Biomimetics on the micro- and nanoscale – The 25th anniversary of the lotus effect

• Matthias Mail,
• Kerstin Koch,
• Thomas Speck,
• William M. Megill and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 850–856, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.69

• densely covers both leaf surfaces, contributes to the plant's adaptation to severe environmental conditions in Antarctica by increasing its resistance to cold temperatures, icing, harmful UV radiation, and dehydration. In the paper “Micro-structures, nanomechanical properties and flight performance of

Micro-structures, nanomechanical properties and flight performance of three beetles with different folding ratios

• Jiyu Sun,
• Pengpeng Li,
• Yongwei Yan,
• Fa Song,
• Nuo Xu and
• Zhijun Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 845–856, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.75

• , microstructures and nanomechanical properties of three beetle species with different wing folding ratios living in different environments were investigated. Factors affecting their flight performance, that is, wind speed, folding ratio, aspect ratio, and flapping frequency, were examined using a wind tunnel. It

• contact depth. S is the contact stiffness. A Berkovich tip with a tip radius of approximately 100 nm was used for the tests. In order to study the effect of nanomechanical properties of different veins on the lift of the beetle hind wings, the same location of the same vein of three beetles was selected

• [42]. Nanomechanical analysis of the hind wings Nanomechanical test results are shown in Figure 4. The nanomechanical properties of the hind wings of the three beetles change according to the same trend. The maximum values of the reduced Young’s modulus, Er, were all measured at test point II (the end

Alteration of nanomechanical properties of pancreatic cancer cells through anticancer drug treatment revealed by atomic force microscopy

• Xiaoteng Liang,
• Shuai Liu,
• Xiuchao Wang,
• Dan Xia and
• Qiang Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1372–1379, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.101

• -1 is larger than that of BxPC-3, consistent with the result of surface tomography. Although a nanostructure difference exists among these four types of cells, it is also difficult to distinguish cancer cells from normal ones. The fingerprint nanomechanical properties of various cells To distinguish

• measurement errors, it is not accurate to utilize the Young's modulus of one single cell to represent the nanomechanical properties of one cell type. Therefore, the Young’s modulus of different cells (≥30) of the same cell type were measured to obtain more accurate cell mechanical properties. Supporting

• of normal pancreatic cells HDPE6-C7 is the highest (11.07 ± 7.1 kPa), compared to the three kinds of PCCs, BxPC-3 cells (6.91 ± 4 kPa), MIA PaCa-2 cells (4.13 ± 2 kPa), and AsPC-1 cells (2.98 ± 1.5 kPa). In addition, the nanomechanical properties are also different among the three kinds of cancer

A review of defect engineering, ion implantation, and nanofabrication using the helium ion microscope

• Frances I. Allen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 633–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.52

• , irradiation-induced changes in the optical response of this class of materials has also been investigated using the HIM. This was first performed for few-layer WSe2 [29] and monolayer MoSe2 [30] (for the latter, changes in nanomechanical properties were also probed). In subsequent work on monolayer MoS2 by

• irradiation-induced defects and implanted ions [79][80][82][83][86][87], and at higher doses, the subsurface swelling that results in blistering and delamination [84] (Figure 3d), which for deployment of a material in a reactor needs to be avoided [80][82][83][84][85]. Returning to silicon, the nanomechanical

• properties of helium ion-irradiated silicon nanopillars have since been investigated as well, observing a softening behavior upon amorphization and swelling [89]. Helium ion irradiation of single-crystal diamond nanopillars has revealed an orientation dependence of the irradiation damage and associated

Comparison of fresh and aged lithium iron phosphate cathodes using a tailored electrochemical strain microscopy technique

• Matthias Simolka,
• Hanno Kaess and
• Kaspar Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 583–596, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.46

• analysis was conducted with a Bruker Icon instrument inside a glovebox (MBraun, O2 and H2O < 2 ppm), equipped with a Zurich Instruments lock-in amplifier (HF2LI), a signal access module (SAM V) and PeakForce quantitative nanomechanical properties (QNM) module. In addition to the ESM signal, the topography

Atomic force acoustic microscopy reveals the influence of substrate stiffness and topography on cell behavior

• Yan Liu,
• Li Li,
• Xing Chen,
• Ying Wang,
• Meng-Nan Liu,
• Jin Yan,
• Liang Cao,
• Lu Wang and
• Zuo-Bin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2329–2337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.223

• biomechanical studies [21]. Atomic force acoustic microscopy (AFAM) is a technique based on AFM for nondestructive imaging. This technique operates on a dynamic mode in which the AFM cantilever vibrates upon ultrasound excitation. Accordingly, AFAM shows the ability to measure nanomechanical properties and is

Mechanical and thermodynamic properties of Aβ₄₂, Aβ₄₀, and α-synuclein fibrils: a coarse-grained method to complement experimental studies

