Although gold is the subject of one of the most ancient themes of investigation in science, its renaissance now leads to an exponentially increasing number of publications, especially in the context of emerging nanoscience and nanotechnology with nanoparticles and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). We will limit the present review to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), also called gold colloids. AuNPs are the most stable metal nanoparticles, and they present fascinating aspects such as their assembly of multiple types involving materials science, the behavior of the individual particles, size-related electronic, magnetic and optical properties (quantum size effect), and their applications to catalysis and biology. Their promises are in these fields as well as in the bottom-up approach of nanotechnology, and they will be key materials and building block in the 21st century. Whereas the extraction of gold started in the 5th millennium B.C. near Varna (Bulgaria) and reached 10 tons per year in Egypt around 1200-1300 B.C. when the marvelous statue of Touthankamon was constructed, it is probable that “soluble” gold appeared around the 5th or 4th century B.C. in Egypt and China. In antiquity, materials were used in an ecological sense for both aesthetic and curative purposes. Colloidal gold was used to make ruby glass 293 Chem. Rev. 2004, 104, 293−346

Gold nanoparticles: assembly, supramolecular chemistry, quantum-size-related properties, and applications toward biology, catalysis, and nanotechnology.

Titanium Dioxide Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties, Modifications, and Applications

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) offer the possibilities to design solar cells with a large flexibility in shape, color, and transparency. DSC research groups have been established around the worl ...

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Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

J. Appl. Cryst.の発刊に際して

The long-standing challenge of designing and constructing new crystalline solid-state materials from molecular building blocks is just beginning to be addressed with success. A conceptual approach that requires the use of secondary building units to direct the assembly of ordered frameworks epitomizes this process: we call this approach reticular synthesis. This chemistry has yielded materials designed to have predetermined structures, compositions and properties. In particular, highly porous frameworks held together by strong metal-oxygen-carbon bonds and with exceptionally large surface area and capacity for gas storage have been prepared and their pore metrics systematically varied and functionalized.

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Reticular synthesis and the design of new materials

Intercalation of inorganic materials into organized organic assemblies provides possibility for developing new functional materials possessing superior physicochemical properties. A composite material consisting of Prussian blue intercalated into photo-responsive organic molecules (azobenzene-containing multibilayer vesicles) was made. Photoisomerization of the film was attended with geometrically confined structural change within the vesicles as reflefted by changes in dipole moment and electrostatic field. It was consequently possible to control the magnetic properties of the new material by photo-illumination, as well as magnetic properties of photo-isomerizable nano-film containing iron oxide particle by photoillumination at room temperature.

Optical Control of Magnetic Properties by Use of Self-Assembled Films

Verfahren zur behandlung von schwerer herzinsuffizienz und medikament dafür

http://absimage.aps.org/image/MAR06/MWS_MAR06-2005-004189.pdf

Vortex doping into finite-sized superconducting Pb networks.

Using the de Gennes–Alexander equation, we have analyzed the vortex structures in disordered finite superconducting networks under an external magnetic field. The vortex structure at the superconducting transition temperature is much different from that of the regular networks. As increasing the magnetic field, the equilibrium magnetic structure changes gradually, and the disordered wires affect the position of the vortices apart from that wire. This is the non-local effect of the superconductivity.

Non-local effects in finite superconducting networks

The authors have devised a new cosmetic craniotomy in the surgery of intracranial aneurysms for the purpose of early recovery to the social activities of the patients. The key procedures in the craniotomy are to cover the operative wound by the hair, to preserve the temporal branches of the facial nerve and to avoid bone defect. The eyebrow is not shaved and the hair is shaved only up to4 cm behind the hair line and 2 cm above the zygomatic arch. For the protection of the temporal branches of the facial nerve, it is important to avoid any thermal effect on the branches by electrocautery and to retract the scalp, the galea aponeurotica, the frontal periosteum and the temporal fascia in a sheet so as to minimize the traction effect on the branches. The temporal muscle is bluntly dissected from the temporal bone and is posterolaterally retracted. A rhombic free bone flap is made and after the intracranial procedures on the aneurysm are completed, the bone flap is fixed by silk threads and bone defect is completely replaced with Bioresin. The temporal muscle is sutured at its anterior margin to soft tissues and its medial margin is fixed to the bone flap . Scalp is closed in layers. The authors have experienced the cosmetic craniotomy on 60 cases and without any case with paralysis of the temporal branches of the facial nerve. There was no case with difficulty in mastication soon after the surgery but there were two caseswith temporary difficulty in opening the mouth which was attributed to abnormal contracture of the temporal muscle.

Osamu Sato

Papers

Optical Control of Magnetic Properties by Use of Self-Assembled Films

Verfahren zur behandlung von schwerer herzinsuffizienz und medikament dafür

Vortex doping into finite-sized superconducting Pb networks.

Non-local effects in finite superconducting networks

A Method of Cosmetic Craniotomy in the Surgery of Intracranial Aneurysms