Poly(1-vinylimidazole) polyplexes as novel therapeutic gene carriers for lung cancer therapy

• Gayathri Kandasamy,
• Elena N. Danilovtseva,
• Vadim V. Annenkov and
• Uma Maheswari Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 354–369, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.26

• RNAse-free water and dried overnight. The samples were stained with 1% phosphotungstic acid solution (Merck, Germany) and imaged using high-resolution field-emission transmission electron microscopy (JEM2100F, JEOL, Japan). Differential scanning calorimetry: The melting point of the blank PVI

• differential thermal calorimetric profile (Figure 2B) reveals that the melting point of the pristine polymer is about 65 °C. Upon complexation with siRNA the melting point shifts to 98 °C. This can be attributed to the electrostatic interactions between the anionic phosphate moieties in the siRNA with the

• cationic imidazole groups in the polymer resulting an increase in the melting point of the polyplex. The stability of the polyplex in serum is a major factor influencing its therapeutic efficacy. The serum proteins could dissociate the siRNA–polymer complex reducing the delivery efficiency. Heparin is a

Size effects of graphene nanoplatelets on the properties of high-density polyethylene nanocomposites: morphological, thermal, electrical, and mechanical characterization

• Tuba Evgin,
• Alpaslan Turgut,
• Georges Hamaoui,
• Zdenko Spitalsky,
• Nicolas Horny,
• Matej Micusik,
• Mihai Chirtoc,
• Mehmet Sarikanat and
• Maria Omastova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 167–179, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.14

• ’ mechanical properties due to poorer dispersion compared to the others. In addition, the size of the GnPs had no considerable effect on the melting and crystallization properties of the HDPE/GnP nanocomposites. Keywords: electrical properties; graphene nanoplatelets; mechanical properties; polymer matrix

• with smaller lateral sizes were more favorable for enhancing the mechanical properties of PP-based nanocomposites. Thermal properties The crystallization temperatures (Tc), melting temperatures (Tm), heats of fusion (ΔHf), and crystallinities (Xc) of pure HDPE and the HDPE/GnP nanocomposites are given

The effect of heat treatment on the morphology and mobility of Au nanoparticles

• Sven Oras,
• Sergei Vlassov,
• Simon Vigonski,
• Boris Polyakov,
• Mikk Antsov,
• Vahur Zadin,
• Rünno Lõhmus and
• Karine Mougin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 61–67, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.6

• particles became immovable again. This effect was attributed to the diffusion of Au into the Si substrate and to the growth of the SiO2 layer. Keywords: annealing; atomic force microscopy (AFM); Au nanoparticles; manipulation; melting; nanotribology; Introduction Gold is one of the most prominent

• melting can be achieved at a significantly lower temperature than the melting temperature of bulk Au [17]. In this study, chemically synthesized faceted Au NPs were annealed at different temperatures between 200 and 800 °C, which resulted in rounding of the NPs. The particles were then displaced with an

• . Nevertheless, the temperature used in the simulations is significantly below the melting temperature of Au. Furthermore, in the computational model, the dynamics of diffusion are unaffected by temperature, making comparisons to experimental results possible [21]. Visualizations of the results of the simulation

Formation of metal/semiconductor Cu–Si composite nanostructures

• Natalya V. Yumozhapova,
• Andrey V. Nomoev,
• Vyacheslav V. Syzrantsev and
• Erzhena C. Khartaeva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2497–2504, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.240

• a short distance from each other (Figure 4a). The initial temperature of the droplets is T = 1800 K. The value of the initial temperature was chosen above the melting points (copper melting point TCu = 1356.55 K, silicon melting point TSi = 1688 K) in order to destroy the long-range bonds in the

pH-Controlled fluorescence switching in water-dispersed polymer brushes grafted to modified boron nitride nanotubes for cellular imaging

• Saban Kalay,
• Yurij Stetsyshyn,
• Volodymyr Donchak,
• Khrystyna Harhay,
• Ostap Lishchynskyi,
• Halyna Ohar,
• Yuriy Panchenko,
• Stanislav Voronov and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2428–2439, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.233

• during 8 h. At the end of the distillation, the temperature of the mixture was increased up to 180–185 °C for 1 h. The crude product was recrystallized from gasoline, yielding 51.2 g (78.1%) of a colorless crystalline product with the melting point of 67 °C (literature value 68 °C) [48] and the acid

Polyvinylpyrrolidone as additive for perovskite solar cells with water and isopropanol as solvents

• Chen Du,
• Shuo Wang,
• Xu Miao,
• Wenhai Sun,
• Yu Zhu,
• Chengyan Wang and
• Ruixin Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2374–2382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.228

