Application of nanoarchitectonics in moist-electric generation

• Jia-Cheng Feng and
• Hong Xia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1185–1200, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.99

• the device provided an instantaneous electrical output with a maximum open-circuit voltage of 0.3 V and a short-circuit current of 120 μA. After adding a conducting polymer to improve the number of charged ions and the ion selectivity of the diffusion channel, a specific electrolyte fluid was selected

• propylene (FEP) film and made it have a nanoscale network structure with rough surface as shown in Figure 6g,h [21]. On a fluctuating water surface, the upper and lower electrodes on the back of the polymer will generate a potential difference, thereby generating current and voltage. Multiple device groups

• in MEGs due to their rich natural composition. Furthermore, functional groups can easily be added to cellulose-based MEGs to improve the output power. 3.3 Other polymer nanomaterials When an ion concentration gradient is generated in the nanostructure, this gradient distribution makes ions move from

Microneedle-based ocular drug delivery systems – recent advances and challenges

• Piotr Gadziński,
• Anna Froelich,
• Monika Wojtyłko,
• Antoni Białek,
• Julia Krysztofiak and
• Tomasz Osmałek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1167–1184, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.98

• advantage of soluble inserts is that they do not have to be removed from the eye. The rate of drug release is influenced by dissolution or erosion of the polymer matrix. Ophthalmic therapeutic systems belong to the group of non-biodegradable inserts from which the drug substance is released by diffusion at

• are usually prepared from ceramic materials, silicon, or metal, they display higher stiffness than polymer-based systems. The risk of clogging the internal canals of the needles upon application is mentioned in the literature as a possible drawback of these systems [142]. Dissolving microneedles are

• intended to deliver active ingredients that are sensitive to heat, as these systems can be prepared from water-based polymer solutions at room temperature. The polymer dissolves in the tissue after the administration and the incorporated drug is released in this way. The dissolution time required to

Recent advances in green carbon dots (2015–2022): synthesis, metal ion sensing, and biological applications

• Aisha Kanwal,
• Naheed Bibi,
• Sajjad Hyder,
• Arif Muhammad,
• Hao Ren,
• Jiangtao Liu and
• Zhongli Lei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1068–1107, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.93

• materials, are summarized in Table 4. Natural polymer-based CDs Numerous natural polymers, including proteins and polysaccharides, have been used to obtain CDs (Table 5). Chen and co-workers used starch as a source to synthesize graphene quantum dots (CDs) via a one-pot hydrothermal method. They also

Biomimetic chitosan with biocomposite nanomaterials for bone tissue repair and regeneration

• Se-Kwon Kim,
• Sesha Subramanian Murugan,
• Pandurang Appana Dalavi,
• Sebanti Gupta,
• Sukumaran Anil,
• Gi Hun Seong and
• Jayachandran Venkatesan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1051–1067, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.92

• regeneration, and other applications. Furthermore, chitosan-containing polymer composites are being extensively explored for drug delivery in targeted tumour treatment and nucleic acid delivery in genetic engineering applications. More research is required to optimise chitosan composites utilised in scaffolds

Analytical and numerical design of a hybrid Fabry–Perot plano-concave microcavity for hexagonal boron nitride

• Felipe Ortiz-Huerta and
• Karina Garay-Palmett

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1030–1037, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.90

• the desired shape. A natural extension to the development of polymer photonic structures consists of the fabrication of hybrid (i.e., metal-dielectric) resonant structures [15] with the potential to enhance the light–matter interactions of such SPEs. This work will focus on finding an optimal design

• hBN where its value falls between experimentally achievable thicknesses of multilayer 2D materials [6]. A 3D concave shape polymer then could be fabricated on top of the 2D material (Figure 2b) by a direct laser writing system (e.g., Photonic Professional, Nanoscribe GmbH) by use of a 2PP process

• . Afterwards an 80 nm silver layer could be added, by thermal evaporative deposition, on top of the concave shape polymer to ensure a high reflectivity inside our microcavity. When designing the concave shape polymer a small rectangular aperture at its edge must be taken into account in the fabrication step

