Grain boundaries and coincidence site lattices in the corneal nanonipple structure of the Mourning Cloak butterfly

• Ken C. Lee and
• Uwe Erb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 292–299, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.32

• water or oil droplets [28][29]. The importance of 5–7 topological coordination-number defects has further been discussed for the cases of grain growth in polycrystalline materials and the stability of periodic cellular structures [30][31]. All these examples show that, from a topological point of view

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

• also by polymer functionalization. Lau et al. [131] favored a bio-inspired approach to the problem and mimicked designs found in nature. In certain plants such as the lotus leaf, water droplets roll on the surface and remove dust particles; this is a self-cleaning behavior and is called the Lotus

Nanoparticles of novel organotin(IV) complexes bearing phosphoric triamide ligands

• Zahra Shariatinia,
• Ebadullah Asadi,
• Vahid Tavasolinasab and
• Khodayar Gholivand

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 94–102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.11

• dissolved samples, a few droplets were placed on a small piece of foil, whereas the powdered compounds were directly placed on the sample holder. Here, the complexes were dissolved in methanol, and after evaporation of the solvent, the SEM images were obtained from the nanoparticles prepared on aluminum

Controlled deposition and combing of DNA across lithographically defined patterns on silicon

• Zeinab Esmail Nazari and
• Leonid Gurevich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 72–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.8

• the hydrophobic silane on top of the SiO2 layer. On these surfaces, water droplets exhibited average contact angles of about 90° as determined by the sessile droplet method. Positively charged silicon surfaces (used for the reference experiment shown in Figure 2a) were produced by the same technique

Growth behaviour and mechanical properties of PLL/HA multilayer films studied by AFM

• Cagri Üzüm,
• Johannes Hellwig,
• Narayanan Madaboosi,
• Dmitry Volodkin and
• Regine von Klitzing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 778–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.87

• particles and the adhesive were placed on a glass slide. The adhesive was apportioned in fine stitches with a needle of a syringe or a very thin metal wire so that it had small separate droplets, ideally the size of the silica spheres. The cantilever was then moved by using a micro-manipulator. The far end

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

• experiments involving nanoparticle-coated surfaces under dry conditions, several droplets of Au nanoparticles suspended in DI water (Nanopartz, Inc., Loveland, CO) were deposited onto the clean Si (100) substrate by using a syringe. A 25% concentration of an initial 0.05 mg/mL solution was used for all

• with an average speed of 3.5 mm/s. Friction forces were measured with semiconductor strain gages for 500 cycles. In liquid environments, 2–3 droplets of DI water with and without Au 90 nanoparticles were deposited onto the silicon substrate with a syringe. The sapphire ball was then slid over the

Friction and durability of virgin and damaged skin with and without skin cream treatment using atomic force microscopy

• Bharat Bhushan,
• Si Chen and
• Shirong Ge

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 731–746, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.83

• reciprocating tribometer with a velocity 1 mm/s and at a normal load of 50 mN for 3000 cycles. Contact-angle measurements The apparent contact angles were measured for various samples. Measurements were made with a Rame-Hart automated goniometer model 290-F4, where 5 μL water droplets were deposited onto the

Polymer blend lithography: A versatile method to fabricate nanopatterned self-assembled monolayers

• Cheng Huang,
• Markus Moosmann,
• Jiehong Jin,
• Tobias Heiler,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 620–628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.71

• [62]. Water droplets are introduced into the polymer solution film and leave behind holes after the film has solidified. These breath figure structures can be found both in films of one-polymer systems, such as PMMA in THF, and of polymer-blend systems. In this article we present a method to obtain a

• the hydrophilic polymer wets the substrate while the hydrophobic most likely wets the free polymer–air interface. The upper layer becomes unstable and dewets such that droplets are formed. Therefore the final morphology is usually one phase “floating” in a lake of the other one. After the selective

