Antonino Foti

• Ph.D.
• Researcher at Italian National Research Council

Despite the significant progress in the detection of nano and small microplastics, the detection of such particles still faces problems caused by the limitations of current detection methods and instruments. Herein, we present the optical methods for detection of sub 20 μm microplastics. We introduce optical methods for the analysis of individual m...

Extraterrestrial material collected during space missions is highly exposed to contamination issues during on-Earth analysis. Although high-protection-level protocols were developed, to minimize the contamination due to sample manipulation and the substrate contribution an optimal strategy is to perform in situ analysis with contactless techniques....

Simple Summary Microplastics (MPs) are anthropogenic microscopic pieces of plastic in marine sediments and the water column that can originate from two different sources. Primary MPs are industrially produced microbeads, while secondary MPs result from the fragmentation of larger plastic debris by physical, chemical, and biological processes. Altho...

Correction for ‘Raman tweezers for tire and road wear micro- and nanoparticles analysis’ by Raymond Gillibert et al. , Environ. Sci.: Nano , 2022, 9 , 145–161.

Molybdenum selenide nanosheets (MoSe2-NS) were synthesized by liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE) technique and successive liquid cascade centrifugation (LCC) at two different centrifugation rates (1.5 and 5 krpm). By this technique's combination, we were able to prepare MoSe2 nanosheets with different geometric characteristics (i.e., average number of...

Microengines have shown promise for a variety of applications in nanotechnology, microfluidics, and nanomedicine, including targeted drug delivery, microscale pumping, and environmental remediation. However, achieving precise control over their dynamics remains a significant challenge. In this study, we introduce a microengine that exploits both op...

The formulation of eco-friendly biodegradable packaging has received great attention during the last decades as an alternative to traditional widespread petroleum-based food packaging. With this aim, we designed and tested the properties of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)-based bioplastics functionalized with phloretin as far as antioxidant, antimicrob...

In the present work, a study was carried out with the aim of enhancing the performance of electrochemical biosensors based on Co3O4:Fe2O3 heterojunctions. Specifically, the redox behavior of screen–printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) modified with Co3O4:Fe2O3 (0.5 wt%:x wt%) nanocomposites, where x ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 wt%, was examined in detail....

Microengines have shown promise for a variety of applications in nanotechnology, microfluidics, and nanomedicine, including targeted drug delivery, microscale pumping, and environmental remediation. However, achieving precise control over their dynamics remains a significant challenge. In this study, we introduce a microengine that exploits both op...

Optical tweezers are tools made of light that enable contactless pushing, trapping, and manipulation of objects ranging from atoms to space light sails. Since the pioneering work by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s, optical tweezers have evolved into sophisticated instruments and have been employed in a broad range of applications in life sciences, physi...

Surface-enhanced Raman optical activity (SEROA) has been extensively investigated due to its ability to directly probe stereochemistry and molecular structure. However, most works have focused on the Raman optical activity (ROA) effect arising from the chirality of the molecules on isotropic surfaces. Here, we propose a strategy for achieving a sim...

Recently, acoustic tweezers based on an array of ultrasonic transducers have been reported taking inspiration from holographic optical tweezers. In the latter technique, the calibration of the optical trap is an essential procedure to obtain the trap stiffnesses. On the contrary, in the case of acoustic tweezers the calibration of the acoustic forc...

We use optical and Raman Tweezers to manipulate micro and nano-plastics and individual cosmic dust particles. We identify their compositions and shapes studying their response to optical forces, enabling a better understanding of the plastics fragmentation processes in sea environment and the effects of light on single grains of cosmic dust.

Cosmic dust plays a dominant role in the universe, especially in the formation of stars and planetary systems. Furthermore, the surface of cosmic dust grains is the benchwork where molecular hydrogen and simple organic compounds are formed. We manipulate individual dust particles in a water solution by contactless and noninvasive techniques such as...

In this paper, the determination of Thiram fungicide by a novel modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) fabricated modifying the working electrode (WE) with 2D-GO/WS2 nanohybrid composites, is reported. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, and fluorescence analysis (PL) were used to reveal the morphological and microstruc...

