Biopolymer colloids for controlling and templating inorganic synthesis

• Laura C. Preiss,
• Katharina Landfester and
• Rafael Muñoz-Espí

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2129–2138, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.222

• crystallization of inorganic materials, which is typically referred to as “polymer-assisted” or “polymer-controlled” formation and is intimately related to the (bio)mineralization field. B. Biopolymers as “supports” for precipitation/crystallization processes. We distinguish depending on whether the formation of

• inorganic nanoparticles takes places on biopolymer molecules or on particles: (B1) Nanoparticle formation on biopolymer molecules (often referred to as “metallization” and “mineralization” of biopolymers). (B2) Biopolymer particles as support, with the formation of the inorganic nanoparticles taking place

• vivo mineralization, trying to study the effects of natural macromolecules [30]. Silicateins, for instance, are proteins not only used ex vivo for understanding mineralization processes in sponges, but also applied to prepare novel biomimetic hybrid materials, as nicely revised in a recent publication

Effect of silver nanoparticles on human mesenchymal stem cell differentiation

• Christina Sengstock,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Matthias Epple,
• Thomas A. Schildhauer and
• Manfred Köller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2058–2069, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.214

• of Ag-NP/Ag+ ions on the osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs was investigated after a period of 21 d. To confirm the differentiation of the Ag-NP/Ag+ ion-treated hMSCs into osteoblasts, alizarin red S staining was carried out to verify the mineralization of the cells. hMSCs exposed to 10 µg·mL−1 Ag

• ). Fluorescence micrographs were taken (Cell P, Olympus) and digitally processed using Adobe Photoshop® 7.0. Quantitative cell differentiation Staining with alizarin red S was used to monitor the degree of mineralization of osteogenic differentiated hMSCs in the presence or absence of Ag-NP/silver ions. Briefly

• wavelength of 570 nm by using a Microplate Reader (MRX Revelation, Dynex Technologies). The mineralization rate was expressed as the percentage of cells cultured under osteogenic conditions in the absence of silver. The adipogenic differentiation rates of hMSCs in the absence or presence of Ag-NP/Ag+ ions

Electrostatic interplay: The interaction triangle of polyamines, silicic acid, and phosphate studied through turbidity measurements, silicomolybdic acid test, and ²⁹Si NMR spectroscopy

• Anne Jantschke,
• Katrin Spinde and
• Eike Brunner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2026–2035, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.211

• Forschungsgemeinschaft (grants no. Br 1278/24-1 within the Research Unit FOR 2038 “Nanopatterned Organic Matrices in Biological Silica Mineralization” and Br 1278/ 25-2 within the SPP 1562 “Generation of Multifunctional Inorganic Materials by Molecular Bionics”).

Real-time monitoring of calcium carbonate and cationic peptide deposition on carboxylate-SAM using a microfluidic SAW biosensor

• Anna Pohl and
• Ingrid M. Weiss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1823–1835, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.193

• onset of early mineralization events including the formation of pre-nucleation clusters, the assay is restricted to comparably large volumes, which poses a problem for the study of biomineralization, where the amount of organic compounds is rather limited because of the low yield after purification

• a buffer system similar to biomineralizing compartments. It can be concluded that multichannel microfluidic SAW sensor systems are highly attractive for biomimetic mineralization studies in liquids and in real-time. It remains subject to further investigations whether this technique will bring the

Ionic liquid-assisted formation of cellulose/calcium phosphate hybrid materials

• Ahmed Salama,
• Mike Neumann,
• Christina Günter and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1553–1568, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.167

• and chitin, is their abundance and favorable properties such as mechanical robustness and biocompatibility [1][2][3][4]. Moreover, the growth (mineralization) of calcium phosphate on polysaccharides may lead to composites with properties that are useful for the regeneration of hard tissue even though

• solutions, however, are the most commonly used media for calcium phosphate mineralization [12][13]. As a result, mineralization of carbohydrates often yields heterogeneous materials with properties that are not suited for an application. In spite of this, a number of authors have reported the successful

• mineralization of carbohydrates with various calcium phosphates. Falini and coworkers used β-chitin from a squid pen for mineralization of octacalcium phosphate (OCP) and hydroxyapatite (HAP) [14][15]. They found a distinct change of the chitin fiber organization on OCP mineralization. Moreover, the OCP–HAP

Controlling mechanical properties of bio-inspired hydrogels by modulating nano-scale, inter-polymeric junctions

• Seonki Hong,
• Hyukjin Lee and
• Haeshin Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 887–894, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.101

• -immobilization [15], facilitating cell adhesion [16], attenuating in vivo toxicity [17], initiating bio-mineralization [18], graphene nano-composites [19], and bio-inspired adhesives [20][21]. In addition to the interface science and engineering, methods to prepare bulk materials such as poly(ethylene glycol

Visible light photooxidative performance of a high-nuclearity molecular bismuth vanadium oxide cluster

• Johannes Tucher and
• Carsten Streb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 711–716, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.83

