Hymenoptera and biomimetic surfaces: insights and innovations

• Vinicius Marques Lopez,
• Carlo Polidori and
• Rhainer Guillermo Ferreira

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 1333–1352, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.107

• of some species reduce friction and wear, inspiring the development of low-friction materials and coatings. By mimicking these natural textures, it is possible to create synthetic materials that exhibit similar friction-reducing properties, leading to significant advancements in mechanical efficiency

• and durability. For instance, low-friction coatings inspired by Hymenoptera cuticles can be applied to materials to reduce wear and tear, thereby enhancing performance, and extending the lifespan of the material. Surface roughness can have beneficial effects on the overall aerodynamic characteristics

• surfaces can prevent the wear of moving parts in devices such as hard drives and printers, ensuring longer operational life and reliability. The mechanisms behind the cuticle’s friction-reducing properties also include the ability to repel dust and contaminants, which further extends the applications of

Interface properties of nanostructured carbon-coated biological implants: an overview

• Mattia Bartoli,
• Francesca Cardano,
• Erik Piatti,
• Stefania Lettieri,
• Andrea Fin and
• Alberto Tagliaferro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 1041–1053, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.85

• materials and the possibility to further tailor them with simple chemical modifications [87][88]. Thomas et al. [89] investigated ND coatings as active surface for tuning the macrophage response to estimate the long-term inflammatory effects of wear debris. The authors investigated the effect of the ND

• , suggesting that the ND coating prevented the removal of wear debris from coated implants. The complex relation between NDs and macrophage activity can be further tuned by functionalization with short molecules as reported by Pentecost and co-workers [90], who used small amines to tune the inflammatory

• , wherein the implant bears an excessive load, consequently, causing bone resorption [132]. Coating with nanostructured carbon is a strategy to both reduce wear and improve load across the implant region. As mentioned by Zhang et al. [133], a nano- or micrometric thick layer of CNTs induced the ability of

Beyond biomimicry – next generation applications of bioinspired adhesives from microfluidics to composites

• Dan Sameoto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 965–976, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.79

• perspective. A final example of practical products involves protective garments. Many elderly individuals wear hip protectors to guard against broken hips in the event of a fall [38]. However, these are often bulky, unattractive, and uncomfortable. If these materials could act as regular clothing that only

Effects of cutting tool geometry on material removal of a gradient nanograined CoCrNi medium entropy alloy

• Yu-Sheng Lu,
• Yu-Xuan Hung,
• Thi-Xuyen Bui and
• Te-Hua Fang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 925–940, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.76

• and partial dislocation motions in crystalline materials were examined by common neighbor analysis (CNA) of the modules in OVITO. Cutting force, shear strain distribution, von Mises stress analysis, crystal structure evolution, temperature distribution, and calculation of material wear rate were

• radius was fixed at 1 nm to analyze the surface morphology, atomic-scale wear, shear strain distribution, temperature distribution, and crystal structure evolution during cutting. Figure 2a–f shows the atoms that pile-up on the surface of the CoCrNi MEA substrates. The number of wear atoms during cutting

• cutting length increases, the number of wear atoms increases in all samples. The chips become elongated as the size of the grains increases. The sample with the grain size gradient of 15-13-10 nm exhibits the lowest number of wear atoms, while the remaining samples show similar numbers. The reason is that

The effect of age on the attachment ability of stick insects (Phasmatodea)

• Marie Grote,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Thies H. Büscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 867–883, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.72

• sign of ageing is the loss of locomotory functions due to neuronal disorders or tissue wear. Soft and pliable attachment pads on the tarsi of insects adapt to the substrate texture to maximize their real contact area and, thereby, generate attachment during locomotion. In the majority of stick insects

• area with the substrate. Keywords: adhesion; attachment pads; friction; locomotion; morphology; material properties; wear; Introduction Ageing inexorably affects most living organisms, does not exclude insects, and makes different organs or tissues susceptible to wear or fatigue of material [1

• generally strongest for older animals. Claws were uniform in color, but claw wear was observed to vary across specimens (Figure 4E–H). In general, claw conditions ranged from fully intact (Figure 4E) to completely missing (Figure 4H). Most frequently the claw tips were broken (Figure 4F,G). The wear was

Comparative analysis of the ultrastructure and adhesive secretion pathways of different smooth attachment pads of the stick insect Medauroidea extradentata (Phasmatodea)

• Julian Thomas,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Thies H. Büscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 612–630, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.52

