Design of a biomimetic, small-scale artificial leaf surface for the study of environmental interactions

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

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 944–957, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.83

• formation of biofilms [25][26]. A measure of the degree of wetting is the contact angle θ (CA). It describes the angle between the liquid–vapor interface and the liquid–solid interface. According to the CA, surfaces can be classified as superhydrophilic (0° < θ < 10°), hydrophilic (10° ≤ θ < 90

• nanostructures) [27]. Due to this structural diversity and different chemical modifications, plant surfaces can have different wetting properties, ranging from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic [28]. An overview of the diverse microstructures and their influence on the wettability of plant surfaces is given

Micro- and nanotechnology in biomedical engineering for cartilage tissue regeneration in osteoarthritis

• Zahra Nabizadeh,
• Mahmoud Nasrollahzadeh,
• Hamed Daemi,
• Mohamadreza Baghaban Eslaminejad,
• Ali Akbar Shabani,
• Mehdi Dadashpour,
• Majid Mirmohammadkhani and
• Davood Nasrabadi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 363–389, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.31

• , and OH) and surface roughness to CNT, Antonioli et al. used oxygen plasma treatment and fabricated novel superhydrophilic VA–CTN films. This treatment could increase the wettability of the nanofilms to acquire appreciable cytocompatibility [134]. The chondrocytes expressed major chondrogenic markers

Engineered titania nanomaterials in advanced clinical applications

• Padmavati Sahare,
• Paulina Govea Alvarez,
• Juan Manual Sanchez Yanez,
• Gabriel Luna-Bárcenas,
• Samik Chakraborty,
• Sujay Paul and
• Miriam Estevez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 201–218, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.15

• become superhydrophilic under UV light, function well as photosensitizer. Subsequently, another study established the use of nanoscale TiO2 as a redox coating of in implants [9]. Titanium and its alloys are considered the most promising materials for implants due to their superior properties, which

A comprehensive review on electrospun nanohybrid membranes for wastewater treatment

• Senuri Kumarage,
• Imalka Munaweera and
• Nilwala Kottegoda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 137–159, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.10

• properties. Oil–water emulsions can be of two types, namely oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions, depending on the relative amounts of water and oil. For oil-in-water emulsions, superhydrophilic/superoleophobic membranes are used to permeate water through the membrane while rejecting oil. In the case of

• . developed a superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic nanofibrous membrane of PAN with hierarchically structured skin constructed by electrospraying silica nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) mixed in a dilute PAN solution on the top surface of an electrospun PAN membrane. The SiO2 NPs have been used to increase

• of the membrane. Owing to the higher number of negative charges in the presence of A-HNTS the membrane showed 94.9% dye rejection rate for anionic direct red 23 and efficiently removed Cu2+, Cd2+, and Cr6+ [82]. In addition to the above, Yin and co-workers successfully fabricated a superhydrophilic

A review on slip boundary conditions at the nanoscale: recent development and applications

• Ruifei Wang,
• Jin Chai,
• Bobo Luo,
• Xiong Liu,
• Jianting Zhang,
• Min Wu,
• Mingdan Wei and
• Zhuanyue Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1237–1251, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.91

• instance, with external perturbations) in spite of the critical importance they may have on nanoscale fluid transport behavior. Zhang et al. found that the negative slip length exists due to the superhydrophilic nature of the solid wall and also investigated the variation of the negative slip length with

Nanostructured and oriented metal–organic framework films enabling extreme surface wetting properties

• Andre Mähringer,
• Julian M. Rotter and
• Dana D. Medina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1994–2003, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.196

• nanostructured M-CAT-1 films exhibiting pronounced needle-like morphology on gold substrates were established by incorporating a crystallization promoter into the film synthesis. These nanostructured M-CAT-1 MOF films feature extreme wetting phenomena, specifically superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic

• . Keywords: antifog; antifouling; biomimetic coatings; metal–organic frameworks (MOFs); superhydrophilic; superoleophobic; thin films; vapor-assisted conversion; Introduction Over millions of years, plants and animals have evolved a spectrum of surface designs enabling specific wetting properties tailored

• -repellent designs and self-cleaning capabilities of their skin [10][11][12]. These intriguing superhydrophilic or superoleophobic surface characteristics are obtained by the combination of a precise chemical composition and hierarchical microstructuring of the surface [13][14][15][16]. Nowadays, modern

Rapid, ultraviolet-induced, reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic surfaces

• Yunlu Pan,
• Wenting Kong,
• Bharat Bhushan and
• Xuezeng Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 866–873, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.87

• superhydrophobic (WCA ≈ 165°) to a superhydrophilic (WCA ≈ 0°) state within 10 min upon UV illumination and subsequent recovery to superhydrophobicity occurred after heat treatment. It was found that the changes in the trimethoxy(alkyl)silane upon UV illumination can explain the rapid decrease of the WCA from more

