Carbon-based smart nanomaterials in biomedicine and neuroengineering

• Antonina M. Monaco and
• Michele Giugliano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1849–1863, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.196

• of neurites. Their results showed high biocompatibility, and highlighted a longer average length of neurites, as well as better viability for cells grown on graphene, when compared to polystyrene control substrates. The authors also found an overexpression of the GAP43 protein, possibly the result of

In vitro and in vivo interactions of selected nanoparticles with rodent serum proteins and their consequences in biokinetics

• Wolfgang G. Kreyling,
• Stefanie Fertsch-Gapp,
• Martin Schäffler,
• Blair D. Johnston,
• Nadine Haberl,
• Christian Pfeiffer,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Carsten Schleh,
• Stephanie Hirn,
• Manuela Semmler-Behnke,
• Matthias Epple and
• Wolfgang J. Parak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1699–1711, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.180

• tests that the binding capacity of different engineered NP (polystyrene, elemental carbon) for selected serum proteins depends strongly on the NP size and the properties of engineered surface modifications. In the following attempt, we studied systematically the effect of the size (5, 15, 80 nm) of gold

• ; details are given in [5]. We chose nano-sized and submicrometer-sized carbon black versus 50 nm monodisperse polystyrene NP with surface modifications of either carboxyl groups (negative charge), or amino groups (positive charge) or plain surface (neutral charge) as measured by their zeta potential and

• supernatant after BSA separation from the 50 nm Polystyrene (PS) NP–protein complexes (PS-Plain: neutral charge, PS-COOH: negative charge by carboxyl groups, PS-NH2: positive charge by amino groups) depending on the NP dose; the error bars show the standard deviation). Each line represents the linear

Non-covalent and reversible functionalization of carbon nanotubes

• Antonello Di Crescenzo,
• Valeria Ettorre and
• Antonella Fontana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1675–1690, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.178

• interactions with the B block of another monomer or with the SWCNT surface, respectively. On the other hand, the capability of polystyrene-b-polyisoprene (PS-b-PI) diblock copolymers to disperse MWCNTs seems to be dominated by the solvent selectivity of the block copolymers, being the direct interaction

• between the nanotubes and the polymers of secondary importance [53]. Indeed PS-b-PI demonstrated to disperse MWCNTs both in dimethylformamide (DMF), a polar solvent selective for polystyrene, and heptane, a non-polar solvent that is selective for the polyisoprene block. Conjugated polymers like

Different endocytotic uptake mechanisms for nanoparticles in epithelial cells and macrophages

• Dagmar A. Kuhn,
• Dimitri Vanhecke,
• Benjamin Michen,
• Fabian Blank,
• Peter Gehr,
• Alke Petri-Fink and
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1625–1636, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.174

• caveolin-1. A549 cells expressed clathrin heavy chain and caveolin-1, but no flotillin-1 uptake-related proteins. Our data revealed an impeded uptake of 40 nm polystyrene nanoparticles by J774A.1 macrophages when actin polymerization and clathrin-coated pit formation was blocked. From this result, it is

• of clathrin-coated vesicles (preventing clathrin-mediated endocytosis). Our data showed that a combination of several distinguishable endocytotic uptake mechanisms are involved in the uptake of 40 nm polystyrene nanoparticles in both the macrophage and epithelial cell line. Keywords: cell lines

• commonly used drugs to study NP uptake. Cytochalasin D can depolymerize actin filaments [34][35] and can therefore be used to study actin-dependent uptake mechanisms, that is, phagocytosis and macropinocytosis. Larger particles, such as polystyrene particles of 1 µm in diameter, can be used to run the

Hydrophobic interaction governs unspecific adhesion of staphylococci: a single cell force spectroscopy study

• Nicolas Thewes,
• Peter Loskill,
• Philipp Jung,
• Henrik Peisker,
• Markus Bischoff,
• Mathias Herrmann and
• Karin Jacobs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1501–1512, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.163

• cantilever thereby is in the horizontal position with the functionalized side facing down. By using the micromanipulator, holder and cantilever were lowered and the cantilever dipped into a droplet of diluted bacterial solution (see above), which was previously placed on a polystyrene petri dish. Under the

Near-field photochemical and radiation-induced chemical fabrication of nanopatterns of a self-assembled silane monolayer

• Ulrich C. Fischer,
• Carsten Hentschel,
• Florian Fontein,
• Linda Stegemann,
• Christiane Hoeppener,
• Harald Fuchs and
• Stefanie Hoeppener

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1441–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.156

• such masks are outlined in Figure 1. To form mask 1, a thin gold film backed by a thin film of polystyrene is transferred onto a gold projection pattern as obtained by CL. The projection pattern backed by the gold film is then transferred to a water surface. Mask 1 is then ready to be transferred to a

