Hemolysin coregulated protein 1 as a molecular gluing unit for the assembly of nanoparticle hybrid structures

• Tuan Anh Pham,
• Andreas Schreiber,
• Elena V. Sturm (née Rosseeva),
• Stefan Schiller and
• Helmut Cölfen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 351–363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.32

• stretching bands of cysteine appear at 955 cm−1 [31][32] and 1105 cm−1 [33]. The strong S–H band of cysteine around 2600 cm−1 is missing due to the direct binding of the sulfur atom to the NP surface [32]. Based on the Raman investigation, it can be concluded that Hcp1_cys3 is located in between two Au NPs

• , leading to a signal enhancement of the protein. The secondary protein structure remains intact on the NPs surface and the protein–Au binding takes place via the sulfur in the integrated cysteine group. In order to demonstrate a first application of such protein-based hybrid structures, we use our Au NP

• protein to Au on the sulfur atom of the cysteine. Furthermore, the Au network shows similar catalytic reactivity as the blank Au NP, which makes it more attractive owing to the easier recycling condition of the catalyst. This protein gluing unit approach was then extended to assemble Fe3O4 NPs and CoFe2O4

Case studies on the formation of chalcogenide self-assembled monolayers on surfaces and dissociative processes

• Yongfeng Tong,
• Tingming Jiang,
• Azzedine Bendounan,
• Makri Nimbegondi Kotresh Harish,
• Angelo Giglia,
• Stefan Kubsky,
• Fausto Sirotti,
• Luca Pasquali,
• Srinivasan Sampath and
• Vladimir A. Esaulov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 263–277, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.24

• determines the binding to the substrate and plays an important role in defining the molecular ordering and electronic coupling, which determines the charge flow between the molecular components and the substrate electrode. Much work on various aspects of assembly and its uses has been performed with sulfur

• conductance pathway than sulfur. Besides the case of self-assembly on bulk metal surfaces, the knowledge of the physics and chemistry of chalcogenide SAMs on metal nanoparticle surfaces is also very important as they are widely used in different areas. In this paper, we focus on recent work where the

• in this case as opposed to the case of the same SAMs on gold [46][47]. Similarly, in some examples of thiol adsorption on Cu, there exists evidence [26] of S–C bond scission with sulfur remaining on the surface. It is clear that such processes strongly affect the interface properties and in

Characterisation of thin films of graphene–surfactant composites produced through a novel semi-automated method

• Nik J. Walch,
• Alexei Nabok,
• Frank Davis and
• Séamus P. J. Higson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 209–219, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.19

• towards the left than its equivalent in the SDS-stabilised graphene. The peak representing carbon-1 in SDS (at around 4 ppm) is shifted downfield by complexation with the graphene. This means that the protons are deshielded by the presence of graphene. Since the carbon–sulfur bond is polar the electron

• density around the carbon atom is already lower than it would normally be in a carbon–carbon bond. Repulsion between the graphene and the sulfate group could cause lengthening of the carbon–sulfur bond. This could in turn lead to a lower electron density around the nuclei responsible for this peak [16

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

• element representing each of the polymers, nitrogen for PDADMAC and sulfur for PSS. Thus, XPS can reveal information about a lamellar or disordered structure of the samples. Figure 5a and Figure 5b report the dependence of the element content of nitrogen and sulfur in the films on the ionic strength for

• different emission angles. The atomic content remains almost constant with increasing ionic strength. Indeed, the atomic fractions of nitrogen and sulfur are both independent of the angle of incidence. This confirms the strong interdigitation of the successively adsorbed layers; PDADMAC and PSS form quasi

• by Raposo and co-workers [47]. We have measured the ratio between the total content of positive (sodium and nitrogen) and negative charges (sulfur and chloride) in the multilayers. Values of this ratio close to unity indicate non-stratified films whereas values higher or lower than unity evidence the

Surface-site reactivity in small-molecule adsorption: A theoretical study of thiol binding on multi-coordinated gold clusters

• Elvis C. M. Ting,
• Tatiana Popa and
• Irina Paci

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 53–61, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.6

