Collembola cuticles and the three-phase line tension

• Håkon Gundersen,
• Hans Petter Leinaas and
• Christian Thaulow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1714–1722, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.172

• springtails (Collembola) are superhydrophobic, but the mechanism has not been described in detail. Previous studies have suggested that overhanging surface structures play an important role, but such structures are not a universal trait among springtails with superhydrophobic cuticles. A novel wetting

• experiment with a fluorescent dye revealed the extent of wetting on exposed surface structures. Using simple wetting models to describe the composite wetting of the cuticular surface structures results in underestimating the contact angles of water. Including the three-phase line tension allows for a

• prediction of contact angles in the observed range. The discrepancy between the contact angle predicted by simple models and those observed is especially large in the springtail Cryptopygus clavatus which changes, seasonally, from superhydrophobic to wetting without a large change in surface structure; C

Air–water interface of submerged superhydrophobic surfaces imaged by atomic force microscopy

• Markus Moosmann,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Matthias Mail

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1671–1679, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.167

• , the surface shows air retention, with the exception of the lower right area. b) After about 3 minutes, a sudden change of the wetting state occurred, as the air layer collapsed on the upper left. c, d) The collapse occurred stepwise and erratically, propagating towards the cantilevers. In all cases

Process-specific mechanisms of vertically oriented graphene growth in plasmas

• Subrata Ghosh,
• Shyamal R. Polaki,
• Niranjan Kumar,
• Sankarakumar Amirthapandian,
• Mohamed Kamruddin and
• Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1658–1670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.166

• and the substrate, and (c) increasing the discharge power. The correlation between the wetting characteristics, morphology and structural quality is established. It is also demonstrated that morphology, crystallinity, wettability and sheet resistance of the VGNs can be varied while maintaining the

• properties of VGNs. The culturing rate of cancer cervical cells was found to strongly depend on the density of VGNs by Watanabe and co-workers [13]. Recently, Bo et al. [14] reported the tunability of wetting properties from hydrophobic to hydrophilic by reducing the intersheet spacing of VGNs for enhanced

• desired morphology. Wetting properties The desired wetting properties of materials are one of the important aspects from the application point of view. This wetting property depends on combined effect of several extrinsic and intrinsic factors including morphology, topography, surface texture, chemical

Surface functionalization of 3D-printed plastics via initiated chemical vapor deposition

• Christine Cheng and
• Malancha Gupta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1629–1636, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.162

• of 1.25 g/cm3. Since the uncoated PLA is hydrophobic, the pores of the lattice remained filled with air instead of wetting readily, which sufficiently reduced the overall density of the lattice causing it to float. Similarly, a lattice coated with PPFDA did not sink, because its enhanced

Nanotopographical control of surfaces using chemical vapor deposition processes

• Meike Koenig and
• Joerg Lahann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1250–1256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.126

• deposition of poly(p-xylylenes) (PPX), as well as plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition polymerization, both of which offer many advantages over solution-based deposition methods [4]. Since no solvents are involved, no wetting problems or problems with solvent residues arise, which can potentially

Study of the correlation between sensing performance and surface morphology of inkjet-printed aqueous graphene-based chemiresistors for NO₂ detection

• F. Villani,
• C. Schiattarella,
• T. Polichetti,
• R. Di Capua,
• F. Loffredo,
• B. Alfano,
• M. L. Miglietta,
• E. Massera,
• L. Verdoliva and
• G. Di Francia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1023–1031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.103

• = 20 kΩ). The device printed on alumina (device D-AO) resulted in 31 overlapped layers, so driving the base resistance to 30 kΩ, similar to those of the paper-based devices. The fourth typology of device has been fabricated on silicon dioxide. It should be pointed out that the wetting of the aqueous

Synthesis of coaxial nanotubes of polyaniline and poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) by oxidative/initiated chemical vapor deposition

• Alper Balkan,
• Efe Armagan and
• Gozde Ozaydin Ince

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 872–882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.89

• applications in light emitting diodes [15], photovoltaic cells [16][17], supercapacitors [18], sensors [19] and drug delivery [20]. During synthesis of these nanostructures, the use of solvents is a major drawback for homogeneity and conformal coatings, especially on high-aspect-ratio templates, due to wetting

Measuring adhesion on rough surfaces using atomic force microscopy with a liquid probe

• Juan V. Escobar,
• Cristina Garza and
• Rolando Castillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 813–825, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.84

• adhesion between a single peak or protrusion and the liquid drop. This procedure could provide useful microscopic information to improve our understanding of wetting phenomena on rough surfaces. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; force of adhesion; functionalized-tip cantilevers; liquid probe