• attachment of molecules at a resolution of 30 nm. Experimental Mask fabrication and mask transfer The fabrication of mask 1 involves the following steps: A gold film is prepared through thermal evaporation of gold onto a cover glass. Then, a thin film of polystyrene is deposited onto the gold film by spin

• coating of a 2% solution of polystyrene (MW 100000) in toluene at 1500 rpm. The sandwich layer of the gold film and the polystyrene film is cut with a diamond marker into squares of about 2–3 mm. By dipping the coated cover glass slowly at an oblique angle into a water trough, the films are separated from

Liquid fuel cells

• Grigorii L. Soloveichik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1399–1418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.153

Topology assisted self-organization of colloidal nanoparticles: application to 2D large-scale nanomastering

• Hind Kadiri,
• Serguei Kostcheev,
• Daniel Turover,
• Rafael Salas-Montiel,
• Komla Nomenyo,
• Anisha Gokarna and
• Gilles Lerondel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1203–1209, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.132

• silsesquioxane (HSQ) posts, on the self-organization of polystyrene beads (PS) dispersed over a large surface. Depending on the post size and spacing, long-range ordering of self-organized polystyrene beads is observed wherein guide posts were used leading to single crystal structure. Topology assisted self

• analysis were used to characterize the morphology of the ordered surfaces. Finally, the production of silicon molds is demonstrated by using the beads as a template for dry etching. Keywords: assisted self-organization; dislocations; patterning; polystyrene beads; single crystal; Introduction The

• other methods (e.g., the auto-organization technique) have been demonstrated for the 2D and 3D auto-organization of micro-particles on solid substrates [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The formation of self-assembled monolayers of polystyrene beads on a silicon surface has been achieved by this technique [11][12

Model systems for studying cell adhesion and biomimetic actin networks

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johannes P. Frohnmayer and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1193–1202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.131

• way of removing Triton X-100 is to use non-polar Bio-Beads, which are macroporous divinylbenzene cross-linked polystyrene beads. Detergents adsorb to these porous beads by hydrophobic bonds and can be removed from the protein solution in this way [37][38]. Müller and co-workers were the first to use

Template-directed synthesis and characterization of microstructured ceramic Ce/ZrO₂@SiO₂ composite tubes

• Jörg J. Schneider and
• Meike Naumann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1152–1159, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.126

• deposited onto structured one-dimensional objects is presented. In particular, CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 composite tubes were synthesized in a two-step procedure by using electrospun polystyrene fibers as fiber template. First, a sol–gel approach based on an exo-templating technique was employed to obtain polystyrene

• combination of electrospinning and exotemplating leading to hollow CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 composite tubes. Firstly, after electrospinning of polystyrene fibers, the fibers were covered by an exotemplating step with a sol solution containing monodisperse silica particles obtained from a Stoeber process. This is

• hollow SiO2 microtubes by exo-templating Tubular structures of ternary oxide CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 were synthesized by using a multistep synthesis route. In the first step, dense fibrous mats of polystyrene (PS) fibers were obtained by an electrospinning process [15]. An inorganic/polymer composite, PS/silica

Trade-offs in sensitivity and sampling depth in bimodal atomic force microscopy and comparison to the trimodal case

• Babak Eslami,
• Daniel Ebeling and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1144–1151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.125

• of tip position and velocity, one of these two effects will dominate. In this particular case, the loss in sensitivity dominates and the phase values increase (see also reference [24] for a similar type of experiment on a polystyrene–polybutadiene diblock copolymer). This result may or may not be

The study of surface wetting, nanobubbles and boundary slip with an applied voltage: A review

• Yunlu Pan,
• Bharat Bhushan and
• Xuezeng Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1042–1065, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.117

• this review, the influence of an applied voltage on the surface wettability, nanobubbles, surface charge density and slip length are discussed. The contact angle (CA) and contact angle hysteresis (CAH) of a droplet of deionized (DI) water on a hydrophobic polystyrene (PS) surface were measured with

• polystyrene (PS) surface is discussed, followed by the study of the nanobubbles on a PS surface with applied voltage. The influence of applied voltage on the surface charge density and boundary slip on an octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) surface is discussed as well. The relationship between nanobubbles at the

Growth and characterization of CNT–TiO₂ heterostructures

• Yucheng Zhang,
• Ivo Utke,
• Johann Michler,
• Gabriele Ilari,
• Marta D. Rossell and
• Rolf Erni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 946–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.108

