Multifunctional Nanomaterials Based on Oxide Nanocrystals: Synthesis, Properties and Applications

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Synthesis, Interfaces and Nanostructures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2024) | Viewed by 1659

Special Issue Editors


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SYMME Laboratory, University of Savoie Mont Blanc, F-74000 Annecy, France
Interests: materials chemistry; non-centrosymmetric oxides; growth mechanisms; non-linear optics
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Guest Editor
Group for Functionalized Biomaterials, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, ISIC, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Interests: organic synthesis; surface functionalization; polymeric biomaterials; theranosctic nanoparticles; drug delivery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric oxide nanocrystals are known as multifunctional nanomaterials because of their structure-induced properties that may include magnetism, catalytic activity, piezoelectricity and harmonic generation. An increasing research interest is thus dedicated to representative hosts such as iron oxide, multiferroic BiFeO3, BaTiO3 and its derivatives, and niobate (K/Na/LiNbO3) compounds. Assessing their eventual size/shape effects at the nanoscale and improving their rational design in terms of finely-tuned compositions, morphology control, aggregation state and structure–property relationships are indeed currently driven by both fundamental and technological standpoints.

However, contrary to metallic nanoparticles and semiconductor quantum dots, exact derivation of the reaction pathways and crystallization mechanisms of oxide nanocrystals still needs a special attention of the research community for improving their resulting performances and functional properties. Detailed synthesis dealing with space- and time-resolved experiments allowing identification of the transient species and monitoring of the nucleation step and nanocrystal growth are in this way increasingly expected.   

On the other hand, the extremely rich physicochemical properties of oxide nanocrystals and their capacity to undergo surface chemical modification have paved the way to new proof-of-concepts in the nanomedicine field. This includes the recent development of multicomponent oxide nanomaterials for multimodal imaging and with advanced surface functionalization for diagnostics, targeted bioimaging and new theranostic protocols with the on-demand photo-triggered release of chemotherapeutics.

This special issue of Nanomaterials will highlight different aspects of oxide nanocrystals spanning from their chemical preparation and surface post-functionalization to their specific physicochemical properties and to their potential to new applications. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Wet-chemical routes leading to morphology control;
  • Formation mechanisms with identification of the transient species;
  • Preparation of new centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric hosts;
  • Multiphoton microscopy and multimodal imaging;
  • Incorporation of luminescent species;
  • Surface functionalization for bio-related applications;
  • Drug delivery.

Dr. Yannick Mugnier
Dr. Sandrine Gerber‐Lemaire
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • centrosymmetric and noncentrosymmetric metal oxides
  • synthesis and growth mechanisms
  • morphology control
  • physicochemical properties
  • bio-imaging
  • surface functionalization
  • controlled drug delivery
  • targeting

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 5379 KiB  
Article
Cobalt Ferrite Nanorods Synthesized with a Facile “Green” Method in a Magnetic Field
by Alexander L. Kwiatkowski, Petr V. Shvets, Ivan S. Timchenko, Darya E. Kessel, Elizaveta D. Shipkova, Konstantin I. Maslakov, Ivan A. Kuznetsov, Dmitry A. Muravlev, Olga E. Philippova and Andrey V. Shibaev
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(6), 541; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14060541 - 20 Mar 2024
Viewed by 788
Abstract
We report a new facile method for the synthesis of prolate cobalt ferrite nanoparticles without additional stabilizers, which involves a co-precipitation reaction of Fe3+ and Co2+ ions in a static magnetic field. The magnetic field is demonstrated to be a key [...] Read more.
We report a new facile method for the synthesis of prolate cobalt ferrite nanoparticles without additional stabilizers, which involves a co-precipitation reaction of Fe3+ and Co2+ ions in a static magnetic field. The magnetic field is demonstrated to be a key factor for the 1D growth of cobalt ferrite nanocrystals in the synthesis. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy are applied to characterize the morphology and structure of the obtained nanoparticles. According to TEM, they represent nanorods with a mean length of 25 nm and a diameter of 3.4 nm that have a monocrystalline structure with characteristic plane spacing of 2.9 Å. XRD and Raman spectroscopy confirm the spinel CoFe2O4 structure of the nanorods. After aging, the synthesized nanorods exhibit maximum saturation magnetization and coercivity equal to 30 emu/g and 0.3 kOe, respectively. Thus, the suggested method is a simple and “green” way to prepare CoFe2O4 nanorods with high aspect ratios and pronounced magnetic properties, which are important for various practical applications, including biomedicine, energy storage, and the preparation of anisotropic magnetic nanocomposites. Full article
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21 pages, 3743 KiB  
Article
Origin of Multiferroism in VOX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) Monolayers
by Angel Todorov Apostolov, Iliana Naumova Apostolova and Julia Mihailova Wesselinowa
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(5), 408; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14050408 - 23 Feb 2024
Viewed by 647
Abstract
Based on the proposed microscopic model, we investigate the multiferroic characteristics of VOX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) monolayers using a Green’s function method. The dependence of the microscopic parameters of the ferroelectric system (pseudo-spin arrangement and flipping rate) on the magnitude [...] Read more.
Based on the proposed microscopic model, we investigate the multiferroic characteristics of VOX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) monolayers using a Green’s function method. The dependence of the microscopic parameters of the ferroelectric system (pseudo-spin arrangement and flipping rate) on the magnitude and sign of the exchange magnetic interaction along the b-axis and the value of the Dzyaloshinskii–Moria vector have been investigated and qualitatively explained. The possibility of observing a spin-reorientation transition with a change in the character of spin ordering from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic is investigated. It is found that the antisymmetric magnetoelectric interaction may be responsible for the spin-reorientation transition without a change in the ordering of magnetic moments. Changing the sign of the exchange magnetic interaction along the b-axis leads to ferromagnetic ordering without observing a spin-reorientation transition. The dependence of isotropic and antisymmetric magnetic interactions on the microscopic parameters of the ferroelectric system is qualitatively explained. A mechanism for the occurrence of the spin-reorientation transition is presented based on the proposed microscopic model. The obtained results qualitatively coincide with Density Functional Theory calculations. Full article
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