Carbon-based smart nanomaterials in biomedicine and neuroengineering

• Antonina M. Monaco and
• Michele Giugliano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1849–1863, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.196

• integrate with biological systems is a consequence of their interactions with cells and membranes occurring at the subcellular level. However, due to their chemically inert surface and van der Waals forces occurring at the surface, carbon-based nanomaterials, particularly pristine CNTs, tend to agglomerate

• control conditions. The improved neuronal adhesion on graphene, compared to the bare plastic polymeric dish, was ascribed by the authors to van der Waals forces between cell membranes and graphene. Similarly to NDs [140], surface charges can influence adhesion and outgrowth of neuronal cells on graphene

Biocompatibility of cerium dioxide and silicon dioxide nanoparticles with endothelial cells

• Claudia Strobel,
• Martin Förster and
• Ingrid Hilger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1795–1807, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.190

• -potentials were neither positively nor negatively charged enough to prevent agglomeration by van der Waals forces [29]. Interestingly, the smaller nanoparticles (sample #A) exhibited a tendency towards an increasing negative charge with increasing serum content, while the larger nanoparticles (sample #B

Experimental techniques for the characterization of carbon nanoparticles – a brief overview

• Wojciech Kempiński,
• Szymon Łoś,
• Mateusz Kempiński and
• Damian Markowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1760–1766, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.186

• signal of ACFs is the adsorption of molecules at the surface of CNs which comprise the pore walls. The adsorption in ACF pores is of a physical nature (van der Waals forces), without any covalent bond formation. Fully reversible physisorption has been observed with EPR (see Figure 5). The EPR spectrum of

Non-covalent and reversible functionalization of carbon nanotubes

• Antonello Di Crescenzo,
• Valeria Ettorre and
• Antonella Fontana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1675–1690, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.178

• strongly interact with each other through van der Waals forces reaching ~500 eV per μm of CNT’s length [18] and aggregate into bundles and ropes. In order to counteract these forces and favor CNTs manipulability and solubility mainly two strategies have been adopted: i) covalent functionalization through

Probing viscoelastic surfaces with bimodal tapping-mode atomic force microscopy: Underlying physics and observables for a standard linear solid model

• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1649–1663, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.176

• challenging to carry out [43]. Non-viscoelatic dissipative interactions The present work studies an AFM tip that is interacting with a clean SLS surface, so no further interactions are included other than attractive van der Waals forces. However, in practice there can be a number of other interactions that

Hydrophobic interaction governs unspecific adhesion of staphylococci: a single cell force spectroscopy study

• Nicolas Thewes,
• Peter Loskill,
• Philipp Jung,
• Henrik Peisker,
• Markus Bischoff,
• Mathias Herrmann and
• Karin Jacobs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1501–1512, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.163

• bacterium, the surrounding medium, the surface chemistry, and the material composition reflecting the influence of the main interacting forces [12][13]: van der Waals forces, hydrophobic interaction and electrostatic forces. In addition, specific interactions amplify bacterial adhesion whenever

• involved [26]. Since hydrophilic and hydrophobic Si wafers differ in composition only by a 2.6 nm thin OTS-monolayer on the surface, the van der Waals forces are nearly identical [13][27]. Forces due to electrostatic interactions between the negatively charged bacterium and the two types of wafer surfaces

• electrostatic and van der Waals forces by at least an order of magnitude. The main observations are (i) the form of the force/distance curves is characteristic for each bacterium, (ii) this form is independent of the “adhesive history” and (iii) the retraction curves (including the adhesion forces) are

A sonochemical approach to the direct surface functionalization of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane

• Bashiru Kayode Sodipo and
• Azlan Abdul Aziz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1472–1476, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.160

• ; superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION); Findings Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) have a wide range of applications in biomedical research and development. The main drawbacks of SPION are a high surface energy, van der Waals forces of attraction and dipole to dipole interactions that

Direct observation of microcavitation in underwater adhesion of mushroom-shaped adhesive microstructure

• Lars Heepe,
• Alexander E. Kovalev and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 903–909, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.103

• vacuum [10][16][17][18], and underwater [19][20]). The origin of the high adhesion capability of the mushroom-shaped adhesive microstructures (MSAMSs) was attributed to the combination of intermolecular van der Waals forces and a particular failure mode at detachment, a consequence of an optimized

• forces [10][16][17][18]. In their recent work Varenberg and Gorb [19] have observed that the pull-off forces measured underwater were significantly higher (about 25%) compared to those measured under ambient conditions. This effect cannot be explained by intermolecular van der Waals forces. The authors

Hairy suckers: the surface microstructure and its possible functional significance in the Octopus vulgaris sucker

