Frog tongue surface microstructures: functional and evolutionary patterns

• Thomas Kleinteich and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 893–903, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.81

• of the material stiffness that were previously described for attachment structures in beetles [26][27], grasshopers [28], and geckos [29]. Here we combine scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to provide comparative accounts on the surface profiles and

• attachment especially given the short time frames between tongue impact and retraction, which happens within milliseconds [5][6][7][42]. The rapidness with which mucus can wet a target surface will decrease with increasing viscosity. Denser arrays of filiform papillae might allow for less viscose mucus that

Efficient electron-induced removal of oxalate ions and formation of copper nanoparticles from copper(II) oxalate precursor layers

• Kai Rückriem,
• Sarah Grotheer,
• Henning Vieker,
• Paul Penner,
• André Beyer,
• Armin Gölzhäuser and
• Petra Swiderek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 852–861, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.77

• formation of CO2 and CO. Both compounds have also been observed before as products of the electron-induced fragmentation of carboxylic acids with CO2 being dominant [43]. The reaction proceeds via both, dissociative electron attachment at electron energies around 1 eV, which are typical for secondary

Assembling semiconducting molecules by covalent attachment to a lamellar crystalline polymer substrate

• Rainhard Machatschek,
• Patrick Ortmann,
• Renate Reiter,
• Stefan Mecking and
• Günter Reiter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 784–798, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.70

• polymer from solution. Attachment of the semiconducting molecules to the lamellar surface of large single crystals was possible, however, only after an appropriate annealing procedure. As a function of the duration of the grafting process, the morphology of the resulting layer of semiconducting molecules

• a functional linker for covalent attachment. The challenge of this concept lies in the generation of an appropriate substrate, which is decorated by an ordered array of functional groups. In addition, this substrate should be extremely smooth so that the order of the semiconducting molecules in the

• attachment of semiconducting molecules. Subsequently, the resulting monolayer of semiconducting molecules on the surface of an insulating polymer crystal can be electrically contacted to form the basis of an ideal organic transistor. Such a model system should allow for the measurement and comparison of

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

• cells is relatively low [55]. Hence ectopically produced TMV templates are not yet accessible. Finally, an attachment of functional molecules to virus surfaces equipped too densely with anchoring tags may also be inefficient. For these reasons, previous work on elongated viral enzyme carriers succeeded

• variants and solid supports, in some cases involving thiol bonding ([7][173] and references therein; [110][174][175][176]). So far, however, it remains to be tested whether TMV particles immobilized via protruding RNA ends or through non-covalent attachment would retain their arrangement inside the flow

Comparison of the interactions of daunorubicin in a free form and attached to single-walled carbon nanotubes with model lipid membranes

• Dorota Matyszewska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 524–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.46

• two main methods of attaching the drugs comprise either covalent attachment or physical adsorption based on π–π stacking interactions. There are a few reports in the literature on the preparation and characterization of CNTs-DNR adducts used as drug delivery systems. In those works daunorubicin was

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

• easy functionalization at three of the bridgehead carbons, which allows for the attachment of the legs, have proven to be useful attributes for the surface application of 1,3,5,7-tetrasubstituted adamantane as one of the first rigid molecular platforms. Firstly Keana and co-workers synthetized a tower

• 3,5-bis(acetylsulfanylmethyl)phenyl feet designed for AFM applications have been synthetized and characterized (Figure 4). These novel molecules 12 are much larger versions of the prototypic molecule 9 and have a better aspect ratio, important for attachment to a commercial AFM tip. Furthermore, they

• tetraphenylmethane with three acetylsulfanylmethyl groups 36 (Figure 15) for surface attachment to examine the effects of spatial arrangement of the molecular structure on charge storage in SAMs [72]. The redox-active molecules include ferrocene, zinc porphyrins, magnesium phthalocyanine, and triple-decker

Hydration of magnesia cubes: a helium ion microscopy study

• Ruth Schwaiger,
• Johannes Schneider,
• Gilles R. Bourret and
• Oliver Diwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 302–309, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.28

• crystalline organic polymers such as polyimides that were grown by hydrothermal crystallization [37][38]. Independent of the chemical composition, nucleation is initiated at screw dislocations. Further crystallization proceeds non classically due to a strong growth anisotropy and different attachment energies

Chemical bath deposition of textured and compact zinc oxide thin films on vinyl-terminated polystyrene brushes

