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

• 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

Humidity-dependent wound sealing in succulent leaves of Delosperma cooperi – An adaptation to seasonal drought stress

• Olga Speck,
• Mark Schlechtendahl,
• Florian Borm,
• Tim Kampowski and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 175–186, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.20

• cooperi. After a transversal incision, the entire leaf bends until the wound is closed. Our results indicate that the underlying sealing principle is a combination of hydraulic shrinking and swelling as the main driving forces and growth-induced mechanical pre-stresses in the tissues. Hydraulic effects

• circumferential direction. This advanced model exclusively takes into account mechanically driven movements and ignores swelling and shrinking effects due to internal water displacement or dehydration [7]. In order to obtain a more detailed and more comprehensive understanding of the underlying functional

Interface conditions of roughness-induced superoleophilic and superoleophobic surfaces immersed in hexadecane and ethylene glycol

• Yifan Li,
• Yunlu Pan and
• Xuezeng Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2504–2514, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.250

• goniometer collects six values for each droplet, from which the average CA is obtained. For CAH measurements, a droplet of 5 μL of each liquid was deposited on the sample and was captured by the goniometer. Then, by using a syringe a volume of 1 μL was added until swelling deformation. The swelling droplet

Preparation and characterization of polycarbonate/multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposites

• Claudio Larosa,
• Niranjan Patra,
• Marco Salerno,
• Lara Mikac,
• Remo Merijs Meri and
• Mile Ivanda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2026–2031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.203

• of 30 min with on/off cycles (4 s and 2 s, respectively) in order to prevent heating which could occur during acoustic cavitation. The initial swelling of MWCNT agglomerates by solvent infiltration and interaction was considered as a crucial precondition to obtain a good dispersion of MWCNTs inside

BTEX detection with composites of ethylenevinyl acetate and nanostructured carbon

• Santa Stepina,
• Astrida Berzina,
• Gita Sakale and
• Maris Knite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 982–988, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.100

• enough to diffuse into the polymer matrix inducing a swelling of the composite and an increase of the distance between CB nanoparticle aggregates. In case of benzene more molecules diffuse into the polymer matrix, but they increase the distance between the CB nanoparticles aggregates to a lower degree

• than toluene and as mentioned previously ethylbenzene molecules induce a swelling of the polymer matrix more effectively than VOCs with smaller molecule size such as toluene. Ethylbenzene and toluene are pure compounds, but the contents of gasoline may vary based on its production including many highly

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

• PANI nanotubes, the resistance changed parabolically with relative humidity because of competing effects of doping and swelling of the PANI polymer under humid conditions. Introducing a hydrogel inner layer increased the overall resistance, and enhanced swelling, which caused the resistance to

• protons and negative hydroxyl ions upon entering the polymer chain. The protons dope the polymer further until the undoped parts of the emeraldine salt is mostly doped with the H+ ions, after which swelling starts dominating. Swelling of the polymer due to excess water in the ambient results in higher

• resistance on the humidity as observed in the thin films was also observed in the nanotube samples (Figure 9). This type of parabolic dependence of resistance on the humidity was previously reported for PANI nanotubes [53]. The competition between the doping and swelling effects determines at which RH% value

Colorimetric gas detection by the varying thickness of a thin film of ultrasmall PTSA-coated TiO₂ nanoparticles on a Si substrate

• Urmas Joost,
• Andris Šutka,
• Meeri Visnapuu,
• Aile Tamm,
• Meeri Lembinen,
• Mikk Antsov,
• Kathriin Utt,
• Krisjanis Smits,
• Ergo Nõmmiste and
• Vambola Kisand

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 229–236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.25

• thickness of the NP-based film. Indeed, VOC absorption causes significant swelling of the film. Thus, the optical path length is increased, interference wavelengths are shifted and the refractive index of the film is decreased. This causes a change of color of the sensor element visible by the naked eye

• compounds (VOCs) into the PTSA binding agent between the NPs and the subsequent swelling of the film. Thus, the film thickness and the optical path length of the light in the film are changed. This varies the interference wavelengths of light reflected by the substrate and the thin film. The change of

• refractive index of the individual layers [1][17][18]. Our objective was to demonstrate a simpler and more cost-effective system utilizing the gas absorption in films and the subsequent swelling of the films, which changes the interference maxima and minima of light reflected from the surface of the film and

