Straightforward synthesis of gold nanoparticles by adding water to an engineered small dendrimer

• Sébastien Gottis,
• Régis Laurent,
• Vincent Collière and
• Anne-Marie Caminade

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1110–1118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.95

• when the powdered form of this dendrimer was dissolved in water, as shown by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses. The dendrimers acted simultaneously as mild reducers and as nanoreactors, favoring the self-assembly of gold atoms and promoting

• a theoretical work was published in 2015 [65]. In this work, it was demonstrated that the first step required for the nonradical formation of an Au–Au bond was the presence of hydrogen followed by the insertion of a third gold atom to form a triangle by self-assembly. The release of only a small

• nanoreactor for the self-assembly of gold atoms, stabilizing the gold nanoparticles and inducing their water solubility forming colloidal suspensions. It must be emphasized that currently there is no other example of a comparable process in the literature. Possible extensions of this work should consider

Plant growth regulation by seed coating with films of alginate and auxin-intercalated layered double hydroxides

• Vander A. de Castro,
• Valber G. O. Duarte,
• Danúbia A. C. Nobre,
• Geraldo H. Silva,
• Vera R. L. Constantino,
• Frederico G. Pinto,
• Willian R. Macedo and
• Jairo Tronto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1082–1091, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.93

• of the experiment after 15 days (Figure 5). For the M4 film, the maximum germination percentage was obtained 14 days after the bioassay assembly. For the treatments with the seeds covered with the films M1, M2 and M3, the maximum germination percentage was reached after 12, 11, and 9 days of the

Monolayers of MoS₂ on Ag(111) as decoupling layers for organic molecules: resolution of electronic and vibronic states of TCNQ

• Asieh Yousofnejad,
• Gaël Reecht,
• Nils Krane,
• Christian Lotze and
• Katharina J. Franke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1062–1071, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.91

• dipole–dipole interactions between the cyano endgroups and the quinone center of neighboring molecules. This assembly is very similar to typical self-assembled TCNQ islands on weakly interacting substrates [5][23][47][48][49]. When measured at a lower bias voltage (e.g., at V = 0.2 V in Figure 4a), the

A 3D-polyphenylalanine network inside porous alumina: Synthesis and characterization of an inorganic–organic composite membrane

• Jonathan Stott and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 938–951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.78

• have attracted significant attention in the last decades. Due their secondary structures (α-helix or β-sheet), polypeptides form macromolecular block segments, which can undergo a self-assembly process under certain circumstances [24][25]. The intramolecular interactions between these macromolecules as

Three-dimensional solvation structure of ethanol on carbonate minerals

• Hagen Söngen,
• Ygor Morais Jaques,
• Peter Spijker,
• Christoph Marutschke,
• Stefanie Klassen,
• Ilka Hermes,
• Ralf Bechstein,
• Lidija Zivanovic,
• John Tracey,
• Adam S. Foster and
• Angelika Kühnle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 891–898, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.74

• resolution. However, the majority of 3D AFM studies have been focused on the arrangement of water at carbonate surfaces. Here, we present an analysis of the assembly of ethanol – an organic molecule with a single hydroxy group – at the calcite and magnesite (10.4) surfaces by using high-resolution 3D AFM and

Simulations of the 2D self-assembly of tripod-shaped building blocks

• Łukasz Baran,
• Wojciech Rżysko and
• Edyta Słyk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 884–890, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.73

• diffraction pattern and average association number. Keywords: 2D materials; coarse-grained model; molecular simulations; self-assembly; structural characterization; tripod building blocks; Introduction On-surface synthesis is a newly developing field in chemistry that aims at making use of solid surfaces as

• this research, several factors have been established that can help to control the self-assembly process, such as precursor design [4][5], substrate nature and symmetry [6][7], type of solvent and its concentration, and thermodynamic conditions. The knowledge of the influence of these variables is

• ], tripod [15][16], tetrapod [17][18][19][20][21], and hexapod [22] architecture. Also, a lot of effort has been put into the investigation of the mixtures [23][24][25] and the guest-induced self-assembly [26] of aforementioned particles. An important aspect of the on-surface synthesis is that a lot of