• . Besides these open holes, there are smaller depressions and embedded PS droplets visible at the surface. Due to the rapid evaporation of the solvent during the spin-coating process the sample surface is cooled down. At this highly increased humidity the sample surface reaches the dew point. The result is

Directed deposition of silicon nanowires using neopentasilane as precursor and gold as catalyst

• Britta Kämpken,
• Verena Wulf,
• Norbert Auner,
• Marcel Winhold,
• Michael Huth,
• Daniel Rhinow and
• Andreas Terfort

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 535–545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.62

• gold nanoparticles as a catalyst has been explored. The growth proceeds via the formation of liquid gold/silicon alloy droplets, which excrete the silicon nanowires upon continued decomposition of the precursor. This mechanism determines the diameter of the Si nanowires. Different sources for the gold

• excess silicon in the form of nanowires. The diameter of the nanowires depends on the size of the Au/Si droplets, which in turn can be determined by the size of the employed gold nanoparticles. As a rule of thumb, the diameter of the NWs deposited at 375 °C is about 1.5 times larger than the diameter of

Conducting composite materials from the biopolymer kappa-carrageenan and carbon nanotubes

• Ali Aldalbahi,
• Jin Chu,
• Peter Feng and
• Marc in het Panhuis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 415–427, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.48

• angles of 1 μL Milli-Q water droplets on the surface of the samples were calculated after 30 s by using the accompanying Data Physics software (version SCA20.1). The mean contact angle was calculated based on measurements performed on at least five water droplets. The sensing properties of the films were

The morphology of silver nanoparticles prepared by enzyme-induced reduction

• Henrik Schneidewind,
• Thomas Schüler,
• Katharina K. Strelau,
• Karina Weber,
• Dana Cialla,
• Marco Diegel,
• Roland Mattheis,
• Andreas Berger,
• Robert Möller and
• Jürgen Popp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 404–414, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.47

• for 3 h at 70 °C, followed by three washing steps in toluene. As a result, the surface was saturated with epoxy groups. Afterwards, linker molecules (here: DNA with a 5-end amino and a 3-end biotin modification) were deposited on the surface as 4 nl droplets in 5× phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) by

• using a Nano-Plotter NP 2.0 (GeSiM mbH, Großerkmannsdorf, Germany). The droplets dried under normal atmosphere within 10 min. The linker binds covalently via the amino modification towards the epoxy modified surface, assisted by an UV linking process [26]. Due to the interaction of biotin and

Structural, electronic and photovoltaic characterization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes grown directly on stainless steel

• Luca Camilli,
• Manuela Scarselli,
• Silvano Del Gobbo,
• Paola Castrucci,
• Eric Gautron and
• Maurizio De Crescenzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 360–367, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.42

• the formation of droplets. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Material Command, USAF, under grant no. FA8655-11-1-306 and by the Queensland Government smart futures fund National and International Research Alliances Program (NIRAP): solar powered

Surface functionalization of aluminosilicate nanotubes with organic molecules

• Wei Ma,
• Weng On Yah,
• Hideyuki Otsuka and
• Atsushi Takahara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 82–100, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.10

• W. Ma et al., Chem. Lett. 2011, 40, 159–161 [33]. © 2011, The Chemical Society of Japan. Static-contact-angle images of water droplets on a silicon wafer cast with (a) original imogolite and (b) DDPO4-imogolite. Reprinted with permission from W. Ma et al., Chem. Lett. 2011, 40, 159–161 [33]. © 2011

Octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS)-coated ionic liquid drops: Micro-reactors for homogenous catalytic reactions at designated interfaces

• Xiaoning Zhang and
• Yuguang Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 33–39, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.4

• water, all IL micro-droplets on the patterned area disappeared instantaneously, indicating that the IL micro-droplets were dissolved in water. Silane-coated IL capsules Silane molecules react with water to form silanols, which subsequently cross-link with each other using the Si–O–Si covalent bonds and

