Structure and electrochemical performance of electrospun-ordered porous carbon/graphene composite nanofibers

• Yi Wang,
• Yanhua Song,
• Chengwei Ye and
• Lan Xu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1280–1290, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.112

• after carbonization and the reaction between the polymer and graphene. Electrochemical evaluation and capacitive deionization experiments The CGCNF membranes were cut into small pieces (1.0 cm × 1.0 cm) and oven- dried (DZF-6050, Shanghai Jinghong Scientific Instrument Co. Ltd., China) for one hour at

Ultrasensitive detection of cadmium ions using a microcantilever-based piezoresistive sensor for groundwater

• Dinesh Rotake,
• Anand Darji and
• Nitin Kale

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1242–1253, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.108

• graphene oxide (RGO)-based sensor and a microfluidic platform fabricated by [25][26][27] can be used with some surface modification for HMIs, but it is mostly capable of detecting in the micromolar range. A polymer-based microcantilever using an encapsulated piezoresistor has been proposed by Kale et al

Magnetic-field-assisted synthesis of anisotropic iron oxide particles: Effect of pH

• Andrey V. Shibaev,
• Petr V. Shvets,
• Darya E. Kessel,
• Roman A. Kamyshinsky,
• Anton S. Orekhov,
• Sergey S. Abramchuk,
• Alexei R. Khokhlov and
• Olga E. Philippova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1230–1241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.107

• batteries [8], preparation of hybrid organic–inorganic nanocomposites, and gels with polymer or surfactant-based matrices [20]. Among these applications, elongated particles (particularly nanorods) have many advantages over spherical nanoparticles [11][21][22]. Nanorods often have stronger magnetic

• [8][35]. On the one hand, these approaches are advantageous since as-prepared nanoparticles covered by surfactant or polymer molecules become more stable and less susceptible to fast agglomeration. On the other hand, the nanoparticle surfaces become covered by these compounds, which are sometimes

Influence of the magnetic nanoparticle coating on the magnetic relaxation time

• Mihaela Osaci and
• Matteo Cacciola

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1207–1216, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.105

• oleic acid coating method used on pristine nanoparticles [14]. Homogeneous, polymer-coated spherical magnetite nanoparticles with superparamagnetic properties have been successfully synthesised. The polymer coating provides extra stability to the magnetic nanoparticles in aqueous media [15]. To increase

• biocompatibility or to enable specific hydrophilic properties, nanoparticles were coated with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) [16]. Experimental data concerning how different coatings influence nanoparticle magnetic properties are quite controversial. A few studies indicate that a thin polymer coating layer enhances

• ., surface-to-surface separation between nanoparticles), and on the surface density of the polymer coating layer. Thus, the model uses the van der Waals interaction force equation, as follows [21]: where ri and rj are spherical particle radii of the i-th and j-th nanoparticles, is the versor of the

High permittivity, breakdown strength, and energy storage density of polythiophene-encapsulated BaTiO₃ nanoparticles

• Adnanullah Khan,
• Amir Habib and
• Adeel Afzal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1190–1197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.103

• Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Hafr Al Batin, PO Box 1803, Hafr Al Batin, 39524, Saudi Arabia 10.3762/bjnano.11.103 Abstract High permittivity and breakdown strength are desired to improve the energy storage density of dielectric materials based on reinforced polymer composites

• dielectric capacitors. To overcome these problems, BTO-polymer composite-based dielectric materials have been developed and extensively investigated. Organic polymers offer many advantages including higher breakdown strength, lighter mass, greater flexibility, processability, and cost efficiency [8]. However

• , they are inherently poor dielectrics with very low permittivity (values in the range of 2–10) [2]. Thus, organic polymers are often reinforced with ceramic-based dielectric materials such as BTO. The dielectric properties of BTO–polymer composites are known to improve considerably with the inclusion of

Photothermally active nanoparticles as a promising tool for eliminating bacteria and biofilms

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Laura D’Alfonso,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1134–1146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.98

• effectively [94]. To this end, iron oxide nanoparticles were coated with catechol-conjugated poly(vinylpyrrolidone) sulfobetaine and then self-assembled with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene). The latter polymer is capable of absorbing NIR light while capturing the bacteria, effectively releasing heat under

• -responsive cesium tungsten oxide (CsWO3) nanoparticles were immobilized into polymer dots and demonstrated a high antibacterial activity due to the generation of photothermal heat upon 5 min of NIR irradiation (laser intensity 2 W/cm2) [104]. Recent studies have been exploring strategies in which sunlight is

Applications of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in drug and therapeutic delivery, and biotechnological advancements

• Maria Suciu,
• Corina M. Ionescu,
• Alexandra Ciorita,
• Septimiu C. Tripon,
• Dragos Nica,
• Hani Al-Salami and
• Lucian Barbu-Tudoran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1092–1109, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.94

