Nanoprofilometry study of focal conic domain structures in a liquid crystalline free surface

• Anna N. Bagdinova,
• Evgeny I. Demikhov,
• Nataliya G. Borisenko and
• Sergei M. Tolokonnikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2544–2551, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.254

• substrate anchoring [1][2]. This understanding is important for display-quality technology and production enhancement. The study of the free liquid crystalline boundary is interesting for applications such as liquid crystalline colors and coatings as well as cosmetics. To study liquid crystalline free

Au nanostructure fabrication by pulsed laser deposition in open air: Influence of the deposition geometry

• Rumen G. Nikov,
• Anna Og. Dikovska,
• Nikolay N. Nedyalkov,
• Georgi V. Avdeev and
• Petar A. Atanasov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2438–2445, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.242

• pressure (in open air) [19][20][21][22]. Boutinguiza et al. have shown that it is possible to produce Ag nanoparticles by this approach [20]. A practical application of the method has already been demonstrated, namely, the formation of hard coatings [22]. PLD in open air could also lead to the formation of

• geometries used in the experiments. Electrical resistance and hydrophobicity of the Au nanostructures produced under different geometries. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the financial support by project DFNP-184 “Nanostructured coatings fabricated by laser ablation in air” under the Assistance for

Vapor-based polymers: from films to nanostructures

• Meike Koenig and
• Joerg Lahann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2219–2220, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.221

• poly(p-xylylenes) via the Gorham process, has been of industrial use in the fabrication of isolating or protective coatings in electronics and biomaterials for many years [1][2]. More recently, vapor deposition polymerization has been extended to a broad variety of reactive polymers [3], additionally

• using techniques such as plasma-, initiated-, or oxidative chemical vapor deposition polymerization [4][5]. The reason for the ongoing interest in this research field is that, analogue to the deposition of inorganic coatings by chemical vapor deposition, the deposition of polymer coatings from the vapor

• phase has many advantages over traditional, wet chemistry methods. These advantages result in a variety of benefits for vapor-based polymer coatings and their broad utility. Due to the absence of solvents, dewetting effects are less pronounced, which together with the fact that small monomers instead of

Ester formation at the liquid–solid interface

• Nguyen T. N. Ha,
• Thiruvancheril G. Gopakumar,
• Nguyen D. C. Yen,
• Carola Mende,
• Lars Smykalla,
• Maik Schlesinger,
• Roy Buschbeck,
• Tobias Rüffer,
• Heinrich Lang,
• Michael Mehring and
• Michael Hietschold

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2139–2150, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.213

• ultra-thin surface coatings. Experimental TMA (0.05 g) and undecanol (7.5 mL, Aldrich, 98%) were mixed leading to a clear solution and a sediment of excess TMA at the bottom. Next, these samples were sonicated (1–8 h) or stirred (1–30 h). Afterward, the mixtures were either centrifuged or allowed to

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• the AFM probe diameter. No pressure-induced changes in conductivity were observed in the clay-free polymer either. Keywords: biomimetics; conductive AFM; conductive nanocomposites; contact-resonance force microscopy; multifrequency AFM; transparent coatings; Introduction Bioinspired material designs

• bare glass slide, as expected. The samples casted from the 1:16 dilution are referred to as the thin and transparent coatings, since that dilution ratio produced the most transparent and thinnest sample. It is noteworthy that the addition of the nanoclay did not significantly affect the transmittance

• mechanical properties [57][58]. The results from C-AFM and the contact-resonance frequency of CRFM confirm the change in packing of the thin coatings by measuring an inferior electro-mechanical performance compared to the thick films. It is noteworthy that most applications of PEDOT:PSS require thicknesses

A comparative study of the nanoscale and macroscale tribological attributes of alumina and stainless steel surfaces immersed in aqueous suspensions of positively or negatively charged nanodiamonds

• Colin K. Curtis,
• Antonin Marek,
• Alex I. Smirnov and
• Jacqueline Krim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2045–2059, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.205

• plotted as a function of fluid viscosity and shear velocity divided by load (Stribeck curve). NPs present in a fluid could impact the tribological performance in all three lubrication regimes, for example by forming lubricious surface coatings or acting as rolling or sliding spacers at the contacts. In

A systematic study of the controlled generation of crystalline iron oxide nanoparticles on graphene using a chemical etching process

• Peter Krauß,
• Jörg Engstler and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2017–2025, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.202