• surfaces are in the appropriate range of AFM force measurements, as we will show below. The novel procedure we use to this end, could be used to provide untapped information about the fundamental understanding of wetting [11][12], and also for practical applications regarding supersolvophobic surfaces [13

• of drops attached to AFM cantilevers [18][19][20][21]. In all cases, the authors used an AFM to measure the interaction between oil droplets inside a water solution to probe the effect of additives adsorbed on the droplets. On the other hand, relevant works regarding the connection between wetting

Vapor deposition routes to conformal polymer thin films

• Priya Moni,
• Ahmed Al-Obeidi and
• Karen K. Gleason

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 723–735, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.76

• polymers on nylon membranes to be used in membrane distillation [2]. Conformal film coverage of the membrane microstructure is essential to prevent the wetting of liquid water, a critical property for this application. As seen in Figure 7a and Figure 7b, the overall structure of a nylon membrane before and

• wetting properties of capillary pore membranes, as seen in Figure 7c [4]. To determine the coating conformality, electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) was used to measure the fluorine signal down the pore wall of a coated membrane and presented in Figure 7d. While the fluorine signal is detected at the

Diffusion and surface alloying of gradient nanostructured metals

• Zhenbo Wang and
• Ke Lu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 547–560, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.59

• compared to conventional GBs has been demonstrated by the transformation of partial to complete GB wetting in Sn–Pb alloys during continuous strain by Straumal et al. [25]. However, this notion was confused by two works in the SPD Cu and Cu–Pb alloy [26][27], in which various defects such as vacancy

• dislocations) are difficult to be identified in GNS or SPD metals, it is argued that the GB diffusion might also be accelerated by GB thickening, resulting from either the GB prewetting (premelting) or the pseudo-partial GB wetting during sample preparation [46][47][48][49]. For example, a Zn-rich wetting

• the issues accelerating diffusion in the GNS layers, because no system (see Table 1) contains components which are inclined to form GB complexions connected with GB prewetting or pseudo-partial wetting [46][50]. Diffusion kinetics and free energy of different interfaces As illustrated in Figure 3a

Role of oxygen in wetting of copper nanoparticles on silicon surfaces at elevated temperature

• Tapas Ghosh and
• Biswarup Satpati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 425–433, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.45

• spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows that the thermal oxidation of the copper nanoparticles and formation of cupric oxide (CuO) on silicon surfaces leads to wetting rather than agglomeration. In contrast, agglomeration has been observed when copper nanoparticles were annealed in a

• nitrogen environment. The lattice transformation from cubic Cu to monoclinic CuO, and hence the change in surface energy of the particles, assists the wetting process. The occurrence of wetting during the oxidation step implies a strong interaction between the oxidized film and the silicon surface

• . Keywords: copper; cupric oxide; electron diffraction; galvanic displacement reaction; oxidation; surface wetting; transmission electron microscopy; Introduction The transition metal oxide cupric oxide (CuO) is a stable oxide of copper, and due to its diverse applications, immense research on CuO

Influence of hydrofluoric acid treatment on electroless deposition of Au clusters

• Rachela G. Milazzo,
• Antonio M. Mio,
• Giuseppe D’Arrigo,
• Emanuele Smecca,
• Alessandra Alberti,
• Gabriele Fisichella,
• Filippo Giannazzo,
• Corrado Spinella and
• Emanuele Rimini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 183–189, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.19

• , in the first case the layer-by-layer growth prevails while a 3D arrangement is promoted by the DHF pretreatment of 240 s. It is well known that HF strongly modifies the silicon surface roughness [26][27][28][29] and wetting properties [30]. The surface-free energy of gold is 1410 × 10−3 J/m−2, while

Ordering of Zn-centered porphyrin and phthalocyanine on TiO₂(011): STM studies

• Piotr Olszowski,
• Lukasz Zajac,
• Szymon Godlewski,
• Bartosz Such,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Res Jöhr,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Marek Szymonski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 99–107, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.11

• , Lojasiewicza 11, 30-348 Krakow, Poland, University of Basel, Department of Physics, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland 10.3762/bjnano.8.11 Abstract Zn(II)phthalocyanine molecules (ZnPc) were thermally deposited on a rutile TiO2(011) surface and on Zn(II)meso-tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPP) wetting

• have shown that copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) molecules deposited on rutile (011) could form ordered planar nanostructures up to a complete monolayer coverage. At higher deposition, this wetting layer of planar molecules became covered with 2-dimensional (2D) molecular islands which could be stabilized

