A 3D-polyphenylalanine network inside porous alumina: Synthesis and characterization of an inorganic–organic composite membrane

• Jonathan Stott and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 938–951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.78

• well as the mechanisms of gel formation have been studied in detail. Hydrophilic gels with functional side groups enable stimuli-responsive hydrogels with interesting properties with regards to drug release systems. A drawback of these gels is their low mechanical stability, which can however be

• deprotection of the side chain. This enables formation of pH-responsive hydrogels [28]. Stable, thermoresponsive organo-gels consisting of polybenzylglutamate-α-helices were studied by Niehoff et al. [29]. Gelated polybenzylglutamate molecules with molecular weight from approximately 7000 to 100 000 g/mol were

• "crosslinking" due to branching and rejoining of fibrillar supramolecular aggregates occurs. Nevertheless "end-to-end" and "side-to-side" interactions of the pBzg-α-helices are essential for the formation of fibrillar networks. Supported hydrogels that were attached to a porous substrate have been reported by

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

• approached, the morphological changes in PVP/PMA capsules were seen with the decrease in multilayer thickness due to disruption of hydrogen bonds [50]. When the same was cross-linked by carbodiimide chemistry, the swelling was observed at higher pH, leading to the formation of highly swollen hydrogels. To

• between β-cyclodextrin monolayers as host and polymers modified with adamantyl groups as guests, which also resulted in stable multilayers [61]. The first stimuli-responsive supramolecular hydrogels films based on these reactions were built in 2006 using β-cyclodextrin and adamantyl modified chitosan

• derivatives [62]. Photo-responsive and redox-responsive hydrogels of cyclodextrin with guest molecules of azobenzene and ferrocene have also been constructed [63]. Very few attempts have been made for fabrication of weak PE capsules under this category, as shown in Figure 3d [39]. Notably, the host and guest

Nanoarchitectonics: bottom-up creation of functional materials and systems

• Katsuhiko Ariga

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 450–452, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.36

• that were formed by metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) [27], and the formation of high-tolerance crystalline hydrogels from cyclic dipeptides upon self-assembly [28]. In addition, a review on the use of DNA as the fundamental material building block for molecular and structural engineering [29

Interactions at the cell membrane and pathways of internalization of nano-sized materials for nanomedicine

• Valentina Francia,
• Daphne Montizaan and
• Anna Salvati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 338–353, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.25

• required to wrap a lipid membrane around a nanoparticle with high aspect ratio [148]. However, also in relation to this aspect, conflicting results were found in which cross-linked poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels or mesoporous silica particles with higher aspect ratio were internalized quicker and more

• than those with low aspect ratio [125][149]. A few studies have investigated the effect of nanoparticle shape not only on uptake efficiency but also on the endocytic mechanisms involved in uptake [125][134][150]. Cylindric cationic poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels with two different aspect ratios (1 and

Understanding nanoparticle flow with a new in vitro experimental and computational approach using hydrogel channels

• Armel Boutchuen,
• Dell Zimmerman,
• Abdollah Arabshahi,
• John Melnyczuk and
• Soubantika Palchoudhury

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 296–309, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.22

• . Poly(hydroxyethyl)methacrylate hydrogels were used to form soft cylindrical constructs mimicking vascular sections as flow channels for synthesized iron oxide NPs in these first-of-its-kind transport experiments. Brownian dynamics and material of the flow channels played key roles in NP flow, based on

• highlights the reliability of our new in vitro technique in providing mechanistic insights of NP flow for potential preclinical stage applications. Keywords: computational fluid dynamics; drug delivery; iron oxide nanoparticles; nanoparticle flow; poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) hydrogels

• reliably represent the flow and adhesion during drug delivery, it is essential to construct mimics of human vascular network. Hydrogels are unique three-dimensional (3D) networks of insoluble polymers formed from two or more hydrophilic monomers that can absorb large quantities of water. The hydrogels

High-performance asymmetric supercapacitor made of NiMoO₄ nanorods@Co₃O₄ on a cellulose-based carbon aerogel

• Meixia Wang,
• Jing Zhang,
• Xibin Yi,
• Benxue Liu,
• Xinfu Zhao and
• Xiaochan Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 240–251, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.18

• stirring for 20 min and then dripped into a small beaker and stored at 75 °C for 6 h to form hydrogels. Then, the produced hydrogels were kept in ethanol for 7 days, and subsequently dried under supercritical CO2 to obtain cellulose aerogel. Finally, CA was obtained by carbonization of the cellulose