• quality of the transferred graphene. The protective polymer coatings typically used generate residues and contamination on the ultrathin graphene layer. In this work, we have developed a graphene transfer process which works without a coating and allows the transfer of graphene onto arbitrary substrates

Advances and challenges in the field of plasma polymer nanoparticles

• Andrei Choukourov,
• Pavel Pleskunov,
• Daniil Nikitin,
• Valerii Titov,
• Artem Shelemin,
• Mykhailo Vaidulych,
• Anna Kuzminova,
• Pavel Solař,
• Jan Hanuš,
• Jaroslav Kousal,
• Ondřej Kylián,
• Danka Slavínská and
• Hynek Biederman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2002–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.200

• oxides whereas siloxane moieties tend to adsorb on surfaces and form silicon oxide coatings. The amount of added oxygen determines the chemical composition of the coatings. The same paradigm can be adapted for the synthesis of NPs in the configuration of GAS [53]. Plasma polymerization can be performed

•  16c,d shows their counterparts deposited over the preseeded nylon-sputtered NPs. As expected, normal depositions produce compact coatings with the surface replicating the underlying structure (correspondingly, smooth blank Si or roughened NP seeds). Using GLAD, a columnar structure develops with

• columns inclined towards the direction of the deposition. Obviously, the porosity of the coatings is greatly increased when it is deposited over the preseeded NPs. This approach also offers the possibility to combine different materials, and hence, to independently tune the surface morphology and the

Bi-layer sandwich film for antibacterial catheters

• Gerhard Franz,
• Florian Schamberger,
• Hamideh Heidari Zare,
• Sara Felicitas Bröskamp and
• Dieter Jocham

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1982–2001, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.199

• coating, because it forms the very stable complex [Ag(NH3)2]+, which dissolves a possible precipitate of AgCl [19]. 3. Among the various deposition techniques, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is known for its outstanding conformal coatings, in particular on three-dimensional substrates. Because the

• describe the first design. In the literature, two different coatings are discussed: metallic layers consisting of Ag0, and layers containing ionic Ag+ salts [10]. Coatings of silver halides are difficult to prepare, the most commonly applied process is impregnation, dipping into a solution or aqueous

• is called electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and is a widespread technique to evaluate the quality of coatings quantitatively. In contrast to the first method, larger areas can be easily tested, and a quantitative result is yielded, under the expense of spatial resolution. A simple

Enhancement of mechanical and electrical properties of continuous-fiber-reinforced epoxy composites with stacked graphene

• Naum Naveh,
• Olga Shepelev and
• Samuel Kenig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1909–1918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.191

• of graphene, along with the high electrical conductivity, promote percolation thresholds much lower than with metallic powders, carbon fibers or carbon black [13]. Epoxy resins are used as a matrix in high-performance composite materials for aerospace structures, coatings and adhesives for a variety

α-Silicene as oxidation-resistant ultra-thin coating material

• Ali Kandemir,
• Fadil Iyikanat,
• Cihan Bacaksiz and
• Hasan Sahin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1808–1814, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.182

• for all application areas. As a well-known mechanism of electrochemical corrosion, the formation of rust is an un-solicited reaction between a metal and oxygen. For that reason, protection of surfaces from oxygen has become an important field. Although macroscale and microscale coatings have been used

• intensively in surface protection for a long time [1][2], two-dimensional (2D) materials have become new candidates for nanoscale coatings for different material groups. Therefore, coating mechanisms at the nanoscale take are of high interest in nanotechnology, and new candidates for nanostructural protection

Nanotribological behavior of deep cryogenically treated martensitic stainless steel

• Germán Prieto,
• Konstantinos D. Bakoglidis,
• Walter R. Tuckart and
• Esteban Broitman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1760–1768, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.177

• efforts available in the open literature were focused on the micro- and nanotribological evaluation of Si and single metals for microelectromechanical system (MEMS) applications [14][15] and carbon-based coatings [16][17][18]. Although, there is an incipient amount of nanotribological studies performed in

Air–water interface of submerged superhydrophobic surfaces imaged by atomic force microscopy

• Markus Moosmann,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Matthias Mail

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1671–1679, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.167

• open new possibilities for the investigation of air-retaining surfaces, specifically in terms of measuring contact area and in comparing different coatings, and thus will lead to the development of new applications. Keywords: AFM in liquid; air retention; atomic force microscopy; bionics; Salvinia

