Comparative kinematical analyses of Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) snap traps

• Simon Poppinga,
• Tim Kampowski,
• Amélie Metzger,
• Olga Speck and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 664–674, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.59

• displacement. The question if trapping events under water occur only occasionally and by coincidence is also a matter for possible future studies. The factor “prey attraction” should additionally be analyzed, i.e., to what extent it plays a role for the submersed plant. Moreover, future studies could also

• evolved a remarkable trapping system that functions as well in air as under water, and which can be considered as an optimized system for nutrient acquisition of a carnivorous plant growing in seasonally inundated habitats. Similar reports on carnivorous plants with traps functioning under different

• environmental conditions are, e.g., the resinous Roridula sticky traps [37] and the rainwater-dependent pitfall trapping systems in Nepenthes [38][39]. The Dionaea trap is not “only” a “simple” snap trap but possesses different snapping modes, movement mechanics and actuation principles, which greatly broadens

Novel roles for well-known players: from tobacco mosaic virus pests to enzymatically active assemblies

• Claudia Koch,
• Fabian J. Eber,
• Carlos Azucena,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Alexander M. Bittner,
• Holger Jeske,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Fania C. Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 613–629, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.54

• exposed serine by a cysteine residue, which then was equipped with its analogue Sec through heterologous expression in a bacterial system auxotrophic in cysteine (Figure 7). Not only did this protein organize itself into higher-order complexes under suitable conditions, after trapping reduced glutathione

• the fabrication of microfluidic devices by master-replication techniques, was already shown to allow a site-specific bottom-up integration of TMV carrier sticks [60]. This was achieved via isothiocyanate- (ITC-) based coupling of single-stranded (ss) DNA anchors, subsequent trapping of the 3'-ends of

Active multi-point microrheology of cytoskeletal networks

• Tobias Paust,
• Tobias Neckernuss,
• Lina Katinka Mertens,
• Ines Martin,
• Michael Beil,
• Paul Walther,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Othmar Marti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 484–491, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.42

• the particle motion is described in [7][24][30]. The laser trapping was realized with an optical tweezers setup consisting of a Nd:YAG laser (Coherent Compass 1064-500) with a wavelength of 1064 nm and maximal power of 500 mW. The used trap stiffness of 9.8 pN/μm was calibrated and adjusted prior to

• trap. To ensure beam symmetry, the trapping beam pivots at the back focal plane of the objective. The setup of the optical tweezers and a screenshot of the measurement of several particles in an in vitro assembled intermediate filament network are shown in Figure 4B,C. SEM images of the crosslinked

• , center 0.25 mM, right 1 mM Mg2+). The scale bar for all three pictures shows a length of 500 nm. B) Setup of the measurement device (optical tweezers). The laser beam is focused into the sample to allow for the trapping of microspheres. An acousto-optical deflector (AOD) ensures the oscillation of the

Synthesis and applications of carbon nanomaterials for energy generation and storage

• Marco Notarianni,
• Jinzhang Liu,
• Kristy Vernon and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 149–196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.17

Single-molecule mechanics of protein-labelled DNA handles

• Vivek S. Jadhav,
• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Florian Wruck and
• Martin Hegner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 138–148, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.16

• TICO buffer. However, a strong tendency of unfavourable bead clustering was witnessed in the microfluidic channel of our flow cell when DNA tethering and optical trapping were performed in high Mg TICO buffer. For future experiments involving the ribosomal machinery we therefore recommend the use of

Charge injection and transport properties of an organic light-emitting diode

• Peter Juhasz,
• Juraj Nevrela,
• Michal Micjan,
• Miroslav Novota,
• Jan Uhrik,
• Lubica Stuchlikova,
• Jan Jakabovic,
• Ladislav Harmatha and
• Martin Weis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 47–52, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.5

• . Note that the effective charge mobility μeff includes charge trapping phenomenon as follows, where μ0 is trap-free charge mobility, nmob and ntrap are mobile and trapped charge carrier densities, respectively. In the voltage region from 2 to 3 V an abrupt increase of the current density is observed

• trapping mechanism. At voltages higher than 3 V the rise of current density slows down to J V3 and follows two-carrier space-charge limited conditions (2C-SCLC), where ε is the dielectric constant of the organic film, μe and μh are electron and hole mobilities, respectively, and τ is carrier lifetime [13

Electrochemical behavior of polypyrrol/AuNP composites deposited by different electrochemical methods: sensing properties towards catechol

• Celia García-Hernández,
• Cristina García-Cabezón,
• Cristina Medina-Plaza,
• Fernando Martín-Pedrosa,
• Yolanda Blanco,
• José Antonio de Saja and
• María Luz Rodríguez-Méndez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2052–2061, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.209