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

• between the bolaamphiphile and the oligoadenylic acids dTp–20–dTp/d(A)n, n = 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20, 40, strictly depended on the chain length of the oligoadenylic acid. Through the presence of equal amounts of adenine and thymine within the ensembles, it was possible to form hydrogels in water upon

Fully amino acid-based hydrogel as potential scaffold for cell culturing and drug delivery

• Dávid Juriga,
• Evelin Sipos,
• Orsolya Hegedűs,
• Gábor Varga,
• Miklós Zrínyi,
• Krisztina S. Nagy and
• Angéla Jedlovszky-Hajdú

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2579–2593, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.249

• , Nagyvarad square 4, Budapest, Hungary 10.3762/bjnano.10.249 Abstract Polymer hydrogels are ideal scaffolds for both tissue engineering and drug delivery. A great advantage of poly(amino acid)-based hydrogels is their high similarity to natural proteins. However, their expensive and complicated synthesis

• concentration of the elastically active chain were determined. After reduction of the disulfide bonds of CYS, the presence of thiol side groups was also detected. To determine the concentration of the reactive cross-linkers in the hydrogels, a new method based on the examination of the swelling behavior was

• reductive conditions resulted in an increased drug release due to the cleavage of disulfide bridges in the hydrogels. Consequently, these hydrogels provide new possibilities in the fields of both tissue engineering and controlled drug delivery. Keywords: biocompatibility; cystamine; hydrogel; lysine; poly

Design of a nanostructured mucoadhesive system containing curcumin for buccal application: from physicochemical to biological aspects

• Sabrina Barbosa de Souza Ferreira,
• Gustavo Braga,
• Évelin Lemos Oliveira,
• Jéssica Bassi da Silva,
• Hélen Cássia Rosseto,
• Lidiane Vizioli de Castro Hoshino,
• Mauro Luciano Baesso,
• Wilker Caetano,
• Craig Murdoch,
• Helen Elizabeth Colley and
• Marcos Luciano Bruschi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2304–2328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.222

• characteristics beneficial for pharmaceutical and biomedical use [1]. P407 is a non-ionic block copolymer with polypropylene oxide (PPO) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) segments, which can display thermoresponsive properties forming nanometer-sized micelles, hydrogels and lyotropic liquid crystals [2][3]. The

Porous silver-coated pNIPAM-co-AAc hydrogel nanocapsules

• William W. Bryan,
• Riddhiman Medhi,
• Maria D. Marquez,
• Supparesk Rittikulsittichai,
• Michael Tran and
• T. Randall Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1973–1982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.194

• . The morphology and composition of the composite nanoparticles were characterized by SEM, TEM, and FTIR, respectively. UV–vis spectroscopy was used to characterize the optical properties. Keywords: hydrogels; nanocapsules; photothermal delivery; poly(NIPAM); porous silver shells; Introduction

• adjusted, thus allowing thermally induced structural changes to occur over a wide range of temperatures rather than at one specific temperature. In particular, when poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (pNIPAM)-based hydrogels are co-polymerized with acrylic acid (pNIPAM-co-AAc) or acrylamide (pNIPAM-co-AAm), the

• hydrogels. Figure 1b shows an image of the pNIPAM-co-AAc hydrogels at high magnification. Using statistical image analysis of the SEM images, the typical size of the hydrogels was determined to be 787 ± 81 nm. To bind the negatively charged THPC gold nanoparticles to the surface of the hydrogel particles

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

• Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 10.3762/bjnano.10.184 Abstract Peptide-based supramolecular hydrogels, as a new type of biological nanoarchitectonic structure, hold great promise

• hydrogelator for the formation of supramolecular hydrogels. The unique hydrogen bonding in C-WY endows a high propensity for self-assembly and the resulting hydrogels are revealed to be crystalline. The crystalline hydrogels possess excellent mechanical capacity and superior tolerance to various harsh

• conditions, including in the presence of charged biopolymers, extreme acid/base environments, and changing thermal conditions. Such high tolerance enables the crystalline hydrogels to be applied in the complex and harsh environments of electrochemistry. In addition, this study demonstrates that the self

Biocatalytic oligomerization-induced self-assembly of crystalline cellulose oligomers into nanoribbon networks assisted by organic solvents

• Yuuki Hata,
• Yuka Fukaya,
• Toshiki Sawada,
• Masahito Nishiura and
• Takeshi Serizawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1778–1788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.173