• increase in macrophages. The general consideration is that polymer coating offers colloidal stability, but in fact PVA-coated SPIONs are only stable in water at a certain pH value. In cell culture medium they agglomerate. Studies showed that the components of the medium, and not the calf serum added to the

Plant growth regulation by seed coating with films of alginate and auxin-intercalated layered double hydroxides

• Vander A. de Castro,
• Valber G. O. Duarte,
• Danúbia A. C. Nobre,
• Geraldo H. Silva,
• Vera R. L. Constantino,
• Frederico G. Pinto,
• Willian R. Macedo and
• Jairo Tronto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1082–1091, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.93

• diversity of crops and cultivation environments, it is necessary to seek more efficient modes of application, which lead to a homogeneous distribution and promote a sustained release according to the plants demand. Seed coating, using films containing a biodegradable polymer and auxins intercalated into

• auxin 1-naphthalenoacetic acid (ZnAl-NAA-LDH), (ii) the coating of bean seeds (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) with composite films produced from mixtures of alginate polymer and ZnAl-NAA-LDH, and (iii) the evaluation of the plant response by bioassays. The hybrid ZnAl-NAA-LDH was characterized by a set of

• five samples. One was the control without polymer coating. The other four samples were coated with pure alginate; alginate and ZnAl-CO3-LDH, alginate and NAA, or alginate and ZnAl-NAA-LDH, with four replications. Six bean seeds previously coated with polymer (as described in Table 1) were sown in each

Wet-spinning of magneto-responsive helical chitosan microfibers

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johanna Michel,
• Naiana Suter,
• Matheus Grande de Aguiar and
• Michael Maas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 991–999, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.83

• dressings [36], and nanohydroxyapatite was embedded into chitosan fibers for bone tissue engineering applications [37]. Likewise, magnetic iron oxide particles have been blended with chitosan to prepare electrospun composite fibers [38][39] to form magneto-responsive polymer nanocomposites for bone tissue

Effect of magnetic field, heat generation and absorption on nanofluid flow over a nonlinear stretching sheet

• Santoshi Misra and
• Govardhan Kamatam

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 976–990, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.82

• the way for substantial research in this field. Sheet stretching involves analysis using both linear and nonlinear equations (e.g., the polymer extrusion process) as reflected in the numerical study by Rana and Bhargava [7]. This study was extended by Das [8] and Hayat et al. [9], who used partial

A 3D-polyphenylalanine network inside porous alumina: Synthesis and characterization of an inorganic–organic composite membrane

• Jonathan Stott and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 938–951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.78

• ) in porous alumina membranes (ALOX-membranes) with respect to different solvent mixtures (tetrahydrofuran (THF) and dichloromethane (DCM)). It was found that increasing the volume fraction of DCM leads to an increasing amount of fibrillar polymer structures within the porous ALOX-membrane. A three

• -dimensional fibrillar network with intrinsic porosity was formed in DCM, whereas in THF, a dense and smooth polypeptide film was observed. A post-treatment with a mixture of chloroform and dichloroacetic acid leads to rearrangement of the morphology of the grafted polymer films. The analysis by scanning

• electron microscopy (SEM), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and contact angle measurements (CA) reveals a change in morphology of the grafted polymer films, which is due to the rearrangement of the secondary structure of the polypeptides. No significant loss of the surface-grafted polypeptides was

Key for crossing the BBB with nanoparticles: the rational design

• Sonia M. Lombardo,
• Marc Schneider,
• Akif E. Türeli and
• Nazende Günday Türeli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 866–883, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.72

• the brain by local delivery. Local delivery consists of directly delivering the drug to the brain by injection via a catheter or with the help of a convection-enhanced delivery system. Biodegradable polymer implants can also be used for sustained release of the drug [9][10]. These procedures require

• nature of the nanoparticle core composition, not only of the polymer, but also of the API [54]. The ability of surfactants to interact with apolipoproteins was confirmed in another study by Petri et al., where the efficacy of PBCA nanoparticles loaded with doxorubicin and coated with either PS80 or P188

• ., the polymer and API in use. Surface functionalization To be able to cross the BBB by RMT, nanoparticle surfaces can be functionalized with specific ligands. This approach has been well studied and a multitude of different ligands has been tested. Some of the recent advances for this approach are

Templating effect of single-layer graphene supported by an insulating substrate on the molecular orientation of lead phthalocyanine

• K. Priya Madhuri,
• Abhay A. Sagade,
• Pralay K. Santra and
• Neena S. John

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 814–820, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.66

