Al₂O₃/TiO₂ inverse opals from electrosprayed self-assembled templates

• Arnau Coll,
• Sandra Bermejo,
• David Hernández and
• Luís Castañer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 216–223, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.23

• of recent literature shows that opals made of polystyrene or poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] nanoparticles can be orderly assembled in larger areas and thicknesses, however, such materials do not achieve the same optical performance as inverse opals, due to

• has a lower refractive index than TiO2 deposited at >200 °C. In previous works [37][38][39][40] we have shown how an electrospray process of nanofluids can be used to deposit in a very short time very well ordered and with few defects layers (colloidal crystals) of polystyrene (of good quality and

• deposition capacity and mechanical properties [41][42]. The main purpose of this article is to apply this technique to the fabrication of inverse opals using the 3D polystyrene nanoparticle template which enables the creation of large scale, large thickness, self-assembled structures with minimum fabrication

A robust AFM-based method for locally measuring the elasticity of samples

• Alexandre Bubendorf,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.1

• relation exists when measuring in contact mode with a certain load FN and propose a new method for determining the elastic modulus of samples from this relation. The measurements were performed in non-dry air at ambient temperature on three different polymers (polystyrene, polypropylene and linear low

• first flexural modes of the cantilever in contact were excited with the amplitudes A1 = 22 mV and A2 = 5 mV for all samples. Samples and measurement conditions Three different polymers (polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)) and a self-assembled monolayer (SAM

Electro-optical characteristics of a liquid crystal cell with graphene electrodes

• Nune H. Hakobyan,
• Hakob L. Margaryan,
• Valeri K. Abrahamyan,
• Vladimir M. Aroutiounian,
• Arpi S. Dilanchian Gharghani,
• Amalya B. Kostanyan,
• Timothy D. Wilkinson and
• Nelson Tabirian

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2802–2806, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.279

• precleaned glass substrate by using a polymer support layer of polystyrene (PS, Mw 35k, 2% w/w in toluene) and an etchant acid (FeCl3 aq, 0.5 M) to remove the Cu, as described elsewhere [15]. This was followed by a wash in a warm ethyl acetate bath to dissolve the supporting polymer layer. Device fabrication

Material discrimination and mixture ratio estimation in nanocomposites via harmonic atomic force microscopy

• Weijie Zhang,
• Yuhang Chen,
• Xicheng Xia and
• Jiaru Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2771–2780, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.276

• signals were investigated systematically on a polymer blend composed of polystyrene (PS) and low-density polyehtylene (LDPE). We focused on the influence of feedback amplitude set-point, drive frequency and laser spot position along the cantilever beam. Based on these fundamental studies, harmonic AFM

The role of ligands in coinage-metal nanoparticles for electronics

• Ioannis Kanelidis and
• Tobias Kraus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2625–2639, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.263

• case of polymethacrylic acid due to its potential to carry negative charge [94]. Que et al. reported that the size of the polystyrene block affected the stability of gold nanoparticles coated with a poly(ethylene glycol)-b-polystyrene diblock copolymer in water. A shorter polystyrene chain length led

Robust nanobubble and nanodroplet segmentation in atomic force microscope images using the spherical Hough transform

• Yuliang Wang,
• Tongda Lu,
• Xiaolai Li,
• Shuai Ren and
• Shusheng Bi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2572–2582, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.257

• for smaller objects by assuming sample surfaces are actually flat, which is not always true. Figure 1a is a raw AFM image of NBs on a polystyrene (PS) surface. One can see that the image height of the background increases along the y direction. This is mostly due to thermal drift of the AFM scanner

• bar is 500 nm. AFM height images of nanobubbles and nanodroplets. (a) and (d) are the polystyrene and HOPG surfaces in air. (b) and (e) are the raw AFM height images of nanobubbles and nanodroplets in DI water. (c) and (f) are flattened AFM height images of nanobubbles and nanodroplets in DI water

Involvement of two uptake mechanisms of gold and iron oxide nanoparticles in a co-exposure scenario using mouse macrophages

• Dimitri Vanhecke,
• Dagmar A. Kuhn,
• Dorleta Jimenez de Aberasturi,
• Sandor Balog,
• Ana Milosevic,
• Dominic Urban,
• Diana Peckys,
• Niels de Jonge,
• Wolfgang J. Parak,
• Alke Petri-Fink and
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2396–2409, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.239

