Biomimetic and biodegradable cellulose acetate scaffolds loaded with dexamethasone for bone implants

• Aikaterini-Rafailia Tsiapla,
• Varvara Karagkiozaki,
• Veroniki Bakola,
• Foteini Pappa,
• Panagiota Gkertsiou,
• Eleni Pavlidou and
• Stergios Logothetidis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1986–1994, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.189

• acetate (CA) is used in this work. CA is derived from a natural polymer and is biocompatible, biodegradable, nonirritant and nontoxic. Moreover, it has excellent mechanical properties and there are potential applications, for instance as films, membranes, tissue engineering scaffolds and drug-delivery

Defect formation in multiwalled carbon nanotubes under low-energy He and Ne ion irradiation

• Santhana Eswara,
• Jean-Nicolas Audinot,
• Brahime El Adib,
• Maël Guennou,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1951–1963, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.186

• sputtering of targets with a cylindrical geometry [49], however, as we are going to irradiate a slab of MWCNTs we prefer to use a solid slab representing the whole sample. A study by Hobler et al. showed that BCA-based simulations can be used to study backward and forward sputtering of membranes or targets

The inhibition effect of water on the purification of natural gas with nanoporous graphene membranes

• Krzysztof Nieszporek,
• Tomasz Pańczyk and
• Jolanta Nieszporek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1906–1916, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.182

• of factors to consider regarding graphene as a separation membrane. Commonly applied membranes for gas separation are approximately several micrometers thick. As membrane permeation is inversely proportional to the membrane thickness, nanoporous graphene undoubtedly surpasses the expectations of

• engineers. While considering production techniques, the application of focused electron beam irradiation in transmission electron microscopy makes it possible to determine graphene membranes with well-defined pore diameter [3]. Similar possibilities are also created by modified helium ion microscopy for

• reasons, the application of nanoporous graphene membrane deserves special attention. The separation through graphene crucially depends on the method of nanopore passivation. There are a lot of papers on graphene membranes doped with hydrogen, nitrogen or oxygen [7][8][9]. Sakaushi and Antonietti wrote an

Toward the use of CVD-grown MoS₂ nanosheets as field-emission source

• Geetanjali Deokar,
• Nitul S. Rajput,
• Junjie Li,
• Francis Leonard Deepak,
• Wei Ou-Yang,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jean-Francois Colomer and
• Mustapha Jouiad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1686–1694, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.160

• technologies such as filtration membranes to remove fouling, heavy metals and chemicals from water by membrane separation as reported elsewhere for graphene nanosheets [26]. To investigate further the NSs growth, cross-section TEM measurements were performed. The general morphologies of the vertically standing

Preparation and morphology-dependent wettability of porous alumina membranes

• Dmitry L. Shimanovich,
• Alla I. Vorobjova,
• Daria I. Tishkevich,
• Alex V. Trukhanov,
• Maxim V. Zdorovets and
• Artem L. Kozlovskiy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1423–1436, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.135

• University, Mira 19, Yekaterinburg 620002, Russia 10.3762/bjnano.9.135 Abstract This article presents the preparation and study of the wetting properties of porous alumina membranes (PAMs) with a thickness of 25 to 75 μm and with a different pore sizes. The fabrication process features, scanning electron

• . Measurements of the interfacial contact angle were made on the as-fabricated amorphous membrane and after pore widening with a range of pore diameters from 25 to 100 nm. The possible applications of PAMs for various membrane technologies is shown. Keywords: interfacial contact angle; membranes; porous anodic

• new membrane materials. A new generation of membranes can be created using nanotechnology, which can increase the efficiency of their work by orders of magnitude [9]. The transition to a nanoscale devices requires the improvement of the most popular modern materials, such as polymer track membranes

Nanoporous silicon nitride-based membranes of controlled pore size, shape and areal density: Fabrication as well as electrophoretic and molecular filtering characterization

• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Stefan Beirle,
• Fabian Enderle,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Othmar Marti and
• Alfred Plettl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1390–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.131

• Institute of Experimental Physics, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.9.131 Abstract A new route will be presented for an all-parallel fabrication of highly flexible, freestanding membranes with well-defined porosity. This fabrication is based on arrays of well

