Band tail state related photoluminescence and photoresponse of ZnMgO solid solution nanostructured films

• Vadim Morari,
• Aida Pantazi,
• Nicolai Curmei,
• Vitalie Postolache,
• Emil V. Rusu,
• Marius Enachescu,
• Ion M. Tiginyanu and
• Veaceslav V. Ursaki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 899–910, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.75

• radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (RF-MBE) [2][7][10][11], DC [12][13] and RF [1][3][6] magnetron sputtering, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [14][15], plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) [16], chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [17], metal–organic chemical vapor deposition

Key for crossing the BBB with nanoparticles: the rational design

• Sonia M. Lombardo,
• Marc Schneider,
• Akif E. Türeli and
• Nazende Günday Türeli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 866–883, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.72

• toxic effects and did not disrupt the BBB at the dose used [50]. At the same time, Lück published in his thesis that apolipoprotein E (ApoE) was adsorbed on the surface of nanoparticles coated with polysorbate 20, 40, 60 or 80 after their incubation in human plasma [51]. However, ApoE was not adsorbed

• for the treatment of rat intracranial glioblastoma was investigated [55]. The results showed that the antitumor effect of doxorubicin-loaded PBCA nanoparticles was significantly enhanced when they were coated with either PS80 or P188. The plasma proteins adsorbed on coated PBCA nanoparticles were

• also have an impact on the BBB crossing ability of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles expressing positive charges on their surface can cross the BBB through AMT. However, positively charged nanoparticles have a faster plasma clearance rate, which lowers their residence time in brain microvessels and

Integrated photonics multi-waveguide devices for optical trapping and Raman spectroscopy: design, fabrication and performance demonstration

• Gyllion B. Loozen,
• Arnica Karuna,
• Mohammad M. R. Fanood,
• Erik Schreuder and
• Jacob Caro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 829–842, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.68

• waveguides is completely decoupled from the silicon substrate. Then, a 100 nm thick layer of Si3N4 is deposited using low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD, Figure 5b). This layer is patterned using optical lithography and reactive ion etching (RIE) in a fluorine-based plasma, which is followed by

Epitaxial growth and superconducting properties of thin-film PdFe/VN and VN/PdFe bilayers on MgO(001) substrates

• Wael M. Mohammed,
• Igor V. Yanilkin,
• Amir I. Gumarov,
• Airat G. Kiiamov,
• Roman V. Yusupov and
• Lenar R. Tagirov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 807–813, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.65

• analysis system. The VN layers were reactively magnetron sputtered from a metallic vanadium target in Ar/N2 plasma, while the Pd1−xFex layers were deposited by co-evaporation of metallic Pd and Fe pellets from calibrated effusion cells in a molecular beam epitaxy chamber. The VN stoichiometry and Pd1−xFex

• × 10−10 mbar (BESTEC, Germany). During this process, the substrate had a temperature of 500 °C. A mixture of high-purity (99.9999%) argon (Ar) from a gas chromatography purification system and high-purity (99.9999%) nitrogen (N2) at a composition of Ar/N2 = 60:40 was used as plasma gas for the reactive

Hexagonal boron nitride: a review of the emerging material platform for single-photon sources and the spin–photon interface

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Faraz A. Inam,
• Shin-ichiro Sato and
• Alberto Boretti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 740–769, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.61

• ][120] from low to high energy electrons, with the high energy electrons improving the yield and the spatial distribution of the emitters away from the edges in the center of the flake; oxygen plasma etching associated with annealing [121] and in particular a process of only two steps, including Ar

• plasma etching and subsequent annealing in Ar, yielding a considerable increase in the concentration of emitters in h-BN [122]; laser irradiation [123] even if the formation origin, in this case, is unclear; substrate strain-induced where a 20 nm-thick h-BN film grown via CVD is transferred into SiO2

Effect of Ag loading position on the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂ nanocolumn arrays

• Jinghan Xu,
• Yanqi Liu and
• Yan Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 717–728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.59

• ], localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) [25], and plasma excitation light scattering [26][27]. Cushing et al. [28] used the time-resolved method to track these three processes by establishing a density matrix model, which allowed them to predict the theoretical maximum catalytic efficiency and

• theoretical optimal structure of the plasma metal–semiconductor heterojunction. Having this background in mind, we decided to prepare a TiO2 nanocolumn (TNC) structure by using AAO in combination with ALD, in which Ag particles could be selectively supported separately outside and inside the nanocolumns. Most