• inhibitor MDC. Inhibition of this pathway was also reported for the Fe-binding protein transferrin, whereas the uptake of non-biological (nano)particles such as polystyrene beads was not blocked [35]. However, the pathway was not exclusively clathrin-mediated because evidence of uptake is observed

• a similar organization was not observed for the FeOxNPs, it must be concluded that an active process directed the uptake of AuNPs. A similar observation was made with 1 µm polystyrene beads, which were observed to be transported extracellularly along the filopodia of the same macrophageal cell line

• , Austria), 1% L-glutamine (Gibco, Luzern, Switzerland) and 1% penicillin/streptomycin (Gibco, Luzern, Switzerland) and were kept at 37 °C and 5% CO2. The cells were seeded at a density of 25 × 104 cells/mL in BD FalconTM four-chamber polystyrene vessels for the experiments, using tissue culture treated

Synthesis and characterization of noble metal–titania core–shell nanostructures with tunable shell thickness

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Dariusz Zasada and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2083–2093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.208

• calibration measurement was carried out after measurement of each sample (with the same conditions) using carboxylated polystyrene nanoparticles (100 nm or 200 nm) supplied by the manufacturer. The statistical data for the particle size distribution, including mean particle diameter, mode particle diameter

A systematic study of the controlled generation of crystalline iron oxide nanoparticles on graphene using a chemical etching process

• Peter Krauß,
• Jörg Engstler and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2017–2025, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.202

• polystyrene petridishes (Carl Roth, 94 mm und 145 mm in diameter) with the inner compartment perforated (holes of 1.6 mm in diameter) at the base of the separation (Figure S2, Supporting Information File 1). A 1 M aqueous solution of ammonium persulfate was prepared by adding 1 L distilled water to 228.2 g of

Identifying the nature of surface chemical modification for directed self-assembly of block copolymers

• Laura Evangelio,
• Federico Gramazio,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Michaela Gorgoi,
• Francisco Miguel Espinosa,
• Ricardo García,
• Francesc Pérez-Murano and
• Jordi Fraxedas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1972–1981, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.198

• oxide between the brush layer and the SiO2/Si substrate. Experimental Preparation and chemical modification of brush layers The starting substrates were <100> silicon wafers (p-type silicon of 4–40 Ω·cm resistivity) with a native silicon oxide layer on top. A thin film of hydroxyl-terminated polystyrene

Uptake and intracellular accumulation of diamond nanoparticles – a metabolic and cytotoxic study

• Antonín Brož,
• Lucie Bačáková,
• Pavla Štenclová,
• Alexander Kromka and
• Štěpán Potocký

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1649–1657, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.165

• compared with the ND-free living control (i.e., cells grown in polystyrene wells in a medium without diamond nanoparticles). Similar results were also obtained in a study by Vaijayanthimala et al. [11], in which the proliferation of HeLa cells and 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes exhibited no significant difference

High-speed dynamic-mode atomic force microscopy imaging of polymers: an adaptive multiloop-mode approach

• Juan Ren and
• Qingze Zou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1563–1570, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.158

• and evaluation of the AMLM technique by imaging three types of polymer samples different in both topography features and heterogeneous mechanical properties. The three samples, made of polystyrene–low-density polyethylene (PS–LDPE), styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) and celgard, respectively, have over

Luminescent supramolecular hydrogels from a tripeptide and nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots

• Maria C. Cringoli,
• Slavko Kralj,
• Marina Kurbasic,
• Massimo Urban and
• Silvia Marchesan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1553–1562, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.157

• immediately put on wells of Greiner 96 U Bottom Black Polystyrene. The controls were used in 200 μL total volume. After 1 h, the fluorescence emission spectra were acquired using a Tecan Infinite M1000 pro, with a bandwidth of 10 nm, selecting the following excitation (ex.) and emission (em.) wavelengths: ex

• calculated and plotted. Thioflavin T fluorescence assay Gel precursor solutions were prepared as described above and 100 μL of each buffer were immediately put on wells of Greiner 96 U Bottom Black Polystyrene. The controls were used in 200 μL total volume. After 1 h, 20 μL of a solution of thioflavin T

