Straightforward synthesis of gold nanoparticles by adding water to an engineered small dendrimer

• Sébastien Gottis,
• Régis Laurent,
• Vincent Collière and
• Anne-Marie Caminade

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1110–1118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.95

• when the powdered form of this dendrimer was dissolved in water, as shown by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses. The dendrimers acted simultaneously as mild reducers and as nanoreactors, favoring the self-assembly of gold atoms and promoting

• a theoretical work was published in 2015 [65]. In this work, it was demonstrated that the first step required for the nonradical formation of an Au–Au bond was the presence of hydrogen followed by the insertion of a third gold atom to form a triangle by self-assembly. The release of only a small

• nanoreactor for the self-assembly of gold atoms, stabilizing the gold nanoparticles and inducing their water solubility forming colloidal suspensions. It must be emphasized that currently there is no other example of a comparable process in the literature. Possible extensions of this work should consider

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

• have attracted significant attention in the last decades. Due their secondary structures (α-helix or β-sheet), polypeptides form macromolecular block segments, which can undergo a self-assembly process under certain circumstances [24][25]. The intramolecular interactions between these macromolecules as

Simulations of the 2D self-assembly of tripod-shaped building blocks

• Łukasz Baran,
• Wojciech Rżysko and
• Edyta Słyk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 884–890, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.73

• diffraction pattern and average association number. Keywords: 2D materials; coarse-grained model; molecular simulations; self-assembly; structural characterization; tripod building blocks; Introduction On-surface synthesis is a newly developing field in chemistry that aims at making use of solid surfaces as

• this research, several factors have been established that can help to control the self-assembly process, such as precursor design [4][5], substrate nature and symmetry [6][7], type of solvent and its concentration, and thermodynamic conditions. The knowledge of the influence of these variables is

• ], tripod [15][16], tetrapod [17][18][19][20][21], and hexapod [22] architecture. Also, a lot of effort has been put into the investigation of the mixtures [23][24][25] and the guest-induced self-assembly [26] of aforementioned particles. An important aspect of the on-surface synthesis is that a lot of

Luminescent gold nanoclusters for bioimaging applications

• Nonappa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 533–546, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.42

• ; biosensing; gold nanoclusters; immunoassay; luminescence; self-assembly; theranostics; Introduction Imaging methods play a central role in understanding the structural and functional biological processes of biomolecules, cells, tissues, organs, and even entire living organisms [1][2]. The importance of

• complexes and SCQD-based nanomaterials. To improve the quantum yield and PL, various approaches have been developed including ligand engineering, selective doping to create alloy clusters, aggregation-induced emission, selective etching and self-assembly [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Ligands

• reported highly luminescent gold nanocluster frameworks (AuNCFs) using self-assembly through metal chelation [53]. Glutathione-capped AuNCs [Au25(SG)18] spontaneously self-assembled into spherical AuNCFs upon controlled addition of SnCl2 (Figure 6C). The size of the AuNCFs was tunable from 30 to 200 nm in

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

• release is an important aspect. Different types of driving forces define the physical and chemical properties of the capsules such as permeability, stability, stimuli responsiveness and its application in vitro and in vivo. Self-assembly formed by LbL deposition of alternatively charged PEs is governed by

Nanoarchitectonics: bottom-up creation of functional materials and systems

• Katsuhiko Ariga

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 450–452, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.36

• synthesis; nanoarchitectonics; nanotechnology; self-assembly; supramolecular; Given the significant and time-critical problems of energy shortage, environmental protection, and biomedical issues, the creation of new functional materials and systems for efficient energy production and storage [1][2

• , the chiral structure was found to control the self-assembly of nitrocinnamic amide amphiphiles [25]. Works related to the formation of higher-dimensional materials included, for example, the self-assembly of crystalline cellulose oligomers that resulted in nanoribbon networks [26], silicon nanowires

• that were formed by metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) [27], and the formation of high-tolerance crystalline hydrogels from cyclic dipeptides upon self-assembly [28]. In addition, a review on the use of DNA as the fundamental material building block for molecular and structural engineering [29

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

• and 2D biomedical coatings. Keywords: cytotoxicity; macrocyclic receptors; nanoparticles; pillar[5]arene; self-assembly; silver; Introduction The first use of silver (Ag) as a medicine dates back to Hippocrates, who used it as an antibacterial agent for the treatment of ulcers [1]. Over the past

• presence of a preorganized macrocyclic structure makes the process of controlled supramolecular self-assembly possible with certain coordination sites. In this paper, we report the first example of using nontoxic, water-soluble pillar[5]arene derivatives containing sulfobetaine fragments to produce

• nanoparticles with Ag+ ions using controlled supramolecular self-assembly. Results and Discussion Synthesis of decasubstituted pillar[5]arenes containing sulfobetaine fragments We previously developed a method [29] for introducing tertiary amino groups into the structure of pillar[5]arene. Diamines containing

