Fluorescent nanoparticles are characterized by their unique properties such as luminescence, optical transparency, and sensitivity to various chemical environments. For example, semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots), which are nanophosphors doped with transition metal or rare earth ions, can be classified as fluorescent nanoparticles. Tuning their optical and physico-chemical properties can be carried out by considering and taking advantage of nanoscale effects. For instance, quantum confinement causes a much higher fluorescence with nanoparticles than with their bulk counterparts. Recently, various types of fluorescent nanoparticles have been synthesized to extend their applications to other fields. In this study, State-of-the-art fluorescent nanoparticles are reviewed with emphasis on their analytical and anti-counterfeiting applications and synthesis processes. Moreover, the fundamental principles behind the exceptional properties of fluorescent nanoparticles are discussed.

Rare earth magnets are the strongest type of permanent magnets and are integral to the high tech industry, particularly in clean energies, such as electric vehicle motors and wind turbine generators. However, the cost of rare earth materials and the imbalance in supply and demand still remain big problems to solve for permanent magnet related industries. Thus, a magnet with abundant elements and moderate magnetic performance is required to replace rare-earth magnets. Recently, a”-Fe16N2 has attracted considerable attention as a promising candidate for next-generation non-rare-earth permanent magnets due to its gigantic magnetization (3.23 T). Also, metastable a”-Fe16N2 exhibits high tetragonality (c/a = 1.1) by interstitial introduction of N atoms, leading to a high magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant (K1 = 1.0MJ/m3). In addition, Fe has a large amount of reserves on the Earth compared to other magnetic materials, leading to low cost of raw materials and manufacturing for industrial production. In this paper, we review the synthetic methods of metastable a”-Fe16N2 with film, powder and bulk form and discuss the approaches to enhance magnetocrystalline anisotropy of a”-Fe16N2. Future research prospects are also offered with patent trends observed thus far.

We report a facile method for preparing KIT-1 mesoporous silicates with two different macroporous structures by dual templating. As a template for macropores, polystyrene (PS) beads are assembled into uniform three dimensional arrays by ice templating, i.e., by growing ice crystals during the freezing process of the particle suspension. Then, the polymeric templates are directly introduced into the precursor-gel solution with cationic surfactants for templating the mesopores, which is followed by hydrothermal crystallization and calcination. Later, by burning out the PS beads and the surfactants, KIT-1 mesoporous silicates with macropores are produced in a powder form. The macroporous structures of the silicates can be controlled by changing the amount of EDTANa4 salt under the same templating conditions using the PS beads and inverse-opal or hollow structures can be obtained. This strategy to prepare mesoporous powders with controllable macrostructures is potentially useful for various applications especially those dealing with bulky molecules such as, catalysis, separation, drug carriers and environmental adsorbents.

In this study, we synthesize silica-core gold-satellite nanoparticles (SGNPs) for the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based sensing applications. They consist of gold satellite nanoparticles (AuNPs) fixed on the silica core nanoparticles, which sizes of AuNPs can be tunned by varying the amount of reactants (growth solution and reducing agent). Their surface plasmon resonance (SPR) properties were characterized by using UV-vis spectroscopy, showing that the growth of AuNPs on silica cores leads to the light absorption in the longer wavelength region. Furthermore, the size increase of AuNPs exhibited the dramatic change in SERS activity due to the formation of hot spots. The optimized SGNPs showing enhancement factor ~3.8x106 exhibited a detection limit of rhodamine 6G (R6G) as low as 10-8M. These findings suggest the importance of size control of SGNPs and their SPR properties to develop highly efficient SERS sensors.

