Electrokinetic characterization of synthetic protein nanoparticles

• Daniel F. Quevedo,
• Cody J. Lentz,
• Adriana Coll de Peña,
• Yazmin Hernandez,
• Nahal Habibi,
• Rikako Miki,
• Joerg Lahann and
• Blanca H. Lapizco-Encinas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1556–1567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.138

• for producing subcompartments within particles. By localizing proteins at the nanoscale, PNPs could be used to control the release and delivery of therapeutics, theragnostics, and enzymatic cascades [10]. Although previously developed methods to produce PNPs, such as coacervation, self-assembly, and

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

• top-down approaches such as thin film deposition and nanopatterning, as well as bottom-up approaches such as chemical synthesis and self-assembly [38]. Gap sizes may range from a few tens of nanometers down to sub-nanometer tunnel junctions, where the classical description of the plasmonic behavior

• to a sharp tip is refined to a two-step procedure with high throughput. A self-assembly approach to create a dumbbell antenna consisting of a 40 nm and an 80 nm Au nanoparticle at a scanning tip is shown in [48] and applied for single molecule sensitivity imaging. The advantage of applying TERS for

Adsorption and self-assembly of porphyrins on ultrathin CoO films on Ir(100)

• Feifei Xiang,
• Tobias Schmitt,
• Marco Raschmann and
• M. Alexander Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1516–1524, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.134

• films on Ir(100) by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT). The two substrates differ greatly with respect to their structural and potential-energy landscape corrugation with immediate consequences for adsorption and self-assembly of the molecules studied. On both films

• , due to the rather flat potential landscape, molecular rotation is thermally activated, which effectively prevents self-assembly. The situation is different for 2H-TCNPP, which, due to the additional functional anchoring groups, does not self-assemble on the 1BL film but forms self-assembled compact

• islands on the 2BL film. The findings demonstrate the guiding effect of the cobalt oxide films of different thickness and the effect of functional surface anchoring. Keywords: adsorption energy; molecular rotors; porphyrins; self-assembly; transition metal oxides; Introduction Due to their variability

Self-assembly and spectroscopic fingerprints of photoactive pyrenyl tectons on hBN/Cu(111)

• Domenik M. Zimmermann,
• Knud Seufert,
• Luka Ðorđević,
• Tobias Hoh,
• Sushobhan Joshi,
• Tomas Marangoni,
• Davide Bonifazi and
• Willi Auwärter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1470–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.130

• -like-disubstituted derivatives governed the self-assembly of the pyrenyl core on the nanostructured hBN support, affording dense-packed arrays and intricate porous networks featuring a kagome lattice. Keywords: electronic structure; hexagonal boron nitride; optical properties; pyrene; self-assembly

• electronic and optical properties of molecular tectons and the respective assemblies must be comprehensively characterized [3][4][5][6]. Diverse self-assembly protocols have been extensively explored on metal substrates, and organic–metal interfaces have been analyzed in great detail [7][8]. In many cases

• superstructure: Depending on the registry of the layer and substrate atoms, the surface is divided in areas of low and high local work function, denoted as “pores” and “wires”, respectively [28][29][30][31]. In recent years, our group and others used hBN/Cu(111) to guide the self-assembly of porphyrins [28][32

Wafer-level integration of self-aligned high aspect ratio silicon 3D structures using the MACE method with Au, Pd, Pt, Cu, and Ir

• Mathias Franz,
• Romy Junghans,
• Paul Schmitt,
• Adriana Szeghalmi and
• Stefan E. Schulz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1439–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.128

• nanoparticles were used to locally etch the silicon substrate. This work demonstrates a bottom-up self-assembly approach for noble metal nanoparticle formation and the subsequent silicon wet etching. The macroscopic wafer patterning has been done by using a poly(methyl methacrylate) masking layer. Different

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

• solution–solid interface. One of the ways to influence network formation at this interface is to physically decouple the self-assembled monolayer from the underlying substrate thereby removing the influence of the substrate lattice, if any. Here we show a systematic exploration of self-assembly of a

• layer. We discovered that the self-assembly on top of the buffer layer allows better control over the nanoscale manipulation of the self-assembled networks. Using the influence of the STM tip, we could initiate the nucleation of small isolated domains of the benzoic acid on-command in a reproducible

• fashion. Such controlled nucleation experiments hold promise for studying fundamental processes inherent to the assembly process on surfaces. Keywords: benzoic acid; nucleation; self-assembly; solution–solid interface; substrate effect; Introduction The ability of some molecules to crystalize in more

