The future development of polymer composite materials with nanotubes or nanoscale fibers requires the ability to understand and improve the interfacial bonding at the nanotube–polymer matrix interface. In recent work [Strus MC, Zalamea L, Raman A, Pipes RB, Nguyen CV, Stach EA. Peeling force spectroscopy: exposing the adhesive nanomechanics of one-dimensional nanostructures. Nano Lett 2008;8(2)...

Resistive memory has attracted a great deal of attention as an alternative to contemporary flash memory. Here we demonstrate an interesting phenomenon that multimode resistive switching, i.e. threshold-like, self-rectifying and ordinary bipolar switching, can be observed in one self-assembled single-crystalline ZnO nanoisland with base diameter and height ranging around 30 and 40 nm on Si at di...

in this article, hybrid organic-inorganic materials were prepared by free radical copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (hema) and 3-methacryloxy-propyltrimethoxysilane (mptms) via sol-gel process. the methoxysilane-containing copolymer precursors were synthesized at different compositions. these copolymer precursors were then hydrolyzed and condensed to produce phema-sio2 nanocomposi...

It has been known that a single Müller cell displays a large variation in the cytoskeletal compositions along its cell body, suggesting different mechanical properties in different segments. Müller cells are thought to be involved in many retinal diseases such as retinoschisis, which can be facilitated by a mechanical stress. Thus, mapping of mechanical properties on localized nano-domains of M...

We present a method to determine the local surface charge of solid-liquid interfaces from Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) measurements that takes into account shifts of the adsorption/desorption equilibria of protons and ions as the cantilever tip approaches the sample. We recorded AFM force distance curves in dynamic mode with sharp tips on heterogeneous silica surfaces partially covered by gibb...

Rapid detection of tumor-associated DNA such as Human Papillomavirus (HPV) has important clinical value for the early screening of tumors. By attaching oligonucleotides or cDNA onto the chip surface, DNA chip technology provides a rapid method to analyze gene expression. However, challenges remain regarding increasing probe density and improving detection time. To address these challenges, we p...

The detection of local dielectric properties is of great importance in a wide variety of scientific studies and applications. Here, we report a novel method for the characterization of local dielectric distributions based on surface adhesion mapping by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The two-dimensional (2D) materials graphene oxide (GO), and partially reduced graphene oxide (RGO), which have si...

This chapter reviews recent advances in the understanding of DNA release dynamics from polymeric gene delivery systems. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has recently been applied to monitor DNA release from bioreducible polyplex nanoparticles and layer-by-layer (LbL) thin films in real time. DNA release dynamics is central to the understanding and control of gene delivery from gene delivery nano-s...

Background: Chitosan nanoparticles have become of great interest for nanomedicine, biomedical engineering and development of new therapeutic drug release systems with improved bioavailability, increased specificity and sensitivity, and reduced pharmacological toxicity. The aim of the present study is to synthesis and optimization of chitosan nanoparticles for industrial and biomedical applicati...

Tubular structures built from amphiphilic molecules are of interest for nano-sensing, drug delivery, and structuring of oils. In this study, we characterized the tubules built in aqueous suspensions of a cholesteryl nucleoside conjugate, cholesterylaminouridine (CholAU) and phosphatidylcholines (PCs). In mixtures with unsaturated PCs having chain lengths comparable to the length of CholAU, two ...