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Caroline G. Hofmeister,
• Peter Lindemann,
• Cheng Huang,
• Johannes Baier,
• Andreas Leineweber,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Christof Wöll,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 102–110, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.12

• stronger interaction between the then polar template and polar ZnO crystallites in solution. This may lead to oriented attachment of the crystallites so that the observed (002) texture arises. Characterization of the templates and the resulting ZnO films were performed with ζ-potential and contact angle

• complete ZnO film is formed. The methyl ester can coordinate the polar ZnO crystallites. This in turn can support an oriented attachment of the nanoparticles to the surface and an anisotropic orientation of the entire film, which was observed by XRD (Figure 4) [42][43]. Conclusion ZnO thin films were grown

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

• (NSAID) for symptomatic relief from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and spondylitis [10]. However, the metal-complexes of this molecule form another group of drugs of even greater interest due to their anticancer activity [11][12]. In this context, the attachment of these drugs to DNA molecule gains

Ultrastructural changes in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus induced by positively charged silver nanoparticles

• Dulce G. Romero-Urbina,
• Humberto H. Lara,
• J. Jesús Velázquez-Salazar,
• M. Josefina Arellano-Jiménez,
• Eduardo Larios,
• Anand Srinivasan,
• Jose L. Lopez-Ribot and
• Miguel José Yacamán

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2396–2405, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.246

• vulnerability to cationic antimicrobials, peptides, ions and metals. WTAs retain surface proteins by either covalent or noncovalent attachment [19]. Electron cryomicroscopy studies on S. aureus indicate that WTAs extend over the PG layer. Disregarding their differences, all WTAs maintain anionic backbones

• containing peptidoglycan layers with a total thickness of 40 nm. (c) An undamaged MSSA cell wall. (d) A high magnification image of a MSSA cell wall showing the cell envelope layers. MSSA cell STEM image. (a) MSSA cell showing AgNP attachment on the cell wall. (b) High magnification STEM images of MSSA cell

Self-organization of gold nanoparticles on silanated surfaces

• Htet H. Kyaw,
• Salim H. Al-Harthi,
• Azzouz Sellai and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2345–2353, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.242

• silanization process) and the amine (NH2) from the aminopropyl groups (pointing away from the surface) for further functionalization [5]. APTES has been extensively studied, and it has been reported that the orientation and attachment of APTES on surfaces depend on temperature, humidity, concentration of APTES

• type II) may create cross-linking of APTES molecules, which in turn would lead to lower availability of free amine terminal groups for a potential attachment of AuNPs. Another possible scenario (type III) is that hydrogen bonds may form between some of the amine functional groups and –OH from the

• the orientation of APTES molecules favoring the attachment of metal nanoparticles as described in Figure 2 (type I, II). However, NH2-terminated silanized glass (Figure 2, type IV) surfaces could lead to large amount of AuNPs attached to the amine groups through electrostatic interaction as shown in

Fabrication of hybrid nanocomposite scaffolds by incorporating ligand-free hydroxyapatite nanoparticles into biodegradable polymer scaffolds and release studies

• Balazs Farkas,
• Marina Rodio,
• Ilaria Romano,
• Alberto Diaspro,
• Romuald Intartaglia and
• Szabolcs Beke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2217–2223, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.227

• of HA enhanced hydrophilicity and serum protein adsorption, and as a result, this increased pre-osteoblast cell attachment, spreading, and proliferation after four days of culture. Different technical routes have been explored for the synthesis of HA NPs, including mechanochemical synthesis [10

The role of low-energy electrons in focused electron beam induced deposition: four case studies of representative precursors

• Rachel M. Thorman,
• Ragesh Kumar T. P.,
• D. Howard Fairbrother and
• Oddur Ingólfsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1904–1926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.194

• FEBID, specifically, dissociative electron attachment, dissociative ionization, neutral dissociation, and dipolar dissociation, emphasizing the different nature and energy dependence of each process. We then explore the value of studying these processes through comparative gas phase and surface studies

• are needed, these studies are an important stepping-stone toward better understanding the fundamental physics behind the deposition process and establishing design criteria for optimized FEBID precursors. Keywords: dipolar dissociation; dissociative electron attachment; dissociative ionization

• impinging on a Ni(111) surface [6] and for 1 keV electrons impinging on a Ag(100) surface [9], along with the approximate electron energy ranges in which the principal electron induced processes are operative, i.e., dissociative electron attachment (DEA), neutral dissociation (ND), and dissociative

