Effect of microtrichia on the interlocking mechanism in the Asian ladybeetle, Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

• Jiyu Sun,
• Chao Liu,
• Bharat Bhushan,
• Wei Wu and
• Jin Tong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 812–823, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.75

• , Vision Research Inc., USA) at 300 frames/s. Contact angle The surface hydrophobicity was measured for both the dorsal side (DS) and the ventral side (VS). There are many veins in the wing base, resulting in an uneven surface that affects measurements. Therefore, we selected the posterior margin, which is

• demonstrate that the level of hydrophobicity was almost equivalent between the partitions. That is, the functionality of the three fields was equal. Studies have shown that the average CA of the cicada wing surface is 150° [25]. Thus, H. axyridis hindwings meet the criterion for hydrophobicity (CA ≥ 90

• only hydrophobicity but also preventing cohesion of the folded hindwing layers, favoring quick unfolding of the hindwings. This basic investigation will be beneficial for understanding the wing-folding/unfolding mechanisms in H. axyridis. The moment of unfolding of H. axyridis hindwings. The DS of the

Ultralight super-hydrophobic carbon aerogels based on cellulose nanofibers/poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphene oxide (CNFs/PVA/GO) for highly effective oil–water separation

• Zhaoyang Xu,
• Huan Zhou,
• Sicong Tan,
• Xiangdong Jiang,
• Weibing Wu,
• Jiangtao Shi and
• Peng Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 508–519, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.49

• -hydrophobicity for oil–water separation. The CNF/PVA/GO aerogel with a macroscopic 3D structure was prepared through freeze drying to connect the three components. Then, the super-hydrophobic CNF/PVA/GO carbon aerogel was fabricated by a carbonization treatment in a tubular furnace. The as-prepared carbon

• aerogel exhibited a porous structure and super-hydrophobicity and showed high selectivity and outstanding oil absorption capacities for various types of organic solvents and oils. Considering its inexpensive raw materials, green synthetic method, and high performance, the CNF/PVA /GO carbon aerogel shows

• thermal decomposition of the aerogels. As shown in the TGA curves of the CNF/PVA/GO carbon aerogels, no weight loss occurred, indicating that carbonation was complete. Hydrophobicity is an important parameter that influences the absorption capability for organic solvents and oils. Besides, it is reported

Kinetics of solvent supported tubule formation of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) wax on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) investigated by atomic force microscopy

• Sujit Kumar Dora,
• Kerstin Koch,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Klaus Wandelt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 468–481, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.45

• , hydrophobicity, protection of photo synthetic cells, interaction with chemicals and other organisms, providing optical properties etc. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Plant waxes are a conglomerate of various long chain (>C20) hydrocarbons, aldehydes, ketones, acids, alcohols etc. [10]. Further, cyclic compounds, e.g

• the continuous incorporation of wax molecules. The crystallization process was observed up to 4 hours before the increasing height of the tubules led to experimental artifacts. In addition, they also observed an increase in hydrophobicity of the wax structures, demonstrated by an increase in contact

Wafer-scale bioactive substrate patterning by chemical lift-off lithography

• Chong-You Chen,
• Chang-Ming Wang,
• Hsiang-Hua Li,
• Hong-Hseng Chan and
• Wei-Ssu Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 311–320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.31

• reduced MCU percentage also indicates less defects in the SAM environment (Figure S1, Supporting Information File 1). Second, the increase of hydrophobicity due to the presence of methyl-terminated alkanethiol leads to unfavorable hydrophilic biological probe insertion. The observed fluorescence signals

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

• , hydrophobic, oleophilic and oleophobic surfaces, and there is no data for superoleophilic and superoleophobic surfaces. In superoleophobicity, the values of the roughness parameters are mostly larger than those of surfaces with hydrophobicity/oleophobicity. As oils are widely used as lubricants and antifreeze

Au nanostructure fabrication by pulsed laser deposition in open air: Influence of the deposition geometry

• Rumen G. Nikov,
• Anna Og. Dikovska,
• Nikolay N. Nedyalkov,
• Georgi V. Avdeev and
• Petar A. Atanasov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2438–2445, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.242

• the one deposited using geometry 1, where the contact angle θ is less than 90°. The most pronounced hydrophobicity was observed for the structures shown in Figure 4b,c, where the contact angle was greater than 120°. It is known that the structures consisting of such nanocolumnar arrays possess good

• dynamic hydrophobicity due to their discrete surface structure [30]. Conclusion The present paper demonstrates a fast and flexible method for the fabrication of pure Au nanostructures. The structures were produced by applying the PLD technique in open air, that is, in the absence of vacuum, typically

• geometries used in the experiments. Electrical resistance and hydrophobicity of the Au nanostructures produced under different geometries. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the financial support by project DFNP-184 “Nanostructured coatings fabricated by laser ablation in air” under the Assistance for

