Hollow micro-/nanostructures are of great interest in many current and emerging areas of technology. Perhaps the best-known example of the former is the use of fly-ash hollow particles generated from coal power plants as partial replacement for Portland cement, to produce concrete with enhanced strength and durability. This review is devoted to the progress made in the last decade in synthesis and applications of hollow micro-/nanostructures. We present a comprehensive overview of synthetic strategies for hollow structures. These strategies are broadly categorized into four themes, which include well-established approaches, such as conventional hard-templating and soft-templating methods, as well as newly emerging methods based on sacrificial templating and template-free synthesis. Success in each has inspired multiple variations that continue to drive the rapid evolution of the field. The Review therefore focuses on the fundamentals of each process, pointing out advantages and disadvantages where appropriate. Strategies for generating more complex hollow structures, such as rattle-type and nonspherical hollow structures, are also discussed. Applications of hollow structures in lithium batteries, catalysis and sensing, and biomedical applications are reviewed.

Hollow Micro-/Nanostructures: Synthesis and Applications**

The term photonic crystals appears because of the analogy between electron waves in crystals and the light waves in artificial periodic dielectric structures. During the recent years the investigation of one-, two-and three-dimensional periodic structures has attracted a widespread attention of the world optics community because of great potentiality of such structures in advanced applied optical fields. The interest in periodic structures has been stimulated by the fast development of semiconductor technology that now allows the fabrication of artificial structures, whose period is comparable with the wavelength of light in the visible and infrared ranges.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6354/16969/00781867.pdf

Photonic crystals

Graphene, a two-dimensional, single-layer sheet of sp(2) hybridized carbon atoms, has attracted tremendous attention and research interest, owing to its exceptional physical properties, such as high electronic conductivity, good thermal stability, and excellent mechanical strength. Other forms of graphene-related materials, including graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and exfoliated graphite, have been reliably produced in large scale. The promising properties together with the ease of processibility and functionalization make graphene-based materials ideal candidates for incorporation into a variety of functional materials. Importantly, graphene and its derivatives have been explored in a wide range of applications, such as electronic and photonic devices, clean energy, and sensors. In this review, after a general introduction to graphene and its derivatives, the synthesis, characterization, properties, and applications of graphene-based materials are discussed.

Graphene-Based Materials: Synthesis, Characterization, Properties, and Applications

Molecular imprinting technology (MIT), often described as a method of making a molecular lock to match a molecular key, is a technique for the creation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with tailor-made binding sites complementary to the template molecules in shape, size and functional groups. Owing to their unique features of structure predictability, recognition specificity and application universality, MIPs have found a wide range of applications in various fields. Herein, we propose to comprehensively review the recent advances in molecular imprinting including versatile perspectives and applications, concerning novel preparation technologies and strategies of MIT, and highlight the applications of MIPs. The fundamentals of MIPs involving essential elements, preparation procedures and characterization methods are briefly outlined. Smart MIT for MIPs is especially highlighted including ingenious MIT (surface imprinting, nanoimprinting, etc.), special strategies of MIT (dummy imprinting, segment imprinting, etc.) and stimuli-responsive MIT (single/dual/multi-responsive technology). By virtue of smart MIT, new formatted MIPs gain popularity for versatile applications, including sample pretreatment/chromatographic separation (solid phase extraction, monolithic column chromatography, etc.) and chemical/biological sensing (electrochemical sensing, fluorescence sensing, etc.). Finally, we propose the remaining challenges and future perspectives to accelerate the development of MIT, and to utilize it for further developing versatile MIPs with a wide range of applications (650 references).

http://ir.yic.ac.cn/bitstream/133337/17045/1/Molecular%20imprinting%20perspectives%20and%20applications.pdf

