Model systems for studying cell adhesion and biomimetic actin networks

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johannes P. Frohnmayer and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1193–1202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.131

• way of removing Triton X-100 is to use non-polar Bio-Beads, which are macroporous divinylbenzene cross-linked polystyrene beads. Detergents adsorb to these porous beads by hydrophobic bonds and can be removed from the protein solution in this way [37][38]. Müller and co-workers were the first to use

Template-directed synthesis and characterization of microstructured ceramic Ce/ZrO₂@SiO₂ composite tubes

• Jörg J. Schneider and
• Meike Naumann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1152–1159, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.126

• deposited onto structured one-dimensional objects is presented. In particular, CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 composite tubes were synthesized in a two-step procedure by using electrospun polystyrene fibers as fiber template. First, a sol–gel approach based on an exo-templating technique was employed to obtain polystyrene

• combination of electrospinning and exotemplating leading to hollow CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 composite tubes. Firstly, after electrospinning of polystyrene fibers, the fibers were covered by an exotemplating step with a sol solution containing monodisperse silica particles obtained from a Stoeber process. This is

• hollow SiO2 microtubes by exo-templating Tubular structures of ternary oxide CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 were synthesized by using a multistep synthesis route. In the first step, dense fibrous mats of polystyrene (PS) fibers were obtained by an electrospinning process [15]. An inorganic/polymer composite, PS/silica

Trade-offs in sensitivity and sampling depth in bimodal atomic force microscopy and comparison to the trimodal case

• Babak Eslami,
• Daniel Ebeling and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1144–1151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.125

• of tip position and velocity, one of these two effects will dominate. In this particular case, the loss in sensitivity dominates and the phase values increase (see also reference [24] for a similar type of experiment on a polystyrene–polybutadiene diblock copolymer). This result may or may not be

The study of surface wetting, nanobubbles and boundary slip with an applied voltage: A review

• Yunlu Pan,
• Bharat Bhushan and
• Xuezeng Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1042–1065, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.117

• this review, the influence of an applied voltage on the surface wettability, nanobubbles, surface charge density and slip length are discussed. The contact angle (CA) and contact angle hysteresis (CAH) of a droplet of deionized (DI) water on a hydrophobic polystyrene (PS) surface were measured with

• polystyrene (PS) surface is discussed, followed by the study of the nanobubbles on a PS surface with applied voltage. The influence of applied voltage on the surface charge density and boundary slip on an octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) surface is discussed as well. The relationship between nanobubbles at the

Growth and characterization of CNT–TiO₂ heterostructures

• Yucheng Zhang,
• Ivo Utke,
• Johann Michler,
• Gabriele Ilari,
• Marta D. Rossell and
• Rolf Erni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 946–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.108

• trimethylaluminium and water ALD half-cycles [29] and tetrakis(ethylmethylamido)hafnium with water [30]. In contrast, thin conformal metal oxide ALD films can be easily obtained on organic polymers like polystyrene. Conformal 20 nm thin ZnO coatings were deposited using diethylzinc half-cycles alternated with water

• on large area polystyrene bead arrays [31]. After removing the polystyrene, a transparent, electrically conductive, hollow sphere array was obtained on top of which an urchin-inspired nanobuilding block design of a solar cell with n-type ZnO nanowires could be realized by using electrochemical

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

• [21]. Recently it has been found that conversion of three-dimensional polystyrene nanospheres to a two-dimensional nanodisc shape offers a larger contact surface with cell membranes and generates less impact during their interaction, which leads to a binding that is limited to the cell membrane with

Injection of ligand-free gold and silver nanoparticles into murine embryos does not impact pre-implantation development

• Ulrike Taylor,
• Wiebke Garrels,
• Annette Barchanski,
• Svea Peterson,
• Laszlo Sajti,
• Andrea Lucas-Hahn,
• Lisa Gamrad,
• Ulrich Baulain,
• Sabine Klein,
• Wilfried A. Kues,
• Stephan Barcikowski and
• Detlef Rath

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 677–688, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.80

• , nanoparticles were found to be stopped by the placental barrier [4][5][6]. The majority of authors, however, observed placental crossing. This encompasses studies of nanoparticles composed of gold [7][8], titanium dioxide [9][10], CdTe/CdS quantum dots [11], and polystyrene [12]. Thus, transplacental crossing

Hole-mask colloidal nanolithography combined with tilted-angle-rotation evaporation: A versatile method for fabrication of low-cost and large-area complex plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials

• Jun Zhao,
• Bettina Frank,
• Frank Neubrech,
• Chunjie Zhang,
• Paul V. Braun and
• Harald Giessen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 577–586, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.68