• molecular structures were unstable against the STM tip, precluding any high-resolution imaging. It was found, however, that this situation could be greatly improved if the wetting layer of the native CuPc molecules was substituted by Zn(II)meso-tetraphenylporphyrins (ZnTPP) [5]. The present work extends

Impact of surface wettability on S-layer recrystallization: a real-time characterization by QCM-D

• Jagoba Iturri,
• Ana C. Vianna,
• Alberto Moreno-Cencerrado,
• Dietmar Pum,
• Uwe B. Sleytr and
• José Luis Toca-Herrera

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 91–98, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.10

• either oxidative treatments (UV/ozone) or vapor deposition of a fluorinated silane the wetting properties of the substrate could be easily tailored to be hydrophilic or hydrophobic. Then, exposure of the samples to SbpA and their subsequent evolution in time was followed in situ by QCM-D with the support

Structural and tribometric characterization of biomimetically inspired synthetic "insect adhesives"

• Matthias W. Speidel,
• Malte Kleemeier,
• Andreas Hartwig,
• Klaus Rischka,
• Angelika Ellermann,
• Rolf Daniels and
• Oliver Betz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 45–63, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.6

• since the tarsal adhesive secretion actually acting as a kind of "release-layer" (due to its reduced wetting ability according to its semi-solid consistence), minimizing the viscous dissipation of both the adhesive liquid and the viscoelastic pad material during detachment [48]. On the contrary

• similar to those of water, they probably show, because of their hydrocarbon components, additional functional properties of technical relevance such as improved resistance towards desiccation and contamination, and beneficial wetting properties towards both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces. The low

Obtaining and doping of InAs-QD/GaAs(001) nanostructures by ion beam sputtering

• Sergei N. Chebotarev,
• Alexander S. Pashchenko,
• Leonid S. Lunin,
• Elena N. Zhivotova,
• Georgy A. Erimeev and
• Marina L. Lunina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 12–20, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.2

• 150 eV. The angle of incidence of the beam was equal to 50°. The temperature ranged from 450 to 650 °C. It should be noted that thickness of the InAs wetting layer reaches 1.5–2 ML [34]. InAs/GaAs hut quantum dots contain two extra faces {137} in addition to four main faces {105} [35]. Besides hut

• a single hut QD with a clearly seen wetting layer. With increasing growth an increase of the size of the quantum dots is observed. The average dimensions of InAs dots at temperatures below 500 °C did not exceed 20 nm. It should be noted that the structural transition from hut to dome at a

When the going gets rough – studying the effect of surface roughness on the adhesive abilities of tree frogs

• Niall Crawford,
• Thomas Endlein,
• Jonathan T. Pham,
• Mathis Riehle and
• W. Jon P. Barnes

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2116–2131, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.201

• increased on a rough surface, the increase in the friction force in relation to the glass surface would be predicted. But why did it not occur in whole animal experiments? A clue to the answer comes from the whole animal experiments where wet and dry surfaces were compared (Figure 7). Wetting the surface

• bubbles under the pad in this situation, which are not mutually exclusive. First, the frogs may not be able to produce enough fluid to fill the increased space around the asperities. Second, the increased roughness may increase the drainage of fluid from the pad. Whatever the explanation, wetting the

Effect of nanostructured carbon coatings on the electrochemical performance of Li_1.4Ni_0.5Mn_0.5O_2+x-based cathode materials

• Konstantin A. Kurilenko,
• Oleg A. Shlyakhtin,
• Oleg A. Brylev,
• Dmitry I. Petukhov and
• Alexey V. Garshev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1960–1970, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.187

• in the samples can be associated with the observed features of the pyrolysis of precursors. Melting of linear PVA causes a wetting of LNM grains with the polymer melt followed by a relatively uniform pyrolysis of the thin polymer films on the surface of oxide crystallites. In the case of cross-linked

Ferromagnetic behaviour of ZnO: the role of grain boundaries

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

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1936–1947, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.185

• and structure of amorphous intercrystallite layers. The morphology and mutual arrangement of amorphous intergranular layers and nanocrystals recalls the structures appearing in case of grain boundary wetting [51][52]. In particular, the approaches developed for the description of so-called GB

Morphology of SiO₂ films as a key factor in alignment of liquid crystals with negative dielectric anisotropy

• Volodymyr Tkachenko,
• Antigone Marino,
• Eva Otón,
• Noureddine Bennis and
• Josè Manuel Otón

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1743–1748, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.167

