Novel ZnO:Ag nanocomposites induce significant oxidative stress in human fibroblast malignant melanoma (Ht144) cells

• Syeda Arooj,
• Samina Nazir,
• Akhtar Nadhman,
• Nafees Ahmad,
• Bakhtiar Muhammad,
• Ishaq Ahmad,
• Kehkashan Mazhar and
• Rashda Abbasi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 570–582, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.59

• in the light source used, the percentage of Ag content or the cellular model used. Sharma et al. [32] reported zinc oxide nanoparticles with different formulations (0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4%) of Ag (size range: 23–59 nm) for their antibacterial activity and Shah et al. [33] reported that ZnO nanorods

Filling of carbon nanotubes and nanofibres

• Reece D. Gately and
• Marc in het Panhuis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 508–516, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.53

• , a variety of bismuth–tin nanostructures covered by CNTs have been produced via in situ filling. It was demonstrated that the MSnO2/MBi2O3 ratio was instrumental in the formation of the encased nanostructures (nanoparticles, nanorods, and nanowires) [116]. Recent developments Although several drug

Nanoparticle shapes by using Wulff constructions and first-principles calculations

• Georgios D. Barmparis,
• Zbigniew Lodziana,
• Nuria Lopez and
• Ioannis N. Remediakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 361–368, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.35

• , experimentally it has been found that objects such as nanorods can be systematically produced with an adequate selection of the solution growth. In that case the symmetry breaking appears very early in the formation of the seed as then some of the facets (but not all those equivalent by symmetry) can be blocked

Comparative evaluation of the impact on endothelial cells induced by different nanoparticle structures and functionalization

• Lisa Landgraf,
• Ines Müller,
• Peter Ernst,
• Miriam Schäfer,
• Christina Rosman,
• Isabel Schick,
• Oskar Köhler,
• Hartmut Oehring,
• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Thomas Basché,
• Carsten Sönnichsen,
• Wolfgang Tremel and
• Ingrid Hilger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 300–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.28

• [7] are suggested. Gold nanorods were shown to have better optical imaging properties compared to spherical gold nanoparticles [8][9][10]. Importantly, the cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles depends on the surface coating. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), an important material during synthesis

Mechanical properties of MDCK II cells exposed to gold nanorods

• Anna Pietuch,
• Bastian Rouven Brückner,
• David Schneider,
• Marco Tarantola,
• Christina Rosman,
• Carsten Sönnichsen and
• Andreas Janshoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 223–231, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.21

• the cellular response to external stimuli. Results: Mechanical properties of confluent MDCK II cells exposed to gold nanorods as a function of surface functionalization and concentration have been explored by atomic force microscopy and quartz crystal microbalance measurements in combination with

• fluorescence and dark-field microscopy. Conclusion: We found that cells exposed to CTAB coated gold nanorods display a concentration-dependent stiffening that cannot be explained by the presence of CTAB alone. The stiffening results presumably from endocytosis of particles removing excess membrane area from

• CTAB coated rods suggesting an increase in acoustic load corresponding to a larger stiffness (storage modulus). Keywords: atomic force microscopy; CTAB; gold nanorods; membrane tension; MDCK II cells; QCM; Introduction The interest in gold nanoparticles (NP) for biomedical applications in the field

Mammalian cell growth on gold nanoparticle-decorated substrates is influenced by the nanoparticle coating

• Christina Rosman,
• Sebastien Pierrat,
• Marco Tarantola,
• David Schneider,
• Eva Sunnick,
• Andreas Janshoff and
• Carsten Sönnichsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2479–2488, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.257

• Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Joseph-Stelzmann-Straße 9b, 50931 Cologne, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.5.257 Abstract In this work, we study epithelial cell growth on substrates decorated with gold nanorods that are functionalized either with a positively charged cytotoxic surfactant or with a

• nanorods, which were applied to the basolateral side of the cells, has a recognizable influence on the growth behavior and thus the coating should be carefully selected for biomedical applications of nanoparticles. Keywords: basolateral application; cytotoxicity; electric cell–substrate impedance sensing

• enhanced compared to apical exposure [17]. In this study, epithelial cells grown on substrates decorated with gold nanorods exhibiting different surface coatings are compared with cells growing on bare substrates in order to assess the impact of the coating agents on basolateral nanoparticle application

Low-cost plasmonic solar cells prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Valdek Mikli,
• Arvo Mere,
• Ilmo Sildos and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2398–2402, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.249

• the smaller absorbing volume. The use of mesoporous TiO2 or ZnO nanorods provides increased surface area of the absorber, while the introduction of metal nanoparticles allows photons to be captured via plasmonic effects [1][2][3][4]. This work attempts to utilize the advantages of the plasmon effect