Integrated photonics multi-waveguide devices for optical trapping and Raman spectroscopy: design, fabrication and performance demonstration

• Gyllion B. Loozen,
• Arnica Karuna,
• Mohammad M. R. Fanood,
• Erik Schreuder and
• Jacob Caro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 829–842, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.68

• particle (we use polystyrene beads; see below) can be grabbed from the fluidic volume, transported and then be handed over to a multi-waveguide trap. This transport is actually carried out by translating the main stage, on which the assembly with the sample holder and the small stages are mounted, while

Hexagonal boron nitride: a review of the emerging material platform for single-photon sources and the spin–photon interface

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Faraz A. Inam,
• Shin-ichiro Sato and
• Alberto Boretti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 740–769, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.61

Comparison of fresh and aged lithium iron phosphate cathodes using a tailored electrochemical strain microscopy technique

• Matthias Simolka,
• Hanno Kaess and
• Kaspar Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 583–596, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.46

• capacity loss from first charge to first discharge is attributed to surface layer generation (anode: solid electrolyte interface, SEI; cathode: solid permeable interface, SPI) on both electrodes, since they were rinsed before the full-cell assembly. After the first cycle, the capacity stays constant (not

Luminescent gold nanoclusters for bioimaging applications

• Nonappa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 533–546, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.42

• ; biosensing; gold nanoclusters; immunoassay; luminescence; self-assembly; theranostics; Introduction Imaging methods play a central role in understanding the structural and functional biological processes of biomolecules, cells, tissues, organs, and even entire living organisms [1][2]. The importance of

• complexes and SCQD-based nanomaterials. To improve the quantum yield and PL, various approaches have been developed including ligand engineering, selective doping to create alloy clusters, aggregation-induced emission, selective etching and self-assembly [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Ligands

• that assists better binding. Zhu et al. reported a rigid host–guest assembly to improve the PL of AuNCs, their antibacterial activity and bioimaging [84]. In their work, 5-methyl-2-thiouracil (MTU)-capped AuNCs (Au-MTU) were prepared. The Au-MTU NCs were then treated with protamine (Prot), a cationic

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

• core. The schematic diagram of layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition on colloidal templates, core dissolution and drug encapsulation into LbL-assembled capsules is shown in Figure 1. The method of fabricating core–shell particles and multilayered hollow capsules via LbL assembly was originally proposed and

• to the chemical nature of the polymers used and the assembly conditions [11]. Many studies have shown successful permeability changes for encapsulation and release via changes in pH or ionic strength for weak PE systems. The chemical nature of the polymers used along with the type of the core

• prominent when there are many charged groups present in the system. The use of different charged groups for LbL assembly can impart unique responsiveness to LbL systems as the residual charges in the multilayer films can play an important role in manipulating the polymer/polymer interactions, thus leading

Nanoarchitectonics: bottom-up creation of functional materials and systems

• Katsuhiko Ariga

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 450–452, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.36

• synthesis; nanoarchitectonics; nanotechnology; self-assembly; supramolecular; Given the significant and time-critical problems of energy shortage, environmental protection, and biomedical issues, the creation of new functional materials and systems for efficient energy production and storage [1][2

• , the chiral structure was found to control the self-assembly of nitrocinnamic amide amphiphiles [25]. Works related to the formation of higher-dimensional materials included, for example, the self-assembly of crystalline cellulose oligomers that resulted in nanoribbon networks [26], silicon nanowires

• that were formed by metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) [27], and the formation of high-tolerance crystalline hydrogels from cyclic dipeptides upon self-assembly [28]. In addition, a review on the use of DNA as the fundamental material building block for molecular and structural engineering [29

Nanoparticles based on the zwitterionic pillar[5]arene and Ag⁺: synthesis, self-assembly and cytotoxicity in the human lung cancer cell line A549

• Dmitriy N. Shurpik,
• Denis A. Sevastyanov,
• Pavel V. Zelenikhin,
• Pavel L. Padnya,
• Vladimir G. Evtugyn,
• Yuriy N. Osin and
• Ivan I. Stoikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 421–431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.33