Increasing the stability of DNA nanostructure templates by atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃ and its application in imprinting lithography

• Hyojeong Kim,
• Kristin Arbutina,
• Anqin Xu and
• Haitao Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2363–2375, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.236

• template relies on using water to lower the adhesion between the film and the template. The key advantage of our method is that any polymer with hydrophobicity and/or low surface energy can be patterned with the DNA nanostructure master template. Furthermore, because the method uses spin-coating instead of

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• ]) are added, PEDOT:PSS undergoes a structure rearrangement that results in a morphology that favors electron conduction. The nanoclay dispersions have the potential to modify the morphology of the polymer by secondary interactions due to the nanoclay charge, sodium cations and hydrophobicity, thus

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

• increased intersheet spacing between VGNs. The contact angle is found to vary from 127° to 134° for the other studied samples. The improvement in hydrophobicity is significant and can be considered for many useful applications. Electrical properties The sheet resistance of VGNs was measured to study their

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

• , and prior use in biomedical applications [33]. A silicon wafer piece was placed under the substrate to visually observe the penetration of polymer through the lattice. To measure the change in hydrophobicity of the 7.5 mm PLA lattice after the deposition of PPFDA, contact angle changes were monitored

• hydrophobicity caused its pores to also remain filled with air. Unlike the hydrophobic lattices, the lattice coated with P(HEMA-co-EGDA) wicked water into its pores because of the hydrophilicity and the lattice sank in the water. To demonstrate the efficacy of the incorporated cross-linker for preventing

• -co-EGDA), after which the comb, nut, and bolt all were readily wetted (Figure 6c). Following the coating with hydrophilic polymer, the substrates were then coated with PPFDA, and the substrate surfaces regain hydrophobicity (Figure 6d). These sequential depositions of polymers with different

Two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalytic energy generation and environmental remediation applications

• Suneel Kumar,
• Ashish Kumar,
• Ashish Bahuguna,
• Vipul Sharma and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1571–1600, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.159

• of g-C3N4 can remove toxic acidic molecules through electrostatic interactions [68]. The surface hydrophobicity of g-C3N4 can be changed by chemical oxidation by introducing various hydroxyl and carbonyl groups, which eventually lead to good dispersion during catalytic process. The layered g-C3N4

Deposition of exchange-coupled dinickel complexes on gold substrates utilizing ambidentate mercapto-carboxylato ligands

• Martin Börner,
• Laura Blömer,
• Marcus Kischel,
• Peter Richter,
• Georgeta Salvan,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Maria E. N. Fuentes,
• Carlos C. B. Bufon,
• Daniel Grimm,
• Oliver G. Schmidt,
• Daniel Breite,
• Bernd Abel and
• Berthold Kersting

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1375–1387, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.139

• hydrophobicity was examined by performing water contact angle measurements with a DSA II (Krüss, Hamburg, Germany) contact angle analyzer. The contact angle measurements were collected using a 4 μL drop size of deionized, distilled water. At least 5 contact angles per five different locations were averaged

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

• C3F5+ ion fluence across polymer, metal, and silicon substrates, a hydrophobicity gradient was formed along the treatment direction [71]. The chemical gradients of hydrophobic octadiene to a more hydrophilic acrylic acid were produced via plasma polymerization, and the surface was found effective for

Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs)

• Michelle Romero-Franco,
• Hilary A. Godwin,
• Muhammad Bilal and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 989–1014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.101

Vapor-phase-synthesized fluoroacrylate polymer thin films: thermal stability and structural properties

• Paul Christian and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 933–942, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.95

• chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) were investigated. PFDA polymers are known for their interesting crystalline aggregation into a lamellar structure that induces super-hydrophobicity and oleophobicity. Nevertheless, when considering applications which involve chemical, mechanical and thermal stresses, it is

• alterations thereof. Heat treatment leaves the chemical composition of the linear PFDA polymers largely unchanged, while a more ordered crystalline structure with smoother morphology is observed. At the same time, the hydrophobicity and the integrity of the polymer deteriorate upon heating. The integrity and

• hydrophobicity of cross-linked p-PFDA films was preserved likely because of the lack of internal strain due to the coexistence of both crystalline and amorphous phases. The possibility to finely tune the degree of cross-linking can therefore expand the application portfolio in which PFDA polymers can be utilized

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

• poly(ethylene oxide) and hydrophobic poly(vinyl butyral) into PANI to tune the sensitivity towards humidity. It was observed that increasing the fraction of the hydrophilic material within the sensor decreased resistance, whereas increasing the hydrophobicity resulted in higher resistance. Our work

Biological and biomimetic materials and surfaces

• Stanislav Gorb and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 403–407, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.42

• numerous more sophisticated experiments. They also proved that in order to establish comparable self-cleaning properties on technical surfaces, the micro- and nanostructures found on the plant leaves and the hydrophobicity of the plant waxes must be transferred [1][5][6]. This has successfully been done in

