Low-cost formation of bulk and localized polymer-derived carbon nanodomains from polydimethylsiloxane

• Juan Carlos Castro Alcántara,
• Mariana Cerda Zorrilla,
• Lucia Cabriales,
• Luis Manuel León Rossano and
• Mathieu Hautefeuille

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 744–748, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.76

• temperature and the samples were carefully extracted with tweezers due to their brittle nature. Two very distinct types of residual layers were always observed after the CVD procedure: dark and shiny layers have been obtained in a highly repeatable manner under the previously described particular conditions

Increasing throughput of AFM-based single cell adhesion measurements through multisubstrate surfaces

• Miao Yu,
• Nico Strohmeyer,
• Jinghe Wang,
• Daniel J. Müller and
• Jonne Helenius

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 157–166, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.15

• (WPI) and any air bubbles were removed by gently pushing them out with tweezers before the dishes were heated at 80 °C for 20 min. To enhance the binding of the PDMS mask to the glass, both surfaces can be plasma cleaned in air for one minute before they are joined. However, PDMS surfaces become

The capillary adhesion technique: a versatile method for determining the liquid adhesion force and sample stiffness

• Daniel Gandyra,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Stanislav Gorb,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 11–18, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.2

• , here a trichome of the floating fern Salvinia molesta, is fixed at its base with reverse action tweezers. The tweezers are fixed on a stepper motor with the trichome tip facing downwards. Then, the tip is brought into contact with the surface of a liquid, here, water. When the trichome is pulled

• hair with Teflon-coated ends (poly(1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE), Teflon AF, Dupont, water contact angle approx. 120°). 15 hairs of each type were examined. They were fixed horizontally with the tweezers on a stepper motor, which served as a bending spring in contrast to the tension spring setup

• cantilever was attached was approximately horizontally fixed (11°) in the tweezers, see Figure 5). 15 independent measurements of the same calibrated cantilever were performed using the CAT, resulting in an average value for the water adhesion force of the cantilever tip of (11.8 ± 0.4 ± 0.3) µN and a spring

Model systems for studying cell adhesion and biomimetic actin networks

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johannes P. Frohnmayer and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1193–1202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.131

• diameters smaller than the persistence length of actin (≤ 15 μm) a fuzzy cortex formed while larger vesicles yielded a homogeneous network as confirmed by magnetic tweezers [59]. With actin cortices in GUVs, which were cross-linked by α-actinin and filamin, randomly linked networks were observed at 25 °C

Direct observation of microcavitation in underwater adhesion of mushroom-shaped adhesive microstructure

• Lars Heepe,
• Alexander E. Kovalev and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 903–909, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.103

• were glued to the force transducer. To ensure parallel alignment between samples and the glass slide, first individual MSAMSs were attached manually to the glass slide using tweezers while observing the proper contact via the microscope. Then, attached to the glass slide, samples were withdrawn at a

Optical near-fields & nearfield optics

• Alfred J. Meixner and
• Paul Leiderer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 186–187, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.19

• radiation could emerge from such structures (so-called spasers). The mechanical effects of the optical near-fields can be substantial. Examples are specially shaped nano-holes, studied by Rosa et al. [7], which can be much more efficiently used as plasmonic optical tweezers for nano-objects than the usual

• far-field tweezers. In spite of the high efficiency of plasmonic metal nanostructures, the near-field enhancement of dielectric structures is preferable for some applications. Walhorn et al. [8] have developed a method for the simultaneous recording of topography and fluorescence that allows for the

Dynamic nanoindentation by instrumented nanoindentation and force microscopy: a comparative review

• Sidney R. Cohen and
• Estelle Kalfon-Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 815–833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.93

• limited to, optical tweezers [1], surface force apparatus [2][3], nanomanipulators [4], electron and other microscopy techniques. Two techniques which have made great advances in the studies of nanomechanics are instrumented nanoindentation and scanning probe microscopy. The versatility and utility of

3D nano-structures for laser nano-manipulation

• Gediminas Seniutinas,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Gediminas Gervinskas,
• Etienne Brasselet and
• Saulius Juodkazis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 534–541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.62