• and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China Beijing Key Laboratory of Special Melting and Preparation of High-End Metal Materials, Beijing 100083, PR China 10.3762/bjnano.10.228 Abstract The recent years have witnessed a fast-paced development of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Unfortunately, the

Adsorption and desorption of self-assembled L-cysteine monolayers on nanoporous gold monitored by in situ resistometry

• Elisabeth Hengge,
• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Rupert Bachler,
• Alexander Dennig,
• Bernd Nidetzky and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2275–2279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.219

• water and the easy handling. The npAu substrate material was fabricated by electrochemically assisted dealloying of Ag75Au25. The alloy was prepared by arc melting, homogenized at 800 °C for 12 h under argon atmosphere, rolled to a sheet of 220 μm in thickness, annealed again at 600 °C for 1 h, and cut

Design and facile synthesis of defect-rich C-MoS₂/rGO nanosheets for enhanced lithium–sulfur battery performance

• Chengxiang Tian,
• Juwei Wu,
• Zheng Ma,
• Bo Li,
• Pengcheng Li,
• Xiaotao Zu and
• Xia Xiang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2251–2260, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.217

• verifies the ultrathin nanosheet morphology, as shown in Figure 2b. Due to the addition of amorphous carbon and rGO, the size of C-MoS2/rGO nanosheets obviously becomes smaller, as shown in Figure 2c,d. After melting with elemental sulfur, the MoS2 nanosheets keep the sheet-like morphology as shown in

Nontoxic pyrite iron sulfide nanocrystals as second electron acceptor in PTB7:PC₇₁BM-based organic photovoltaic cells

• Olivia Amargós-Reyes,
• José-Luis Maldonado,
• Omar Martínez-Alvarez,
• María-Elena Nicho,
• José Santos-Cruz,
• Juan Nicasio-Collazo,
• Irving Caballero-Quintana and
• Concepción Arenas-Arrocena

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2238–2250, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.216

• an alternative top electrode, which we attached by free vacuum deposition. The FM is composed of 32.5% Bi, 51% In and 16.5% Sn and is characterized by a melting point of around 62 °C. It was deposited on the active layer/PFN by drop casting (or doctor blade) at low temperature (≈95 °C) and

• . The active area (0.07 cm2) was delimited with Scotch tape. The FM top electrode was deposited (after melting it at 95 °C in a hot plate) on top of the PFN layer by drop casting, using the previously reported procedure [34]. The final device structure is as follows: glass (1.1 mm)/ITO (≈165 nm

Nonlinear absorption and scattering of a single plasmonic nanostructure characterized by x-scan technique

• Tushar C. Jagadale,
• Dhanya S. Murali and
• Shi-Wei Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2182–2191, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.211

• signals increases faster than the excitation intensity. This means that the power dependency in this region (slope of output versus input) exceeds linearity. Moreover, we did not observe any melting of the nanoparticles in the measurement range, thus, the x-scan measurement is fully reversible and

BergaCare SmartLipids: commercial lipophilic active concentrates for improved performance of dermal products

• Florence Olechowski,
• Rainer H. Müller and
• Sung Min Pyo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2152–2162, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.208

• is very easy by measuring the melting enthalpy using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The melting enthalpy of a SmartLipids suspension can be determined before addition to the product, after addition to a gel or a cream and after storage. In case the particles dissolve, e.g., in an oil of a

• cream, the melting enthalpy will decrease. Thus, the physical stability of SmartLipids is easy to analyze and to prove. Chemical stabilization of active agents Classical fluid carriers such as nanoemulsion and liposomes have a limited ability to protect labile lipophilic active agents. Due to the

• melting point of the highest melting lipid, then the active agent is dissolved in the lipid melt and the melt containing the active agent is dispersed in a hot aqueous stabilizer solution (surfactant, polymer) of identical temperature by high-speed stirring to form a coarse emulsion. This pre-emulsion is

Oblique angle deposition of nickel thin films by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

• Hamidreza Hajihoseini,
• Movaffaq Kateb,
• Snorri Þorgeir Ingvarsson and
• Jon Tomas Gudmundsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1914–1921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.186

• ) conditions analogous with electron beam and thermal evaporation methods. However, at our working gas pressure the mean free path is around 11 mm which is remarkably shorter than target to substrate distance (250 mm). Besides, Elofsson et al. [55] show that the melting point of the deposited materials impacts

• the inclined growth of columns by affecting their surface diffusion. Thus, a variation in β is expected for depositing materials with different melting point. The less tilted grains and the higher thickness uniformity of HiPIMS-deposited films can be explained by a different distribution angle of

Synthesis of nickel/gallium nanoalloys using a dual-source approach in 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazole ionic liquids

• Ilka Simon,
• Julius Hornung,
• Juri Barthel,
• Jörg Thomas,
• Maik Finze,
• Roland A. Fischer and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1754–1767, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.171