The cleaner, the greener? Product sustainability assessment of the biomimetic façade paint Lotusan^® in comparison to the conventional façade paint Jumbosil^®

• Florian Antony,
• Rainer Grießhammer,
• Thomas Speck and
• Olga Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2100–2115, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.200

• . Furthermore, it also provides a high degree of natural protection against algae and fungal attack. Lotusan® is extremely hydrophobic and shows no swelling. Contaminations like airborne dirt particles are washed away with the next rainfall. Jumbosil® (option 2): Jumbosil® is a filled, silicone-annealed

Polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) copolymers as templates for stacked, spherical large-mesopore silica coatings: dependence of silica pore size on the PS/PEO ratio

• Roberto Nisticò,
• Giuliana Magnacca,
• Sushilkumar A. Jadhav and
• Dominique Scalarone

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1454–1460, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.137

• different swelling effect of the PS core that depends on the micelle morphology. In the investigated formulations, PS blocks form the internal core of the templating micelles and PEO blocks form the external corona. For low PS/PEO ratios, the PS-made micellar core occupies a smaller volume and is surrounded

• core, thus reducing the swelling and size of the micelle core. Vice versa, if the PEO block is shorter than the PS one, by increasing the PS/PEO ratio, the PEO corona becomes less dense, facilitating the diffusion of benzene through it. As a consequence, the PS-made micellar core increases up to a

• constant value. This happens when a swelling equilibrium with the apolar solvent inside/outside the templating micelles is achieved. Even though further studies are necessary to better clarify this point, the interesting trends reported here confirm the importance of the template choice in order to obtain

On the pathway of cellular uptake: new insight into the interaction between the cell membrane and very small nanoparticles

• Claudia Messerschmidt,
• Daniel Hofmann,
• Anja Kroeger,
• Katharina Landfester,
• Volker Mailänder and
• Ingo Lieberwirth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1296–1311, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.121

• hints at necrotic cell death involving membrane disintegration, cell swelling (and even bursting, Supporting Information File 1, Figure S12), vacuolisation and Ca2+-containing agglomerates inside mitochondria. In EM and cLSM experiments we could not observe any apoptotic bodies. After longer incubation

• active, protein dependent endocytic pathway necessary. This assumption is further corroborated by the observation, that this process still works when all energy-dependent endocytosis mechanisms were switched off by means of cooling (Figure 11A and B). Toxicity Features like cell swelling, blebbing and

Functional diversity of resilin in Arthropoda

• Jan Michels,
• Esther Appel and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1241–1259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.115

• transparent or sometimes, when the sclerotisation is very pronounced, not transparent at all. When immersed in aqueous media and in many anhydrous hydrophilic liquids, resilin exhibits an isotropic swelling, which is reversible and depends on the pH. (It is least pronounced at pH values of about 4.) In its

Experimental and simulation-based investigation of He, Ne and Ar irradiation of polymers for ion microscopy

• Lukasz Rzeznik,
• Yves Fleming,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1113–1128, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.104

• , Ne and Ar in polymers are sufficiently high to prevent any accumulation of rare gas atoms in the polymers which could lead to some swelling and bubble formation. Roughness formation was also not observed. Preferential sputtering is more of a problem, with enrichment of carbon up to surface

• allows molecular fragments to desorb. The degradation of organic molecules and their fragmentation are not the only important parameters for imaging in SIMS using light primary ions. For inorganic matter, the swelling of samples under ion bombardment has been observed for He+ and Ne+ bombardment of Si

• shows that roughness formation does not seem to be a major issue for polymers under rare gas irradiation, opposite to what is observed for inorganic materials where the implantation of the rare gas species leads to irradiation-induced roughness formation, swelling and bubble formation. To understand how

Direct formation of gold nanorods on surfaces using polymer-immobilised gold seeds

• Majid K. Abyaneh,
• Pietro Parisse and
• Loredana Casalis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 809–816, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.72

• higher Mw, shown in Figure 1b, exhibits a different morphology with micro-roughening and larger swelling domains than P1, caused by UV exposure. It is known that Mw can influence the PMMA surface morphology after UV irradiation [36]. All these chemical and physical changes in the polymer surface induced

