On the pathway of cellular uptake: new insight into the interaction between the cell membrane and very small nanoparticles

• Claudia Messerschmidt,
• Daniel Hofmann,
• Anja Kroeger,
• Katharina Landfester,
• Volker Mailänder and
• Ingo Lieberwirth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1296–1311, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.121

• hence reduces the repulsive forces between the particles. The separation of the particles cannot be completed but instead the repulsive forces only cause the observed row-like alignment. This explanation is exclusively based on the physical principles of membrane – particle interaction without any

Tunable longitudinal modes in extended silver nanoparticle assemblies

• Serene S. Bayram,
• Klas Lindfors and
• Amy Szuchmacher Blum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1219–1228, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.113

• [5], DNA [6], and proteins [7], including virus coat proteins [8][9] as well as rigid templates such as carbon nanotubes [10] have been extensively implemented and programmed for desired assemblies. In addition, assisted organization and alignment of nanoparticles via external directing magnetic [11

Reasons and remedies for the agglomeration of multilayered graphene and carbon nanotubes in polymers

• Rasheed Atif and
• Fawad Inam

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1174–1196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.109

• and CNTs or to improve the degree of alignment and dispersion complicates the manufacturing process making it less probable to scale up industrially [132]. In 2014, 2009 research papers were published with “graphene” and “epoxy” in their title (Thomson Reuters). Out of 2009 articles, about 830

• alignment of fibers in a polymer matrix [35]. Some other methods include wet lay-up method [132], injection molding, electrospinning, coagulation, spinning of coagulant, densification, layer-by-layer deposition and evaporation [2][40]. Filler alignment The mechanical properties of CNT–polymer composites are

• strongly influenced by the alignment of the CNTs in the matrix [134]. An increase of the modulus of the composite up to a factor of five for perfectly aligned fibers has been observed [2]. The maximum enhancement of mechanical properties can be achieved by aligning the reinforcement, i.e., making the

Experimental and simulation-based investigation of He, Ne and Ar irradiation of polymers for ion microscopy

• Lukasz Rzeznik,
• Yves Fleming,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1113–1128, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.104

• accessible to the latter to relatively small voids in which they are somehow imprisoned and oscillate around their equilibrium position. The size of the voids depends on the polymer type and density, and the alignment of the molecules. The size of the rare gas atoms also matters. For Ar the amplitude of

Role of solvents in the electronic transport properties of single-molecule junctions

• Katharina Luka-Guth,
• Sebastian Hambsch,
• Andreas Bloch,
• Philipp Ehrenreich,
• Bernd Michael Briechle,
• Filip Kilibarda,
• Torsten Sendler,
• Dmytro Sysoiev,
• Thomas Huhn,
• Artur Erbe and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1055–1067, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.99

• level alignment [9][10][13][21]. In general, a molecular junction is not formed in all of the breaking curves, but the majority of curves show smooth or noisy distance dependence. These curves are interpreted as tunnelling through the solvent that has no influence on the apparent conductance values of

• , where we plot two I–V curves calculated with the SLM and the SM with the level alignment equalling the barrier height. We have chosen here the typical value |E0| = Φ = 0.8 eV. The other parameters, Γ, d and A were adapted such that the linear conductance of both models is the same and lies in the order

• alignment |E0| on the conductance, however, the variation of the best-fit results increases with conductance. This means that the onset of the non-linear contribution in the I–Vs is independent of the transmission and justifies the recording of opening traces under constant voltage bias, as usually done in

Phenalenyl-based mononuclear dysprosium complexes

• Yanhua Lan,
• Andrea Magri,
• Olaf Fuhr and
• Mario Ruben

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 995–1009, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.92

• regime. Discussion The program Magellan [53] was used to extract information about the magnetic easy axis in complexes 1–3 (Figure 6). On the basis of the Magellan output, we found that in all three cases the axis of preferred alignment extends along with the planes of deprotonated phenalenyls defined by

Thickness dependence of the triplet spin-valve effect in superconductor–ferromagnet–ferromagnet heterostructures

• Daniel Lenk,
• Vladimir I. Zdravkov,
• Jan-Michael Kehrle,
• Günter Obermeier,
• Aladin Ullrich,
• Roman Morari,
• Hans-Albrecht Krug von Nidda,
• Claus Müller,
• Mikhail Yu. Kupriyanov,
• Anatolie S. Sidorenko,
• Siegfried Horn,
• Rafael G. Deminov,
• Lenar R. Tagirov and
• Reinhard Tidecks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 957–969, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.88

• alignment of the magnetizations of F1 and F2, exhausts the singlet state. This yields the possibility of a global minimum of the superconducting transition temperature Tc, i.e., a superconducting triplet spin-valve effect, around mutually perpendicular alignment. Results: The superconducting triplet spin