• hydrophobicity of the PMMA layer. Before drop coating of the polystyrene (PS) spheres, which have negative electric surface charges, we should bring at first a net positive charge to the polymer layer for a better adherence and arrangement. Here we use a poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) solution

• to manufacture with any other method, in particular at such large areas and low costs. Fabrication scheme. (a) Deposition of sacrificial PMMA layer. (b) Deposition of polystyrene spheres in an arbitrarily distributed arrangement. (c) Evaporation of oxygen plasma resistant Au-mask. (d) Removing

• polystyrene spheres with ultrasonic bath and subsequent isotropic dry etching leads to extended holes in PMMA layer. (e) Evaporation of the structures by tilted angle evaporation (polar rotation angle φ, azimuthal tilt angle θ). (f) Lift-off of the sacrificial PMMA layer. Reproduced with permission from [23

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

• . Encapsulation of polymer nanobeads We used polystyrene nanobeads (diameter 200 nm) to study the encapsulation of large nanoparticles into ZnO nanorods. After dropping nanobeads aqueous suspension onto ZnO nanorods arrays and blow-drying, nanobeads were found sparsely scattered over the nanorods surfaces as seen

• aqueous suspension of 40 nm diameter NDs (0.1 mg/mL) with NV luminescent centres was purchased from Adamas Nanotech. Polystyrene nanobeads (200 nm size) dispersed in water (0.5 mg/mL) were purchased from Polyscience Inc. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, Zeiss Sigma) was employed to

Unlocking higher harmonics in atomic force microscopy with gentle interactions

• Sergio Santos,
• Victor Barcons,
• Josep Font and
• Albert Verdaguer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 268–277, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.29

• . The common parameters in this work are k = 2 N/m, Q = 100, ω = 2π·70 kHz and R = 7 nm, i.e., they correspond to commercially available standard probes for AM AFM. Furthermore, in Figure 1, H = 6.2 × 10−19 J, i.e., it is close to that calculated for materials such as polystyrene or fused quartz [40

Dye-doped spheres with plasmonic semi-shells: Lasing modes and scattering at realistic gain levels

• Nikita Arnold,
• Boyang Ding,
• Calin Hrelescu and
• Thomas A. Klar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 974–987, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.110

• cross section for dye-doped polystyrene spheres (radius 195 nm), which are half-covered by a silver layer of 10–40 nm thickness. Such silver capped spheres are interesting candidates for nanoplasmonic lasers, so-called spasers. We find that spasing requires gain levels less than 3.7 times higher than

• commercially available polystyrene spheres “Firefli* Fluorescent Green” from Thermo-Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA, which we have used in an experimental study on the spectral and directional Purcell effect [17]. With this self-restriction to the parameters of commercially available dye-doped spheres, we make a

• narrowing of the Mie scattering spectrum and small signal gain could become detectable. Numerical modeling Figure 1 depicts the geometry of the silver capped spheres and the orientation of the incoming electromagnetic wave. A dye-doped polystyrene (PS) sphere of 390 nm diameter is capped with a semi-shell

Cyclic photochemical re-growth of gold nanoparticles: Overcoming the mask-erosion limit during reactive ion etching on the nanoscale

• Burcin Özdemir,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alfred Plettl and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 886–894, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.100

• Materials used in the experiment: Polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) diblock copolymer (PS(1850)-b-P2VP(900) was purchased from Polymer Source Inc., Canada. VLSI grade toluene was purchased from J. T. Baker, Netherlands. Gold(III) chloride hydrate (HAuCl4·H2O) and octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) were

Site-selective growth of surface-anchored metal-organic frameworks on self-assembled monolayer patterns prepared by AFM nanografting

• Tatjana Ladnorg,
• Alexander Welle,
• Stefan Heißler,
• Christof Wöll and
• Hartmut Gliemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 638–648, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.71

• (Asylum Research, Mannheim). Grafting experiments and AFM investigation of the surface were performed in a polystyrene petri dish (BD falcon, VWR, Germany) mounted on the scanner of the MFP-3D Bio. For grafting experiments the “B” tips of NSC-35 cantilever chips (Micromash, Germany) with the nominal force

Large-scale atomistic and quantum-mechanical simulations of a Nafion membrane: Morphology, proton solvation and charge transport

• Pavel V. Komarov,
• Pavel G. Khalatur and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 567–587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.65

• large energy loss [1]. The earliest fuel cells based on proton exchange membrane (PEM), consisting of a copolymer of sulfonated polystyrene and divinylbenzene, served as the power plants for the Gemini space missions in the early 1960s. Now, PEM fuel cells show the greatest, most immediate, and most

