Shining a light on germs

Microbe hunters: Empa researchers Paula Bürgisser and Giacomo Reina from the Nanomaterials in Health laboratory in St. Gallen.
Photo Credit: Empa

Light on – bacteria dead. Disinfecting surfaces could be as simple as that. To turn this idea into a weapon against antibiotic-resistant germs, Empa researchers are developing a coating whose germicidal effect can be activated by infrared light. The plastic coating is also skin-friendly and environmentally friendly. A first application is currently being implemented for dentistry.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and emerging viruses are a rapidly increasing threat to the global healthcare system. Around 5 million deaths each year are linked to antibiotic-resistant germs, and more than 20 million people died during the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Empa researchers are therefore working on new, urgently needed strategies to combat such pathogens. One of the goals is to prevent the spread of resistant pathogens and novel viruses with smart materials and technologies.

Surfaces that come into constant contact with infectious agents, such as door handles in hospitals or equipment and infrastructure in operating theaters, are a particularly suitable area of application for such materials. An interdisciplinary team from three Empa laboratories, together with the Czech Palacký University in Olomouc, has now developed an environmentally friendly and biocompatible metal-free surface coating that reliably kills germs. The highlight: The effect can be reactivated again and again by exposing it to light.

Collection of tiny antennas can amplify and control light polarized in any direction

New polarization-independent, highly resonant metasurfaces can precisely amplify and control light without requiring incoming light (top left) to be oriented and traveling in a certain direction.
Image Credit: Bo Zhao

Antennas receive and transmit electromagnetic waves, delivering information to our radios, televisions, cell phones and more. Researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis imagines a future where antennas reshape even more applications.

Their new metasurfaces, ultra-thin materials made of tiny nanoantennas that can both amplify and control light in very precise ways, could replace conventional refractive surfaces from eyeglasses to smartphone lenses and improve dynamic applications such as augmented reality/virtual reality and LiDAR.

While metasurfaces can manipulate light very precisely and efficiently, enabling powerful optical devices, they often suffer from a major limitation: Metasurfaces are highly sensitive to the polarization of light, meaning they can only interact with light that is oriented and traveling in a certain direction. While this is useful in polarized sunglasses that block glare and in other communications and imaging technologies, requiring a specific polarization dramatically reduces the flexibility and applicability of metasurfaces.

Nanomaterials are emerging as a powerful tool for coastal oil spill cleanup

Oil Spill
Image Credit: Gemini 

Cleaning up after a major oil spill is a long, expensive process, and the damage to a coastal region’s ecosystem can be significant. This is especially true for the world’s Arctic region, where newly opened sea lanes will expose remote shorelines to increased risks due to an anticipated rise in sea traffic.

Current mitigation techniques even in heavily populated regions face serious limitations, including low oil absorption capacity, potential toxicity to marine life and a slow remediation process.

However, advances in nanotechnology may provide solutions that are more effective, safer and work much faster than current methods. That’s according to a new paper in Environmental Science: Nano by a Concordia-led team of researchers.

“Using nanomaterials as a response method has emerged as a promising sustainable approach,” says lead author Huifang Bi, a PhD candidate in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science.

Better digital memories with the help of noble gases

Adding the noble gas xenon when manufacturing digital memories enables a more even material coating even in small cavities.
Photo Credit: Olov Planthaber

The electronics of the future can be made even smaller and more efficient by getting more memory cells to fit in less space. One way to achieve this is by adding the noble gas xenon when manufacturing digital memories. This has been demonstrated by researchers at Linköping University in a study published in Nature Communications. This technology enables a more even material coating even in small cavities.

Twenty-five years ago, a camera memory card could hold 64 megabytes of information. Today, the same physical size memory card can hold 4 terabytes – over 60,000 times more information.

An electronic storage space, such as a memory card, is created by alternating hundreds of thin layers of an electrically conductive and an insulating material. A multitude of very small holes are then etched through the layers. Finally, the holes are filled with a conductive material. This is done by using a technique in which vapors of various substances are used to create thin material layers.

