Heterometal nanoparticles from Ru-based molecular clusters covalently anchored onto functionalized carbon nanotubes and nanofibers

• Deborah Vidick,
• Xiaoxing Ke,
• Michel Devillers,
• Claude Poleunis,
• Arnaud Delcorte,
• Pietro Moggi,
• Gustaaf Van Tendeloo and
• Sophie Hermans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1287–1297, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.133

• -containing clusters, a bimodal size distribution of metal nanoparticles was obtained due to gold segregation from the cluster cores and strong aggregation. In the case of Ru–Pt precursors, heterometal nanoparticles of ultrasmall size were formed on the carbon fibers and MWNTs. We used a combination of HRTEM

Attenuation, dispersion and nonlinearity effects in graphene-based waveguides

• Almir Wirth Lima Jr.,
• João Cesar Moura Mota and
• Antonio Sergio Bezerra Sombra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1221–1228, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.125

• optical signal in a nanophotonic waveguide is shown in Figure 5. The optical signal from an optical source is inserted into a monomode optical fiber via a connector with an insertion loss of 0.5 dB, mainly due to misalignment between the two portions of the optical fibers. The insertion loss of the

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

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

• nanotubes and to lesser extent of carbon fibers. Studies on the microstructure indicate that the assembly presents a marked variability in the tube external diameter and in the inner structure. We study the relationship between the observed microscopic properties and some potential applications. In

• . The observed difference can be ascribed to the highly complex microscopic structure of the sponge compared to that of the MWCNTs composing the film. Indeed, not only the CNT-sponge presents a marked variability in the tube diameter but also carbon few fibers are present in the network. These

In situ observation of biotite (001) surface dissolution at pH 1 and 9.5 by advanced optical microscopy

• Chiara Cappelli,
• Daniel Lamarca-Irisarri,
• Jordi Camas,
• F. Javier Huertas and
• Alexander E. S. Van Driessche

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 665–673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.67

• AFM on muscovite basal surface after two days of reaction time at pH 5.7 at 22 °C. After ten days of reaction the fibers formed a network with a height of 8–12 Å, covering 20% of the sample surface. Although the formation of oxides, hydroxides and aluminosilicate phases is likely to occur at the

Influence of spurious resonances on the interaction force in dynamic AFM

• Luca Costa and
• Mario S. Rodrigues

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 420–427, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.42

• /69201/2010. The authors thank Fabio Comin and Joel Chevrier for discussions and Irina Snigireva for the preparation of the gold coated optical fibers.

Tunable white light emission by variation of composition and defects of electrospun Al₂O₃–SiO₂ nanofibers

• Jinyuan Zhou,
• Gengzhi Sun,
• Hao Zhao,
• Xiaojun Pan,
• Zhenxing Zhang,
• Yujun Fu,
• Yanzhe Mao and
• Erqing Xie

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 313–320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.29

• of the pure Al2O3 nanofibers. The diameter of the rather brittle fibers is about 100–200 nm, exhibiting a smooth surface. When 20 mol % SiO2 is incorporated into the Al2O3 matrix, the fibers become ductile with length up to the centimeter scale and a diameter similar to the pure Al2O3 material

• . Moreover, from the enlarged SEM image shown in the inset of Figure 2b, some black spots were formed on the surface of fibers. This may be due to the precipitation of mullite nanocrystals from the inside to the surface of the Al2O3 during the calcination [18]. When the concentration of SiO2 is further

• increase to 40 mol % (Figure 2c), the composite fibers show an obvious change, exhibiting a fused, interconnect network with a diameter of ≈500 nm. This may be caused by the formation of mullite components in the samples. The continued increase in the concentration of SiO2 (to 60 and 80 mol %, as shown in

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

• [39][43][155] and endogenous structures, such as collagen fibers or immune cell granules must be distinguished from NP, requiring a deep understanding of normal and diseased cellular ultrastructure which is the typical domain of a pathologist [20]. Due to its high resolution, TEM is typically employed