Parylene C as a versatile dielectric material for organic field-effect transistors

• Tomasz Marszalek,
• Maciej Gazicki-Lipman and
• Jacek Ulanski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1532–1545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.155

• energy exhibited a mobility of μ = 0.006 cm2/V·s. More detailed studies were carried out for tetracene semiconductor films deposited on various dielectric materials, namely organic polystyrene (PS), Parylene C, and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as well as on inorganic SiO2, with and without HMDS

Calcium fluoride based multifunctional nanoparticles for multimodal imaging

• Marion Straßer,
• Joachim H. X. Schrauth,
• Sofia Dembski,
• Daniel Haddad,
• Bernd Ahrens,
• Stefan Schweizer,
• Bastian Christ,
• Alevtina Cubukova,
• Marco Metzger,
• Heike Walles,
• Peter M. Jakob and
• Gerhard Sextl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1484–1493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.148

• redispersed in DMEM with 10% FCS. The sedimentation studies over 24 h were carried out by monitoring the absorbance at 700 nm as a function of time (Shimadzu, UV-3100). The sample (5 mg·mL−1 NPs in DMEM with 10% FCS, with or without Melpers®2450) was placed into a polystyrene micro cuvette and the absorbance

Low uptake of silica nanoparticles in Caco-2 intestinal epithelial barriers

• Dong Ye,
• Mattia Bramini,
• Delyan R. Hristov,
• Sha Wan,
• Anna Salvati,
• Christoffer Åberg and
• Kenneth A. Dawson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1396–1406, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.141

• cells, rather than Caco-2 barriers, interestingly, there are suggestions that the response is different in overnight cultures and cells grown for 10 days [25]. Uptake into Caco-2 cells has been reported for silica [23][24][26][28], polystyrene [29], chitosan [30], poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) [31][32

• nanoparticles such as microporous silicon [22], silica [23], poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) [33] and carboxylated and aminated polystyrene [34]. We hypothesize that the low translocation observed in Caco-2 barriers results from a low uptake into the cells, an uptake that depends on cellular differentiation and

• transport across it. The low degree of internalisation is particularly striking in comparison to our previous observations of a substantial uptake of silica nanoparticles into (single) lung cells [37]. Moreover, we have previously found sizable uptake of silica and polystyrene nanoparticles into another

Micro- and nano-surface structures based on vapor-deposited polymers

• Hsien-Yeh Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1366–1374, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.138

• ) surface and a poly(4-ethynyl-p-xylylene-co-p-xylylene) surface, respectively. Various substrates were successfully verified for the coating and patterning modifications: metal (silver, titanium, stainless steel), polystyrene (PS), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), silicon, glass, poly(dimethylsiloxane

• range of different substrates, and the nanopatterns were demonstrated on polystyrene, acrylic and PDMS in this work [27]. The aforementioned photolithographical or soft-lithographical methods are simple and straightforward to perform. However, because of the limitation of applying a photomask or an

Miniemulsion copolymerization of (meth)acrylates in the presence of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes for reinforced coating applications

• Bertha T. Pérez-Martínez,
• Lorena Farías-Cepeda,
• Víctor M. Ovando-Medina,
• José M. Asua,
• Lucero Rosales-Marines and
• Radmila Tomovska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1328–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.134

• period and does not require massive diffusion of the components of the formulation through the aqueous phase. Ham et al. [32][33] used a so-called miniemulsion process in an attempt to cover SWCNTs with polystyrene nanoparticles, where n-pentanol was used as a hydrophobe to minimize Ostwald ripening

Synthesis of [Fe(L_eq)(L_ax)]_n coordination polymer nanoparticles using blockcopolymer micelles

• Christoph Göbel,
• Ottokar Klimm,
• Florian Puchtler,
• Sabine Rosenfeldt,
• Stephan Förster and
• Birgit Weber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1318–1327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.133

• temperature. Applications demand compounds with defined properties concerning the size and switchability that are maintained when the compound is integrated into composite materials. Here, we report the synthesis of [Fe(Leq)(Lax)]n coordination polymer (CP) nanoparticles using self-assembled polystyrene-block

• used the block copolymer polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) to prepare spherical nanoparticles of the 1D spin-crossover coordination polymer [FeLeq(bipy)]n. We were able control the crystallinity of the [FeLeq(bipy)]n core through successive addition of starting material and by variation