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

• structures that swell anisotropically and differently between the two layers upon the change of relative humidity (RH) [8]. This bilayer principle has been used to build simple artificial actuators based on the swelling of paper–plastic bilayers [9], and also more general routes have been proposed to create

• directional movement by using swelling of polymers in combination with controllable anisotropy [10]. However, to our knowledge such concepts have not been used so far to create ceramic or metallic bilayer structures, which would have the advantage of their applicability at higher temperatures and in harsh

Hydration of magnesia cubes: a helium ion microscopy study

• Ruth Schwaiger,
• Johannes Schneider,
• Gilles R. Bourret and
• Oliver Diwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 302–309, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.28

• morphologically well-defined MgO particle systems was investigated. We observed unexpected transformations ranging from swelling of the metal oxide nanostructure core to dissolution–recrystallization steps that give rise to the formation of hydroxides with entirely different microstructures [21]. Experimental All

• that were not in contact with the substrate did not show any swelling after the four day period (see arrows in Figure 4), and second, no morphological changes were observed when the cubes were pressed into the vacuum-annealed indium foil (Figure S3, Supporting Information File 1) and imaged with

3D solid supported inter-polyelectrolyte complexes obtained by the alternate deposition of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate)

• Eduardo Guzmán,
• Armando Maestro,
• Sara Llamas,
• Jesús Álvarez-Rodríguez,
• Francisco Ortega,
• Ángel Maroto-Valiente and
• Ramón G. Rubio

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 197–208, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.18

• modify the multilayer growth, but it contributes to the total adsorbed mass of the film. The water associated with the polyelectrolyte films leads to their swelling and plastification. The use of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has allowed for deeper insights on the internal structure and composition of

• the polyelectrolyte multilayers. Keywords: charge compensation; hydration; polyelectrolyte multilayers; stratification; swelling; Introduction The new requirements of science and technology have created an increasing interest for the fabrication of materials with reduced dimensionality for their

• interactions occurring in the system and the polymer conformation, without effects due to the hydration/swelling phenomena associated with the uptake/release of water. Even though the N dependence of the adsorbed mass is not changed by the drying process, other aspects are strongly modified by the film drying

pH-Triggered release from surface-modified poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles

• Manuel Häuser,
• Klaus Langer and
• Monika Schönhoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2504–2512, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.260

• contrast, measurements performed in sodium hydroxide solution (pH 11), show a drastic swelling behaviour for PAA adsorbed at pH 3, but only a slight increase in particle size for PAA adsorbed at pH 5 and pH 7, respectively. This observation can be attributed to different chain conformations of PAA during

• adsorbs in a coiled conformation to yield a thick film. In ultrapure water (pH approx. 6), the degree of dissociation in the outermost PAA layer is increasing, causing a layer swelling due to electrostatic self-repulsion. Particularly noteworthy is the massive increase in hydrodynamic radius by more than

• 100 nm, see Table 1. This implies a significant stretching of single chains after adsorption rather than a swelling of a compact film, as schematically depicted in Figure 1. This behaviour is in agreement with earlier work, where it was shown that particle radii can increase by values on the order of

Nanoscale rippling on polymer surfaces induced by AFM manipulation

• Mario D’Acunto,
• Franco Dinelli and
• Pasqualantonio Pingue

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2278–2289, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.234

• residual solvent molecules is responsible for weakening the mechanical properties. This phenomenon is known by the name of ‘plasticization’ [42]. It depends on the fact that solvent molecules are intercalated into the polymer molecules and the final result is a film swelling depending on the amount of

Fabrication of hybrid nanocomposite scaffolds by incorporating ligand-free hydroxyapatite nanoparticles into biodegradable polymer scaffolds and release studies

• Balazs Farkas,
• Marina Rodio,
• Ilaria Romano,
• Alberto Diaspro,
• Romuald Intartaglia and
• Szabolcs Beke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2217–2223, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.227

• illustrates the degradation, the scaffold swelling, and HA NPs release during degradation in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM). In order to test the release of HA NPs from the bulk scaffolds, 20 layer of 3 mm diameter porous (400 μm pore size) scaffolds were fabricated from HA NPs–PPF resins

Nanofibers for drug delivery – incorporation and release of model molecules, influence of molecular weight and polymer structure

