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    2-Methyl-2,4-pentanediol (MPD) boosts as detergent-substitute the performance of ß-barrel hybrid catalyst for phenylacetylene polymerization
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2017) Kinzel, Julia; Sauer, Daniel F.; Bocola, Marco; Arlt, Marcus; Mirzaei Garakani, Tayebeh; Thiel, Andreas; Beckerle, Klaus; Polen, Tino; Okuda, Jun; Schwaneberg, Ulrich
    Covering hydrophobic regions with stabilization agents to solubilize purified transmembrane proteins is crucial for their application in aqueous media. The small molecule 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol (MPD) was used to stabilize the transmembrane protein Ferric hydroxamate uptake protein component A (FhuA) utilized as host for the construction of a rhodium-based biohybrid catalyst. Unlike commonly used detergents such as sodium dodecyl sulfate or polyethylene polyethyleneglycol, MPD does not form micelles in solution. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed the effect and position of stabilizing MPD molecules. The advantage of the amphiphilic MPD over micelle-forming detergents is demonstrated in the polymerization of phenylacetylene, showing a ten-fold increase in yield and increased molecular weights.
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    Dumbbell gold nanoparticle dimer antennas with advanced optical properties
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2018) Herrmann, Janning F.; Höppener, Christiane
    Plasmonic nanoantennas have found broad applications in the fields of photovoltaics, electroluminescence, non-linear optics and for plasmon enhanced spectroscopy and microscopy. Of particular interest are fundamental limitations beyond the dipolar approximation limit. We introduce asymmetric gold nanoparticle antennas (AuNPs) with improved optical near-field properties based on the formation of sub-nanometer size gaps, which are suitable for studying matter with high-resolution and single molecule sensitivity. These dumbbell antennas are characterized in regard to their far-field and near-field properties and are compared to similar dimer and trimer antennas with larger gap sizes. The tailoring of the gap size down to sub-nanometer length scales is based on the integration of rigid macrocyclic cucurbituril molecules. Stable dimer antennas are formed with an improved ratio of the electromagnetic field enhancement and confinement. This ratio, taken as a measure of the performance of an antenna, can even exceed that exhibited by trimer AuNP antennas composed of comparable building blocks with larger gap sizes. Fluctuations in the far-field and near-field properties are observed, which are likely caused by distinct deviations of the gap geometry arising from the faceted structure of the applied colloidal AuNPs.
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    Charge transport in organic nanocrystal diodes based on rolled-up robust nanomembrane contacts
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2017-6-19) Bandari, Vineeth Kumar; Varadharajan, Lakshmi; Xu, Longqian; Jalil, Abdur Rehman; Devarajulu, Mirunalini; Siles, Pablo F.; Zhu, Feng; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    The investigation of charge transport in organic nanocrystals is essential to understand nanoscale physical properties of organic systems and the development of novel organic nanodevices. In this work, we fabricate organic nanocrystal diodes contacted by rolled-up robust nanomembranes. The organic nanocrystals consist of vanadyl phthalocyanine and copper hexadecafluorophthalocyanine heterojunctions. The temperature dependent charge transport through organic nanocrystals was investigated to reveal the transport properties of ohmic and space-charge-limited current under different conditions, for instance, temperature and bias
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    Tuning the spin coherence time of Cu(II)−(bis)oxamato and Cu(II)−(bis)oxamidato complexes by advanced ESR pulse protocols
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2017-4-27) Zaripov, Ruslan; Vavilova, Evgeniya; Khairuzhdinov, Iskander; Salikhov, Kev; Voronkova, Violeta; Abdulmalic, Mohammad A.; Meva, Francois E.; Weheabby, Saddam; Rüffer, Tobias; Büchner, Bernd; Kataev, Vladislav