• valve is realized with S = Nb a singlet superconductor, F1 = Cu41Ni59 and F2 = Co ferromagnetic metals, AF = CoOx an antiferromagnetic oxide, and N = nc-Nb a normal conducting (nc) non-magnetic metal, which serves to decouple F1 and F2. The non-collinear alignment of the magnetizations is obtained by

• the presence of an exchange field. This was unexpected, because singlet superconductivity is established by pairs of electrons (Cooper pairs) with anti-parallel spin [3], but ferromagnetism leads to a parallel alignment of the electron spins. Indeed, experimental realizations of the FFLO state are

Dielectrophoresis of gold nanoparticles conjugated to DNA origami structures

• Anja Henning-Knechtel,
• Matthew Wiens,
• Mathias Lakatos,
• Andreas Heerwig,
• Frieder Ostermaier,
• Nora Haufe and
• Michael Mertig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 948–956, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.87

• between electrodes at applied frequencies in the megahertz range was observed. The long-range chain formation is caused by a local, gold nanoparticle-induced field concentration along the DNA nanostructures, which in turn, creates dielectrophoretic forces that enable the observed self-alignment of the

• this aim, one important task is the precise positioning and alignment of DNA structures on technically patterned surfaces, e.g., their controlled deposition into microstructured electrode arrays. Recent studies address the alignment of DNA nanostructures to pre-structured surfaces that include (i

• ) notches with the shape and dimension corresponding to the DNA origami structure [12][13], or (ii) gold islands to align DNA nanostructures between two conducting pads [14]. An alternative route is the alignment of the DNA origami structures within a microelectrode contact array through hydrodynamic flow

Understanding interferometry for micro-cantilever displacement detection

• Alexander von Schmidsfeld,
• Tobias Nörenberg,
• Matthias Temmen and
• Michael Reichling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 841–851, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.76

• . For a precise measurement of the cantilever displacement, the relative positioning of fiber and cantilever is of critical importance. We describe a systematic approach for accurate alignment as well as the implications of deficient fiber–cantilever configurations. In the Fabry–Pérot regime, the

• position of maximum interference signal. For a precise alignment, the lateral cantilever position as well as the alignment angle are crucial. Three types of misalignment resulting in excessive optical loss are shown in Figure 3. A deviation to the cantilever long (Figure 3a) and short (Figure 3b) side can

• be compensated by adjustment in the xy-plane with the fiber piezo. Tilt as shown in Figure 3c can not be compensated by the fiber piezo, but is of minor concern for tilt angles below 4° because of the divergent nature of the beam. Lateral positioning of the fiber with the tube piezo for alignment and

Reorientation of single-wall carbon nanotubes in negative anisotropy liquid crystals by an electric field

• Amanda García-García,
• Ricardo Vergaz,
• José F. Algorri,
• Gianluigi Zito,
• Teresa Cacace,
• Antigone Marino,
• José M. Otón and
• Morten A. Geday

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 825–833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.74

• modifications in the electrical and electro-optical properties of liquid crystals. The control of the SWCNT concentration, distribution and reorientation in such self-organized fluids allows for the possibility of tuning the liquid crystal properties. The alignment and reorientation of CNTs are studied in a

• director lies in the plane of the cell surfaces, while in homeotropic alignment the director orients perpendicular to the plane of the cell surfaces. LCs feature, amongst others, electrical, magnetic, and optical (birefringence) anisotropy properties. In the absence of an external field, the LC orientation

• rise the question of two possible contributions to the SWCNT alignment, namely the co-alignment by induced by the LC matrix and the electro-static forces exerted directly on the SWCNTs. In a previous paper [18] we determined the electrical behavior of positive LC cells doped with CNTs, and the results

High-resolution noncontact AFM and Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations of self-assembled photovoltaic donor–acceptor dyads

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Pierre-Olivier Schwartz,
• Laure Biniek,
• Martin Brinkmann,
• Nicolas Leclerc,
• Elena Zaborova and
• Stéphane Méry

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 799–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.71

• the alignment was estimated by comparing topographic cross-section profiles extracted with the multiple profile tool of WsXM (see Supporting Information File 1 for more details). The estimated lateral resolution is indicated for each SPV image in the corresponding figure caption. Dyads thin films (50

• a flat band alignment. Under illumination, the holes quasi-Fermi level remains aligned with the Fermi level of the grounded substrate, while the quasi-Fermi level of the electrons is located near the lowest unoccupied orbital level (LUMO) of the acceptor units. As a consequence, the local vacuum

• SPV is more negative. The black dotted squares indicate the location corresponding to the high-resolution images (shown later in Figure 9a,b). Schematic representation of an idealized D–A network and its band alignment with respect to the substrate. Here, we assume a Fermi level pinning of the donor

