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In this paper, the longitudinal plasmon mode optical properties and localized electric field distribution of a single pentagonal gold nanotube are investigated for the first time by the discrete dipole approximation. It is found that pentagonal gold nanotube has stronger electric field distribution compared with circular gold nanotubes when the incident wavelength is located at the plasmon resonance peak. Additionally, we observed that the longitudinal plasmon resonance peak can blue shift nonlinearly with increasing wall thickness, but red shifts linearly with the increase of the length of the pentagonal gold nanotube. The localized electric field analysis reveals that the longitudinal plasmon peak of the pentagonal gold nanotube originates from the dipole resonance mode. The local electric field intensity is controlled by the wall thickness and length. Notably, the effect of wall thickness on the longitudinal plasmon resonance and electric field enhancement can be attributed to the change of the plasmon coupling position and intensity. This work has enriched the theoretical research of pentagonal gold nanotubes and provided ideas for the preparation of high sensitivity nanoprobes biosensors., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Vascular endothelial cells (ECs) are natively exposed to dynamic cyclic stretch and respond to it by the production of vasoactive molecules. Among them, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are closely implicated to the endothelial function and vascular homeostasis. However, the dynamic monitoring of ROS release during endothelial mechanotransduction remains a steep challenge. Herein, we developed a stretchable electrochemical sensor by decoration of uniform and ultrasmall platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) on gold nanotube (Au NT) networks (denoted as Au@Pt NTs). The orchestrated structure exhibited prominent electrocatalytic property toward the oxidation of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) (as the most stable ROS) while maintaining excellent mechanical compliance of Au NT networks. Moreover, the favorable biocompatibility of Au NTs and Pt NPs promoted the adhesion and proliferation of ECs cultured thereon. These allowed in situ inducing ECs mechanotransduction and synchronously real-time monitoring of H 2 O 2 release. Further investigation revealed that the production of H 2 O 2 was positively correlated with the applied mechanical strains and could be boosted by other coexisting pathogenic factors. This indicates the great prospect of our proposed sensor in exploring ROS-related signaling for the deep understanding of cell mechanotransduction and vascular disorder.

This review (with 106 references) summarizes the latest progress in the synthesis, properties and biomedical applications of gold nanotubes (AuNTs). Following an introduction into the field, a first large section covers two popular AuNTs synthesis methods. The hard template method introduces anodic alumina oxide template (AAO) and track-etched membranes (TeMs), while the sacrificial template method based on galvanic replacement introduces bimetallic, trimetallic AuNTs and AuNT-semiconductor hybrid materials. Then, the factors affecting the morphology of AuNTs are discussed. The next section covers their unique surface plasmon resonance (SPR), surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and their catalytic properties. This is followed by overviews on the applications of AuNTs in biosensors, protein transportation, photothermal therapy and imaging. Several tables are presented that give an overview on the wealth of synthetic methods, morphology factors and biological application. A concluding section summarizes the current status, addresses current challenges and gives an outlook on potential applications of AuNTs in biochemical detection and drug delivery.Graphical abstract.

Biosensors always suffer from passivation that prevents their reutilization. To address this issue, photocatalytically renewable sensors composed of semiconductor photocatalysts and sensing materials have emerged recently. In this work, we developed a robust and versatile method to construct different kinds of renewable biosensors consisting of ZnO nanorods and nanostructured Au. Via a facile and efficient photochemical reduction, various nanostructured Au was obtained successfully on ZnO nanorods. As-prepared sensors concurrently possess excellent sensing capability and desirable photocatalytic cleaning performance. Experimental results demonstrate that dendritic Au/ZnO composite has the strongest surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement, and dense Au nanoparticles (NPs)/ZnO composite has the highest electrochemical activity, which was successfully used for electrochemical detection of NO release from cells. Furthermore, both of the SERS and electrochemical sensors can be regenerated efficiently for renewable applications via photodegrading adsorbed probe molecules and biomolecules. Our strategy provides an efficient and versatile method to construct various kinds of highly sensitive renewable sensors and might expand the application of the photocatalytically renewable sensor in the biosensing area.