Synthesis and catalytic applications of combined zeolitic/mesoporous materials

• Jarian Vernimmen,
• Vera Meynen and
• Pegie Cool

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 785–801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.87

• -formation of porosity was first seen in the synthesis of metal oxides starting from metal alkoxides in water droplets (Figure 8) [154][156]. Here, the hydrolysis and condensation induce the formation of small molecules, namely water and alcohol, which then create porosity in a random manner. Recently Su and

Ceria/silicon carbide core–shell materials prepared by miniemulsion technique

• Lars Borchardt,
• Martin Oschatz,
• Robert Frind,
• Emanuel Kockrick,
• Martin R. Lohe,
• Christoph P. Hauser,
• Clemens K. Weiss,
• Katharina Landfester,
• Bernd Büchner and
• Stefan Kaskel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 638–644, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.67

• droplets. Thus, the droplet sizes and the composition of the droplet components remain unchanged. This, in consequence, enables the preparation of copolymer particles of defined composition and the encapsulation of further, monomer soluble materials [4]. For the preparation of inorganic, ceramic materials

Self-organizing bioinspired oligothiophene–oligopeptide hybrids

• Alexey K. Shaytan,
• Eva-Kathrin Schillinger,
• Elena Mena-Osteritz,
• Sylvia Schmid,
• Pavel G. Khalatur,
• Peter Bäuerle and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 525–544, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.57

• peptide backbone, as shown in Figure 2. To investigate the self-assembly of 1', several solvents were employed, including water (pH ≈ 4–4.5), aqueous phosphate buffer (pH ≈ 6–6.5), and dichloromethane with two droplets of THF (pH ≈ 2). These attempts resulted in the formation of clusters or irregularly

Towards multiple readout application of plasmonic arrays

• Dana Cialla,
• Karina Weber,
• René Böhme,
• Uwe Hübner,
• Henrik Schneidewind,
• Matthias Zeisberger,
• Roland Mattheis,
• Robert Möller and
• Jürgen Popp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 501–508, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.54

• chips were thoroughly washed to remove all unbound capture DNA. Before the hybridization, the dye-labeled target DNA (50 nM Cy3.5-labeled sequence: Cy3.5-5'-CAT AGA ATC AAG GAG CAC ATG CTG AAA AAA-3') was suspended in 5× saline–sodium citrate (SSC) and 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). Droplets of

Platinum nanoparticles from size adjusted functional colloidal particles generated by a seeded emulsion polymerization process

• Nicolas Vogel,
• Ulrich Ziener,
• Achim Manzke,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Johannes Biskupek,
• Clemens K. Weiss and
• Katharina Landfester

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 459–472, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.50

• nanoparticles [17][18][19][20]. Here, the monomer droplets are preformed by ultrasonication and critically stabilized against coagulation by the addition of surfactants. Ostwald ripening, the mechanism that leads to formation of bigger particles at the expense of smaller ones due to the higher Laplace pressure

• of the latter, is prevented by addition of a co-stabilizer. This component, highly insoluble in the continuous phase, creates an osmotic pressure in the droplets and, thus, acts as a counterforce to the Laplace pressure. Hence, no effective diffusion takes place during the polymerization, and

• functional molecules can be incorporated in defined amounts. The only requirement for the incorporation is a higher solubility of the functional molecule in the monomer droplets as compared to the continuous phase. As many different monomers can be used, and both direct (oil-in-water) and indirect (water-in

Formation of precise 2D Au particle arrays via thermally induced dewetting on pre-patterned substrates

• Dong Wang,
• Ran Ji and
• Peter Schaaf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 318–326, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.37

• interaction with SiO2 substrate, which results in low activation energy for metal atom migration [12]. Dewetting is a well known spontaneous physical phenomenon describing the rupture of a thin liquid film on a substrate and the formation of droplets. Dewetting dynamics of liquid polymer films have been

Dynamics of capillary infiltration of liquids into a highly aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube film

• Sławomir Boncel,
• Krzysztof Z. Walczak and
• Krzysztof K. K. Koziol

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 311–317, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.36

