Nanoprisms

Nanoprisms List

With the rapid development of nanotechnology, there are many methods, such as electron beam printing, focused ion beam printing and the others, which can prepare nanoparticles with controllable shape and size. The prepared nanoparticles can be formed into a variety of nanostructures including spherical, rod-shaped, flakes-shaped, shell, tetrahedron, hexagon, star, prism and the others. Nanoprisms is a kind of nanomaterial with prismatic morphology, which is composed of nano - flakes. Nanoprisms have excellent optical and chemical properties and have wide potential applications in many fields. The research about nanoprisms starts late, which is a new material subject.

Applications:

Based on the excellent properties, nanoprisms have a wide range of applications in the fields of biological imaging, biosensor, biomolecule and inorganic ion detection, optical sensor and the others.

• Bioimaging field: In biology, biological imaging is an important research means to understand the structure of organism and elucidate various physiological functions of organism. Taking advantages of tunable optical properties, nanoprisms have important applications in the field of biological imaging.
• Tumor therapy field: Photodynamic therapy is a novel and effective treatment to cure cancer. Compared with traditional cancer therapies, photodynamic therapy can realize targets treatment and the side effects are small. Based on the excellent properties, nanoprisms can be well used as photothermal molecules in photodynamic therapy. For example, silver nanoprisms have a unique surface equidistant resonance in the near infrared region, which has a high near-infrared photothermal conversion efficiency and can be well used in photothermal therapy.
• New energy field: The rapid consumption of fossil fuels and the related environmental problems stimulate the research and development of renewable energy systems. Nanoprisms also play an important role in the development of new energy sources. For example, a hollow nanoprism composed of ultra-thin Ni-Fe LDH nano-flakes are used for electrochemical decomposition of water.

Figure 1. the structure of Ni - Fe LDH hollow nanoprism.

• The others: In addition to the mentioned application fields, nanoprisms also have important applications in other fields, such as ion detection, biosensors, optical sensors, antibacterial and other fields.

Classification:

According to the composition, nanoprisms can be divided into silver nanoprisms, gold nanoprisms and the others.

• Silver nanoprisms: Silver nanoprisms mainly refer to triangular silver nanoprisms, which can be prepared by light induction, thermal transformation, microemulsion method, reduction method and other methods. Appropriate surface modification and assembly of the silver nanoprisms can obtain new functions and has been applied in many fields.
• Gold nanoprisms: Gold nanoprism is a kind of excellent nano-materials. The modified gold nanoprisms have important applications in the field of in vivo imaging biosensor and the others.
• The others: With the development of preparation technology, more and more nanoprisms are developed, including copper nanoprisms, TiO₂ nanoprisms and the others.

References

1. Gold nanoprisms as a hybrid in vivo cancer theranostic platform for in situ photoacoustic imaging, angiography, and localized hyperthermia[J]. Nano Research, 2016.
2. Lou, David X W. Hierarchical Hollow Nanoprisms Organized by Ultrathin Ni-Fe Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity Toward Oxygen Evolution[J]. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2017.