• nanoscale. Application to commercially available silicon nitride membranes of well-defined thickness, delivers a diaphragm with millions of nanopores of intended and controlled size, shape, and areal density with narrow distributions of these parameters. Electrophoretic transport measurements indicated a

• very low flow resistance of these porous membranes in ionic solutions as expected theoretically. Size-selective separation of protein molecules was demonstrated by real-time fluorescence microscopy. Keywords: ion transport; micellar technique; molecular filtration; nanopores; solid-state membrane

Chemistry for electron-induced nanofabrication

• Petra Swiderek,
• Hubertus Marbach and
• Cornelis W. Hagen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1317–1320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.124

• been literally switched on or off by the attachment of suitable atomic side groups. A similar strategy also enables tuning of the processing speed in the fabrication of nanoscale carbon membranes. In fact, an increase of the reaction rate can be achieved by introducing halogen substituents into the

Review on nanoparticles and nanostructured materials: history, sources, toxicity and regulations

• Jaison Jeevanandam,
• Ahmed Barhoum,
• Yen S. Chan,
• Alain Dufresne and
• Michael K. Danquah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1050–1074, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.98

• ][201]. These superhydrophobic materials were useful in applications such as water treatment [202][203], wettability switchers [204][205], smart actuators [206], transparent coatings and electrodes [207][208][209]. Nanoparticles and nanostructures in insects Insect wing membranes are comprised of

Effect of microtrichia on the interlocking mechanism in the Asian ladybeetle, Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

• Jiyu Sun,
• Chao Liu,
• Bharat Bhushan,
• Wei Wu and
• Jin Tong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 812–823, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.75

• , to complete the wing folding. This ensures that the hindwing membranes are safely stowed [37]. The hindwings fold into a Z-shape and also form a self-locking system. The microtrichia of the DS and VS bind to each other, making the wings more stable in the enclosed space. The folded state will be

Kinetics of solvent supported tubule formation of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) wax on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) investigated by atomic force microscopy

• Sujit Kumar Dora,
• Kerstin Koch,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Klaus Wandelt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 468–481, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.45

• evaporation. Evidence for a water co-transport has been given by in-vitro studies with isolated waxes and artificial polyurethan membranes. Neinhuis et al. [25] showed that in the presence of water, waxes were transported through the membranes and reassembled into three dimensional waxes onto the membranes

• artificial membranes showed that the wax crystals dissolved when continuously in contact with water over several days on the one side, and re-crystallized on the other side of the membranes, suggesting that the water supports the transport through the (artificial) membranes [25]. Thus in natural systems it

Wafer-scale bioactive substrate patterning by chemical lift-off lithography

• Chong-You Chen,
• Chang-Ming Wang,
• Hsiang-Hua Li,
• Hong-Hseng Chan and
• Wei-Ssu Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 311–320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.31

• biophysical studies due to its mimetic property toward cell membranes [5][6]. These platforms often use a flat glass surface to support the formation of lipid bilayers via vesicle fusion. With the combination of microfluidic devices and lithographic techniques, the creation of multiplexed arrays has been

Liquid-crystalline nanoarchitectures for tissue engineering

• Baeckkyoung Sung and
• Min-Ho Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 205–215, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.22

• are core materials in the living body [16]. For example, cell membranes [17] and chromosomes [18][19] exhibit LC-like phases, and some pathological states are closely related to LC formation processes, such as those of amyloid fibrils [20]. Consequently, complex self-organization dynamics of living

• in the plywood structure of corneal collagen fibrils may affect the biomechanical behavior of the cornea, which is in close relation to the physical maintenance of intraocular pressure [68]. Skin, nerve, and muscle cells and subcellular structures Cell membranes are well-defined LC lamellae [69]. The

• -compatible subcutaneous implant [108]. Synthetic substrates, membranes, and dispersions in other LC geometries Smectic-like and columnar-like architectures can be also adopted as nanostructures for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Lamellar templates in the smectic phase with spiral dislocation