Uptake and intracellular accumulation of diamond nanoparticles – a metabolic and cytotoxic study

• Antonín Brož,
• Lucie Bačáková,
• Pavla Štenclová,
• Alexander Kromka and
• Štěpán Potocký

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1649–1657, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.165

• materials, for example, films for potential implant coatings [13]. Nanodiamond-based drug delivery has been mainly developed for advanced tumour therapies and for localized drug delivery [3][14]. Due to their stable and controllable photoluminescence, NDs are also highly promising for advanced photonic and

Surface functionalization of 3D-printed plastics via initiated chemical vapor deposition

• Christine Cheng and
• Malancha Gupta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1629–1636, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.162

• the structures during processing. In this study, processing parameters such as the substrate temperature and the filament temperature were systematically varied to understand how these parameters affect the uniformity of the coatings along the 3D-printed objects. The 3D-printed objects were coated

• microfluidics. Keywords: 3D printing; chemical vapor deposition; coatings; functional polymers; surface modification; Introduction Three-dimensional printing (3DP) is a useful fabrication technique that offers rapid and low-cost prototyping, high levels of design complexity, and resolution on the micron scale

• used to deposit functional polymer coatings [21][22]. In the iCVD process, monomer and tert-butyl peroxide (TBPO) initiator are introduced in the vapor phase to a reactor chamber under vacuum, whereupon the initiator is thermally cleaved by a heated filament array. Monomer and initiator radicals adsorb

Parylene C as a versatile dielectric material for organic field-effect transistors

• Tomasz Marszalek,
• Maciej Gazicki-Lipman and
• Jacek Ulanski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1532–1545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.155

• electronic devices and circuits, which not only comprise active layers, but also electrodes, dielectrics, insulators, substrates and protecting/encapsulating coatings. In this review, poly(chloro-para-xylylene) known as Parylene C, which appears to become a versatile supporting material especially suitable

• . The initiation step does not require any external initiator but, instead, it involves a monomer molecule in its diradical triplet first excited state [26]. A natural consequence of this mechanism is the extraordinary purity of parylene coatings, a property of great importance in electronic

• with the accompanying chemical reactions, is presented in Figure 1. There is a number of advantages of the parylene technology. First of all, being a gas-phase diffusion-controlled process, it yields smooth pinhole-free conformal coatings with excellent penetration abilities. Second, there are several

Micro- and nano-surface structures based on vapor-deposited polymers

• Hsien-Yeh Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1366–1374, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.138

• Hsien-Yeh Chen Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan 10.3762/bjnano.8.138 Abstract Vapor-deposition processes and the resulting thin polymer films provide consistent coatings that decouple the underlying substrate surface properties and can be

• have recently attracted considerable attention. The multifunctional, gradient, and/or synergistic activities of using such interfaces are also discussed. Finally, an emerging discovery of selective deposition of polymer coatings and the bottom-up patterning approach by using the selective deposition

• the resulting coatings are mostly applicable to a wide range of substrate materials [1]. In addition, the vapor deposition process typically provides excellent coating fidelity, i.e., the resulting polymer coatings are conformal with respect to micrometer- or nanometer-sized topology of the substrate

Miniemulsion copolymerization of (meth)acrylates in the presence of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes for reinforced coating applications

• Bertha T. Pérez-Martínez,
• Lorena Farías-Cepeda,
• Víctor M. Ovando-Medina,
• José M. Asua,
• Lucero Rosales-Marines and
• Radmila Tomovska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1328–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.134

• surfactant on the kinetics of miniemulsion polymerization of butyl acrylate (BA) in the presence of CNTs. Waterborne polymer dispersions are mainly used for coatings and adhesives, which involve the formation of films directly cast from the dispersion, usually at ambient temperature [22][24]. This limits the

Oxidative chemical vapor deposition of polyaniline thin films

• Yuriy Y. Smolin,
• Masoud Soroush and
• Kenneth K. S. Lau

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1266–1276, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.128

• utility of oCVD in the synthesis of PTh and showed that the polymer conjugation length and electrical conductivity can be tuned by adjusting the oCVD processing conditions [31]. We further deposited ultrathin (4–6 nm) conformal and uniform PTh coatings within porous nanostructures, including anodized

• aluminum oxide, mesoporous TiO2, and activated carbon; these oCVD PTh coatings resulted in enhanced charge storage due to preservation of the surface area and pore space within the nanostructures [32]. As a result, PTh-coated carbon electrodes showed a 50% increase in specific capacitance and excellent

