Nano-engineered skin mesenchymal stem cells: potential vehicles for tumour-targeted quantum-dot delivery

• Liga Saulite,
• Dominyka Dapkute,
• Karlis Pleiko,
• Ineta Popena,
• Simona Steponkiene,
• Ricardas Rotomskis and
• Una Riekstina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1218–1230, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.123

• levels of biological organization, from cell monolayers to primates and even ecosystems [34][35]. The potential toxicological effects of QDs are usually based on the release of free cadmium (Cd) [36]. However, QD shell and surface coatings protect the core, which contains toxic inorganic semiconductor

Adsorption characteristics of Er₃N@C₈₀on W(110) and Au(111) studied via scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy

• Sebastian Schimmel,
• Zhixiang Sun,
• Danny Baumann,
• Denis Krylov,
• Nataliya Samoylova,
• Alexey Popov,
• Bernd Büchner and
• Christian Hess

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1127–1134, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.114

• , islands and inordinate aggregations on terraces were found where most likely local impurities served as nucleation points. The spatial extent of the monolayers reached sizes of several 100 × 100 nm2. The STM image of Figure 2b taken at the edge of an Er3N@C80-island illustrates that the molecules are

• organized in a hcp structure with a nearest neighbor distance of 1.15 ± 0.01 nm, consistent with earlier findings [11][12]. The orientation of the monolayers was examined by comparing them with the herringbone reconstruction visible at bare Au(111) surface regions (Figure 2a and Figure 3a,b). The typical

• ), whereby the monolayers can be described as (4 × 4) superstructure [11][12]. Our data reveal a new alignment in addition to this known in-phase orientation of Er3N@C80-monolayer on Au(111). In this case, the monolayer was found to be rotated to form an incommensurate (4 × 4)R30° phase (Figure 3b) with

Growth, structure and stability of sputter-deposited MoS₂ thin films

• Reinhard Kaindl,
• Bernhard C. Bayer,
• Roland Resel,
• Thomas Müller,
• Viera Skakalova,
• Gerlinde Habler,
• Rainer Abart,
• Alexey S. Cherevan,
• Dominik Eder,
• Maxime Blatter,
• Fabian Fischer,
• Jannik C. Meyer,
• Dmitry K. Polyushkin and
• Wolfgang Waldhauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.113

• , recent studies demonstrated that MoS2 is stable in its few- and single-layer form [7][8] (similar to graphene) and has intriguing electrical and optical properties [9]. Bulk MoS2 is usually of 2H type and a n-type semiconductor with an indirect bandgap of ≈1.3 eV [10], whereas 2H MoS2 monolayers were

• conduction behaviour could be related to both chemical composition and structure and will be discussed in the following. First, Mo/S stoichiometry variations in the MoS2 film could contribute to unexpected variations in electrical transport. For instance, for transistor devices based on CVD MoS2 monolayers

Nanoantenna-assisted plasmonic enhancement of IR absorption of vibrational modes of organic molecules

• Alexander G. Milekhin,
• Olga Cherkasova,
• Sergei A. Kuznetsov,
• Ilya A. Milekhin,
• Ekatherina E. Rodyakina,
• Alexander V. Latyshev,
• Sreetama Banerjee,
• Georgeta Salvan and
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 975–981, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.99

• enhance the SEIRA signal by molecular vibrations in model adsorbates such as octadecanthiol (ODT) [16] and 4,4'-bis(N-carbazolyl)-1,1'-biphenyl (CBP) by up to five orders of magnitude [17]. The IR absorption bands of these molecules become pronounced, even for molecular monolayers, by tuning the localized

Vapor-phase-synthesized fluoroacrylate polymer thin films: thermal stability and structural properties

• Paul Christian and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 933–942, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.95

• micrometers to monolayers [15][16]. Experimental The monomer precursor 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA, purity 97%), the cross-linking agent ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA, purity 98%) and the initiator tert-butyl peroxide (TBPO, purity 98%) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Germany) and

Triptycene-terminated thiolate and selenolate monolayers on Au(111)

• Jinxuan Liu,
• Martin Kind,
• Björn Schüpbach,
• Daniel Käfer,
• Stefanie Winkler,
• Wenhua Zhang,
• Andreas Terfort and
• Christof Wöll

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 892–905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.91