• with a band gap of 1.5 eV that is often used as a photovoltaic absorber. Previously published, related work by our research group regarding CIS-based solar cells includes: the synthesis and properties of CIS [5][6], application of CIS in extremely thin absorber solar cells based on ZnO nanorods [7

Inorganic Janus particles for biomedical applications

• Isabel Schick,
• Steffen Lorenz,
• Dominik Gehrig,
• Stefan Tenzer,
• Wiebke Storck,
• Karl Fischer,
• Dennis Strand,
• Frédéric Laquai and
• Wolfgang Tremel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2346–2362, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.244

• ]. Moreover, Au nanorods as well as Au@MnO@SiO2 Janus particles were shown to emit strong photoluminescence under two photon excitation used for in vitro imaging (Figure 14) [39][92]. In comparison to conventional microscopy, multi-photon microcopy is superior regarding the reduced fluorescence background

Liquid-phase exfoliated graphene: functionalization, characterization, and applications

• Mildred Quintana,
• Jesús Iván Tapia and
• Maurizio Prato

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2328–2338, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.242

• cycloaddition, performed on graphene by employing an aldehyde and an α-amino acid as precursors, attacks both graphene faces and edges. This reactivity was observed by introducing protonated terminal amino groups that selectively bind gold nanorods allowing the recognition of the reactive sites by low

• graphene layers and carbon nanofibers. (b) Carbon nanofibers marked with Au Nanorods. (c) Representative TEM micrograph of a graphene sheet. (d) HR-TEM image of graphene. Reprinted with permission from [9], copyright 2012 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of MWNTs from graphite

Localized surface plasmon resonances in nanostructures to enhance nonlinear vibrational spectroscopies: towards an astonishing molecular sensitivity

• Dan Lis and
• Francesca Cecchet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2275–2292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.237

• and compositions, which altogether define the light absorbance, and so the LSPR spectral peak. As shown in Figure 4, depending on those parameters, the resonance frequency can be tuned over all the visible and near-infrared ranges [9][10][11][12][15]. For example, gold nanorods (Figure 4a) present two

Hybrid spin-crossover nanostructures

• Carlos M. Quintero,
• Gautier Félix,
• Iurii Suleimanov,
• José Sánchez Costa,
• Gábor Molnár,
• Lionel Salmon,
• William Nicolazzi and
• Azzedine Bousseksou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2230–2239, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.232

• beam lithography (EBL) and lift off strategies, we developed localized surface plasmon (LSP) substrates consisting of a series of arrays of gold nanorods with different aspect ratios (Figure 7a) [34]. After this, the photonic device was finalized with a 60 nm thin film of the SCO complex, Fe(hptrz)3

• (OTs)2, spin-coated onto the top. For a given particle size, aspect ratio and distance between particles, each array of gold nanorods have a characteristic LSP resonance (LSPR) wavelength that will also depend on the refractive index value of the surrounding media (Figure 7b). As a result, the LSPR of

Controlling the dispersion of supported polyoxometalate heterogeneous catalysts: impact of hybridization and the role of hydrophilicity–hydrophobicity balance and supramolecularity

• Gijo Raj,
• Colas Swalus,
• Eglantine Arendt,
• Pierre Eloy,
• Michel Devillers and
• Eric M. Gaigneaux

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1749–1759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.185

• hybrids are deposited. For instance, surfactant-encapsulated clusters of POM anions, formed through electrostatic interactions, were reported to form well-ordered straight nanorods on graphite [17], whereas hybrid materials formed through covalent functionalization of POM formed planar layer-by-layer

• other (Figure 4). The domains of self-assembled nanorods were oriented at about 120° toward each other. The 2-dimensional fast Fourier transformation (2D-FFT) analysis of the images revealed three pairs of bright spots arranged in a three-fold rotational symmetry. These resemble the hexagonal

• arrangement of carbon atoms in the graphite basal plane, and hence reveal that the orientation of nanorods in the hybrid material is indeed controlled by the epitaxial interaction of DODA chains with HOPG. The periodicity of the nanorod arrays, measured as peak-to-peak distances from AFM cross-section

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

• . Figure 6 shows representative TEM images of thin sections of GAA and NaOH. Overall, TEM cross-sections show a high conservation of structures between the two different approaches. Samples obtained in the presence of GAA (CCPH1-4) are highly homogeneous and consist of densely packed nanorods with a length

Growth evolution and phase transition from chalcocite to digenite in nanocrystalline copper sulfide: Morphological, optical and electrical properties