• environmental conditions such as wear [76] and evaporation [44]. This enhanced resilience comes at the expense of reduced adaptability to surface irregularities. As a frictional pad, the euplantula requires increased wear resistance, prioritizing it over optimal conformability to surfaces to withstand applied

• risk of trapping contaminants in the inter-tarsomeric membranous region. The removal of particulate contaminants is very important as they are known to cause abrasive wear in the open insect joints [86]. Anti-adhesive surface structures in the periphery of the active working areas of the attachment

Quantitative wear evaluation of tips based on sharp structures

• Ke Xu and
• Houwen Leng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 230–241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.22

• Ke Xu Houwen Leng School of Electrical & Control Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, China 10.3762/bjnano.15.22 Abstract To comprehensively study the influence of atomic force microscopy (AFM) scanning parameters on tip wear, a tip wear assessment method based on sharp

• structures is proposed. This research explored the wear of AFM tips during tapping mode and examined the effects of scanning parameters on estimated tip diameter and surface roughness. The experiment results show that the non-destructive method for measuring tip morphology is highly repeatable. Additionally

• , a set of principles for optimizing scanning parameters has been proposed. These principles consider both scanning precision and tip wear. To achieve these results, an AFM probe was used to scan sharp structures, precisely acquiring the tip morphology. Tip wear was minimized by employing lower

Determination of the radii of coated and uncoated silicon AFM sharp tips using a height calibration standard grating and a nonlinear regression function

• Perawat Boonpuek and
• Jonathan R. Felts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1200–1207, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.99

• mode with very light loading (0.01 nN) to prevent the tips from wear. The noise effect was not considered here, because the measurement was conducted inside the hood of a MFP-3D Origin (Asylum Research) with noise filter system. Considering the geometry of the nanostructure and the scanline signal

Spatial variations of conductivity of self-assembled monolayers of dodecanethiol on Au/mica and Au/Si substrates

• Julian Skolaut,
• Jędrzej Tepper,
• Federica Galli,
• Wulf Wulfhekel and
• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1169–1177, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.97

• study, since it measures topography and current simultaneously and reduces wear effects on the tips. Results and Discussion We divided the results obtained with the methods described above into two main sections. These are studies on (i) the bare substrates and on (ii) the DDT SAMs on these substrates

Exploring internal structures and properties of terpolymer fibers via real-space characterizations

• Michael R. Roenbeck and
• Kenneth E. Strawhecker

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1004–1017, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.83

• . Transverse elastic modulus quantifications We present these last results as relative stiffness variations because multiple AFM tips needed to be used to survey these multiple subdomains. Monitoring tip wear is cumbersome when targeting a broad survey of different regions of multiple fibers, so the results

• nanoscale material properties of the fiber surface, though they present additional challenges versus stiffness maps that must be addressed. In particular, tip wear has to be carefully monitored to ensure that the tip radius is well characterized in each scan. Here we focused ET analysis on small fiber

• subdomains (typically 500 nm × 500 nm, ca. 1 nm/pixel) to reduce the likelihood of tip wear. In addition, subdomains were initially mapped out with “sacrificial” AFM tips, and ET distributions were only then obtained from scans with fresh, well-characterized AFM tips. In quantitative scans, the shape of each

Characterisation of a micrometer-scale active plasmonic element by means of complementary computational and experimental methods

• Ciarán Barron,
• Giulia Di Fazio,
• Samuel Kenny,
• Silas O’Toole,
• Robin O’Reilly and
• Dominic Zerulla

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 110–122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.12

• nanomechanical operations such as lithography and machining. The high spring constant of this cantilever has the advantage of minimising the unwanted deflection of the cantilever resulting from electrostatic interaction of the potential on the surface and the probe. The tip is constructed from wear-resistant

Studies of probe tip materials by atomic force microscopy: a review

• Ke Xu and
• Yuzhe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1256–1267, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.104

• resolution and durability or wear and tear and conductivity requirements must be considered before selecting a probe. Metal-coated probes are generally suitable for high-resolution or high conductivity test experiments. Metal nanoclusters adsorbed on two-dimensional materials grown on metal substrates are an

• have large aspect ratios and good wear resistance. They thus can better avoid artefacts and more accurately reflect the proper shape of the sample at steep locations, making them suitable for high-resolution test experiments. However, previous methods to fabricate carbon nanotube probes are complicated

• . AFM probes based on these C–C composites' high aspect ratio tips produced highly high image resolution and good wear resistance, with no degradation of tip or image quality observed after 400 images had been acquired. Compared with the above composite probes, the combination with metal nanowires also