    We have investigated with the pulsed ESR technique at X- and Q-band frequencies the coherence and relaxation of Cu spins S = 1/2 in single crystals of diamagnetically diluted mononuclear [n-Bu4N]2[Cu(opba)] (1%) in the host lattice of [n-Bu4N]2[Ni(opba)] (99%, opba = o-phenylenebis(oxamato)) and of diamagnetically diluted mononuclear [n-Bu4N]2[Cu(opbon-Pr2)] (1%) in the host lattice of [n-Bu4N]2[Ni(opbon-Pr2)] (99%, opbon-Pr2 = o-phenylenebis(N(propyl)oxamidato)). For that we have measured the electron spin dephasing time Tm at different temperatures with the two-pulse primary echo and with the special Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill (CPMG) multiple microwave pulse sequence. Application of the CPMG protocol has led to a substantial increase of the spin coherence lifetime in both complexes as compared to the primary echo results. It shows the efficiency of the suppression of the electron spin decoherence channel in the studied complexes arising due to spectral diffusion induced by a random modulation of the hyperfine interaction with the nuclear spins. We argue that this method can be used as a test for the relevance of the spectral diffusion for the electron spin decoherence. Our results have revealed a prominent role of the opba4– and opbon-Pr24– ligands for the dephasing of the Cu spins. The presence of additional 14N nuclei and protons in [Cu(opbon-Pr2)]2– as compared to [Cu(opba)]2– yields significantly shorter Tm times. Such a detrimental effect of the opbon-Pr24− ligands has to be considered when discussing a potential application of the Cu(II)−(bis)oxamato and Cu(II)−(bis)oxamidato complexes as building blocks of more complex molecular structures in prototype spintronic devices. Furthermore, in our work we propose an improved CPMG pulse protocol that enables elimination of unwanted echoes that inevitably appear in the case of inhomogeneously broadened ESR spectra due to the selective excitation of electron spins.
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    Deposition of exchange-coupled dinickel complexes on gold substrates utilizing ambidentate mercapto-carboxylato ligands
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2017) Börner, Martin; Blömer, Laura; Kischel, Marcus; Richter, Peter; Salvan, Georgeta; Zahn, Dietrich R. T.; Siles, Pablo F.; Fuentes, Maria E. N.; Bufon, Carlos C. B.; Grimm, Daniel; Schmidt, Oliver G.; Breite, Daniel; Abel, Bernd; Kersting, Berthold
    The chemisorption of magnetically bistable transition metal complexes on planar surfaces has recently attracted increased scientific interest due to its potential application in various fields, including molecular spintronics. In this work, the synthesis of mixed-ligand complexes of the type [NiII2L(L’)](ClO4), where L represents a 24-membered macrocyclic hexaazadithiophenolate ligand and L’ is a ω-mercapto-carboxylato ligand (L’ = HS(CH2)5CO2− (6), HS(CH2)10CO2− (7), or HS(C6H4)2CO2− (8)), and their ability to adsorb on gold surfaces is reported. Besides elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESIMS), UV–vis spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography (for 6 and 7), the compounds were also studied by temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility measurements (for 7 and 8) and (broken symmetry) density functional theory (DFT) calculations. An S = 2 ground state is demonstrated by temperature-dependent susceptibility and magnetization measurements, achieved by ferromagnetic coupling between the spins of the Ni(II) ions in 7 (J = +22.3 cm−1) and 8 (J = +20.8 cm−1; H = −2JS1S2). The reactivity of complexes 6–8 is reminiscent of that of pure thiolato ligands, which readily chemisorb on Au surfaces as verified by contact angle, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. The large [Ni2L] tail groups, however, prevent the packing and self-assembly of the hydrocarbon chains. The smaller film thickness of 7 is attributed to the specific coordination mode of the coligand. Results of preliminary transport measurements utilizing rolled-up devices are also reported.