• the electrooxidation of the pyrrole monomer in the presence of colloidal gold nanoparticles, referred to as trapping method (T), and the second one by electrodeposition of both components from one solution containing the monomer and a gold salt, referred to as cogeneration method (C). In both cases

• incorporated in the Ppy films was higher when electropolymerization was carried out by chronopotentiometry (CP). Besides, cogeneration method allowed for the incorporation of a higher number of AuNPs than trapping. Impedance experiments demonstrated that the insertion of AuNPs increased the conductivity. As an

• electrochemical sensor, the Ppy/AuNp deposited on platinum exhibited a strong electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of catechol. The effect was higher in films obtained by CP than in films obtained by chronoamperometry (CA). The influence of the method used to introduce the AuNPs (trapping or

Transformations of PTCDA structures on rutile TiO₂ induced by thermal annealing and intermolecular forces

• Szymon Godlewski,
• Jakub S. Prauzner-Bechcicki,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Marek Szymoński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1498–1507, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.155

• substrate maintained at an elevated temperature leads to the formation of similar structures. The likeness of these results indicates that the obtained structures are formed due to the equilibration of the system and not through kinetic trapping. At this point, it is worth comparing the behaviour of the

Electronic interaction in composites of a conjugated polymer and carbon nanotubes: first-principles calculation and photophysical approaches

• Florian Massuyeau,
• Jany Wéry,
• Jean-Luc Duvail,
• Serge Lefrant,
• Abu Yaya,
• Chris Ewels and
• Eric Faulques

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1138–1144, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.115

• approach assumes that the radiative and non-radiative lifetimes τr, τnr can be expressed as a function of the PL quantum yield Q, , . τnr accounts for phonon emission, intersystem crossing to triplet states, trapping at chemical defects and exciton migration/dissociation. For standard PPV (x = 0%) we find

Electron-stimulated purification of platinum nanostructures grown via focused electron beam induced deposition

• Brett B. Lewis,
• Michael G. Stanford,
• Jason D. Fowlkes,
• Kevin Lester,
• Harald Plank and
• Philip D. Rack

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 907–918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.94

• concentration is believed to be localized near the Pt–PtCx interface due to limited diffusion and trapping at Pt nanoparticles and the purification front, we compare in Figure 4c the normalized purification rate (normalized to 5 keV and adjusted for different currents) from Figure 4a and the near surface energy

• which is a function of both the electron energy loss and oxygen concentration. Importantly, the purification front propagates from the top–down which suggests a preferential trapping or limited permeation of the O2 reactive gas. A model based on a 2nd order reaction rate was also demonstrated, which

Experimental determination of the light-trapping-induced absorption enhancement factor in DSSC photoanodes

• Serena Gagliardi and
• Mauro Falconieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 886–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.91

• produced by the concurrent phenomena of light absorption by dye molecules and light trapping in the mesoporous, titania photoanode structure. The decoupling of these two phenomena is important for device characterization and the design of novel photoelectrode geometries with increased optical performance

• . In this paper, this task is addressed by introducing a spectral absorption enhancement factor as a parameter to quantify the light trapping effect. The experimental value of this parameter was obtained by comparing the experimentally determined fraction of absorbed light by a dye-sensitized

• extreme cases of the absence of light trapping and maximum light trapping. Accordingly, the photocurrent was calculated under the assumption of solar irradiation, which defined two useful boundaries. Using the experimentally derived values of the spectral absorption enhancement factor in the photoanode

Applications of three-dimensional carbon nanotube networks

• Manuela Scarselli,
• Paola Castrucci,
• Francesco De Nicola,
• Ilaria Cacciotti,
• Francesca Nanni,
• Emanuela Gatto,
• Mariano Venanzi and
• Maurizio De Crescenzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 792–798, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.82

• wettability is well described by a Cassie–Baxter model [20] for which a quite rough surface allows air trapping and ensures the high contact angle measured. In particular, in such a system pores in the random network (i.e., void fraction) favor air trapping due to the strong capillary force that the surface

Statistics of work and orthogonality catastrophe in discrete level systems: an application to fullerene molecules and ultra-cold trapped Fermi gases

• Antonello Sindona,
• Michele Pisarra,
• Mario Gravina,
• Cristian Vacacela Gomez,
• Pierfrancesco Riccardi,
• Giovanni Falcone and
• Francesco Plastina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 755–766, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.78

• value of 19.10%. 2.2 The harmonically trapped Fermi gas We now take a spin 1/2 gas of weakly interacting atoms in a parabolic potential of a typical length x0 and trapping frequency ω. Neglecting the inter-particle forces, the one-fermion Hamiltonian is that of a harmonic oscillator with eigenvalues

