A biofunctionalizable ink platform composed of catechol-modified chitosan and reduced graphene oxide/platinum nanocomposite

• Peter Sobolewski,
• Agata Goszczyńska,
• Małgorzata Aleksandrzak,
• Karolina Urbaś,
• Joanna Derkowska,
• Agnieszka Bartoszewska,
• Jacek Podolski,
• Ewa Mijowska and
• Mirosława El Fray

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1508–1514, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.151

• ” effects. We developed our ink for a commercial microplotter system (Sonoplot GIX Microplotter Desktop), which uses a piezoelectric crystal to pump ink out of a glass micropipette [7]. This system does not generate droplets like an inkjet printer, instead it deposits continuous features via the fluid

• bridge formed between the substrate and dispenser tip. This allows for a broad range of viscosity of inks (up to 0.450 Pa·s), without concern for filaments/ligaments or satellite droplets. However, in order to assess the suitability of our ink for the more commonly used piezoelectric inkjet printing, we

Miniemulsion copolymerization of (meth)acrylates in the presence of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes for reinforced coating applications

• Bertha T. Pérez-Martínez,
• Lorena Farías-Cepeda,
• Víctor M. Ovando-Medina,
• José M. Asua,
• Lucero Rosales-Marines and
• Radmila Tomovska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1328–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.134

• solid phase, miniemulsion polymerization is much more versatile [27][28][29][30][31]. The characteristic feature of this process is that particle formation predominantly occurs by nucleation of the preformed miniemulsion droplets, which minimizes the changes in the system during the particle nucleation

• . However, n-pentanol is rather water soluble and it cannot hinder Ostwald ripening. Therefore, it is doubtful that the monomer droplets were stable. Ha et al. [18] polymerized miniemulsions prepared by sonicating a mixture of surfactant-stabilized SWCNTs, monomers (styrene and isoprene) and a costabilizer

• formation of oligomers in the aqueous phase, and the large droplet size that reduced the total surface area of the droplets and consequently their ability to capture oligomers from the aqueous phase. For the 0.1 wt % sample, the particle size was similar to the droplet size, likely because the smaller

Fabrication of hierarchically porous TiO₂ nanofibers by microemulsion electrospinning and their application as anode material for lithium-ion batteries

• Jin Zhang,
• Yibing Cai,
• Xuebin Hou,
• Xiaofei Song,
• Pengfei Lv,
• Huimin Zhou and
• Qufu Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1297–1306, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.131

• successfully. During the process of electrospinning, the viscous liquid was elongated quickly accompanied by the evaporation of solvent as well as the hydrolysis condensation of TBT. Herein, despite the fact that the oil droplets in the microemulsion were stable with a diameter of about 20 nm, several small

• oil droplets merged into larger ones and then were stretched strongly by electrostatic force along the direction of fluid jet, thus forming oriented and axially aligned oil droplets. After calcination, the axially aligned oil droplets would be removed, resulting in axially aligned pores with the

• the number of channels in each nanofiber decreased as the content of paraffin oil increased. This is because the pores stemmed from the vacancies of oil droplets after calcination, and a larger oil droplets were formed when more paraffin oil was added into the microemulsion [31]. The SEM image of

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of cell lysates mixed with silver nanoparticles for tumor classification

• Mohamed Hassoun,
• Iwan W.Schie,
• Tatiana Tolstik,
• Sarmiza E. Stanca,
• Christoph Krafft and
• Juergen Popp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1183–1190, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.120

• all approaches mentioned above: generation of droplets with single cells in a microfluidic chip, addition of cell lysis buffer, nanoparticles and activation salt, mixing of all solvents and collection of SERS spectra for classification. Experimental Nanoparticle preparation Silver nitrate (ACS reagent

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

• 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

The longstanding challenge of the nanocrystallization of 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX)

• Florent Pessina and
• Denis Spitzer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 452–466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.49

• micrometer-sized agglomerates. CTA is a promising primary explosive compliant with the new REACH legislation [32] forbidding the use of heavy-metal-based materials. Further investigation with surfactants might lead to smaller particles by counteracting the high viscosity of molten droplets. Milling Redner et