Lavender oil for longer-lasting sodium-sulfur batteries

In the future, linalool, a main component of lavender, could help to make sodium-sulfur batteries more durable and efficient.
Photo Credit: Dan Meyers

Lavender oil could help solve a problem in the energy transition. A team from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces has created a material from linalool, the main component of lavender oil, and sulfur that could make sodium-sulfur batteries more durable and powerful. Such batteries could store electricity from renewable sources.

It is a crucial question in the energy transition: how can electricity from wind power and photovoltaics be stored when it is not needed? Large batteries are one option. And sulfur batteries, in particular sodium-sulfur batteries offer several advantages over lithium batteries as stationary storage units. The materials from which they are made are much more readily available than lithium and cobalt, two essential components of lithium-ion batteries. The mining of these two metals also often damages the environment and locally causes social and political upheaval. However, sodium-sulfur batteries can store less energy in relation to their weight than lithium batteries and are also not as durable. Lavender oil with its main component linalool could now help to extend the service life of sodium-sulfur-batteries, as a team from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces reports in the journal Small.  "It's fascinating to design future batteries with something that grows in our gardens," says Paolo Giusto, group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.

Scientists Have Given a Second Life to Paper Production Waste

Lignosulphonate is a safe waste from pulp and paper industries.
Photo Credit: Rodion Narudinov

Ural Federal University specialists have developed a new method of obtaining growth stimulators for agriculture plants. Waste from pulp and paper industries, lignosulphonate, became the basis for the production of biologically active stimulants of prolonged action for plant crops. Due to the structural features, the obtained samples can be used not only to improve crop growth, but also to remove some toxic substances from wastewater. The results were published in the Journal of Molecular Liquids. 

The Sulfite method is one of the currently used methods for extracting cellulose (the basis of any paper) from wood. In addition to the target product, large-capacity waste is formed in the form of salts lignosulphonic acids or lignosulphonates. These compounds are not toxic, they are biocompatible, water-soluble and relatively cheap.

Lignosulphonate-based nanoparticles have a porous structure and high mass content of carbon atoms that can be absorbed by the soil. Due to this fact, researchers consider them as “sponges” for dyes that can enter wastewater, and even as sorbents for oil. However, there is currently no efficient and cheap way to produce nanomaterials from this class of waste in industry. 

Rice researchers unlock new insights into tellurene, paving the way for next-gen electronics

Shengxi Huang is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, and corresponding author on a study published in Science Advances.
Photo Credit: courtesy of Shengxi Huang/Rice University

To describe how matter works at infinitesimal scales, researchers designate collective behaviors with single concepts ⎯ like calling a group of birds flying in sync a “flock” or “murmuration.” Known as quasiparticles, the phenomena these concepts refer to could be the key to next-generation technologies.

In a recent study published in Science Advances, a team of researchers led by Shengxi Huang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice, describe how one such type of quasiparticle ⎯ polarons ⎯ behaves in tellurene, a nanomaterial first synthesized in 2017 that is made up of tiny chains of tellurium atoms and has properties useful in sensing, electronic, optical and energy devices.

“Tellurene exhibits dramatic changes in its electronic and optical properties when its thickness is reduced to a few nanometers compared to its bulk form,” said Kunyan Zhang, a Rice doctoral alumna who is a first author on the study. “Specifically, these changes alter how electricity flows and how the material vibrates, which we traced back to the transformation of polarons as tellurene becomes thinner.”

Tracking delivery: new technology for nanocarriers

Lipid nanoparticles visualized using SCP-Nano technology at the cellular level in lung tissue.
Image Credit: © Ali Ertürk / Helmholtz Munich

How can we ensure that life-saving drugs or genetic therapies reach their intended target cells without causing harmful side effects? Researchers at Helmholtz Munich, LMU and Technical University Munich (TUM) have taken an important step to answer this question. They have developed a method that, for the first time, enables the precise detection of nanocarriers – tiny transport vehicles – throughout the entire mouse body at a single-cell level. This innovation, called “Single-Cell Profiling of Nanocarriers” or short “SCP-Nano”, combines advanced imaging with artificial intelligence to provide unparalleled insights into the functionality of nanotechnology-based therapies. The results, published in Nature Biotechnology, pave the way for safer and more effective treatments, including mRNA vaccines and gene therapies.