• Institute of Technology (KIT), 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.8.91 Abstract To study the implications of highly space-demanding organic moieties on the properties of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), triptycyl thiolates and selenolates with and without methylene spacers on Au(111) surfaces were

• comprehensively studied using ultra-high vacuum infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy and thermal desorption spectroscopy. Due to packing effects, the molecules in all monolayers are substantially tilted. In the

• presence of a methylene spacer the tilt is slightly less pronounced. The selenolate monolayers exhibit smaller defect densities and therefore are more densely packed than their thiolate analogues. The Se–Au binding energy in the investigated SAMs was found to be higher than the S–Au binding energy

Recombinant DNA technology and click chemistry: a powerful combination for generating a hybrid elastin-like-statherin hydrogel to control calcium phosphate mineralization

• Mohamed Hamed Misbah,
• Mercedes Santos,
• Luis Quintanilla,
• Christina Günter,
• Matilde Alonso,
• Andreas Taubert and
• José Carlos Rodríguez-Cabello

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 772–783, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.80

• example in the case of a templating approach or in a cross-linked state [15][16][17]. Following this approach, the most common templates used are Langmuir monolayers and self-assembled monolayers. Mineralization in gel phases has also attracted interest because these gels are easily prepared and provide a

Calculating free energies of organic molecules on insulating substrates

• Julian Gaberle,
• David Z. Gao and
• Alexander L. Shluger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 667–674, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.71

• understanding dynamic processes of organic molecules on insulating substrates. Keywords: entropy; free energy; molecular dynamics; organic molecules; potential of mean force; thermodynamic integration surface step; Introduction In recent years molecular films and self-assembled monolayers have attracted a lot

In-situ monitoring by Raman spectroscopy of the thermal doping of graphene and MoS₂ in O₂-controlled atmosphere

• Aurora Piazza,
• Filippo Giannazzo,
• Gianpiero Buscarino,
• Gabriele Fisichella,
• Antonino La Magna,
• Fabrizio Roccaforte,
• Marco Cannas,
• Franco Mario Gelardi and
• Simonpietro Agnello

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 418–424, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.44

• O2) on the doping of monolayers of graphene (Gr) on SiO2 and Si substrates, and on the doping of MoS2 multilayer flakes transferred on the same substrates have been investigated. The investigations were carried out by in situ micro-Raman spectroscopy during thermal treatments up to 430 °C, and by

Functionalized TiO₂ nanoparticles by single-step hydrothermal synthesis: the role of the silane coupling agents

• Antoine R. M. Dalod,
• Lars Henriksen,
• Tor Grande and
• Mari-Ann Einarsrud

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 304–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.33

• well-ordered organic monolayers. In case of the aminosilane-functionalized samples, the low signal/noise ratios do not allow for an accurate measurement of the band positions. Additionally, because of possible surface contamination (from the carbon-coated grid) and/or optical aberration, the HR-TEM

Template-controlled piezoactivity of ZnO thin films grown via a bioinspired approach

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Fabian Streb,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Zaklina Burghard and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 296–303, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.32

• ]. Additionally, organic templates are used to modify the surface of the substrate. Especially self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) [23][24], thin polymer brushes [25] or polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEL) [26] were successfully applied for the deposition of ZnO thin films. With these molecules, a multitude of

Influence of hydrofluoric acid treatment on electroless deposition of Au clusters

• Rachela G. Milazzo,
• Antonio M. Mio,
• Giuseppe D’Arrigo,
• Emanuele Smecca,
• Alessandra Alberti,
• Gabriele Fisichella,
• Filippo Giannazzo,
• Corrado Spinella and
• Emanuele Rimini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 183–189, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.19

• during the cleaning procedure. Specifically, after a quick immersion time of about 10 s and a deposition time of 3 s, we obtained a discontinuous gold film of a few monolayers thick. When the HF pretreatment is extended up to 4 min, for the same plating time, we observed mostly spherical clusters, while

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering of self-assembled thiol monolayers and supported lipid membranes on thin anodic porous alumina

• Marco Salerno,
• Amirreza Shayganpour,
• Barbara Salis and
• Silvia Dante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 74–81, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.8

• surfaces, we first functionalized the Au with self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of thiols, to provide the appropriate surface condition to allow SLB formation. SERS effect was tested and proved for each fabrication step of the system. Experimental tAPA fabrication and modification to achieve SERS-activity An