A simple method for the determination of qPlus sensor spring constants

• John Melcher,
• Julian Stirling and
• Gordon A. Shaw

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1733–1742, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.177

• for tip heights exceeding 400 μm or one sixth of the cantilever length. Experimental results with a calibrated nanoindenter reveal excellent agreement with an Euler–Bernoulli beam model for the sensor. Prior to the attachment of a tip, measured spring constants of 1902 ± 29 N/m are found to be in

• violated by the chamfered edge at the base of the tine, and the assumption of base rigidity has been questioned [25]. The attachment of a tip can alter the length of the cantilever, introduce parasitic tip motion [31], and, in extreme cases, introduce additional vibratory modes [32][33]. In what follows

• given commercial tuning fork. Some additional variables are introduced, however, by the attachment of a tip and the mounting of the sensor. Provided the tip height is sufficiently small (approximately less than 400 μm) and the mounting of the sensor is consistent, the additional variables can be

Imaging of carbon nanomembranes with helium ion microscopy

• André Beyer,
• Henning Vieker,
• Robin Klett,
• Hanno Meyer zu Theenhausen,
• Polina Angelova and
• Armin Gölzhäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1712–1720, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.175

• /Si wafers [12], but on other substrates, CNMs are not (or only barely) visible. In particular, it is not possible to directly image freestanding CNMs by regular optical microscopy. Indirect optical methods require the attachment of particles, fluorescent dyes [13], metallic nanostructures [14] or

Synthesis, characterization and in vitro biocompatibility study of Au/TMC/Fe₃O₄ nanocomposites as a promising, nontoxic system for biomedical applications

• Hanieh Shirazi,
• Maryam Daneshpour,
• Soheila Kashanian and
• Kobra Omidfar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1677–1689, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.170

• nanocomposites are shown in Figure 7a,c. The darker, spherical nanoparticles (with a mean diameter of about 20 nm for Au/TMC/Fe3O4 nanoparticles and 40 nm for Au/chitosan/Fe3O4 nanoparticles) indicate successful attachment of Au nanoparticles onto the polymer-covered Fe3O4 nanoparticles. By comparison, it can be

• that the true nanoparticle diameter could not be determined using the DLS technique. Despite this, the DLS results revealed a narrow size distribution and also showed the reasonable increase in nanoparticle diameter as the polymer layers and Au were added onto the magnetic core. The attachment of Au

Molecular materials – towards quantum properties

• Mario Ruben

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1485–1486, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.153

• same token, the needed surface attachment and positioning of molecular materials by self-assembly techniques is addressed – an important prerequisite for the electrical addressing of molecules by lateral graphene electrodes or vertical scanning tunnelling microscopy set-ups or e-beam lithographed gold

DNA–melamine hybrid molecules: from self-assembly to nanostructures

• Rina Kumari,
• Shib Shankar Banerjee,
• Anil K. Bhowmick and
• Prolay Das

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1432–1438, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.148

• (MW 1000 Da) to eliminate the small molecule impurities and tested using denaturing PAGE to distinguish between the covalent attachment and non-covalent association and to identify the reaction products (Figure 1). A clear separation of the bands for the di-branched and tri-branched ssDNA–melamine

Tattoo ink nanoparticles in skin tissue and fibroblasts

• Colin A. Grant,
• Peter C. Twigg,
• Richard Baker and
• Desmond J. Tobin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1183–1191, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.120

• density of 1 × 104 cells/well. The plates were maintained overnight (16 h) in RPMI 1640 medium to allow for cell attachment. The plates were incubated for 24 h in serum-starved medium (i.e., lacking fetal bovine serum) to remove exogenous sources of growth factors, before being exposed to the tattoo ink

Simulation tool for assessing the release and environmental distribution of nanomaterials

• Haoyang Haven Liu,
• Muhammad Bilal,
• Anastasiya Lazareva,
• Arturo Keller and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 938–951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.97

• ENM (with size of 10 nm), ENM attached to colloids, and ENM attached to larger particles), while assuming an arbitrary value of 0.1 for both aggregation and attachment efficiencies [11]. As a consequence, the above approach does not account for the temporal dynamics of multimedia distribution and the