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

• seamlessly between the pole piece and the sample. The assembly is made from grade-5 titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) and the three axes of motion are actuated by stack-piezo actuators, offering an achievable scan range of 30 × 30 × 12 µm. The reported AFM uses a self-sensing readout for measuring cantilever deflection

• assembly tilts together with the sample stage. The three orthogonal translational degrees of freedom of the sample are decoupled from the AFM coarse positioning stage, as shown in Figure 1a. The integration of the AFM into the HIM requires no alteration of the HIM microscope stage. The AFM assembly is

• the AFM. In our AFM design, we accounted for this already in the mechanical design (avoidance of trapped air pockets, no lubricants, UHV-compatible motors) as well as in the assembly by using, wherever possible, Kapton flex-PCBs or scarcely outgassing Teflon-coated wires. It is also critical that the

Role of redox-active axial ligands of metal porphyrins adsorbed at solid–liquid interfaces in a liquid-STM setup

• Thomas Habets,
• Sylvia Speller and
• Johannes A. A. W. Elemans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1264–1271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.110

• concentration), the presence of ions in the solvent, and a possible assembly of solutes at the interface. Furthermore, the reaction rates are determined by the chemical and electronic state of the sample surface, ion concentrations in the solution, and the availability of possible reaction intermediates. Most

Hybridization vs decoupling: influence of an h-BN interlayer on the physical properties of a lander-type molecule on Ni(111)

• Maximilian Schaal,
• Takumi Aihara,
• Marco Gruenewald,
• Felix Otto,
• Jari Domke,
• Roman Forker,
• Hiroyuki Yoshida and
• Torsten Fritz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1168–1177, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.101

• DBP with Ni(111), presumably via the localized d bands, causes a drastic decrease of the mobility of the molecules hindering the highly ordered assembly of the molecules due to a hit-and-stick adsorption. Such a behavior was also observed for one monolayer of pentacene on Ni(111) [30]. In contrast

• mobility. This additional diffusion barrier thus hampers the molecular self-assembly and can be overcome by a higher substrate temperature during the film growth, which agrees with our structural findings above. Conclusion To summarize, we investigated the influence of an h-BN interlayer on the optical

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• indication of a vibronic fine structure. The molecular superstructure on graphene is similar to the assembly on Au(111), albeit with a lower molecule surface density, and dI/dV data exhibit vibronic progression in both frontier orbitals, which reflects the effective separation of C42H28 from the metal

• of the molecular backbone of C42H28 is not limited to low-temperature depositions. It was likewise observed for room-temperature deposition on low-index Cu surfaces [22][36] and Ag(100) [24]. The STM image in Figure 4c shows the influence of the Au(111) reconstruction on the C42H28 assembly

• . A template effect of graphene or a moiré lattice on the molecular assembly was not identified. Merely the orientation of the tetracene backbone perpendicular to a graphene crystallographic direction was observed. A finite residual coupling of the molecule to graphene-covered Pt(111) is likewise

Photothermally active nanoparticles as a promising tool for eliminating bacteria and biofilms

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Laura D’Alfonso,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1134–1146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.98

• achieve the desired temperatures, thus restricting the practical implementation of the bacteria photothermal eradication [33]. The gold nanoparticle self-assembly on glass surfaces is a generally time-consuming process with a relatively poor reproducibility. These restrictions may also limit the full

Straightforward synthesis of gold nanoparticles by adding water to an engineered small dendrimer

• Sébastien Gottis,
• Régis Laurent,
• Vincent Collière and
• Anne-Marie Caminade

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1110–1118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.95

• when the powdered form of this dendrimer was dissolved in water, as shown by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses. The dendrimers acted simultaneously as mild reducers and as nanoreactors, favoring the self-assembly of gold atoms and promoting

• a theoretical work was published in 2015 [65]. In this work, it was demonstrated that the first step required for the nonradical formation of an Au–Au bond was the presence of hydrogen followed by the insertion of a third gold atom to form a triangle by self-assembly. The release of only a small

• nanoreactor for the self-assembly of gold atoms, stabilizing the gold nanoparticles and inducing their water solubility forming colloidal suspensions. It must be emphasized that currently there is no other example of a comparable process in the literature. Possible extensions of this work should consider

Plant growth regulation by seed coating with films of alginate and auxin-intercalated layered double hydroxides

• Vander A. de Castro,
• Valber G. O. Duarte,
• Danúbia A. C. Nobre,
• Geraldo H. Silva,
• Vera R. L. Constantino,
• Frederico G. Pinto,
• Willian R. Macedo and
• Jairo Tronto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1082–1091, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.93