• efficiently describe an ultra-cold Fermi gas probed by a two-level impurity, with the parabolic potential mimicking the magneto-optical trapping potential, may be found for example in [25][28][31][32][48]. Let us further assume that the perturbation is spatially structure-less and localized at the center of

Simple approach for the fabrication of PEDOT-coated Si nanowires

• Mingxuan Zhu,
• Marielle Eyraud,
• Judikael Le Rouzo,
• Nadia Ait Ahmed,
• Florence Boulc’h,
• Claude Alfonso,
• Philippe Knauth and
• François Flory

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 640–650, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.65

• spectral range was obtained for these structures, evidencing their excellent antireflective properties. The etched SiNWs nanostructures can be further modified by using a tapering technique, which further preserves the strong light trapping effect. P-type PEDOT was grown on these SiNWs using

• concentration of the AgNO3 solution influences the morphology. However, for this study, only those SiNWs that exhibit good optical performance (low reflection at the surface, i.e., a light trapping effect) which were suitable for PEDOT deposition (using a KOH solution after the EMACE process) were addressed

• strong light trapping effect [1], the SiNWs produced without tapering exhibit a reflection of less than 2% over the entire visible range. The reflection of the tapered samples increases with the tapering duration. After 50 s of tapering, the SiNWs have a reflection greater than 10% due to the reduced

Novel ZnO:Ag nanocomposites induce significant oxidative stress in human fibroblast malignant melanoma (Ht144) cells

• Syeda Arooj,
• Samina Nazir,
• Akhtar Nadhman,
• Nafees Ahmad,
• Bakhtiar Muhammad,
• Ishaq Ahmad,
• Kehkashan Mazhar and
• Rashda Abbasi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 570–582, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.59

• nanocomposites were studied regarding their ability to generate ROS and lipid peroxidation by chemical trapping method (DPBF; 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran) and the thiobarbituric acid-reactive species (TBARs) assay, respectively. Generation of various ROS species was studied by using scavengers such as mannitol

• trapping (DPBF) The release of 1O2 into aqueous solution was estimated indirectly by using the DPBF assay. DPBF reacts irreversibly with 1O2 causing a decrease in its absorption intensity at 410 nm. The different NPs (100 µg/mL) were mixed in DPBF solution and upon irradiation absorption was measured over

• generated and their IC50 values were calculated. The IC50 value for the nanoparticles represents the concentration that inhibits 50% of cell growth. The experiments were performed twice with triplicates for each sample. Detection of singlet oxygen by chemical trapping 1,3-Diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF) was

Palladium nanoparticles anchored to anatase TiO₂ for enhanced surface plasmon resonance-stimulated, visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

• Kah Hon Leong,
• Hong Ye Chu,
• Shaliza Ibrahim and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 428–437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.43

• indicates a lower recombination rate due to more electrons being transferred or trapped. The emission peak of Pd/TiO2 is obviously quenched as compared to that TiO2. This further revealed that the deposition of Pd NPs has enhanced the trapping or transfer of electrons thereby suppressing the recombination

Influence of size, shape and core–shell interface on surface plasmon resonance in Ag and Ag@MgO nanoparticle films deposited on Si/SiO_x

• Sergio D’Addato,
• Daniele Pinotti,
• Maria Chiara Spadaro,
• Guido Paolicelli,
• Vincenzo Grillo,
• Sergio Valeri,
• Luca Pasquali,
• Luca Bergamini and
• Stefano Corni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 404–413, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.40

• , it was found that Au NPs [5] and Ag NPs [6] deposited on thin film- and wafer-based Si solar cells can enhance their photon absorption due to the occurrence of surface plasmon resonance (SPR), which serves to scatter the incident radiation in the UV–vis region and to increase the light trapping

Exploiting the hierarchical morphology of single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotube films for highly hydrophobic coatings

• Francesco De Nicola,
• Paola Castrucci,
• Manuela Scarselli,
• Francesca Nanni,
• Ilaria Cacciotti and
• Maurizio De Crescenzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 353–360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.34

• wettability. It is indeed well-established [12][13] that on composite rough surfaces a hierarchical morphology may induce a wetting transition from Wenzel [1] to Cassie–Baxter [9] state owing to air trapping. Moreover, this transition may occur by passing through thermodynamically metastable states [13][14

Synthesis, characterization, monolayer assembly and 2D lanthanide coordination of a linear terphenyl-di(propiolonitrile) linker on Ag(111)

• Zhi Chen,
• Svetlana Klyatskaya,
• José I. Urgel,
• David Écija,
• Olaf Fuhr,
• Willi Auwärter,
• Johannes V. Barth and
• Mario Ruben

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 327–335, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.31