• through a nozzle that is electrically charged to a grounded plate. This charges the droplet surface, increasing the surface energy and thus triggering the fission into smaller droplets. This Coulomb fission phenomenon and the evaporation of the solvent leads to crystallization and the deposition of

• have been performed on those degraded materials, which were found to be as insensitive as TNT. The electrospray technique can be used to create a fine spray of micrometer-sized charged droplets repelling each other, which is ideal for crystallization. The high voltage needed is a major handicap for

Biological and biomimetic materials and surfaces

• Stanislav Gorb and
• Thomas Speck

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

• surfaces. From everyday life experience, we all know that during watering or rainfall, water rolls off the leaves of many plants in the form of spherical droplets leaving the leaves themselves entirely dry. This effect can be seen in an especially impressive manner on the leaves of the sacred lotus

• (Nelumbo nucifera) and Tropaeolum (Tropaeolum majus). Interestingly, with the rolling off of water droplets, dirt particles as well as fungus spores and bacteria are also very efficiently removed from the leaf surfaces as they are more tightly attached to the water droplet than to the leaf surface. The

• few contact points to the leaf surface which has a micro-/nanoscale roughness. The same holds for the water droplets which become spherical for energetic reasons and cannot wet the leaf surface [1][2][3]. The discovery of this phenomenon and its structural basis dates back to the 1970s when Wilhelm

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

• very fast and bears similarities with the HF self-propelled motion of liquid droplets on solid surfaces [39]. The results are comparable to those obtained after high temperature and/or time consuming annealing procedures. Experimental Pretreatment of silicon substrate and metal deposition. The starting

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

• larger size range of droplets as shown by the bright field/fluorescence microscopic images in comparison with those by cryo-SEM. The microscopic analyses revealed that the first generation provided a broader droplet size range with extremely large individual droplets leading to platykurtic kurtosis

• all other emulsions, those based on octacosane featured polyhedral droplets, which had a crystal-like appearance (Figure 1e,f; Supporting Information File 1, Figure S1a,b,f). In addition, in two out of three cases, the presence of octacosane led to unstable phases and to the formation of clumps within

• , displayed fluorescent droplets only thereby indicating the presence of oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions (Figure 1a,c; Supporting Information File 1, Table S1; Figure S2a,e,g). Vice versa, the two emulsions SA4 and SG4 possessed a fluorescent outer phase surrounding non-fluorescent droplets thus indicating the

From iron coordination compounds to metal oxide nanoparticles

• Mihail Iacob,
• Carmen Racles,
• Codrin Tugui,
• George Stiubianu,
• Adrian Bele,
• Liviu Sacarescu,
• Daniel Timpu and
• Maria Cazacu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2074–2087, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.198

• using the STAR software from Mettler Toledo. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images were taken using a dedicated HITACHI HT7700 microscope operating in high contrast mode at 100 kV accelerating voltage. The samples were prepared by placing small droplets of the diluted dispersion (≈1 g/L) of

Prediction of the mechanical properties of zeolite pellets for aerospace molecular decontamination applications

• Guillaume Rioland,
• Patrick Dutournié,
• Delphine Faye,
• T. Jean Daou and
• Joël Patarin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1761–1771, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.169

• decontamination; operating optimums; zeolite pellets; Introduction Molecular contamination is of great concern in aerospace-based applications. Once satellites are in orbit, molecules contained in paints, adhesives or glues can outgas and form films or droplets on the surface of mirrors, lenses, solar cells or

Sb₂S₃ grown by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and its application in a hybrid solar cell

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere,
• Valdek Mikli and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1662–1673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.158

• (CSP) is a simple and fast method in which a solution of precursor materials is pulverized and the aerosol is then guided by flow of carrier gas onto a hot substrate. The droplets can be produced pneumatically, or, ultrasonically with a piezoelectric generator submerged in the solution bath. The