3D nano-structures for laser nano-manipulation

• Gediminas Seniutinas,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Gediminas Gervinskas,
• Etienne Brasselet and
• Saulius Juodkazis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 534–541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.62

• the patterns of such nano-wells was investigated experimentally and numerically. By doing numerical simulations of 50-nm and 100-nm diameter polystyrene beads in water and air, we show the potential of such patterns for self-induced back-action (SIBA) trapping. The best trapping conditions were found

• domain, to gather evidence of extraordinary transmission. For the force calculation, the trapped object (a polystyrene bead) was introduced in the total-field region, and surrounded by a 3D monitor recording the vectorial E- and H-fields, discriminating the object volume by the refractive index change

• are repelled from high intensity regions, while dielectric nano-particles will be attracted. Force mapping The force mapping was calculated by using the Lorentz force formalism (from section “Background: Lorentz force”) on a polystyrene-bead probe (n = 1.504) of diameter d with the 3D-FDTD method. In

Multiple regimes of operation in bimodal AFM: understanding the energy of cantilever eigenmodes

• Daniel Kiracofe,
• Arvind Raman and
• Dalia Yablon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 385–393, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.45

• polypropylene (PP, ExxonMobil Chemical Company), high density polyethylene (PE, ExxonMobil Chemical Company), and polystyrene (PS, Polysciences). A blend of 3:1:1 (by mass) of PP/PE/PS was prepared in a Brabender mixer (Brabender Instruments, South Hackensack, NJ) at 180 °C, 60 rpm, and 5 min of mixing and then

• AFM images based on morphology, surface roughness, and height. Specifically, the matrix (dominant component) is polypropylene, with approximately circular polyethylene and polystyrene domains. The polyethylene domains appear rough because of the lamellar structure, and the polystyrene domains show

• and the PP or PS domains changes. When considering the “1st + 2nd” scan (left column), the polyethylene has a higher (brighter) amplitude (a) and phase lag (c) than either the polystyrene or the polyproylene. However, in the “1st + 4th” scan (right column) the contrast is exactly reversed. The

Polynomial force approximations and multifrequency atomic force microscopy

• Daniel Platz,
• Daniel Forchheimer,
• Erik A. Tholén and
• David B. Haviland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 352–360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.41

• reconstruction allows for the extraction of properties such as surface adhesion, sample stiffness or interaction geometry. We demonstrate this extraction of surface properties with high-resolution stiffness maps on a blend of polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Polynomial reconstruction, and

Near-field effects and energy transfer in hybrid metal-oxide nanostructures

• Ulrich Herr,
• Barat Achinuq,
• Cahit Benel,
• Giorgos Papageorgiou,
• Manuel Goncalves,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Peter Marek and
• Horst Hahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 306–317, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.34

• adjusted over a wide range by the choice of the sphere size. In our study, we have used polystyrene spheres with diameters of 1 μm or 3 μm. The water-based dispersions were dried under constant temperature and air flow to assure a constant evaporation rate of the solvent. In the next step, we deposited Ag

• microscope. As a compromise, we chose polystyrene spheres with 1 μm diameter for the following experiments. To obtain realistic values for the expected field enhancements, we performed a simulation of an array of 50 nm thick Ag nanoantennas with tip-to-edge length of 370 nm and a gap size of 60 nm. The

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

• ] reported the engineering of VA-CNTs membranes in four steps: (i) growth of aligned MWCNTs by chemical vapor deposition, (ii) CNT filling with polystyrene, (iii) HF etching in order to separate the composite film from the substrate, and (iv) H2O plasma oxidation in order to remove excess surface polymer and

• . Hinds et al. [138] and then Chopra et al. [139] used, instead of a spin-on-glass matrix, a polystyrene (PS) matrix. By means of refined experimental examinations, the first group proved an efficient molecular transport through the CNTs cores, opening perspectives in chemical separation and sensing. The

• second group showed that encapsulating CNTs in a polystyrene matrix protects their sidewalls against oxidation and favors selective and independent functionalization of each end of the CNTs. Moreover, individual CNTs with a chemical group attached at each end can be retrieved by the dissolution of the PS

Interpreting motion and force for narrow-band intermodulation atomic force microscopy

• Daniel Platz,
• Daniel Forchheimer,
• Erik A. Tholén and
• David B. Haviland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 45–56, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.5

• , providing deeper insight into the tip–surface interaction. We demonstrate the capabilities of ImAFM approach measurements on a polystyrene polymer surface. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; AFM; frequency combs; force spectroscopy; high-quality-factor resonators; intermodulation; multifrequency

