Metastasis and recurrence of cancer are the main causes of death in patients with malignant tumors. Circulating tumor cell (CTC) are cells that shed from the surface of primary tumor tissue and enter into the peripheral blood of patients. The proposal of this concept raises the most exciting part of related academic research and promotes the transformation from traditional tissue biopsy to liquid biopsy

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been used in the characterizations of the lattice and defect structures as well as electronic and chemical properties of various materials. When TEM analyses were performed on lead halide perovskites (LHPs) and related materials, it has often been found that transformation and damage were easily induced in the specimens by electron beam irradiation. As the

Solving the synthesis–structure–properties problem is a central underlying theme across materials science. Deriving clear connections from structure to either synthesis or properties is especially arduous for amorphous and nanoscale materials, as their inherently limited long-range order prevents the correct implementation of established structure determination methods, such as x-ray absorption and

The rapid rise of nanotechnology has resulted in a parallel rise in the number of products containing nanomaterials. The unusual properties that nano forms of materials exhibit relative to the bulk has driven intense research interest and relatively rapid adoption by industry. Regulatory agencies are charged with protecting workers, the public, and the environment from any adverse effects of nanomaterials

We report electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) microscopy carried out on free-standing GaAs nanowire core–shell, p–n tunnel junctions. The carrier kinetics in both the n-type core and the p-type shell were determined by analyzing radial EBIC profiles as a function of beam energy. These profiles are highly sensitive to geometric effects such as facet width, shell and core thicknesses, and depletion

Developing highly valuable electrocatalysts that can possess higher activity to replace conventional Pt catalysts for an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) remains a major challenge. A cost-effective copper doped porous carbon (Cu-PC) has been synthesized here by carbonizing Cu that contains metal-organic framework (MOF)-5. Results show the Cu-PC exhibits ORR activity by following the four-electron route

Biocompatible functional nanomaterials, when integrated into living systems, have the potential to both augment basic biological functions and introduce completely new functions into organisms. Incorporating functional nanomaterials with unique physical properties into living cells has created a new paradigm in synthetic biology, allowing researchers to manipulate and even enhance biology in ways not

Natural fibers and materials are well known for adsorption studies, whereas synthetic fibers have not received enough attention in this field. Therefore, an attempt is made here to study the adsorption properties of synthetic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanofibers and methods for improving or modifying their adsorption properties. PMMA nanofibers are prepared by the most recent electrospinning

The human proteome is enriched in proteins that do not fold into a stable 3D structure. These intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) spontaneously fluctuate between a large number of configurations in their native form. Remarkably, the disorder does not lead to dysfunction as with denatured folded proteins. In fact, unlike denatured proteins, recent evidence strongly suggests that multiple biological

This work reports a key factor, the H2SO4 concentration, in controlling the physicochemical properties of titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalysts during the sol–gel synthesis. The photocatalysts synthesized using different concentrations of H2SO4 possess specific anatase/rutile ratios and crystallite sizes as well as surface areas, resulting in different photocatalytic performance in the degradation

We introduce a helium ion beam lithography and liftoff process to fabricate arbitrary nanostructures. Exploiting existing high-resolution positive tone resists such as poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), the process offers three significant advantages over electron beam lithography: (a) the exposing helium ion beam produces a high secondary electron yield leading to fast patterning, (b) proximity effects

High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is emerging as a novel therapeutic technique for cancer treatment through a hyperthermal mechanism using ultrasound. However, collateral thermal damages to healthy tissue and skin burns due to the use of high levels of ultrasonic energy during HIFU treatment remain major challenges to clinical application. The main objective of the current study is to evaluate

The proliferation of place-and-forget devices driven by the exponentially-growing Internet of Things industry has created a demand for low-voltage thin-film transistor (TFT) electronics based on solution-processible semiconductors. Amongst solution-processible technologies, TFTs based on semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (sc-SWCNTs) are a promising candidate owing to their comparatively