The pristine boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) exhibits a poor chemical reactivity to some adsorbates, thus greatly limiting its application for the gas sensor. In the present work, using density functional theory (DFT) methods, we put forward a novel strategy to enhance the sensitivity of BNNT to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by the encapsulation of a single Fe atom inside its cavity. The results suggest that the NO2 molecule can be only physically adsorbed on the pristine BNNT with a small adsorption energy (-0.10 eV). After the inclusion of the Fe atom inside BNNT (Fe@BNNT), the interaction of NO2 molecules with this tube is significantly enhanced, leading to a transformation from the physisorption of on pristine BNNT to the current chemisorption. Interestingly, up to five NO2 molecules can be adsorbed on this encapsulated BNNT along its circumference with the average adsorption energy of -0.52 eV, corresponding to a short recovery time (6 ms). Moreover, 0.38 electrons are transferred from the Fe@BNNT to the adsorbed NO2 molecules, which is enough to induce the obvious change of its electrical conductance. Thus, we predict that the encapsulation of Fe atom inside BNNT would greatly boosts its sensitivity to NO2 molecules, indicating its potential application as NO2 sensors., (Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

In this paper, the optical properties and local electric field distribution of transverse plasmon mode of a single pentagonal gold nanotube are studied for the first time by the discrete dipole approximation (DDA). We find that the transverse plasmon peaks can nonlinearly red shift from visible to infrared region via controlling the inner diameter. In addition, the transverse plasmon peak firstly blue shifts and then red shifts in the visible region with the increase of outer diameter. Further analysis shows that the spectra red shift with the increase of outer diameters when scattering is dominant. Local electric field analysis reveals that transverse plasmon resonance peaks of gold nanotube mainly come from dipole resonance. When the tube wall is thin enough, multi-polar plasmon resonance mode will be generated, and the number of peaks will be increased. The surface charges of inner and outer tube walls are changed by tuning the inner diameter and outer diameter parameters of pentagonal gold nanotube. The selective controlling transverse plasmon spectra of gold nanotube are realized, which is of great significance to the study of optical properties of gold nanotube and the application of molecular detection and biological imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing methods offer little direct and real-time information about stretch-triggered biochemical responses during cell mechanotransduction. A novel stretchable electrochemical sensor is reported that takes advantage of a hierarchical percolation network of carbon nanotubes and gold nanotubes (CNT-AuNT). This hybrid nanostructure provides the sensor with excellent time-reproducible mechanical and electrochemical performances while granting very good cellular compatibility, making it perfectly apt to induce and monitor simultaneously transient biochemical signals. This is validated by monitoring stretch-induced transient release of small signaling molecules by both endothelial and epithelial cells cultured on this sensor and submitted to stretching strains of different intensities. This work demonstrates that the hybrid CNT-AuNT platform offers a versatile and highly sensitive way to characterize and quantify short-time mechanotransduction responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we reported a robust and sensitive SERS sensing platform based on hollow porous pentagonal Au/Ag alloy nanotubes (Au/AgANTs) for simultaneous determination of three food contaminants. With the increase amount of etching agent, the morphology of the nanoparticles changed from solid to hollow porous structures, and then the disappearance of pores, accompanied by a trend of first increasing and then decreasing SERS activity. The Au/AgANTs with pentagonal cross section, hollow and pore structure provide stronger local electric field. Under optimized experimental conditions, they were utilized to achieve the simultaneous determination of rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB) and malachite green (MG) in shrimp paste with low detection limit (5.3 ×10−11 M for RhB, 1.27 ×10−10 M for MB and 4.07 ×10−12 M for MG), wide linear detection range (1.0 ×10−8∼1.0 ×10−4 M for RhB, 1.0 ×10−9∼1.0 ×10−5 M for MB, and 1.0 ×10−9∼1.0 ×10−5 M for MG) and satisfactory recoveries (97.24–102.66%), suggesting that the developed method is a promising tool for accurate quantification of the three food contaminants at trace level. • The morphological evolution mechanism of pentagonal Au/Ag alloy nanotubes was investigated. • The larger diameter Au/Ag alloy nanotubes can adsorb more signal molecules and have stronger SERS activity. • The Au/Ag alloy nanotube SERS substrate showed good reproducibility and stability. • The Au/Ag alloy nanotube SERS substrate was applied for simultaneous detection of three food contaminants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stretchable electrochemical sensors are conceivably a powerful technique that provides important chemical information to unravel elastic and curvilinear living body. However, no breakthrough was made in stretchable electrochemical device for biological detection. Herein, we synthesized Au nanotubes (NTs) with large aspect ratio to construct an effective stretchable electrochemical sensor. Interlacing network of Au NTs endows the sensor with desirable stability against mechanical deformation, and Au nanostructure provides excellent electrochemical performance and biocompatibility. This allows for the first time, real-time electrochemical monitoring of mechanically sensitive cells on the sensor both in their stretching-free and stretching states as well as sensing of the inner lining of blood vessels. The results demonstrate the great potential of this sensor in electrochemical detection of living body, opening a new window for stretchable electrochemical sensor in biological exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]