• -on configuration are still observed. In the case of CVD graphene transferred on to substrates by the polymer method, it has been reported that the presence of polymer residues can cause edge-on orientation for pentacene on graphene [11]. However, in this work, effort has been taken to remove any

• polymer residues via thermal treatment [30]. Recently, Rafiee et al. found, in the context of wetting, that the van der Waals forces are not disrupted by the graphene sheet as it is extremely thin (ca. 0.3 nm) [14]. Hence, we consider that the edge-on configurations are formed under the influence of the

• . Further after the transfer, the substrates were heated to 400 °C in forming gas for 1 h to remove remaining polymer residues. The structural characteristics of the single-layer graphene were studied using a Horiba XploRA PLUS Raman spectrophotometer with a 532 nm laser and a 50× objective. The molecular

Nickel nanoparticles supported on a covalent triazine framework as electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reactions

• Secil Öztürk,
• Yu-Xuan Xiao,
• Dennis Dietrich,
• Beatriz Giesen,
• Juri Barthel,
• Jie Ying,
• Xiao-Yu Yang and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 770–781, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.62

• nitrogen-containing aromatic polymer frameworks with triazine rings, which exhibit high surface area, porosity, and thermal and chemical stability [21][22]. CTFs are promising materials for applications such as catalysts or catalyst support [23][24][25] and for energy storage and conversion [26][27][28

A novel dry-blending method to reduce the coefficient of thermal expansion of polymer templates for OTFT electrodes

• Xiangdong Ye,
• Bo Tian,
• Yuxuan Guo,
• Fan Fan and
• Anjiang Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 671–677, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.53

• Telecommunications, Xi’an 710121, China 10.3762/bjnano.11.53 Abstract Among the patterning technologies for organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs), the fabrication of OTFT electrodes using polymer templates has attracted much attention. However, deviations in the electrode alignment occur because the coefficient of

• thermal expansion (CTE) of the polymer template is much higher than the CTE of the dielectric layer. Here, a novel dry-blending method is described in which SiO2 nanoparticles are filled into a grooved silicon template, followed by permeation of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) into the SiO2 nanoparticle gaps

• -generation large-area, light-weight, flexible, and stretchable optoelectronic applications [1][2], including flexible displays [3], electronic papers [4], sensors [5], and medical applications [6]. Fabricating high-performance OTFTs usually requires that the electrodes on the polymer template are precisely

Silver-decorated gel-shell nanobeads: physicochemical characterization and evaluation of antibacterial properties

• Marta Bartel,
• Katarzyna Markowska,
• Marcin Strawski,
• Krystyna Wolska and
• Maciej Mazur

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 620–630, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.49

• layer producing silver nanoparticles but also transforms a fraction of sulfonic groups in the polymer to moieties with sulfur in a lower oxidation state, likely thiols. It is hypothesized that the generated thiol groups are anchoring the nanoparticles in the gel shell of the nanobeads stabilizing the

• ; Staphylococcus sp; Introduction Over the last several years, scientific advances in synthetic polymer materials resulted in a number of applications. With regard to this, special attention has been paid to polymer nanoparticles [1][2]. Polymer nanobeads have been used in various areas including electrochemistry

• [3][4], catalysis [5][6][7] and drug delivery [8][9]. The main advantages of such particles are large surface area and low density. The particles can be further modified to provide new properties to these materials. One modification is the incorporation of metal nanoparticles into the polymer beads

Soybean-derived blue photoluminescent carbon dots

• Shanshan Wang,
• Wei Sun,
• Dong-sheng Yang and
• Fuqian Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 606–619, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.48

• ] synthesized photoluminescent CDs of 1.5–4.5 nm in diameter from orange juice at 120 °C. Liu et al. [22] produced photoluminescent polymer nanodots of 3–5 nm in diameter by using grass as a precursor at 180 °C, and Zhu et al. [10] synthesized bifunctional blue-emission carbon nanodots with diameters of 13–40

Adsorptive removal of bulky dye molecules from water with mesoporous polyaniline-derived carbon

• Hyung Jun An,
• Jong Min Park,
• Nazmul Abedin Khan and
• Sung Hwa Jhung

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 597–605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.47

• ]. Moreover, highly porous carbon materials, especially with high nitrogen content, have been produced from various precursors including organic polymers [29][30][31][32][33] and MOFs [34][35][36][37][38]. Polyaniline (PANI), prepared from aniline, is a useful polymer in various fields because of its facile

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

• force [13] using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and reflection interference contrast microscopy (RICM). Fabrication conditions such as the type of polymer (e.g., thicker layers are formed by PEs having lower charge density) [14], concentration of the polymer

• prominent when there are many charged groups present in the system. The use of different charged groups for LbL assembly can impart unique responsiveness to LbL systems as the residual charges in the multilayer films can play an important role in manipulating the polymer/polymer interactions, thus leading