Design of a biomimetic, small-scale artificial leaf surface for the study of environmental interactions

• Miriam Anna Huth,
• Axel Huth,
• Lukas Schreiber and
• Kerstin Koch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 944–957, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.83

• differentiated into intracuticular waxes, which are incorporated into the cutin matrix, and epicuticular waxes, which are deposited on the polymer. Intra- and epicuticular waxes differ not only in their localization, but also in their chemical composition [12][13]. Epicuticular waxes form the outermost layer of

Bioselectivity of silk protein-based materials and their bio-inspired applications

• Hendrik Bargel,
• Vanessa T. Trossmann,
• Christoph Sommer and
• Thomas Scheibel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 902–921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.81

• , Germany Bavarian Polymer Institute (BPI), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany Bayreuth Center of Colloids and Interfaces (BZKG), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany Bayreuth Center for Molecular Biosciences (BZMB), University of Bayreuth

• from the development of sophisticated synthetic polymer systems [26][27], protein-based and bioinspired materials have nowadays an enormous impact [28][29]. Biomaterials based on native collagen, keratin, elastin, silk, and their recombinant, engineered counterparts become increasingly popular in

• attraction, and hydrophobic interaction free energies of surface-bound hydrophilic polyethylene oxide (PEO) polymer [67]. Greater surface density and chain length of terminally attached PEO chains were reported to correlate to a lower van der Waals attractive component. In turn, steric repulsion of the

Optimizing PMMA solutions to suppress contamination in the transfer of CVD graphene for batch production

• Chun-Da Liao,
• Andrea Capasso,
• Tiago Queirós,
• Telma Domingues,
• Fatima Cerqueira,
• Nicoleta Nicoara,
• Jérôme Borme,
• Paulo Freitas and
• Pedro Alpuim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 796–806, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.70

• (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-assisted process remains the most reliable and most commonly used approach [18]. The chemical structure of PMMA features long polymer chains, whose length is proportional to the average molecular weight (AMW) of the polymer. During the transfer of graphene, the polymer serves

• depolymerize due to strong van der Waals and London attractive forces among the long polymer chains [13]. It must also be considered that thermal treatments can often be counterproductive as they intensify polymerization, harden the PMMA residues, and complicate the removal. Therefore, the way toward clean

• PMMA-550k, see Table 1) was designed to lower the potential residue concentration while maintaining proper mechanical support. The rationale for the design of the optimized mixture is based on two hypotheses: (i) The PMMA-15k component provides short polymer chains, which are expected to diminish the

Gelatin nanoparticles with tunable mechanical properties: effect of crosslinking time and loading

• Agnes-Valencia Weiss,
• Daniel Schorr,
• Julia K. Metz,
• Metin Yildirim,
• Saeed Ahmad Khan and
• Marc Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 778–787, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.68

• the gelatin polymer chains. After release, the molecules might leave pores behind, which make the particles even more deformable. A further plausible mechanism is that the gelatin network can slide along the FITC-dextran molecules and therefore shows easier deformation under external pressure

Recent advances in nanoarchitectures of monocrystalline coordination polymers through confined assembly

• Lingling Xia,
• Qinyue Wang and
• Ming Hu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 763–777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.67

• first discuss the crystallization of coordination polymer single crystals inside confined liquid networks or on substrates through assembly of nodes and ligands. Then, we discuss assembly of preformed coordination polymer single crystals inside confined liquid networks or on substrates. In each part, we

• discuss the properties of the coordination polymer single crystals as well as their performance in energy, environmental, and biomedical applications. Keywords: applications; assembly; coordination polymer; metal-organic frameworks; nanoarchitectonics; Introduction Coordination polymers are hybrid

• ]. The networks themselves can also change the properties of the single crystals [42][43][44][45][46]. For example, commonly known fragile and rigid single crystals become soft by integrating polymer networks [45]. The thermal stability of some single crystals may also be improved by incorporating

Modeling a multiple-chain emeraldine gas sensor for NH₃ and NO₂ detection

• Hana Sustkova and
• Jan Voves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 721–729, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.64