• Adolfo B. Poma,
• Horacio V. Guzman,
• Mai Suan Li and
• Panagiotis E. Theodorakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 500–513, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.51

• qualitatively reproduces results of experiments with biological fibrils, validating its use in extrapolation to macroscopic material properties. Our computational techniques can be used for the co-design of new experiments aiming to unveil nanomechanical properties of biological fibrils from a point of view of

Nanoscale characterization of the temporary adhesive of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

• Ana S. Viana and
• Romana Santos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2277–2286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.212

• . Keywords: adhesive footprint; atomic force microscopy; nanomechanical properties; sea urchin; temporary adhesion; Introduction Unlike the thin homogeneous films that are typical for adhesives produced by humans, biological adhesives present complex hierarchical micro- and nanostructures. Among marine

• be obtained [9][10] as well as the nanomechanical properties. AFM is ideal for studying temporary marine adhesives (i.e., soft, hydrated materials, secreted in small quantities in a wet environment) under native conditions, requiring little or no sample preparation [8]. Parasitic marine flatworms

• footprints were imaged under native conditions (ASW) while A. rubens footprints were imaged in either dry or moist (with distilled water) conditions. Accordingly, the height of the meshwork was higher in M. glacialis (200–500 nm) [8]. In terms of nanomechanical properties, no information is available for sea

Synthesis of hafnium nanoparticles and hafnium nanoparticle films by gas condensation and energetic deposition

• Irini Michelakaki,
• Nikos Boukos,
• Dimitrios A. Dragatogiannis,
• Spyros Stathopoulos,
• Costas A. Charitidis and
• Dimitris Tsoukalas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1868–1880, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.179

• deposition. The structural and nanomechanical properties of the nanoparticle thin films were investigated as a function of the kinetic energy of the nanoparticles. The results reveal that by proper adjustment of the nanoparticle energy, hexagonal close-packed porous nanoparticle thin films with good

• nanoparticles is reported for the first time in the literature. Keywords: energetic deposition; hafnium; inert-gas condensation; nanomechanical properties; nanoparticles; nanoparticle thin films; Introduction In the past decades, the interest in and the exploitation of metal nanoparticles (NPs) spread across

• . Nanomechanical properties and porosity of Hf NTFs Hardness (H) and elastic modulus (E) of the nanocrystalline porous Hf NTFs were determined by nanoidentation measurements. (The load–displacement curves of Hf NTFs are presented in Supporting Information File 1, Section 3.) For comparison, the hardness and

Lyapunov estimation for high-speed demodulation in multifrequency atomic force microscopy

• David M. Harcombe,
• Michael G. Ruppert,
• Michael R. P. Ragazzon and
• Andrew J. Fleming

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 490–498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.47

• samples, allowing for biophysical processes to be studied [6][7][8]. Multifrequency AFM (MF-AFM) methods allow for the study of tip–sample interactions occurring at multiple frequencies [9]. This extends imaging information beyond the topography to a range of nanomechanical properties including sample

• slightly below and above resonance bimodal drive. It has been shown to achieve increased image contrast [17] and lead to further insights into nanomechanical properties [18]. Regardless of which particular MF-AFM method is employed, they each require the demodulation of amplitude and phase to form

• observables for the characterization of nanomechanical properties. Due to the large bandwidth requirements of tracking high frequencies in MF-AFM, every component of the z-axis feedback loop detailed in Figure 1 needs to be optimized for speed. This includes the lateral and vertical nanopositioner for each

A robust AFM-based method for locally measuring the elasticity of samples

• Alexandre Bubendorf,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.1

• , pressure or humidity. Since its invention, the atomic force microscope (AFM) [4] has confirmed its value for locally determining nanomechanical properties, such as the Young’s modulus, of the sample surface. Initially, the measures were done qualitatively, with the cantilever operated in intermittent

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoindentation and scratch in Cu grain boundaries

• Shih-Wei Liang,
• Ren-Zheng Qiu and
• Te-Hua Fang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2283–2295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.228

• conditions using MD simulations. However, the nanomechanical properties of the different types of grain boundaries have been scarcely studied using MD simulations. Therefore, the study of the potential fracture of substrates upon mechanical pressure as a result of the different grain boundaries is of

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• have thoroughly characterized the material in terms of transparency, local conductivity, nanomechanical properties and internal structure, and have also studied its response to the application of localized pressure with an AFM probe, whereby changes in conductivity were observed and explained in the

Generalized Hertz model for bimodal nanomechanical mapping

• Aleksander Labuda,
• Marta Kocuń,
• Waiman Meinhold,
• Deron Walters and
• Roger Proksch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 970–982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.89