Oxygen-plasma-modified biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds for enhanced compatibility of cardiovascular implants

• Anna Maria Pappa,
• Varvara Karagkiozaki,
• Silke Krol,
• Spyros Kassavetis,
• Dimitris Konstantinou,
• Charalampos Pitsalidis,
• Lazaros Tzounis,
• Nikos Pliatsikas and
• Stergios Logothetidis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 254–262, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.24

• configuration, forming pores between the fibers in the non-woven mesh network. It can be observed that the surface of the untreated and the surface-modified nanofibrous scaffolds after applying 20 W power was quite smooth and no morphologically significant differences were found. On the contrary, by increasing

• the power to 40 W, the plasma effect was very prominent and dramatically affected the morphology of the scaffolds, which resulted in a melting of the fibers as shown in Figure 1c. The mild treatment conditions (high magnification of image in Figure 1b) resulted in the melting of the thinner fibers of

• the scaffold, which is favorable for the cells, as it provides more space (micropores) between the fibers to elongate and spread [21]. This is highly preferable for certain cell types which exhibit the tendency to spread out and form an elongated cell body, such as the fibroblasts [26], which were

Multifunctional layered magnetic composites

• Maria Siglreitmeier,
• Baohu Wu,
• Tina Kollmann,
• Martin Neubauer,
• Gergely Nagy,
• Dietmar Schwahn,
• Vitaliy Pipich,
• Damien Faivre,
• Dirk Zahn,
• Andreas Fery and
• Helmut Cölfen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 134–148, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.13

• species for magnetite thus boosting composite growth along the chitin fibers. In summary, we have managed to synthesize a bio-inspired organic–inorganic hybrid material, which combines the structural features of nacre and chiton teeth. Swelling studies and preliminary mechanical measurements indicate a

Materials and characterization techniques for high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

• Roswitha Zeis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 68–83, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.8

• utilized carbon paper as the GDL material. The rigid carbon fiber penetrated the soft membrane material, which resulted in small pinholes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed broken GDL fibers piercing into the membrane and confirmed the observation made by X-ray tomography. The same

Anticancer efficacy of a supramolecular complex of a 2-diethylaminoethyl–dextran–MMA graft copolymer and paclitaxel used as an artificial enzyme

• Yasuhiko Onishi,
• Yuki Eshita,
• Rui-Cheng Ji,
• Masayasu Onishi,
• Takashi Kobayashi,
• Masaaki Mizuno,
• Jun Yoshida and
• Naoji Kubota

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2293–2307, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.238

• a microtubule-stabilizing agent. Cell division is usually initiated when polymerization ceases to form a sufficiently long hollow tube to provide support for myosin and actin located on the cell surface by gathering its 13 fibers. The DDMC/PTX complex stabilizes the α,β-tubulin dimer, which is

Towards bottom-up nanopatterning of Prussian blue analogues

• Virgile Trannoy,
• Marco Faustini,
• David Grosso,
• Sandra Mazerat,
• François Brisset,
• Alexandre Dazzi and
• Anne Bleuzen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1933–1943, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.204

• reactions in solution. The sol–gel transition allows one to obtain the oxide in any desired shape including films, fibers, monolithes [10]. Furthermore, the addition of self-assembling liquid crystalline templates to the sol can lead to the ordered nanostructuration of the oxide matrix [11]. Thus

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

• interaction between them [12]. It is relatively easily to pulverize this material to form CNs. XRD and Raman spectroscopy are suitable methods for crystal size approximation [13][14][15]. To obtain CNs similar to those forming activated carbon fibers described in the next paragraph, crystals of hexagonal

• . Carbon nanoparticle matrix The electric conductivity measurements were performed for activated carbon fibers (ACFs) formed from the quasi-graphitic CNs, which are mechanically connected by carbon chains or graphene fragments [36]. It was shown that the conductivity of such a system depends on the thermal