• good properties for NO2 detection. Keywords: ammonia; gas sensor; nitrogen dioxide; numerical computation; polyaniline; Introduction Polyaniline is a conducting polymer consisting of benzene rings connected by nitrogen units, which can be used in a wide spectrum of applications, for example, dyes for

• antistatically equipped clothing, capacitors, solar cells, energy storage devices, and polymer light-emitting diodes [1]. One electrical property of PANI are the π-conjugated bonds in the benzene rings. The key to this is the NH group, which can be doped. These nitrogen units are the key element of the chain

• conductivity of PANI [2]. PANI can be synthesized chemically or electrochemically, with different results in terms of polymer conductivity [3]. There are three different ground states of oxidation, which leads to a large spectrum of the electric properties of PANI. First, leucoemeraldine, the fully reduced

Antibacterial activity of a berberine nanoformulation

• Hue Thi Nguyen,
• Tuyet Nhung Pham,
• Anh-Tuan Le,
• Nguyen Thanh Thuy,
• Tran Quang Huy and
• Thuy Thi Thu Nguyen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 641–652, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.56

• types of nanoformulations, such as polymer-, lipid-, dendrimer-, graphene-, gold-, or silver-based nanoparticles, have been used for the delivery of BBR [29][30][31]. Yu et al. [29] prepared poly(ethylene glycol)–lipid–poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles loaded with BBR to improve the oral

Fabrication and testing of polymer microneedles for transdermal drug delivery

• Vahid Ebrahiminejad,
• Zahra Faraji Rad,
• Philip D. Prewett and
• Graham J. Davies

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 629–640, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.55

• bacterial infections and medical emergencies, with point-of-care patch diagnostics replacing ponderous and expensive laboratory testing. Therefore, there is a growing interest in small patches incorporating mass manufacturable polymer MNs [4][5], with the point-of-care rapid diagnosis market alone predicted

• characteristics of the arrays using theoretical, experimental, and simulation approaches. The arrays are coated with fluorescein to simulate transdermal low molecular weight drug delivery. To study MN penetration, the replicated polymer MN arrays were applied on the skin with various application methods

• dimensional accuracy of final MN replicas. Analytical and experimental characteristics of MN failures by mechanical compression test Bending, buckling, and fracture are the main possible failure risks of polymer MN arrays upon insertion into the skin. Thus, investigations on the MN failure scenarios are

Stimuli-responsive polypeptide nanogels for trypsin inhibition

• Petr Šálek,
• Jana Dvořáková,
• Sviatoslav Hladysh,
• Diana Oleshchuk,
• Ewa Pavlova,
• Jan Kučka and
• Vladimír Proks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 538–548, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.45

• short in vivo half-lives, chemical instability, and high susceptibility to degradation [6]. Delivery systems represented by various polymer particles provide necessary and effective protection of bioactive cargo against degradation and elimination as well as for prolonged circulation time. Nanogels

• crosslinking in inverse miniemulsion including the synthetics for these polymer precursors [23][24][25]. Our effort resulted in the development of new types of polypeptide nanogels with potential for biological applications [24][25]. In this work, we have designed two types of nanogels from biocompatible and

• network due to predominant polymer–medium interactions [27]. The subsequent increase of pH to 7.4 led to the decrease of DH of PHEG-Tyr nanogel to 131 nm driven by stronger polymer–polymer interactions including hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds, leading to a shrinkage of the PHEG-Tyr nanogel

Ciprofloxacin-loaded dissolving polymeric microneedles as a potential therapeutic for the treatment of S. aureus skin infections

• Sharif Abdelghany,
• Walhan Alshaer,
• Yazan Al Thaher,
• Maram Al Fawares,
• Amal G. Al-Bakri,
• Saja Zuriekat and
• Randa SH. Mansour

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 517–527, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.43

• incorporated into a polymer matrix of PVA and PVP with a weight ratio of (9:1), and CIP_MN2, composed of 10 mg ciprofloxacin incorporated into PVA polymer. CIP_MN1 and CIP_MN2 showed a mean microneedle height of 188 and 179 µm, respectively. Since Parafilm has been proven as a model to examine the perforation