• Ga3+ as well as the low melting point of Ga metal leading to coagulation. During the synthesis of NiGa [42] or PdGa [27] nanoparticles from Ni2+ or Pd2+ precursors, using aminoborane as reducing agent, the formation of a transition-metal hydride was reported as a first step. These hydrides can then

• distribution of 6 ± 1 nm can be assigned to be NiGa nanoparticles. Moreover, the large particles with a size distribution of 90 ± 20 nm can be assigned to be Ga-rich nanoparticles. We suggest that they cannot be pure Ga nanoparticles, because the low melting point of Ga metal of 30 °C, would yield liquid Ga

Upcycling of polyurethane waste by mechanochemistry: synthesis of N-doped porous carbon materials for supercapacitor applications

• Christina Schneidermann,
• Pascal Otto,
• Desirée Leistenschneider,
• Sven Grätz,
• Claudia Eßbach and
• Lars Borchardt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1618–1627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.157

• ][4][5]. So far, different recycling techniques have been devised to counteract environmental pollution through accumulation of plastic waste. Especially, the recovery of PE and PP, as well as depolymerization processes for PET and the reprocessing of PVC by crushing and melting in conversion systems

Energy distribution in an ensemble of nanoparticles and its consequences

• Dieter Vollath

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1452–1457, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.143

• . Therefore, the description of fluctuations has to be expanded. This necessary extension is demonstrated using as an example of melting gold particles at different particle sizes. Figure 1 displays the free enthalpy of the solid and the liquid phase of a 2 nm gold particle in the vicinity of the melting

• . Probability for the transformation of (a) 2 nm and (b) 5 nm diameter gold particles in the vicinity of the melting point. Experimental data for the magnetic noise power of cobalt measured at a frequency of 100 Hz according to Woods et al. [5]. The approximation using Equation 7 was made assuming one normal

Kelvin probe force microscopy of the nanoscale electrical surface potential barrier of metal/semiconductor interfaces in ambient atmosphere

• Petr Knotek,
• Tomáš Plecháček,
• Jan Smolík,
• Petr Kutálek,
• Filip Dvořák,
• Milan Vlček,
• Jiří Navrátil and
• Čestmír Drašar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1401–1411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.138

• optimization of the efficiency of TE materials. Our efforts to prepare separated Mo NPs on the Bi2Se3 surface was not successful. Because Mo has significantly higher melting/boiling points (bulk Mo 2623/4639 °C, bulk Au 1064/2856 °C [47]) dc sputtering yielded homogeneous layers of Mo instead of separated NPs

• ). In the case of Mo the situation is more complex. We were not able to prepare separated Mo 1D particles due to the higher melting temperature of Mo compared to the Au. The thinnest Mo layer led to the highest contrast in the surface contact potential of the NIs (see Figure 7) due to the formation of a

Enhanced inhibition of influenza virus infection by peptide–noble-metal nanoparticle conjugates

• Zaid K. Alghrair,
• David G. Fernig and
• Bahram Ebrahimi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1038–1047, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.104

• agarose overlay was prepared by mixing equal volumes of 2% (w/v) of pre-warmed (55 °C) low-melting agarose (Melford Laboratories Ltd, Blideston Road, Ipswich, UK) and the overlay solution (14 mL 10× MEM, 3.7 mL 7.5% (w/v) bovine serum albumin (fraction V, Sigma-Aldrich, UK), 1.4 mL L-glutamine, 2.6 mL 7.5

Outstanding chain-extension effect and high UV resistance of polybutylene succinate containing amino-acid-modified layered double hydroxides

• Adam A. Marek,
• Vincent Verney,
• Christine Taviot-Gueho,
• Grazia Totaro,
• Laura Sisti,
• Annamaria Celli and
• Fabrice Leroux

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 684–695, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.68

• was deleted and a second scan profile was performed by heating from −60 °C to 150 °C at 10 °C min−1. The glass transition temperature (Tg), the melting temperature (Tm) and the enthalpy of fusion (∆Hm) were measured from the second scan. Tg was taken as the midpoint of the heat capacity increment

• layers. The calculated residual masses correspond with the filler loading. The addition of LDHs does not affect the melting temperature Tm which is quite constant at 115–114 °C. A slight decrease can be observed in the crystallization temperature Tc for nanocomposites with LDH/amino acids, from 85 °C

Enhancement in thermoelectric properties due to Ag nanoparticles incorporated in Bi₂Te₃ matrix

• Srashti Gupta,
• Dinesh Chandra Agarwal,
• Bathula Sivaiah,
• Sankarakumar Amrithpandian,
• Kandasami Asokan,
• Ajay Dhar,
• Binaya Kumar Panigrahi,
• Devesh Kumar Avasthi and
• Vinay Gupta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 634–643, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.63

