Design of polar self-assembling lactic acid derivatives possessing submicrometre helical pitch

• Alexej Bubnov,
• Cyril Vacek,
• Michał Czerwiński,
• Terezia Vojtylová,
• Wiktor Piecek and
• Věra Hamplová

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 333–341, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.33

• and for further utilisation in electro-optic devices based on the deformed helix ferroelectric effect. Keywords: ferroelectric liquid crystal; keto group; self-assembly on the nanoscale; soft ferroelectrics; submicrometre helical pitch length; Introduction The design of advanced self-assembling

Wafer-scale bioactive substrate patterning by chemical lift-off lithography

• Chong-You Chen,
• Chang-Ming Wang,
• Hsiang-Hua Li,
• Hong-Hseng Chan and
• Wei-Ssu Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 311–320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.31

• its great self-assembly behavior on Au and the suitable hydroxy-tail group toward the activated PDMS surface for the contact reaction [18][19][24][27]. A schematic illustration of the standard CLL operation is demonstrated in Figure 1, including PDMS activation, contact-induced reaction, lift-off

The nanofluidic confinement apparatus: studying confinement-dependent nanoparticle behavior and diffusion

• Stefan Fringes,
• Felix Holzner and
• Armin W. Knoll

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 301–310, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.30

• processes such as the anomalous diffusion in cellular environments [1][2], the delivery of drugs [3], the formation of colloidal crystals [4][5], particle sorting [6], and directed self-assembly [7]. Nanofluidic systems in general are characterized by spatial distances in at least one dimension of less than

Anchoring of a dye precursor on NiO(001) studied by non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Sara Freund,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Nathalie Marinakis,
• Edwin C. Constable,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Catherine E. Housecroft and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 242–249, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.26

• twice the length of a DCPDMbpy molecule) on the terraces indicates that the diffusion is limited, implying also a relatively strong adhesion to the surface at specific sites. To reduce the binding energy of the molecules and stimulate a self-assembly, the sample was annealed for 1 h at 150 °C. However

• CPD is increased above the islands compared to the bare NiO surface. In areas with a lower molecule density, e.g., at step edges and certain areas on the terraces, the CPD contrast is much weaker implying a direct influence of the self-assembly on the electrical surface properties. In summary

Al₂O₃/TiO₂ inverse opals from electrosprayed self-assembled templates

• Arnau Coll,
• Sandra Bermejo,
• David Hernández and
• Luís Castañer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 216–223, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.23

• fabrication of PCs with dimensions of hundreds of micrometers and larger with sufficient thickness that are free of defects is challenging and not easy to achieve with the conventional fabrication techniques [6][7]. Although self-assembly is one of the preferred deposition techniques (compared to alternative

• the orderly self-assembly of the nanoparticles due to the combination of several physical mechanisms – the most relevant for the self-assembly being the dielectrophoretic force [45][46]. In our experiments, the setup was adjusted using an off-the-shelf polystyrene solution in water (Corpuscular, Inc

Liquid-crystalline nanoarchitectures for tissue engineering

• Baeckkyoung Sung and
• Min-Ho Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 205–215, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.22

• packed dsDNA molecules in sperm heads [74][75] and in the dinoflagellate and bacterial chromosomes [76][77][78]. Tissue-mimectic liquid-crystalline biomaterials 3D self-organization and self-assembly of biocompatible LC structures satisfy essential characteristics required for tissue engineering

• domains have been fabricated by Stupp and co-workers, based on the self-assembly of cholesteryl oligo(L-lactic acid) [109]. In this system, the incorporation of the cholesteryl moiety and the short lactic acid chain enables cell membrane adherence and biodegradability, respectively. Thus, the layer-by

• peptide amphiphiles can be made to encapsulate living cells in an anisotropic monodomain gel [36]. The gel self-assembly is induced by cooling within a physiological temperature range via nozzle-protrusion into the salty buffer. During the process, human mesenchymal stem cells and HL-1 cardiomyocytes were

Co-reductive fabrication of carbon nanodots with high quantum yield for bioimaging of bacteria

• Jiajun Wang,
• Xia Liu,
• Gesmi Milcovich,
• Tzu-Yu Chen,
• Edel Durack,
• Sarah Mallen,
• Yongming Ruan,
• Xuexiang Weng and
• Sarah P. Hudson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 137–145, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.16

• ratio of urea and thiourea was varied. Remarkably, C-dots from sodium citrate, urea and thiourea resulted in a higher QY than those of citrate and urea or citrate and thiourea. To explain the differences in QY for these samples, we propose that sodium citrate serves as a self-assembly trigger for a

Growth model and structure evolution of Ag layers deposited on Ge films

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Jakub Kierdaszuk and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 66–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.9