• argon 5.0 (purity ≥ 99.999%) and Schlenk technique. The synthesis of all samples was repeated at least twice. Polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-P4VP, purum, MW ≈ 150.000) was synthesised as described before [15]. 1,2-di(pyridin-4-yl)ethane) (bpea) and trans-1,2-di(pyridin-4-yl)ethene (bpee) were

Nano-engineered skin mesenchymal stem cells: potential vehicles for tumour-targeted quantum-dot delivery

• Liga Saulite,
• Dominyka Dapkute,
• Karlis Pleiko,
• Ineta Popena,
• Simona Steponkiene,
• Ricardas Rotomskis and
• Una Riekstina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1218–1230, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.123

• QD uptake in skin MSCs. The composition of the protein corona could either enhance or decrease the cellular uptake of polystyrene-based NPs, depending on nanoparticle functionalization [47]. We have showed that NP uptake in skin MSCs is an active process and does not occur passively. For the

• of 5 × 104 cells per well in a 12-well tissue culture polystyrene plate and labelled with QDs at various concentrations in the range of 0.5 to 64 nM for 6 h in complete or serum-free medium. To determine the accumulation dynamics, 8 nM or 16 nM QDs were applied to MSCs and incubated for 0.5, 1, 3, 6

Preparation of thick silica coatings on carbon fibers with fine-structured silica nanotubes induced by a self-assembly process

• Benjamin Baumgärtner,
• Hendrik Möller,
• Thomas Neumann and
• Dirk Volkmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1145–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.116

• hydrophobic polystyrene substrate. Treatment of polystyrene with sulfuric acid introduces sulfonate groups, and thus the possibility for hydrogen-bonding between –NH and –SO3H. The modified polystyrene surface is suitable for the nanograss formation demonstrating the importance of sufficient molecular-level

Hierarchically structured nanoporous carbon tubes for high pressure carbon dioxide adsorption

• Julia Patzsch,
• Deepu J. Babu and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1135–1144, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.115

• synthesized by a combination of the Stoeber process and the use of electrospun macrosized polystyrene fibres as structure directing templates. The obtained carbon tubes have a macroporous nature characterized by a thick wall structure and a high specific surface area of approximately 500 m²/g resulting from

• material. Experimental Materials Polystyrene (PS, pro-plast from BASF), tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS, ABCR), ammonia (NH3, Grüssing), dimethylformamide (DMF, Merck), tetrahydrofuran (THF, Merck), and ethanol (EtOH, Brenntag) were used as received without further purification. Synthesis of polystyrene

• fibres (1) In a similar manner as described in [38], electrospinning was performed in a homebuilt apparatus. Polystyrene (PS) fibres were electrospun from a 16 wt % PS THF/DMF 3:2 solution. After aging the spinning solution overnight, it was loaded into a glass syringe equipped with a stainless-steel

Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs)

• Michelle Romero-Franco,
• Hilary A. Godwin,
• Muhammad Bilal and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 989–1014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.101

Functional dependence of resonant harmonics on nanomechanical parameters in dynamic mode atomic force microscopy

• Federico Gramazio,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Francesc Pérez-Murano,
• Enrique Rull Trinidad,
• Urs Staufer and
• Jordi Fraxedas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 883–891, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.90

• frequency and polystyrene samples [13]. Such study has provided a practical qualitative method to continuously monitor changes in the shape and radius of a cantilever tip in amplitude modulation AFM mode. Here, we will also focus on the 6th harmonic since it provides the larger amplitude, but the

Nanostructured carbon materials decorated with organophosphorus moieties: synthesis and application

• Giacomo Biagiotti,
• Vittoria Langè,
• Cristina Ligi,
• Stefano Caporali,
• Maurizio Muniz-Miranda,
• Anna Flis,
• K. Michał Pietrusiewicz,
• Giacomo Ghini,
• Alberto Brandi and
• Stefano Cicchi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 485–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.52

• ] and, recently, also triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO) have found similar application [21][22][23][24]. Despite their utility, very few examples of heterogeneous catalysts are described. One example was reported by Tang, who developed a phosphine oxide derivative linked to a polystyrene resin [25]. For