Comparison of fresh and aged lithium iron phosphate cathodes using a tailored electrochemical strain microscopy technique

• Matthias Simolka,
• Hanno Kaess and
• Kaspar Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 583–596, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.46

• spectroscopy (EDS or EDX) it adds chemical information on the elemental distribution to the structural analysis. Further methods that have been applied to study ageing in LFP are X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), focused ion beam

Identification of physicochemical properties that modulate nanoparticle aggregation in blood

• Ludovica Soddu,
• Duong N. Trinh,
• Eimear Dunne,
• Dermot Kenny,
• Giorgia Bernardini,
• Ida Kokalari,
• Arianna Marucco,
• Marco P. Monopoli and
• Ivana Fenoglio

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 550–567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.44

• role. On the other hand, large carbon nanoparticles (but not small carbon nanoparticles or silica nanoparticles) have a clear tendency to form aggregates both in plasma and blood. This effect was observed both in the presence or absence of platelets and was independent of platelet activation. Overall

• (SWCNTs) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can induce platelet activation by inducing depletion of intracellular Ca2+ [10][11], an effect that was hypothesised to be caused by the interaction of CNTs with plasma and dense tubular system membranes likely related to the fibrous shape [12]. On the

• ). Protein corona characterization Access to blood plasma for the corona study The blood plasma used for the corona studies was obtained from the Irish Blood Transfusion service (IBTS) St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin. The plasma, derived from eight different donors, was polled, aliquoted and stored −80 °C

Evolution of Ag nanostructures created from thin films: UV–vis absorption and its theoretical predictions

• Robert Kozioł,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Damian Koszelow,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 494–507, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.40

• thickness) were deposited using a table-top dc magnetron sputtering coater (EM SCD 500, Leica) in pure Ar plasma (argon, Air Products 99.999%). The Ag target was of 99.99% purity, the rate of layer deposition was about 0.4 nm·s−1, and the incident power was in the range of 30–40 W. The layer thickness was

Brome mosaic virus-like particles as siRNA nanocarriers for biomedical purposes

• Alfredo Nuñez-Rivera,
• Pierrick G. J. Fournier,
• Danna L. Arellano,
• Ana G. Rodriguez-Hernandez,
• Rafael Vazquez-Duhalt and
• Ruben D. Cadena-Nava

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 372–382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.28

• plasma membrane stained with FM4-64, evidencing an effective cell internalization of both BMV and CCMV loaded capsids. With the virus loaded with FTIC a similar efficiency of virus internalization in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7capsids are interacting with the cell plasma membrane, in cells was observed. Flow

Interactions at the cell membrane and pathways of internalization of nano-sized materials for nanomedicine

• Valentina Francia,
• Daphne Montizaan and
• Anna Salvati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 338–353, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.25

• cells in similar ways as other nano-sized objects, such as proteins, cholesterol particles, and virus particles. These natural nano-sized objects are usually recognized by specific cell receptors at the plasma membrane and they are internalized by cells using the cell endocytic machinery [4]. Similarly

• as well be present. In all cases, addressing these open questions relative to the first interactions at the cell surface is required to understand how to achieve a more efficient targeting of nanomedicines. 2 Internalization After the very first interactions at the plasma membrane, most nano-sized

• sized cup-shaped invaginations of the plasma membrane, consisting of lipid rafts enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids, and coated with caveolins [95][96][97]. Endocytosis of these invaginations can be both receptor-dependent and -independent and requires actin and dynamin [96][98][99]. Nevertheless

Understanding nanoparticle flow with a new in vitro experimental and computational approach using hydrogel channels

• Armel Boutchuen,
• Dell Zimmerman,
• Abdollah Arabshahi,
• John Melnyczuk and
• Soubantika Palchoudhury

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 296–309, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.22

• NPs can essentially transport a large drug payload past the complex physiological microenvironment inside the human body to the target site. In cases of injection of the NPs to the blood stream, the particles must first flow through vascular regimes with high plasma protein concentrations, followed by

Phase inversion-based nanoemulsions of medium chain triglyceride as potential drug delivery system for parenteral applications

• Eike Folker Busmann,
• Dailén García Martínez,
• Henrike Lucas and
• Karsten Mäder

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 213–224, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.16

• calculation of the osmolality OKol(cKol,p). Preparation of isotonic nanoemulsions Given an osmolality of whole blood of 302 ± 5 mOsmol/kg and of blood plasma of 291 ± 4 mOsmol/kg [17], it was decided to produce nanoemulsions with a target osmolality of 300 mOsmol/kg. The necessary salinity of the aqueous