• nanotube density and of a confirmed degree of alignment. The film was subsequently treated with droplets of various liquids, under carefully selected conditions. The output of the experiment, that is, time of infiltration as a function of the applied liquid, was analysed using the most general theoretical

• particular droplets from the surface of the HACNT film. The results of infiltration are presented in Table 1. All of the examined liquids, except for water, saturated saline (NaCl) and mercury, infiltrated the nanotube film. A comparative sequence of snapshots is presented in Figure 2 showing the

• infiltration of the HACNT film by three different aqueous solutions, characterised by various dielectric constant, namely distilled water (as a reference) (left), saturated saline (centre) and saturated sucrose solution (right). Water and saline solution both formed droplets that slide on the highly

Hierarchically structured superhydrophobic flowers with low hysteresis of the wild pansy (Viola tricolor) – new design principles for biomimetic materials

• Anna J. Schulte,
• Damian M. Droste,
• Kerstin Koch and
• Wilhelm Barthlott

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 228–236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.27

• leaves (petals) of many plants are superhydrophobic, but water droplets do not roll-off when the surfaces are tilted. On such surfaces water droplets are in the “Cassie impregnating wetting state”, which is also known as the “petal effect”. By analyzing the petal surfaces of different species, we

• discovered interesting new wetting characteristics of the surface of the flower of the wild pansy (Viola tricolor). This surface is superhydrophobic with a static contact angle of 169° and very low hysteresis, i.e., the petal effect does not exist and water droplets roll-off as from a lotus (Nelumbo nucifera

• ) leaf. However, the surface of the wild pansy petal does not possess the wax crystals of the lotus leaf. Its petals exhibit high cone-shaped cells (average size 40 µm) with a high aspect ratio (2.1) and a very fine cuticular folding (width 260 nm) on top. The applied water droplets are in the Cassie

Sorting of droplets by migration on structured surfaces

• Wilfried Konrad and
• Anita Roth-Nebelsick

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 215–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.25

• is a topic of interest for various applications. It is well known that liquid droplets move towards areas of minimum contact angle if placed on a flat solid surface exhibiting a gradient of contact angle. This effect can be utilised for droplet manipulation. In this contribution we describe how

• droplet. If the value of the contact angle is fixed and lies within a certain interval, then droplets sitting initially on a cone can gain energy by moving to adjacent cones. Conclusion: Surfaces covered with cone-shaped protrusions or cavities may be devised for constructing “band-conveyors” for droplets

• ; microfluidics; surface; surface energy; surface structures; Introduction Manipulation of droplets is an issue of great interest in microfluidics. The underlying motivation is the design of microdevices that are able to perform various fluidic processes within dimensions on the micrometer scale [1]. “Lab-on-a

Moisture harvesting and water transport through specialized micro-structures on the integument of lizards

• Philipp Comanns,
• Christian Effertz,
• Florian Hischen,
• Konrad Staudt,
• Wolfgang Böhme and
• Werner Baumgartner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 204–214, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.24

• approaches were used. A commercially available contact angle meter (DSA-10, Krüss, Hamburg, Germany) was used applying droplets of about 5 µl of deionised water and observing the behaviour with an integrated video camera. Alternatively, droplets of 4–7 µl of deionised water containing the red colourant 0.5

Superhydrophobic surfaces of the water bug Notonecta glauca: a model for friction reduction and air retention

• Petra Ditsche-Kuru,
• Erik S. Schneider,
• Jan-Erik Melskotte,
• Martin Brede,
• Alfred Leder and
• Wilhelm Barthlott

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 137–144, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.17

• performed with a DataPhysics Contact Angle System OCA, TBU 90 E (DataPhysics GmbH, Filderstadt, Germany), which was operated by the software SCR 20 (DataPhysics). CA measurements were performed with the “needle-in-drop” method by application of 5 µL droplets of pure water. CA and TA were measured for ten