Use of nanosystems to improve the anticancer effects of curcumin

• Andrea M. Araya-Sibaja,
• Norma J. Salazar-López,
• Krissia Wilhelm Romero,
• José R. Vega-Baudrit,
• J. Abraham Domínguez-Avila,
• Carlos A. Velázquez Contreras,
• Ramón E. Robles-Zepeda,
• Mirtha Navarro-Hoyos and
• Gustavo A. González-Aguilar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1047–1062, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.78

• results have been obtained in glutathione-sensitive PEGylated CUR prodrug nanomicelles [76]. Polymeric nanoparticles (PNP). Polymeric nanoparticles are solid colloids with a size of up to 1000 nm; the drug is loaded into the polymeric matrix, preferably using biodegradable polymers [77][78]. If the drug

• constituted by lipophilic and hydrophilic polymers which contribute to increase their systemic mobility and residence time [86]. The advantages of this hybrid system include high encapsulation efficiency, well-defined release kinetics, well-tolerated serum stability, and well-triggered tissue, cellular, and

An overview of microneedle applications, materials, and fabrication methods

• Zahra Faraji Rad,
• Philip D. Prewett and
• Graham J. Davies

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1034–1046, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.77

• feature sizes are fabricated using the tools of the microelectronics industry from metals, silicon, and polymers. Various types of subtractive and additive manufacturing processes have been used to manufacture microneedles, but the development of microneedle-based systems using conventional subtractive

• range of medical applications. However, the delivery of therapeutic agents by dissolving or coated microneedles has encountered problems, such as heating of carbohydrates and polymers, which can cause drug breakdown during moulding of microneedles at raised temperatures [36]. Research to overcome these

• issues has included fabrication of microneedles from aqueous mixtures of amylopectin and carboxymethylcellulose, rather than molten polymers, which helps to preserve the stability of the incorporated drug [37]. Accurate coating of microneedles is another challenge, but degradable or coated microneedles

The role of deep eutectic solvents and carrageenan in synthesizing biocompatible anisotropic metal nanoparticles

• Nabojit Das,
• Akash Kumar and
• Raja Gopal Rayavarapu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 924–938, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.69

• monodispersed nanoparticles, an essential criterion for their intended application and a limitation of the green synthesis of nanoparticles using plant extracts. Several biocompatible counterparts such as polymers, lipids, and chitosan-based nanoparticles have been successfully used in the synthesis of safe

• , these nanomaterials are far away from a substantial use in biological applications due to toxic capping agents employed during synthesis. Several counterparts such as polymers, lipids, and chitosan-based nanoparticles are extensively explored in drug delivery and therapeutic applications due to their

• for dissolving many species of high polarity, for example, amino acids, metal salts, glycerol, benzoic acid, citric acid, and glucose [26][76]. They are also promising in the dissolution of different polymers, such as starch, cellulose, lignin, chitin, and are also used in the pre-treatment of

Modification of a SERS-active Ag surface to promote adsorption of charged analytes: effect of Cu²⁺ ions

• Bahdan V. Ranishenka,
• Andrei Yu. Panarin,
• Irina A. Chelnokova,
• Sergei N. Terekhov,
• Peter Mojzes and
• Vadim V. Shmanai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 902–912, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.67

• surface modification of Ag (polymers, lithium chloride, and multicharged metal ions) to improve the SERS signal of substrates (our preliminary results have been described in [29]). Finally, we applied the obtained results to detect oligonucleotide molecules and showed that the addition of Cu2+ ions into

• model SERS system, and compared the results with those reported in literature, for example, coating with polymers [7][19] or different inorganic reagents [20][22][23]. Figure 6 shows the corresponding modification schemes. Treatment of the plasmonic surface with lithium chloride led to a threefold

• polymers resulted in a significant increase of the CuTMpyP4 SERS signal, that is, threefold for PEI and fourfold for PHMG. A weak CuTSPP4 spectrum was only observable in the case of PHMG. We suppose that the results are caused by a partial desorption of polymer molecules from the surface by washing. The

Comprehensive review on ultrasound-responsive theranostic nanomaterials: mechanisms, structures and medical applications