Nanocarriers will play a central role in the next wave of life-saving medicines. They enable the targeted delivery of drugs, genes, or proteins to cells within patients. With SCP-Nano, researchers can analyze the distribution of extremely low doses of nanocarriers throughout the entire mouse body, visualizing each cell that has taken them up. SCP-Nano combines optical tissue clearing, light-sheet microscopy imaging, and deep-learning algorithms. First, whole mouse bodies are made transparent. After the three-dimensional imaging of whole mouse bodies, nanocarriers within the transparent tissues can then be identified down to the single-cell level. By integrating AI-based analysis, researchers can quantify which cells and tissues are interacting with the nanocarriers and precisely where this occurs.

The Rotisserie-Inspired Device That Could Revolutionize Cancer Surgery

The Zavaleta Lab’S Raman Rotisserie Device Creates a Map of the Surface of a Resected Tumor to Aid Surgeons in the Operating Room.
Photo Credit: Alex Czaja

Like many Texans, Cristina Zavaleta grew up enjoying the culinary delights of the state’s famous smokehouse BBQs. She couldn’t have imagined that those humble rotisseries of her childhood would one day inspire a game-changing device for the operating room that could help surgeons prevent tumor recurrence.

On a team excursion to Disneyland, the WiSE Gabilan Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and her students were reminded of rotisseries when they encountered a food vendor at the Star Wars-themed land, Galaxy’s Edge. It was a lightbulb moment. The rotisserie configuration was a perfect way of intricately scanning excised tumors, with the help of the Zaveleta Lab’s unique nanoparticles, to light up where the cancerous tissue may not have been entirely removed from the patient. Surgeons could then be guided to precisely remove the remaining tumor, all while the patient is still under anesthesia. The result would reduce the need for traumatic repeat surgeries and potential cancer recurrence and metastasis.

Zavaleta and her team built the device, which they dubbed the Raman Rotisserie. It physically rotates a tumor specimen and works in conjunction with an imaging technique known as Raman spectroscopy, which scans the surface of the excised tumor. Their research, which aims to improve the success rate of breast cancer lumpectomies, has now been published in NPJ Imaging.

Purdue researchers create biocompatible nanoparticles to enhance systemic delivery of cancer immunotherapy

Purdue University researchers are developing and validating patent-pending nanoparticles (left) to enhance immunotherapy effects against tumors. The nanoparticles are modified with adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, to recruit dendritic cells (right), which are immune cells that recognize tumor antigens and bring specialized immune cells to fight off tumors.
Image Credit: Yoon Yeo

Purdue University researchers are developing and validating patent-pending poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), or PLGA, nanoparticles modified with adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, to enhance immunotherapy effects against malignant tumors.

The nanoparticles slowly release drugs that induce immunogenic cell death, or ICD, in tumors. ICD generates tumor antigens and other molecules to bring immune cells to a tumor’s microenvironment. The researchers have attached ATP to the nanoparticles, which also recruits immune cells to the tumor to initiate anti-tumor immune responses. 

Yoon Yeo leads a team of researchers from the College of Pharmacy, the Metabolite Profiling Facility in the Bindley Bioscience Center, and the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research to develop the nanoparticles. Yeo is the associate department head and Lillian Barboul Thomas Professor of Industrial and Molecular Pharmaceutics and Biomedical Engineering; she is also a member of the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery and the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research.

The researchers validated their work using paclitaxel, a chemotherapy drug used to treat several types of cancers. They found that tumors grew slower in mice treated with paclitaxel enclosed within ATP-modified nanoparticles than in mice treated with paclitaxel in non-modified nanoparticles.

“When combined with an existing immunotherapy drug, the ATP-modified, paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles eliminated tumors in mice and protected them from rechallenge with tumor cells,” Yeo said.