Proteins are the building blocks of all life, creating materials as diverse as spider silk, cells, and hair, but also other countless functions from enzymes to drugs. Here we discuss a method to represent folded protein nanostructures as musical compositions. We explore different avenues of artistic creation, interpolating between human design, natural or evolutionary design, and designs from a deep

To fill the gap in the measurement of large diameter single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and further predict the variation rule of mass flux versus diameter, this work measured the water flow velocity and mass flux coefficient in an individual SWCNT with a 3.07 nm diameter. A mechanical method is used to obtain the large diameter SWCNT by removing the internal tube of a double-wall carbon nanotube

Two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures have been widely studied in recent years and are envisioned to play a key role in future integrated electronics and optoelectronics. The thus-involved van der Waals integration technique provides a feasible way to integrate different 2D materials even with diverse crystal structures into heterostructures, providing a promising platform to explore new artificial

Contemporary 2D spintronics (spin-based electronics) is a highly interdisciplinary field with numerous elaborated branches, mostly focusing on atomically thin, layered nano-junctions functionalized within ‘dry’ or ‘wet’ cells/cubicles/circuits. The charge carriers’ spin-implicated aspects emerge throughout, albeit the most nanotechnologically promising issue (implying the information and energy transfer/storage

With the increasing global consumption of secondary batteries, the cost of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) will gradually become a problem. Compared with LIBs, sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have natural advantages, such as the higher abundance of sodium in the earth’s crust and lower cost. SIBs have a similar working principle to LIBs, based on sodium/lithium ions moving between the cathode and anode. The

The direct reduction of graphene oxide (GO) by hydroiodic acid is an established method to produce iodine functionalized reduced GO (I-rGO). However, the stability of the iodine species within I-rGO upon heating and dispersing into different solvents, as required for many applications, has not been examined. Herein we examined the stability of I-rGO and utilized it to promote self-assembled nanoenergetic

The recovery of single circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the peripheral blood of cancer patients has great potential for the study of cell heterogeneity and cancer metastasis and the development of personalized cancer immunotherapy. Here we present nozzleless droplet generation with focused acoustic beams for cell encapsulation. The mechanism of droplet generation is sensitive to the pulse width

In recent years, new types of rechargeable and discharge batteries (including lithium ion batteries, sodium ion batteries, lithium sulfur batteries, lithium oxygen batteries, etc.) have been favored by researchers for their excellent theoretical capacity, low cost and broad development prospects. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are considered to be promising porous materials in the field of batteries

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are considered an advantageous alternative to their celebrated two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals akin compound, graphene, for a number of applications, especially those requiring a gapped and possibly tunable band structure. Thermoelectricity is one of the application fields where TMDs could indeed outperform graphene, thanks to their lower thermal conductivity

Biomedical tasks in a physiological medium (blood) by nanoscopic programmable matters can be coordinated and executed efficiently by realizing a communication channel to and from the outside of the body. In this paper, we discuss the feasibility of self synchronized radio communication between nanorobots in the physiological medium. We present a magnetic-based method for synchronization, analysis,

Photocatalysts for water splitting are of particular importance to a renewable energy based energy and economic landscape. Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors hold significant promise because of their large surface area compared to bulk photocatalysts. To overcome the crucial problem of the short lifetime of photogenerated charges, 2D van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures are being considered due to

Lithium–oxygen batteries (LOBs) have drawn considerable attention in next generation energy storage systems owing to their large theoretical specific energy density. Unfortunately, the leakage of liquid electrolytes in LOBs generally causes major safety issues that hinder practical applications of LOBs. Therefore, it is significant to develop solid state electrolytes that can simultaneously avoid the

Seeking an ultra-compact new architecture or strategy to achieve filter-less Red/Green/Blue (RGB) color sensing is critical for developing a wide range of high-resolution, low-cost and flexible color discrimination and imaging applications. In this work, a new inversely stacked biomimetic radial junction (RJ) PINIP photodetector, comprising of coaxial multilayers of intrinsic and doped hydrogenated