• Priscilla Vasthi Quintana-Ramirez,
• Ma. Concepción Arenas-Arrocena,
• José Santos-Cruz,
• Marina Vega-González,
• Omar Martínez-Alvarez,
• Víctor Manuel Castaño-Meneses,
• Laura Susana Acosta-Torres and
• Javier de la Fuente-Hernández

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1542–1552, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.166

• in an organic solvent and amorphous CuxS was obtained in aqueous solution. Nanoparticle-like nucleation centers are formed at lower temperatures (220 °C), mixtures of morphologies (nanorods, nanodisks and nanoprisms) are seen at 230 and 240 °C, in which the nanodisks are predominant, while big

• obtained at 220 °C (Figure 2a). At 230 °C short chains of stacked nanorods with lengths (l) and width (w) of about 13.97 ± 2.7 × 5.86 ± 1.09 nm (from 260 particles), are seen in Figure 2b. Some hexagonal nanodisks of about 20–40 nm and prisms of about 50 nm are also observed. At 240 °C (Figure 2c) aligned

• nanorods are seen with similar dimensions (13.55 ± 1.86 × 5.91 ± 0.75 nm from 130 particles) to those seen at 230 °C. The size of the CuxS crystals at the higher temperature is not significantly different. However, the amount of crystals with a prism geometry is increased. These two types of morphology are

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

• effects can result from the NPs themselves (e.g., by their catalytic surface or by their organic coating, such as in the case of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), a surfactant commonly used to synthesize gold nanorods) or by ions released from the NPs [154][155]. Ion release from certain materials

Nanodiamond-DGEA peptide conjugates for enhanced delivery of doxorubicin to prostate cancer

• Amanee D Salaam,
• Patrick Hwang,
• Roberus McIntosh,
• Hadiyah N Green,
• Ho-Wook Jun and
• Derrick Dean

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 937–945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.107

• tumor types [6][7][8][9]. Currently, there are several clinically approved nanoparticle-based cancer drugs using liposomes, nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab) technology, dendrimers, polymeric, carbon, and metal nanoparticles [6][8]. Gold nanorods, iron magnetic nanoparticles, polymer nanospheres, lipids

Optical modeling-assisted characterization of dye-sensitized solar cells using TiO₂ nanotube arrays as photoanodes

• Jung-Ho Yun,
• Il Ku Kim,
• Yun Hau Ng,
• Lianzhou Wang and
• Rose Amal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 895–902, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.102

• structures and morphologies such as mesoporous TiO2, nanorods, nanotubes, nanosheets and hollow spheres have, therefore, been investigated to improve the performance of DSSCs by using various synthetic and modification methods [4][5][6][10][11]. Compared to the conventional DSSCs, which employ mesoporous

Antimicrobial properties of CuO nanorods and multi-armed nanoparticles against B. anthracis vegetative cells and endospores

• Pratibha Pandey,
• Merwyn S. Packiyaraj,
• Himangini Nigam,
• Gauri S. Agarwal,
• Beer Singh and
• Manoj K. Patra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 789–800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.91

• Devices Division Defence R&D Establishment, New Campus, Jhansi Road, Gwalior, India Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur, India 10.3762/bjnano.5.91 Abstract Two different kinds of CuO nanoparticles (NPs) namely CuO nanorods (PS2) and multi-armed nanoparticles (P5) were synthesized by wet and electrochemical

• -armed nanoparticles. Both were evaluated for bactericidal and sporicidal activity against B. anthracis Sterne vegetative cells and spores. CuO nanorods (PS2) were synthesized by a novel wet-chemical route at room temperature in aqueous solution. CuO multi-armed nanoparticles (P5) were synthesized by an

• electrochemical route [16]. The nanoparticles were characterized by SEM/EDX and XRD for formation, structure, morphology, composition and phase determination as well as for antibacterial efficacy. CuO nanorods (PS2) and CuO multi-armed nanoparticles (P5) both have demonstrated excellent bactericidal efficacy

Nanostructure sensitization of transition metal oxides for visible-light photocatalysis

• Hongjun Chen and
• Lianzhou Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 696–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.82

• the visible range to infrared wavelength by tuning the aspect ratio of different gold nanorods. Over the past years, a new method has emerged, which uses the strong plasmon resonance of plasmonic metal nanostructures for improving the efficiency of the photocatalytic process. Similar to the organic

• nanoparticles–Fe2O3 [69][82][83], gold nanoparticle–ZnO nanorods [68], gold nanorod–TiO2 [70][71][84], gold nanoparticles–TiO2 nanotube [66][72]. For more details, readers may refer to recent excellent reviews for basic principle and detailed effects of localized surface plasmons on transition metal oxides [85

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ag–ZnO hybrid plasmonic nanostructures prepared by a facile wet chemical method