• of the experiment after 15 days (Figure 5). For the M4 film, the maximum germination percentage was obtained 14 days after the bioassay assembly. For the treatments with the seeds covered with the films M1, M2 and M3, the maximum germination percentage was reached after 12, 11, and 9 days of the

Monolayers of MoS₂ on Ag(111) as decoupling layers for organic molecules: resolution of electronic and vibronic states of TCNQ

• Asieh Yousofnejad,
• Gaël Reecht,
• Nils Krane,
• Christian Lotze and
• Katharina J. Franke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1062–1071, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.91

• dipole–dipole interactions between the cyano endgroups and the quinone center of neighboring molecules. This assembly is very similar to typical self-assembled TCNQ islands on weakly interacting substrates [5][23][47][48][49]. When measured at a lower bias voltage (e.g., at V = 0.2 V in Figure 4a), the

A 3D-polyphenylalanine network inside porous alumina: Synthesis and characterization of an inorganic–organic composite membrane

• Jonathan Stott and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 938–951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.78

• have attracted significant attention in the last decades. Due their secondary structures (α-helix or β-sheet), polypeptides form macromolecular block segments, which can undergo a self-assembly process under certain circumstances [24][25]. The intramolecular interactions between these macromolecules as

Three-dimensional solvation structure of ethanol on carbonate minerals

• Hagen Söngen,
• Ygor Morais Jaques,
• Peter Spijker,
• Christoph Marutschke,
• Stefanie Klassen,
• Ilka Hermes,
• Ralf Bechstein,
• Lidija Zivanovic,
• John Tracey,
• Adam S. Foster and
• Angelika Kühnle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 891–898, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.74

• resolution. However, the majority of 3D AFM studies have been focused on the arrangement of water at carbonate surfaces. Here, we present an analysis of the assembly of ethanol – an organic molecule with a single hydroxy group – at the calcite and magnesite (10.4) surfaces by using high-resolution 3D AFM and

Simulations of the 2D self-assembly of tripod-shaped building blocks

• Łukasz Baran,
• Wojciech Rżysko and
• Edyta Słyk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 884–890, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.73

• diffraction pattern and average association number. Keywords: 2D materials; coarse-grained model; molecular simulations; self-assembly; structural characterization; tripod building blocks; Introduction On-surface synthesis is a newly developing field in chemistry that aims at making use of solid surfaces as

• this research, several factors have been established that can help to control the self-assembly process, such as precursor design [4][5], substrate nature and symmetry [6][7], type of solvent and its concentration, and thermodynamic conditions. The knowledge of the influence of these variables is

• ], tripod [15][16], tetrapod [17][18][19][20][21], and hexapod [22] architecture. Also, a lot of effort has been put into the investigation of the mixtures [23][24][25] and the guest-induced self-assembly [26] of aforementioned particles. An important aspect of the on-surface synthesis is that a lot of

Integrated photonics multi-waveguide devices for optical trapping and Raman spectroscopy: design, fabrication and performance demonstration

• Gyllion B. Loozen,
• Arnica Karuna,
• Mohammad M. R. Fanood,
• Erik Schreuder and
• Jacob Caro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 829–842, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.68

• particle (we use polystyrene beads; see below) can be grabbed from the fluidic volume, transported and then be handed over to a multi-waveguide trap. This transport is actually carried out by translating the main stage, on which the assembly with the sample holder and the small stages are mounted, while

Hexagonal boron nitride: a review of the emerging material platform for single-photon sources and the spin–photon interface

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Faraz A. Inam,
• Shin-ichiro Sato and
• Alberto Boretti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 740–769, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.61

Comparison of fresh and aged lithium iron phosphate cathodes using a tailored electrochemical strain microscopy technique

• Matthias Simolka,
• Hanno Kaess and
• Kaspar Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 583–596, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.46

• capacity loss from first charge to first discharge is attributed to surface layer generation (anode: solid electrolyte interface, SEI; cathode: solid permeable interface, SPI) on both electrodes, since they were rinsed before the full-cell assembly. After the first cycle, the capacity stays constant (not

Luminescent gold nanoclusters for bioimaging applications

• Nonappa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 533–546, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.42

• ; biosensing; gold nanoclusters; immunoassay; luminescence; self-assembly; theranostics; Introduction Imaging methods play a central role in understanding the structural and functional biological processes of biomolecules, cells, tissues, organs, and even entire living organisms [1][2]. The importance of