• trimethylaluminium and water ALD half-cycles [29] and tetrakis(ethylmethylamido)hafnium with water [30]. In contrast, thin conformal metal oxide ALD films can be easily obtained on organic polymers like polystyrene. Conformal 20 nm thin ZnO coatings were deposited using diethylzinc half-cycles alternated with water

• on large area polystyrene bead arrays [31]. After removing the polystyrene, a transparent, electrically conductive, hollow sphere array was obtained on top of which an urchin-inspired nanobuilding block design of a solar cell with n-type ZnO nanowires could be realized by using electrochemical

Antimicrobial properties of CuO nanorods and multi-armed nanoparticles against B. anthracis vegetative cells and endospores

• Pratibha Pandey,
• Merwyn S. Packiyaraj,
• Himangini Nigam,
• Gauri S. Agarwal,
• Beer Singh and
• Manoj K. Patra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 789–800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.91

• [21]. Recently it has been found that conversion of three-dimensional polystyrene nanospheres to a two-dimensional nanodisc shape offers a larger contact surface with cell membranes and generates less impact during their interaction, which leads to a binding that is limited to the cell membrane with

Injection of ligand-free gold and silver nanoparticles into murine embryos does not impact pre-implantation development

• Ulrike Taylor,
• Wiebke Garrels,
• Annette Barchanski,
• Svea Peterson,
• Laszlo Sajti,
• Andrea Lucas-Hahn,
• Lisa Gamrad,
• Ulrich Baulain,
• Sabine Klein,
• Wilfried A. Kues,
• Stephan Barcikowski and
• Detlef Rath

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 677–688, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.80

• , nanoparticles were found to be stopped by the placental barrier [4][5][6]. The majority of authors, however, observed placental crossing. This encompasses studies of nanoparticles composed of gold [7][8], titanium dioxide [9][10], CdTe/CdS quantum dots [11], and polystyrene [12]. Thus, transplacental crossing

Hole-mask colloidal nanolithography combined with tilted-angle-rotation evaporation: A versatile method for fabrication of low-cost and large-area complex plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials

• Jun Zhao,
• Bettina Frank,
• Frank Neubrech,
• Chunjie Zhang,
• Paul V. Braun and
• Harald Giessen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 577–586, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.68

• hydrophobicity of the PMMA layer. Before drop coating of the polystyrene (PS) spheres, which have negative electric surface charges, we should bring at first a net positive charge to the polymer layer for a better adherence and arrangement. Here we use a poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) solution

• to manufacture with any other method, in particular at such large areas and low costs. Fabrication scheme. (a) Deposition of sacrificial PMMA layer. (b) Deposition of polystyrene spheres in an arbitrarily distributed arrangement. (c) Evaporation of oxygen plasma resistant Au-mask. (d) Removing

• polystyrene spheres with ultrasonic bath and subsequent isotropic dry etching leads to extended holes in PMMA layer. (e) Evaporation of the structures by tilted angle evaporation (polar rotation angle φ, azimuthal tilt angle θ). (f) Lift-off of the sacrificial PMMA layer. Reproduced with permission from [23

Encapsulation of nanoparticles into single-crystal ZnO nanorods and microrods

• Jinzhang Liu,
• Marco Notarianni,
• Llew Rintoul and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 485–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.56

• . Encapsulation of polymer nanobeads We used polystyrene nanobeads (diameter 200 nm) to study the encapsulation of large nanoparticles into ZnO nanorods. After dropping nanobeads aqueous suspension onto ZnO nanorods arrays and blow-drying, nanobeads were found sparsely scattered over the nanorods surfaces as seen

• aqueous suspension of 40 nm diameter NDs (0.1 mg/mL) with NV luminescent centres was purchased from Adamas Nanotech. Polystyrene nanobeads (200 nm size) dispersed in water (0.5 mg/mL) were purchased from Polyscience Inc. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, Zeiss Sigma) was employed to

Unlocking higher harmonics in atomic force microscopy with gentle interactions

• Sergio Santos,
• Victor Barcons,
• Josep Font and
• Albert Verdaguer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 268–277, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.29

• . The common parameters in this work are k = 2 N/m, Q = 100, ω = 2π·70 kHz and R = 7 nm, i.e., they correspond to commercially available standard probes for AM AFM. Furthermore, in Figure 1, H = 6.2 × 10−19 J, i.e., it is close to that calculated for materials such as polystyrene or fused quartz [40

Dye-doped spheres with plasmonic semi-shells: Lasing modes and scattering at realistic gain levels

• Nikita Arnold,
• Boyang Ding,
• Calin Hrelescu and
• Thomas A. Klar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 974–987, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.110

• cross section for dye-doped polystyrene spheres (radius 195 nm), which are half-covered by a silver layer of 10–40 nm thickness. Such silver capped spheres are interesting candidates for nanoplasmonic lasers, so-called spasers. We find that spasing requires gain levels less than 3.7 times higher than