• Sini Kuriakose,
• Vandana Choudhary,
• Biswarup Satpati and
• Satyabrata Mohapatra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 639–650, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.75

• summarized as follows [29][30] and are schematically illustrated in Figure 8. Yin et al. [41] prepared nanocomposites with Ag nanoparticle decorated ZnO nanorods with a core–shell structure by seed-mediated method. They have shown that Ag–ZnO is a better photocatalyst than ZnO because, firstly, the

In vitro toxicity and bioimaging studies of gold nanorods formulations coated with biofunctional thiol-PEG molecules and Pluronic block copolymers

• Tianxun Gong,
• Douglas Goh,
• Malini Olivo and
• Ken-Tye Yong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 546–553, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.64

• Singapore School of Physics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland 10.3762/bjnano.5.64 Abstract In this work, we investigated the cytotoxicity, colloidal stability and optical property of gold nanorods before and after functionalizing them with thiolated PEG and Pluronic triblock copolymer (PEO

• –PPO–PEO) molecules. The morphology of functionalized gold nanorods was characterized by UV–visible absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering. Solution phase synthesis of gold nanorods has remained the method of choice for obtaining varying shapes and

• aspect ratios of rod nanoparticles. This method typically involves the use of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactants as directing agents to grow gold nanorods in the solution phase. The as-synthesized gold nanorods surfaces are terminated with CTAB molecules and this formulation gives rise to

DNA origami deposition on native and passivated molybdenum disulfide substrates

• Xiaoning Zhang,
• Masudur Rahman,
• David Neff and
• Michael L. Norton

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 501–506, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.58

• energy harvesting applications [17]. Compared to conventional semiconductor materials such as silicon, MoS2 is readily processed as a prototypical nanomaterial. MoS2 nanosheets, nanofibers, and nanorods have been prepared [15], which means the material could readily be used to construct electronic

Encapsulation of nanoparticles into single-crystal ZnO nanorods and microrods

• Jinzhang Liu,
• Marco Notarianni,
• Llew Rintoul and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 485–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.56

• functional nanoparticles of other materials could be an interesting platform for various applications. We studied the encapsulation of nanoparticles into single-crystal ZnO nanorods by exploiting the crystal growth of ZnO in aqueous solution. Two types of nanodiamonds with mean diameters of 10 nm and 40 nm

• , respectively, and polymer nanobeads with size of 200 nm have been used to study the encapsulation process. It was found that by regrowing these ZnO nanorods with nanoparticles attached to their surfaces, a full encapsulation of nanoparticles into nanorods can be achieved. We demonstrate that our low

• -temperature aqueous solution growth of ZnO nanorods do not affect or cause degradation of the nanoparticles of either inorganic or organic materials. This new growth method opens the way to a plethora of applications combining the properties of single crystal host and encapsulated nanoparticles. We perform

Photovoltaic properties of ZnO nanorods/p-type Si heterojunction structures

• Rafal Pietruszka,
• Bartlomiej S. Witkowski,
• Grzegorz Luka,
• Lukasz Wachnicki,
• Sylwia Gieraltowska,
• Krzysztof Kopalko,
• Eunika Zielony,
• Piotr Bieganski,
• Ewa Placzek-Popko and
• Marek Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 173–179, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.17

• , Wroclaw, Poland Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences College of Science, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, Warsaw, Poland 10.3762/bjnano.5.17 Abstract Selected properties of photovoltaic (PV) structures based on n-type zinc oxide nanorods grown by a low temperature hydrothermal method on p

• -type silicon substrates (100) are investigated. PV structures were covered with thin films of Al doped ZnO grown by atomic layer deposition acting as transparent electrodes. The investigated PV structures differ in terms of the shapes and densities of their nanorods. The best response is observed for

• the structure containing closely-spaced nanorods, which show light conversion efficiency of 3.6%. Keywords: atomic layer deposition; hydrothermal method; solar cells; zinc oxide; zinc oxide nanorods; Introduction Solar cells are intensively studied as an alternative energy source and may replace

3D-nanoarchitectured Pd/Ni catalysts prepared by atomic layer deposition for the electrooxidation of formic acid

• Loïc Assaud,
• Evans Monyoncho,
• Kristina Pitzschel,
• Anis Allagui,
• Matthieu Petit,
• Margrit Hanbücken,
• Elena A. Baranova and
• Lionel Santinacci

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 162–172, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.16

• to improve the electrooxidation of HCOOH. Nanostructured substrates such as nanowires, nanorods, nanopores or nanotubes have thus been investigated to enhance the catalytic efficiency and to reduce the costs [14]. On the other hand, the physical, chemical and electrochemical properties of the