• Francesca Tramacere,
• Esther Appel,
• Barbara Mazzolai and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 561–565, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.66

• termini contact elements as well as the presence of water and mucus between hairs and respective substrates suggest that biological structures operating underwater cannot exploit filament-like structures to generate van der Waals forces [3]. We completely agree with this idea and think that under wet

DNA origami deposition on native and passivated molybdenum disulfide substrates

• Xiaoning Zhang,
• Masudur Rahman,
• David Neff and
• Michael L. Norton

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 501–506, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.58

• to adsorb through van der Waals forces between the four nitrogenous nucleobases and the basal plane of MoS2 [18]. For example, in the report of Maddocks et al. [21], guanine, one of the four DNA bases, was observed, by using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), to form a stable two-dimensional

• . This is readily understood in the context of a model, in which the pyrenyl group in 1-pyrenemethylamine is bound to the highly planar, polar, and polarizable MoS2 surface by van der Waals forces and forms an adhesion layer. Conversely, the amine group in 1-pyrenemethylamine interacts electrostatically

Morphological characterization of fullerene–androsterone conjugates

• Alberto Ruiz,
• Margarita Suárez,
• Nazario Martin,
• Fernando Albericio and
• Hortensia Rodríguez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 374–379, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.43

• representative analysis of each sample, several areas of the grids were observed. The two diastereomeric pairs (Ia,b and IIa,b) showed spherical self-assembly due to the non-covalent interactions present in these compounds, i.e., van der Waals forces, hydrogen bonding, hydrophilic/hydrophobic interactions, π–π

Unlocking higher harmonics in atomic force microscopy with gentle interactions

• Sergio Santos,
• Victor Barcons,
• Josep Font and
• Albert Verdaguer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 268–277, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.29

• phase shift calculated as the sums ΣΔ (n = 1–9) are 119.8, 19.3 and 5.4° and decrease with decreasing the variations in peak force, i.e., 29, 8 and 3 pN, respectively. It is also interesting to note that the source of variations in peak force with variations in Hamaker H (Equation 10), i.e., van der

• Waals forces, relates to variations in the distance of minimum approach, dm, with variations in H. To be more specific, dm, increases with increasing H. For example, in the simulations, by varying H from H1 = 0.2 × 10−19 J to H2 = 1.4 × 10−19 J the variation is Δdm ≈ 0.83 nm. This would experimentally

Influence of the adsorption geometry of PTCDA on Ag(111) on the tip–molecule forces in non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Gernot Langewisch,
• Jens Falter,
• André Schirmeisen and
• Harald Fuchs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 98–104, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.9

• individually, the evolution of the intramolecular contrast as a function of the distance z is as expected. At larger distances, in the regime of attractive long-range interactions such as van-der-Waals forces, no internal structures can be observed in the horizontal cuts through the 3D force field. The

Polynomial force approximations and multifrequency atomic force microscopy

• Daniel Platz,
• Daniel Forchheimer,
• Erik A. Tholén and
• David B. Haviland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 352–360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.41

• attractive force regime due to the van der Waals forces between the tip and the surface is reached. In this regime new frequency components appear in the motion spectrum, so-called intermodulation products. Note that in the time domain, the distortion of the signal is barely visible. Both polynomial and ADFS

Selective surface modification of lithographic silicon oxide nanostructures by organofunctional silanes

• Thomas Baumgärtel,
• Christian von Borczyskowski and
• Harald Graaf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 218–226, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.22

• interactions or van-der-Waals forces) on the other hand are characterized by weaker binding strengths and a lower selectivity, and thus, are not as suitable for multistep surface functionalization as covalent binding. Although the covalent functionalization of LAO patterns has been reported several times

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

• key achievement was the engineering of vertically oriented CNT-arrays by using CVD of ethylene, size-controlled Fe catalytic particles, and nanotube positioning by substrate patterning. The mechanism of the alignment of the CNTs was proposed to be due to the van der Waals forces where the outer wall

Towards 4-dimensional atomic force spectroscopy using the spectral inversion method

• Jeffrey C. Williams and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 87–93, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.10

• torsional eigenmode positions as a function of time at regularly spaced intervals (digitally) for several flexural periods; and (iv) application of the inversion procedure described above to recover the tip–sample forces. The tip–sample interaction was simulated as the combination of attractive van der

• Waals forces (modeled through the Hamaker equation [13]) plus repulsive and dissipative interactions. In most cases, the repulsive forces were modeled by using a Hertzian contact [13], while the dissipative interactions were modeled by using a viscous force term proportional to the tip speed with a

Effect of spherical Au nanoparticles on nanofriction and wear reduction in dry and liquid environments