• . aureus skin infections was investigated. Recent studies showed that dissolving polymeric microneedles are a promising approach in topical and transdermal drug delivery because of the rapid dissolution and/or degradation of the polymer, which, in turn, releases the incorporated drug [18]. These dissolving

• microneedles are based on polymers such as PVA, PVP, chitosan, and poly(lactide-co-glycolide) [19]. In our study, polymer-based microneedles were optimized to achieve a formulation that can efficiently penetrate the skin. In this context, microneedles were studied regarding drug content and penetration of

Design and characterization of polymeric microneedles containing extracts of Brazilian green propolis

• Camila Felix Vecchi,
• Rafaela Said dos Santos,
• Jéssica Bassi da Silva and
• Marcos Luciano Bruschi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 503–516, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.42

• , resulting in a factorial design of 32, totaling nine formulations for each type of extract, rendering a total of 18 formulations (Table 5). Firstly, each polymer was dispersed separately. To PVA, 8 mL of purified water were added, and the mixture was heated and stirred until completely dispersed. The

Zinc oxide nanostructures for fluorescence and Raman signal enhancement: a review

• Ioana Marica,
• Fran Nekvapil,
• Maria Ștefan,
• Cosmin Farcău and
• Alexandra Falamaș

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 472–490, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.40

• metal-based nanocomposites can present several disadvantages, such as the use of complex polymer stabilizers, which result in toxic activity [40], SERS deactivation [41], or undesired signals in SERS analysis. Therefore, simple and rapid metal decoration methods have been applied recently. Some of these

Tubular glassy carbon microneedles with fullerene-like tips for biomedical applications

• Sharali Malik and
• George E. Kostakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 455–461, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.38

• the nanoarchitectonics concept of bottom-up creation of functional materials, we use methane rather than a polymer to form glassy carbon. Here we show that tubular glassy carbon microneedles with fullerene-like tips form when methane undergoes pyrolysis on a curved alumina surface. X-ray diffraction

• it contains essentially only carbon atoms, its structure can be varied at all size levels.” More recently, S. Sharma in a review of glassy carbon materials concluded that “it has been confirmed by both theoretical and experimental investigation that the chemical composition of the polymer plays the

• most important role in determining the nature of the resulting glassy carbon” [9]. Sharma has also coined the term “polymer-derived carbons” for glassy carbon made by the thermal decomposition of polymers, which accounts for virtually all the glassy carbons found in the literature to date. In this

The role of sulfonate groups and hydrogen bonding in the proton conductivity of two coordination networks

• Ali Javed,
• Felix Steinke,
• Stephan Wöhlbrandt,
• Hana Bunzen,
• Norbert Stock and
• Michael Tiemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 437–443, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.36

• the Pb-based metal-organic framework, in contrast, no extended hydrogen bonding occurs, as the sulfonate groups coordinate to Pb2+, without forming hydrogen bonds; the proton conductivity is much lower in this material. Keywords: coordination network; coordination polymer; impedance spectroscopy

Electrostatic pull-in application in flexible devices: A review

• Teng Cai,
• Yuming Fang,
• Yingli Fang,
• Ruozhou Li,
• Ying Yu and
• Mingyang Huang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 390–403, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.32

• collapse, the preparation technology is complex. Li et al. [30] prepared cantilever GR-NEM switches with two or three terminals using amorphous silicon as sacrificial layer. Sun et al. [6] prepared a three-terminal switch using PMMA polymer as the sacrifice layer. The graphene beam area was 2.5 µm × 0.5 µm

• kV output voltage using 3D printed conductive polylactic acid polymer. In 2021, they [101] integrated a lithium niobate crystal, a piezoelectric cantilever switch, and a capacitive load into a single printed circuit board (PCB). The output voltage ranges from 15.5 to 1480 V, and the cantilever switch

Micro- and nanotechnology in biomedical engineering for cartilage tissue regeneration in osteoarthritis