A cantilever-based, ultrahigh-vacuum, low-temperature scanning probe instrument for multidimensional scanning force microscopy

• Hao Liu,
• Zuned Ahmed,
• Sasa Vranjkovic,
• Manfred Parschau,
• Andrada-Oana Mandru and
• Hans J. Hug

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1120–1140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.95

• deformation of the holding springs and, consequently, to a loose fixation of the sample/cantilever holder in its receiver. Moreover, the sliding motion will also create wear particles, which may contaminate the surface of the sample or the inside of the instrument. Generally, such receiver designs compromise

• the case of extensive wear. The conical end of the screw then presses on a sapphire inlay glued to the bottom part of the clamping spring. The fixation of the sample/cantilever holder inside the corresponding receiver also leads to an electrical contact between pads on the sample/cantilever holder and

Tubular glassy carbon microneedles with fullerene-like tips for biomedical applications

• Sharali Malik and
• George E. Kostakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 455–461, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.38

• chrome particles released from surgical stainless steel needles during needle wear in human skin. Allergic reactions such as contact dermatitis resulting from the presence of nickel and chromium in acupuncture needles have also been reported [32]. Glassy carbon is biocompatible, electrically and

Electrostatic pull-in application in flexible devices: A review

• Teng Cai,
• Yuming Fang,
• Yingli Fang,
• Ruozhou Li,
• Ying Yu and
• Mingyang Huang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 390–403, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.32

• . Lifetime extension: Understanding the failure of the switch is the premise to improve the number of life cycles of switches. Mechanical tear, burn, and stiction are the main problems affecting the lifetime of NEM switches. A pressure of up to 30 GPa [51] when the switch is closed can easily cause wear and

Micro- and nanotechnology in biomedical engineering for cartilage tissue regeneration in osteoarthritis

• Zahra Nabizadeh,
• Mahmoud Nasrollahzadeh,
• Hamed Daemi,
• Mohamadreza Baghaban Eslaminejad,
• Ali Akbar Shabani,
• Mehdi Dadashpour,
• Majid Mirmohammadkhani and
• Davood Nasrabadi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 363–389, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.31

• -friction, wear resistant surface for joint motion [6][7]. It is an avascular, aneural, alymphatic, and hypocellular tissue consisting of a single cell type (chondrocyte) dispersed in a dense matrix [6]. Chondrocytes, which constitute only about 5% of the wet weight of the articular cartilage, are

Relationship between corrosion and nanoscale friction on a metallic glass

• Haoran Ma and
• Roland Bennewitz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 236–244, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.18

• ); corrosion; friction; metallic glass; passive film; Introduction Metallic glasses (MGs) exhibit excellent mechanical properties including extraordinary hardness and strength [1][2]. Thus, MGs have emerged as novel wear-resistant materials with high potential in tribological applications [3][4][5][6][7][8

• ]. Tao et al. [3] found that Zr-based MGs present a much smaller friction coefficient than other metals under dry-sliding conditions. W-based MGs were developed whose wear resistance was demonstrated to be comparable to classical tribological ceramics [6]. Hofmann et al. [7] reported that the wear

• are susceptible to corrosion when exposed to environmental conditions, the role of surface chemistry for friction must be investigated. At the macroscale, the existence of metal oxide surface films on MGs enhanced the wear resistance in corrosive solutions and the fluid lubricating films formed by

Nanoscale friction and wear of a polymer coated with graphene

• Robin Vacher and
• Astrid S. de Wijn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 63–73, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.4

• Robin Vacher Astrid S. de Wijn Corrosion and tribology, SINTEF, Richard Birkelands vei 2B, 7034 Trondheim, Norway Institutt for maskinteknikk og produksjon, NTNU, Richard Birkelands vei 2B, 7034 Trondheim, Norway 10.3762/bjnano.13.4 Abstract Friction and wear of polymers at the nanoscale is a

• challenging problem due to the complex viscoelastic properties and structure. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate how a graphene sheet on top of the semicrystalline polymer polyvinyl alcohol affects the friction and wear. Our setup is meant to resemble an AFM experiment with a silicon tip. We

• have used two different graphene sheets, namely an unstrained, flat sheet, and one that has been crumpled before being deposited on the polymer. The graphene protects the top layer of the polymer from wear and reduces the friction. The unstrained flat graphene is stiffer, and we find that it constrains

Effect of lubricants on the rotational transmission between solid-state gears

• Huang-Hsiang Lin,
• Jonathan Heinze,
• Alexander Croy,
• Rafael Gutiérrez and
• Gianaurelio Cuniberti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 54–62, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.3