Liquid crystal nanoparticles supercharge antibiotics for cystic fibrosis

Image Credit: Copilot Dall E-3 AI generated

Cystic fibrosis is the most common, life-limiting genetic condition in Australia. It affects the lungs, digestive system, and reproductive system, producing excess mucus, infections, and blockages.

Now, thanks to a $500,000 grant from Brandon BioCatalyst's CUREator incubator, through their CSIRO-funded Minimizing Antimicrobial Resistance Stream, University of South Australia researchers are advancing the development of liquid crystal nanoparticle-formulated antibiotics to more accurately target and eliminate difficult-to-cure lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis.

Funded by the Medical Research Future Fund CUREator provides grant funding to support the development of Australian biomedical research and innovations.

The study will use a patent-protected platform technology, invented by UniSA’s Centre for Pharmaceutical Innovation to establish new therapies for cystic fibrosis sufferers. UniSA will also work with the Cystic Fibrosis Airways Research Group at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital to advance the platform.

New Method Developed to Isolate HIV Particles

The image shows PNF-coated magnetic microbeads that bind HIV particles to their surface.
Image Credit: Torsten John

Researchers at Leipzig University and Ulm University have developed a new method to isolate HIV from samples more easily, potentially making it easier to detect infection with the virus. They focus on peptide nanofibrils (PNFs) on magnetic microparticles, a promising tool and hybrid material for targeted binding and separation of viral particles. They have published their new findings in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

“The presented method makes it possible to efficiently capture, isolate and concentrate virus particles, which may improve the sensitivity of existing diagnostic tools and analytical tests,” says Professor Bernd Abel of the Institute of Technical Chemistry at Leipzig University. The nanofibrils used – small, needle-like structures – are based on the EF-C peptide, which was first described in 2013 by Professor Jan Münch from Ulm University and Ulm University Medical Center. EF-C is a peptide consisting of twelve amino acids that forms nanoscale fibrils almost instantaneously when dissolved in polar solvents. These can also be applied to magnetic particles. “Using the EF-C peptide as an example, our work shows how peptide fibrils on magnetic particles can have a completely new functionality – the more or less selective binding of viruses. Originally, fibrils of this kind were more likely to be associated with neurodegenerative diseases,” adds Dr Torsten John, co-first author of the study and former doctoral researcher under Professor Abel at Leipzig University. He is now a junior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany.

New Nanoceramics Could Help Improve Smartphone and TV Displays

Nanoceramics are strong because they are made under high pressure.
Photo Credit: Anna Marinovich

Scientists from the Ural Federal University, together with colleagues from India and the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, have developed a nanoceramic that glows in three main colors - red, green, and blue. The new material is extremely strong because it is created under high pressure. Scientists believe that the characteristics of the new nanoceramics - luminescence, strength, and transparency - will be useful for creating screens with improved brightness and detail for smartphones, televisions, and other devices. The scientists published detailed information about the new nanoceramics and their properties in the journal Applied Materials Today. 

"We obtained optically transparent nanoceramics capable of luminescing in red, green, and blue colors. This was made possible by adding carbon particles that act as carbon nanodots. During the synthesis process, the carbon components are encapsulated between the ceramic particles, creating defects on their surface. We believe that these defects create several energy levels in the carbon nanodots, allowing the material to glow in different colors in the visible spectrum", explains Arseny Kiryakov, the co-author of the work, Associate Professor of the UrFU Department of Physical Techniques and Devices for Quality Control.

A Tiny Spot Leads to a Large Advancement in Nano-processing, Researchers Reveal

A conceptual illustration of single-shot laser processing by an annular-shaped radially polarized beam, focused on the back surface of a glass plate.
Illustration Credit: ©Y. Kozawa et al.

Focusing a tailored laser beam through transparent glass can create a tiny spot inside the material. Researchers at Tohoku University have reported on a way to use this small spot to improve laser material processing, boosting processing resolution.

Laser machining, like drilling and cutting, is vital in industries such as automotive, semiconductors, and medicine. Ultra-short pulse laser sources, with pulse widths from picoseconds to femtoseconds, enable precise processing at scales ranging from microns to tens of microns. But recent advancements demand even smaller scales, below 100 nanometers, which existing methods struggle to achieve.