• ongoing recrystallization. The Raman spectra of the Ge wetted Ag films were measured immediately after deposition and ten days later and demonstrated that the Ge atoms at the Ag grain boundaries form clusters of a few atoms where the Ge–Ge bonds are still present. Keywords: germanium; segregation; self

• -assembly; silver; thin films; Introduction Silver is a noble metal with lowest loss in the visible to the near-infrared wavelengths; therefore, the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) wave propagation length crucial for plasmonic devices is greatest at Ag/dielectric interfaces [1][2][3]. A pure Ag layer of 35

The rational design of a Au(I) precursor for focused electron beam induced deposition

• Ali Marashdeh,
• Thiadrik Tiesma,
• Niels J. C. van Velzen,
• Sjoerd Harder,
• Remco W. A. Havenith,
• Jeff T. M. De Hosson and
• Willem F. van Dorp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2753–2765, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.274

• . High-purity Au deposits are of interest for many applications, such as the directed self-assembly of functional organic molecules [45], seeds for the growth of nanorods or nanotubes [46] and for plasmonics [47]. Two Au(I) compounds have been used for the deposition of pure gold. Utke et al

Patterning of supported gold monolayers via chemical lift-off lithography

• Liane S. Slaughter,
• Kevin M. Cheung,
• Sami Kaappa,
• Huan H. Cao,
• Qing Yang,
• Thomas D. Young,
• Andrew C. Serino,
• Sami Malola,
• Jana M. Olson,
• Stephan Link,
• Hannu Häkkinen,
• Anne M. Andrews and
• Paul S. Weiss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2648–2661, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.265

• addition of the Au–mercaptoundecanol monolayers from the patterned Au regions on the Au-on-Si masters, and not by imprinting, as nanoimprinting would result in inverse height topographies from those observed in Figure 1E–H. Notably, after reannealing and further self-assembly of new alkanethiol monolayers

• DNA, or self-assembly and hybridization of DNA on unpatterned PDMS (Figure S5, Supporting Information File 1). Using CLL and fluorescence imaging, we produced images over square-millimeter areas with a lateral feature size spanning several orders of magnitude on the same substrates (Figure 2C,D). We

• chemically similar to bulk Au since they are amenable to self-assembly of thiols, and thus, to forming Au–S bonds. The chemical ability to modify the supported Au monolayers resulting from CLL implies opportunities for large-scale, transparent, sensor technologies, which could be straightforwardly fabricated

The role of ligands in coinage-metal nanoparticles for electronics

• Ioannis Kanelidis and
• Tobias Kraus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2625–2639, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.263

• properties of the resulting film, the morphology of particle films, and the nature of the interfaces. The effects of the ligands on sintering, cross-linking, and self-assembly of particles in electronic materials are discussed. Keywords: conductivity; inks; layers; ligands; nanoparticles; Introduction

• and facilitate self-assembly when the particles are applied to solid substrates [31]. Ligands that stabilize nanoparticles in suspension are used for the preparation of stable metal-based inks with increased shelf life. They are essential in order to achieve the high metal loadings required in many

• , and during deposition, where they may affect self-assembly, cross-linking, or sintering. The effects of ligands at all stages have implications on the electrical properties of the final particle-based materials. Finally, we review first reports on ligands in electrically conductive composites of

Strategy to discover full-length amyloid-beta peptide ligands using high-efficiency microarray technology

• Clelia Galati,
• Natalia Spinella,
• Lucio Renna,
• Danilo Milardi,
• Francesco Attanasio,
• Michele Francesco Maria Sciacca and
• Corrado Bongiorno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2446–2453, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.243

• self-recognition motif seeding amyloid growth. Therefore, peptides containing this sequence are supposed to interact with Aβ and eventually hinder its self-assembly [29]. This class of peptides was referred to as β-sheet breaker (BSB) peptides. The first example was proposed by Tjernberg, who in the

Fabrication of CeO₂–MO_x (M = Cu, Co, Ni) composite yolk–shell nanospheres with enhanced catalytic properties for CO oxidation

• Ling Liu,
• Jingjing Shi,
• Hongxia Cao,
• Ruiyu Wang and
• Ziwu Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2425–2437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.241

• activities. For instance, ZnCo2O4@CeO2 core@shell spheres [14] and Co3O4@CeO2 core@shell cubes [26] with tunable CeO2 shell thickness were prepared by a facile self-assembly method and exhibited promising performance in the catalytic oxidation of CO. Consequently, a suitable choice of templates or cerium

Increasing the stability of DNA nanostructure templates by atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃ and its application in imprinting lithography

• Hyojeong Kim,
• Kristin Arbutina,
• Anqin Xu and
• Haitao Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2363–2375, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.236

