Nanoparticles; Imaging systems in medicine; Imaging systems in biology
Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have shown beneficial properties for biomedical use, e.g., their non-toxic nature and surface properties for easy modification. Upon receiving light, they generate a strong surface plasmon field, which can alter the...
This dissertation describes new procedures for synthesizing and purifying Au and Au/Ag nanoplates directly on surfaces as well as controlled binding of proteins to their surface. It also describes fundamental changes in the optical properties of Au...
The properties of gold nanoparticles (GNP) holds promising potential for drug delivery, diagnostics, plasmonic photothermal therapy of diseases, electronics, catalysis, and photovoltaics (Liu et al., 2006; Huang et al., 2003; Thompson, 2007;...
This dissertation demonstrates an elegant method, known as 'micro-origami' or strain architecture to design and fabricate three-dimensional MEMS structures which are assembled using actuation of a metal-oxide bilayer with conventional planar...
This dissertation describes galvanic exchange of silver (Ag) nanostructures with PdCl42- in 1) various PdCl42- concentrations, 2) the presence of 0.1 M cetyitrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and 3) the presence of 0.1 M potassium bromide (KBr). It...
Characterization of the optical and electrical properties of organic solar cell materials is of prime importance to organic solar cell design. This thesis describes the use of capacitive photocurrent measurements to study the exciton generation and...
This dissertation describes (1) size-dependent electrochemical oxidation/stripping of gold and silver nanoparticles (NPs), (2) alloying of copper with gold nanoparticles at underpotential deposition potentials, (3) electrochemical characterization...
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have attracted enormous attention in the field of nanotechnology for applications such as, immunoassay, drug delivery, contrast enhancement and tumor therapy. The typical range of gold nanoparticles varies from 1– 150...
The vaccinia virus complement control protein (VCP) is involved in the modulation of the host inflammatory response during vaccinia virus infection. It possesses the ability to inhibit both classical and alternative pathways of complement...
Planar fiber-optic chips (FOC) take advantage of the evanescent field effects of side-polished fibers, exhibiting usefulness in fluorescence, absorbance, electrochemical investigations, and as presented here Raman spectroscopy. The fabrication of...
Conducting polymers; Polymers in medicine; Myocardium
Hydrophilic and conductive characteristics in polymers are mutually exclusive of each other. Hydrophilic polymer properties allow absorption of water up to several magnitudes above their dry weight. However, due to their molecular structure, they...
The research in this dissertation describes a simple electrochemical approach for fabricating nanoscale (metal/metal) or molecular (metal/polymer or self assembled monolayer (SAM)/metal) junctions. The fabrication involves metal deposition on one...
The vast knowledge of nucleic acids is evolving and it is now known that DNA can adopt highly complex, heterogeneous structures. Among the most intriguing are the G-quadruplex structures, which are thought to play a pivotal role in cancer...
Nanoparticles; Drug delivery devices; Gene therapy
The properties and broad applications of nano-magnetic colloids have generated much interest in recent years. Specially, Fe304 nanoparticles have attracted a great deal of attention since their magnetic properties can be used for hyperthermia...
III-nitrides (InN, GaN, AlN) are some of the most promising materials for making blue light emitting diodes (LED), blue laser diodes (LD) and high power, high temperature field effect transistors (FET). Current techniques produce GaN films with...
This thesis is based on experimental work on electrochemically mediated charge transfer effects on Single-walled carbon nanotube bundles. The study of these effects are very important towards understanding the sensitivity of gases on nanostructures...