• understanding, the effect of the trimethoxy(alkyl)silane concentration on the number of recycle cycles was investigated. Keywords: superhydrophilic surfaces; superhydrophobic surfaces; switchable wettability; TiO2; trimethoxy(alkyl)silane; UV illumination; Introduction Wettability is an important property of

• surfaces in a suspension of TiO2 modified with trimethoxypropyl saline. In this work, the wettability transition time from superhydrophobic (WCA ≈ 158°) to superhydrophilic (WCA ≈ 0°) occurred within 120 min of UV illumination. Although large range wettability switching can be achieved in many ways, the

Novel reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic surfaces induced by charge injection and heating

• Xiangdong Ye,
• Junwen Hou and
• Dongbao Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 840–847, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.84

• superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity has attracted widespread interest because of its important applications. In this work, we propose a reversible superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic conversion induced by charge injection and heating. Different from the conventional electrowetting phenomenon caused by the

• superhydrophilic by charge injection and heating, and the superhydrophobicity was restored by heating, verifying a reversible superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic conversion. The influence of voltage, temperature, and time on the coating wettability and its durability under reversible conversion have been studied

• . Keywords: charge injection; heating; reversible wettability; superhydrophilic; superhydrophobic; Introduction Surfaces that are capable of reversibly switchable wettability have attracted increasing interest, especially those able to switch between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity, and hence

Advanced scanning probe lithography using anatase-to-rutile transition to create localized TiO₂ nanorods

• Julian Kalb,
• Vanessa Knittel and
• Lukas Schmidt-Mende

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 412–418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.40

• adhesion between implants and body tissues [32]. Many of the listed applications could be refined into spatially resolved technologies such as locally controlled photocatalysis for molecule degradation, spatially resolved gas or molecule sensing, gradients on superhydrophilic surfaces with close-meshed

Biomimetic surface structures in steel fabricated with femtosecond laser pulses: influence of laser rescanning on morphology and wettability

• Camilo Florian Baron,
• Alexandros Mimidis,
• Daniel Puerto,
• Evangelos Skoulas,
• Emmanuel Stratakis,
• Javier Solis and
• Jan Siegel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2802–2812, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.262

• from an initial superhydrophilic state to a (super-) hydrophobic state within approximately 10 days, due to the progressive attachment of carbon and its compounds to the surface [46]. After this time, the surface has stabilized chemically and also in terms of its wetting behavior. As explained in the

Impact of the anodization time on the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ nanotubes

• Jesús A. Díaz-Real,
• Geyla C. Dubed-Bandomo,
• Juan Galindo-de-la-Rosa,
• Luis G. Arriaga,
• Janet Ledesma-García and
• Nicolas Alonso-Vante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2628–2643, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.244

• the different nanotube lengths and/or increase of the surface area. This observation is interesting when considering that the NT layers have an inherent superhydrophilic character allowing for easy electrolyte percolation [58]. However, the electrolyte percolation mechanism of the TNTs is complicated

Synthesis of carbon nanowalls from a single-source metal-organic precursor

• André Giese,
• Sebastian Schipporeit,
• Volker Buck and
• Nicolas Wöhrl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1895–1905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.181

• superhydrophilic properties, which has a significant effect on cell growth, making CNWs an interesting material for biotechnology (bio-sensors) and medical technology (implants, diagnostics) [13][17]. The growth of CNWs is often referred to as a three-stage process that was originally proposed by Kondo and co

Phospholipid arrays on porous polymer coatings generated by micro-contact spotting

• Sylwia Sekula-Neuner,
• Monica de Freitas,
• Lea-Marie Tröster,
• Tobias Jochum,
• Pavel A. Levkin,
• Michael Hirtz and
• Harald Fuchs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 715–722, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.75

• the therapeutic treatment for breast and prostate cancer patients. Keeping in mind previous applications of HEMA polymer in creating superhydrophilic–superhydrophobic micropatterned surfaces for cell patterning [28] and cell-screening applications [29][30], the addition of lipid arraying to the

Surface roughness rather than surface chemistry essentially affects insect adhesion

• Matt W. England,
• Tomoya Sato,
• Makoto Yagihashi,
• Atsushi Hozumi,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Elena V. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1471–1479, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.139

• commercially available superhydrophobic coating system, which was also used to prepare a rough superhydrophilic surface, by subjecting it to vacuum UV (VUV) light treatment. A superomniphobic surface (defined here as a surface exhibiting both superhydrophobicity and superoleophobicity) was created using candle

• Wet. Superhydrophilic surfaces were prepared by exposing superhydrophobic Never Wet surfaces to VUV light generated from an excimer lamp (Ushio Inc., UER20-172 V; λ = 172 nm and 10 mW/cm2) at 103 Pa for 2 min, hereafter referred to as VUV-Never Wet. Superomniphobic surfaces were prepared according to