Brome mosaic virus-like particles as siRNA nanocarriers for biomedical purposes

• Alfredo Nuñez-Rivera,
• Pierrick G. J. Fournier,
• Danna L. Arellano,
• Ana G. Rodriguez-Hernandez,
• Rafael Vazquez-Duhalt and
• Ruben D. Cadena-Nava

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 372–382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.28

• siRNA. VLPs nanovehicles containing siRNA were synthesized, taking advantage of the self-assembly of BMV capsid proteins. As a proof of concept, siRNA to silence the expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) was encapsidated into BMV capsid proteins. In order to optimize the siRNA encapsidation

Correction: Biocatalytic oligomerization-induced self-assembly of crystalline cellulose oligomers into nanoribbon networks assisted by organic solvents

• Yuuki Hata,
• Yuka Fukaya,
• Toshiki Sawada,
• Masahito Nishiura and
• Takeshi Serizawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 370–371, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.27

• ; oligomerization-induced self-assembly; organic solvent; The originally published Figure 4 contains wrong units on the y axes of both depicted CD spectra. The corrected Figure 4 is given below. Corrected Figure 4 of the original publication.

Using gold nanoparticles to detect single-nucleotide polymorphisms: toward liquid biopsy

• María Sanromán Iglesias and
• Marek Grzelczak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 263–284, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.20

• cyclically amplify the process of DNA self-assembly. The strategies based on enzymatic tools, on the other hand, are characterized by an extraordinary potential for signal amplification. The main advantages of using enzymes involve: a) the capability of modifying oligonucleotides (e.g., polymerases

• particles relative to each other are restricted, which imposes a colorimetric transition, i.e., a blueshift or redshift of the localized surface plasmon resonance [138]. It is reasonable to assume that development of biosensors for liquid biopsy will benefit from growing research on dynamic self-assembly of

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

• micelles or vesicles. The driving forces of this assembly are a loss of entropy during the self-assembly and different interactions acting on the monomer units of the polymer. Whereas polymer/polymer interactions are favored for the hydrophobic block, interactions between the hydrophobic block and water

• influencing the self-assembly behavior and, consequently, the photosensitizer loading ability. Typical endogenous triggers for pH- and redox-responsive drug delivery are i) acidic tumor tissues (pH 6.0–7.0), endosomes (pH 5.0–6.0) and lysosomes (pH 4.0–5.0) microenvironments, ii) high intracellular

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

• represents a seamless relationship between the molecular architectonics and nanoarchitectonics. The field of nanoarchitectonics has been introduced and pioneered by Aono and Ariga at NIMS, Japan, who reported numerous self-assembly approaches to construct a range of nanoarchitectures [23][24][25][26][27][28

• review, we attempted to cover the molecular architectonics of DNA, which comprises programmed self-assembly (DNA nanotechnology) and coassembly (templated DNA nanotechnology/functional DNA nanoarchitectonics) to produce diverse molecular and nanoarchitectures. The functional DNA nanoarchitectonics

• functional DNA nanoarchitectonics to realize practical applications. Classical DNA nanotechnology: programmed molecular self-assembly of DNA The use of DNA as a building block for the construction of nanomaterials typically involves exploitation of the WC base pairing and predictability of the structural

Label-free highly sensitive probe detection with novel hierarchical SERS substrates fabricated by nanoindentation and chemical reaction methods

• Jingran Zhang,
• Tianqi Jia,
• Yongda Yan,
• Li Wang,
• Peng Miao,
• Yimin Han,
• Xinming Zhang,
• Guangfeng Shi,
• Yanquan Geng,
• Zhankun Weng,
• Daniel Laipple and
• Zuobin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2483–2496, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.239

• ], nanostars [17][18], nanoantennas [19], and nanospheres [20]; these have been successfully machined by existing lithography-based technologies. Furthermore, hierarchical substrates have also been fabricated by a combination of lithography [21][22][23][24][25] and self-assembly. Matricardi et al. [21] used

• beam lithography and self-assembly methods to fabricate gold clusters of micrometer size and regular spacing. Subsequently, the detection resolution of 4-acetamidothiophenol was 0.05 g/L using the substrate. Nanoparticle cluster array structures with a size of 40 nm were fabricated by electron beam

• lithography and self-assembly methods [23]. Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus were detected with this substrate. However, the major limitation of lithography-based methods is the difficulty in machining more complex nanostructures, particularly complex 3D structures. Recently, tip-based micro

Small protein sequences can induce cellular uptake of complex nanohybrids

• Jan-Philip Merkl,
• Malak Safi,
• Christian Schmidtke,
• Fadi Aldeek,
• Johannes Ostermann,
• Tatiana Domitrovic,
• Sebastian Gärtner,
• John E. Johnson,
• Horst Weller and
• Hedi Mattoussi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2477–2482, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.238