Germanium (Ge) nanowires (NWs) were grown in-plane on nano-structured Si(001)/SiO 2 substrates by molecular beam epitaxy using gold (Au) as the solvent. The site-selective NW growth was enabled by a rectangular array of gold droplets on silicon (Si) tips with an Au nuclei density below 0.25 µ m −2 on the surrounding silicon oxide (SiO 2 ). The initial growth of Ge NWs starting from Si–Au droplets with

Computational electronic-structure calculations of nanoscale systems are powerful tools which provide fundamental insight, help interpret experiment results, and ultimately aid the development of new materials. Density functional theory (DFT) dominates this field, and has had an enormously beneficial impact on nanoscience. However, there are still many situations in which present DFT fails to provide

This review summarizes recent advances in the photonics of two-dimension transition metal carbides referred as MXenes. MXenes show outstanding nonlinear optical absorption and can serve as excellent mode-lockers to produce ultrafast pulse lasers at the broad range from visible to mid-infrared regions. Particularly, metallic MXenes have great advantages for long-wavelength applications and 3000-nm mode-locked

The recent proliferation of wearable electronics has kindled an increasing demand for energy storage technology with flexibility, good levels of safety and high ionic conductivity. In this regard, flexible solid-state aqueous batteries are currently considered to be promising candidates as power supplies for wearable electronic devices. Recently, binder-free nanoarrayed composites have have shown great

A high-temperature phase transition in strained ferroelectric K 0.9 Na 0.1 NbO 3 thin films epitaxially grown on orthorhombic (110) NdScO 3 substrates is identified and investigated by in situ x-ray diffraction and piezoresponse force microscopy. At room temperature, the thin films exhibit a highly anisotropic misfit strain, inducing the occurrence of monoclinic a 1 a 2 /M C phases and manifesting

In recent work we reported the vibrational spectrum of more than 100 000 known protein structures, and a self-consistent sonification method to render the spectrum in the audible range of frequencies (Qin and Buehler 2019 Extreme Mech. Lett . 100460). Here we present a method to transform these molecular vibrations into materialized vibrations of thin water films using acoustic actuators, leading to

The outcome of machine learning is influenced by the features used to describe the data, and various metrics are used to measure model performance. In this study we use five different feature sets to describe the same 4000 gold nanoparticles, and 14 different machine learning methods to compare a total of 70 high scoring models. We then use classification and regression to show which meta-features

Driven by increasing interests in sequencing proteins, several single molecule methods (such as the measurement of electron tunneling currents through each amino acid) have been recently proposed and demonstrated in experiment. While promising, they are still in early stages and challenges such as the lack of protein stretching and large thermal fluctuations of amino acids remain to be solved. Here

Interest has been growing in electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials in view of soaring EM radiation and its pollution control, which is necessary for public health and normal communication. To realize high EMI shielding effectiveness (SE), two factors of high electrical conductivity and strong multiple reflections are quite important. However, it is still a big challenge to obtain these

Nanostructured copper sulfides have been known as functional materials in a wide range of disciplines including physics, chemistry, chemical engineering and biomedicine. The combination and/or functionalization of nanostructured copper sulfides with other active materials, in the form of nanocomposites, helps to achieve synergies that allows them to be utilized in advanced applications. This review

We present a new contact resonance force microscopy (CRFM) imaging technique, isomorphic contact resonance (iso-CR), that acquires data at a constant contact resonance (CR) frequency, and hence constant tip-sample contact stiffness across the scan area. Constant CR frequency is obtained by performing force versus distance measurements to vary the applied force at each pixel (i.e. force-volume mapping