• powder mixtures were well grinded and pressed to pellets. These pellets were then annealed at 573 or 773 K for 1 h under Ar atmosphere. Annealing temperatures were chosen to be below the melting point of Bi2Te3 (586 °C) and above the melting points of Bi (271 °C) and Te (449 °C). These samples were

Topochemical engineering of composite hybrid fibers using layered double hydroxides and abietic acid

• Liji Sobhana,
• Lokesh Kesavan,
• Jan Gustafsson and
• Pedro Fardim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 589–605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.60

• high melting temperature. These properties can yield improved hydrophobicity and mechanical strength to the fibers. Layered double hydroxides are hydroxylated mixed metal salts (clay minerals) that have unique fascinating three-dimensional structures in which positively and negatively charged ions are

Mechanical and thermodynamic properties of Aβ₄₂, Aβ₄₀, and α-synuclein fibrils: a coarse-grained method to complement experimental studies

• Adolfo B. Poma,
• Horacio V. Guzman,
• Mai Suan Li and
• Panagiotis E. Theodorakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 500–513, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.51

• preparation of samples with well-ordered Aβ40 or Aβ42 fibrils. In this regard, our CG simulation is an ideal protocol as it enables the calculation of the melting temperatures for well-ordered Aβ fibrils. To assess the thermal stability of the fibril, we compute the probability of finding the protein in the

A Ni(OH)₂ nanopetals network for high-performance supercapacitors synthesized by immersing Ni nanofoam in water

• Donghui Zheng,
• Man Li,
• Yongyan Li,
• Chunling Qin,
• Yichao Wang and
• Zhifeng Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 281–293, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.27

• 20–30 µm thick) are fabricated by arc melting of the pure metals (99.99 wt %) followed by melt spinning [27][28]. Subsequently the dealloying process, as reported in our previous work [29][30], is carried out in 0.05 M HF solution for 4 h open to air at 298 K to form a Ni nanofoam layer on the MG

Study of silica-based intrinsically emitting nanoparticles produced by an excimer laser

• Imène Reghioua,
• Mattia Fanetti,
• Sylvain Girard,
• Diego Di Francesca,
• Simonpietro Agnello,
• Layla Martin-Samos,
• Marco Cannas,
• Matjaz Valant,
• Melanie Raine,
• Marc Gaillardin,
• Nicolas Richard,
• Philippe Paillet,
• Aziz Boukenter,
• Youcef Ouerdane and
• Antonino Alessi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 211–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.19

• avalanche ionization [14][20]. The feasibility of ablating pure silica has been demonstrated using lasers of different wavelengths and pulse durations ranging from tens of nanoseconds down to hundreds of femtoseconds [15]. It was also proposed that the damage is related to melting, boiling or fracture of

• absorption can induce melting of part of the sample, the quenching is sufficiently fast to avoid the formation of large crystalline regions. The obtained nanoparticles differ in size and are in general larger than a few tens of nanometers. Such dimensions do not represent a relevant issue for some

New micro/mesoporous nanocomposite material from low-cost sources for the efficient removal of aromatic and pathogenic pollutants from water

• Emmanuel I. Unuabonah,
• Robert Nöske,
• Jens Weber,
• Christina Günter and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 119–131, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.11

• the form of water, rather than as hydrocarbons or as oxygenated organic compounds [29]. The hydrogen loss could have led to aromatization of the carbon skeleton, and the formation of pores. Some authors suggest that ZnCl2 is very mobile above its melting point (283 °C) which inhibits the formation of

Femtosecond laser-assisted fabrication of chalcopyrite micro-concentrator photovoltaics

• Franziska Ringleb,
• Stefan Andree,
• Berit Heidmann,
• Jörn Bonse,
• Katharina Eylers,
• Owen Ernst,
• Torsten Boeck,
• Martina Schmid and
• Jörg Krüger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3025–3038, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.281

• -induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS [19]) and round melting features form on the glass surface (Figure 5b). The LIPSS with periods in the sub-micrometer range are generated via intra-pulse scattering and interference of the fs-laser radiation at the roughened glass surface, leading to the spatially

• modulated deposition of energy in a shallow near-surface layer and, finally, to periodic material removal [20]. The micrometer-sized melting features supposedly arise from heterogeneities of the glass composition affecting the local optical and thermo-physical properties during the multi-pulse irradiation

• set to 150 µm. Single layers of copper (10–100 nm thickness) or indium (150–1000 nm thickness) as well as combined copper–indium layer stacks (210–1010 nm) were used as donor materials. Copper was first applied by PVD in all layer stacks because it has a significantly higher melting point than indium