• pressure, hereafter referred to as Soot-TMOS-FAS17Cl. Characterization of sample surfaces The thicknesses of the ODS and FAS17 monolayers were measured using ellipsometry (Philips, PZ2000). The thicknesses of the superhydrophobic (Never Wet), superhydrophilic (VUV-Never Wet), and superomniphobic films

Non-covalent and reversible functionalization of carbon nanotubes

• Antonello Di Crescenzo,
• Valeria Ettorre and
• Antonella Fontana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1675–1690, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.178

• irradiation converts the dispersant into a cation with a superhydrophilic nature and thus more prone to interact with water than with the nanotube surface. The CNTs dispersing ability of azobenzene polymers is also tunable by the light-promoted trans–cis isomerization of azobenzene units that allow to switch

Growth and structural discrimination of cortical neurons on randomly oriented and vertically aligned dense carbon nanotube networks

• Christoph Nick,
• Sandeep Yadav,
• Ravi Joshi,
• Christiane Thielemann and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1575–1579, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.169

• reported ability to tailor the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of such 3D aligned CNT structures over a wide range from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic [29] the directional cell growth on such structures should be possible and would thus allow understanding these observed preferences from a surface

Porous polymer coatings as substrates for the formation of high-fidelity micropatterns by quill-like pens

• Michael Hirtz,
• Marcus Lyon,
• Wenqian Feng,
• Andrea E. Holmes,
• Harald Fuchs and
• Pavel A. Levkin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 377–384, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.44

• polymer in the wetted state [4]. Such porous HEMA substrates were used for creating superhydrophilic–superhydrophobic micropatterned surfaces for cell-patterning [6] and cell-screening applications [7][8]. Here, we present an approach for the formation of high-fidelity microarrays of three-dimensional 20

Self-assembled monolayers and titanium dioxide: From surface patterning to potential applications

• Yaron Paz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 845–861, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.94

• selective deposition or growth of a large variety of materials. The photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide, enabling it to oxidize SAMs under the relatively weak intensity of UV light, together with the superhydrophilic nature of TiO2 upon exposure to that light and its mechanical and optical

• noteworthy that the hydrophobic spots were relatively large (0.5 mm in diameter), such that remote degradation effects were less acute for this system. One of the problems associated with the formation of hydrophobic–hydrophilic contrast patterns comprising a hydrophobic SAM on TiO2 and superhydrophilic

• therefore cannot be used to solve the problem of contrast loss. A novel approach for the construction of a renewable superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic surface was presented by Nishimoto et al. [62]. The approach is based on through-mask photocatalytic patterning of hydrophobic SAM on TiO2, followed by

Approaches to nanostructure control and functionalizations of polymer@silica hybrid nanograss generated by biomimetic silica mineralization on a self-assembled polyamine layer

• Jian-Jun Yuan and
• Ren-Hua Jin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 760–773, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.84

• –superhydrophilic) by surface hydrophobic treatment and UV irradiation. The anatase titania component in the nanograss film acts as a highly efficient photocatalyst for the decomposition of the low-surface-energy organic components attached to the nanosurface. The ease with which the nanostructure can be controlled

• on the preformed LPEI@silica nanograss surface, we were able to construct a smart silica@titania composite nanosurface that could switch its wetting behavior from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic state under UV irradiation (black light, 10 mW/cm−2). As shown in Figure 10, the native silica

• @titania composite nanograss surface was superhydrophilic (with θ = 0°) due to the high roughness and surface energy. After treatment with decyltrimethoxysilane (DecTMS) [46], the surface changed to become superhydrophobic with a water contact angle of about 179.8°. The water contact angles decreased to

Moisture harvesting and water transport through specialized micro-structures on the integument of lizards

• Philipp Comanns,
• Christian Effertz,
• Florian Hischen,
• Konrad Staudt,
• Wolfgang Böhme and
• Werner Baumgartner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 204–214, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.24

• replicas of the reptiles' integuments, we found that the honeycomb like structures render the surface superhydrophilic, most likely by holding a water film physically stable. Furthermore, the condensation of air humidity is improved on this surface by about 100% in comparison to unstructured surfaces. This

• directed to the mouth. Taken together we found that the micro ornamentation yields a superhydrophilic surface, and the semi-tubular capillaries allow for an efficient passive – and for Phrynosoma directed – transport of water. Keywords: capillary; horned lizard; rain harvesting; thorny devil; water

• . We further tried to mimic the properties and effects of the natural integument by manufacturing replicas of the surface topography. We found that in fact this micro ornamentation yields a super-wettable (superhydrophilic) surface, and the semi-tubular capillaries allow for an efficient – and in the