• ; sulfur–gold interactions; thiol adsorption; Introduction The interactions between organic molecules and metallic surfaces have been the subject of significant interest in recent years, because of their fundamental relevance in a broad array of nanoscience applications. One area of interfacial research

• ], and for developing a general understanding of nanoparticle biosafety [21][22], among other issues. The sulfur-containing aminoacids cysteine, homocysteine and methionine are often targeted for such investigations, because of the binding affinity of sulfur-based groups to metal atoms. Much is known of

• the adsorption behavior of sulfur-containing aminoacids on low-Miller-index [(111), (100), (110)] gold and silver surfaces [3][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], though many questions regarding binding modes and condensed phase behavior still remain. Quantum calculations have been

Ultrastructural changes in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus induced by positively charged silver nanoparticles

• Dulce G. Romero-Urbina,
• Humberto H. Lara,
• J. Jesús Velázquez-Salazar,
• M. Josefina Arellano-Jiménez,
• Eduardo Larios,
• Anand Srinivasan,
• Jose L. Lopez-Ribot and
• Miguel José Yacamán

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2396–2405, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.246

• permeability [38]. After penetrating the cell membrane, AgNPs can also alter sulfur-containing amino acids and phosphorus (a main constituent of DNA), inhibiting replication via attaching to the bacterial ribosome [39][40]. The proteomic signatures of AgNP-treated E. coli demonstrated an accumulation of

Surfactant-controlled composition and crystal structure of manganese(II) sulfide nanocrystals prepared by solvothermal synthesis

• Elena Capetti,
• Anna M. Ferretti,
• Vladimiro Dal Santo and
• Alessandro Ponti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2319–2329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.238

• observation that a larger than stoichiometric amount of sulfur is required [Puglisi, A.; Mondini, S.; Cenedese, S.; Ferretti, A. M.; Santo, N.; Ponti A. Chem. Mater. 2010, 22, 2804–2813], we carried out a wide set of reactions using Mn(II) carboxylates and Mn2(CO)10 as precursors with varying amounts of

• sulfur and carboxylic acid. MnS NCs were obtained provided that the S/Mn ratio was larger than the L/Mn ratio, otherwise MnO NCs were produced. Since MnS can crystallize in three distinct phases (rock salt α-MnS, zincblende β-MnS, and wurtzite γ-MnS), we also investigated whether the surfactant affected

• the surfactants adsorbed on the NCs. Keywords: manganese oxide; manganese sulfide; nanocrystal; polymorphism control; solvothermal synthesis; sulfur; surfactant; Introduction Manganese(II) sulfide (MnS) is a wide bandgap (Eg ≈ 3 eV) [1], p-type, antiferromagnetic semiconductor that crystallizes in

Plasma fluorination of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes: functionalization and thermal stability

• Claudia Struzzi,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Axel Hemberg,
• Luca Petaccia,
• Jean-François Colomer,
• Rony Snyders and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2263–2271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.232

• polymerization, the introduction of unwanted atoms on the functionalized system, or the high toxicity level of the gas used. Carbon tetrafluoride (CF4), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), pure fluorine (F2) or diluted fluorine in an inert atmosphere (Xe/F2, Ar/F2) are the precursor gases most commonly used. In the case

Controlled switching of single-molecule junctions by mechanical motion of a phenyl ring

• Yuya Kitaguchi,
• Satoru Habuka,
• Hiroshi Okuyama,
• Shinichiro Hatta,
• Tetsuya Aruga,
• Thomas Frederiksen,
• Magnus Paulsson and
• Hiromu Ueba

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2088–2095, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.213

• ascribed to the sulfur atom (Figure 3a). The local structure is similar with that of PhO with the phenyl ring oriented along [001] and the sulfur atom bonded to the short-bridge site [13]. The controlled switching of the molecular junction is feasible with PhS as well as PhO, and the conductance values for

• retraction were recorded. The height of the plateau, corresponding to the conductance for each molecule, is robust between repeated measurements and is larger by a factor of ≈2 for PhS. This demonstrates that the conductance is modified by chemical substitution of the anchoring atom from oxygen to sulfur. To

Optimized design of a nanostructured SPCE-based multipurpose biosensing platform formed by ferrocene-tethered electrochemically-deposited cauliflower-shaped gold nanoparticles