• different parts of the fibers, that is, areas not accessed by guest molecules, the pore walls and the fiber surface [35][38]. Figure 5 shows that the influence of various adsorbed molecules is varied. For example, water causes a more significant change of the EPR spectrum of the ACFs than CCl4. This effect

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

• to self-assemble into ribbon-like supramolecular structures that wrap, although not specifically, around the nanotube. It is interesting to note that the self-aggregation properties of the dispersant are crucial as the tendency of super-aggregate into bigger fibers can favor their desorption from CNT

Ionic liquid-assisted formation of cellulose/calcium phosphate hybrid materials

• Ahmed Salama,
• Mike Neumann,
• Christina Günter and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1553–1568, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.167

• starch led to a nanoscale hybrid material, the mineralization of cellulose led to cellulose fibers with a high degree of surface mineralization. In spite of this, the cellulose fibers appeared to “imprint” some features of their surface structure on the mineral layers. Venkataramanan et al. synthesized

• cellulose/TiO2 hybrids via a sol–gel reaction in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [Bmim][Cl] [47]. Ti(OBu)4 was used as TiO2 precursor and a network of TiO2 layered fibers was observed after the sol–gel reaction. Amarasekara and Owereh prepared cellulose carbamate/silica hybrid materials in [Bmim][Cl

• shows representative SEM images of the as-received microcrystalline cellulose and cellulose regenerated from the IL 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [Bmim][Cl]. Neat, untreated microcrystalline cellulose consists of heterogeneous and highly aggregated fibers with sizes in the micrometer to hundreds

In vitro interaction of colloidal nanoparticles with mammalian cells: What have we learned thus far?

• Moritz Nazarenus,
• Qian Zhang,
• Mahmoud G. Soliman,
• Pablo del Pino,
• Beatriz Pelaz,
• Susana Carregal-Romero,
• Joanna Rejman,
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser,
• Martin J. D. Clift,
• Reinhard Zellner,
• G. Ulrich Nienhaus,
• James B. Delehanty,
• Igor L. Medintz and
• Wolfgang J. Parak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1477–1490, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.161

• fibers with high aspect ratios [100]. Flattening of NPs has been used, for example, to reduce NP uptake by cells in a way that flat NPs just adhere to the plasma cell membrane like a “backpack”, without being internalized, in contrast to spherical NPs that are readily incorporated [113][114]. Concerning

Surface topography and contact mechanics of dry and wet human skin

• Alexander E. Kovalev,
• Kirstin Dening,
• Bo N. J. Persson and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1341–1348, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.147

• cellulose fibers. In fact, cellulose fibers exhibit elastoplastic properties very similar to the stratum corneum: Both absorb water strongly and swell by wetting, both have elastic moduli of the order of 10 MPa in the wet state and of the order of 1 GPa in the dry state [11]. The swelling (and elastic

Template-directed synthesis and characterization of microstructured ceramic Ce/ZrO₂@SiO₂ composite tubes

• Jörg J. Schneider and
• Meike Naumann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1152–1159, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.126

• Jorg J. Schneider Meike Naumann Eduard-Zintl Institut für Anorganische und Physikalische Chemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Alarich-Weiss-Str.12, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.5.126 Abstract An exo-templating synthesis process using polymeric fibers and inorganic sol particles

• deposited onto structured one-dimensional objects is presented. In particular, CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 composite tubes were synthesized in a two-step procedure by using electrospun polystyrene fibers as fiber template. First, a sol–gel approach based on an exo-templating technique was employed to obtain polystyrene

• (PS)/SiO2 composite fibers. These composite fibers were subsequently covered by spray-coating with ceria and zirconia sol solutions. After drying and final calcination of the green body composites, the PS polymer template was removed, and composite tubes of the composition CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 were obtained

Organic and inorganic–organic thin film structures by molecular layer deposition: A review

• Pia Sundberg and
• Maarit Karppinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1104–1136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.123

Fibrillar adhesion with no clusterisation: Functional significance of material gradient along adhesive setae of insects

• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Alexander E. Filippov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 837–845, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.95