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

• investigated by measuring static/dynamic CAs (θS, θA, and θR) of water and n-hexadecane droplets. As shown in Table 1, they were found to be strongly dependent on both surface chemical and topographical properties. Water CA measurements confirmed that the glass, Si and VUV-Never Wet surfaces were

• superhydrophilic with θS close to zero, while the other five surfaces exhibited either hydrophobic (ODS, FAS17 and C10-hybrid surfaces; water CAs greater than 100°) or superhydrophobic (Never Wet and Soot-TMOS-FAS17Cl surfaces; water CAs larger than 150°) properties. Water droplets on the latter surfaces moved

• hysteresis of water on the hybrid film was also low (Δθ = 8°, the lowest of the smooth surfaces). Thus, contrasting with the smooth ODS and FAS17 monolayer surfaces, water droplets similarly slid off the C10-hybrid surfaces at low tilt angles, regardless of the magnitude of their static/dynamic CAs [10][36

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

• free energy in the system when there is a very thick adsorbed layer at the surface. Hence, we can obtain contact angle information without explicitly generating droplets. In passing we mention that for not too small droplets the contact angle as obtained by a three-gradient analysis (as used below

• binodal. Curved L/V interfaces: Kelvin and Laplace Macroscopic droplets (with negligible curvature) cannot be generated using our method. As the system size is limited, our drops have L/V interfaces that are typically strongly curved. The thermodynamics of curved interfaces is well understood, but there

Influence of ambient humidity on the attachment ability of ladybird beetles (Coccinella septempunctata)

• Lars Heepe,
• Jonas O. Wolff and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1322–1329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.123

• contributions from viscous forces could be expected [31][53]. For C. septempunctata, viscosity of the tarsal secretion was found to be of order 20 mPa·s [31] and droplets of volumes around 1 fL of the tarsal secretion made contact angles smaller than 10° with freshly cleaved mica surfaces (calculation based on

• droplets of water that are crucial for the function of the adhesive system [28]. The reduction in traction forces observed in the present study at 99% RH (without visible water condensation) may be explained by a sufficient amount of adsorbed water on the substrate. It has been shown that the friction

Ammonia gas sensors based on In₂O₃/PANI hetero-nanofibers operating at room temperature

• Qingxin Nie,
• Zengyuan Pang,
• Hangyi Lu,
• Yibing Cai and
• Qufu Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1312–1321, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.122

• excess of PANI covering. Figure 3a,b shows SEM images of In(NO3)3/PVP composite nanofibers and In2O3 nanofibers, respectively. From Figure 3a, it can be seen that the surface of In(NO3)3/PVP composite nanofibers was relatively smooth and no beads and droplets appeared. The diameter distribution of In(NO3

Time-dependent growth of crystalline Au⁰-nanoparticles in cyanobacteria as self-reproducing bioreactors: 2. Anabaena cylindrica

• Liz M. Rösken,
• Felix Cappel,
• Susanne Körsten,
• Christian B. Fischer,
• Andreas Schönleber,
• Sander van Smaalen,
• Stefan Geimer,
• Christian Beresko,
• Georg Ankerhold and
• Stefan Wehner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 312–327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.30

• been found [65][66]. Structures inside the vegetative cells, like the thylakoid membranes, at which photosynthesis takes place, and electron dense spots, most probably representing lipid droplets, are visible by TEM. The extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on the outside of the vegetative cell are

Two step formation of metal aggregates by surface X-ray radiolysis under Langmuir monolayers: 2D followed by 3D growth

• Smita Mukherjee,
• Marie-Claude Fauré,
• Michel Goldmann and
• Philippe Fontaine

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2406–2411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.247

• the 3D structures, which are then thicker than the X-ray penetration depth. Experimental The sample preparation procedure was previously described in detail [4][8]. Droplets of 5 mmol·L−1 of behenic acid solution (C21H43COOH, Sigma-Aldrich) in chloroform (CHCl3) were spread onto the silver-ion

Self-organization of gold nanoparticles on silanated surfaces

• Htet H. Kyaw,
• Salim H. Al-Harthi,
• Azzouz Sellai and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2345–2353, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.242

