, uncontrolled nucleation frequently leads to the formation of crystalline grains with varied crystal orientations, which hampers the optical performance of photonic crystals. Here, colloidal crystals have been engineered with uniform orientation and high surface coverage by applying centrifugal force during the depletion-induced assembly of polystyrene particles.

Fano Metamaterials on Nanopedestals for Plasmon-Enhanced Infrared Spectroscopy.

We report a sensing platform for surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy, based on Fano metamaterials (FMMs) on dielectric nanopedestals. FMMs consist of two parallel gold (Au) nanorod antennas, with a small horizontal coupler attached to one of the nanorod antenna. When placed on SiO dielectric nanopedestals, which exhibit strong field enhancements caused by the interference between subradiant and superradiant plasmonic resonances, they provide the highly enhanced E-field intensities formed near the Au nanoantenna, which can provide more enhanced molecular detection signals.

Uracil-bearing poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline): Hg(ii)-selective control of its thermoresponsiveness.

A poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline)-containing mercury ion (Hg)-responsive uracil moiety (U-PiPOx-U) was synthesized and it exhibited thermoresponsiveness in its aqueous solution. The changes in the UV-Vis absorption and thermoresponsiveness of U-PiPOx-U upon the addition of Hg were studied. Selective sensing of Hg was also investigated.

Thermoresponsive Polymer and Fluorescent Dye Hybrids for Tunable Multicolor Emission.

Fully reversible emission color change is achieved by blending a thermoresponsive polymer with dye hybrids. The emission color can be tuned by changing the mixing ratio of each polymer-dye hybrid.