• setae by lateral collapse. The numerical experiment of the present study has clearly demonstrated that gradient-bearing fibers with short soft tips and stiff bases have greater advantage in maximizing adhesion and minimizing clusterisation in multiple attachment–detachment cycles, if compared to the

• fibers with longer soft tips on the stiff bases and fibers with stiff tips on the soft bases. This study not only manifests the crucial role of gradients in material properties along the setae in beetle fibrillar adhesive system, but predicts that similar gradients must have been convergently evolved in

• parallel fibers attached to a hard planar base. Stiffness of the fibers Felastic is continuously varied along their length and can be changed from very soft one to much stiffer or even almost rigid one (but still with some degree of flexibility). Longitudinal and transversal stiffness of the fibers are

The optimal shape of elastomer mushroom-like fibers for high and robust adhesion

• Burak Aksak,
• Korhan Sahin and
• Metin Sitti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 630–638, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.74

• performance on smooth surfaces matching the adhesive strengths obtained with the natural gecko foot-pads. It is possible to improve the already impressive adhesive performance of mushroom-like fibers provided that the underlying adhesion mechanism is understood. Here, the adhesion mechanism of bio-inspired

• mushroom-like fibers is investigated by implementing the Dugdale–Barenblatt cohesive zone model into finite elements simulations. It is found that the magnitude of pull-off stress depends on the edge angle θ and the ratio of the tip radius to the stalk radius β of the mushroom-like fiber. Pull-off stress

• adhesives. Keywords: gecko; mushroom-like fibers; adhesion; Introduction We need to look no further than nature to find inspiration for many of the technologies we work on today. One such field that observations on natural systems have impacted significantly in the recent years is adhesive technologies

Biocalcite, a multifunctional inorganic polymer: Building block for calcareous sponge spicules and bioseed for the synthesis of calcium phosphate-based bone

• Xiaohong Wang,
• Heinz C. Schröder and
• Werner E. G. Müller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 610–621, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.72

• engineering is that it is accepted by the cells as a suitable 3D platform for their growth, differentiation and mineralization (HA deposition). These requirements can be met by scaffolds made of natural fibers, which correspond in their structure and composition to the extracellular matrix. A suitable

The softening of human bladder cancer cells happens at an early stage of the malignancy process

• Jorge R. Ramos,
• Joanna Pabijan,
• Ricardo Garcia and
• Malgorzata Lekka

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 447–457, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.52

• underline that it is neither the spatial organization of the actin filaments nor the presence of stress fibers, but the overall density and their 3D-organization in a probing volume play the dominant role in controlling the elastic response of the cancerous cell to an external force. Keywords: actin

• cortex and well-formed linear actin bundles (i.e., stress fibers) that span over a whole cell. For softer cells, the actin filaments were less organized. Mostly, short filaments were observed. If F-actin bundles were present, they were shorter and randomly oriented. In particular for ovarian cancer, the

• correlation between the migratory behavior of cells and their stiffness has been demonstrated [21]. In other studies, the larger deformability of the mouse ovarian cells has been correlated with the dysregulation of actin (stress) fibers, which influences both fiber thickness and organization, as shown by

Exploring the complex mechanical properties of xanthan scaffolds by AFM-based force spectroscopy

• Hao Liang,
• Guanghong Zeng,
• Yinli Li,
• Shuai Zhang,
• Huiling Zhao,
• Lijun Guo,
• Bo Liu and
• Mingdong Dong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 365–373, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.42

• structures are showed in Figure 1F. The above results confirmed our previous morphological studies on the temperature-enhanced re-organization of xanthan gels into 2D network of fibers. Based on this, we move forward to investigate the mechanical properties of the scaffolds by FS. FS was carried out on the

• of typical force curves after normalization of the separation length indicated that the force curves were measured from identical fibers. The persistence length is 0.35 ± 0.27 nm and contour length is 954 ± 157 nm (n = 92). It should be noted that the measured persistence length exhibits a much