• complete PSD of both ENMs and ambient particulates by discretizing the PSD into bins, and the association of ENMs with ambient particulates is described by an attachment factor [9]. The PSD of ambient particulates is typically taken to be self-preserving [29][30][31][32][33], but may be altered when there

Effects of swift heavy ion irradiation on structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of ZnO–CuO nanocomposites prepared by carbothermal evaporation method

• Sini Kuriakose,
• D. K. Avasthi and
• Satyabrata Mohapatra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 928–937, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.96

• through an oriented attachment mechanism, leading to the formation of ZnO nanorods and nanosheets on the surface of the nanocomposites. The schematic diagram depicting the growth mechanism is shown in Figure 5. Irradiation of the ZnO–CuO nanocomposite with 90 MeV Ni7+ ions results in localized melting and

• evaporation of ZnO and Cu, combined with annealing. FESEM studies showed the presence of ZnO nanosheets and nanorods, which are formed by Cu–Zn alloy nanodroplets assisted oriented attachment of ZnO nanoparticles. The effects of swift heavy ion irradiation on the structural, optical, and photocatalytic

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

• beam UV–vis–NIR spectrophotometer (Perkin Elmer 330) was employed for optical characterization in the spectral range between 400 and 800 nm. A specular reflection attachment, equipped with coated Al mirrors, was used to measure the normal reflectivity, while a BaSO4-coated integrating sphere with a

Microwave assisted synthesis and characterisation of a zinc oxide/tobacco mosaic virus hybrid material. An active hybrid semiconductor in a field-effect transistor device

• Shawn Sanctis,
• Rudolf C. Hoffmann,
• Sabine Eiben and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 785–791, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.81

• (101) planes are characteristic of the zincite structure (Figure 2b). A greater intensity in the direction of the c-axis (i.e., perpendicular to the (002) plane) was observed. ZnO nanoparticles undergo an oriented attachment during thin film formation in the presence of PVP which hints at texturing of

• procedure. Once the reliable microwave conditions of the virus attachment and the retention of its structural integrity were confirmed, the virus-coated substrates were immersed in the reaction solution which then leads to the mineralization of the zinc oxide nanoparticles onto the virus template. Such

Influence of gold, silver and gold–silver alloy nanoparticles on germ cell function and embryo development

• Ulrike Taylor,
• Daniela Tiedemann,
• Christoph Rehbock,
• Wilfried A. Kues,
• Stephan Barcikowski and
• Detlef Rath

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 651–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.66

• to spermatozoa, which seemed to be driven by the surface modifications. While ligand-free AuNP and gold nanoparticles conjugated to single stranded oligonucleotides (AuNP–ssO) at least attached to the sperm membrane, BSA-coating of nanoparticles prevented even such an attachment (Figure 3). The

• complexes might be different to native BSA and thus leading to unexpected interaction patterns. The difference in nanoparticle attachment to spermatozoa observed in our studies also had an impact on the toxic effect the particles exerted. Co-incubation with ligand-free AuNP and AuNP–ssO at a concentration

• ]. It thus seems plausible that coating of gold nanoparticles with BSA alleviates the detrimental effect on motility as it prevents nanoparticle attachment to sperm. However, it does so even in case of nanoparticles containg silver, which are generally viewed as considerably more toxic than AuNP [35

Self-assembled anchor layers/polysaccharide coatings on titanium surfaces: a study of functionalization and stability

• Ognen Pop-Georgievski,
• Dana Kubies,
• Josef Zemek,
• Neda Neykova,
• Roman Demianchuk,
• Eliška Mázl Chánová,
• Miroslav Šlouf,
• Milan Houska and
• František Rypáček

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 617–631, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.63

• -aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) can result in several surface structures such as covalent attachment, self-assembly, multilayer formation by surface-initiated (SI) polymerization and particle adsorption [22]. The obstacles and limitations inherent to thiol–SAMs and silanes can be circumvented by the use of moieties

• anchor layers is a prerequisite for the creation of grafted adlayers with defined properties [34]. The attachment of the anchor layers of three FDA approved, organic compounds (neridronate, APTES and dopamine) were performed on oxygen plasma-activated, flat titanium substrates. As previously observed by

• ) of the aminoethyl chain at 935 cm−1 [50]. The oxidative polymerization of dopamine and the surface attachment of different monomer units (dopamine-quinone, 5,6-dihydroxyindole, etc.) caused evident changes in the IR spectra (Figure 2C) and resulted in a confluent layer of PDA [32][33][34][51