Highly compact refractive index sensor based on stripe waveguides for lab-on-a-chip sensing applications

• Chamanei Perera,
• Kristy Vernon,
• Elliot Cheng,
• Juna Sathian,
• Esa Jaatinen and
• Timothy Davis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 751–757, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.66

• . First, the RI sensor designs and alignment marks were patterned on a 300 nm bilayer PMMA resist (950 k A4 / 495 k A4 PMMA resist from Microchem GmbH) using electron beam lithography (JEOL-7800 FE-SEM with Raith Quantum Elphy) with a beam current of ≈75 pA and 20 kV acceleration voltage under optimal

Hierarchical coassembly of DNA–triptycene hybrid molecular building blocks and zinc protoporphyrin IX

• Rina Kumari,
• Sumit Singh,
• Mohan Monisha,
• Sourav Bhowmick,
• Anindya Roy,
• Neeladri Das and
• Prolay Das

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 697–707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.62

• site for polymers, restricts the efficient packing and promotes spatial separation of polymer backbones [30][31]. A great challenge remains in the design of triptycence-based complex functional systems having a long-range alignment of molecules over different scales in a hierarchically organized manner

• . The presence of Zn PpIX helps in the alignment of the nanofibers (Figure 4 and Supporting Information File 1, Figure S13).The nanofibers have a width of 9–15 nm, which correlates well with calculations from modeling methods.The interaction of Zn PpIX with DNA by outside stacking along the helix

• structures. Furthermore, the long-range alignment of Zn PpIX in preorganised systems has enhanced the oxidation of the ROS scavenger DHR 123 as compared to free Zn PpIX. Therefore, this type of nanostructure provides unprecedented opportunities to design uniform and safe PDT devices with precise structures

Cantilever bending based on humidity-actuated mesoporous silica/silicon bilayers

• Christian Ganser,
• Gerhard Fritz-Popovski,
• Roland Morak,
• Parvin Sharifi,
• Benedetta Marmiroli,
• Barbara Sartori,
• Heinz Amenitsch,
• Thomas Griesser,
• Christian Teichert and
• Oskar Paris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 637–644, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.56

• these reflections are not azimuthally smeared means that the long axis of the cylindrical pores expected from this type of materials shows a high degree of alignment to the substrate. The pattern reveals fiber symmetry around the film normal, which means that the orientation of the cylinder axes within

Orientation of FePt nanoparticles on top of a-SiO₂/Si(001), MgO(001) and sapphire(0001): effect of thermal treatments and influence of substrate and particle size

• Martin Schilling,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Zaoli Zhang,
• Johannes Biskupek,
• Ute Kaiser and
• Ulf Wiedwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 591–604, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.52

• along the [110] and [100] crystal axes of MgO. The epitaxial alignment following a cube-on-cube scheme of the FePt particles on the MgO substrate planes is clearly visible (see indexed lattice planes of FePt and MgO in Figure 1). The FePt nanoparticles exhibit clearly defined facets and are well-bond to

Contact-free experimental determination of the static flexural spring constant of cantilever sensors using a microfluidic force tool

• John D. Parkin and
• Georg Hähner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 492–500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.43

• exit. This alignment was chosen because of the ease of reproducibility. Nitrogen gas was used as the working fluid. Pressure differences were applied to the microchannel to drive the flow, establishing stable Poiseuille velocity profiles [27]. The maximum pressure applied to the channel depended on the

• and for the alignment chosen in our experiment. The behavior of the conversion factors for the cantilevers not shown (RA2, RC2, Tap150) was very similar to that shown for NCHV and Tap525. In Table 2, the mean values of α and β together with their standard deviations for the speed range above 15 m/s

• flow depend on the geometry of the beam and its alignment, (i.e., the position of the cantilever relative to the channel exit). In the case of a constant force distribution, the force profile would largely mirror variations in the cantilever width. As can be seen in Figure 3, the profiles show some

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

• ], which transmit forces only along their alignment direction. Hence, the assumption of an isotropic medium is not valid and for every position it is not known if the response particle is located in a bundle or next to it. It is also obvious that the errors were very high for the 1 mM Mg2+ network. This is

Rigid multipodal platforms for metal surfaces

• Michal Valášek,
• Marcin Lindner and
• Marcel Mayor

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 374–405, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.34

• of separated molecules were obtained by optical [74][79][90] and electrochemical [80][87][89] analysis of the samples. In addition, taking into account a well-defined alignment of the multipodal platforms on the surface, several groups have got more insight into its possible applications as a tip for

• according to the XPS, NEXAFS spectroscopy, and sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy measurements. Also, the calculated thickness based on the XPS data is in agreement with monolayer coverage. The perpendicular orientation and scope of spatial alignment for different alkyl chains exhibit that lateral