Rational design of block copolymer self-assemblies in photodynamic therapy

• Maxime Demazeau,
• Laure Gibot,
• Anne-Françoise Mingotaud,
• Patricia Vicendo,
• Clément Roux and
• Barbara Lonetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 180–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.15

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

• , DNA origami is anticipated to have possible applications in the fields of biosciences, the design of protein scaffolds, and plasmonics [51][52][53]. Shih and co-workers utilized DNA origami nanotechnology for the structural determination of plasma membrane proteins [54]. They reported the construction

• of detergent-resistant 0.8 µm-long liquid crystalline DNA nanotubes organized from a 7.3 kb scaffold strand and >170 short oligonucleotide-long staple strands. The liquid crystalline matrices of six helix DNA origami bundles induced a weak alignment of proteins within the plasma membrane. The

• solubilization and weak alignment of proteins within plasma membrane are crucial to measure the residual dipolar couplings (RDCs), and the RDCs are crucial to obtain NMR structural information on membrane-bound proteins. As reported, DNA origami-based liquid crystalline media can overcome detergent-related

Internalization mechanisms of cell-penetrating peptides

• Ivana Ruseska and
• Andreas Zimmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 101–123, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.10

• properties of the peptide and the cargo as well as the concentration applied, in combination with the structural properties of the plasma membrane. As an example, nowadays it is well established that at physiological conditions and low peptide concentration endocytosis prevails, while when a peptide is

• applied at higher amounts, it translocates the plasma membrane directly. A deviation from this rule is penetratin, which at low concentration passes the membrane in an energy-independent manner, while at higher concentration, it switches to endocytosis [22]. Thus, the challenge which remains, from a

• the plasma membrane and involves two distinct steps: endocytic uptake followed by endosomal escape [51]. Endocytosis is a complex process composed of more than one mechanism and is generally divided into two categories: phagocytosis and pinocytosis. Phagocytosis involves the uptake of large particles

Influence of the epitaxial composition on N-face GaN KOH etch kinetics determined by ICP-OES

• Markus Tautz,
• Maren T. Kuchenbrod,
• Joachim Hertkorn,
• Robert Weinberger,
• Martin Welzel,
• Arno Pfitzner and
• David Díaz Díaz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 41–50, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.4

• diffraction (XRD). Thin-film processing including laser lift off (LLO) was applied. The influence of epitaxial changes on the N-face etch kinetics was determined in aqueous KOH solution at elevated temperature. Inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) was used to measure the etch

• to achieve better process control during wet-chemical GaN etching. Firstly, using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) analysis, we present a powerful tool to monitor the average material removal with nm scale precision. In the second part, several different epitaxial

• microscopy (SEM) images were recorded on a Zeiss Gemini Leo 1530 microscope with an acceleration voltage of 2 keV and SE2 detection. For ICP-OES determination of the etch rate, a Thermo Fisher iCAP 6500 device was used. Plasma conditions were 1150 W power, 1.5 L min−1 support gas stream, 0.5 L min−1 spray

Fully amino acid-based hydrogel as potential scaffold for cell culturing and drug delivery

• Dávid Juriga,
• Evelin Sipos,
• Orsolya Hegedűs,
• Gábor Varga,
• Miklós Zrínyi,
• Krisztina S. Nagy and
• Angéla Jedlovszky-Hajdú

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2579–2593, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.249

• is that it can partially decrease the anionic character of aspartic acid. In addition, LYS also facilitates the electrostatic interaction between anionic plasma membrane sites and cationic polymer sites. Therefore, it supports cell adhesion and proliferation [47]. The swelling, mechanical and

Bombesin receptor-targeted liposomes for enhanced delivery to lung cancer cells

• Mohammad J. Akbar,
• Pâmela C. Lukasewicz Ferreira,
• Melania Giorgetti,
• Leanne Stokes and
• Christopher J. Morris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2553–2562, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.246

• -bound through GRPR binding cf. non-targeted liposomes, which exchange rapidly between the free and cell surface-bound state, would indirectly increase the relative intracellular accumulation. Access to the intracellular compartment would be achieved by constitutive plasma membrane endocytosis (e.g

• polydisperse proteins of different sizes [27]. Indeed, the surface properties of various nanoparticles have been shown to change dramatically in the presence of plasma or serum [28] with the establishment of an adsorbed protein corona around the nanoparticle. It is now widely accepted that the particle protein