• the necessary information to extract nanomechanical properties of the sample for a given image pixel. This can be achieved by changing the cantilever–sample distance [24] or sweeping the drive frequency [25], amongst others [26]. Examples of well-established spectroscopic techniques are

• nanoindentation [27] and force curves as well as dynamic force curves performed with an oscillated cantilever. The time-varying cantilever response serves as input to a model for extracting nanomechanical properties of the sample at any location. These techniques are by nature slow for imaging, as they measure

• based on FM-AFM techniques that rely on elaborate mathematical theories [36][37][38][39][40][41], involving fractional calculus and Laplace transforms for relating AFM observables to nanomechanical properties. The mathematical complexity of these techniques can obscure physically intuitive understanding

Correlative infrared nanospectroscopic and nanomechanical imaging of block copolymer microdomains

• Benjamin Pollard and
• Markus B. Raschke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 605–612, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.53

• , domain structure [8], and degrees of crystallinity. However, information beyond nanoscale IR response is sometimes desired for a more complete understanding of molecular interactions and their relationship to material function. Nanomechanical properties, measured through force spectroscopy, can provide

• case due to the long chain lengths. We measure the nanomechanical properties of the copolymer film using several modes of scanning force microscopy. We use intermittent contact mode under ambient conditions to map the ordering of block copolymer domains [19]. This modality, especially its phase images

• diagonally across the direction of correlation to create the coincidence histograms shown in Figure 5b and Figure 5d. The two populations in this distribution represent distinct regions with separate chemical and nanomechanical properties. Conclusion In summary, we have combined spatio-spectral s-SNOM with

Mismatch detection in DNA monolayers by atomic force microscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

• Maryse D. Nkoua Ngavouka,
• Pietro Capaldo,
• Elena Ambrosetti,
• Giacinto Scoles,
• Loredana Casalis and
• Pietro Parisse

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 220–227, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.20

• similar increase in height, which follows the change in the nanomechanical properties from ssDNA to dsDNA configuration (hdsDNA, Figure 1b). We then perform a thermal treatment to selectively de-hybridize only the MM sequences, as we can measure from the different height response of the two grafted ssDNA

Atomic force microscopy as analytical tool to study physico-mechanical properties of intestinal cells

• Christa Schimpel,
• Oliver Werzer,
• Eleonore Fröhlich,
• Gerd Leitinger,
• Markus Absenger-Novak,
• Birgit Teubl,
• Andreas Zimmer and
• Eva Roblegg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1457–1466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.151

• against the plasma membranes. As a consequence, indentation occurs. The amount of force acting on the cantilever as a function of indentation enables an estimation of the nanomechanical properties of living cells, such as elasticity and adhesion [21][25][26][27]. To get a basic understanding regarding

• nanomechanical properties (i.e., elasticity, adhesion) of intestinal cells. In Caco-2 cells, F-actin filaments are organized as densely packed bundles forming a well-differentiated brush border. In M cells, F-actin filaments are arranged as short and limp structures in the cell periphery resulting in microvilli

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

• of contact-resonance force microscopy techniques for quantitative measurements of nanomechanical properties. Ogi et al. [6] have studied elastic and damping properties in a dual-phase steel by using resonance ultrasound microscopy (RUM), which is a contact-resonance based technique but limited to

Scale effects of nanomechanical properties and deformation behavior of Au nanoparticle and thin film using depth sensing nanoindentation

• Dave Maharaj and
• Bharat Bhushan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 822–836, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.94

• mechanical properties of bulk solid surfaces, thin films and various nano-objects. For thin films, the thicknesses are given and for nano-objects, the diameters are given. Pillars described in the studies have low aspect ratios (2–20) compared to wires (>20). Nanomechanical properties of Au nanoparticles and

Energy dissipation in multifrequency atomic force microscopy

• Valentina Pukhova,
• Francesco Banfi and
• Gabriele Ferrini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 494–500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.57

• [3]. The study of the nanomechanical properties of the cell, the development of sensitive nanomechanical devices, the characterization of mobile nanoparticles are all tasks that require a control of the force and energy involved in the tip–sample interactions [4]. Recently we introduced a wavelet

Sensing surface PEGylation with microcantilevers

• Natalija Backmann,
• Natascha Kappeler,
• Thomas Braun,
• François Huber,
• Hans-Peter Lang,
• Christoph Gerber and
• Roderick Y. H. Lim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 3–13, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.2

• can be implemented within a single nanomechanical platform. Another benefit is that it can be applied to monitor solvent-dependent conformational changes and nanomechanical properties in a polymer layer in real-time without having to probe the surface directly (for instance by AFM). When used in

• conjunction with protein adsorption studies, this may have specific applications as integrated (and miniaturizable) process sensors. More generally, this particular capability of microcantilever sensors may provide new insight into the biochemical and nanomechanical properties of biopolymers in vitro. For