Browsing by Subject "Nanospheres"
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Item Open Access Cellular internalization of therapeutic oligonucleotides by peptide amphiphile nanofibers and nanospheres(American Chemical Society, 2016-04) Mumcuoglu, D.; S. Ekiz, M.; Gunay, G.; Tekinay, T.; Tekinay, A. B.; Güler, Mustafa O.Oligonucleotides are promising drug candidates due to the exceptionally high specificity they exhibit toward their target DNA and RNA sequences. However, their poor pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, in conjunction with problems associated with their internalization by cells, necessitates their delivery through specialized carrier systems for efficient therapy. Here, we investigate the effects of carrier morphology on the cellular internalization mechanisms of oligonucleotides by using self-assembled fibrous or spherical peptide nanostructures. Size and geometry were both found to be important parameters for the oligonucleotide internalization process; direct penetration was determined to be the major mechanism for the internalization of nanosphere carriers, whereas nanofibers were internalized by clathrin- and dynamin-dependent endocytosis pathways. We further showed that glucose conjugation to carrier nanosystems improved cellular internalization in cancer cells due to the enhanced glucose metabolism associated with oncogenesis, and the internalization of the glucose-conjugated peptide/oligonucleotide complexes was found to be dependent on glucose transporters present on the surface of the cell membrane.Item Open Access Femtosecond laser crystallization of amorphous Ge(American Institute of Physics, 2011) Salihoglu, O.; Kürüm, U.; Yaglıoglu, G. H.; Elmali, A.; Aydınlı, AtillaUltrafast crystallization of amorphous germanium (a-Ge) in ambient has been studied. Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition grown a-Ge was irradiated with single femtosecond laser pulses of various durations with a range of fluences from below melting to above ablation threshold. Extensive use of Raman scattering has been employed to determine post solidification features aided by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy measurements. Linewidth of the Ge optic phonon at 300 cm -1 as a function of laser fluence provides a signature for the crystallization of a-Ge. Various crystallization regimes including nanostructures in the form of nanospheres have been identified.Item Open Access Influence of gold-silica nanoparticles on the performance of small-molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells(Elsevier BV * North-Holland, 2015) Xu, X.; Kyaw, A. K. K.; Peng, B.; Xiong, Q.; Demir, Hilmi Volkan; Wang Y.; Wong, T. K. S.; Sun, X. W.Light trapping by gold (Au)-silica nanospheres and nanorods embedded in the active layer of small-molecule (SM) organic solar cell has been systematically compared. Nanorod significantly outperforms nanosphere because of more light scattering and higher quality factor for localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) triggered by nanorods. The optimum concentration of nanorod was characterized by charge carrier transport and morphology of the active layers. At optimum nanorod concentration, almost no change in the morphology of the active layer reveals that LSPR and scattering effects rather than the morphology are mainly responsible for the enhanced power conversion efficiency. In addition, the preliminary lifetime studies of the SM solar cells with and without Au-silica nanorods were conducted by measuring the current density-voltage characteristics over 20 days. The results show that plasmonic device with nanorods has no adverse impact on the device stabilityItem Open Access Model-based spectral analysis of photon propagation through nanoparticle-labeled epithelial tissues(SPIE, 2011) Cihan, Can; Arifler, D.Metal nanoparticles can function as optical contrast enhancers for reflectance-based diagnosis of epithelial precancer. We carry out Monte Carlo simulations to model photon propagation through normal tissues, unlabeled precancerous tissues, and precancerous tissues labeled with gold nanospheres and we compute the spectral reflectance response of these different tissue states. The results indicate that nanoparticle-induced changes in the spectral reflectance profile of tissues depend not only on the properties of these particles but also on the source-detector geometry used. When the source and detector fibers are oriented side by side and perpendicular to the tissue surface, the reflectance intensity of precancerous tissue is lower compared to that of normal tissue over the entire wavelength range simulated and addition of nanospheres enhances this negative contrast. When the fibers are tilted toward each other, the reflectance intensity of precancerous tissue is higher compared to that