BergaCare SmartLipids: commercial lipophilic active concentrates for improved performance of dermal products

• Florence Olechowski,
• Rainer H. Müller and
• Sung Min Pyo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2152–2162, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.208

• melting point of the highest melting lipid, then the active agent is dissolved in the lipid melt and the melt containing the active agent is dispersed in a hot aqueous stabilizer solution (surfactant, polymer) of identical temperature by high-speed stirring to form a coarse emulsion. This pre-emulsion is

• efficient way to obtain occlusion in the hospital is to cover a cream-treated skin area with a plastic foil. Pharmaceutical transdermal patches benefit also from the occlusion effect of their polymer films, promoting penetration. However, such patches are of no or limited use for facial cosmetics. A

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond for nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging applications

• Alberto Boretti,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Jonathan Blackledge and
• Stefania Castelletto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2128–2151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.207

Microbubbles decorated with dendronized magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical imaging: effective stabilization via fluorous interactions

• Da Shi,
• Justine Wallyn,
• Dinh-Vu Nguyen,
• Francis Perton,
• Delphine Felder-Flesch,
• Sylvie Bégin-Colin,
• Mounir Maaloum and
• Marie Pierre Krafft

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2103–2115, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.205

• also been reported for enhanced gene and drug delivery [24]. These lipospheres consist of gas-filled spheres coated by a film of soybean oil that encases the cargo of nanoparticles and is itself contained within a film of phospholipids [24]. Both polymer-shelled MBs and lipospheres have some advantages

• , due to the dampening effect of the polymer shell or oil contained in the phospholipid coating [24][25]. One important difficulty encountered in the preparation of such magnetic MBs is that IONPs rapidly aggregate in aqueous media [25]. Commercially available 50 nm magnetic IONPs coated with

Incorporation of doxorubicin in different polymer nanoparticles and their anticancer activity

• Sebastian Pieper,
• Hannah Onafuye,
• Dennis Mulac,
• Jindrich Cinatl Jr.,
• Mark N. Wass,
• Martin Michaelis and
• Klaus Langer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2062–2072, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.201

• particle size is mainly influenced by the droplet size during the initial emulsification step. In principle, PLA nanoparticles can be prepared at a range of sizes that is determined by parameters including the preparation method, the exact polymer used, and the encapsulated drug [39][40][41][42

• 33.9 ± 0.5%, respectively). These loading efficiencies are in the range of those described for similar preparations, although higher drug loads have been described when using alternative PLGA-based formulations such as nanoparticles or micelles with doxorubicin covalently bound to the polymer

• such as nanoparticles or micelles with doxorubicin covalently bound to the polymer, nanoparticles produced by nanoprecipitation, micelles based on multi-arm star-shaped PLGA–PEG block copolymers, or nanopolymersomes [14][15][16][17][18]. Nanoparticle efficacy in cell culture Finally, the effects of

Review of advanced sensor devices employing nanoarchitectonics concepts

• Katsuhiko Ariga,
• Tatsuyuki Makita,
• Masato Ito,
• Taizo Mori,
• Shun Watanabe and
• Jun Takeya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2014–2030, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.198

• transistor with a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT/PSS) system modified with molecularly imprinted polymer films [106]. The selectivity factor of ʟ-tryptophan over ᴅ-tryptophan and that of ʟ-tyrosine over ᴅ-tyrosine were 11.6 and 14.5, respectively. Life activities are also

• particles [122]. Mesoporous carbons were used for sensing of tannins in acidic aqueous environment with highly cooperative adsorption in the mesochannels [123]. The nanoarchitectonic construction of carbon nanocages with high surface mesoporous structures [124] was integrated with electrospun polymer fibers

Optimization and performance of nitrogen-doped carbon dots as a color conversion layer for white-LED applications

• Tugrul Guner,
• Hurriyet Yuce,
• Didem Tascioglu,
• Eren Simsek,
• Umut Savaci,
• Aziz Genc,
• Servet Turan and
• Mustafa M. Demir

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2004–2013, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.197

• as color conversion layers in a white-LED configuration to generate white light. In order to resolve the red deficiency of this configuration, a commercial red phosphor was integrated into the system. Moreover, the N-CDots were also processed into polymer/N-CDot composite fibers, for which we