In this study, we prepare polymer solar cells incorporating organic ligand-modified Ag nanoparticles (O-AgNPs) highly dispersed in the P3HT:PCBM layer. Ag nanoparticles decorated with water-dispersible ligands (W-AgNPs) were also utilized as a control sample. The existence of the ligands on the Ag surface was confirmed by FT-IR spectra. Metal nanoparticles with different surface chemistries exhibited different dispersion tendencies. O-AgNPswere highly dispersed even at high concentrations, whereas W-AgNPs exhibited significant aggregation in the polymerlayer. Both dispersion and blending concentration of the Ag nanoparticles in P3HT:PCBM matrix had critical effects onthe device performance as well as light absorption. The significant changes in short-circuit current density (JSC) of thesolar cells seemed to be related to the change in the polymer morphology according to the concentration of AgNPsintroduced. These findings suggested the importance of uniform dispersion of plasmonic metal nanoparticles and theirblending concentration conditions in order to boost the solar cell performance.

In this study, we fabricated Nd2Fe14B hard magnetic powders with various sizes via spray drying combined with reduction-diffusion process. Spray drying is widely used to produce nearly spherical particles that are relatively homogeneous. Thus, the precursor particles were prepared by spray drying using the aqueous solution containing Nd salts, Fe salts and boric acid with the target stoichiometric composition of Nd2Fe14B. The mean particle sizes of the spray-dried powders are in the range from one to seven micrometer, which are adjusted by controlling the concentra- tions of precursor solutions. After debinding the as-prepared precursor particles, ball milling was also conducted to con- trol the particle sizes of Nd-Fe-B oxide powders. The resulting particles with different sizes were subjected to subsequent treatments including hydrogen reduction, Ca reduction and washing for CaO removal. The size effect of Nd-Fe-B oxide particles on the formation of Nd2Fe14B phase and magnetic properties was investigated.

A novel route to prepare Nd-Fe-B magnetic particles by utilizing both spray drying and reduction/diffu- sion processes was investigated in this study. Precursors were prepared by spray drying method using the aqueous solu- tions containing Nd salt, Fe salt and boric acid with stoichiometric ratios. Precursor particles could be obtained with various sizes from 2 to 10 µm by controlling concentrations of the solutions and the average size of 2 µm of precursors were selected for further steps. After heat treatment of precursors in air, Nd and Fe oxides were formed through desalt- ing procedure, followed by reduction processes in Hydrogen (H2) atmosphere and with Calcium (Ca) granules in Argon (Ar) successively. Moreover, diffusion between Nd and Fe occurred during Ca reduction and Nd2Fe14B particles were formed. With Ca amount added to particles after H2 reduction, intrinsic coercivity was changed from 1 to 10 kOe. In order to remove and leach CaO and residual Ca, de-ionized water and dilute acid were used. Acidic solutions were more effective to eliminate impurities, but Fe and Nd were dissolved out from the particles. Finally, Nd2Fe14B magnetic particles were synthesized after washing in de-ionized water with a mean size of 2 µm and their maximum energy prod- uct showed 9.23 MGOe.

In the present study, we systematically investigated the effect of Mn addition on nitrogenation behavior and magnetic properties of Sm-Fe powders produced by reduction-diffusion process. Alloy powders with only single phase were successfully produced by the reduction-diffusion process. The coercivity of powder rapidly increased during nitrogenation and reached the maximum of 637 Oe after 16 hours. After further nitrogenation, it decreased. In contrast, the coercivity of powder gradually increased during nitrogenation for 24 hours. The coercivity of powder was higher than that of powder at the same condition of nitrogenation. It was considered that the Mn addition facilitates the nitrogenation of powder and enhances the coercivity.

We report the effect of the chain length of carboxylic acid on the photoluminescence(PL) of /ZnS nanocrystals. /ZnS nanocrystals with emission wavelength ranging from 566 nm through 583 nm were synthesized with zinc acetate and carboxylic acids with various chain length. In this study, /ZnS nanocrystals prepared using long chain carboxylic acid showed more improved PL intensity. The origin of strong photoluminescence of the nanocrystals prepared with zinc acetate and long chain carboxylic acid was ascribed to improved size distribution due to strong reactivity between long chain carboxylic acid and zinc acetate.