• and 2D biomedical coatings. Keywords: cytotoxicity; macrocyclic receptors; nanoparticles; pillar[5]arene; self-assembly; silver; Introduction The first use of silver (Ag) as a medicine dates back to Hippocrates, who used it as an antibacterial agent for the treatment of ulcers [1]. Over the past

• presence of a preorganized macrocyclic structure makes the process of controlled supramolecular self-assembly possible with certain coordination sites. In this paper, we report the first example of using nontoxic, water-soluble pillar[5]arene derivatives containing sulfobetaine fragments to produce

• nanoparticles with Ag+ ions using controlled supramolecular self-assembly. Results and Discussion Synthesis of decasubstituted pillar[5]arenes containing sulfobetaine fragments We previously developed a method [29] for introducing tertiary amino groups into the structure of pillar[5]arene. Diamines containing

Brome mosaic virus-like particles as siRNA nanocarriers for biomedical purposes

• Alfredo Nuñez-Rivera,
• Pierrick G. J. Fournier,
• Danna L. Arellano,
• Ana G. Rodriguez-Hernandez,
• Rafael Vazquez-Duhalt and
• Ruben D. Cadena-Nava

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 372–382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.28

• ][19][20]. The capsids of these viruses result from the assembly of 180 identical proteins with T = 3 symmetry that forms the icosahedral shell with a diameter of 28 nm [21]. The N-terminal region of the capsid protein is highly basic and positively charged, which allows for the binding of the viral

• siRNA. VLPs nanovehicles containing siRNA were synthesized, taking advantage of the self-assembly of BMV capsid proteins. As a proof of concept, siRNA to silence the expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) was encapsidated into BMV capsid proteins. In order to optimize the siRNA encapsidation

• ′-GACAAGGACGGGCACAUUAUU-3′. BMV VLPs with siRNA were synthetized as described previously [22] using a mass ratio of 1:6 (siRNA/capsid protein). The disassembled BMV capsid protein and siRNA were mixed and dialyzed overnight in an assembly buffer (50 mM NaCl, 10 mM KCl, 5 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT, 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.2

Correction: Biocatalytic oligomerization-induced self-assembly of crystalline cellulose oligomers into nanoribbon networks assisted by organic solvents

• Yuuki Hata,
• Yuka Fukaya,
• Toshiki Sawada,
• Masahito Nishiura and
• Takeshi Serizawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 370–371, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.27

• ; oligomerization-induced self-assembly; organic solvent; The originally published Figure 4 contains wrong units on the y axes of both depicted CD spectra. The corrected Figure 4 is given below. Corrected Figure 4 of the original publication.

Understanding nanoparticle flow with a new in vitro experimental and computational approach using hydrogel channels

• Armel Boutchuen,
• Dell Zimmerman,
• Abdollah Arabshahi,
• John Melnyczuk and
• Soubantika Palchoudhury

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 296–309, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.22

• hydrogel channels were formed via a facile experimental technique using a newly constructed syringe and plastic tube assembly (Figure 4). The liquid gel was allowed to solidify overnight within the syringe–tube assembly and slowly removed from the assembly after solidification. The resultant final product

• mL DI water. A plastic syringe and tube assembly was constructed to fabricate the cylindrical hydrogel flowpath. The liquid pHEMA hydrogel mixture was transferred to a 3 mL plastic syringe (Fisher). The thin plastic tube of diameter 4 mm was inserted through the open end of the syringe to form the

• internal perforation and path for the flow of NPs. The hydrogel was left to solidify for 12 h within the syringe and tube assembly. The soft three-dimensional hydrogel structure was then removed from the syringe to form the channels for subsequent flow studies with iron oxide NPs. Transport experiments The

Using gold nanoparticles to detect single-nucleotide polymorphisms: toward liquid biopsy

• María Sanromán Iglesias and
• Marek Grzelczak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 263–284, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.20

• formation of DNA circuits and include hybridization chain reaction (HCR), catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) and entropy-driven catalysis [64]. These mechanisms have shown a great potential for developing biosensors of high sensitivity and high selectivity since the target DNA itself is used as a catalyst to