• Dave Maharaj and
• Bharat Bhushan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 759–772, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.85

• , can prevent nanoparticles from reaching their intended target [7]. Smaller nanoparticles can diffuse through surfaces and avoid detection by the RES. Studies have shown that forces such as hydrodynamic and van der Waals forces along with the nanoparticle size influence lateral drift (margination) and

• is the result of adhesion between the nanoparticle and the silicon substrate. The adhesive force can include van der Waals forces under both dry and submerged-in-water conditions and meniscus forces under dry conditions. In this regime the friction force is not proportional to the normal load since

Dimer/tetramer motifs determine amphiphilic hydrazine fibril structures on graphite

• Loji K. Thomas,
• Nadine Diek,
• Uwe Beginn and
• Michael Reichling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 658–666, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.75

• different from known mesophase bulk structures. The structures are described by building-block models based on hydrogen-bonded dimer and tetramer precursors of hydrazines. The closure and growth in length of building units into fibrils takes place through van der Waals forces acting between the dangling

• neighbouring tetramers in which the tetramer building blocks are represented by squares. The structure constituted by blocks 1, 2, 3 and 4 represents a repeating unit of the fibril. The aliphatic chains of the subsequent tetramers interact through van der Waals forces between the interdigitating chains. Thus

Repulsive bimodal atomic force microscopy on polymers

• Alexander M. Gigler,
• Christian Dietz,
• Maximilian Baumann,
• Nicolás F. Martinez,
• Ricardo García and
• Robert W. Stark

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 456–463, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.52

• the driving signal that is larger than 90° indicates a net attractive regime, in which van der Waals forces dominate the interaction. Smaller values indicate a net repulsive regime, in which Pauli repulsion becomes increasingly dominant. The ratio of the amplitudes is crucial for the contrast in the

Drive-amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy: From vacuum to liquids

• Miriam Jaafar,
• David Martínez-Martín,
• Mariano Cuenca,
• John Melcher,
• Arvind Raman and
• Julio Gómez-Herrero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 336–344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.38

• conditions in both regimes. In liquid, the absence of significant van der Waals forces results in a monotonic interaction [4] and the feedback in both FM and AM is often perfectly stable. However biological samples, such as viruses, tend to contaminate the tip and introduce attractive interactions causing FM

Graphite, graphene on SiC, and graphene nanoribbons: Calculated images with a numerical FM-AFM

• Fabien Castanié,
• Laurent Nony,
• Sébastien Gauthier and
• Xavier Bouju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 301–311, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.34

• implemented with the n-AFM, advanced first-principles methods [92] are well adapted to deal with local changes of electronic structure when the tip interacts with the sample surface, especially for KPFM [93][94]. For weak chemical interactions and van der Waals forces, theoretical studies have demonstrated

Modeling noncontact atomic force microscopy resolution on corrugated surfaces

• Kristen M. Burson,
• Mahito Yamamoto and
• William G. Cullen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 230–237, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.26

• quasi-1-D substrate corrugation (modeled as a sinusoid) and obtain the response of a spherical tip to van der Waals (vdW) interactions. To our knowledge, it is the first model to directly incorporate the lateral variation of van der Waals forces due to surface corrugation and to attempt to quantify this

• , using an approach that incorporates the IDL routines INTERPOLATE and INT_3D. As a check on this numerical integration, we compare against the exact analytical result for a sphere attracted to a flat surface by van der Waals forces. It is well-known that the sphere–plane Hamaker integration has the

• , we discussed the Hamaker integration for a sphere interacting with a flat surface through van der Waals forces. The integration can be carried out without approximation to yield the exact formula; this exact formula is cumbersome and given by Equation 10. In the limit z << R, this formula simplifies

An NC-AFM and KPFM study of the adsorption of a triphenylene derivative on KBr(001)

• Antoine Hinaut,
• Adeline Pujol,
• Florian Chaumeton,
• David Martrou,
• André Gourdon and
• Sébastien Gauthier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 221–229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.25

• voltage of the surrounding MLh domain. As expected the spatial resolution in the Kelvin map is lower than in the topography map due to the longer range of electrical forces relative to van der Waals forces. The different domains that appear in Figure 6 have been labeled and the monoatomic KBr steps

Theoretical study of the frequency shift in bimodal FM-AFM by fractional calculus

• Elena T. Herruzo and
• Ricardo Garcia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 198–206, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.22

• length scale of the interaction force. For the force which appears in the DMT model [51] where H is the Hamaker constant of the long-range van der Waals forces, d0 is the equilibrium distance, R is the tip radius and Eeff is the effective Young’s modulus, which is related to the Young’s moduli Et and Es