• Sepand Tehrani Fateh,
• Lida Moradi,
• Elmira Kohan,
• Michael R. Hamblin and
• Amin Shiralizadeh Dezfuli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 808–862, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.64

A review of defect engineering, ion implantation, and nanofabrication using the helium ion microscope

• Frances I. Allen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 633–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.52

• mechanical response, with the typical swelling also observed [90]. In contrast, studies of both helium and neon ion-irradiated polymers have shown that swelling does not occur at the threshold doses observed for crystalline targets, attributed to the significantly higher diffusion coefficients of the noble

High-yield synthesis of silver nanowires for transparent conducting PET films

• Gul Naz,
• Hafsa Asghar,
• Muhammad Ramzan,
• Muhammad Arshad,
• Rashid Ahmed,
• Muhammad Bilal Tahir,
• Bakhtiar Ul Haq,
• Nadeem Baig and
• Junaid Jalil

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 624–632, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.51

• , carbon nanotubes (CNT), conductive polymers, and metallic nanowires, have been tested commercially as alternative to ITO films for flexible optoelectronic devices [6][7][8][9]. Amongst them, graphene and carbon materials, particularly CNTs, display low optical transparency and high sheet resistance owing

Nanoporous and nonporous conjugated donor–acceptor polymer semiconductors for photocatalytic hydrogen production

• Zhao-Qi Sheng,
• Yu-Qin Xing,
• Yan Chen,
• Guang Zhang,
• Shi-Yong Liu and
• Long Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 607–623, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.50

• Conjugated polymers (CPs) as photocatalysts have evoked substantial interest. Their geometries and physical (e.g., chemical and thermal stability and solubility), optical (e.g., light absorption range), and electronic properties (e.g., charge carrier mobility, redox potential, and exciton binding energy) can

• tuning the bandgap, enlarging the surface area, enabling more efficient separation of electron–hole pairs, and enhancing the charge carrier mobility. In particular, donor–acceptor (D–A) polymers were demonstrated as a promising platform to develop high-performance photocatalysts due to their easily

• tunable bandgaps, high charge carrier mobility, and efficient intramolecular charge transfer. In this minireview, recent advances of D–A polymers in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution are summarized with a particular focus on modulating the optical and electronic properties of CPs by varying the acceptor

The impact of molecular tumor profiling on the design strategies for targeting myeloid leukemia and EGFR/CD44-positive solid tumors

• Nikola Geskovski,
• Nadica Matevska-Geshkovska,
• Simona Dimchevska Sazdovska,
• Marija Glavas Dodov,
• Kristina Mladenovska and
• Katerina Goracinova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 375–401, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.31

Doxorubicin-loaded gold nanorods: a multifunctional chemo-photothermal nanoplatform for cancer management

• Uzma Azeem Awan,
• Abida Raza,
• Shaukat Ali,
• Rida Fatima Saeed and
• Nosheen Akhtar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 295–303, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.24

• treatments. Regardless of the various beneficial properties, GNRs have limitations in clinical applications due to the cytotoxicity of the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), which acts as a template in the synthesis process of GNRs [17]. Different polymers can be used to coat GNRs to enhance

Scanning transmission helium ion microscopy on carbon nanomembranes

• Daniel Emmrich,
• Annalena Wolff,
• Nikolaus Meyerbröker,
• Jörg K. N. Lindner,
• André Beyer and
• Armin Gölzhäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 222–231, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.18

• capability is the ability to record charge-compensated images on insulating samples such as biological specimen or polymers without requiring a conductive coating layer [2][3][4]. In addition, the ability to record images with high signal-to-noise ratio while using low beam currents (the HIM creates up to

Determination of elastic moduli of elastic–plastic microspherical materials using nanoindentation simulation without mechanical polishing

• Hongzhou Li and
• Jialian Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 213–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.17

• dominated by plasticity. The surface around the indenter piles up. However, the indenter displacement for E/σy = 10–50 is more elastic. Hence, a larger portion of elasticity is recovered on unloading. The surface around the indenter sinks in. For highly elastic solids, such as polymers, sink-in is often

• greater in materials with larger E/σy ratios, such as soft materials. Hard materials and most polymers, ceramics, and glasses have small E/σy ratios. As E/σy decreases, corresponding to increases in the yield stress and decreases in hf/hmax, the size of the plastic zone decreases until, at some point, the