The researchers focused on a laser beam with radial polarization, known as a vector beam. This beam generates a longitudinal electric field at the focus, producing a smaller spot than conventional beams.

Scientists have identified this process as promising for laser processing. However, one drawback is that this field weakens inside the material due to light refraction at the air-material interface, limiting its use.

Elusive 3D printed nanoparticles could lead to new shapeshifting materials

Optical images of truncated tetrahedrons forming two large hexagonal grains at an anti-phase boundary (left), and transforming into a quasi-diamond phase that initiated at the anti-phase boundary (right). Scale bars are 25 um.
Image Credit: David Doan & John Kulikowski

Stanford materials engineers have 3D printed tens of thousands of hard-to-manufacture nanoparticles long predicted to yield promising new materials that change form in an instant.

In nanomaterials, shape is destiny. That is, the geometry of the particle in the material defines the physical characteristics of the resulting material.

“A crystal made of nano-ball bearings will arrange themselves differently than a crystal made of nano-dice and these arrangements will produce very different physical properties,” said Wendy Gu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University, introducing her latest paper which appears in the journal Nature Communications. “We’ve used a 3D nanoprinting technique to produce one of the most promising shapes known – Archimedean truncated tetrahedrons. They are micron-scale tetrahedrons with the tips lopped off.”

In the paper, Gu and her co-authors describe how they nanoprinted tens of thousands of these challenging nanoparticles, stirred them into a solution, and then watched as they self-assembled into various promising crystal structures. More critically, these materials can shift between states in minutes simply by rearranging the particles into new geometric patterns.

This ability to change “phases,” as materials engineers refer to the shapeshifting quality, is similar to the atomic rearrangement that turns iron into tempered steel, or in materials that allow computers to store terabytes of valuable data in digital form.

“If we can learn to control these phase shifts in materials made of these Archimedean truncated tetrahedrons it could lead in many promising engineering directions,” she said.

Backyard insect inspires invisibility devices, next gen tech

Brochosomes are hollow, nanoscopic, soccer ball-shaped spheroids with through-holes that are produced by the common backyard insect, the leafhopper. Researchers found that the through-holes of these hollow buckyballs help reduce the reflection of light. This is the first biological example showing short wavelength, low-pass antireflection functionality enabled by through-holes and hollow structures.
Image Credit: Lin Wang and Tak-Sing Wong / Pennsylvania State University
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED)

Leafhoppers, a common backyard insect, secrete and coat themselves in tiny mysterious particles that could provide both the inspiration and the instructions for next-generation technology, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. In a first, the team precisely replicated the complex geometry of these particles, called brochosomes, and elucidated a better understanding of how they absorb both visible and ultraviolet light.

This could allow the development of bioinspired optical materials with possible applications ranging from invisible cloaking devices to coatings to more efficiently harvest solar energy, said Tak-Sing Wong, professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering. Wong led the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The unique, tiny particles have an unusual soccer ball-like geometry with cavities, and their exact purpose for the insects has been something of a mystery to scientists since the 1950s. In 2017, Wong led the Penn State research team that was the first to create a basic, synthetic version of brochosomes in an effort to better understand their function.

Rice researchers develop 3D-printed wood from its own natural components

Researchers at Rice University have unlocked the potential to use 3D printing.
Photo Credit: Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University.

Researchers at Rice University have unlocked the potential to use 3D printing to make sustainable wood structures, offering a greener alternative to traditional manufacturing methods.

Wood has historically been marred by wasteful practices generated during shaping processes, driving up costs and environmental impact. Now researchers in materials science and nanoengineering at Rice have developed an additive-free, water-based ink made of lignin and cellulose, the fundamental building blocks of wood. The ink can be used to produce architecturally intricate wood structures via a 3D printing technique known as direct ink writing.

The work was recently published in the journal Science Advances.

“The ability to create a wood structure directly from its own natural components sets the stage for a more eco-friendly and innovative future,” said Muhammad Rahman, an assistant research professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice. “It heralds a new era of sustainable 3D-printed wood construction.”