• Wicem Argoubi,
• Maroua Saadaoui,
• Sami Ben Aoun and
• Noureddine Raouafi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1840–1852, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.187

• ferrocene methanol using DCC as a condensing agent according to previously published reports [15][27]. Immunosensor preparation It is well known that gold has a high affinity toward sulfur-terminated compounds [28]. Several experiments showed that gold nanostructured electrodes should be incubated for at

• 4-fold increase of the surface resistivity because of the total passivation of the gold surface by a sulfur layer. Further modification with the antibody and BSA increases the surface impedance due to the electron transfer from the redox probe present in the solution. Thus, the ferrocene covered by

• surface through two gold–sulfur bonds, greatly limits ferrocene leakage into solution and keeps the sensors active. Higher surface coverage allows higher loading in ferrocene and thus widens the dynamic ranges. Selectivity and specificity of the immune response Selectivity and specificity are among the

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

• Figure 4 shows the enlarged range of conductance above 0.02G0. Both molecules show a pronounced maximum of conductance close to 0.01G0 (marked by arrows in Figure 4). The existence of multiple peaks may be explained by selective adsorption of sulfur atoms at steps sites or at flat gold surfaces, which

Electrical properties and mechanical stability of anchoring groups for single-molecule electronics

• Riccardo Frisenda,
• Simge Tarkuç,
• Elena Galán,
• Mickael L. Perrin,
• Rienk Eelkema,
• Ferdinand C. Grozema and
• Herre S. J. van der Zant

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1558–1567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.159

• is known to deprotect the acetyl-protected thiol groups and promote the formation sulfur-gold bonds [36][37]. Transport measurements. The study of molecular transport has been conducted in air and at room temperature, using the MCBJ gold nano-electrodes to connect individual molecules. In the first

• the two-dimensional histograms one can see that the junctions formed with the four OPE3 molecules show different conductance values, depending on the anchoring group, and a length between 0.8 nm and 1.0 nm. The length of the four molecules, from sulfur to sulfur or from nitrogen to nitrogen, computed

DNA–melamine hybrid molecules: from self-assembly to nanostructures

• Rina Kumari,
• Shib Shankar Banerjee,
• Anil K. Bhowmick and
• Prolay Das

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1432–1438, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.148

• molecules with DNA, in particular, heterocyclic compounds that can offer attractive options to home nitrogen, sulfur or other interesting heteroatoms. Heterocyclic compounds could potentially be used to tune the molecular and electrical properties of a self-assembled system on the nanoscale. Moreover, being

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

• observation: symmetrical conversion mechanism The formation of hollow Kirkendall nanospheres was first reported by Yin et al. in 2004 [7]. They observed the formation of hollow nanospheres while exploring the sulfidation of cobalt nanoparticles by injecting a solution of sulfur in 1,2-dichlorobenzene into hot

• interface within the ZnO which, in this case, plays the role of the fast diffusing material. The strategy demonstrated by Li and Penner in 2005 was adopted by many groups for the synthesis of nanotubes by thermal annealing of metal nanowires under a controlled atmosphere such as sulfur, selenium or oxygen

Can molecular projected density of states (PDOS) be systematically used in electronic conductance analysis?

• Tonatiuh Rangel,
• Gian-Marco Rignanese and
• Valerio Olevano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1247–1259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.128

• concluded that the BDT–gold junction can be stable in several different atomic structures/geometries [16][47][48][49][50][51]. To account for different hybridizations and bonding motifs, three geometries are studied here: the sulfur atom of the benzene-dithiol molecule can adsorb onto an extra gold adatom

• without losing the bound hydrogen atom (BDT-n); the benzene-dithiol molecule can lose the hydrogen atom, thus becoming benzene-dithiolate, and bind its sulfur atom to an extra gold adatom in a pyramidal structure (BDT-p); or the benzene-dithiolate can bind to three equidistant gold atoms in the hollow

• on the sulfur atom. The LUMO from Method 2 corresponds to the LUMO from Method 1 for the dithiol molecule, but it does not correspond to any MO from Method 1 for the dithiolate molecule. On the other hand, the HOMO from Method 2 is similar to the HOMO from Method 1 for the dithiolate molecule, but it

