Study on the Growth Parameters and the Electrical and Optical Behaviors of 2D Tungsten Disulfide.

Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) with atomic thickness are promising materials for next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. Herein, we report uniform growth of triangular-shaped (∼40 µm) monolayer WS2 using the atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) technique in a hydrogen-free environment. We have studied the optical and electrical behaviors of as-grown WS2 samples. The absorption spectrum of monolayer WS2 shows two intense excitonic absorption peaks, namely, A (∼630 nm) and B (∼530 nm), due to the direct gap transitions at the K point. Photoluminescence (PL) and fluorescence studies reveal that under the exposure of green light, monolayer WS2 gives very strong red emission at ∼663 nm. This corresponds to the direct band gap and strong excitonic effect in monolayer WS2. Furthermore, the efficacy of the synthesized WS2 crystals for electronic devices is also checked by fabricating field-effect transistors (FETs). FET devices exhibit an electron mobility of µ ∼ 6 cm2 V-1 s-1, current ON/OFF ratio of ∼106, and subthreshold swing (SS) of ∼641 mV decade-1, which are comparable to those of the exfoliated monolayer WS2 FETs. These findings suggest that our APCVD-grown WS2 has the potential to be used for next-generation nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications.

Identification of morphological and biochemical changes in keratin-8/18 knock-down cells using Raman spectroscopy.

Accurate understanding of cellular processes and responses to stimuli is of paramount importance in biomedical research and diagnosis. Raman spectroscopy (RS), a label-free and nondestructive spectroscopic method has the potential to serve as a novel 'theranostics' tool. Both fiber-optic and micro-Raman studies have demonstrated efficacy in diagnostics and therapeutic response monitoring. In the present study, we have evaluated the potential of micro-Raman spectroscopic maps in identifying changes induced by loss of K8/18 proteins in a tongue cancer cell line. Furthermore, we also evaluated the efficacy of less expensive and commercially available fiber probes to identify K8/18 wild and knock-down cell pellets, in view of the utility of cell pellet-based studies. The findings suggest that major differences in the cellular morphology and biochemical composition can be objectively identified and can be utilized for classification using both micro-Raman and fiber-probe-based RS. These findings highlight the potential of fiber-optic probe-based RS in noninvasive cellular phenotyping for diagnosis and therapeutic response monitoring, especially in low-resource settings.

Raman mapping of oral buccal mucosa: a spectral histopathology approach.

Oral cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. One-fifth of the world's oral cancer subjects are from India and other South Asian countries. The present Raman mapping study was carried out to understand biochemical variations in normal and malignant oral buccal mucosa. Data were acquired using WITec alpha 300R instrument from 10 normal and 10 tumors unstained tissue sections. Raman maps of normal sections could resolve the layers of epithelium, i.e. basal, intermediate, and superficial. Inflammatory, tumor, and stromal regions are distinctly depicted on Raman maps of tumor sections. Mean and difference spectra of basal and inflammatory cells suggest abundance of DNA and carotenoids features. Strong cytochrome bands are observed in intermediate layers of normal and stromal regions of tumor. Epithelium and stromal regions of normal cells are classified by principal component analysis. Classification among cellular components of normal and tumor sections is also observed. Thus, the findings of the study further support the applicability of Raman mapping for providing molecular level insights in normal and malignant conditions.

A facile process for soak-and-peel delamination of CVD graphene from substrates using water.

We demonstrate a simple technique to transfer chemical vapour deposited (CVD) graphene from copper and platinum substrates using a soak-and-peel delamination technique utilizing only hot deionized water. The lack of chemical etchants results in cleaner CVD graphene films minimizing unintentional doping, as confirmed by Raman and electrical measurements. The process allows the reuse of substrates and hence can enable the use of oriented substrates for growth of higher quality graphene, and is an inherently inexpensive and scalable process for large-area production.

Silver nanoprism enhanced fluorescence in YVO4:Eu3+ nanoparticles.

Silver nanoprisms of different sizes influence fluorescence enhancement in YVO4:Eu(3+) nanoparticles to various degrees under excitation of green light (532 nm). The local field generated by silver nanoprisms and their dimers is simulated through the FDTD method and a direct correlation with fluorescence enhancement is established.

Raman spectroscopy of serum: an exploratory study for detection of oral cancers.

