High sensitivity and high resolution element 3D analysis by a combined SIMS–SPM instrument

• Yves Fleming and
• Tom Wirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1091–1099, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.110

• spectrometry (SIMS) data was combined with topographical data from the scanning probe microscopy (SPM) module for five test structures in order to obtain accurate chemical 3D maps: a polystyrene/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PS/PVP) polymer blend, a nickel-based super-alloy, a titanium carbonitride-based cermet, a

• is widely used in the SIMS field. The 3D SIMS-AFM surface reconstructions are visualised using the SPIP™ software by Image Metrology [15], the ParaView software tool [16] as well as the MayaVI 2 software tool [17]. Results and Discussion PS/PVP polymer blend An annealed polystyrene (PS

Optimization of phase contrast in bimodal amplitude modulation AFM

• Mehrnoosh Damircheli,
• Amir F. Payam and
• Ricardo Garcia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1072–1081, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.108

• –surface force is modelled by Equation 6 where a0 is a molecular distance (0.165 nm). Material and cantilever–tip parameters To study the phase contrast we have simulated the bimodal AM operation for two materials gold (Au) and polystyrene (PS). The values of the material properties needed to describe the

Automatic morphological characterization of nanobubbles with a novel image segmentation method and its application in the study of nanobubble coalescence

• Yuliang Wang,
• Huimin Wang,
• Shusheng Bi and
• Bin Guo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 952–963, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.98

• hydrophobic/superhydrophobic surfaces [22][23][24][25][26][27]. The interaction between NBs and sample surfaces supporting them was also recently investigated. A phenomenon of NB-induced nanoindentions was reported by Wang et al. on an ultrathin polystyrene (PS) film in water [8], and was further confirmed by

Protein corona – from molecular adsorption to physiological complexity

• Lennart Treuel,
• Dominic Docter,
• Michael Maskos and
• Roland H. Stauber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 857–873, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.88

• understand the interactions between NPs and biological systems. Briefly, they used their LC-MS based method to measure time-resolved corona compositions on silica and polystyrene NPs in human serum. By using NPs of various sizes (diameters of about 35, 120, 140 nm), and surface functionalities (amine

• ): pPsNPs (polystyrene NP) and (b): nPsNPs (polystyrene NP) (c): NP coronae were classified into four groups by correlation analysis and relative values were normalized to the maximum amount across all time points for each protein. Protein groups PG I and PG II showed increasing or decreasing binding over

Mapping of elasticity and damping in an α + β titanium alloy through atomic force acoustic microscopy

• M. Kalyan Phani,
• Anish Kumar,
• T. Jayakumar,
• Walter Arnold and
• Konrad Samwer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 767–776, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.79

• films [8], NiMnGa films [9], Arabidopsis plant [10], polystyrene–propylene blends [11], nickel base alloys [12][13], ferritic steels [13], and metallic glasses [14]. Besides contact-resonance based methods, multi-frequency AFM techniques have also been used for measurement of elastic and damping

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

• poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT/PSS) (a successful, commercial, conducting polymer) onto a SiNW array. This gave very promising results for photovoltaic cells based on this heterojunction, with a photon capture efficiency (PCE) of 6.72% [15]. The resulting SiNW/PEDOT/PSS

• -type Si substrate conductive in the anodic area. The deposition was controlled by a Solartron SI 1287 with a computer running CorrWare software. A non-aqueous medium was preferred over the classical sodium polystyrene sulfonate (NaPSS) aqueous environment in order to avoid the important silicon

A surface acoustic wave-driven micropump for particle uptake investigation under physiological flow conditions in very small volumes

• Florian G. Strobl,
• Dominik Breyer,
• Phillip Link,
• Adriano A. Torrano,
• Christoph Bräuchle,
• Matthias F. Schneider and
• Achim Wixforth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 414–419, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.41

• was driven by an effective RF power of PSAW ≈ 19 dBm at its resonance frequency of 126 MHz. Flow characterization The SAW-induced flow pattern is characterized by scanning particle imaging velocimetry (SPIV). The flow is made visible by 3 μm polystyrene beads and the chamber is scanned in several x–y

Hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells: polymeric nanoparticle uptake and lineage differentiation

• Ivonne Brüstle,
• Thomas Simmet,
• Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus,
• Katharina Landfester and
• Volker Mailänder