• on the ability of functional fusion proteins presenting a lytic gamma peptide, to promote interactions with HeLa cells and delivery of large hybrid nanostructures. Keywords: bioconjugation; cellular uptake; nanoparticle hybrids; polymer encapsulation; self-assembly; Introduction Developing hybrid

• for the staining of cell membranes [4]. In two separate studies, Chan and co-workers described two interesting hybrid systems. In the first, a charge driven self-assembly of AuNPs and different-colour QDs into multicolour, non-blinking nanohybrids was introduced. These nanohybrids were then coupled to

• have also been discussed [12][14][15]. More recently, there have been a few reports discussing the use of luminescent Eu-loaded hydroxyapatite nanocrystals for rapid HeLa cancer cell imaging [9][11][16], or the nanostructure self‐assembly driven by amino acid coordination to increase the biological

Self-assembly of a terbium(III) 1D coordination polymer on mica

• Quentin Evrard,
• Giuseppe Cucinotta,
• Felix Houard,
• Guillaume Calvez,
• Yan Suffren,
• Carole Daiguebonne,
• Olivier Guillou,
• Andrea Caneschi,
• Matteo Mannini and
• Kevin Bernot

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2440–2448, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.234

• (375 µs) and the CHCl3 solution (13 µs) further reinforces the idea of water-induced growth. Keywords: atomic force microscopy (AFM); luminescence; nanostructuration; polymer; self-assembly; surface; terbium complexes; Introduction The study of materials for the realization of novel magnetic [1][2][3

• stability against moisture and air ensure the creation of molecular nanochains of several hundred nanometers length as observed by AFM. This self-assembly of molecules into chains is likely to be triggered by the presence of water on the air-cleaved mica surface. Indeed, the strong hydrophilicity of such

Design of a nanostructured mucoadhesive system containing curcumin for buccal application: from physicochemical to biological aspects

• Sabrina Barbosa de Souza Ferreira,
• Gustavo Braga,
• Évelin Lemos Oliveira,
• Jéssica Bassi da Silva,
• Hélen Cássia Rosseto,
• Lidiane Vizioli de Castro Hoshino,
• Mauro Luciano Baesso,
• Wilker Caetano,
• Craig Murdoch,
• Helen Elizabeth Colley and
• Marcos Luciano Bruschi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2304–2328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.222

• increase of temperature can promote the self-assembly from unimers to micelles, with large endothermic heat. In this sense, PPO-groups dehydrate in a hydrophobic core with a surrounding hydrated shell. Higher concentrations of P407 are used (15% to 20%, w/w) as colloidal gelling systems in a cubic

Adsorption and desorption of self-assembled L-cysteine monolayers on nanoporous gold monitored by in situ resistometry

• Elisabeth Hengge,
• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Rupert Bachler,
• Alexander Dennig,
• Bernd Nidetzky and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2275–2279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.219

• planar Au surfaces, self-assembly processes are known to occur in adsorption and ordering (also known as “standing up”) stages [6]. The adsorption and ordering of such monolayers has been subject to experimental as well as theoretical investigation for many years, mostly studying the deposition on single

Mannosylated brush copolymers based on poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(ε-caprolactone) as multivalent lectin-binding nanomaterials

• Stefania Ordanini,
• Wanda Celentano,
• Anna Bernardi and
• Francesco Cellesi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2192–2206, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.212

• number of pendant mannose, as well as the self-assembly behavior in water. Remarkably, when the ratios PEG/PCL were 9:1 or 8:2, the polymerizations achieved high conversions (≥87% after 6 h), as calculated from 1H NMR spectroscopy results (see Figure S2, Supporting Information File 1). The

• tendency may be due to the presence of the mannose residues that, being connected to the hydrophobic PCL chains, could affect the self-assembly of the macromolecules and generate some aggregates. Remarkably, four-arm species had a slightly lower Dh than the corresponding linear species. Turbidity assay The

The importance of design in nanoarchitectonics: multifractality in MACE silicon nanowires

• Stefania Carapezzi and
• Anna Cavallini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2094–2102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.204

• Stefania Carapezzi Anna Cavallini Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy DEI-ARCES, Viale del Risorgimento 2, 40125, Bologna, Italy 10.3762/bjnano.10.204 Abstract Background: Mechanisms of self-assembly/self-organization are

• design through suited statistical analysis tools. Results: We have investigated the self-assembly bundling process of nanowires fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE). First, we have applied theoretical models in order to obtain a quantitative estimation of the driving forces leading to

• self-assembly. Then, we have studied the surfaces of the nanoarchitectures by means of multifractal analysis. We have found that these systems are not simple monofractals, but that the more complex paradigm of multifractality (different fractal dimensions across different scales) has to be applied to