• Jakub Hrib,
• Jakub Sirc,
• Radka Hobzova,
• Zuzana Hampejsova,
• Zuzana Bosakova,
• Marcela Munzarova and
• Jiri Michalek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1939–1945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.198

• variable water content between nanofibers, which is the result of their variable swelling. The release experiments revealed two trends – the release rate depends on the molecular weight of model PEGs as well as on the type of nanofibrous carrier. Although we expected that long molecules will be anchored in

In situ observation of biotite (001) surface dissolution at pH 1 and 9.5 by advanced optical microscopy

• Chiara Cappelli,
• Daniel Lamarca-Irisarri,
• Jordi Camas,
• F. Javier Huertas and
• Alexander E. S. Van Driessche

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 665–673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.67

• used to study the mechanisms controlling the biotite (001) surface dissolution at pH 1 (11 and 25 °C) and pH 9.5 (50 °C). Step edges are the preferential sites of dissolution and lead to step retreat, regardless of the solution pH. At pH 1, layer swelling and peeling takes place, whereas at pH 9.5

• visible terrace limits. The darker the outline (i.e., contrast), the higher the step. The same surface reacted for ca. 17 h at pH 1 and 25 °C shows edge retreat, layer swelling and peeling (Figure 1b), the latter processes being a consequence of biotite dissolution. Aldushin et al. [10] suggested that the

• the dissolution rate is similar in all crystallographic directions. Interestingly, new dissolution fronts break away from slower moving step edges (white arrows, Figure 2b), indicating that upper layers move faster than lower ones. Basal plane swelling and a general increase of roughness were also

Conformal SiO₂ coating of sub-100 nm diameter channels of polycarbonate etched ion-track channels by atomic layer deposition

• Nicolas Sobel,
• Christian Hess,
• Manuela Lukas,
• Anne Spende,
• Bernd Stühn,
• M. E. Toimil-Molares and
• Christina Trautmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 472–479, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.48

• properties such as diameter and conformation variations due to dangling bonds, swelling, or surface charge variations from pH changes of the solution, are to a large extent unknown but can influence ion transport and the control of surface modification steps in a crucial manner. A homogeneous conformal

Multifunctional layered magnetic composites

• Maria Siglreitmeier,
• Baohu Wu,
• Tina Kollmann,
• Martin Neubauer,
• Gergely Nagy,
• Dietmar Schwahn,
• Vitaliy Pipich,
• Damien Faivre,
• Dirk Zahn,
• Andreas Fery and
• Helmut Cölfen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 134–148, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.13

• protocol to the layered organic matrix does not affect the magnetic nature of the material. Swelling studies In order to probe structural changes of the nanocomposite during gelatin infiltration as well as during magnetite synthesis, swelling studies were performed. The swelling capacity of the insoluble

• nacre matrix, the gelatin infiltrated chitin matrix and the magnetic nanocomposite are shown in Figure 8. The swelling degree, Sd, is defined as: where Ws stands for the weight of the swollen sample after swelling equilibrium was reached and Wd stands for the dry weight before water uptake. In the case

• of nacre matrix infiltrated with gelatin a distinct increase in swelling can be observed as compared to the insoluble matrix alone. This effect is not surprising as gelatin alone shows a higher swelling capacity as the insoluble organic matrix. The gravimetric water uptake of the gelatin–chitin

Materials and characterization techniques for high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

• Roswitha Zeis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 68–83, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.8

• further increase in current density to 300 mA/cm2 and 500 mA/cm2 did not lead to a significant additional swelling of the membrane. After returning to zero current, the membrane thickness was restored to the original value before the load cycle. The swelling of the membrane can be explained by hydration

Intake of silica nanoparticles by giant lipid vesicles: influence of particle size and thermodynamic membrane state

• Florian G. Strobl,
• Florian Seitz,
• Christoph Westerhausen,
• Armin Reller,
• Adriano A. Torrano,
• Christoph Bräuchle,
• Achim Wixforth and
• Matthias F. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2468–2478, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.256

• Angelova et al. [55]. In short, lipids in the desired ratio and 0.05 mol % of the fluorescent marker DiOC14 were mixed in chloroform and spread onto indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass slides. The solvent is thoroughly removed through vacuum evaporation. For the swelling procedure, a chamber was assembled