A simple and sensitive electrochemical sensor was developed for the detection of folic acid (FA) based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) dispersed on exfoliated MoS2 (2D-MoS2) nanosheets by a simple impregnation method. The prepared 2D-MoS2 and AuNPs-MoS2 samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX), UV-Vis, and Raman spectrosco...

In this paper, layered molybdenum disulfide (2D-MoS2) nanosheets of different size and number of layers were prepared via liquid cascade centrifugation (LCC) and their microstructural, morphological and electrochemical characteristics for the detection of dopamine (DA) and riboflavin (RF) were investigated. The microstructural and morphological cha...

Cosmic dust plays a dominant role in the universe, especially in the formation of stars and planetary systems. Furthermore, the surface of cosmic dust grains is the bench-work where molecular hydrogen and simple organic compounds are formed. We manipulate individual dust particles in water solution by contactless and non-invasive techniques such as...

Optical tweezers are tools made of light that enable contactless pushing, trapping, and manipulation of objects ranging from atoms to space light sails. Since the pioneering work by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s, optical tweezers have evolved into sophisticated instruments and have been employed in a broad range of applications in life sciences, physi...

Optical tweezers are tools made of light that enable contactless pushing, trapping, and manipulation of objects ranging from atoms to space light sails. Since the pioneering work by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s, optical tweezers have evolved into sophisticated instruments and have been employed in a broad range of applications in life sciences, physi...

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) combines the high specificity and sensitivity of plasmon-enhanced Raman spectroscopy with the high spatial resolution of scanning probe microscopy. TERS has gained a lot of attention from many nanoscience fields, since this technique can provide chemical and structural information of surfaces and interfaces wi...

Optical tweezers are powerful tools based on focused laser beams. They are able to trap, manipulate and investigate a wide range of microscopic and nanoscopic particles in different media, such as liquids, air, and vacuum. Key applications of this contactless technique have been developed in many fields. Despite this progress, optical trapping appl...

The project number was missing from the acknowledgement. The correct acknowledgment is as follows

Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) are non-exhaust particulate matter generated by road transport means during the mechanical abrasion of tires, brakes and roads. TRWP accumulate on the roadsides and are transported into the aquatic ecosystem during stormwater runoffs. Due to their size (sub-millimetric) and rubber content (elastomers), TRWP are c...

Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) are non-exhaust particulate matter generated by road transport means during the mechanical abrasion of tires, brakes and roads. TRWP accumulate on the roadsides and are transported into the aquatic ecosystem during stormwater runoffs. Due to their size (sub-millimetric) and rubber content (elastomers), TRWP are c...

Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) are non-exhaust particulate matter generated by road transport means during the mechanical abrasion of tires, brakes and roads. TRWP accumulate on the roadsides and are transported into the aquatic ecosystem during stormwater runoffs. Due to their size (sub-millimetric) and rubber content (elastomers), TRWP are c...

Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) are non-exhaust particulate matter generated by road transport means during the mechanical abrasion of tires, brakes and roads. TRWP accumulate on the roadsides and are transported into the aquatic ecosystem during stormwater runoffs. Due to their size (sub-millimetric) and rubber content (elastomers), TRWP are c...

Optical tweezers are powerful tools based on focused laser beams. They are able to trap, manipulate, and investigate a wide range of microscopic and nanoscopic particles in different media, such as liquids, air, and vacuum. Key applications of this contactless technique have been developed in many fields. Despite this progress, optical trapping app...

The preparation and characterization of a hybrid composite, based on carbon cloth (CC) matrix functionalized with two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 flakes and MoO3, and its use for developing an electrochemical sensor for the determination of riboflavin (RF) is here reported. The 2D-MoS2-MoO3CC composite was prepared by depositing 2D-MoS2 nanosheets, obtai...

Carbon-based nanomaterials, such as carbon dots (CDs) and graphene (Gr), feature outstanding optical and electronic properties. Hence, their integration in optoelectronic and photonic devices is easier thanks to their low dimensionality and offers the possibility to reach high-quality performances. In this context, the combination of CDs and Gr int...

Radiation pressure is used to push gold nanorods on multilayer graphene and create hybrid active surfaces for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in liquid. As a proof of concept, ultrasensitive detection of bovine serum albumin is shown and the aggregation kinetics is studied as a function of the irradiation time. We compare the results on...

Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) are non-exhaust particulate matter generated by road transport means during the mechanical abrasion of tires, brakes and roads. TRWP accumulate on the roadsides and...

We trap individual cosmic dust particles by Raman Tweezers to identify their compositions and to characterize their response to optical forces without any substrate effects, documenting the high potential of this novel technique for space exploration.

GeSn alloys are nowadays considered as the most promising materials to build Group IV laser sources on silicon (Si) in a full complementary metal oxide semiconductor-compatible approach. Recent GeSn laser developments rely on increasing the band structure directness, by increasing the Sn content in thick GeSn layers grown on germanium (Ge) virtual...

GeSn alloys are nowadays considered as most promising materials to build group-IV laser sources on silicon (Si) in a full CMOS-compatible approach. Recent GeSn laser developments rely on increasing the band structure directness, by increasing the Sn content in thick GeSn layers grown on germanium (Ge) virtual substrates (VS) on Si. These lasers non...

Strained GeSn alloys are promising for realizing light emitters based entirely on group IV elements. Here, we report GeSn microdisk lasers encapsulated with a SiNx stressor layer to produce tensile strain. A 300 nm-thick GeSn layer with 5.4 at% Sn, which is an indirect-bandgap semiconductor as-grown, is transformed via tensile strain engineering in...

Due to their innocuity, Au nanowires present an interesting field of applications in biology and, particularly, in cancer therapy. Since their morphology and distribution can greatly affect their performances, being able to control their mode of growth is important. Various elaboration techniques including “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches have...

GeSn alloys are the most promising semiconductors for light emitters entirely based on group IV elements. Alloys containing more than 8 at.% Sn have fundamental direct band-gaps, similar to conventional III-V semiconductors and thus can be employed for light emitting devices. Here, we report on GeSn microdisk lasers encapsulated with a SiNx stresso...

Printed organic electronics has attracted considerable interest in recent years as it enables the fabrication of large-scale, low-cost electronic devices, and thus offers significant possibilities in terms of developing new applications in various fields. Easy processing is a prerequisite for the development of low-cost, flexible and printed plasti...

Tip-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS) is capable of amplifying the extremely weak Raman response of azobenzene self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), thus allowing for the chemical characterization of the sample surface at the nanoscale. Recently, we introduced a physical model describing the TERS intensity of azobenzene SAMs probed in a scanning tunne...

We study the behavior of hydrogen bonding in epitaxial silicon (Epi-Si) in as-deposited and annealed states using Raman spectroscopy. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) at low-temperature is a good method for the growth of Epi-Si at low cost, reduced thermal budget and sharp interfaces. However, Epi-Si is obtained in a hydrogen-rich...

Optical forces are used to position and aggregate nanoparticles for different applications. In particular, plasmonic enhanced optical forces are exploited to direct gold nanorods surrounded by biomolecules to create hot-spots on demand in a liquid buffered environment. This enables protein detection at the 10 nM level. Furthermore, optical forces o...

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) has become a well-applied technique for nanospectroscopy, allowing for single molecule sensitivity with sub-nanometer spatial resolution. The demand for efficient, reproducible and cost-effective probes for TERS is increasing. Here we report on a new electrochemical etching protocol to fabricate TERS tips star...

Optical forces are used to push and aggregate gold nanorods onto several substrates creating surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active hot spots for Raman-based identification of proteins. By monitoring the increase of the protein SERS signal, we observe different aggregation times for different curvatures of the substrates. The slower aggreg...

In this work, laser scribing is used to obtain a monolithic series connection between adjacent silicon nanowire radial junction (SiNW RJ) solar cells on the same glass substrate. The SiNW RJ solar cells have been deposited in a low‐temperature plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) reactor in a single pump‐down process. The crystalline S...

Highly toxic protein misfolded oligomers associated with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases are nowadays considered primarily responsible for promoting synaptic failure and neuronal death. Unraveling the relationship between structure and neurotoxicity of protein oligomers appears pivotal in understanding the causes...

Optical forces are used to aggregate plasmonic nanoparticles and create SERS–active hot spots in liquid. When biomolecules are added to the nanoparticles, high sensitivity SERS detection can be accomplished. Here, we pursue studies on Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) detection, investigating the BSA–nanorod aggregations in a range from 100 µM to 50 nM by...

