Mechanical property measurements enabled by short-term Fourier-transform of atomic force microscopy thermal deflection analysis

• Thomas Mathias,
• Roland Bennewitz and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 1952–1962, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.136

• data obtained from all material combinations evaluated in this study in each of the models. For example, Figure 4 shows that for soft materials, such as the Si–PDMS combination (silicon cantilever and PDMS substrate), all three models can be used to translate the oscillation frequency variation into a

Deep learning for enhancement of low-resolution and noisy scanning probe microscopy images

• Samuel Gelman,
• Irit Rosenhek-Goldian,
• Nir Kampf,
• Marek Patočka,
• Maricarmen Rios,
• Marcos Penedo,
• Georg Fantner,
• Amir Beker,
• Sidney R. Cohen and
• Ido Azuri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 1129–1140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.83

• , an important outcome of this work, besides resolution enhancement of low-resolution images with the SR deep learning models was the elimination of artifacts in the resulting AFM images. This can serve as a non-destructive method to obtain high-quality SR images of sensitive and soft materials

Soft materials nanoarchitectonics: liquid crystals, polymers, gels, biomaterials, and others

• Katsuhiko Ariga

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 1025–1067, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.77

• concept of nanoarchitecture, as a post-nanotechnology methodology, can be defined as the construction of functional materials from nanometer-sized units using a variety of materials processes. It is believed to be particularly well suited to the assembly of soft materials that exhibit flexible and diverse

• structures and properties. To demonstrate its effectiveness, this review takes typical soft materials, including liquid crystals, polymers, gels, and biological materials, as examples. The aims are to extract the properties that emerge from them and to highlight the challenges that lie ahead. The examples

• for diabetic bone defects, and bactericidal materials. As can be seen from these examples, soft materials nanoarchitectonics offers a wide range of material designs, specific functions, and potential applications. In addition, this review examines the current state and future of soft materials

A low-kiloelectronvolt focused ion beam strategy for processing low-thermal-conductance materials with nanoampere currents

• Annalena Wolff,
• Nico Klingner,
• William Thompson,
• Yinghong Zhou,
• Jinying Lin and
• Yin Xiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 1197–1207, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.97

• in the picoampere beam current range. The simulation results suggest that using lower ion energies such as 5 keV would allow one to FIB-process many biological as well as soft materials with beam currents from the picoampere to the nanoampere ion beam current range. Proposed model to estimate changes

Beyond biomimicry – next generation applications of bioinspired adhesives from microfluidics to composites

• Dan Sameoto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 965–976, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.79

• academic topic that has gained much popularity since approximately 2010 [13] and involves using very deformable materials like elastomers to build robotic sensors, actuators, and even simple logic circuits [14] that use nearly exclusively or primarily soft materials. Soft robotics can be, in theory, very

Gold nanomakura: nanoarchitectonics and their photothermal response in association with carrageenan hydrogels

• Nabojit Das,
• Vikas,
• Akash Kumar,
• Sanjeev Soni and
• Raja Gopal Rayavarapu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 678–693, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.56

• biomedical soft materials [21]. Similarly, a very recent introduction of kappa-carrageenan (k-CG) into the field of nanotechnology has shown immense potential in the synthesis of plasmonic metal nanoparticles [22]. K-carrageenan is well known and is being used in several biomedical applications due to its

• compared to AuNRs in exhibiting photothermal response within k-CG hydrogel beads show a possible use of the designed nanostructures for biomedical soft materials operating within the 600–700 nm window. However, a future study of the usage of these materials in biological systems is needed for exploiting

Elasticity, an often-overseen parameter in the development of nanoscale drug delivery systems

• Agnes-Valencia Weiss and
• Marc Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1149–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.95

• soft and deformable objects [25]. Dealing with hard materials might require to apply the Derjaguin–Muller–Toporov (DMT) theory [26]. Garcia gives a comprehensive overview about different models and contact theories for mechanical measurements of soft materials using AFM [27]. Further options are the

Self-assembly of Eucalyptus gunnii wax tubules and pure ß-diketone on HOPG and glass

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

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 939–949, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.70

• . This clearly shows that the crystallization process is determined by crystal-forming molecules and by the underlying substrate. It was demonstrated that AFM is a suitable tool to study dynamic processes, even in soft materials such as natural wax. With this technique it was possible to record the

Recent progress in actuation technologies of micro/nanorobots

• Ke Xu and
• Bing Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 756–765, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.59

• the speed of the nanoswimmer can be adjusted by the light intensity. Under a laser intensity of 5 W·cm−2, the nanoswimmer can reach a speed of 31.22 μm/s. The potential of this nanoswimmer in biomedical applications and active soft materials provides support for future research. Sato et al. [32

