An embedment of metal nanoparticles of welldefined sizes in thin polymer films is of significant interest for a number of practical applications, in particular, for preparing materials with tunable plasmonic properties. In this article, we present a fabrication route for metal-polymer composites based on cluster beam technique allowing the formation of monocrystalline size-selected silver nanoparticles with a 65-7% precision of diameter and controllable embedment into poly (methyl methacrylate). It is shown that the soft-landed silver clusters preserve almost spherical shape with a slight tendency to flattening upon impact. By controlling the polymer hardness (from viscous to soft state) prior the cluster deposition and annealing conditions after the deposition the degree of immersion of the nanoparticles into polymer can be tuned, thus, making it possible to create composites with either particles partly or fully embedded into the film. Good size selection and rather homogeneous dispersion of nanoparticles in the thin polymer film lead to excellent plasmonic properties characterized by the narrow band and high quality factor of localized surface plasmon resonance.

Silver nanoparticles are synthesized in polymethylmethacrylate by 30 keV Ag 1 ion implantation with high fluences. The implantation is accompanied by structural and compositional evolution of the polymer as well as sputtering. The latter causes towering of the shallow nucleated Ag nanoparticles above the surface. The synthesized nanoparticles can be split into two groups: (i) located at the surface and (ii) fully embedded in the shallow layer. These two groups provide corresponding spectral bands related to localized surface plasmonresonance. The bands demonstrate considerable intensity making the synthesized composites promising for plasmonic applications. In particular, one can control conductance by varying metal species and filling factor (metal concentration) in a polymer.3-6 Applications combining electrical and mechanical properties of metal/polymer composites are of significant interest. Good examples are strain gauges and elastomer electrodes. 7,8 The latter provides new perspectives for the use in medicine and smart prosthetics. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and non-linear optical properties of polymers with gold, silver, and copper nanoparticles (NPs) attract a lot of research attention.

a b s t r a c tTransducers for optical sensing of proteins are prepared using cluster beam deposition on quartz substrates. Surface plasmon resonance phenomenon of the supported silver clusters is used for the detection. It is shown that surface immobilisation procedure providing adhesion of the silver clusters to quartz and functionalisation of cluster surfaces for antibody coupling are the key issues for cluster stability and protein detection. Focus was put on these tasks and the processes have been optimised. In particular, conditions for coupling of the antibodies to the clusters are developed providing an enhancement of the plasmon absorption band used for the detection. Atomic force microscopy study allows to suggest that immobilisation of antibodies on silver clusters has been achieved, thus giving a possibility to incubate and detect an antigen of interest. Hence, by applying the developed preparation stages and protein immobilisation scheme the sensing of protein of interest can be assured using a relatively simple optical spectroscopy method.

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A BSTRACT Background: Honey has been formulated into gel and film dosage forms for burn wound as previously reported. Aims: In this study, we evaluated the ability of honey gel and film to promote the healing of burns and incision wounds on the skin of Sprague-Dawley female white rats. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four female rats were divided into four groups, which were treatment groups (for honey gel or film), negative control, and positive control (treated with marketed product “B”), respectively. Burn and incision wound were created by the method previously reported with slight modification. Parameters such as the percentage of wound closure and the tensile strength of the incision wound were determined. Results: The experimental results showed that honey film has a greater effectiveness to accelerate the healing for burns and incision wound in comparison to the negative control. Conclusions: Two-way analysis of variance indicates the type of treatment group, and time has a significant effect on the burn wound ( P < 0.05). Honey film shows the significant difference ( P < 0.05) with other group on the incision wound.