High density gold nanostructures are grown by thermal deposition on flat and nanostructured polymeric templates by exploiting the extraordinarily low wettability of Au on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Undulated PDMS templates are fabricated by replica molding process (REM) on "masters" prepared by defocused Ion Beam Sputtering (IBS). Closely packed...

Optical forces are used to aggregate plasmonic nanoparticles and create SERS-active hot spots in liquid. When biomolecules are added to the nanoparticles, high sensitivity SERS detection is accomplished. Here we tailor this methodology to detect catalase and hemoglobin, two Raman resonant biomolecules, at concentrations down to 10 nM and 1 pM. Subs...

In recent years, considerable effort has been devoted to the synthesis and characterization of twodimensional materials. Liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) represents a simple, large-scale method to exfoliate layered materials down to mono- and few-layer flakes. In this context, the contactless trapping, characterization, and manipulation of individual...

Playing with the field polarization permits to gain important insight on the near-field interaction between molecules and nanoantennas, as well as to develop new concepts of broadband plasmonic sensors (Fazio B. et al. ACS Nano 5(7):5945–59562, 2011; D’Andrea C. et al. J Phys Chem C 118(16):8571–8580, 2014; D’Andrea C. et al. ACS Nano 7(4):3522–353...

Improving the electrical and thermal properties of conductive adhesives is essential for the fabrication of compact microelectronic and optoelectronic power devices. Here we report on the addition of a commercially available conductive resin with double wall carbon nanotubes- and graphene platelets- that yields simultaneously improved thermal and e...

Strategies for in-liquid molecular detection via Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) are currently based on chemically-driven aggregation or optical trapping of metal nanoparticles in presence of the target molecules. Such strategies allow the formation of SERS-active clusters that efficiently embed the molecule at the “hot spots” of the nanop...

We report on the Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) efficiency of self-organised arrays of Au nanocrescents confined on monolayers of polystyrene nanospheres. A dichroic SERS emission in the visible spectrum is observed due to the selective excitation of a Localised Surface Plasmon (LSP) resonance along the "short axis" of the Au nanocrescent...

In this paper, results on preparation of stable and uniform SERS solid substrates using macroporous silicon (pSi) with deposited silver and gold are presented. Macroporous silicon is produced by anodisation of p-type silicon in hydrofluoric acid. The as prepared pSi is then used as a template for Ag and Au depositions. The noble metals were deposit...

We report on the spectral dependence of the SERS amplification in randomly distributed gold nanoparticle arrays grown by electron beam evaporation, covered with a thin shell of SiO2. Experiments carried out with six different laser lines highlight a remarkable red-shift between the optimal excitation wavelength (785 nm) and the localized plasmon re...

Optical tweezers are a key technique for trapping and contactless manipulation of particles at the micro- and nanoscale that can exert and sense forces from hundreds of piconewton down to few femtonewton. In their simplest implementation, they are based on a single laser beam tightly focused to a high-intensity diffraction-limited spot. Here, after...

Optical trapping of silver nanoplatelets obtained with a simple room temperature chemical synthesis technique is reported. Trap spring constants are measured for platelets with different diameters to investigate the size-scaling behaviour. Experimental data are compared with models of optical forces based on the dipole approximation and on electrom...

The Raman depolarization ratio is a quantity that can be easily measured experimentally and offers unique information on the Raman polarizability tensor of molecular vibrations. In Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), molecules are near-field coupled with optical nanoantennas and their scattering properties are strongly affected by the radiati...

Silver-filled epoxy resins, such as the EPO TEK H20E (a standard for high speed chip bonding), feature remarkable thermal conductivity (∼ 2.5 W/mK) and low electrical resistivity (∼ 4×10-4 ohm-cm) characteristics, thanks to the presence of micrometric metallic particles embedded in the epoxy matrix. Here we show that the addition of Carbon Nanotube...

Here we illustrate recent progress in nano- bio- sensors technology includes the development of multifunctional devices capable integrate Raman and IR on the same chip, work in liquid environment and feature high molecular specificity

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) takes advantage of the giant electromagnetic field enhancement provided by localized surface plasmons in metal nanoparticles to amplify the weak Raman scattering of the molecules. Optical fibers coated with noble metal nanoparticles can therefore be used as SERS-based sensors for remote detection of molecula...