• rational design, the self-assembly of DNA can be brought into almost any shape with nanometer-scale precision and accuracy. Examples of such structures are one-dimensional (1D) [4][5][6][7], two-dimensional (2D) [8][9][10][11] and three-dimensional (3D) [12][13][14][15] nanostructures with diverse and

Expanding the molecular-ruler process through vapor deposition of hexadecanethiol

• Alexandra M. Patron,
• Timothy S. Hooker,
• Daniel F. Santavicca,
• Corey P. Causey and
• Thomas J. Mullen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2339–2344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.233

• architectures over large areas in conjunction with molecular self-assembly, which enables precise control over the physical and chemical properties of small local features. The molecular-ruler process, which most commonly uses mercaptoalkanoic acids and metal ions to generate metal-ligated multilayers, can be

• lithography [12][13]. One promising strategy for such fabrication utilizes top-down lithography to create complex architectures over large areas in conjunction with molecular self-assembly, which enables precise control over the physical and chemical properties of the small features [1][2]. The molecular

• -ruler process is a notable example of this hybrid approach as it couples conventional patterning methods with molecular self-assembly [14]. The molecular-ruler process can be employed to form nanogaps between registered metal surface features that have been generated using conventional lithographic

Fabrication of gold-coated PDMS surfaces with arrayed triangular micro/nanopyramids for use as SERS substrates

• Jingran Zhang,
• Yongda Yan,
• Peng Miao and
• Jianxiong Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2271–2282, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.227

• glass. A further advantage is that laser light can pass through the polymer substrate and reach the nanoparticle layer to activate the plasmon resonance, which generates the enormous SERS enhancement. A SERS substrate with good transparency and flexibility was prepared as a self-assembly of gold

Ta₂N₃ nanocrystals grown in Al₂O₃ thin layers

• Krešimir Salamon,
• Maja Buljan,
• Iva Šarić,
• Mladen Petravić and
• Sigrid Bernstorff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2162–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.215

• over 20 nm in diameter, show no spatial ordering, while the periodic structure of the ML was completely destroyed. The results presented here demonstrate a self-assembly process of tantalum nitride NPs, the morphological properties of which depend on the preparation conditions. This can be used as a

• generic procedure to realize highly tunable and designable optical properties of thin films containing transition-metal nitride nanocrystals. Keywords: nanocomposites; multilayers; refractory plasmonics; self-assembly; Ta2N3 nanoparticles; Introduction Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) can confine visible

• isolated nitride NPs within thin dielectric layers. An emphasis is placed here on the control of size and spatial arrangement of NPs, which should then ensure the desired optical properties. This is achieved by using reactive magnetron sputtering and the deposition procedure we already used for the self

Ester formation at the liquid–solid interface

• Nguyen T. N. Ha,
• Thiruvancheril G. Gopakumar,
• Nguyen D. C. Yen,
• Carola Mende,
• Lars Smykalla,
• Maik Schlesinger,
• Roy Buschbeck,
• Tobias Rüffer,
• Heinrich Lang,
• Michael Mehring and
• Michael Hietschold

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2139–2150, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.213

• esterification of benzene-1,4-diboronic acid and triphenylene-2,3,6,7,10,11-hexol to a 1,3,2-dioxaborole heterocycle has been studied by Zwaneveld et al. [19]. Trimesic acid (TMA) has become the “drosophila melanogaster molecule” for studies of self-assembly at crystalline surfaces both under UHV conditions [20

• the self-assembly of the synthesized monoester (see Supporting Information File 1) dissolved in undecanol as a reference experiment. The monoester was synthesized according to literature [36]. Figure 7 shows a self-assembled pattern of the synthesized monoester deposited at the HOPG–undecanol

• based on TMA, this could lead to 3- and/or 6-fold symmetric networks in contrast to 4-fold symmetric networks which have been already fabricated based on porphyrines. Conclusion In summary we have investigated the molecular self-assembly from a solution of TMA in undecanol at the HOPG–undecanol

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

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

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

• to produce artificial nacre is usually based on a self-assembly process involving clay nanosheets (nanoclays) and polymers. In general, the dispersed polymer-coated nanoclays naturally organize by liquid removal, leading to an organic-inorganic multi-layered assembly, the so-called brick-and-mortar

A comparative study of the nanoscale and macroscale tribological attributes of alumina and stainless steel surfaces immersed in aqueous suspensions of positively or negatively charged nanodiamonds

• Colin K. Curtis,
• Antonin Marek,
• Alex I. Smirnov and
• Jacqueline Krim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2045–2059, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.205

• experiments. Thus, this observation is in agreement with Liu’s electrostatic hypothesis [9]. We note that recently an electrostatic self-assembly seeding of monosized individual diamond nanoparticles (obtained by a detonation method) on silicon dioxide surfaces has been reported [51]. Although the latter