• powdery state were used. The spectra were recorded on an FT/IR-4100 instrument (JASCO) at a cumulative measurement number of 100 and a resolution of 2.0 cm−1 under ambient conditions. For SEM observations, the water solvent of the hydrogels after purification was exchanged stepwise with 10, 20, 30, 40, 50

Multicomponent bionanocomposites based on clay nanoarchitectures for electrochemical devices

• Giulia Lo Dico,
• Bernd Wicklein,
• Lorenzo Lisuzzo,
• Giuseppe Lazzara,
• Pilar Aranda and
• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1303–1315, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.129

• values measured for other chitosan/clay foams (1.4 MPa) [51] and significantly higher than those of self-assembled graphene hydrogels (0.03–0.3 MPa) [52]. Notably, the specific modulus of the bionanocomposite foams was 50 kNm·kg−1, which is considerably higher than values reported for silica aerogels (5

Wearable, stable, highly sensitive hydrogel–graphene strain sensors

• Jian Lv,
• Chuncai Kong,
• Chao Yang,
• Lu Yin,
• Itthipon Jeerapan,
• Fangzhao Pu,
• Xiaojing Zhang,
• Sen Yang and
• Zhimao Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 475–480, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.47

• human skin has impeded further integration as a wearable sensing component [7]. Hydrogels, with mechanical properties like biological tissues and consisting of three-dimensional polymer networks that can retain a large amount of water, can serve as ideal vehicles for wearable devices [8][9]. Several

• composite material. The hydrogel, which is capable of withstanding relatively high temperature, was synthesized by the copolymerization of acrylic acid (AA) and acrylamide (AM) monomer in the water/glycerol solvent system under irradiation with UV light. A common problem of the reported hydrogels is the

• the uniaxial tensile strain–stress curves of the hydrogels fabricated with (WG-hydrogel) and without glycerol (W-hydrogel). Under the same strain, the WG-hydrogel shows less stress in the two strain–stress curves, indicating that including the glycerol provides the hydrogel with higher softness, thus

Anchoring Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in a reduced graphene oxide aerogel matrix via polydopamine coating

• Błażej Scheibe,
• Radosław Mrówczyński,
• Natalia Michalak,
• Karol Załęski,
• Michał Matczak,
• Mateusz Kempiński,
• Zuzanna Pietralik,
• Mikołaj Lewandowski,
• Stefan Jurga and
• Feliks Stobiecki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 591–601, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.55

• held in furnace at 180 °C (ramp 10 °C/min) for 2 hours. During hydrogel formation, the GO undergoes reduction. Therefore, further GO hydro-, alco- and aerogels are called reduced GO (rGO). As obtained rGO hydrogels underwent solvent exchange with subsequent 25%, 50%, 75%, 96%, 99.8% ethanol solutions

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

• modulus, porosity, surface roughness, and local anisotropy [102]. LC hydrogels and implants in nematic and smectic-A phases LC-ordered anisotropic gels have great potential to be directly applied to regenerative medicine therapeutics, due to their intrinsic tissue compatibility. Thermally or

• been reported [106]. Lamellar phase PLA-b-PEG-b-PLA hydrogels can be made to exhibit better biodegradability and higher swelling behavior than isotropic gels for medical purposes [107]. Thermotropic copolyester materials in nematic order can be also synthesized to be used as a bioresorbable and tissue

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

• 10.3762/bjnano.8.157 Abstract The combination of different components such as carbon nanostructures and organic gelators into composite nanostructured hydrogels is attracting wide interest for a variety of applications, including sensing and biomaterials. In particular, both supramolecular hydrogels that

• are formed from unprotected D,L-tripeptides bearing the Phe-Phe motif and nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots (NCNDs) are promising materials for biological use. In this work, they were combined to obtain luminescent, supramolecular hydrogels at physiological conditions. The self-assembly of a tripeptide

• upon application of a pH trigger was studied in the presence of NCNDs to evaluate effects at the supramolecular level. Luminescent hydrogels were obtained whereby NCND addition allowed the rheological properties to be fine-tuned and led to an overall more homogeneous system composed of thinner fibrils

Micro- and nano-surface structures based on vapor-deposited polymers

• Hsien-Yeh Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1366–1374, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.138

• microstructures of PEG hydrogels [22]. In a separate report, this photodefinable polymer was used to pattern protein molecules using a photomask-assisted lithographical approach [23]. Recently, surface patterns were enabled via light-induced thiol-ene/thiol-yne reactions on a poly(4-vinyl-p-xylylene-co-p-xylylene