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 383–395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.38

• capacity of hHSCs and hMSCs to obtain a deeper knowledge of the interaction of stem cells and nanoparticles. As model systems of nanoparticles, two sets of either bioinert (polystyrene without carboxylic groups on the surface) or biodegradable (PLLA without magnetite) particles were analyzed. Flow

• were chosen for this study: non-functionalized polystyrene (PS) and carboxy-functionalized polystyrene (PS–COOH). PS–COOH particles are biocompatible, but nondegradable particles whereas poly(L-lactide) particles without (PLLA) and with magnetite (PLLA–Fe) are biocompatible and biodegradable. All

• functionalized polystyrene nanoparticles as described in [18]) or by a combination of miniemulsion and emulsion/solvent evaporation techniques (PLLA nanoparticles without and with magnetite, as described in [19][20]). In all cases, SDS was used as a surfactant for the synthesis or formation of the nanoparticles

Biological responses to nanoscale particles

• Reinhard Zellner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 380–382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.37

• used in this study were those of current, wide-spread technological importance, such as metals (e.g., silver, gold, platinum), oxides (e.g., silica, iron oxide, cerium oxide, manganese oxide), polymers (e.g., polystyrene) and quantum dots (II/VI semiconductors). Naturally occurring and industrially

Comparative evaluation of the impact on endothelial cells induced by different nanoparticle structures and functionalization

• Lisa Landgraf,
• Ines Müller,
• Peter Ernst,
• Miriam Schäfer,
• Christina Rosman,
• Isabel Schick,
• Oskar Köhler,
• Hartmut Oehring,
• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Thomas Basché,
• Carsten Sönnichsen,
• Wolfgang Tremel and
• Ingrid Hilger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 300–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.28

• internalization of Au@Fe3O4, Au@MnO and Fe3O4 particles (Figure 6). Caveolae-mediated uptake was blocked by the use of genistein, which was effectively demonstrated for anionic polystyrene nanoparticles in Hela cells [55]. Contrarily, Fernando et al. observed no changes for the internalization route of polymer

• to be a cell-type-specific process [61][62][63]. In this context, the mouse macrophages cell line J774A.1 used macropinocytosis and clathrin-mediated endocytosis for the uptake of 40 nm sized polystyrene nanoparticles, depending on the lack of caveolin-1 expression in this cell line. In contrast, the

Caveolin-1 and CDC42 mediated endocytosis of silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticles in HeLa cells

• Nils Bohmer and
• Andreas Jordan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 167–176, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.16

• human alveolar epithelial cells and polystyrene nanoparticles around 100 nm [38] as well as polymer coated gold nanoparticles with a core size around 13 nm [39]. On the other hand there are studies showing the uptake of different nanoparticles by HeLa cells such as quantum dots [35], PEG-PLA particles

Chemoselective silicification of synthetic peptides and polyamines

• Maryna Abacilar,
• Fabian Daus and
• Armin Geyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 103–110, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.10

• molecules 2–5. CTC resin [chloro-(2'-chlorotrityl)polystyrene resin] served as a solid support and was functionalized directly with different amines [14]. The nucleophilicity of one nitrogen of 1,3-propylenediamine was annihilated by tritylation with CTC resin (Figure 3 upper row) while the other peripheral

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

• and it might be worthwhile to further investigate it [71]. BNNT-grafted, poly(glycidyl methacrylate) and polystyrene brushes were prepared via atom transfer radical polymerization [72]. The resulting nanocomposite material was characterized using FTIR, TGA, SEM and TEM. The TEM images clearly show the

The fate of a designed protein corona on nanoparticles in vitro and in vivo

• Denise Bargheer,
• Julius Nielsen,
• Gabriella Gébel,
• Markus Heine,
• Sunhild C. Salmen,
• Roland Stauber,
• Horst Weller,
• Joerg Heeren and
• Peter Nielsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 36–46, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.5

• was proven that the binding of proteins can also be mostly irreversible forming a very long-lasting “hard” corona in blood [34][36]. Using sulfonate- or carboxy-modified polystyrene latex beads and fluorescence-labeled transferrin, Milani et al. found a first layer of transferrin irreversibly bound to