Tailoring bifunctional hybrid organic–inorganic nanoadsorbents by the choice of functional layer composition probed by adsorption of Cu²⁺ ions

• Veronika V. Tomina,
• Inna V. Melnyk,
• Yuriy L. Zub,
• Aivaras Kareiva,
• Miroslava Vaclavikova,
• Gulaim A. Seisenbaeva and
• Vadim G. Kessler

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 334–347, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.36

• (sorption or catalytic) [13], as well as the possibility of influencing the hydrophobicity of the surface layer. The most suitable objects for such application are apparently hybrid organic–inorganic materials bearing surface-anchored functional groups. The methodology for their synthesis has reached a high

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

• prepare nanoparticles from polymers that was already reviewed [57][60][61]. In recent years, amphiphilic cyclodextrins [62], calix[n]arenes and calix[n]resorcinarenes [63] were used in the formation of nanoparticles via a simple nanoprecipitation technique. The influence of the hydrophobicity of the drug

Functionalized TiO₂ nanoparticles by single-step hydrothermal synthesis: the role of the silane coupling agents

• Antoine R. M. Dalod,
• Lars Henriksen,
• Tor Grande and
• Mari-Ann Einarsrud

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 304–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.33

• , surface coverage, and hydrophobicity. Tuning the surface properties of the nanoparticles for different applications by selecting the silane coupling agent is discussed. We further report the effect of heat treatment of the nanoparticles for the formation of core–shell TiO2–SiO2 nanoparticles. Experimental

• (relative comparison to Ti-APTES), and as rod-like particles are larger, the feature at 10 nm is shifted towards larger pores. The average pore diameters from BJH desorption curves are included in Table 1. Functionalization and hydrophobicity Thermogravimetric analysis of TiO2 and the in situ surface

• polymer nanocomposites, hydrophobicity is a parameter of utmost importance [10][27]. Heat treatment of the in situ surface-functionalized nanoparticles at 700 °C revealed neither crystallite growth nor phase transition of TiO2 because of the formation of an amorphous SiO2 layer, originating from the

Flexible photonic crystal membranes with nanoparticle high refractive index layers

• Torben Karrock,
• Moritz Paulsen and
• Martina Gerken

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 203–209, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.22

• dimension of about 10 nm [16]. Thus, a contour accuracy of around 10 nm is possible. Its transparent nature and refractive index (given by the vendor as 1.41 at 589 nm) renders it suitable for our optical applications. While PDMS has many valuable features, in our case its hydrophobicity is an obstacle for

• -linked polymer with reduced surface hydrophobicity. The mixture is thoroughly stirred for 5 min at 500 rpm (IKA ULTRA-TURRAX Tube Drive). The mixture is degassed in vacuum for 30 min. The mixed PDMS is poured into a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) mold which defines the form and size for the photonic

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

• climatization of the building. However, in this case moisture may penetrate quicker and deeper into the construction, eventually resulting in serious damage to the building structure, especially in regions with higher amounts of precipitation. Secondly, those paints focusing on hydrophobicity or water

Chitosan-based nanoparticles for improved anticancer efficacy and bioavailability of mifepristone

• Huijuan Zhang,
• Fuqiang Wu,
• Yazhen Li,
• Xiping Yang,
• Jiamei Huang,
• Tingting Lv,
• Yingying Zhang,
• Jianzhong Chen,
• Haijun Chen,
• Yu Gao,
• Guannan Liu and
• Lee Jia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1861–1870, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.178

• gelation technique (Figure 1). This technique has been widely used to prepare CNs as drug delivery systems for a variety of drugs, including either hydrophobic drugs or hydrophilic protein drugs [22][24]. Because of the strong hydrophobicity of MIF, it is hard to load MIF into blank CNs after the ionic

• effect at low concentration, and was apt to precipitate at high concentration because of its strong hydrophobicity leading to decreased activity, which was consistent with our previous report [33]. Compared with free MIF, MCNs showed enhanced anti-proliferative activity, indicating that the anticancer

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

• ) surfaces, has shown a stronger insect performance on smooth surfaces when compared to those with micro-roughness [33]. It was also found that surface hydrophobicity alone resulted in some decrease in the attachment force of the beetles, but when combined with surface micro-roughness it caused an even more

Characterization of spherical domains at the polystyrene thin film–water interface

• Khurshid Ahmad,
• Xuezeng Zhao,
• Yunlu Pan and
• Danish Hussain

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 581–590, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.51

• properties of glass [4][5], and for the modification of surface properties [6][7][8] (e.g., hydrophobicity, oleophobicity). The study of the thermal [4], optical [5], mechanical [9][10], and interfacial [6][7][8] properties of thin films is a broader area of interest. Various physical and chemical processes