• commercially available polystyrene spheres “Firefli* Fluorescent Green” from Thermo-Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA, which we have used in an experimental study on the spectral and directional Purcell effect [17]. With this self-restriction to the parameters of commercially available dye-doped spheres, we make a

• narrowing of the Mie scattering spectrum and small signal gain could become detectable. Numerical modeling Figure 1 depicts the geometry of the silver capped spheres and the orientation of the incoming electromagnetic wave. A dye-doped polystyrene (PS) sphere of 390 nm diameter is capped with a semi-shell

Cyclic photochemical re-growth of gold nanoparticles: Overcoming the mask-erosion limit during reactive ion etching on the nanoscale

• Burcin Özdemir,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alfred Plettl and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 886–894, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.100

• Materials used in the experiment: Polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) diblock copolymer (PS(1850)-b-P2VP(900) was purchased from Polymer Source Inc., Canada. VLSI grade toluene was purchased from J. T. Baker, Netherlands. Gold(III) chloride hydrate (HAuCl4·H2O) and octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) were

Site-selective growth of surface-anchored metal-organic frameworks on self-assembled monolayer patterns prepared by AFM nanografting

• Tatjana Ladnorg,
• Alexander Welle,
• Stefan Heißler,
• Christof Wöll and
• Hartmut Gliemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 638–648, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.71

• (Asylum Research, Mannheim). Grafting experiments and AFM investigation of the surface were performed in a polystyrene petri dish (BD falcon, VWR, Germany) mounted on the scanner of the MFP-3D Bio. For grafting experiments the “B” tips of NSC-35 cantilever chips (Micromash, Germany) with the nominal force

Large-scale atomistic and quantum-mechanical simulations of a Nafion membrane: Morphology, proton solvation and charge transport

• Pavel V. Komarov,
• Pavel G. Khalatur and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 567–587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.65

• large energy loss [1]. The earliest fuel cells based on proton exchange membrane (PEM), consisting of a copolymer of sulfonated polystyrene and divinylbenzene, served as the power plants for the Gemini space missions in the early 1960s. Now, PEM fuel cells show the greatest, most immediate, and most

3D nano-structures for laser nano-manipulation

• Gediminas Seniutinas,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Gediminas Gervinskas,
• Etienne Brasselet and
• Saulius Juodkazis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 534–541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.62

• the patterns of such nano-wells was investigated experimentally and numerically. By doing numerical simulations of 50-nm and 100-nm diameter polystyrene beads in water and air, we show the potential of such patterns for self-induced back-action (SIBA) trapping. The best trapping conditions were found

• domain, to gather evidence of extraordinary transmission. For the force calculation, the trapped object (a polystyrene bead) was introduced in the total-field region, and surrounded by a 3D monitor recording the vectorial E- and H-fields, discriminating the object volume by the refractive index change

• are repelled from high intensity regions, while dielectric nano-particles will be attracted. Force mapping The force mapping was calculated by using the Lorentz force formalism (from section “Background: Lorentz force”) on a polystyrene-bead probe (n = 1.504) of diameter d with the 3D-FDTD method. In

Multiple regimes of operation in bimodal AFM: understanding the energy of cantilever eigenmodes

• Daniel Kiracofe,
• Arvind Raman and
• Dalia Yablon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 385–393, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.45

• polypropylene (PP, ExxonMobil Chemical Company), high density polyethylene (PE, ExxonMobil Chemical Company), and polystyrene (PS, Polysciences). A blend of 3:1:1 (by mass) of PP/PE/PS was prepared in a Brabender mixer (Brabender Instruments, South Hackensack, NJ) at 180 °C, 60 rpm, and 5 min of mixing and then

• AFM images based on morphology, surface roughness, and height. Specifically, the matrix (dominant component) is polypropylene, with approximately circular polyethylene and polystyrene domains. The polyethylene domains appear rough because of the lamellar structure, and the polystyrene domains show

• and the PP or PS domains changes. When considering the “1st + 2nd” scan (left column), the polyethylene has a higher (brighter) amplitude (a) and phase lag (c) than either the polystyrene or the polyproylene. However, in the “1st + 4th” scan (right column) the contrast is exactly reversed. The

Polynomial force approximations and multifrequency atomic force microscopy

• Daniel Platz,
• Daniel Forchheimer,
• Erik A. Tholén and
• David B. Haviland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 352–360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.41

• reconstruction allows for the extraction of properties such as surface adhesion, sample stiffness or interaction geometry. We demonstrate this extraction of surface properties with high-resolution stiffness maps on a blend of polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Polynomial reconstruction, and