The implications are far-reaching, potentially revolutionizing industries such as furniture and construction.

Tiny Tunable Nanotubes

By wrapping a carbon nanotube with a ribbon-like polymer, Duke researchers were able to create nanotubes that conduct electricity when struck with low-energy light that our eyes cannot see. In the future, the approach could make it possible to optimize semiconductors for applications ranging from night vision to new forms of computing.
Illustration Credit: Francesco Mastrocinque

It might look like a roll of chicken wire, but this tiny cylinder of carbon atoms -- too small to see with the naked eye -- could one day be used for making electronic devices ranging from night vision goggles and motion detectors to more efficient solar cells, thanks to techniques developed by researchers at Duke University.

First discovered in the early 1990s, carbon nanotubes are made from single sheets of carbon atoms rolled up like a straw.

Carbon isn’t exactly a newfangled material. All life on Earth is based on carbon. It’s the same stuff found in diamonds, charcoal, and pencil lead.

What makes carbon nanotubes special are their remarkable properties. These tiny cylinders are stronger than steel, and yet so thin that 50,000 of them would equal the thickness of a human hair.

They’re also amazingly good at conducting electricity and heat, which is why, in the push for faster, smaller, more efficient electronics, carbon nanotubes have long been touted as potential replacements for silicon.

Nanosurgical tool could be key to cancer breakthrough

Electron microscopy image of the nanopipette.
Photo Credit: Dr Alexander Kulak

A nanosurgical tool - about 500 times thinner than a human hair - could give insights into cancer treatment resistance that no other technology has been able to do, according to a new study.

The high-tech double-barrel nanopipette, developed by University of Leeds scientists, and applied to the global medical challenge of cancer, has - for the first time - enabled researchers to see how individual living cancer cells react to treatment and change over time – providing vital understanding that could help doctors develop more effective cancer medication.  

The tool has two nanoscopic needles, meaning it can simultaneously inject and extract a sample from the same cell, expanding its potential uses. And the platform’s high level of semi-automation has sped up the process dramatically, enabling scientists to extract data from many more individual cells, with far greater accuracy and efficiency than previously possible, the study shows. 

Currently, techniques for studying single cells usually destroy them, meaning a cell can be studied either before treatment, or after.  

This device can take a “biopsy” of a living cell repeatedly during exposure to cancer treatment, sampling tiny extracts of its contents without killing it, enabling scientists to observe its reaction over time. 

During the study, the multi-disciplinary team, featuring biologists and engineers, tested cancer cells’ resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy using glioblastoma (GBM) - the deadliest form of brain tumor - as a test case, because of its ability to adapt to treatment and survive. 

Aluminum nanoparticles make tunable green catalysts

Aaron Bayles is a Rice University doctoral alum, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and a lead author on a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Aaron Bayles / Rice University

Catalysts unlock pathways for chemical reactions to unfold at faster and more efficient rates, and the development of new catalytic technologies is a critical part of the green energy transition.

The Rice University lab of nanotechnology pioneer Naomi Halas has uncovered a transformative approach to harnessing the catalytic power of aluminum nanoparticles by annealing them in various gas atmospheres at high temperatures.

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rice researchers and collaborators showed that changing the structure of the oxide layer that coats the particles modifies their catalytic properties, making them a versatile tool that can be tailored to suit the needs of different contexts of use from the production of sustainable fuels to water-based reactions.

“Aluminum is an earth-abundant metal used in many structural and technological applications,” said Aaron Bayles, a Rice doctoral alum who is a lead author on the paper. “All aluminum is coated with a surface oxide, and until now we did not know what the structure of this native oxide layer on the nanoparticles was. This has been a limiting factor preventing the widespread application of aluminum nanoparticles.”

Aluminum nanoparticles absorb and scatter light with remarkable efficiency due to surface plasmon resonance, a phenomenon that describes the collective oscillation of electrons on the metal surface in response to light of specific wavelengths. Like other plasmonic nanoparticles, the aluminum nanocrystal core can function as a nanoscale optical antenna, making it a promising catalyst for light-based reactions.