There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Gold nanorods: Synthesis, characterization and applications

Metal nanoparticles can be used as building blocks for the formation of nanostructured materials. For the design of materials with specific (optical) properties, several approaches can be followed, even when starting from the very same basic units. In this article, a survey is provided of the optical properties of noble metal nanoparticles, specifically gold, silver, and their combinations, prepared in solution through colloid chemical methods. The optical properties are shown to be mainly influenced by the surface plasmon resonance of conduction electrons, the frequency of which is not only determined by the nature of the metal but also by a number of other parameters, such as particle size and shape, the presence of a capping shell on the particle surface, or the dielectric properties of the surrounding medium. Recent results showing how these various parameters affect the optical properties are reviewed. The results highlight the high degree of control that can now be achieved through colloid chemical synthesis.

Tailoring Surface Plasmons through the Morphology and Assembly of Metal Nanoparticles

Structural engineering of polyurethane coatings for high performance applications

Following a seeding growth approach, gold nanoparticles of diameters 5−40 nm were prepared with 10−15% standard deviation in diameter from 3.5 ± 0.7 nm gold particle seeds. Particle size can be controlled by varying the ratio of seed to metal salt, and thus any size in the range 5−40 nm can be prepared. The method can also be scaled up to produce 10−100 mg of gold nanoparticles.

Seeding Growth for Size Control of 5−40 nm Diameter Gold Nanoparticles

Oriented pearl-necklace arrays of metallic nanoparticles in polymers : a new route toward polarization-dependent color filters

Current developments in the field of thermotropic chiral-nematic liquid crystals as sensors are discussed. These one dimensional photonic materials are based on low molecular weight liquid crystals and chiral-nematic polymeric networks. For both low molecular weight LCs and polymer networks, real-time and time integrating sensors have been realized. The response mechanism is either based on a change of helical twisting power of the dopant upon exposure to an analyte, or due to physical swelling, with a change of order in the liquid crystalline phase upon uptake of the analyte, causing the pitch to change. Sensors that respond to organic and water vapour, amines, water CO2, O2, metal ions, pH, strain and temperature have been reported.

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Chiral-nematic liquid crystals as one dimensional photonic materials in optical sensors

Uniaxially oriented composites of high-density polyethylene and silver nanoparticles were prepared using solution-casting, melt-extrusion and solid-state drawing techniques. The absorption spectrum in the visible wavelength range of the drawn nanocomposites was observed to strongly depend on the polarisation direction of the incident light. For instance, the nanocomposites appear bright yellow or red when the vibration direction of linearly polarised light is perpendicular or parallel, respectively, to the drawing axis. The optical anisotropy of the drawn nanocomposites originates from uniaxially oriented, pearl-necklace type of arrays of nanoparticles of high aspect ratios. The absorption spectrum of the nanocomposites can be shifted to higher wavelengths using appropriate annealing procedures. The annealing results in an increased size of the primary silver particles, due to Ostwald ripening, and consequently a range of polarisation-dependent colours can be generated in the drawn nanocomposites.

Preparation, structure and properties of uniaxially oriented polyethylene-silver nanocomposites

A humidity-responsive bilayer actuator has been developed that consists of an oriented polyamide-6 substrate and a liquid-crystalline polymer coating. The oriented substrate acts as an alignment layer for the liquid crystal. The liquid-crystalline polymer consists of a supramolecular network having hydrogen-bonded entities that, after activation with an alkaline solution, exhibit deformation in response to a change in humidity. The bending behavior of the bilayer actuator was analyzed, showing a large response to a change in the humidity.

Cwm Cees Bastiaansen

Papers

Oriented pearl-necklace arrays of metallic nanoparticles in polymers : a new route toward polarization-dependent color filters

Chiral-nematic liquid crystals as one dimensional photonic materials in optical sensors

Preparation, structure and properties of uniaxially oriented polyethylene-silver nanocomposites

Humidity-responsive bilayer actuators based on a liquid-crystalline polymer network

The effect of a scattering layer on the edge output of a luminescent solar concentrator