Exploring plasmonic coupling in hole-cap arrays

• Thomas M. Schmidt,
• Maj Frederiksen,
• Vladimir Bochenkov and
• Duncan S. Sutherland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.1

• needs of the fabrication process the gold structures are in contact with the polystyrene (PS) particle, glass substrate and/or the clean room tape which modify the local dielectric environment of the nanoparticle and have to be taken into account when understanding the spectral features. Materials White

• sulfate latex polystyrene particles with diameter of 0.11 µm were obtained from Invitrogen Denmark. Deionized water with 18.2 MΩ resistivity from a Millipore Milli-Q water system. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) (Mw 120,000), Polystyrene (Mw 280,000), PDDA (poly(diallydimethylammonium chloride)) (Mw

• carried out by exposure of the dry substrates to a 0.2% solution of polystyrene particles in deionized water for 120 s followed by rinsing in deionized water for 60 s and careful drying under N2 flow. Care was taken to dry quickly and to prevent rewetting of the surface. The assembled colloidal monolayer

High-frequency multimodal atomic force microscopy

• Adrian P. Nievergelt,
• Jonathan D. Adams,
• Pascal D. Odermatt and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2459–2467, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.255

• squeeze-film damping of the cantilever, the latter of which is roughly constant while in feedback. We used a thin-film blend of polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as a sample (PS–PMMA–15M, Bruker AFM probes); its separation into soft and hard domains makes it a widely used standard for

Functionalized polystyrene nanoparticles as a platform for studying bio–nano interactions

• Cornelia Loos,
• Tatiana Syrovets,
• Anna Musyanovych,
• Volker Mailänder,
• Katharina Landfester,
• G. Ulrich Nienhaus and
• Thomas Simmet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2403–2412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.250

• biodistribution. Polystyrene does not degrade in the cellular environment and exhibits no short-term cytotoxicity. Because polystyrene nanoparticles can be easily synthesized in a wide range of sizes with distinct surface functionalizations, they are perfectly suited as model particles to study the effects of the

• particle surface characteristics on various biological parameters. Therefore, we have exploited polystyrene nanoparticles as a convenient platform to study bio–nano interactions. This review summarizes studies on positively and negatively charged polystyrene nanoparticles and compares them with clinically

• used superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. Keywords: amino groups; apoptosis; carboxyl groups; cell proliferation; leukemia cell lines; macrophages; mTOR; polystyrene nanoparticles; Review Applications of polystyrene Polystyrene, one of the most extensively used types of plastic [1], is an

Nanoparticle interactions with live cells: Quantitative fluorescence microscopy of nanoparticle size effects

• Li Shang,
• Karin Nienhaus,
• Xiue Jiang,
• Linxiao Yang,
• Katharina Landfester,
• Volker Mailänder,
• Thomas Simmet and
• G. Ulrich Nienhaus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2388–2397, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.248

• with widely differing sizes. We have selected very small gold nanoclusters (AuNCs, diameter ≈3 nm) stabilized with dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA), semiconductor core-shell quantum dots (CdSe/ZnS, ≈10 nm) coated with D-penicillamine (DPA) and relatively large polystyrene (PS) NPs (≈100 nm) with different

• ], dihydrolipoic acid-coated gold nanoclusters (DHLA-AuNCs) [29], and fluorescently labeled polystyrene (PS) NPs with covalently attached carboxyl (–COOH, CPS) or amine (–NH2, NPS) surface functionalizations [30]. For comparison, we have also studied plain PS NPs, which were water-solubilized by physically

• clathrin-dependent pathways. In agreement with our results, other studies also showed that clathrin-dependent uptake plays an important role in the internalization of nanoparticles, e.g., silver NPs (diameter: 50 nm) [42] and polystyrene NPS (diameter: 40 nm) [43]. The presence of dynasore also reduced the

Interaction of dermatologically relevant nanoparticles with skin cells and skin

• Annika Vogt,
• Fiorenza Rancan,
• Sebastian Ahlberg,
• Berouz Nazemi,
• Chun Sik Choe,
• Maxim E. Darvin,
• Sabrina Hadam,
• Ulrike Blume-Peytavi,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Matthias Epple,
• Christina Graf,
• Eckart Rühl,
• Martina C. Meinke and
• Jürgen Lademann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2363–2373, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.245