Early diagnosis of oral cancers, one of the major cancers, is of utmost importance as 5-year disease-free survival rates are some of the lowest, despite advances in treatment and surgical modalities. In vivo Raman spectroscopy has shown efficacy in the detection of normal, premalignant and malignant lesions and even of early changes such as cancer-field-effects/malignancy-associated-changes. However, the need for a dedicated instrument and stringent laboratory conditions, at all diagnostic centers, limits wide screening applications of this method. In light of this, it is pertinent to explore ex vivo samples like serum due to its ease of collection, storage, transport and analysis at a centralized facility. Hence, Raman studies were carried out on serum from 14 buccal mucosa and 40 tongue cancers as well as 16 healthy control samples. Spectral features indicate differential contributions of proteins, DNA, and amino acids like Phe, Trp and Tyr and ß-carotene in the analyzed groups. Highly intense Raman bands assigned to ß-carotene could be due to resonance Raman, and were observed in all sera with the highest relative intensity in normal samples. Higher DNA and protein content were observed in the mean cancer spectra. Principal component-linear discriminant analysis (PC-LDA) followed by cross-validation using leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) were employed for data analysis which was carried out both spectra- and patient-wise. Findings indicate the possibility of classifying normal and oral cancer sera in both these approaches; however, the patient-wise approach could be the preferred mode for prospective studies. Besides, a tendency of classification for buccal mucosa and tongue cancers was also observed. Prospective validation of these results on a large sample size may help in the translation of this methodology to clinics.

Tumor suppressor protein SMAR1 modulates the roughness of cell surface: combined AFM and SEM study.

BACKGROUND: Imaging tools such as scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) can be used to produce high-resolution topographic images of biomedical specimens and hence are well suited for imaging alterations in cell morphology. We have studied the correlation of SMAR1 expression with cell surface smoothness in cell lines as well as in different grades of human breast cancer and mouse tumor sections. METHODS: We validated knockdown and overexpression of SMAR1 using RT-PCR as well as Western blotting in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293, human breast cancer (MCF-7) and mouse melanoma (B16F1) cell lines. The samples were then processed for cell surface roughness studies using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The same samples were used for microarray analysis as well. Tumors sections from control and SMAR1 treated mice as well as tissues sections from different grades of human breast cancer on poly L-lysine coated slides were used for AFM and SEM studies. RESULTS: Tumor sections from mice injected with melanoma cells showed pronounced surface roughness. In contrast, tumor sections obtained from nude mice that were first injected with melanoma cells followed by repeated injections of SMAR1-P44 peptide, exhibited relatively smoother surface profile. Interestingly, human breast cancer tissue sections that showed reduced SMAR1 expression exhibited increased surface roughness compared to the adjacent normal breast tissue. Our AFM data establishes that treatment of cells with SMAR1-P44 results into increase in cytoskeletal volume that is supported by comparative gene expression data showing an increase in the expression of specific cytoskeletal proteins compared to the control cells. Altogether, these findings indicate that tumor suppressor function of SMAR1 might be exhibited through smoothening of cell surface by regulating expression of cell surface proteins. CONCLUSION: Tumor suppressor protein SMAR1 might be used as a phenotypic differentiation marker between cancerous and non-cancerous cells.

Atomic force microscopy, biochemical analysis of 3T3-L1 cells differentiated in the absence and presence of insulin.

BACKGROUND: There are ample evidences to demonstrate that differentiation of preadipocytes is associated with deposition of fat in cells. Still, it is unclear whether the differentiation process also alters membrane topology as well as cholesterol levels and whether insulin contributes to it. METHODS: Membrane scanning of differentiated cells, along with freshly plated and 11 day preadipocytes, was performed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to gain qualitative information about cell surface properties as well as roughness. Moreover, glucose uptake, lipid analysis, expression profiling of transcription factors and signaling molecules involved in the process of differentiation was also performed. RESULTS: We report (i) differentiation in the presence of 500 microM isobutylmethylxanthine (IBMX), 0.25 microM dexamethasone (DEX) with or without 0.1 microM (0.57 microg/ml) insulin directly alters membrane topology. (ii) At nano-levels, addition of insulin maintains plasma membrane roughness during differentiation in comparison with IBMX and DEX only. (iii) At macro levels, decreased fat accumulation in preadipocytes exposed to insulin during the initial stages of differentiation is a result of reduced expression and nuclear localization of sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP)-1. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: This study reports a significant reduction of membrane cholesterol and total cholesterol (p<0.01) in cells differentiated in the presence of insulin.