Review on optofluidic microreactors for artificial photosynthesis

• Xiaowen Huang,
• Jianchun Wang,
• Tenghao Li,
• Jianmei Wang,
• Min Xu,
• Weixing Yu,
• Abdel El Abed and
• Xuming Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 30–41, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.5

• membrane-based reactors were reported as well, for instance, mesoporous CdS/TiO2/SBA-15@carbon paper composite membranes [77] and copper-decorated TiO2 nanorod thin films [78]. In addition to the PDMS/PMMA-based microchannel reactors, bacterium has been shown to be a good microreactor as well. Yang et al

The role of ligands in coinage-metal nanoparticles for electronics

• Ioannis Kanelidis and
• Tobias Kraus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2625–2639, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.263

• the mesh film onto PET substrates led to transparent electrodes that were flexible with a resistance increase of 7.2% upon substrate deformation [43]. A similar ageing process was used to create AuNW membranes. The dispersion was left to age for two days at room temperature, spread on the air–water

Amplified cross-linking efficiency of self-assembled monolayers through targeted dissociative electron attachment for the production of carbon nanomembranes

• Sascha Koch,
• Christopher D. Kaiser,
• Paul Penner,
• Michael Barclay,
• Lena Frommeyer,
• Daniel Emmrich,
• Patrick Stohmann,
• Tarek Abu-Husein,
• Andreas Terfort,
• D. Howard Fairbrother,
• Oddur Ingólfsson and
• Armin Gölzhäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2562–2571, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.256

• high thermal stability [1][2][3]. Depending on the fabrication method, the choice of precursor molecules and functionalization type, such membranes have great potential for a wide variety of applications [2]. In recent years, protocols and procedures have been developed to produce functional CNMs by

Involvement of two uptake mechanisms of gold and iron oxide nanoparticles in a co-exposure scenario using mouse macrophages

• Dimitri Vanhecke,
• Dagmar A. Kuhn,
• Dorleta Jimenez de Aberasturi,
• Sandor Balog,
• Ana Milosevic,
• Dominic Urban,
• Diana Peckys,
• Niels de Jonge,
• Wolfgang J. Parak,
• Alke Petri-Fink and
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2396–2409, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.239

• experiments revealed that the AuNPs were localised in their membranes rather than in the cores of the vesicles [21][22]. However, indications exist of alternative pathways for particles to enter cells, as studies have reported intracellular NPs of diverse materials lacking surrounding membranes [23][24

• in 0.15 M cacodylate buffer. Staining occurred with osmium tetraoxide in ddH2O. After the staining, membranes were transferred to 0.05 M maleate buffer and dehydrated with an increased ethanol series (30% and 70%). The membranes were embedded in epon and polymerized at 60 °C. The samples were

Synthesis and characterization of noble metal–titania core–shell nanostructures with tunable shell thickness

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Dariusz Zasada and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2083–2093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.208

• out using a qNano instrument (Izon Science) with tunable nanopore membranes NP100 (50–200 nm particles size range) for metal colloid measurements and NP150 (100–400 nm particle size range) for the CSNs measurements. The upper and lower cell chambers were filled with an electrolyte (PBS buffer). 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

•  23, a comparison is carried out of dependence of the layer thickness along a capillary without and with temperature balance. Thin coatings as porous membranes During a parallel work, the minimum inhibitory concentration of Ag+ ions against the bacterium E. coli, which is responsible for approximately

Fabrication of carbon nanospheres by the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile–poly(methyl methacrylate) core–shell composite nanoparticles

• Dafu Wei,
• Youwei Zhang and
• Jinping Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1897–1908, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.190

• carbonization treatments, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) can be converted into carbon. High-performance carbon fibers, carbon nanofiber membranes, 3D-ordered carbon materials, and carbon nanoparticles have been fabricated from various PAN precursors [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Discrete and well-defined carbon

Evaluation of preparation methods for suspended nano-objects on substrates for dimensional measurements by atomic force microscopy

• Petra Fiala,
• Daniel Göhler,
• Benno Wessely,
• Michael Stintz,
• Giovanni Mattia Lazzerini and
• Andrew Yacoot

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1774–1785, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.179