Paper-based triboelectric nanogenerators and their applications: a review

• Jing Han,
• Nuo Xu,
• Yuchen Liang,
• Mei Ding,
• Junyi Zhai,
• Qijun Sun and
• Zhong Lin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 151–171, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.12

• ., metal nanowires, conducting polymers, carbon nanotube (CNT) inks, multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) inks, and reduced graphene oxide) [69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82], can be easily absorbed or used as a coating layer on the surface of the paper due to its wettability and

• composites are used as the electropositive layer, while some common synthetic polymers, such as fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) are used as the electronegative part. As the synthetic polymers have a smooth surface and a dense structure

ZnO and MXenes as electrode materials for supercapacitor devices

• Ameen Uddin Ammar,
• Ipek Deniz Yildirim,
• Feray Bakan and
• Emre Erdem

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 49–57, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.4

• supercapacitors [15]. Until now, carbon (high surface area), metal oxides (high specific capacitance and low resistance), and conducting polymers are used as electrode materials. The issues of cost, stability, and lifetime are not resolved yet [15]. Graphene seems like one of the possible main electrode materials

Effect of different silica coatings on the toxicity of upconversion nanoparticles on RAW 264.7 macrophage cells

• Cynthia Kembuan,
• Helena Oliveira and
• Christina Graf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 35–48, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.3

• disintegration processes. Several authors have reported the use of protective coatings, such as poly(acrylic acid) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) [18], multichelating phosphonate [30][32][33], block copolymers [34], amphiphilic polymers [8][21], or polysulfonates [22]. Silica shells can also be used to

Application of contact-resonance AFM methods to polymer samples

• Sebastian Friedrich and
• Brunero Cappella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1714–1727, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.154

• materials, such as ceramics or metals, but also of some polymers. Compared with other techniques providing information on the mechanical properties of a sample, notably force–distance curves, CR-AFM has a much shorter acquisition time. This compensates in part the incomplete theoretical understanding of the

• . Keywords: atomic force microscopy; contact resonance; mechanical properties; polymers; wear; Introduction The development of new materials for applications on the nanoscale, such as thin polymer films, demands a reliable determination of their mechanical properties. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a very

• modulus, but also the measured CR frequency itself are affected by large uncertainties and are often not reproducible. Therefore, several CR-AFM studies on polymers are limited to the mere detection of contrasts in CR frequency, without further calculations and, hence, without a quantitative determination

Out-of-plane surface patterning by subsurface processing of polymer substrates with focused ion beams

• Serguei Chiriaev,
• Luciana Tavares,
• Vadzim Adashkevich,
• Arkadiusz J. Goszczak and
• Horst-Günter Rubahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1693–1703, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.151

• irradiation-induced mechanical strain in the patterning process are elaborated and discussed. Keywords: direct patterning; focused helium ion beam; out-of-plane nanopatterning; polymers; thin films; Introduction Micro- and nanofabrication with focused ion beams (FIBs) is currently a subject of strong

• the basis of a comparative study of the role of material-related factors in the FIB-induced surface patterning. PMMA and PC polymers are especially interesting for many reasons: PMMA is widely used as a positive resist for X-ray, deep UV [8], electron and ion-beam lithography [9]. Structural

• ][16]. It has also been demonstrated that it acts as a type of ion-beam resist in the fabrication of micro- and nanopore membranes and templates for nanowires by chemical etching of through-holes along ion tracks produced by high-energy ions [17][18]. In contrast to PMMA and PC polymers, PDMS is a

Optically and electrically driven nanoantennas

• Monika Fleischer,
• Dai Zhang and
• Alfred J. Meixner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1542–1545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.136

• a TERS setup, which has been rarely pursued so far. In the hot topic area of active plasmonics, reversible changes in the refractive index of the environment of a plasmonic system, for example, by liquid crystals or thermosensitive polymers, allow for actively switching the plasmonic properties [50

Design of V-shaped cantilevers for enhanced multifrequency AFM measurements

• Mehrnoosh Damircheli and
• Babak Eslami

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1525–1541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.135

