In a new paper accepted on “Chemical Comunication” journal Valerio Voliani and collaborators presented a highly reproducible, functional and biodegradable nanosystem composed of hollow silica nanoparticles in which 3 nm gold nanoparticles are embedded in their central cavity in a narrow array, capable of simulating the optical behaviour of a single larger gold nanoparticle. Noticeably, these nanosystems stand as promising tools to overcome the issue of accumulation of inorganic nanoparticles in organisms. Preliminary in vivo photoacoustic and X-ray experiments are ongoing. Also, the possibilities to develop gold arrays with peculiar geometries (and thus peculiar optical behaviour, such as rods) and nanosystems devoid of metal nanoparticles are under investigation. Finally, their calcination produces ‘‘naked’’ gold nanoparticles – i.e. without any type of coating on the surface – shielded by the hollow permeable silica nanospheres. These nanosystems could be highly performing as catalysts for a number of reactions, such as the water–gas shift reaction. This task will also be supported by the versatility of the nanosystems, i.e. the possibility of synthesizing nanostructures composed of various metals, such as platinum and silver.
For this paper the Author received the inside back cover of the journal!
All the details can be found HERE.