• energy alignment determined by the position of the frontier molecular orbitals to the Fermi level of gold at the molecular interface and to the molecular tip–molecule–gold junction asymmetry. Based on these results, it was suggested that at a positive tunneling bias, a photo-excited hot electron from the

High-bandwidth multimode self-sensing in bimodal atomic force microscopy

• Michael G. Ruppert and
• S. O. Reza Moheimani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 284–295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.26

• ] remains the most widely used approach mostly due to its low noise characteristics. However, its limitations such as frequent laser alignment, imaging artifacts due to optical interferences [10] and limited bandwidth requiring custom-built read-out electronics [11][12] have led to the development of

• elimination of the piezoelectric base actuator and the OBD sensor from the cantilever instrumentation setup, avoiding tedious laser alignment and distorted frequency responses. In this contribution, we demonstrate that the self-sensing method can be extended to MF-AFM techniques such as bimodal imaging by

Determination of Young’s modulus of Sb₂S₃ nanowires by in situ resonance and bending methods

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Alexander I. Livshits,
• Juris Prikulis,
• Subhajit Biswas,
• Justin D. Holmes and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 278–283, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.25

• curvature of the NW may result in additional errors. Bending methods using the AFM may suffer from slippage of the AFM tip over NW and the effects arising from the induced force in axial direction in case of double clamped NWs [21][22]. For in situ tensile testing precise alignment of the NW is a crucial

• conditions (e.g., clamping) than alignment of the external force. The obtained mean value was then compared to that of bulk material [35]. Experimental The examined Sb2S3 NWs were synthesized inside cylindrical pores of anodic aluminum oxide template (AAO) by a solvent-less technique. The as-synthesized NWs

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 magnet behavior in 2,2’-bipyrimidine-bridged dilanthanide complexes

• Wen Yu,
• Frank Schramm,
• Eufemio Moreno Pineda,
• Yanhua Lan,
• Olaf Fuhr,
• Jinjie Chen,
• Hironari Isshiki,
• Wolfgang Wernsdorfer,
• Wulf Wulfhekel and
• Mario Ruben

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 126–137, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.15

• compounds containing mainly high-spin Mn(III). In such compounds, the SMM behavior was due to a combination of the Jahn–Teller distortion of the Mn(III), the ferromagnetic alignment of the Mn(IV), and overall antiferromagnetic exchange between the Mn(III) and Mn(IV) leading to a S = 10 ground state [9]. To

• that the main contribution of the interactions between the ions is dipolar but some exchange coupling contributes as well. Undoubtedly, this co-parallel alignment is responsible for the SMM profile observed. Quantum tunneling is commonly accelerated by the noncollinear magnetic arrangement [45] and

• the molecular orientation of the magnetic axes of the two lanthanide ions, we have employed an electrostatic method, which gives a parallel alignment of the axes of the Dy(III) ions. These results demonstrate that SMM behavior can be achieved by linking two lanthanide metal ions (which exhibit single

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of hybrid metallic–dielectric plasmonic nanoantennas

• Mario Hentschel,
• Bernd Metzger,
• Bastian Knabe,
• Karsten Buse and
• Harald Giessen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 111–120, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.13

• harmonic response from the nanocrystals while the antenna array itself remains “dark” (meaning it does not cause any second harmonic light). Figure 2a illustrates the basic steps in producing these samples. Gold nanoantennas as well as gold alignment marks are fabricated via standard electron beam

• lithography in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) resist on a fused silica substrate (suprasil, Heraeus), followed by evaporation of a chromium adhesion and a gold layer, and a subsequent lift-off procedure. The sample is again coated afterward with PMMA. Using the alignment marks, openings are created in the

• polarization, such an alignment can be accomplished by so-called corona poling [72]. When applying a strong external electric field to the particles they can be aligned with respect to the field and thus with respect to the antenna axis. However, as the particles already stick to the sample surface, it might

Counterion effects on nano-confined metal–drug–DNA complexes

• Nupur Biswas,
• Sreeja Chakraborty,
• Alokmay Datta,
• Munna Sarkar,
• Mrinmay K. Mukhopadhyay,
• Mrinal K. Bera and
• Hideki Seto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 62–67, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.7

• molecules. This in turn reduces the persistence length of the DNA molecules, makes them softer and more entangled and hence more compact [26]. Considering the fact that DNA molecules have a diameter of 22–26 Å, the magnitude of the film thicknesses suggests a lateral alignment of DNA molecules within the

Effects of electronic coupling and electrostatic potential on charge transport in carbon-based molecular electronic junctions

• Richard L. McCreery

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 32–46, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.4

• between the contacts and molecules at organic/conductor interfaces can significantly perturb the simple picture, due to local electrostatic effects [36][37][38][40][59][60]. “Vacuum level alignment” effects on interfacial barriers are often attributed to surface dipoles which cause charge transfer across