Selective porous gates made from colloidal silica nanoparticles

• Roberto Nisticò,
• Paola Avetta,
• Paola Calza,
• Debora Fabbri,
• Giuliana Magnacca and
• Dominique Scalarone

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2105–2112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.215

• were obtained, suggesting possible applications of these nanoporous films as selective gates for controlled transport of chemical species in solution. Keywords: block copolymers; coatings; colloidal nanoparticles; silica; sol–gel synthesis; Introduction The development of smart nanoporous devices for

• dye methylene blue (MB, molecular weight (MW) = 320 Da) and the cationic protein ribonuclease A (RNAse, MW = 13700 Da). Results and Discussion Synthesis, preparation and physicochemical characterization of the colloidal silica nanoparticles and mesoporous coatings Amphiphilic block copolymers in

• brings them to spontaneously segregate in well-defined nanostructures. Therefore, when block copolymers are mixed to solvents which are selective for one of the blocks, polymer chains spontaneously aggregate into micelles having different architectures (i.e., spheres, rods, tubes, lamellae) and degree of

Polymer blend lithography for metal films: large-area patterning with over 1 billion holes/inch²

• Cheng Huang,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1205–1211, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.123

• of both ordered gold or silver nanodot arrays and ordered nanohole arrays in a gold film [17][18]. Lithographic methods incorporated with self-assembled block copolymers are also promising ways to fabricate sub-100 nm metal nanodots or perforated films, however these processes are often complicated

• or time consuming, e.g., as vapor annealing for block-copolymers takes days to complete and UV radiation or reactive ion etching (RIE) is required for the lift-off process [19][20]. Here, we introduce a very rapid and cost-effective way to fabricate metal island arrays or perforated metal films via

Morphology control of zinc oxide films via polysaccharide-mediated, low temperature, chemical bath deposition

• Florian Waltz,
• Hans-Christoph Schwarz,
• Andreas M. Schneider,
• Stefanie Eiden and
• Peter Behrens

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 799–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.83

• (malate) [36], ascorbate [37], diaminopropane [38], hexadecyl(trimethyl)azanium bromide (CTAB) [39], and block copolymers [40] have been used for this purpose, in addition to naturally occurring amino acids and peptides [41], which have already been successfully applied in this respect. We recently

Towards bottom-up nanopatterning of Prussian blue analogues

• Virgile Trannoy,
• Marco Faustini,
• David Grosso,
• Sandra Mazerat,
• François Brisset,
• Alexandre Dazzi and
• Anne Bleuzen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1933–1943, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.204

• surfaces and therefore their selective functionalization in the following. The second step is the deposition through dip-coating of an ethanolic solution of titanium molecular species containing block copolymers to obtain an ordered nanostructured organic–inorganic hybrid layer. The third step is a thermal

• samples resulting from this first step and corresponding to the different thicknesses are called Au10, Au20 and Au50 in the following (see below in Table 1). The second step is the deposition by dip-coating of an ethanolic solution of titanium molecular species containing block copolymers micelles that

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

• induced by the surfactant micelles on large colloidal particles. Examples of polymers that favor CNTs dispersion in water are countless. This review is not intended to list all of the investigated polymers, nevertheless it is worth mentioning that the majority of polymers and block copolymers have been

• both with the nanotube surface (i.e., mainly through π-stacking and van der Waals interactions) and with the surrounding medium. Among the most used dispersants, we may recall PAH, porphyrines and lipophilic polymers for dispersion in organic solvents whereas surfactants, DNA and block copolymers are

PEGylated versus non-PEGylated magnetic nanoparticles as camptothecin delivery system

• Paula M. Castillo,
• Mario de la Mata,
• Maria F. Casula,
• José A. Sánchez-Alcázar and
• Ana P. Zaderenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1312–1319, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.144

• % (w/w)) [44]. The extremely high loading capacity of USM-PEG can be attributed to the amphiphilic nature of PEG polymers. It is noteworthy that although PEG is commonly used in block copolymers as hydrophilic moiety, it is soluble in both water and organic solvents owing to the hydrophobic nature of

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

• (“bottom up” approach). Many articles have reported the grapho-epitaxy of self-assembled block copolymers on two-dimensional periodically patterned templates with an aim to control the orientation of the structures [19][20]. The network obtained by the self-organization of copolymer is polycrystalline and

In vitro toxicity and bioimaging studies of gold nanorods formulations coated with biofunctional thiol-PEG molecules and Pluronic block copolymers