of normal tissue and labeling with nanospheres causes a significant enhancement of this positive contrast. The results also suggest that model-based spectral analysis of photon propagation through nanoparticle-labeled tissues provides a useful framework to quantify the extent of achievable contrast enhancement due to external labeling and to assess the diagnostic potential of nanoparticle-enhanced optical measurements. © 2011 SPIE-OSA.Item Open Access Nanosphere concentrated photovoltaics with shape control(Wiley, 2020-12) Esmaeilzad, N. S.; Demir, Ahmet Kemal; Hajivand, J.; Çiftpınar, H.; Turan, R.; Kurt, H.; Bek, A.Dielectric colloidal nanospheres (NSs) are promising candidates for light management in photonic devices such as solar cells (SCs). NS arrays can direct the broad incident solar radiation into a set of tighter foci, at which light intensity becomes considerably concentrated, enabling higher photovoltaic conversion efficiency. Furthermore, the NS arrays acting as an effective medium on the SC surface can reduce reflectance and facilitate improved forward scattering. Therefore, uniform arrays of NSs located on top of the SC can behave as antireflection coatings or as microlenses, which can be regarded as a surface distributed light concentrator within the framework of concentrated photovoltaics. Fabrication of NS‐based light‐trapping structures is low‐cost and less complicated than common alternatives such as vacuum evaporated multilayer antireflection coatings. In this work, experimental demonstration and computational confirmation on the shape adjustment of such NS structures for improved light harvesting and efficiency enhancement in Si SCs are studied. The light conversion efficiency of Si solar cells is shown to improve by more than 27% with shape adjustment of NS arrays.Item Open Access Self-assembled peptide nanostructure delivery sytems for oligonucleotide therapy(Bilkent University, 2014-06) Mumcuoğlu, Zahide DidemOligonucleotides are potent therapeutic agents in the treatment of cancer, metabolic, cardiovascular and various hereditary diseases. Despite their great potential, oligonucleotide-based drugs have failed in clinical and pre-clinical studies due to their low cell penetration capacities, short plasma half-lives and rapid clearances. As such, development of delivery systems for oligonucleotide drugs is necessary to protect oligonucleotide based-drugs from renal and reticulo-endothelial system (RES) clearance and as well as to facilitate their delivery within target sites. In this thesis, a peptide nanostructure delivery system was developed to improve these deficiencies and to create an effective carrier for oligonucleotide therapy. Cell penetration capacity and silencing efficiency of a model oligonucleotide drug, Bcl-2 antisense oligonucleotide, was shown to be increased following encapsulation within cell penetrating peptides. In addition, the importance of the geometry of the delivery system in cellular internalization was investigated. The geometry of the nanostructure was shown to be critical in cellular internalization, where nanofibers were observed to be internalized to a greater extent compared to nanospheres. Their cellular uptake mechanisms were also studied and internalization of nanofibers was found to depend on an endocytic pathway whereas nanospheres were internalized via a non-endocytic pathway.Item Open Access Shape and deposition angle control of silver film-over-nanosphere SERS substrates(Institute of Physics Publishing, 2021-10-06) Esmaeilzad, Nasim Seyedpour; Demirtaş, Özge; Demir, Ahmet Kemal; Bek, AlpanThin metallic films on dielectric nanospheres are demonstrated to have a high potential for the fabrication of cost-effective SERS substrates. In addition to the morphological advantages that nanospheres offer for attaining a high density of hot spots, possessing shape adjustability by uncomplicated thermal treatment makes them an attractive platform for tuneable SERS substrates. Furthermore, when combined with the oblique angle metal deposition technique, adjustable gaps at a high density and adjustable shape of metal films, such as Ag films, can be achieved on nanospheres. Applying small changes in deposition angle can provide means for fine adjustment of the Raman enhancement factor (EF), resulting in EF up to 108 measured using crystal violet dye molecule as a Raman analyte. This practice paves the way for the fabrication of high EF SERS substrates at a reasonable cost using a monolayer of self-organized nanosphere patterns. An ultra-thin Ag film coated at 5° tilt is shown to be an excellent substitute for a film deposited at 0° with double the thickness. There is a strong agreement between the experimental results and finite-elements-method-based Maxwell simulations exhibiting expected field enhancements up to 109 at a tilt angle of 5°.