• with a low CCT were achieved. Experimental Materials and methods Diammonium hydrogen citrate and urea were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA) and used without further purification. PVP (MW: 58,000, Alfa Aeasar) was used in the form of the polymer matrix. Commercial red phosphor, Sr2Si5N8

Gold-coated plant virus as computed tomography imaging contrast agent

• Alaa A. A. Aljabali,
• Mazhar S. Al Zoubi,
• Khalid M. Al-Batanyeh,
• Ali Al-Radaideh,
• Mohammad A. Obeid,
• Abeer Al Sharabi,
• Walhan Alshaer,
• Bayan AbuFares,
• Tasnim Al-Zanati,
• Murtaza M. Tambuwala,
• Naveed Akbar and
• David J. Evans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1983–1993, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.195

• synthesized based on the previously described method [30], by the adsorption of positively charged polymer on the CPMV virus capsid followed by subsequent reduction of gold ions onto the virus capsid. The approach allowed for the control of the size and generated a highly monodisperse distribution with

Porous silver-coated pNIPAM-co-AAc hydrogel nanocapsules

• William W. Bryan,
• Riddhiman Medhi,
• Maria D. Marquez,
• Supparesk Rittikulsittichai,
• Michael Tran and
• T. Randall Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1973–1982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.194

• polymers to create a nanocomposite system in which the outer polymer shell can be thermally activated by absorption of light or by a magnetic field [41][61]. By combining the optical properties of nanoshells and the thermo-responsive activity of hydrogel polymers, the present study seeks to develop a

• nanoscale delivery system that can be targeted, optically activated, and subsequently release a payload (e.g., drugs). Notably, gold and silver nanoshells can be heated by application of NIR light and subsequently be used to transfer heat to an incorporated hydrogel polymer particle [69]. Upon heating

• hydrogel and polymer nanocomposites with silver nanoparticles [70][71][72][73]. However, to the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of NIR-active porous silver nanocapsules containing thermo-responsive hydrogel (or any kind of polymer) cores. The methods described herein illustrate the

Preservation of rutin nanosuspensions without the use of preservatives

• Pascal L. Stahr and
• Cornelia M. Keck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1902–1913, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.185

• onto the surface of the nanocrystals where it might interact with the polymer layer. This interaction might cause a re-arrangement of the already thin stabilizing layer around the nanocrystals and might therefore explain the decreased stabilization efficacy of the poloxamer in the preserved

Processing nanoporous organic polymers in liquid amines

• Jeehye Byun,
• Damien Thirion and
• Cafer T. Yavuz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1844–1850, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.179

• . Keywords: film; liquid amine; nanoparticles; nanoporous polymer; processibility; Introduction Nanoporous polymers offer permanent porosity along with robust and light-weight frameworks. The building-block approach for nanoporous polymers allows for a nearly infinite variety of architectures by changing

• chemistry and geometry of the monomers [1]. New discoveries on nanoporous polymers have been made based on different combinations of monomers yielding unique properties to the polymer structures. In particular, the high porosity of nanoporous polymers has gained significant attention in various applications

• organic frameworks [6], conjugated microporous polymers [7], covalent triazine frameworks [8], porous aromatic frameworks [9], porous polymer networks [10], and polymers of intrinsic microporosity [11]. We have been working on nanoporous covalent organic polymers (COP), focusing on structural durability

Nanoarchitectonics meets cell surface engineering: shape recognition of human cells by halloysite-doped silica cell imprints

• Elvira Rozhina,
• Ilnur Ishmukhametov,
• Svetlana Batasheva,
• Farida Akhatova and
• Rawil Fakhrullin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1818–1825, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.176

• of various functional composite materials [26]. The anisotropic shape (hollow tubules having lengths from 300 nm to 1–2 µm, 50–70 nm diameter, and 20 nm lumen) and surface chemistry (outer surface of SiO2, inner surface of Al2O3) make these nanotubes ideal carriers for novel catalysts, polymer

Toxicity and safety study of silver and gold nanoparticles functionalized with cysteine and glutathione

• Barbara Pem,
• Igor M. Pongrac,
• Lea Ulm,
• Ivan Pavičić,
• Valerije Vrček,
• Darija Domazet Jurašin,
• Marija Ljubojević,
• Adela Krivohlavek and
• Ivana Vinković Vrček