The nanomorphology of cell surfaces of adhered osteoblasts

• Christian Voelkner,
• Mirco Wendt,
• Regina Lange,
• Max Ulbrich,
• Martina Gruening,
• Susanne Staehlke,
• Barbara Nebe,
• Ingo Barke and
• Sylvia Speller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 242–256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.20

• setpoint and actual current at the time the approach is stopped is higher on hard materials than on soft materials (see, e.g., the white area on the right side of Figure 3b, corresponding to glass). The reason is the different slope of the current–distance curves [38]. Because of this, the delay between

• current sensing and motion termination results in a larger error signal on hard materials than on soft materials. Thus, the comparison between ion current error images of living and fixed cells can provide insight into the protein content in the ruffle volume, because fixation leads to crosslinking of

Determination of elastic moduli of elastic–plastic microspherical materials using nanoindentation simulation without mechanical polishing

• Hongzhou Li and
• Jialian Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 213–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.17

• greater in materials with larger E/σy ratios, such as soft materials. Hard materials and most polymers, ceramics, and glasses have small E/σy ratios. As E/σy decreases, corresponding to increases in the yield stress and decreases in hf/hmax, the size of the plastic zone decreases until, at some point, the

Impact of fluorination on interface energetics and growth of pentacene on Ag(111)

• Qi Wang,
• Meng-Ting Chen,
• Antoni Franco-Cañellas,
• Bin Shen,
• Thomas Geiger,
• Holger F. Bettinger,
• Frank Schreiber,
• Ingo Salzmann,
• Alexander Gerlach and
• Steffen Duhm

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1361–1370, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.120

• Qi Wang Meng-Ting Chen Antoni Franco-Canellas Bin Shen Thomas Geiger Holger F. Bettinger Frank Schreiber Ingo Salzmann Alexander Gerlach Steffen Duhm Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials

Gold and silver dichroic nanocomposite in the quest for 3D printing the Lycurgus cup

• Lars Kool,
• Floris Dekker,
• Anton Bunschoten,
• Glen J. Smales,
• Brian R. Pauw,
• Aldrik H. Velders and
• Vittorio Saggiomo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 16–23, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.2

• ]. This fabrication cannot be applied to soft materials, thus could not be 3D printed. In 2014, Tanabe’s group synthesised dichroic AgNP by photochemical reaction using different “white” light sources [11]. The most stunning green/red effect which the group presented was obtained by synthesising AgNP by

Abrupt elastic-to-plastic transition in pentagonal nanowires under bending

• Sergei Vlassov,
• Magnus Mets,
• Boris Polyakov,
• Jianjun Bian,
• Leonid Dorogin and
• Vahur Zadin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2468–2476, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.237

• by Russian Science Foundation project grant 18-19-00645 “Adhesion of polymer-based soft materials: from liquid to solid”; mechanical testing and FEM simulations were supported by Estonian Research Council projects PUT1689 and PUT1372.

Atomic force acoustic microscopy reveals the influence of substrate stiffness and topography on cell behavior

• Yan Liu,
• Li Li,
• Xing Chen,
• Ying Wang,
• Meng-Nan Liu,
• Jin Yan,
• Liang Cao,
• Lu Wang and
• Zuo-Bin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2329–2337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.223

• an effective tool to measure soft materials such as biomedical tissues and polymers [18]. A number of research groups have reported that the AFAM method can characterize mechanical properties of buried structures. For example, the influence of the thickness on the elastic properties of porous

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

• . Gels prepared by CDP self-assembly integrate the advantages of low molecular weight gels, including the multiple functionalities, adjustable performance, and dynamic features. CDP-based gels have been developed as smart soft materials for a multitude of applications. However, most of the attention is

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

• stiffness contrast is demonstrated in Figure 5c where different normal forces have been used. From all the experiments, much better stiffness contrasts and larger uncertainties can be found for the first eigenmode. Owing to the relatively soft materials employed in the flexible circuits, a softer cantilever

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

Mechanical and thermodynamic properties of Aβ₄₂, Aβ₄₀, and α-synuclein fibrils: a coarse-grained method to complement experimental studies

• Adolfo B. Poma,
• Horacio V. Guzman,
• Mai Suan Li and
• Panagiotis E. Theodorakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 500–513, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.51

• heterogeneous soft materials. We investigate both the elastic and thermodynamic properties of the biological fibrils in order to substantiate experimental nanomechanical characterization techniques that are quickly developing and reaching dynamic imaging with video rate capabilities. The computational method

The structural and chemical basis of temporary adhesion in the sea star Asterina gibbosa