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

• by Masakazu Aono [54][55]. This conceptual methodology corresponds to the creation of functional materials from nanoscale units through combined processes, including organic synthesis, atomic/molecular manipulation, self-assembly, self-organization, stimuli-based arrangement, and biological treatment

• ][71], biological investigation [72][73][74][75], and biomedical applications [76][77][78]. As compared with simple self-assembly processes, nanoarchitectonics is advantageous for architecting hierarchical structures and interfacing between materials and devices. In addition, the fabrication of sensor

• can be obtained by molecular self-assembly [112][113][114] and template synthesis [115][116][117][118][119]. For example, various sensors with self-assembled fullerene materials and their carbonized materials as sensing structures were reported for aromatic gas vapors [120][121] and carbonized

Synthesis and potent cytotoxic activity of a novel diosgenin derivative and its phytosomes against lung cancer cells

• Liang Xu,
• Dekang Xu,
• Ziying Li,
• Yu Gao and
• Haijun Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1933–1942, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.189

• ingredients could undergo self-assembly into stable vesicles in aqueous solution, which could act as a vehicle to facilitate membrane transport [29]. Compared to liposomes, phytosomes can load more drug molecules, and showed enhanced stability in the lyophilization and reconstitution processes prior to use

High-tolerance crystalline hydrogels formed from self-assembling cyclic dipeptide

• Yongcai You,
• Ruirui Xing,
• Qianli Zou,
• Feng Shi and
• Xuehai Yan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1894–1901, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.184

• hydrogelator for the formation of supramolecular hydrogels. The unique hydrogen bonding in C-WY endows a high propensity for self-assembly and the resulting hydrogels are revealed to be crystalline. The crystalline hydrogels possess excellent mechanical capacity and superior tolerance to various harsh

• -assembly of cyclic dipeptides results in highly robust hydrogels which can be applied for electrochemical applications such as electrochemical supercapacitors. Keywords: crystalline hydrogel; cyclic dipeptide; electrochemical supercapacitors; nanoarchitectonics; self-assembly; Introduction On account of

• , which provide a substantial tendency for self-assembly and the formation of gels. In addition, other weak forces, such as π–π stacking, hydrophobic effect, electrostatic interactions, and van der Waals forces, are also serviceable in driving molecular self-assembly of CDPs toward the formation of gels

Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• annealing results in the periodically arranged columnar self-assembly of SiGe core–shell nanocrystals. An increase in photocurrent intensity by more than an order of magnitude was achieved by annealing. Furthermore, a detailed discussion is provided on strain development within the structures, the

• columnar self-assembly of NCs. The analysis showed a well-defined mapping of Si, Ge and Ti (/TiO2) with a small fraction of oxygen observed in the SiGe layer. The NCs columns are arranged periodically, having a width of NCs of 10–15 nm, with a gap of 5–6 nm amorphous SiGeO. We note that the small SiGe

• HiPIMS and dcMS followed by rapid thermal annealing (1 min) at different temperatures. It is shown that HiPIMS deposition facilitates the formation of small nanoparticles/clusters in the as-grown structures. A suitable selection of annealing temperature and time results in the columnar self-assembly of

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

• eukaryotic cells [3]. In particular, nanostructured composite shells (both hard and soft) deposited onto live cells have been shown to render the cells with novel mechanic and chemical functionalities [4][5][6]. In line with the concepts of nanoarchitectonics, cell surface engineering relies on the self

• -assembly of miniature building blocks to form biomimetic soft or rigid shells to encapsulate live cells rendering them with additional functionalities [7]. In general, there are three principal routes to engineer the cell walls or membranes of live cells: 1) deposition of charged or neutral polymers (that

Biocatalytic oligomerization-induced self-assembly of crystalline cellulose oligomers into nanoribbon networks assisted by organic solvents

• Yuuki Hata,
• Yuka Fukaya,
• Toshiki Sawada,
• Masahito Nishiura and
• Takeshi Serizawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1778–1788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.173

• robust assemblies, whereas the construction of self-assembled materials from such molecules is generally difficult due to their complicated chemical synthesis and low solubility in solvents. Enzyme-catalyzed oligomerization-induced self-assembly has been shown to be promising for creating

• nanoarchitectured crystalline oligosaccharide materials. However, the controlled self-assembly into organized hierarchical structures based on a simple method is still challenging. Herein, we demonstrate that the use of organic solvents as small-molecule additives allows for control of the oligomerization-induced

• self-assembly of cellulose oligomers into hierarchical nanoribbon network structures. In this study, we dealt with the cellodextrin phosphorylase-catalyzed oligomerization of phosphorylated glucose monomers from ᴅ-glucose primers, which produce precipitates of nanosheet-shaped crystals in aqueous