• and second eigenmode are Ao1 = 10 nm and Ao2 = 0.4 nm for all simulations. These oscillation amplitudes, that is ratio and setpoint, were selected based on the results of the work of Gigler et al. who found the optimum oscillation amplitude ratios for imaging polymers in the repulsive regime of

• eigenmodes. Lower dynamic spring constant ratios for V-shape cantilevers suggest lower forces applied to surfaces. Considering the major application of V-shape cantilevers, this can be an additional reason for using V-shaped cantilever in bimodal AFM for characterizing soft matters such as polymers or

• a reduction in stiffness is advantageous, a reduction in frequency might be disadvantageous for cases where the first eigenmode frequency is too low for imaging polymers. However, if the reduction in frequency ratio is due to a lower second eigenmode compared to the first eigenmode and the first

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

• Matías Guerrero Correa,
• Fernanda B. Martínez,
• Cristian Patiño Vidal,
• Camilo Streitt,
• Juan Escrig and
• Carol Lopez de Dicastillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1450–1469, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.129

• nanocages with diameters ranging from 300 to 500 nm [55]. The solvothermal synthesis method is a technique used to prepare a variety of materials, such as metals, semiconductors, ceramics, and polymers. In this process, the chemical reaction takes place in a sealed vessel where solvents are brought to a

On the frequency dependence of viscoelastic material characterization with intermittent-contact dynamic atomic force microscopy: avoiding mischaracterization across large frequency ranges

• Enrique A. López-Guerra and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1409–1418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.125

• acquire topographical, mechanical, or electromagnetic properties of surfaces, as well as to induce surface modifications at the micrometer and nanometer scale. Viscoelastic materials, examples of which include many polymers and biological materials, are an important class of systems, the mechanical

• , although it may or may not fully recover its original geometry. Prime examples of such materials include polymers and biological materials [2][14][19][20][21]. The peculiar types of behavior of viscoelastic materials have been recognized by AFM researchers since the early days of dynamic AFM, and various

• principle possible to access short time scales (high frequencies) even with conventional experimental setups. However, this principle only applies to thermo-rheologically simple materials, such as certain types of simple polymers [16][18][45]. There may also emerge experimental complexities related to

Magnetohydrodynamic stagnation point on a Casson nanofluid flow over a radially stretching sheet

• Ganji Narender,
• Kamatam Govardhan and
• Gobburu Sreedhar Sarma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1303–1315, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.114

• . In addition, Casson fluids have been implemented in the preparation of printing ink, silicon suspensions and polymers [7]. Over the past few years, a vast range of experiments and investigations have been carried out using Casson fluids due to their broad applicability in the scientific and

Growth of a self-assembled monolayer decoupled from the substrate: nucleation on-command using buffer layers

• Robby Reynaerts,
• Kunal S. Mali and
• Steven De Feyter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1291–1302, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.113

• formation by acting as a physical barrier between the substrate and the assembling moiety, buffer layers are also widely used to study intrinsic electronic properties of functional organic systems such as organic semiconductors [32][33] and films of 1D/2D polymers [34][35][36][37] via electronic decoupling

Structure and electrochemical performance of electrospun-ordered porous carbon/graphene composite nanofibers

• Yi Wang,
• Yanhua Song,
• Chengwei Ye and
• Lan Xu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1280–1290, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.112

• transport. There are various ways to induce pore formation, including the activation and template methods [17][18][19]. In the context of electrospinning experiments, an effective method to induce porous formation is to change the composition of the electrospinning solution (e.g., by adding polymers that

• are incompatible with PAN, such as polystyrene (PS), poly(ʟ-lactic acid) (PLLA) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) [20][21][22][23]. During the carbonization process at a high temperature, PAN and the blended polymers undergo phase separation, forming a large number of pores which increases the

An atomic force microscope integrated with a helium ion microscope for correlative nanoscale characterization

• Santiago H. Andany,
• Gregor Hlawacek,
• Stefan Hummel,
• Charlène Brillard,
• Mustafa Kangül and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1272–1279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.111

• . With the integrated electron flood gun (FG) of the HIM providing charge neutralization, uncoated polymers and biological samples can be imaged with high resolution while the AFM would bring complementary information such as laterally resolved mechanical properties. These multiparametric measurements