Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > Light touch brightens nanotubes

Single-walled carbon nanotubes treated with ozone incorporate oxygen atoms that shift and intensify the nanotubes' near-infrared fluorescence emission. The discovery by Rice University scientists should lead to new uses of nanotubes in biomedicine and materials science. (Credit: Bruce Weisman/Rice University)
Single-walled carbon nanotubes treated with ozone incorporate oxygen atoms that shift and intensify the nanotubes' near-infrared fluorescence emission. The discovery by Rice University scientists should lead to new uses of nanotubes in biomedicine and materials science. (Credit: Bruce Weisman/Rice University)

Abstract:
Rice University scientists find a little ozone goes a long way for fluorescence

Light touch brightens nanotubes

Houston, TX | Posted on December 2nd, 2010

Rice University researchers have discovered a simple way to make carbon nanotubes shine brighter.

The Rice lab of researcher Bruce Weisman, a pioneer in nanotube spectroscopy, found that adding tiny amounts of ozone to batches of single-walled carbon nanotubes and exposing them to light decorates all the nanotubes with oxygen atoms and systematically changes their near-infrared fluorescence.

Chemical reactions on nanotube surfaces generally kill their limited natural fluorescence, Weisman said. But the new process actually enhances the intensity and shifts the wavelength.

He expects the breakthrough, reported online in the journal Science, to expand opportunities for biological and material uses of nanotubes, from the ability to track them in single cells to novel lasers.

Best of all, the process of making these bright nanotubes is incredibly easy -- "simple enough for a physical chemist to do," said Weisman, a physical chemist himself.

He and primary author Saunab Ghosh, a graduate student in his lab, discovered that a light touch was key. "We're not the first people to study the effects of ozone reacting with nanotubes," Weisman said. "That's been done for a number of years.

"But all the prior researchers used a heavy hand, with a lot of ozone exposure. When you do that, you destroy the favorable optical characteristics of the nanotube. It basically turns off the fluorescence. In our work we only add about one oxygen atom for 2,000-3,000 carbon atoms, a very tiny fraction."

Ghosh and Weisman started with a suspension of nanotubes in water and added small amounts of gaseous or dissolved ozone. Then they exposed the sample to light. Even light from a plain desk lamp would do, they reported.

Most sections of the doped nanotubes remain pristine and absorb infrared light normally, forming excitons, quasiparticles that tend to hop back and forth along the tube -- until they encounter oxygen.

"An exciton can explore tens of thousands of carbon atoms during its lifetime," Weisman said. "The idea is that it can hop around enough to find one of these doping sites, and when it does, it tends to stay there, because it's energetically stable. It becomes trapped and emits light at a longer (red-shifted) wavelength.

"Essentially, most of the nanotube is turning into an antenna that absorbs light energy and funnels it to the doping site. We can make nanotubes in which 80 to 90 percent of the emission comes from doped sites," he said.

Lab tests found the doped nanotubes' fluorescent properties to be stable for months.

Weisman said treated nanotubes could be detected without using visible light. "Why does that matter? In biological detection, any time you excite at visible wavelengths, there's a little bit of background emission from the cells and from the tissues. By exciting instead in the infrared, we get rid of that problem," he said.

The researchers tested their ability to view doped nanotubes in a biological environment by adding them to cultures of human uterine adenocarcinoma cells. Later, images of the cells excited in the near-infrared showed single nanotubes shining brightly, whereas the same sample excited with visible light displayed a background haze that made the tubes much more difficult to spot.

His lab is refining the process of doping nanotubes, and Weisman has no doubt about their research potential. "There are many interesting scientific avenues to pursue," he said. "And if you want to see a single tube inside a cell, this is the best way to do it. The doped tubes can also be used for biodistribution studies.

"The nice thing is, this isn't an expensive or elaborate process," Weisman said. "Some reactions require days of work in the lab and transform only a small fraction of your starting material. But with this process, you can convert an entire nanotube sample very quickly."

The paper's co-authors include Rice research scientist Sergei Bachilo, research technician Rebecca Simonette and Kathleen Beckingham, a Rice professor of biochemistry and cell biology.

The National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation and NASA supported the research.

Read the abstract at www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2010/11/24/science.1196382.abstract

An animation is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVM_5ktGtnw

####

About Rice University
Located in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked one of America's best teaching and research universities. Known for its "unconventional wisdom," Rice is distinguished by its: size -- 3,279 undergraduates and 2,277 graduate students; selectivity -- 12 applicants for each place in the freshman class; resources -- an undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 5-to-1; sixth largest endowment per student among American private research universities; residential college system, which builds communities that are both close-knit and diverse; and collaborative culture, which crosses disciplines, integrates teaching and research, and intermingles undergraduate and graduate work.

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
David Ruth
713-348-6327


Mike Williams
713-348-6728

Copyright © Rice University

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related News Press

News and information

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024

Possible Futures

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Academic/Education

Rice University launches Rice Synthetic Biology Institute to improve lives January 12th, 2024

Multi-institution, $4.6 million NSF grant to fund nanotechnology training September 9th, 2022

National Space Society Helps Fund Expanding Frontier’s Brownsville Summer Entrepreneur Academy: National Space Society and Club for the Future to Support Youth Development Program in South Texas June 24th, 2022

How a physicist aims to reduce the noise in quantum computing: NAU assistant professor Ryan Behunin received an NSF CAREER grant to study how to reduce the noise produced in the process of quantum computing, which will make it better and more practical April 1st, 2022

Nanotubes/Buckyballs/Fullerenes/Nanorods/Nanostrings

Catalytic combo converts CO2 to solid carbon nanofibers: Tandem electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic conversion could help offset emissions of potent greenhouse gas by locking carbon away in a useful material January 12th, 2024

TU Delft researchers discover new ultra strong material for microchip sensors: A material that doesn't just rival the strength of diamonds and graphene, but boasts a yield strength 10 times greater than Kevlar, renowned for its use in bulletproof vests November 3rd, 2023

Tests find no free-standing nanotubes released from tire tread wear September 8th, 2023

Detection of bacteria and viruses with fluorescent nanotubes July 21st, 2023

Nanomedicine

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Discoveries

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Announcements

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Nanobiotechnology

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project