• important step for hollow multilayer capsule preparation is the dissolution and complete removal of its core whose size can vary from nanometers to micrometers. The template should be inert and should not affect the chemical and mechanical properties of the polymer shell. A wide range of organic and

Nanoparticles based on the zwitterionic pillar[5]arene and Ag⁺: synthesis, self-assembly and cytotoxicity in the human lung cancer cell line A549

• Dmitriy N. Shurpik,
• Denis A. Sevastyanov,
• Pavel V. Zelenikhin,
• Pavel L. Padnya,
• Vladimir G. Evtugyn,
• Yuriy N. Osin and
• Ivan I. Stoikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 421–431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.33

• the stability of supramolecular assemblies to pH changes [22][23]. Another remarkable property of sulfobetaine fragments is the ability to interact with silver ions [24][25][26] and participate in the stabilization of quantum dots [27]. It is worth noting that the use of polymer systems containing

Poly(1-vinylimidazole) polyplexes as novel therapeutic gene carriers for lung cancer therapy

• Gayathri Kandasamy,
• Elena N. Danilovtseva,
• Vadim V. Annenkov and
• Uma Maheswari Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 354–369, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.26

• efficiency of the formed complexes in A549 lung cancer cells. The polyplex formed was found to exhibit 66% complexation efficiency. The complexation was confirmed by gel retardation assays, FTIR and thermal analysis. The blank PVI polymer was not toxic to cells. The polyplex was found to exhibit excellent

• still effective gene carriers. The imidazole ring is involved in many physiological processes and therefore imidazole-containing systems have been investigated for a myriad of biological applications [5]. Poly(vinylimidazole) is a water-soluble polymer, which has been synthesized as poly(1

• -vinylimidazole) and poly(4-vinylimidazole) [6] by using different methods. The imidazole groups can be protonated at acidic pH values conferring cationic character to the polymer. The conformation of PVI chains were found to be altered on protonation that is dependent on the anions present in the system [7

Implementation of data-cube pump–probe KPFM on organic solar cells

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Olivier Bardagot and
• Renaud Demadrille

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 323–337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.24

• charges. The latter can eventually reach the collection electrodes of the device. Here, the low-bandgap polymer PTB7 was used as the donor and the fullerene derivative PC71BM as the acceptor. In the BHJ configuration [26], the D and A materials should form two interpenetrated networks phase-segregated at

• same features as the raw data however at a slightly lower noise level. Organic BHJ thin films processing, solar cell fabrication and characterization The PTB7:PC71BM BHJ thin film was deposited on an indium thin oxide (ITO) substrate coated with PEDOT:PSS (a hole-conducting polymer) following the

Understanding nanoparticle flow with a new in vitro experimental and computational approach using hydrogel channels

• Armel Boutchuen,
• Dell Zimmerman,
• Abdollah Arabshahi,
• John Melnyczuk and
• Soubantika Palchoudhury

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 296–309, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.22

• (PDI: 0.17) and 140 nm (PDI: 0.12), respectively. The iron oxide NP formulations showed similar surface charges (Figure 5c). The low absolute values of zeta potential of the NPs suggested positively charged surfaces stabilized via steric hindrances from the polymer coating. The experimental flow

Phase inversion-based nanoemulsions of medium chain triglyceride as potential drug delivery system for parenteral applications

• Eike Folker Busmann,
• Dailén García Martínez,
• Henrike Lucas and
• Karsten Mäder

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 213–224, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.16

• solutions of such surfactants increases nonlinearly with the solute concentration due to increasing polymer–solvent hydrogen bonding at low temperatures, which prevents the flow of solvent molecules in the solution and thus affects osmosis. This phenomenon is described by a modified polynomial van’t Hoff

Rational design of block copolymer self-assemblies in photodynamic therapy

• Maxime Demazeau,
• Laure Gibot,
• Anne-Françoise Mingotaud,
• Patricia Vicendo,
• Clément Roux and
• Barbara Lonetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 180–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.15

• the importance of intracellular targeting has been addressed. Keywords: intracellular targeting; micelles; photodynamic therapy (PDT); photochemistry; polymer; self-assembly; Review Introduction After Paul Ehrlich, in 1900, had the very first notion of a drug being delivered at will to a specific

• parallel to this development of stealth nanocarriers, polymer chemistry had progressed strongly with the emergence of controlled polymerization. After the discovery of so-called living polymerization (polymerization without any transfer nor any termination reaction) in the 1950’s, the development of

• controlled radical polymerization in the 1990’s provided polymer scientists with a range of chemical tools to synthesize polymers and copolymers exhibiting various architectures, from block and gradient to grafted polymers [7]. Designing new nanocarriers exhibiting an external shell based on PEG and a core