• cyclically amplify the process of DNA self-assembly. The strategies based on enzymatic tools, on the other hand, are characterized by an extraordinary potential for signal amplification. The main advantages of using enzymes involve: a) the capability of modifying oligonucleotides (e.g., polymerases

• ]. The assay allowed for an SNP discrimination at a detection limit of 1 nM in a complex physiological medium such as fetal bovine serum. Liang and co-workers [83] built on the previous results and developed a strategy to discriminate single-base mutations through the assembly of AuNPs driven by a DNA

Rational design of block copolymer self-assemblies in photodynamic therapy

• Maxime Demazeau,
• Laure Gibot,
• Anne-Françoise Mingotaud,
• Patricia Vicendo,
• Clément Roux and
• Barbara Lonetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 180–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.15

• the importance of intracellular targeting has been addressed. Keywords: intracellular targeting; micelles; photodynamic therapy (PDT); photochemistry; polymer; self-assembly; Review Introduction After Paul Ehrlich, in 1900, had the very first notion of a drug being delivered at will to a specific

• micelles or vesicles. The driving forces of this assembly are a loss of entropy during the self-assembly and different interactions acting on the monomer units of the polymer. Whereas polymer/polymer interactions are favored for the hydrophobic block, interactions between the hydrophobic block and water

• influencing the self-assembly behavior and, consequently, the photosensitizer loading ability. Typical endogenous triggers for pH- and redox-responsive drug delivery are i) acidic tumor tissues (pH 6.0–7.0), endosomes (pH 5.0–6.0) and lysosomes (pH 4.0–5.0) microenvironments, ii) high intracellular

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

• the key biomolecule central to almost all processes in living organisms. The eccentric idea of utilizing DNA as a material building block in molecular and structural engineering led to the creation of numerous molecular-assembly systems and materials at the nanoscale. The molecular structure of DNA is

• assembly of designed molecular units with fascinating properties and functions is central to all materials and bioengineering processes [1][2][3][4]. The use of biomolecules or synthetic systems with biomolecular components is capable of aiding the judicious regulation of molecular assembly parameters and

• tiles or bricks, which staple in a programmed fashion to form crystalline assembly structures with well-defined geometries, constitute the guiding principles of specific nucleobase pairing-driven DNA nanostructures (DNA nanotechnology) [16][17]. In other words, DNA origami involves the programmed

Internalization mechanisms of cell-penetrating peptides

• Ivana Ruseska and
• Andreas Zimmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 101–123, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.10

• strong binding of a ligand to a specific cell surface receptor, resulting in the assembly of clathrins in a polyhedral lattice on the cytosolic surface of the cell membrane. This process is followed by the invagination of the clathrin-coated membrane surface towards the cytoplasm and formation of a

• changes caused by the PI(4,5)P2 and cargo binding, as well the scaffold proteins, AP2 triggers clathrin assembly [80][81]. The second step in CME is called “cargo loading”. Basically, it involves the binding of clathrin-coat components to the cytosolic regions of the transmembrane cargo molecules. This

Advanced hybrid nanomaterials

• Andreas Taubert,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Pierre Rabu and
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2563–2567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.247

• for sensing or corrosion protection. To understand composite formation of a complex hybrid assembly, high quality characterization is paramount. An example is small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), which was used in the work “Mechanism of silica–lysozyme composite formation unraveled by in situ fast

Label-free highly sensitive probe detection with novel hierarchical SERS substrates fabricated by nanoindentation and chemical reaction methods

• Jingran Zhang,
• Tianqi Jia,
• Yongda Yan,
• Li Wang,
• Peng Miao,
• Yimin Han,
• Xinming Zhang,
• Guangfeng Shi,
• Yanquan Geng,
• Zhankun Weng,
• Daniel Laipple and
• Zuobin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2483–2496, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.239

• ], nanostars [17][18], nanoantennas [19], and nanospheres [20]; these have been successfully machined by existing lithography-based technologies. Furthermore, hierarchical substrates have also been fabricated by a combination of lithography [21][22][23][24][25] and self-assembly. Matricardi et al. [21] used