Molecular imprinting: perspectives and applications

Molecular imprinting technology (MIT) concerns formation of selective sites in a polymer matrix with the memory of a template. Recently, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have aroused extensive attention and been widely applied in many fields, such as solid-phase extraction, chemical sensors and artificial antibodies owing to their desired selectivity, physical robustness, thermal stability, as well as low cost and easy preparation. With the rapid development of MIT as a research hotspot, it faces a number of challenges, involving biological macromolecule imprinting, heterogeneous binding sites, template leakage, incompatibility with aqueous media, low binding capacity and slow mass transfer, which restricts its applications in various aspects. This critical review briefly reviews the current status of MIT, particular emphasis on significant progresses of novel imprinting methods, some challenges and effective strategies for MIT, and highlighted applications of MIPs. Finally, some significant attempts in further developing MIT are also proposed (236 references).

http://ir.yic.ac.cn/bitstream/133337/4853/1/Recent%20advances%20in%20molecular%20imprinting%20technology%20current%20status%2c%20challenges%20and%20highlighted%20applications.pdf

Recent advances in molecular imprinting technology: current status, challenges and highlighted applications

A highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) approach for the selective detection of trace arsenic ions was reported based on cationic polymer (PDDA) and 4-mercaptopyridine (4-MPY)-modified Au@Ag nanoparticles (Au@AgNPs) as the effective enhanced substrate, in which 4-MPY was used the Raman reporter. When As(III) ions were added to the system, As(III) specifically interacts with the Ars-3 aptamer to form an As(III)–aptamer complex, so that the PDDA can aggregate 4-MPY-modified Au@AgNPs and cause the dramatically enhancement of the Raman signals. Under optimal assay conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) was estimated to be as low as 59 ppt, which is lower than the WHO defined limit (10 ppb). The determination of As(III) in real water samples was also carried out to confirm the practicability of our method. Therefore, the target induced aggregation of modified Au@AgNPs enhanced Raman spectroscopic technique offers great potential practical applications for the on-site and ultrasensitive detection of As(III) in environments.

Target induced aggregation of modified Au@Ag nanoparticles for surface enhanced Raman scattering and its ultrasensitive detection of arsenic(III) in aqueous solution

Telomerase is inactive in normal somatic cells but highly activated in tumor cells to maintain their indefinite proliferation and immortal phenotype. As a specific marker for the generation and progress of almost all tumors, the detection of telomerase activity by classical PCR techniques has served in the biological research of tumors. However, the detection of in situ telomerase activity in cell extracts to evaluate the malignancy, progress, and metastasis of tumors remains a daunting challenge. Here, a precisely designed FRET-based ratiometric fluorescent oligonucleotide probe has achieved high-fidelity detection of telomerase activity for accurate discrimination of different cancer cells toward advanced diagnosis of tumors. Our method is superior to other methods in its capabilities to quantify telomerase activity in cell extracts and visualize various tumor cell extracts with different telomerase expression levels by the naked eye for clinical diagnosis. In particular, the ratiometric fluorescent pro...

Ratiometric Fluorescent Biosensor for Visual Discrimination of Cancer Cells with Different Telomerase Expression Levels.

Fluorescent Nanomaterials for Color‐Multiplexing Test Papers toward Qualitative/Quantitative Assays

Location of triple bond in long-chain fatty acids has been effected by mass spectrometry or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of their 4,4-dimethyloxazoline (DMOX) derivatives. The position of acetylenic linkage, either isolated or conjugated with olefinic bond(s) is indicated by a clear separation of 10 atomic mass units between the highest peaks of two neighboring fragment clusters. The acetylenic acid components of the kernel oil ofPyrularia edulis were found to be 17:1(8a), 18:1(9a), 18:2(9a,11), 18:2(9a,17) and 18:3(9a,11,17).

Bianhua Liu

Papers

Target induced aggregation of modified Au@Ag nanoparticles for surface enhanced Raman scattering and its ultrasensitive detection of arsenic(III) in aqueous solution

Ratiometric Fluorescent Biosensor for Visual Discrimination of Cancer Cells with Different Telomerase Expression Levels.

Fluorescent Nanomaterials for Color‐Multiplexing Test Papers toward Qualitative/Quantitative Assays

Location of triple bonds in the fatty-acids from the kernel oil of pyrularia-edulis by gc-ms of their 4,4-dimethyloxazoline derivatives

A facile stage for Cu2+ ions detection by formation and aggregation of Cu nanoclusters