• the metal cone is enough to resist the impact of the particle. The increase in z-force with the diameter is also consistent with single-beam tweezers, where the maximal force scales with the bead volume for particles, which are small with respect to the wavelength [20]. This is confirmed by examining

Ferromagnetic behaviour of Fe-doped ZnO nanograined films

• Boris B. Straumal,
• Svetlana G. Protasova,
• Andrei A. Mazilkin,
• Thomas Tietze,
• Eberhard Goering,
• Gisela Schütz,
• Petr B. Straumal and
• Brigitte Baretzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 361–369, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.42

• preparation procedure all possible precautions were taken to exclude any additional FM contaminations (for example, nonmagnetic ceramic scissors and tweezers, etc., were used). It is known from the literature [20] that the effect of a contaminated substrate can completely conceal the ferromagnetic signal of

Highly ordered ultralong magnetic nanowires wrapped in stacked graphene layers

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Jean-Luc Duvail,
• Eric Gautron,
• Wei Xu,
• Chang-Hwan Choi,
• Benoit Angleraud,
• Agnès Granier and
• Pierre-Yves Tessier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 846–851, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.95

• performed on a Hitachi H-9000 NAR microscope (LaB6 filament, 300 kV, Scherzer resolution: 0.18 nm). After the postannealing procedure of the carbon-containing Ni nanowires, the TEM specimens were prepared by a simple scratching of the sample surface with a pair of tweezers over a carbon-coated copper grid

Growth behaviour and mechanical properties of PLL/HA multilayer films studied by AFM

• Cagri Üzüm,
• Johannes Hellwig,
• Narayanan Madaboosi,
• Dmitry Volodkin and
• Regine von Klitzing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 778–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.87

• part of the PEM film was removed by scratching it with a sharp needle or tweezers. Scratching the film in one direction with the correct angle led to a very small rim on one side of the scratch, as shown in Figure 1. The scratched area was imaged in the buffer medium with a magnetically driven iDrive

Analysis of fluid flow around a beating artificial cilium

• Mojca Vilfan,
• Gašper Kokot,
• Andrej Vilfan,
• Natan Osterman,
• Blaž Kavčič,
• Igor Poberaj and
• Dušan Babič

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 163–171, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.16

• ; low Reynolds number hydrodynamics; magneto-optical tweezers; microfluidics; Introduction The ability to move or to generate a flow in the surrounding medium is essential for living organisms. Unicellular organisms, for example, move when searching for food or better living conditions. In

• avoid any wall effects, the flow was mapped and measured in the central part of the cell. Magneto-optical tweezers Once the cell was filled with the bead mixture, the artificial cilium was assembled with optical tweezers that were built around an inverted optical microscope (Zeiss, Axiovert 200M

• , Achroplan 63/0.9W objective; Nd:YAG laser, 1064 nm, acousto-optic deflectors IntraAction and beam-steering controller Tweez by Aresis, d.o.o.). After the coarse initial positioning of the beads, the optical tweezers were switched off. The attractive force between the beads that stabilised the chain, the

Distance dependence of near-field fluorescence enhancement and quenching of single quantum dots

• Volker Walhorn,
• Jan Paskarbeit,
• Heinrich Gotthard Frey,
• Alexander Harder and
• Dario Anselmetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 645–652, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.68

• techniques, e.g., AFM [5] or optical tweezers [6], opens up novel means of manipulating and controlling matter at the nanometer scale, and also applications such as optomechanics [7] and externally controlled optical switching [8][9][10][11]. Nevertheless, surface bound fluorescence assays require solid

Manipulation of gold colloidal nanoparticles with atomic force microscopy in dynamic mode: influence of particle–substrate chemistry and morphology, and of operating conditions

• Samer Darwich,
• Karine Mougin,
• Akshata Rao,
• Enrico Gnecco,
• Shrisudersan Jayaraman and
• Hamidou Haidara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 85–98, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.10

• manipulation systems. In the former, laser trapping (optical tweezers) or electrostatic or magnetic field forces are utilized. Thus, Yamomoto et al. [4] cut DNA using restriction enzymes on a laser trapped bead, Vonna et al. used magnetic tweezers and beads to stretch cell membranes [5] and Stroscio et al. [6