Nano-sized extracellular vesicles have become an interesting target for fluorescent labelling due to their complex roles within cellular processes. Extracellular vesicles are released by most cells, including bacteria and mammalian and have demonstrated clear involvement within cellular, as well as patho-physiological processes. They contain information about the cell they originate from and communicate

Experimental data and a supporting model are presented for the formation of voids in InN nanorods grown by selective area hydride vapor phase epitaxy on patterned GaN/ c -Al 2 O 3 templates. It is shown that these voids shape, due to a high lattice mismatch between InN and GaN materials, starts from the base and extends up to a half of the total length of the nanorods. When the effect of the mismatch

Hierarchical nanostructure, an engineered nanostructure with a higher assembly-level of constituents by low dimensional nano-building blocks, has received extensive attentions in the latest advancements in nanomaterial science and nanotechnology development. The ordered hierarchical nanostructures could offer merits such as more active sites, synergistic properties owing to their geometric complexity

We report local nitride-stressor engineering in combination with quantum-size tunability in Ge quantum dots (QDs) for tailoring photoluminescence (PL) wavelength and exciton lifetime. Spherical-shaped Ge QDs with tunable diameters ranging from 25–90 nm embedded within layers of thermally-grown SiO 2 and chemical-vapor-deposited Si 3 N 4 were fabricated by thermal oxidation of lithographically-patterned

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are usually synthesized by the chemical vapor deposition method, in which the resultant SWCNT’s chirality and diameter are sensitive to the catalyst and the experimental conditions. To gain effective control over the geometry of SWCNTs, we propose to grow SWCNTs by stacking carbon rings in a layer-by-layer mode, taking advantage of the high reactivity of carbon

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the concept of a ubiquitous computing ecosystem in which electronics of custom form factors are seamlessly embedded into everyday objects. At the heart of the IoT are electronic sensors capable of detecting physical/environmental phenomena, translating these measurements into electrical signals, and wirelessly transmitting the data for remote computing. Critical to the

Powered by the mutual developments in instrumentation, materials and theoretical descriptions, sensing and imaging capabilities of quantum emitters in solids have significantly increased in the past two decades. Quantum emitters in solids, whose properties resemble those of atoms and ions, provide alternative ways to probing natural and artificial nanoscopic systems with minimum disturbance and ultimate

By combining density functional theory with low-energy effective Hamiltonian, we demonstrate strain-engineered electronic and topological properties of the recently synthesized two-dimensional (2D) bismuthene on SiC(0001) substrate. As bismuthene on SiC(0001) exhibits an indirect gap of 0.62 eV with nontrivial topology, we show that the band gap size can be further increased by an applied tensile strain

In this paper we revisit the structure of graphene oxide, and determine the pure and truly representative structures for graphene nanoflakes using machine learning. Using 20 396 random configurations relaxed at the electronic structure level, we observe the presence of hydroxyl, ether, double bonds, aliphatic (cyclohexane) disruption, defects and significant out-of-plane distortions that go beyond

Using top-down fabricated silicon nanoribbons, we measure the opening and closing of ion channels alamethicin and gramicidin A. A capacitive model of the system is proposed to demonstrate that the geometric capacitance of the nanoribbon is charged by ion channel currents. The integration of top-down nanoribbons with electrophysiology holds promise for integration of electrically active living systems

We present measurements of focal spot size and brightness in a focused ion beam system utilizing a laser-cooled atomic beam source of Cs ions. Spot sizes as small as (2.1 ± 0.2) nm (one standard deviation) and reduced brightness values as high as (2.4 ± 0.1) × 107 A m-2 Sr-1 eV-1 are observed with a 10 keV beam. This measured brightness is over 24 times higher than the highest brightness observed in

Proteins are insulating molecular solids, yet even those containing easily reduced or oxidized centers can have single-molecule electronic conductances that are too large to account for with conventional transport theories. Here, we report the observation of remarkably high electronic conductance states in an electrochemically-inactive protein, the ~200 kD αVβ3 extracelluar domain of human integrin