• the template-assisted assembly of gold nanospheres with patterned PDMS molds featuring square array geometries with lattice parameters of 400 to 1600 nm and hole diameters of 230 to 960 nm. Then 4-acetamidothiophenol at 10−4 mol/L was detected using this substrate. Domenici et al. [22] used electron

• beam lithography and self-assembly methods to fabricate gold clusters of micrometer size and regular spacing. Subsequently, the detection resolution of 4-acetamidothiophenol was 0.05 g/L using the substrate. Nanoparticle cluster array structures with a size of 40 nm were fabricated by electron beam

Small protein sequences can induce cellular uptake of complex nanohybrids

• Jan-Philip Merkl,
• Malak Safi,
• Christian Schmidtke,
• Fadi Aldeek,
• Johannes Ostermann,
• Tatiana Domitrovic,
• Sebastian Gärtner,
• John E. Johnson,
• Horst Weller and
• Hedi Mattoussi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2477–2482, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.238

• on the ability of functional fusion proteins presenting a lytic gamma peptide, to promote interactions with HeLa cells and delivery of large hybrid nanostructures. Keywords: bioconjugation; cellular uptake; nanoparticle hybrids; polymer encapsulation; self-assembly; Introduction Developing hybrid

• for the staining of cell membranes [4]. In two separate studies, Chan and co-workers described two interesting hybrid systems. In the first, a charge driven self-assembly of AuNPs and different-colour QDs into multicolour, non-blinking nanohybrids was introduced. These nanohybrids were then coupled to

• have also been discussed [12][14][15]. More recently, there have been a few reports discussing the use of luminescent Eu-loaded hydroxyapatite nanocrystals for rapid HeLa cancer cell imaging [9][11][16], or the nanostructure self‐assembly driven by amino acid coordination to increase the biological

Self-assembly of a terbium(III) 1D coordination polymer on mica

• Quentin Evrard,
• Giuseppe Cucinotta,
• Felix Houard,
• Guillaume Calvez,
• Yan Suffren,
• Carole Daiguebonne,
• Olivier Guillou,
• Andrea Caneschi,
• Matteo Mannini and
• Kevin Bernot

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2440–2448, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.234

• (375 µs) and the CHCl3 solution (13 µs) further reinforces the idea of water-induced growth. Keywords: atomic force microscopy (AFM); luminescence; nanostructuration; polymer; self-assembly; surface; terbium complexes; Introduction The study of materials for the realization of novel magnetic [1][2][3

• embedded in a suitable electrostatic environment. Indeed, mononuclear single-molecule magnets (SMMs), which are objects showing magnetic hysteresis at the molecular level comprising only one metallic ion (instead of a collective assembly of ions), have been initially observed for a Tb-based molecule [13

• stability against moisture and air ensure the creation of molecular nanochains of several hundred nanometers length as observed by AFM. This self-assembly of molecules into chains is likely to be triggered by the presence of water on the air-cleaved mica surface. Indeed, the strong hydrophilicity of such

Design of a nanostructured mucoadhesive system containing curcumin for buccal application: from physicochemical to biological aspects

• Sabrina Barbosa de Souza Ferreira,
• Gustavo Braga,
• Évelin Lemos Oliveira,
• Jéssica Bassi da Silva,
• Hélen Cássia Rosseto,
• Lidiane Vizioli de Castro Hoshino,
• Mauro Luciano Baesso,
• Wilker Caetano,
• Craig Murdoch,
• Helen Elizabeth Colley and
• Marcos Luciano Bruschi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2304–2328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.222

• increase of temperature can promote the self-assembly from unimers to micelles, with large endothermic heat. In this sense, PPO-groups dehydrate in a hydrophobic core with a surrounding hydrated shell. Higher concentrations of P407 are used (15% to 20%, w/w) as colloidal gelling systems in a cubic

• nanometer-sized assembly into three-dimensional micelles with a hydrophobic core of PPO and a hydrophilic shell of PEO that can interact by hydrogen bonds with the hydrophilic acrylic-acid derivative polymer. This results in a binary polymeric system with good viscoelasticity, mucoadhesion, softness and