Improvement of monodispersity and shape symmetry of silica shell for PbS quantum dots by introducing surface silanization and adjusting reverse micelle size

Increasing the thickness of the quantum dot silica coating layer reduces monodispersity and shape symmetry. This paper reports three effective ways to solve this problem and achieve a large silica-coated QDs, i.e., proper silanization on the QD surface, control of reverse micelle size by adjusting the amount of QD solvent, and two-step formation of silica shell. Proper substitution of ligands on the QD surface in the early stages of silica shell formation was important for uniform coating reaction. An amount of toluene as QD solvent determined the size of reverse micelles during the silica shell formation. There was an optimum combination of inverse micelle size and silica shell size to obtain silica-coated QDs with good monodispersity and high shape symmetry. We succeeded in growing the thick silica shell with expanding reverse micelle size by additionally supplying toluene with the raw material using the optimum silica-coated QDs as growth nucleus

How to Characterize Amorphous Shapes: The Tale of a Reverse Micelle

Aerosol-OT reverse micelles represent a chemical construct where surfactant molecules self-assemble to stabilize water nanodroplets ~1-10 nm in diameter. Although commonly assumed to adopt a spherical shape, all-atom molecular dynamics simulations and some experimental studies predict a non-spherical shape. If these aggregates are not spherical, then what shape do they take? Because the tools needed to evaluate the shape of something that lacks regular structure, order, or symmetry are not well developed, we present a set of three intuitive metrics- coordinate-pair eccentricity, convexity, and the curvature distribution- that estimate the shape of an amorphous object and we demonstrate their use on a simulated Aerosol-OT reverse micelle. These metrics are all well-established methods and principles in mathematics, and each provides unique information about the shape. Together, these metrics provide intuitive descriptions of amorphous shapes, facilitate ways to quantify those shapes, and follow their changes over time.

Porous Cu-MOF Nanostructures with Anticancer Properties Prepared by a Controllable Ultrasound-Assisted Reverse Micelle Method

The ultrasonic assisted reverse micelle method was used to create Cu-MOF from Cu(NO3)2•3H2O and 2,6-pyridine dicarboxylic acid in a 1:1 molar proportion. It has been characterized using FT-IR, XRD, nitrogen adsorption analysis SEM and TEM-EDX. Cu-MOF has anticancer properties against MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Cytotoxicity testing was performed on MCF-7 breast cancer cells using the MTT cell viability assay, and cell proliferation and viability were found to be approximately 24 % higher than the control.