Structural and tribometric characterization of biomimetically inspired synthetic "insect adhesives"

• Matthias W. Speidel,
• Malte Kleemeier,
• Andreas Hartwig,
• Klaus Rischka,
• Angelika Ellermann,
• Rolf Daniels and
• Oliver Betz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 45–63, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.6

• a few monolayers and (4) the penetration of surface irregularities through the liquid film resulting in solid–solid contacts (cf. discussion in [55]). The influence of film thickness can also be seen in our experiments. Although we assume that in all of our experiments, we measured in the regimes of

Solvent-mediated conductance increase of dodecanethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticle monolayers

• Patrick A. Reissner,
• Jean-Nicolas Tisserant,
• Antoni Sánchez-Ferrer,
• Raffaele Mezzenga and
• Andreas Stemmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2057–2064, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.196

• .7.196 Abstract Gold nanoparticle monolayers provide convenient templates to study charge transport in organic molecules beyond single junction techniques. Conductance is reported to increase by several orders of magnitude following immersion of alkanethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticle monolayers in a

• solution containing conjugated thiol-functionalized molecules. Typically, this observation is attributed to molecular exchange. Less attention has been paid to the role of the solvent alone. Here, we report on an increase in conductance of dodecanethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticle monolayers on Si/SiO2 by

• an average factor of 36 and 22 after immersion in pure ethanol (EtOH) and tetrahydrofuran (THF), respectively. Analysis by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) reveals a solvent-induced decrease in lattice constant of close-packed monolayers. We compare the

Ferromagnetic behaviour of ZnO: the role of grain boundaries

• Boris B. Straumal,
• Svetlana G. Protasova,
• Andrei A. Mazilkin,
• Eberhard Goering,
• Gisela Schütz,
• Petr B. Straumal and
• Brigitte Baretzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1936–1947, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.185

• the thickness of the segregation layer for polycrystals with grain boundaries and with free surfaces [46][47]. It appeared that the GB contains more than 10 monolayers of Mn or Co [46][47]. Moreover, the GB input in the total Mn or Co concentration increases with decreasing grain size. The free

Facile fabrication of luminescent organic dots by thermolysis of citric acid in urea melt, and their use for cell staining and polyelectrolyte microcapsule labelling

• Nadezhda M. Zholobak,
• Anton L. Popov,
• Alexander B. Shcherbakov,
• Nelly R. Popova,
• Mykhailo M. Guzyk,
• Valeriy P. Antonovich,
• Alla V. Yegorova,
• Yuliya V. Scrypynets,
• Inna I. Leonenko,
• Alexander Ye. Baranchikov and
• Vladimir K. Ivanov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1905–1917, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.182

• two cell lines. MNNG/HOS human osteosarcoma cells and RAW 264.7 murine macrophages were cultured as monolayers in a minimal essential medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and antibiotics (100 U/mL penicillin/streptomycin). All culture medium components were purchased from PanEco (PanEco

Monolayer graphene/SiC Schottky barrier diodes with improved barrier height uniformity as a sensing platform for the detection of heavy metals

• Ivan Shtepliuk,
• Jens Eriksson,
• Volodymyr Khranovskyy,
• Tihomir Iakimov,
• Anita Lloyd Spetz and
• Rositsa Yakimova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1800–1814, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.173

• control the thickness uniformity and the barrier-height distribution, which depends on the thickness. Hence, it is very important to grow homogenous epitaxial graphene monolayers and to minimize the appearance of extended defects. Here we report on the fabrication of epitaxial graphene/Si-face-4H-SiC

Scanning probe microscopy studies on the adsorption of selected molecular dyes on titania

• Jakub S. Prauzner-Bechcicki,
• Lukasz Zajac,
• Piotr Olszowski,
• Res Jöhr,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Bartosz Such,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Marek Szymonski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1642–1653, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.156

• surfaces of wide-band-gap materials. First, one may try to search for the factors responsible for the formation of ordered monolayers. These factors could be of different origins and depend on the following: (1) the preparation procedure (e.g., the temperature of a substrate, the specific rate of

• surface. The bonding between the first and second monolayers is of a weaker van der Waals type. Strong interactions of the molecules in the first layer with the substrate are unfavourable in possible solar cell applications [47]. However, the molecules in the second layer seem to be decoupled from the