Superluminescence from an optically pumped molecular tunneling junction by injection of plasmon induced hot electrons

• Kai Braun,
• Xiao Wang,
• Andreas M. Kern,
• Hilmar Adler,
• Heiko Peisert,
• Thomas Chassé,
• Dai Zhang and
• Alfred J. Meixner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1100–1106, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.111

• are described in detail in Supporting Information File 1 (Figures S1–S4). For the specimen, we have chosen a Au film covered with a monolayer of 5-chloro-2-mercaptobenzothiazole (Cl-MBT) molecules since (i) they chemically bind to the metal substrate (Figure 1c) via the sulfur atoms with the molecular

From lithium to sodium: cell chemistry of room temperature sodium–air and sodium–sulfur batteries

• Philipp Adelhelm,
• Pascal Hartmann,
• Conrad L. Bender,
• Martin Busche,
• Christine Eufinger and
• Juergen Janek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1016–1055, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.105

• , Germany 10.3762/bjnano.6.105 Abstract Research devoted to room temperature lithium–sulfur (Li/S8) and lithium–oxygen (Li/O2) batteries has significantly increased over the past ten years. The race to develop such cell systems is mainly motivated by the very high theoretical energy density and the

• abundance of sulfur and oxygen. The cell chemistry, however, is complex, and progress toward practical device development remains hampered by some fundamental key issues, which are currently being tackled by numerous approaches. Quite surprisingly, not much is known about the analogous sodium-based battery

• . This review provides a summary of the state-of-the-art knowledge on lithium–sulfur and lithium–oxygen batteries and a direct comparison with the analogous sodium systems. The general properties, major benefits and challenges, recent strategies for performance improvements and general guidelines for

A simple approach to the synthesis of Cu_1.8S dendrites with thiamine hydrochloride as a sulfur source and structure-directing agent

• Xiaoliang Yan,
• Sha Li,
• Yun-xiang Pan,
• Zhi Yang and
• Xuguang Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 881–885, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.90

• nitrate and thiamine hydrochloride were selected as the starting materials in the water phase under hydrothermal conditions. No addition of a surfactant or a complex reagent was required for the synthesis of the Cu1.8S dendrite structures. Thiamine hydrochloride was employed as a sulfur source and

• attention due to its versatile applications in solar cell, electrochemistry, catalysis, and as a gas sensor [1][2][3][4][5]. Many strategies have been developed to prepare Cu1.8S. A solvent-mediated methodology was employed to synthesize highly crystalline Cu1.8S by element copper and sulfur at room

• shapes from sulfur powder [6]. Lim et al. found that copper sulfide dendritic structures could be obtained at high ethylenediamine and low tributylphosphite concentrations by using a copper(I) thiobenzoate (CuTB) precursor [7]. In general, sulfur, Na2S2O3, mercaptan and thiourea are used as sulfur

Applications of three-dimensional carbon nanotube networks

• Manuela Scarselli,
• Paola Castrucci,
• Francesco De Nicola,
• Ilaria Cacciotti,
• Francesca Nanni,
• Emanuela Gatto,
• Mariano Venanzi and
• Maurizio De Crescenzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 792–798, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.82

• Roma, Italy 10.3762/bjnano.6.82 Abstract In this paper, we show that it is possible to synthesize carbon-based three-dimensional networks by adding sulfur, as growth enhancer, during the synthesis process. The obtained material is self-supporting and consists of curved and interconnected carbon

• , with pore sizes from several nanometers to a few micrometers (Figure 2a). The high number of interconnections indicated by the arrows in Figure 2b is caused by the presence of topological defects in the carbon sp2 lattice that originate during the growth process. In particular, the addition of sulfur

• finding is confirmed by EDX spectrum collected on the network of Figure 7a, that shows contributions from: the CNT-nanostructures (C and Fe), some of the constituents the oil used in the experiment (Zn, Mo) and small traces of Ca from water, Figure 7c. No sulfur signal was detected in the network

Tm-doped TiO₂ and Tm₂Ti₂O₇ pyrochlore nanoparticles: enhancing the photocatalytic activity of rutile with a pyrochlore phase