• tensiometer (Biolin Scientific, Sweden). 5 µL water droplets were used and water contact angle was measured at five random locations on each sample surface. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were carried out using Omicron Nanotechnology system with Al Kα radiation (1486.6 eV). All XPS

Electrospray deposition of organic molecules on bulk insulator surfaces

• Antoine Hinaut,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1927–1934, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.195

• ) is short compared to the charge compensation time (days), a charged surface is obtained. In our setup, a positive bias is applied to the solution containing the diporphyrin molecules. Therefore, droplets produced during ESI as well as the molecules reaching the surface are positively charged. This

• at an Ar+ pressure of p = 3 × 10−6 bar. The ESI setup (Figure 1) is connected to the UHV preparation chamber of the system. It is a commercial system from MolecularSpray [14][33]. After the spray is formed in air, highly charged droplets [49][50][51] enter by a capillary into the differential pumping

• system composed of the three chambers separated by leak orifices. During this differential pumping system, initial droplets undergo successive droplet solvent pumping and coulomb fission leading to ionized molecules only. The spray quality in air was controlled during deposition with a camera. The base

Template-controlled mineralization: Determining film granularity and structure by surface functionality patterns

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Jonathan Berson,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Johannes Baier,
• Joachim Bill and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1763–1768, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.180

• with the acid for 30 s and gently dried in a nitrogen flow. This procedure was repeated two times with fresh solvent. The fluorinated SAM was deposited from the gas phase: The samples were positioned face down at the lid of a desiccator containing two droplets of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl

Conductance through single biphenyl molecules: symmetric and asymmetric coupling to electrodes

• Karthiga Kanthasamy and
• Herbert Pfnür

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1690–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.171

• ’-biphenyl]-4-carbonitrile (M2) in toluene. The chemical structures are shown in Figure 2. Droplets of solutions of the molecules were put on the gold electrodes and dried before inserting them into vacuum. The same procedure was applied to gold thin films (100 nm) thermally evaporated onto silicon

• by a factor of three, although the concentration in solution was ten times higher. With the MCBJ we use a few droplets of molecular solution. The solvent evaporated within one to two minutes in air. Therefore, the surface concentration will be much smaller and we expect only few molecules at the

Peptide-equipped tobacco mosaic virus templates for selective and controllable biomineral deposition

• Klara Altintoprak,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alexander Welle,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Nina Stitz,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Joachim Bill,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Holger Jeske,
• Dirk Rothenstein,
• Fania Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1399–1412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.145

• was carried out to determine the silica shell thickness of TMV–KD10 particles after different reaction times. 3 µL of mineralized TMV particles in solution were incubated on a 400-mesh formvar, carbon-covered copper grid for 5 min. The droplet was removed with five droplets of ultrapure water and air

The Kirkendall effect and nanoscience: hollow nanospheres and nanotubes

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Ryusuke Nakamura and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1348–1361, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.139

• that the nanodroplet tends to split into multiple tiny dewetting metal bismuth nanodroplets. The droplets then migrate and aggregate on the curved inner surface of the oxide shell before the bismuth wets the surface again (between 410.4 and 413.6 s). They attributed this reversible wetting transition

Polymer blend lithography for metal films: large-area patterning with over 1 billion holes/inch²

• Cheng Huang,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1205–1211, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.123

• polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), dissolved in methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) is used. This system forms a purely lateral structure on the substrate at controlled humidity, which means that PS droplets are formed in a PMMA matrix, whereby both phases have direct contact both to the substrate

• dissolution, either the PMMA matrix (see Figure 1b, PMMA marked in red) or the PS droplets (see Figure 1g, PS marked in blue) can be kept on the substrate for the lithographic application. After the deposition of metal by thermal evaporation, the desired metal covers the whole surface of the sample (see in

• . Figure 1e is an SEM image taken at a tilting angle of 45° of a polymer lithographic mask, which is schematically shown in Figure 1b. After the polymer blend film was rinsed in cyclohexane, the PS droplets were dissolved and a perforated PMMA film with holes was left on the silicon substrate. The