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1802–1817, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.175

• +). The comparison with data published on polymer-coated nanoparticles evidenced that surface modification with biothiols made them safer for the biological environment. In vitro evaluation on human cells demonstrated that the toxicity of AgNPs and AuNPs prepared in the presence of cysteine was similar to

• the polymer-based nanoparticles with the same core material, while the use of glutathione for nanoparticle stabilization was considerably less toxic. These results represent a significant contribution to understanding the role of biothiols on the fate and behavior of metal-based nanomaterials

• with data published on polymer-coated AgNPs and AuNPs (see Table S3 in Supporting Information File 1), the toxicity of GSH-AgNPs is similar to the toxicity effect of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) stabilized AgNPs on the same cell type as reported earlier [71][72]. The PVP-coated NPs were selected for

Growth dynamics and light scattering of gold nanoparticles in situ synthesized at high concentration in thin polymer films

• Corentin Guyot,
• Philippe Vandestrick,
• Ingrid Marenne,
• Olivier Deparis and
• Michel Voué

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1768–1777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.172

• Department, Namur, Belgium 10.3762/bjnano.10.172 Abstract Background: Numerous optical applications of nano-objects require a dispersion of the nanoparticles in a dielectric matrix. In order to achieve high particle concentrations, one can, as an alternative, directly grow the particles in a polymer or an

• inorganic film by, e.g., thermal annealing. Results: Simple laser reflection experiments showed that this growth process induced light scattering at the film/air interface. We report on this phenomenon, considering the growth dynamics of gold nanoparticles in a polymer film. The scattering of light was

• regimes in the dynamics of the nanoparticle growth and in the optical response of the nanocomposite. Keywords: gold; imaging ellipsometry; metal nanoparticles; plasmonic nanocomposite; polymer films; Introduction Over the last 20 years, numerous studies were carried out to investigate the optical

Novel hollow titanium dioxide nanospheres with antimicrobial activity against resistant bacteria

• Carol López de Dicastillo,
• Cristian Patiño,
• María José Galotto,
• Yesseny Vásquez-Martínez,
• Claudia Torrent,
• Daniela Alburquenque,
• Alejandro Pereira and
• Juan Escrig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1716–1725, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.167

• anatase titanium dioxide crystalline structure. Thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy studies demonstrated the absence of polymer residue after the calcination process. The antimicrobial properties of the developed CSTiO2 hollow nanospheres were evaluated against different

• solution and the type of polymer. On the other hand, ALD is a novel metal oxide deposition process with excellent thickness control due to its low temperature processing and separated superficial reactions between precursor materials. Precursors are pulsed one by one over a substrate in the chamber and

• (alumina) was necessary with the role of fixing the SPVP particles to avoid their detachment during the TiO2 ALD step. Finally, the calcination process, carried out at 600 °C under an air atmosphere, was applied to remove the PVP polymer from the structures, resulting in hollow titanium dioxide nanospheres

Precise local control of liquid crystal pretilt on polymer layers by focused ion beam nanopatterning

• Maxim V. Gorkunov,
• Irina V. Kasyanova,
• Vladimir V. Artemov,
• Alena V. Mamonova and
• Serguei P. Palto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1691–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.164

• alignment of rubbed polymer layers can be locally flipped to vertical by irradiation with a focused ion beam on a scale of tens of nanometers. Results: We propose a digital method to precisely steer the liquid crystal director tilt at polymer surfaces by combining micrometer-size areas treated with focused

• : The possibility of nanofabrication of polymer substrates supporting an arbitrary (from planar to vertical) spatially inhomogeneous liquid crystal alignment opens up prospects of “imprinting” electrically tunable versatile metasurfaces constituting lenses, prisms and q-plates. Keywords: focused ion

• particular LC alignments are highly valuable. Thin polymer layers induce either vertical alignment of nematic LCs, with the director oriented orthogonally to the interface plane, or planar alignment, with the director aligned in parallel to this plane. It was empirically established half a century ago that

Subsurface imaging of flexible circuits via contact resonance atomic force microscopy

• Wenting Wang,
• Chengfu Ma,
• Yuhang Chen,
• Lei Zheng,
• Huarong Liu and
• Jiaru Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1636–1647, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.159

