Solar-powered sterilization technology

Rice University nanotechnology researchers have unveiled a solar-powered sterilization system that could be a boon for more than 2.5 billion people who lack adequate sanitation. The "solar steam" sterilization system uses ...

Multitasking plasmonic nanobubbles kill some cells, modify others

(Phys.org)—Researchers at Rice University have found a way to kill some diseased cells and treat others in the same sample at the same time. The process activated by a pulse of laser light leaves neighboring healthy cells ...

Nanobelts support manipulation of light

(PhysOrg.com) -- They look like 2-by-4s, but the materials being created in a Rice University lab are more suited to construction with light.

Double strike to fight cancer

(PhysOrg.com) -- Diagnosis and treatment form the basis of modern medicine. Traditionally, they are two separate steps; however, it doesn’t have to be that way. The term “theranostic” refers to the combination ...

Nanoshells aid in killing breast tumors

Using tiny gold "nanoshells" to deliver just a little heat to breast tumor cells already treated with radiation boosts the killing potential of the treatment - not just shrinking the tumor but killing the cancer stem cells, ...

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Nanoshell

A nanoshell is a type of spherical nanoparticle consisting of a dielectric core which is covered by a thin metallic shell (usually gold). These nanoshells involve a quasiparticle called plasmon which is a collective excitation or quantum plasma oscillation where the electrons simultaneously oscillate with respect to all the ions.

The simultaneous oscillation can be called plasmon hybridization where the tunability of the oscillation is associated with mixture of the inner and outer shell where they hybridize to give a lower energy or higher energy. This lower energy couples strongly to incident light whereas, the higher energy is an anti-bonding and weakly combines to incident light. The hybridization interaction is stronger for thinner shell layers, hence, the thickness of the shell and overall particle radius determines which wavelength of light it couples with. Nanoshells can be varied across a broad range of the light spectrum that spans the visible and near infrared regions. The interaction of light and nanoparticles affects the placements of charges which affects the coupling strength. Incident light polarized parallel to the substrate gives a s-polarization (Figure 1b), hence the charges are further from the substrate surface which gives a stronger interaction between the shell and core. Otherwise, a p-polarization is formed which gives a more strongly shifted plasmon energy causing a weaker interaction and coupling.

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