Magnetic silica nanoparticles show great promise for drug delivery. The major advantages correspond to their magnetic nature and ease of biofunctionalization, which favors their ability to interact with cells and tissues. We have prepared magnetic silica nanoparticles with DNA fragments attached on their previously polyelectrolyte-primed surface. The remarkable feature of these materials is the compromise between the positive charges of the polyelectrolytes and the negative charges of the DNA. This dual-agent formulation dramatically changes the overall cytotoxicity and chemical degradation of the nanoparticles, revealing the key role that surface functionalization plays in regulating the mechanisms involved.

Increasing the efficiency and cost effectiveness of solar energy generators allowed them to compete with traditional carbonbased energy sources in many energy markets worldwide. However, a major problem facing the proliferation of solar energy generation is energy storage. On one hand, photovoltaic generators enjoy relatively high efficiency but suffer from high electric energy storage costs. On the other hand, concentrated solar power plants collect and store heat and dispatch electricity at lower storage costs but with less efficiency compared to photovoltaics. To address these problems, hybrid solar converters were proposed to optimally exploit the high efficiency of photovoltaics and low costs of solar energy storage. [1] To realize such Efficient light-to-heat conversion is central for various applications such as thermo-photovoltaics and solar steam generation. Although metals can strongly absorb light and generate heat, their free electrons shield the electric field before any substantial penetration in the metal. Excitation of surface plasmons can suppress metal reflection and convert it into a black metal, for example, black gold. In this work, mesoporous silica capsules grafted with immobilized Au nanoparticles (NPs) with different sizes via controlled chemical synthesis are synthesized. It is shown that changing the size of immobilized NPs modifies the interparticle coupling strength, thus, modifying the NPs absorption. The broadness of the plasmon resonance is tuned across the visible, near-infrared, and short wavelength infrared regions. The ability to control the broadness of black gold absorption is not possible in other systems based on bottom-up synthesis. The proposed approach broadens the possibilities of utilizing black gold in many applications such as thermo-photovoltaics, and solar energy harvesting especially in hybrid solar converters.

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How would you describe to the layperson the most significant result of this study? Shaped through time, enzymes are engineered catalysts of excellence. However,t heir performance can be seriously affected when out of their natural biological context. In this work, we propose the implementation of ah ybrid nanocarrier as an im-mobilization support to endow enzymes with ar emarkably enhanced stability and recycling performance when exposed to unfavorable environments. The relevance of this synthetic strategyl ies in its potentiala pplicability to ag reat variety of catalysts and biocatalysts liable to decompositionu nder harsh reactionconditions. What future opportunities do you see in the light of the results presented in this paper? Functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be internalized by aw ider ange of cells because of their ability to cross the cyto-plasmicm embrane. Keepingt his in mind, CNT-based anem-one-likeplatforms are likely to provide an efficient way to cata-lyze chemical reactions inside particularc ells or perform intra-The front cover artwork for Issue 07/2016 is provided by TeamNanoTech (TNT),t he Magnetic Materials Group (MMG), and Bioengineering &S ustainable Processes (BIOSUV) at Universidaded eV igo (Spain), and the Institute of Nanoscience of Aragón (INA) at Universidadd eZ aragoza(Spain). The image illustrates an ovel multifunctional nanoplatform featuring ah igh enzyme loading capacitya nd remarkable recycling capabilities as an effective means to circumvent the limitations that hinder the implementation of enzymesinindustrial biotechnology (image credit:M iguel Spuch-Calvar). See the Communication itself at http://dx.