• and wear. However, on the microscopic scale, it is not clear to what extent lubricants are beneficial. Therefore, in this study, we consider two diamond solid-state gears at the nanoscale immersed in different lubricant molecules and perform classical MD simulations to investigate the rotational

• formation process between gears. Keywords: lubricants; MD simulation; rotational transmission; solid-state gears; Introduction In mechanical systems, lubrication is the most common way to reduce friction and wear [1][2][3][4]. The idea of lubricants is preventing direct contact between surfaces to avoid

• dry friction from asperities and wear. Hence, the desirable lubrication regime would be hydrodynamic or elastohydrodynamic lubrication in the Stribeck curve [5]. The former corresponds to the situation that surfaces are completely separated by a fluid. The latter is similar but surface deformations

Two dynamic modes to streamline challenging atomic force microscopy measurements

• Alexei G. Temiryazev,
• Andrey V. Krayev and
• Marina P. Temiryazeva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1226–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.90

• and accordingly select Asp. Factors to consider are the risk of tip wear, sample deformation, and tip contamination. The most important parameter here is the tip–sample force at the turn-around point of the oscillation cycle. Note that this force Fp can be repulsive even in net-attractive regime. In

• order to avoid tip wear and possible sample damage we need to keep the extreme force to a necessary minimum. There are different approaches for the choice of the best regime [17][18][19][20][21]. This selection is quite contradictory as the attraction regime provides the most delicate conditions that

Mapping the local dielectric constant of a biological nanostructured system

• Wescley Walison Valeriano,
• Rodrigo Ribeiro Andrade,
• Juan Pablo Vasco,
• Angelo Malachias,
• Bernardo Ruegger Almeida Neves,
• Paulo Sergio Soares Guimarães and
• Wagner Nunes Rodrigues

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 139–150, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.11

• EFM measurements of the sample and the substrate with the same height reference. EFM measurements with both substrate and sample in the same image solve this issue. The conical angle is θ = 0.261 rad, as informed by the tip producer. To avoid the side effects of natural wear and contamination

Application of contact-resonance AFM methods to polymer samples

• Sebastian Friedrich and
• Brunero Cappella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1714–1727, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.154

• modes including scanning under continuous contact wear and damage the sample and/or alter the surface roughness, the results of point CR measurements on bulk and thin films are presented. Though Young’s moduli of bulk polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) could be determined through the presented

• . Keywords: atomic force microscopy; contact resonance; mechanical properties; polymers; wear; Introduction The development of new materials for applications on the nanoscale, such as thin polymer films, demands a reliable determination of their mechanical properties. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a very

• samples with different cantilevers. The evident result of these measurements is that the polymer sample is worn or, more general, damaged during the scan. Scanning with the AFM tip leads to different forms of wear and modifications. When abrasion or plastic deformation are the dominant mechanisms, the

Fabrication of nano/microstructures for SERS substrates using an electrochemical method

• Jingran Zhang,
• Tianqi Jia,
• Xiaoping Li,
• Junjie Yang,
• Zhengkai Li,
• Guangfeng Shi,
• Xinming Zhang and
• Zuobin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1568–1576, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.139

• , Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China Institute of Advanced Wear & Corrosion Resistant and Functional Materials, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, P.R. China School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, P.R. China 10.3762/bjnano.11.139 Abstract Based on an

An atomic force microscope integrated with a helium ion microscope for correlative nanoscale characterization

• Santiago H. Andany,
• Gregor Hlawacek,
• Stefan Hummel,
• Charlène Brillard,
• Mustafa Kangül and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1272–1279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.111

• ), which are glued to the cantilevers, offer high aspect ratio and excellent resistance to wear [22]. Because tip wear is the main cause of cantilever failure, and because cantilever exchange in the HIM requires the user to vent the chamber, wear resistance is critically important. To maneuver the AFM

Quantitative determination of the interaction potential between two surfaces using frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy

• Nicholas Chan,
• Carrie Lin,
• Tevis Jacobs,
• Robert W. Carpick and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 729–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.60

• microscopy (AFM) [4][5], and nanolithography techniques [6]. In particular, material parameters, such as interfacial adhesion, friction and wear (in the case of translating surfaces), significantly impact the success of the aforementioned examples. For instance, micromirrors, present in DLP technology

• such issues. For example, the adsorption of self-assembled monolayers on contacting surfaces is one method by which the surface can be modified to reduce the detrimental impacts of adhesion, friction and wear [15][16][17]. The nanometer length scales over which these processes modify surface