• diiodoterphenyl 4 was subjected to a cross-coupling reaction with propargyl alcohol in the presence of catalytic amounts of Pd(II) salts, leading to the formation of the intermediary compound 5. This compound was subsequently reacted by a tandem manganese dioxide-mediated alcohol oxidation with in situ trapping

Synthesis of boron nitride nanotubes and their applications

• Saban Kalay,
• Zehra Yilmaz,
• Ozlem Sen,
• Melis Emanet,
• Emine Kazanc and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 84–102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.9

• placed into a quartz tube with one end closed. The quartz tube was placed in a tube furnace for the growth of high yield BNNTs at 1100–1200 °C based on the growth vapor trapping (GVT) mechanism as seen in the SEM image in Figure 1. The latest BOCVD method was studied by Nithya et al. [57]. They claim

Low-cost plasmonic solar cells prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Valdek Mikli,
• Arvo Mere,
• Ilmo Sildos and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2398–2402, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.249

• of solar cells scales with the complexity of the technology involved as well as the price and volume of the semiconductors used (but in particular, the absorber material). The use of very thin absorber layers in solar cells requires adoption of various light trapping techniques to take advantage of

Liquid-phase exfoliated graphene: functionalization, characterization, and applications

• Mildred Quintana,
• Jesús Iván Tapia and
• Maurizio Prato

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2328–2338, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.242

• and damage of graphene layers, (3) the Fc–CHO adsorption at the edges of graphene layers inducing the rolling up of a sheet to form a nanoscroll (schematically indicated in Figure 4), (4) the trapping of Fc–CHO into the scroll, and (5) finally, Fc–CHO accepts and donates unpaired electrons to the

Advances in NO₂ sensing with individual single-walled carbon nanotube transistors

• Kiran Chikkadi,
• Matthias Muoth,
• Cosmin Roman,
• Miroslav Haluska and
• Christofer Hierold

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2179–2191, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.227

• trapping in the oxide and the dielectrics surrounding the nanotube. Robert-Peillard et al. [61] developed a model to qualitatively describe this phenomenon by using Fowler–Nordheim-type behavior for charge trapping by tunneling through the oxide layer. Although this model qualitatively describes the

• the gate voltage, the duration in which trapping can occur is reduced, and the charges have time to de-trap in the time between gate pulses, thereby reducing the induced screening. Building on this idea, Mattmann et al. [64][65] showed that by applying alternating gate pulses, i.e, every positive gate

• readout electronics. If charge trapping in the nanotube surroundings is the primary cause of hysteresis, eliminating these sources, for example by using a protective layer to avoid resist contamination on the SWNT, could be effective in reducing hysteresis [17][66]. By using a protective layer that can

Sequence-dependent electrical response of ssDNA-decorated carbon nanotube, field-effect transistors to dopamine

• Hari Krishna Salila Vijayalal Mohan,
• Jianing An and
• Lianxi Zheng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2113–2121, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.220

• increase in H indicates the contribution of carrier scattering, charge transfer and charge trapping mechanisms, respectively [17]. From the above results, three important points are noteworthy. First, the absence of the response to UA in the ssDNA-decorated device suggests the lack of interaction between

• voltage (−∆Vth) [25]. The electron donation to the SWCNT reduces the charge carrier concentration inside the nanotubes resulting in the formation of static charges, which reduces the slope of the transfer curve by generation of carrier scattering (−∆gmp/gmp) [17]. Furthermore, the charge trapping ability

• gap, which indicates the combination of carrier scattering, charge transfer and charge trapping mechanisms. In addition, ssDNA decoration of the SWCNT improved DA recognition even in the presence of the interferent, UA, which highlights the enhancement in molecular selectivity. The devices exhibited a

Effect of channel length on the electrical response of carbon nanotube field-effect transistors to deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization

• Hari Krishna Salila Vijayalal Mohan,
• Jianing An,
• Yani Zhang,
• Chee How Wong and
• Lianxi Zheng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2081–2091, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.217

• contribution of charge-trapping mechanism to the observed behavior [27][28]. Similar DNA detection studies using CNTs based on the principle of impedance exhibited detection limits as low as 100 aM [29]. To verify whether the source of the signal is from the CNT channel, ID–VG curves of FETs with only the

• threshold voltage shift for forward (ΔVfth) and reverse (ΔVrth) gate voltage sweeps, and the change in hysteresis gap (ΔH) with L increased from about −0.5 to −2.5 V, 1 to 3 V and 1.5 to 5 V, respectively. The shift in Vth to more negative values for the forward sweep indicates electron trapping by the

• guanine and adenine bases [28][31]. Similarly, the shift in Vth to more positive values for the reverse sweep is an indicator of hole trapping by the cytosine and thymine bases [28][31]. Thus, the increase in charge traps in the channel region leads to an overall shift in Vth for forward and reverse