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A family of upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) with a tunable UV enhancement is developed via a facile approach. The design leads to a maximum 9-fold enhancement in comparison with known optimal β-phase core/shell UCNPs in water. A highly effective and rapid in situ real-time live-cell photoactivation is recorded for the first time with such nanoparticles.

Phototriggered gene transfection is enabled by a novel nano-sized PEG–BPEI–rGO nanocomposite, developed by conjugating polymers with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for photothermal gene transfection. This new concept of an NIR-responsive nanocomposite could provide significant insight to design the gene carriers endowed with controlled and advanced target-specific gene delivery.

Y-shaped DNA units functionalized with Ag-nanoclusters are crosslinked by nucleic acids to yield fluorescent hydrogels with controlled luminescence properties.

The enhanced photocatalytic performance of CeO₂/TiO₂ heterostructured nanobelts is attributed to a novel capture–photodegradation–release degradation mechanism. During the photocatalytic process, MO molecules are captured by CeO₂ nanoparticles on the surface of the heterostructure, then quickly photodegraded under UV or visible light irradiation, and ultimately the degradation products are released to external environment.

A set of experiments comparing the cytotoxicity and uptake behavior of silica nanoparticles into cells is presented. Human vascular endothelial cells (HUVEC) are more efficient in nanoparticle uptake than cervix carcinoma cells (HeLa), within the first 4 h of incubation. After 10 or 24 h, the mean number of intracellular particles for HeLa cells increases dramatically, becoming larger than the one for HUVECs. HUVECs show increased sensitivity towards silica nanoparticles when compared to HeLa cells. These results show nanotoxicity has to be assessed for each cell type individually.