Graphene-enhanced plasmonic nanohole arrays for environmental sensing in aqueous samples

• Christa Genslein,
• Peter Hausler,
• Eva-Maria Kirchner,
• Rudolf Bierl,
• Antje J. Baeumner and
• Thomas Hirsch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1564–1573, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.150

• (0.23 cm2). Highly ordered monolayers are mandatory to obtain a periodic and defined structuring of the substrates, as described for signal enhancement in wavelength-dependent SPR studies [41]. The diameter and periodicity of the nanoholes strongly influences the plasmonic excitation and the sensitivity

Photothermal effect of gold nanostar patterns inkjet-printed on coated paper substrates with different permeability

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Anni Määttänen,
• Petri Ihalainen,
• Maddalena Collini,
• Elisa Cabrini,
• Giacomo Dacarro,
• Piersandro Pallavicini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1480–1485, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.140

• intense LSPR extinction band in the NIR range (750–1100 nm), finely regulated through the synthesis conditions [18]. Previously, it was demonstrated that this type of GNS is photothermally active under NIR irradiation both in aqueous solutions and as monolayers grafted on dry glass surface, displaying

• linear dependence as a function of laser irradiance up to I ≈ 0.2 W/cm2 [27][28]. This effect was much higher than in case of previously studied GNS aqueous solutions and of monolayers of GNS on a glass surface under NIR irradiation. However, the dependence of the photothermal effect was not linear with

Surface roughness rather than surface chemistry essentially affects insect adhesion

• Matt W. England,
• Tomoya Sato,
• Makoto Yagihashi,
• Atsushi Hozumi,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Elena V. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1471–1479, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.139

• values of θA and θR), which is a mass-independent measure of the resistance to macroscopic liquid drop movement on inclined surfaces. In this study, we investigated eight different surfaces. Three of these were smooth with different surface wettabilities, including two types of hydrophobic monolayers

• was then spin-coated (500 rpm for 5 s and 1000 rpm for 10 s) onto UV–ozone-cleaned Si substrates (5 × 5 cm2) at room temperature, under a relative humidity of (40 ± 5)%. All samples were dried in air at room temperature for more than 24 h. Details of our preparation methods for the monolayers and

• pressure, hereafter referred to as Soot-TMOS-FAS17Cl. Characterization of sample surfaces The thicknesses of the ODS and FAS17 monolayers were measured using ellipsometry (Philips, PZ2000). The thicknesses of the superhydrophobic (Never Wet), superhydrophilic (VUV-Never Wet), and superomniphobic films

Influence of ambient humidity on the attachment ability of ladybird beetles (Coccinella septempunctata)

• Lars Heepe,
• Jonas O. Wolff and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1322–1329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.123

• adhesive pads of spiders and geckos the humidity-related effects on adhesion can be explained by three different mechanisms: (1) capillary forces due to the formation of liquid bridges; (2) changes in the effective short-range interactions due to adsorbed monolayers of water on the substrate [11][14]; (3

• behaviour between two solids crucially depends on the water layer thickness between them [55]. At critical thickness of adsorbed monolayers water becomes liquid-like, which may render the onset of an “aquaplaning effect”. Accordingly, in adhesion experiments of setal pads, adhesion rapidly dropped as soon

An ellipsometric approach towards the description of inhomogeneous polymer-based Langmuir layers

• Falko O. Rottke,
• Burkhard Schulz,
• Klaus Richau,
• Karl Kratz and
• Andreas Lendlein

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1156–1165, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.107

• films. It is our expectation that achievement of a comparable or even a greater impact by ellipsometric mapping is possible for analysis of layers consisting of proteins, enzymes or other biomolecules. Furthermore, the vertical dimension of their monolayers may even exceed the ultrathin film limit

Sandwich-like layer-by-layer assembly of gold nanoparticles with tunable SERS properties

• Zhicheng Liu,
• Lu Bai,
• Guizhe Zhao and
• Yaqing Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1028–1032, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.95

• concentration (1.5 M NaCl, this work) may be similar to that of three polyelectrolyte monolayers assembled at low salt concentration (0.1 M NaCl, work of Rockstuhl et al.) [36]. Overall, controlling the interlayer distance of the NP layers is another efficient way to tune the SERS properties of multilayer thin