• groups, we observed penetration and cellular uptake of fluorescent polystyrene particles ranging from 40–200 nm in diameter after skin surface stripping in murine and human skin [11][12]. Furthermore, the internalization of a fluorescent vaccinia virus vector (diameter approx. 290 nm) could be

• epithelium. In studies with polystyrene particles as well as Modified Vaccinia Ankara Virus as an example for biologically and immunologically relevant particulates in the context of transcutaneous vaccination, we recently identified hair follicles as sites of nanomaterial translocation into the viable

Coating with luminal gut-constituents alters adherence of nanoparticles to intestinal epithelial cells

• Heike Sinnecker,
• Katrin Ramaker and
• Andreas Frey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2308–2315, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.239

• gut-constituents on the adherence of nanoparticles to intestinal epithelial cells. Carboxylated polystyrene particles 20, 100 and 200 nm in size represented our anthropogenic NPs, and differentiated Caco-2 cells served as model for mature enterocytes of the small intestine. Pretreatment with the

• : columnar cells with brush border microvilli and a glycocalyx on the apical side. Therefore, we used the differentiated cells at this point in time for our interaction studies of NPs with intestinal epithelial cells. As model anthropogenic nanoparticles, surface-carboxylated fluorescent polystyrene

• 37 °C in a humidified atmosphere containing 10% CO2 and the medium was changed every 2–3 days. Nanoparticles Carboxylate-modified polystyrene NPs 24 ± 4.0, 100 ± 6.0 and 210 ± 10 nm in size (in this study referred to as 20, 100 and 200 nm) were purchased from Life Technologies (Invitrogen Molecular

Localized surface plasmon resonances in nanostructures to enhance nonlinear vibrational spectroscopies: towards an astonishing molecular sensitivity

• Dan Lis and
• Francesca Cecchet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2275–2292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.237

• to an important SFG enhancement [73]. To do that, a 200 nm thick silver or gold film was evaporated over polystyrene beads with various diameters (from 300 to 620 nm). The visible laser source being fixed at 532 nm, the best excitation of the LSPR mode was obtained with the 360 nm beads, no matter

Biopolymer colloids for controlling and templating inorganic synthesis

• Laura C. Preiss,
• Katharina Landfester and
• Rafael Muñoz-Espí

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2129–2138, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.222

• to the surface of colloidal particles. In this sense, Krattiger et al. [44] reported the morphogenesis of CaCO3 and DL-alanine crystals in the presence of polystyrene beads functionalized with synthetic peptides with different amino acids and oligopeptides. B. Biopolymers as “supports” B1. Molecular

The gut wall provides an effective barrier against nanoparticle uptake

• Heike Sinnecker,
• Thorsten Krause,
• Sabine Koelling,
• Ingmar Lautenschläger and
• Andreas Frey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2092–2101, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.218

• -functionalized polystyrene particles of three different sizes (20, 40 and 200 nm) (Table 1). For uptake studies, the particles were administered into the isolated intestine, samples from the luminal, vascular and lymphatic compartments were collected over the time course of the experiment and particle

• determined. Nanoparticle quantitation Fluorescent, carboxylate-modified polystyrene NPs (FluoSpheres®, Table 1) were purchased from Invitrogen (via Life Technologies; Darmstadt, Germany). The fluorescence of the 20 nm and 200 nm NPs was directly measured in suspensions (standards and samples) by using a

Effect of silver nanoparticles on human mesenchymal stem cell differentiation

• Christina Sengstock,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Matthias Epple,
• Thomas A. Schildhauer and
• Manfred Köller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2058–2069, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.214

• aggrecan release demonstrated no differences compared with cells cultured without silver. Similar results were obtained by Tautzenberger et al., who demonstrated that the chondrogenic differentiation of hMSCs was not influenced in the presence of polystyrene nanoparticles [31]. A major difficulty when

Carbon nano-onions (multi-layer fullerenes): chemistry and applications

• Juergen Bartelmess and
• Silvia Giordani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1980–1998, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.207

• used for a ring opening polymerization with ε-caprolactone in the presence of stannous octoate. In a second approach, CNO-Brs were decorated with polystyrene in an atom transfer radical polymerization reaction. Both polymer-functionalized CNO materials showed a good solubility in common organic