• cycle life even after 5000 cycles due to the robust ultrathin coatings [32]. In addition, our study of the copolymerization of thiophene and pyrrole via oCVD showed enhanced conductivity and stability of the copolymers [33]. In view of experimental evidence that oCVD conducting polymers show favorable

Nanotopographical control of surfaces using chemical vapor deposition processes

• Meike Koenig and
• Joerg Lahann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1250–1256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.126

• .8.126 Abstract In recent years much work has been conducted in order to create patterned and structured polymer coatings using vapor deposition techniques – not only via post-deposition treatment, but also directly during the deposition process. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures can be

• : polymer coatings; polymer structures; structured coatings; vapor deposition polymerization; Review Introduction Polymer coatings have wide-spread applications, from electronics [1], to sensor systems [2] to biotechnology [3]. The ability to spatially control the surface properties in order to further

• . Many examples exist for the post-deposition structuring of homogeneous coatings, for example, with the use of lithographic techniques [5][6][7]. Instead, the focus of this review lies on the various methods which can be utilized to form structured coatings during the vapor deposition process. Masked

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

• materials. Unless coatings are damaged, QDs are mainly non-toxic [37]. Recently, Yaghini et al., by using non-photolytic visible wavelength excitation, have shown the formation of superoxide anion radicals by photoexcited CdSe/ZnS QDs [38]. Thus, the QDs may induce phototoxic reactions in labelled cells

Preparation of thick silica coatings on carbon fibers with fine-structured silica nanotubes induced by a self-assembly process

• Benjamin Baumgärtner,
• Hendrik Möller,
• Thomas Neumann and
• Dirk Volkmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1145–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.116

• study is the deposition of nanostructured silica onto the surface of carbon fibers. Among other techniques of covering the carbon fiber surface with a silicon dioxide layer (or other ceramic coatings), the most common ones are chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [4], liquid phase impregnation [5] and sol

• and the possibility to control the ceramic composition. For instance, modification and variation of the alkyl and alkoxy groups of the employed silica precursors allow for controlling the composition of anti-oxidative SiC/SiO2 coatings [6]. The sol–gel method for coating carbon fibers with silicon

• dioxide (or other ceramic coatings) typically utilizes metal alkoxides, e.g., tetramethyl orthosilicate, which are hydrolyzed in water/ethanol mixtures containing hydrochloric acid to obtain a sol. The coating procedure of carbon fibers involves three steps: dipping the carbon fiber into the sol solution

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

• employed here is aimed at realization of microbial electrolysis cells/sustainable base production in which the MoS2- or Pt-coated electrodes would be used on the cathodic side [54]. Here, we compared 400 °C deposited PVD MoS2 coatings of 10 and 100 nm thickness with two 50 and 25 nm thick reference Pt

• coatings prepared by PVD and electroplating, respectively. We use the MoS2-coated (or, for reference, Pt-coated) RVC foam electrodes on the cathodic side and a bare RVC foam electrode on the anodic side in the electrochemical two-terminal setup. The thus obtained electrode performance values are relative

• produced by the MoS2 coatings depends on their thickness, whereas almost identical values have been obtained for the two 25 and 50 nm thick platinum coatings. The RVC coatings were also compared in terms of mole of hydroxide produced. The quantity of hydroxide produced during the entire time of the process

Optical response of heterogeneous polymer layers containing silver nanostructures

• Miriam Carlberg,
• Florent Pourcin,
• Olivier Margeat,
• Judikaël Le Rouzo,
• Gérard Berginc,
• Rose-Marie Sauvage,
• Jörg Ackermann and
• Ludovic Escoubas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1065–1072, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.108

• NPs, the thin film layers will absorb in the visible wavelength range. This leads to applications of plasmonic thin film layers for photodetectors [10], photovoltaics [6][11] or nonreflective coatings [12][13][14]. In this works, silver NPs were chosen for their high electric field enhancement in the

Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs)

• Michelle Romero-Franco,
• Hilary A. Godwin,
• Muhammad Bilal and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 989–1014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.101

• , while engaging stakeholders in the CEA process. CEA was evaluated via a case study [43] in which stakeholder engagement (expert elicitation) served to collect information about the risk potential of using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in flame-retardant coatings in upholstery textiles. Expert