Recombinant DNA technology and click chemistry: a powerful combination for generating a hybrid elastin-like-statherin hydrogel to control calcium phosphate mineralization

• Mohamed Hamed Misbah,
• Mercedes Santos,
• Luis Quintanilla,
• Christina Günter,
• Matilde Alonso,
• Andreas Taubert and
• José Carlos Rodríguez-Cabello

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 772–783, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.80

• bind to and nucleate calcium phosphate. The benefit of using click chemistry is that the hybrid elastin-like-statherin recombinamers cross-link without losing their fibrillar structure. Mineralization of the resulting hybrid elastin-like-statherin recombinamer hydrogels with calcium phosphate is

• distinct charge distribution endows this domain a high affinity for HA [36][37]. The use of click reactions – e.g., cycloadditions – to cross-link hybrid elastin-like-SNA15 recombinamers synthesized at the gene level, and prepare chemical hydrogels, is considered to be highly successful, since the groups

• required for cycloaddition – azides and terminal alkynes – are easily introduced [24][25][26][38]. The reaction conditions for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications are preferably mild and typically performed in water to ensure that the biological structures do not lose their function. Hydrogels can

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

• millimeter length scales, as summarized in Table 1. These films have found utility in a diverse array of applications. Several biological applications have found uses for vapor deposited polymer thin films. For instance, Baxamusa et al. used iCVD to deposit conformal poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) hydrogels

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

• , hyaluronic acid, and heparin, also amphiphilic prodrugs, and supramolecular hydrogels) [38][39][40]. One of the main strategies deals with the creation of self-assembled supramolecular structures with tunable morphologies (e.g., nanospheres, rods, nanofibers or nanotubes) adapted to the administration route

Controlled supramolecular structure of guanosine monophosphate in the interlayer space of layered double hydroxide

• Gyeong-Hyeon Gwak,
• Istvan Kocsis,
• Yves-Marie Legrand,
• Mihail Barboiu and
• Jae-Min Oh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1928–1935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.184

• derivatives through hydrogen bonding [8]. They suggested those supramolecular nucleoside structures could be utilized for molecular nanowire fabrication or molecular electronics. Davis et al. prepared stable G4 hydrogels utilizing guanosine, potassium and borate [9]. Those hydrogels exhibited specific binding

Nano- and microstructured materials for in vitro studies of the physiology of vascular cells

• Alexandra M. Greiner,
• Adria Sales,
• Hao Chen,
• Sarah A. Biela,
• Dieter Kaufmann and
• Ralf Kemkemer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1620–1641, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.155

• produce and their stiffness can be tuned over a wide range (from few tens of pascals to mega- or gigapascals). PEG-DA hydrogels consists of a polymer of ethylene glycol diacrylate monomers [48][161]. By varying the length of the polymer and its ratio with a crosslinker molecule the pore size of the

• hydrogel and thus its stiffness can be varied. Their elasticity can be tuned over a wide range from below 1 kPa to above 100 MPa [79]. An additional feature of PEG hydrogels is their low protein absorption. This characteristic makes them often to the coating material of choice when surfaces need to have

• low protein absorption [36][162][163]. Commonly used in cell culture experiments are PAA hydrogels [50][114][115][116]. They are made of acrylamide (the monomer), bis(acrylamide) (the crosslinker molecule) and a photoinitiator, which triggers polymerization. By varying the ratio between monomer

Viability and proliferation of endothelial cells upon exposure to GaN nanoparticles

• Tudor Braniste,
• Ion Tiginyanu,
• Tibor Horvath,
• Simion Raevschi,
• Serghei Cebotari,
• Marco Lux,
• Axel Haverich and
• Andres Hilfiker

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1330–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.124

• multifunctional and hybrid “smart materials” for biological and medical applications is of paramount importance [1]. Biomaterial research is closely associated with the development of chemical/biochemical sensors, hydrogels, membranes, and artificial organs, and is utilized in applications such as the recognition

Green and energy-efficient methods for the production of metallic nanoparticles

• Mitra Naghdi,
• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• M. Verma,
• R. Y. Surampalli and
• J. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2354–2376, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.243

• cellulose hydrogels to synthesize and stabilize Ag, Au, and Pt NPs through hydrothermal process. They found that by increasing AgNO3 concentration, the particles size increases gradually from 8 to 11.4 nm at 80 °C and 24 h. Also, reaction time and temperature had direct influence on particle size. The