• of particle incidence. Moreover, two-fold alignment domains can appear with two easy axes symmetrical with respect to that plane [4][8]. Amosova et al. [5] explained switching in LC alignment in terms of the length of the crystallites forming relief of the aligning surface and surface wetting by

• conditions, and LC wetting properties resulting in observed pretilt data spread for different experiments. LC alignment appears due to the competition of two orienting effects. The first is an effect of the columnar SiO2 relief, which tends to align the LC director along the pore axis [27]. The second is the

Scanning probe microscopy studies on the adsorption of selected molecular dyes on titania

• Jakub S. Prauzner-Bechcicki,
• Lukasz Zajac,
• Piotr Olszowski,
• Res Jöhr,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Bartosz Such,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Marek Szymonski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1642–1653, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.156

• assume that, in adopting these configurations, the interactions mediated by the π-orbitals of the molecule extending in the direction perpendicular to the molecular plane plays a pivotal role. At monolayer coverage, the molecules form a quasi-ordered wetting layer that includes regions comprising

• comprising molecules that are aligned with the given review. The first system comprises FePc molecules deposited on a monolayer of bipyridine (BiPy) used as a buffer layer [48], and the second is composed of CuPc molecules deposited on a wetting layer made of ZnTPP molecules [49]. The study of the FePc/BiPy

• a wetting layer of ZnTPP molecules deposited on TiO2(011) [49]. We have already discussed the results of experiments on both CuPc and ZnTPP molecules deposited onto rutile surfaces [33][43][56]. In the former case, the CuPc molecules formed a wetting layer of flat-lying molecules on which ordered

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

• artificially mimic the properties of surfaces found in nature [1][2][3][4] to produce exceptional wetting/dewetting properties, such as superhydrophobicity, superhydrophilicity, and superoleophobicity (more commonly known as superamniphobicity or superomniphobicity), has been a major topic for research over

• the past decade [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. There are countless examples of functional surfaces inspired by plants, such as lotus leaves [5][13] and the pitchers of carnivorous plants [9][14] that can be used to tune the wetting/de-wetting properties of surfaces on various substrates

• . Certain of these natural surfaces can effectively prevent wetting by water, while simultaneously protecting against attachment by insects by taking advantage of the same or very similar surface features [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Unfortunately, these natural anti-attachment properties have received

Three-gradient regular solution model for simple liquids wetting complex surface topologies

• Sabine Akerboom,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Frans A. M. Leermakers

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1377–1396, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.129

• with a complex surface topology to study the shape of a liquid drop in advancing and receding wetting scenarios. More specifically, we study droplets on an inverse opal: spherical cavities in a hexagonal pattern. In line with experimental data, we find that the surface may switch from hydrophilic

• (contact angle on a smooth surface θY < 90°) to hydrophobic (effective advancing contact angle θ > 90°). Both the Wenzel wetting state, that is cavities under the liquid are filled, as well as the Cassie–Baxter wetting state, that is air entrapment in the cavities under the liquid, were observed using our

• found. Therefore, the full 3D-structure of the inverse opal, rather than a simple parameter such as the wetting state or θkink, determines the final observed contact angle. Keywords: inverse opal; regular solution model; self-consistent field theory; surface topology; wetting; Introduction Wetting of

Fast diffusion of silver in TiO₂ nanotube arrays

• Wanggang Zhang,
• Yiming Liu,
• Diaoyu Zhou,
• Hui Wang,
• Wei Liang and
• Fuqian Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1129–1140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.105

• the curvature effect on the distribution or wetting of Ag on the surface of the TiO2 nanotubes. According to the Gibbs–Thomson relation [35][36], the equilibrium concentration of solute atoms on a curved surface is determined by the surface energy and the mean curvature. Thus, the equilibrium

Cantilever bending based on humidity-actuated mesoporous silica/silicon bilayers

• Christian Ganser,
• Gerhard Fritz-Popovski,
• Roland Morak,
• Parvin Sharifi,
• Benedetta Marmiroli,
• Barbara Sartori,
• Heinz Amenitsch,
• Thomas Griesser,
• Christian Teichert and
• Oskar Paris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 637–644, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.56

• ) and on nanostructural parameters of the film (mean curvature and volume fraction). The only material-dependent properties entering are the Young’s modulus of the substrate and the change of the surface energy of the pore wall material with wetting, which for the silica–water interface is well known

• of surface energy Δγ of silica upon full wetting with water. Acknowledgements Financial support from the Federal Government of Styria in the Framework of the Human Technology Interface: Sensors for Medical Applications (HTI:SMApp) initiative under contract A3-22.M-5/2012-32 is gratefully