• study employed an aqueous dispersion of positively charged NDs, the silica surface is expected to be charged negatively at normal pH (IEP = 3.9, [50]) providing the same short-range electrostatic forces responsible for the ND surface self-assembly. The EIP of SS304 surfaces, however, is somewhat acidic

Identifying the nature of surface chemical modification for directed self-assembly of block copolymers

• Laura Evangelio,
• Federico Gramazio,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Michaela Gorgoi,
• Francisco Miguel Espinosa,
• Ricardo García,
• Francesc Pérez-Murano and
• Jordi Fraxedas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1972–1981, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.198

• the block copolymers. We have chosen hard X-ray high kinetic energy photoelectron spectroscopy as an exploration technique because it provides information on the electronic structure of buried interfaces. The outcome of the characterization sheds light onto key aspects of directed self-assembly

• : grafted brush layer, chemical pattern creation and brush/block co-polymer interface. Keywords: block copolymer; chemical guiding pattern; directed self-assembly; thin film; X-ray photoemission spectroscopy; Introduction Directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers (BCPs) is a chemical-based

• [5][6]. When the BCP self-assembly is used in combination with surface prepatterning, aligned structures of alternative phases of the blocks can be obtained. This is the principle of DSA. The main advantages are a relaxation of the resolution requirements of traditional lithography methods, as the

Fabrication of carbon nanospheres by the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile–poly(methyl methacrylate) core–shell composite nanoparticles

• Dafu Wei,
• Youwei Zhang and
• Jinping Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1897–1908, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.190

• nanospheres were first fabricated by Kowaleski et al. [31] via successive shell crosslinking, oxidization and carbonization of the micelles resulting from the self-assembly of PAN-b-poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) block copolymer in water. The crosslinked shell can retain the micelle structure during the heat

Self-assembly of chiral fluorescent nanoparticles based on water-soluble L-tryptophan derivatives of p-tert-butylthiacalix[4]arene

• Pavel L. Padnya,
• Irina A. Khripunova,
• Olga A. Mostovaya,
• Timur A. Mukhametzyanov,
• Vladimir G. Evtugyn,
• Vyacheslav V. Vorobev,
• Yuri N. Osin and
• Ivan I. Stoikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1825–1835, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.184

• feature of the compounds is the pronounced dependence of their spectral (emission and chiroptical) properties on the polarity of the solvent and the length of the linker between the macrocyclic and fluorophore parts of the molecule. Keywords: fluorescence; nanoparticles; self-assembly; thiacalixarene

• ][8]. Similarly, supramolecular particles can consist of various organic or inorganic components. However, most of the fluorescent water-soluble nanoparticles described in the literature are metal-based (silver, gold, copper, etc.) [9][10][11][12]. Noncovalent self-assembly is a promising approach for

Non-intuitive clustering of 9,10-phenanthrenequinone on Au(111)

• Ryan D. Brown,
• Rebecca C. Quardokus,
• Natalie A. Wasio,
• Jacob P. Petersen,
• Angela M. Silski,
• Steven A. Corcelli and
• S. Alex Kandel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1801–1807, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.181

• , as well as those formed during the deposition of 9-fluorenone, which does not exhibit this anomalous clustering behavior. Keywords: metastable clusters; 9,10-phenanthrenequinone; scanning tunneling microscopy; self-assembly; Introduction The goal of crystal engineering is to utilize a combination

• of intermolecular interactions, molecule–substrate interactions and growth conditions to produce a desired mesoscale or nanoscale structure through self-assembly [1][2]. Generally, this involves a careful selection of these interactions to produce an equilibrium supramolecular assembly that has the

• desired two- or three-dimensional structure [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. While this technique has been shown to be quite effective at achieving this goal, it is limited to geometries allowed by crystalline structures. Self-assembly under conditions far from equilibrium, under kinetic control, can produce a

(Metallo)porphyrins for potential materials science applications

• Lars Smykalla,
• Carola Mende,
• Michael Fronk,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Michael Hietschold,
• Georgeta Salvan,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn,
• Oliver G. Schmidt,
• Tobias Rüffer and
• Heinrich Lang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1786–1800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.180

• further, but also to benefit from advanced functionalities of deposited molecules. Furthermore, the molecules itself can be tailored to allow via their self-assembly the potential fabrication of devices with an application potential, which is still unforeseeable at this time. Herein, we review efforts to

• of those ensembles of (metallo)porphyrins in materials science is discussed. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; magneto-optical Kerr effect spectroscopy; scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy; self-assembly; surface-confined 2D polymerization; transport properties; Review Introduction

• lithography [22][23]) is to functionalize the (metallo)porphyrins with terminal groups that allow their self-assembly on surfaces. Self-assemblies, giving rise to well-defined long-range ordered lateral structures, are frequently reported [24][25][26][27][28]. For example, in case that (metallo)porphyrins