• embedded metal layer leads to an obvious CR-AFM frequency shift and therefore its unambiguous differentiation from the polymer matrix. The contact stiffness contrast, determined from the tracked frequency images, was employed for quantitative evaluation. The influence of various parameter settings and

• [1][2][3][4], heaters [5][6][7][8] and temperature sensors [9][10][11][12]. Successful applications can be found in smart contact lenses, transparent electronic devices and deformable electronic skin, for instance. In general, a flexible circuit consists of a highly flexible thin polymer film as the

• substrate on which conductive metal circuits are patterned. Another thin polymer coating is employed to protect the circuits from contamination and short circuiting. Such a sandwich structure permits the device to bend and fold flexibly, yet with other advantages including small volume, light weight, and so

Upcycling of polyurethane waste by mechanochemistry: synthesis of N-doped porous carbon materials for supercapacitor applications

• Christina Schneidermann,
• Pascal Otto,
• Desirée Leistenschneider,
• Sven Grätz,
• Claudia Eßbach and
• Lars Borchardt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1618–1627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.157

• that accumulate as plastic waste are poorly recyclable because of low recycling yields and insufficient properties of the recycled polymers in terms of elasticity, rheology, and thermal and mechanical stability [5]. Amongst them is PU, a thermosetting polymer with a cross-linked structure [5][11][12

• optionally be added to further increase the nitrogen content. Pre-milling of the PU foam and the mechanochemical reaction of all components are carried out in a planetary ball mill. The received polymer mixture is carbonized to form a nitrogen-doped carbon material with a surface area of up to 2150 m2·g−1

• aqueous Li2SO4, organic TEA-BF4 in acetonitrile, and an ionic liquid EMIM-BF4 electrolyte. Results and Discussion Characterization and mechanochemical treatment of PU Polyurethane is a polymer formed by polyaddition of diisocyanates R1(–NCO)2 with polyols R2(–OH)n. It is characterized by the resulting

Materials nanoarchitectonics at two-dimensional liquid interfaces

• Katsuhiko Ariga,
• Michio Matsumoto,
• Taizo Mori and
• Lok Kumar Shrestha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1559–1587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.153

• alter their assembly patterns from hexagonal to squared upon applying lateral pressure. The transition is caused by the entropically driven molecular folding of the poly(4-vinylpyridine) moieties, in which the polymer transforms from a two-dimensional motif to a three-dimensional motif. The proposed

• Langmuir monolayer. Although the spread DNA origami pieces initially remained in the monomer form, the repeated mechanical compression and expansion of the Langmuir monolayer induced the interconnection of the rectangle pieces into one-dimensional polymer motifs. The origami–origami connections were formed

• ]. Interfacial polymerization at liquid interfaces is an already industrialized technique to produce conventional cross-linked polymer films/membranes. Interfacial polymerization of 2DCP films still remains in its infant stage in terms of controlling crystallinity, domain sizes, and generalities. However, the

High-temperature resistive gas sensors based on ZnO/SiC nanocomposites

• Vadim B. Platonov,
• Marina N. Rumyantseva,
• Alexander S. Frolov,
• Alexey D. Yapryntsev and
• Alexander M. Gaskov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1537–1547, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.151

• dispersed silicon carbide (SiC). In this work, ZnO and SiC nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning of polymer solutions followed by heat treatment, which is necessary for polymer removal and crystallization of semiconductor materials. ZnO/SiC nanocomposites (15–45 mol % SiC) were obtained by mixing

• , ultrathin fibers of SiC and metal oxides as well as MO/SiC composites from polymer solutions [16][17][18][19]. The combination of unlimited length, highly porous microstructure, and high surface area come together to create ideal gas sensor materials. In this work, we prepared ZnO/SiC nanocomposite

• Experimental part. The characteristics of the synthesized materials are summarized in Table 1. Figure 2 shows the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs of SiC (Figure 2a,c) and ZnO (Figure 2b,d) nanofibers in a polymer matrix (Figure 2a,b) and after annealing (Figure 2c,d). The polymeric fibers

Synthesis of P- and N-doped carbon catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction via controlled phosphoric acid treatment of folic acid