• Desiré M. De los Santos,
• Javier Navas,
• Teresa Aguilar,
• Antonio Sánchez-Coronilla,
• Concha Fernández-Lorenzo,
• Rodrigo Alcántara,
• Jose Carlos Piñero,
• Ginesa Blanco and
• Joaquín Martín-Calleja

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 605–616, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.62

• chemistry properties. For example, the TiO2 doping and the annealing temperatures have been widely studied to control its crystalline structure, optical and electronic properties, etc. Marschall and Wang reported doping with non-metals such as boron, carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, iodine, phosphorus, or sulfur

Structural, optical, opto-thermal and thermal properties of ZnS–PVA nanofluids synthesized through a radiolytic approach

• Alireza Kharazmi,
• Nastaran Faraji,
• Roslina Mat Hussin,
• Elias Saion,
• W. Mahmood Mat Yunus and
• Kasra Behzad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 529–536, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.55

• nanofluids consisting of ZnS nanoparticles homogeneously distributed in a PVA solution. The ZnS nanoparticles were formed by the electrostatic force between zinc and sulfur ions induced by gamma irradiation at a dose range from 10 to 50 kGy. Several experimental characterizations were conducted to

• radiation with the aqueous solution generates aqueous electrons (e−free) that reduce S2O32− to S2−. Zinc ions (Zn2+) are already present in the solution and through the combination of sulfur and zinc ions ZnS nuclei are formed, which agglomerate into ZnS NPs. The mechanism of this reaction is as follows

• irradiated with doses of 10, 30 and 50 kGy, respectively. An increase of particle size with increasing dose in this study indicated that when more metal ions present in the sample the increased number of sulfur ions induced by gamma radiation agglomerated more ZnS units to enlarge the particle size at higher

The effect of surface charge on nonspecific uptake and cytotoxicity of CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots

• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Anna Pietuch,
• Marco Tarantola,
• Thomas Basché and
• Andreas Janshoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 281–292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.26

• with ZnS A 0.1 M Zn stock solution was prepared by dissolving 632.3 mg of zinc stearate in 2 mL of oleic acid and 7.5 mL of oleylamine, while a 0.1 M S stock solution was obtained by mixing 32 mg of elemental sulfur in 10 mL of 1-octadecene. Both solutions were prepared at 200 °C under argon flow. In a

Overview about the localization of nanoparticles in tissue and cellular context by different imaging techniques

• Anja Ostrowski,
• Daniel Nordmeyer,
• Alexander Boreham,
• Cornelia Holzhausen,
• Lars Mundhenk,
• Christina Graf,
• Martina C. Meinke,
• Annika Vogt,
• Sabrina Hadam,
• Jürgen Lademann,
• Eckart Rühl,
• Ulrike Alexiev and
• Achim D. Gruber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 263–280, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.25

• ” sulfur atoms in the outer shell of the NP, without changing its size, molecular weight or other biologically relevant physical or chemical properties [58]. Following intravenous application of dPG35S amine into mice, HE-stained FFPE tissue sections from various organs were covered with an

Release behaviour and toxicity evaluation of levodopa from carboxylated single-walled carbon nanotubes

• Julia M. Tan,
• Jhi Biau Foo,
• Sharida Fakurazi and
• Mohd Zobir Hussein

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 243–253, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.23

• , Waltham, MA) using a KBr disc. For carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur (CHNS) analysis, a CHNS-932 from LECO Instrument (St Joseph, MI) was used. Raman spectra were collected using a UHTS 300 Raman spectrometer (WITec, Germany) with an excitation wavelength at 532 nm. CNT samples were deposited on glass

Synthesis and characterization of fluorescence-labelled silica core-shell and noble metal-decorated ceria nanoparticles

• Rudolf Herrmann,
• Markus Rennhak and
• Armin Reller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2413–2423, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.251

• reaction with its NHS ester in ethanol for one day. The dye is connected to the sulfur by a thioester link which is stable in aprotic solvents but undergoes slow hydrolysis in water or transesterification in ethanol. Nevertheless the NP labelled with two colours show the reasonably separated fluorescence