• Birgit Lengerer,
• Marie Bonneel,
• Mathilde Lefevre,
• Elise Hennebert,
• Philippe Leclère,
• Emmanuel Gosselin,
• Peter Ladurner and
• Patrick Flammang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2071–2086, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.196

• its oscillation free amplitude in air. This mode is well adapted for soft materials such polymers or biological samples. Due to the fact that forces existing between the surface and the tip are intermittent and small, the technique preserves the samples from damaging while scanning their surface

Imaging of viscoelastic soft matter with small indentation using higher eigenmodes in single-eigenmode amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy

• Miead Nikfarjam,
• Enrique A. López-Guerra,
• Santiago D. Solares and
• Babak Eslami

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1116–1122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.103

• reasons. For example, (i) the arguments made based on Equation 1 rely on the order of magnitude of the various terms, and the quality of the approximation A ≈ A0 = F0Q/k decreases as the amplitude setpoint is decreased. Additionally, (ii) not all soft materials are equally viscoelastic. Some samples may

• ]. Nevertheless, as our results show, it may in many instances be possible to reduce tip–sample indentation of soft materials by using higher eigenmodes during their AFM characterization, keeping in mind the amplitude adjustments based on matching the product kiAi of different eigenmodes and taking advantage of

Review: Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based nanoelectromechanical switches – materials solutions and operational conditions

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Jelena Kosmaca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Jana Andzane and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 271–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.29

• experiment was carried out with an AFM in amplitude modulation mode complemented with molecular dynamics simulations. An exponential wear rate dependence on the peak force load was found, suggesting that lower contact forces are needed to reduce the wear rate. It should be noted that for soft materials

Luminescent supramolecular hydrogels from a tripeptide and nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots

• Maria C. Cringoli,
• Slavko Kralj,
• Marina Kurbasic,
• Massimo Urban and
• Silvia Marchesan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1553–1562, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.157

• gelling polymers, LMWGs have many advantages including well-defined chemical composition, and the possibility to achieve reversible gelation upon application of a specific trigger. Thus, smart, soft materials that can adapt to the environment can be obtained, mimicking natural biological tissues to

• useful approach to introduce additional properties to soft materials. In the case of self-assembling peptides, non-covalent π–π interactions between the nanocarbon and aromatic residues of the peptide offer a convenient means to bring the two components together into a supramolecular system [34]. This

• ]. In 2016, the interesting hydrogelation ability of guanosine 5′-monophosphate (5′-GMP)-derived CNDs was also reported [21]. To the best of our knowledge, the addition of CNDs to peptide-based hydrogels has not yet been investigated, despite this being an interesting class of supramolecular soft

Scaling law to determine peak forces in tapping-mode AFM experiments on finite elastic soft matter systems

• Horacio V. Guzman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 968–974, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.98

• . A closed-form analytical equation to estimate the tip–sample peak forces while imaging soft materials in liquid environment and within an elastic deformation regime has been deduced. We have combined a multivariate regression method with input from the virial–dissipation equations and Tatara’s

• words the dependence of the force is proportional to f(Eeff, Reff, Q, k, A0, Asp). Conclusion In short, we have deduced a closed-form equation that rapidly reproduces the peak force exerted by the AFM tip while imaging finite soft materials in liquid. The accuracy of this equation has been verified by

• means of numerical simulations for archetypical soft materials imaging conditions in AM-AFM based on Tatara’s contact mechanics. Those conditions are oscillation amplitudes in the range of 1–10 nm, and high set-point amplitudes (above 0.8A0). According to the Young’s moduli of the materials the

Nanoscale isoindigo-carriers: self-assembly and tunable properties

• Tatiana N. Pashirova,
• Andrei V. Bogdanov,
• Lenar I. Musin,
• Julia K. Voronina,
• Irek R. Nizameev,
• Marsil K. Kadirov,
• Vladimir F. Mironov,
• Lucia Ya. Zakharova,
• Shamil K. Latypov and
• Oleg G. Sinyashin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 313–324, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.34

• do not decrease the surface tension of the solvent (52 mN/m). They are surface-inactive compounds (Figure S9, Supporting Information File 1). The study of the entrapment of hydrophobic probes is a generally accepted assay for the potential of soft materials to be used as nanocontainers for

• toxicity as well as to minimize drug degradation and to provide a controllable drug release [51][52][53]. The modification of nanostructures with conjugated π–π fragments leads to the absorption of anticancer drugs via π–π stacking interaction and increases the drug-loading capacity of nanoscale soft

• materials [54]. The latter feature is essential for designing novel antitumor drugs. The second stage of the work was devoted to solubilize amphiphilic isoindigo derivatives using surfactants that are widely used in pharmaceutical industry. The aim of the present work was to investigate the ability of