• were used in this study for the characterization of the preparation methods. The chosen nano-objects belong to the material group that was identified as important for risk assessment or as reference nanomaterials [9]. The preparations were performed by means of hydrophilic track etching membranes made

• . During the pre-conditioning of the substrates, the track etching membranes were rinsed with ultrapure water, and the silicon substrates were cleaned using either a wet chemical cleaning procedure or a dry cleaning procedure. The wet cleaning procedure was performed in accordance with the first step of

• preparation methods in which all of precipitated particles are deposited on the substrate, so the estimation is relevant for membrane filtration (if particle size > pore size) and droplet drying. Membrane filtration: The membranes were fixed and flowed off in a filter element (stainless steel 316, diameter 13

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

• , allowing for conformal coating on complex surfaces such as mictrotrenches [25] and nanopore membranes [26]. Since the rate of reaction in iCVD is limited by adsorption of monomer to the substrate, a lower substrate temperature results in a faster polymerization rate [24]. Thus, the thermally insulating

A nanocomplex of C₆₀ fullerene with cisplatin: design, characterization and toxicity

• Svitlana Prylutska,
• Svitlana Politenkova,
• Kateryna Afanasieva,
• Volodymyr Korolovych,
• Kateryna Bogutska,
• Andriy Sivolob,
• Larysa Skivka,
• Maxim Evstigneev,
• Viktor Kostjukov,
• Yuriy Prylutskyy and
• Uwe Ritter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1494–1501, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.149

• concentrations), exerting strong antioxidant properties due to their high activity as free radical acceptors [14][15]. Water-soluble pristine С60 fullerenes penetrate through plasma membranes and are located in the central part of tumor cells [16]. Thereby, C60 fullerenes can be used for treatment of cancer [17

Development of polycationic amphiphilic cyclodextrin nanoparticles for anticancer drug delivery

• Gamze Varan,
• Juan M. Benito,
• Carmen Ortiz Mellet and
• Erem Bilensoy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1457–1468, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.145

• overcome problems of natural CDs which enhance the interaction with drug molecules and biological membranes [17][18]. Most importantly, amphiphilic CDs possess the ability to spontaneously form nanoparticles at the interface, depending on the preparation method and physical and chemical properties of CD

Cationic PEGylated polycaprolactone nanoparticles carrying post-operation docetaxel for glioma treatment

• Cem Varan and
• Erem Bilensoy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1446–1456, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.144

• agents of glioma. An interesting, biocompatible and simple approach is to coat the nanoparticles with cationic polymers to enhance cellular penetration and prolong retention at biological membranes. Cationic nanoparticles are able to pass through biological membranes with facilitated uptake by cells, due

• to their strong cellular interaction with negatively charged biological membranes. Another important advantage is that they can mask the negative charge of anionic drugs to escape the mononuclear phagocytic system (MPS). Ionic particles can be easily determined by the MPS, therefore drug-loaded

• affect cellular uptake, interaction with biological membranes, absorption rate, biodistribution in the body, as well as the physical stability of the nanoparticles [50]. It is known that nanoparticles can escape from systemic circulation via fenestrations, which are small openings through the endothelial

Low uptake of silica nanoparticles in Caco-2 intestinal epithelial barriers

• Dong Ye,
• Mattia Bramini,
• Delyan R. Hristov,
• Sha Wan,
• Anna Salvati,
• Christoffer Åberg and
• Kenneth A. Dawson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1396–1406, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.141

• polarisation/differentiation of the cells. Rather, most nanoparticles were localized on the apical cell membranes outside the cells. These observations allow us to reconcile the results from flow cytometry showing a substantial association of nanoparticles with cells during continuous uptake (Figure 1

• mucus on the apical cell side could also constitute a further obstacle for particle association with the barrier. Furthermore, we found that the majority of nanoparticles associated with the cells were adsorbed to the outer cell membranes, rather than being internalised by the Caco-2 barriers. Thus

• and processed using Imaris imaging software (BitPlane, Zurich, Switzerland). Transmission electron microscopy After exposure to the nanoparticles as described above, Caco-2 cell monolayers grown on 3.0 μm PTFE transwell membranes were fixed with glutaraldehyde (2.5%, v/v) at room temperature for 1 h