• Tianxun Gong,
• Douglas Goh,
• Malini Olivo and
• Ken-Tye Yong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 546–553, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.64

• functional thiol-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-SH) molecules and Pluronic block copolymers (PEO–PPO–PEO) (see chemical formula of PEG-SH and Pluronic (PEO–PPO–PEO) in Supporting Information File 1, Figure S1) are commonly used to prepare non-ionic polymer encapsulated AuNRs with a stealth property for in vivo

• . Therefore, the advantages of these two block copolymers are combined to provide a better surface passivation on the particles and a better colloidal stability [30][31][32]. PEG-SH and Pluronic encapsulated AuNRs were prepared by retrieving particles after the third round of the washing treatment. Figure 2c

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

• the minority component [66]. Possible bicontinuous architectures are naturally associated with well known bicontinuous cubic phases (BCPs). Among many BCPs found in block copolymers and concentrated surfactant systems, the double-diamond (DD) structure with the space group , and the Schoen's double

High-resolution nanomechanical analysis of suspended electrospun silk fibers with the torsional harmonic atomic force microscope

• Mark Cronin-Golomb and
• Ozgur Sahin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 243–248, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.25

• force–distance curves to parameters representing the material properties. Although contact-mechanics models can be used for a wide variety of polymer composites, block-copolymers, and biomaterials [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], these models are not applicable to materials with complex geometries. For

Mesoporous MgTa₂O₆ thin films with enhanced photocatalytic activity: On the interplay between crystallinity and mesostructure

• Jin-Ming Wu,
• Igor Djerdj,
• Till von Graberg and
• Bernd M. Smarsly

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 123–133, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.13

• -35392 Giessen, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.3.13 Abstract Ordered mesoporous, crystalline MgTa2O6 thin films with a mesoscopic nanoarchitecture were synthesized by evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) in combination with a sol–gel procedure. Utilization of novel templates, namely the block copolymers KLE

• copolymer EO106–PO70–EO106), which forms larger mesopores compared to most other commercially available templates, and to a previously reported type of anatase TiO2 thin film with ordered mesopores, examples of which are widely used as photocatalysts [15][16]. Recently, a further class of block copolymers

• temperatures above 760 °C. Such an advanced mesostructure can be achieved by special block copolymers such as KLE or polymers of the poly(isobutylene)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) type, which show similar properties in terms of structure and photocatalysis (see Supporting Information File 1). With increasing

Surface induced self-organization of comb-like macromolecules

• Konstantin I. Popov,
• Vladimir V. Palyulin,
• Martin Möller,
• Alexei R. Khokhlov and
• Igor I. Potemkin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 569–584, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.61

• , a difference in the desorption properties between the sparsely and densely grafted ends may have the same effect on the movement [4][120]. Nanostructures in monolayers of binary comb copolymers Thin films of block copolymers have attracted considerable attention as a convenient material for the

Fabrication of multi-parametric platforms based on nanocone arrays for determination of cellular response

• Lindarti Purwaningsih,
• Tobias Schoen,
• Tobias Wolfram,
• Claudia Pacholski and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 545–551, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.58

• technique as described before [24][25][26]. Briefly, three different polystyrene(x)-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine)(y) block copolymers were employed: (PS(x)-b-P2VP(y)) with x and y being 501 and 323; 1056 and 495; and 5355 and 714 respectively, where x and y represent the number of theoretical repeat units of

Self-organizing bioinspired oligothiophene–oligopeptide hybrids

• Alexey K. Shaytan,
• Eva-Kathrin Schillinger,
• Elena Mena-Osteritz,
• Sylvia Schmid,
• Pavel G. Khalatur,
• Peter Bäuerle and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 525–544, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.57

• amyloidogenic peptide sequences leads to a new class of block copolymers that can inherit typical properties of their constituents, e.g., enhanced performance characteristics, conductivity, biocompatibility, and high propensity for self-organization. In this respect, oligothiophene–oligopeptide conjugates are

Inorganic–organic hybrid materials through post-synthesis modification: Impact of the treatment with azides on the mesopore structure

• Miriam Keppeler,
• Jürgen Holzbock,
• Johanna Akbarzadeh,
• Herwig Peterlik and
• Nicola Hüsing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 486–498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.52

• mesoporous materials, whose syntheses are based on block copolymers such ethylene oxide (EO)x–propylene oxide (PO)y–ethylene oxide (EO)x, this can be achieved by variation of the length of the EO or PO blocks, by increasing the synthesis temperature or by the addition of inorganic salts [6][9][13]. Currently