• Rieko Kobayashi,
• Takafumi Ishii,
• Yasuo Imashiro and
• Jun-ichi Ozaki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1497–1510, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.148

• acid; oxygen reduction reaction; phosphoric acid treatment; PN-doped carbon catalysts; polymer electrolyte fuel cells; Introduction The widespread application of fuel cells as clean energy sources is the most desirable way of realizing a low-CO2-emission society. In conventional polymer electrolyte

• , co-doping with P and N was found to be an effective way of increasing the ORR activity of carbon materials [22][23][24][25][26]. Most of the reported PN-doping techniques involve the carbonization of [N-containing polymer + P-containing compound] mixtures or of ionic liquids containing both N and P

Hierarchically structured 3D carbon nanotube electrodes for electrocatalytic applications

• Pei Wang,
• Katarzyna Kulp and
• Michael Bron

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1475–1487, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.146

• (3D) structures by attaching other nanofibers or carbon materials. Examples are nanofibers distributed on polymer-based microfibers, CNTs grown on graphene, CNT–carbon black hybrids, graphene- or polymer-coated CNTs, and so on [45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. Another approach for hierarchical structuring

Growth of lithium hydride thin films from solutions: Towards solution atomic layer deposition of lithiated films

• Ivan Kundrata,
• Karol Fröhlich,
• Lubomír Vančo,
• Matej Mičušík and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.142

• , 91058 Erlangen, Germany Centre of Excellence for Advanced Materials Application SAS, Dúbravská cesta 5807/9, 841 04, Bratislava, Slovakia STU Centre for Nanodiagnostics, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Vazovova 5, 812 43 Bratislava, Slovakia Polymer Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences

Warped graphitic layers generated by oxidation of fullerene extraction residue and its oxygen reduction catalytic activity

• Machiko Takigami,
• Rieko Kobayashi,
• Takafumi Ishii,
• Yasuo Imashiro and
• Jun-ichi Ozaki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1391–1400, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.137

• Abstract Carbon-based oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts are regarded as a promising candidate to replace the currently used Pt catalyst in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs); however, the active sites remain under discussion. We predicted that warped graphitic layers (WGLs) are responsible for

• maximum specific ORR activity after 1 h of oxidation time. WGLs were found to lower the heat of adsorption for O2 and to increase the occurrence of heterogeneous electron transfer. Keywords: carbon alloy catalysts; fullerene extraction residue; oxygen reduction reaction (ORR); polymer electrolyte fuel

• cells; warped graphitic layers; Introduction Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are used as the power supply for automobiles and stationary devices. Cost reduction, specifically the cost reduction of cathode catalysts, is imperative to apply PEFCs for practical use [1]. Increasing the specific

A biomimetic nanofluidic diode based on surface-modified polymeric carbon nitride nanotubes

• Kai Xiao,
• Baris Kumru,
• Lu Chen,
• Lei Jiang,
• Bernhard V. K. J. Schmidt and
• Markus Antonietti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1316–1323, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.130

• ][10][11]. The ion transport in solid-state materials has been studied with various nanostructures, i.e., 1D nanopores/nanochannels/nanotubes, 2D layered membranes, and 3D porous membranes, which can be fabricated from inorganic, organic, and polymer materials [12][13]. To date, three main ion

Multicomponent bionanocomposites based on clay nanoarchitectures for electrochemical devices

• Giulia Lo Dico,
• Bernd Wicklein,
• Lorenzo Lisuzzo,
• Giuseppe Lazzara,
• Pilar Aranda and
• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1303–1315, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.129

• biocomposite: HNTs act as nanocontainers for bioactive species, GNPs provide electrical conductivity (enhanced by doping with MWCNTs) and, the CHI polymer matrix introduces mechanical and membrane properties that are of key significance for the development of electrochemical devices. The resulting

• recent years, the “nanoarchitectonics” concept has helped to develop a large variety of materials with new functionalities [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Among them, different types of functional materials based on clay minerals have been also prepared; pillared clays and polymer–clay nanocomposites are the best

• samples from Taxus basin (Spain) deposits [28]. The unique property of this nanofibrous clay is its ability to largely disaggregate in water after ultrasound treatment, creating thus a rigid, percolated network that can sustain co-dispersed compounds or reinforce polymer matrices [25][26][29