• ]/[Ind]0 ca. 85%, illustrating the visible-light photooxidative activity of 1. Initial spectroscopic and gas chromatographic analyses suggest that dye degradation is only partial and no full mineralization leading to the formation of CO or CO2 was observed. Aerobic vs anaerobic photocatalytic activity of

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ag–ZnO hybrid plasmonic nanostructures prepared by a facile wet chemical method

• Sini Kuriakose,
• Vandana Choudhary,
• Biswarup Satpati and
• Satyabrata Mohapatra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 639–650, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.75

• increasing attention over the years. Semiconductor photocatalysis is one of the most important technologies used for the complete mineralization of a wide range of organic dyes and toxic chemicals. ZnO, a wide band gap semiconductor with large excitonic binding energy is suitable for diverse applications

Biocalcite, a multifunctional inorganic polymer: Building block for calcareous sponge spicules and bioseed for the synthesis of calcium phosphate-based bone

• Xiaohong Wang,
• Heinz C. Schröder and
• Werner E. G. Müller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 610–621, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.72

• interaction of the proteins, e.g., acting during mineralization, in other words, should start with the disclosure of the regulatory network of the proteins involved. It should be the aim to unravel the regulatory genetically-controlled architecture of proteins, based on the expression of a few molecules, and

• mineralization (Figure 1C) (see [17][18] and reviewed in [16]). Review Calcium carbonate/bicarbonate a potential bioseed for Ca phosphate mineral formation by osteoblasts It is well established that the calcium salt of carbonate is an effective diet supplement for amelioration of bone-loss during postmenopausal

• surfaces, compared to the controls. Of course, the prerequisite has to be fulfilled that simultaneously with bicarbonate the cells have to be treated with the mineralization activation cocktail (MAC), composed of β-glycerophosphate, ascorbic acid and dexamethasone. One plausible explanation that emerged

Controlled synthesis and tunable properties of ultrathin silica nanotubes through spontaneous polycondensation on polyamine fibrils

• Jian-Jun Yuan,
• Pei-Xin Zhu,
• Daisuke Noda and
• Ren-Hua Jin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 793–804, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.90

• controlled mineralization of silica, which resulted in hierarchically structured thin coatings composed of LPEI@silica hybrid nanotubes. However, the synthesis of silica nanotube powders through the alkali-induced self-assembly route was not studied systematically. In this paper, we examined the synthesis

• controlled by polyelectrolyte adsorption. Conclusion We have demonstrated that well-defined silica nanotubes of 10 nm diameter could be easily synthesized in solution through a templated silica mineralization on self-assembled LPEI fibrils, which in turn were formed by alkali-induced rapid deprotonation

Structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of flower-like ZnO nanostructures prepared by a facile wet chemical method

• Sini Kuriakose,
• Neha Bhardwaj,
• Jaspal Singh,
• Biswarup Satpati and
• Satyabrata Mohapatra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 763–770, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.87

• dyeing industries. Since the sun is an abundantly available natural energy source, its light can be conveniently utilized for the photodegradation of organic dyes [3][4][5][6][7][8]. ZnO with a band gap of 3.37 eV has received much attention for the complete mineralization and degradation of

Paper modified with ZnO nanorods – antimicrobial studies

• Mayuree Jaisai,
• Sunandan Baruah and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 684–691, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.78

• -oxide semiconductors, such as ZnO, titanium dioxide (TiO2), etc. The photogenerated free carriers allow efficient mineralization of toxic organic compounds [16] and hazardous inorganic materials [17], and microbial disinfection [18] through the creation of a hydroxyl radical (OH·), which acts as a

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

• silicon of equal width. Upon exposure to UV light, complete mineralization of the OTS located on both types of substrates was observed, even in stripes as wide as 40 µm. The measured degradation kinetics on the TiO2–Si micropatterned structures was fitted by a bi-exponential fit with two distinct apparent

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

• polyamine@silica nanoribbon-based hybrid nanograss film, which was generated by performing a biomimetic silica mineralization reaction on a nanostructured linear polyethyleneimine (LPEI) layer preorganized on the inner wall of a glass tube. We found that the film thickness, size and density of the

• and facilely functionalized makes our nanograss potentially important for device-based application in microfluidic, microreactor and biomedical fields. Keywords: biomimetic silica mineralization; linear polyethyleneimine; nanofiber; nanograss; thin film; Introduction Silica-based, one-dimensional

• layer, which then serves as the catalyst for the silica-mineralization reaction on the surface. This method has led to the formation of uniform or particle-based silica thin films on substrate surfaces [20][21][22][23]. Based on lithography or printing techniques, silica micropatterning has also been

Enhanced visible light photocatalysis through fast crystallization of zinc oxide nanorods

• Sunandan Baruah,
• Mohammad Abbas Mahmood,
• Myo Tay Zar Myint,
• Tanujjal Bora and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 14–20, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.3

• sites arising from oxygen nonstoichiometry, has emerged to be an efficient photocatalyst material compared to other metal oxides [8][9][10]. ZnO exhibits comparatively higher reaction and mineralization rates [11] and can generate hydroxyl ions more efficiently than titania (TiO2) [12]. Surface area and