• complexes and SCQD-based nanomaterials. To improve the quantum yield and PL, various approaches have been developed including ligand engineering, selective doping to create alloy clusters, aggregation-induced emission, selective etching and self-assembly [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Ligands

• that assists better binding. Zhu et al. reported a rigid host–guest assembly to improve the PL of AuNCs, their antibacterial activity and bioimaging [84]. In their work, 5-methyl-2-thiouracil (MTU)-capped AuNCs (Au-MTU) were prepared. The Au-MTU NCs were then treated with protamine (Prot), a cationic

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

• core. The schematic diagram of layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition on colloidal templates, core dissolution and drug encapsulation into LbL-assembled capsules is shown in Figure 1. The method of fabricating core–shell particles and multilayered hollow capsules via LbL assembly was originally proposed and

• to the chemical nature of the polymers used and the assembly conditions [11]. Many studies have shown successful permeability changes for encapsulation and release via changes in pH or ionic strength for weak PE systems. The chemical nature of the polymers used along with the type of the core

• prominent when there are many charged groups present in the system. The use of different charged groups for LbL assembly can impart unique responsiveness to LbL systems as the residual charges in the multilayer films can play an important role in manipulating the polymer/polymer interactions, thus leading

Nanoarchitectonics: bottom-up creation of functional materials and systems

• Katsuhiko Ariga

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 450–452, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.36

• synthesis; nanoarchitectonics; nanotechnology; self-assembly; supramolecular; Given the significant and time-critical problems of energy shortage, environmental protection, and biomedical issues, the creation of new functional materials and systems for efficient energy production and storage [1][2

• , the chiral structure was found to control the self-assembly of nitrocinnamic amide amphiphiles [25]. Works related to the formation of higher-dimensional materials included, for example, the self-assembly of crystalline cellulose oligomers that resulted in nanoribbon networks [26], silicon nanowires

• that were formed by metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) [27], and the formation of high-tolerance crystalline hydrogels from cyclic dipeptides upon self-assembly [28]. In addition, a review on the use of DNA as the fundamental material building block for molecular and structural engineering [29

Nanoparticles based on the zwitterionic pillar[5]arene and Ag⁺: synthesis, self-assembly and cytotoxicity in the human lung cancer cell line A549

• Dmitriy N. Shurpik,
• Denis A. Sevastyanov,
• Pavel V. Zelenikhin,
• Pavel L. Padnya,
• Vladimir G. Evtugyn,
• Yuriy N. Osin and
• Ivan I. Stoikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 421–431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.33

• and 2D biomedical coatings. Keywords: cytotoxicity; macrocyclic receptors; nanoparticles; pillar[5]arene; self-assembly; silver; Introduction The first use of silver (Ag) as a medicine dates back to Hippocrates, who used it as an antibacterial agent for the treatment of ulcers [1]. Over the past

• presence of a preorganized macrocyclic structure makes the process of controlled supramolecular self-assembly possible with certain coordination sites. In this paper, we report the first example of using nontoxic, water-soluble pillar[5]arene derivatives containing sulfobetaine fragments to produce

• nanoparticles with Ag+ ions using controlled supramolecular self-assembly. Results and Discussion Synthesis of decasubstituted pillar[5]arenes containing sulfobetaine fragments We previously developed a method [29] for introducing tertiary amino groups into the structure of pillar[5]arene. Diamines containing

Brome mosaic virus-like particles as siRNA nanocarriers for biomedical purposes

• Alfredo Nuñez-Rivera,
• Pierrick G. J. Fournier,
• Danna L. Arellano,
• Ana G. Rodriguez-Hernandez,
• Rafael Vazquez-Duhalt and
• Ruben D. Cadena-Nava

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 372–382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.28

• ][19][20]. The capsids of these viruses result from the assembly of 180 identical proteins with T = 3 symmetry that forms the icosahedral shell with a diameter of 28 nm [21]. The N-terminal region of the capsid protein is highly basic and positively charged, which allows for the binding of the viral

• siRNA. VLPs nanovehicles containing siRNA were synthesized, taking advantage of the self-assembly of BMV capsid proteins. As a proof of concept, siRNA to silence the expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) was encapsidated into BMV capsid proteins. In order to optimize the siRNA encapsidation

• ′-GACAAGGACGGGCACAUUAUU-3′. BMV VLPs with siRNA were synthetized as described previously [22] using a mass ratio of 1:6 (siRNA/capsid protein). The disassembled BMV capsid protein and siRNA were mixed and dialyzed overnight in an assembly buffer (50 mM NaCl, 10 mM KCl, 5 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT, 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.2