ETH Zürich – TechConnect Briefs

Cytotoxicity and biointeractions of nanosilver in macrophages

Hervella P., Leroux J.-C., Pratsinis A., Pratsinis S.E., Sotiriou G.A., ETH Zürich, CH

Silver nanoparticles (nanosilver) are broadly used today in textiles, food packaging, household devices and bioapplications, prompting a better understanding of their toxicity and biological interactions. Here, nanosilver of well-defined size (5.7 to 20.4 nm) supported [...]

Aerosol manufacturing of plasmonic biosensors with silica coated nanosilver

Blattmann C.O., Pratsinis S.E., Sotiriou G.A., ETH Zürich, CH

Development of biosensors for medical applications is an on-going research field of great importance. In particular localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensors show a high potential to detect analytes at low concentrations in biological fluids. [...]

Antioxidant and Antiradical SiO2 Nanoparticles Covalently Functionalized with Gallic Acid

Deligiannakis Y., Pratsinis S.E., Sotiriou G.A., ETH Zürich, CH

Gallic acid (GA) and its derivatives are natural polyphenolic substances widely used as antioxidants in nutrients, medicine and polymers. Here, nanoantioxidant materials are engineered by covalently grafting GA on SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs). A proof-of-concept is [...]

Multifunctional plasmonic nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Pratsinis S.E., Sotiriou G.A., ETH Zürich, CH

Plasmonic nanoparticles play an important role in biomedical applications today as they can serve as superior optically-stable bioimaging agents, be employed in biosensor devices for the early diagnosis of diseases, and exhibit promising results for [...]

Unravelling adsorption and alignment of amyloid fibrils at interfaces by probe particle tracking

Isa L., Jordens S, Jung J-M, Mezzenga R., ETH Zürich, CH

We report the first direct, non-invasive experimental evidence of a 2D isotropic–nematic transition for highly anisotropic nanoparticles at liquid–liquid interfaces by using passive fluorescent particle tracking. In order to illustrate the potential of this approach [...]

Breath acetone monitoring by portable Si:WO3 gas sensors

Amann A., Gass S., Pratsinis S.E., Righettoni M., Schmid A., Tricoli A., ETH Zürich, CH

Breath analysis has the potential for early stage detection and monitoring of illnesses to drastically reduce the corresponding medical diagnostic costs. In particular, the detection of acetone in the human breath is promising for non-invasive [...]

The Structure of Agglomerates consisting of Polydisperse Particles

Eggersdorfer M.L., Pratsinis S.E., ETH Zürich, CH

Agglomeration is encountered in many natural or industrial processes, like growth of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, material synthesis by aerosol processes or even colloidal particles. These particles collide by different mechanisms and stick together [...]

Au nanoelectrodes for breath analysis

Pratsinis S.E., Righettoni M., Tricoli A., ETH Zürich, CH

New medical diagnostic methods such as non-invasive human breath analysis bear the potential of drastically reducing medical costs as a greater amount of automatization is possible. SnO2 is one of the most utilized and best [...]

Pilot-scale Nanoparticle Manufacture

Grohn A., Multer S., Wegner K., ETH Zürich, CH

A fully automated pilot plant for nanoparticle manufacture by flame spray pyrolysis is presented that allows continuous production of nanopowders at rates up to 500 g/h. For the example of zirconia the scale-up from the [...]

Observation of Early to Full Covering Stages of Ethylene-based CVD of Graphene

Altun A.O., Celebi K., Choi J.W., Cole M.T., Park H.G., Teo K.B.K., ETH Zürich, CH

Scalable growth of graphene has been demonstrated by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) using copper-based catalyst and ethylene precursor. Here, we present our ethylene-based CVD synthesis method of graphene along with our observation of early and [...]