• or AM-AFM such a measurement would require much longer measurement time since multiple surface approaches with different amplitudes would be required. With ImAFM all the data is acquired during a single surface approach. We use ImAFM approach curves to reconstruct FI and FQ maps on a polystyrene (PS

Sub-10 nm colloidal lithography for circuit-integrated spin-photo-electronic devices

• Adrian Iovan,
• Marco Fischer,
• Roberto Lo Conte and
• Vladislav Korenivski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 884–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.98

• -assembled monolayer of polystyrene nanoparticles, reduced in size by an isotropic etching process [20], which we scale to sub-10 nm feature sizes with large-area coverage in a well-defined hexagonal lattice and full integration for electrical circuit biasing and read out. We demonstrate the fabrication

• technique using spin-torque and spin-flip photoemission material combinations, considered promising for gigahertz oscillators and terahertz lasers. Results and Discussion Self-assembled monolayer of nanoparticles The most widely used colloidal lithography medium is polystyrene nanoparticles in aqueous

• forming a monolayer of colloidal particles on a surface exist [22]. We found the spinning of the polystyrene colloidal water solution to yield good results. In calibrating the speed and duration of the spinning we aimed at forming the largest-area continuous monolayer possible. Thus, spinning in three

Tuning the properties of magnetic thin films by interaction with periodic nanostructures

• Ulf Wiedwald,
• Felix Haering,
• Stefan Nau,
• Carsten Schulze,
• Herbert Schletter,
• Denys Makarov,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Karsten Kuepper,
• Manfred Albrecht,
• Johannes Boneberg and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 831–842, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.93

• present work. We employ preparation routes that are based on (i) self-assembly of Au nanoparticles and (ii) homogeneous size-reduction of self-assembled polystyrene particles. On such non-close-packed nanostructures thin Fe films or Co/Pt multilayers are grown with in-plane and out-of-plane easy axis of

• by the approaches mentioned above. The technique is based on self-assembly and homogeneous size reduction of polystyrene (PS) colloids [19] ending up with a non-close-packed monolayer of colloidal particles, which, in turn, serves as a template for the subsequent deposition of magnetic films. In the

Controlled positioning of nanoparticles on a micrometer scale

• Fabian Enderle,
• Oliver Dubbers,
• Alfred Plettl and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 773–777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.86

• precursor-loaded micelles [7][8][21]. In short, commercially available diblock-copolymers [polystyrene-block-poly-2-vinylpyridine (PS-b-P2VP) from Polymer Source Inc, Canada] forming spherical reverse micelles in an apolar solvent, such as toluene, are loaded with HAuCl4 salt as precursor. After optimized

Assessing the plasmonics of gold nano-triangles with higher order laser modes

• Laura E. Hennemann,
• Andreas Kolloch,
• Andreas Kern,
• Josip Mihaljevic,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer,
• Alfred J. Meixner and
• Dai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 674–683, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.77

• either onto an avalanche photodiode (APD) or onto a grating spectrometer coupled with a liquid nitrogen cooled CCD camera. The samples were prepared by colloid lithography. Via drying of a strongly diluted colloidal suspension, a self-assembled monolayer of polystyrene spheres was created on a substrate

• piece of either silicon (commercial silicon wafer) or glass (commercial glass slide by Menzel-Gläser). A thin gold film was then evaporated with the polystyrene colloids acting as a mask on the substrate. Finally, the colloids were removed with a piece of adhesive tape. The resulting sample is a regular

• hexagonal array of gold triangles on the substrate, which, as already mentioned above, is often referred to as a Fischer pattern [7]. Polystyrene spheres of diameters D between 200 and 1500 nm were used. The film height h of the evaporated gold was varied between 40 and 200 nm (see Figure 2b for the

Polymer blend lithography: A versatile method to fabricate nanopatterned self-assembled monolayers

• Cheng Huang,
• Markus Moosmann,
• Jiehong Jin,
• Tobias Heiler,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 620–628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.71

• and conditions, including the ambient atmosphere (humidity), the molar mass of the polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and the mass ratio between the two polymers in the blend solution, the formation of a purely lateral morphology (PS islands standing on the substrate while isolated

• acetic acid, the CF3-terminated FDTS-SAM was deposited in the vapor phase. Next, we removed polystyrene by snow-jet treatment as described before. The FDTS as well as the APTES-SAMs withstand this cleaning procedure without any detectable change at their surface, as can be seen in Figure 5c. The three

• by AFM. Together with the chemical variability, polymer-blend lithography (PBL) can become an important tool for studying surface-initiated processes. Experimental Polymer solution: Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA, Mw = 9.59 kg/mol, PDI = 1.05) and polystyrene (PS, Mw = 96 kg/mol, PDI = 1.04) were