• Zahra Nabizadeh,
• Mahmoud Nasrollahzadeh,
• Hamed Daemi,
• Mohamadreza Baghaban Eslaminejad,
• Ali Akbar Shabani,
• Mehdi Dadashpour,
• Majid Mirmohammadkhani and
• Davood Nasrabadi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 363–389, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.31

• -mimicking polymer and fabricated a 3D electrospun mat through electrospinning of PVA and sulfated alginate solutions. The results demonstrated that human bone marrow (hBM) MSCs attach appropriately and spread on the resulting nanofibrous mats. In addition, the results of type-II collagen expression and

• because they are not biodegradable and provide a more stable matrix in which osteoblasts can proliferate and deposit new ECM. The integration of CNTs into a polymer matrix would increase surface roughness and activate the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway [128], which is responsible for

Interfacial nanoarchitectonics for ZIF-8 membranes with enhanced gas separation

• Season S. Chen,
• Zhen-Jie Yang,
• Chia-Hao Chang,
• Hoong-Uei Koh,
• Sameerah I. Al-Saeedi,
• Kuo-Lun Tung and
• Kevin C.-W. Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 313–324, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.26

• ., strong acids or bases or organic solvents) compared to polymer substrates. The particle size of α-Al2O3 on dense top layers of these disks is around 200 nm (information from Fraunhofer IKTS, Germany). The porosity of the disks was measured as 41.58% by mercury porosimeter measurements. The XRD patterns

• fabricated in this work showed a lower separation factor but a higher CO2 permeance. Dense polymer materials in MMMs tend to lower the gas permeance. Conclusion ZIF-8 membranes embedded in porous α-Al2O3 disks were successfully fabricated via a simple one-step and low-pressure interfacial synthesis method

The effect of metal surface nanomorphology on the output performance of a TENG

• Yiru Wang,
• Xin Zhao,
• Yang Liu and
• Wenjun Zhou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 298–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.25

• of a metal and a polymer. There are different charge densities on different kinds of metal surface nanomorphology, which significantly influences the output performance of the TENG. Copper samples with different nanomorphology were obtained by controlling pH value, current density, electrolyte

• , such as template forming, plasma treatment, and chemical approaches. Previous studies mostly focused on the preparation process of the nanoscale morphology on the polymer surface [47][48][49]. The electrons on the polymer surface cannot be transferred to the conduction band and the charge cannot flow

• freely. Therefore, there is no high charge density on the tip surface of the polymer surface. Here, size and morphology of nanoscale copper were controlled by adjusting current density, temperature, pH value, and solution concentration during electrodeposition. The effects of different morphologies and

Systematic studies into uniform synthetic protein nanoparticles

• Nahal Habibi,
• Ava Mauser,
• Jeffery E. Raymond and
• Joerg Lahann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 274–283, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.22

• kcps). DLS results are the application of the Mark–Houwink equations within the software (Malvern Zetasizer Software 8.01.4906). The results generated from this makes assumptions regarding the intrinsic viscosity, which can only be an estimate since the local viscosity in polymer and/or protein

Effects of drug concentration and PLGA addition on the properties of electrospun ampicillin trihydrate-loaded PLA nanofibers

• Tuğba Eren Böncü and
• Nurten Ozdemir

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 245–254, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.19

• than that of PLA since the increase in polymer molecular weight increases the viscosity, causing an increase in nanofiber diameter [14][15][16]. In other studies conducted on PLA/PLGA nanofibers, it was found that an increase in the viscosity of the solutions caused an increase in nanofiber diameters

• [8]. It was also claimed that the viscosity, which is related to the molecular weight of the polymer and the concentration of the polymer solution, is one of the most effective parameters to tune fiber diameters [11]. The nanofiber diameter is also greatly affected by changes in polymer structure [17

• ][18] and crystallization properties of the polymer [19]. Since the crystallinity of PLGA is known to be lower than that of PLA [20] and its structure is different, the increase in diameter with the addition of PLGA may be related to the lower crystallinity and different structure of PLGA. In our