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In this study, copper (Cu) is introduced as a foreign metal ion replacing platinum by modifying the recipe of GNBPs and the final structure obtained is gold bone nanorods (GBNRs). The aspect ratio and surface density of GBNRs were investigated by varying the growth time during the growth process from 30 minutes to 5 hours. It was found that the growth solution has been changed from colourless to light blue and violet colour with increasing growth time, indicating the formation of GBNRs. The UV-Vis analysis shows two resonance plasmon peaks for t-SPR and l-SPR at 583 nm and 766 nm with the intensity of 1.433 a.u and 2.236 a.u at the optimum 5 hours growth time. For morphological analysis, it was found that the sample with lower growth time produced gold nanosphere shapes and with increasing time, more GBNRs with large aspect ratios were produced. HR-TEM characterization reveals that bone nanorods are formed due to the influence of Cu foreign metal ions, which cause selective deposition of Au atoms onto {111} facet of gold nanorods, while simultaneously reducing the overgrowth rate of the {110} facet for the edge regions and the {100} facet for the tip regions of the nanorods. In addition, the influence of Cu foreign metal ions on the growth mechanism of Au nanoseeds into nanorods and the shape transformation of nanorods into bone nanorods are also discussed in this work. In conclusion, the GBNRs have been successfully synthesized using SMGM by induced Cu as foreign metal ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymer is one of the most often utilised precursors for the synthesis of carbon fibres. In this work, PAN was electrospun prior to stabilisation at 280oC and carbonisation at 1200oC. The carbonisation process has successfully converted the electrospun PAN into carbon fibres with approximately similar diameter produced. The ATR-FTIR spectrum shows the as-received and as-spun PAN have a similar chemical structure showing all the solvent has completely vaporised. The conversion of electrospun PAN into carbon fibres are evident from the ATR-FTIR spectrum and XRD peak. There is no apparent peak in the ATR-FTIR spectrum due to the absorbing nature of black carbon, but the XRD data reveals two diffraction peaks at scattering angles of 25o and 44o, which are identical to those previously described for graphitic structures. The conductivity of the carbonised electrospun PAN was found to be 14.2 ± 0.04 Scm-1 which is in agreement with findings from others. This indicates that the carbonisation parameter used in this study is sufficient to synthesize a carbon fibre with a moderate conductivity level which is suitable to be used as electrical conductors or in semiconductor applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gold nanobipyramids (GNBPs) have attracted wide attention in field of sensing, biomedicine, catalysis and optoelectronics due to strong local electric field enhancement and surface plasmon resonance originated from their sharp tips. In GNBPs synthesis process, CTAB is usually used as a surfactant which plays a role as capping and stabilizing agents. However, CTAB surfactant is known as a toxic and thus hindering the GNBPs application in a biomedical related research. In this paper, for the first time we reported the simplest approach for surface modification of CTAB surfactant capped GNBPs using an amine functionalization or known as amine functionalized GNBPs. The optical properties and functionalization mechanism were investigated in this paper. In addition, the detailed understanding of the GNBPs-amine bond and its physical arrangement also were explained in this work. The amine functionalized GNBPs systems have exciting potential applications in the field of biosensing and in targeted drug delivery platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]