Plasmonic nanosensor based on multiple independently tunable Fano resonances

• Lin Cheng,
• Zelong Wang,
• Xiaodong He and
• Pengfei Cao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2527–2537, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.243

• frequency, the bulk plasma frequency ωp is 1.38 × 1016 rad/s, ω stands for the angle frequency of the incident wave, and the damping rate γp is 2.73 × 1013 rad/s, which characterizes the absorption loss. A TM-polarized plane wave is launched from port1 to excite the SPPs. Here Pin and Pout stand for input

Evaluation of click chemistry microarrays for immunosensing of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)

• Seyed Mohammad Mahdi Dadfar,
• Sylwia Sekula-Neuner,
• Vanessa Trouillet,
• Hui-Yu Liu,
• Ravi Kumar,
• Annie K. Powell and
• Michael Hirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2505–2515, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.241

• antibody sandwich, six different fabrication routes were followed (Figure 1). First, the glass substrates were plasma-treated to generate reactive hydroxy groups on their surfaces and then functionalized with either acid (to obtain DBCO-terminated surfaces) or silanes (to obtain thiol- and epoxy-terminated

• steps. Preparation of biotinylated substrates Standard glass coverslips (1 × 1 cm, VWR, Germany) were cleaned with chloroform, 2-propanol and deionized water, dried by blowing with nitrogen and exposed to oxygen plasma (10 sccm O2, 0.2 mbar and 100 W) for 2 min. The obtained hydroxy-terminated glasses

• Nanosciences) [45][46]. Prior to use, the cantilevers were activated by oxygen plasma (10 sccm O2, 0.2 mbar, 100 W, 2 min) and used immediately. The pen reservoir was filled with 0.2 μL of ink solution. For all patterns, a probe dwell time of 0.1 s was applied. Spotting was performed at an optimized relative

Multiple Fano resonances with flexible tunablity based on symmetry-breaking resonators

• Xiao bin Ren,
• Kun Ren,
• Ying Zhang,
• Cheng guo Ming and
• Qun Han

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2459–2467, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.236

• the incident light. The other parameters are ε∞ = 3.7, bulk plasma frequency ωp = 1.38 × 1016 Hz, damping frequency γ = 2.73 × 1013 Hz. The dielectric in the waveguide is air. The ring resonator is filled with a dielectric with the constant εd. Temporal coupled-mode theory (CMT) is used to analyze the

pH-Controlled fluorescence switching in water-dispersed polymer brushes grafted to modified boron nitride nanotubes for cellular imaging

• Saban Kalay,
• Yurij Stetsyshyn,
• Volodymyr Donchak,
• Khrystyna Harhay,
• Ostap Lishchynskyi,
• Halyna Ohar,
• Yuriy Panchenko,
• Stanislav Voronov and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2428–2439, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.233

• under acidic conditions [42]. In our previous work [12], we have reported a two-step method for preparation of a responsive surface layer on oligoperoxide-functionalized BNNTs, where amino groups on BNNTs form at the ends and defects. Additional amine groups can be easily introduced with ammonia plasma

Coating of upconversion nanoparticles with silica nanoshells of 5–250 nm thickness

• Cynthia Kembuan,
• Maysoon Saleh,
• Bastian Rühle,
• Ute Resch-Genger and
• Christina Graf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2410–2421, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.231

• -octadecene (tech. 95%), sodium oleate (82%), tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS, 98%) as well as yttrium-, ytterbium- and erbium standards for inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) measurements (TraceCERT®, c = 1000 mg/mL) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich. All chemicals were used

• ) were used in all measurements performed at room temperature. The concentration of the samples was 1–2 g/L in cyclohexane for oleate-capped UCNPs or ethanol for silica-coated UCNP. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) For the determination of the elemental composition of

Deterministic placement of ultra-bright near-infrared color centers in arrays of silicon carbide micropillars

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Abdul Salam Al Atem,
• Faraz Ahmed Inam,
• Hans Jürgen von Bardeleben,
• Sophie Hameau,
• Ahmed Fahad Almutairi,
• Gérard Guillot,
• Shin-ichiro Sato,
• Alberto Boretti and
• Jean Marie Bluet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2383–2395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.229

• quantum sensing [54] applications using SiC. Experimental Micropillar fabrication and color center generation In this work, micropillars were fabricated by inductively coupled plasma RIE (ICP-RIE) on commercial n-type 4H-SiC. Highly doped n-type 4H-SiC acquired from SiCrystal was used. Using UV laser