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    Comparative study of sculptured metallic thin films deposited by oblique angle deposition at different temperatures
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2018) Liedtke, Susann; Grüner, Christoph; Gerlach, Jürgen W.; Rauschenbach, Bernd
    Metals with a wide range of melting points are deposited by electron beam evaporation under oblique deposition geometry on thermally oxidized Si substrates. During deposition the sample holder is cooled down to 77 K. It is observed that all obliquely deposited metals grow as tilted, high aspect ratio columns and hence with a similar morphology. A comparison of such columns with those deposited at room temperature (300 K) reveals that shadowing dominates the growth process for columns deposited at 77 K, while the impact of surface diffusion is significantly increased at elevated substrate temperatures. Furthermore, it is discussed how the incidence angle of the incoming particle flux and the substrate temperature affect the columnar tilt angles and the porosity of the sculptured thin films. Exemplarily for tilted Al columns deposited at 77 K and at 300 K, in-plane pole figure measurements are carried out. A tendency to form a biaxial texture as well as a change in the crystalline structure depending on the substrate temperature is found for those films.
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    Carbon nanomaterials sensitize prostate cancer cells to docetaxel and mitomycin C via induction of apoptosis and inhibition of proliferation
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2017-6-23) Erdmann, Kati; Ringel, Jessica; Hampel, Silke; Wirth, Manfred P.; Fuessel, Susanne
    We have previously shown that carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can sensitize prostate cancer (PCa) cells to platinum-based chemotherapeutics. In order to further verify this concept and to avoid a bias, the present study investigates the chemosensitizing potential of CNFs and CNTs to the conventional chemotherapeutics docetaxel (DTX) and mitomycin C (MMC), which have different molecular structures and mechanisms of action than platinum-based chemotherapeutics. DU-145 PCa cells were treated with DTX and MMC alone or in combination with the carbon nanomaterials. The impact of the monotreatments and the combinatory treatments on cellular function was then systematically analyzed by using different experimental approaches (viability, short-term and long-term proliferation, cell death rate). DTX and MMC alone reduced the viability of PCa cells to 94% and 68%, respectively, whereas a combined treatment with CNFs led to less than 30% remaining viable cells. Up to 17- and 7-fold higher DTX and MMC concentrations were needed in order to evoke a similar inhibition of viability as mediated by the combinatory treatments. In contrast, the dose of platinum-based chemotherapeutics could only be reduced by up to 3-fold by combination with carbon nanomaterials. Furthermore, combinatory treatments with CNFs led mostly to an additive inhibition of short- and long-term proliferation compared to the individual treatments. Also, higher cell death rates were observed in combinatory treatments than in monotreatments, e.g., a combination of MMC and CNFs more than doubled the cell death rate mediated by apoptosis. Combinations with CNTs showed a similar, but less pronounced impact on cellular functions. In summary, carbon nanomaterials in combination with DTX and MMC evoked additive to partly synergistic anti-tumor effects. CNFs and CNTs possess the ability to sensitize cancer cells to a wide range of structurally diverse chemotherapeutics and thus represent an interesting option for the development of multimodal cancer therapies. Co-administration of chemotherapeutics with carbon nanomaterials could result in a reduction of the chemotherapeutic dosage and thus limit systemic side effects.
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    Oriented zinc oxide nanorods: A novel saturable absorber for lasers in the near-infrared
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2018-10-23) Loiko, Pavel; Bora, Tanujjal; Serres, Josep Maria; Yu, Haohai; Aguiló, Magdalena; Díaz, Francesc; Griebner, Uwe; Petrov, Valentin; Mateos, Xavier; Dutta, Joydeep
    Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) oriented along the crystallographic [001] axis are grown by the hydrothermal method on glass substrates. The ZnO NRs exhibit a broadband (1–2 µm) near-IR absorption ascribed to the singly charged zinc vacancy VZn−1. The saturable absorption of the ZnO NRs is studied at ≈1 µm under picosecond excitation, revealing a low saturation intensity, ≈10 kW/cm2, and high fraction of the saturable losses. The ZnO NRs are applied as saturable absorbers in diode-pumped Yb (≈1.03 µm) and Tm (≈1.94 µm) lasers generating nanosecond pulses. The ZnO NRs grown on various optical surfaces are promising broadband saturable absorbers for nanosecond near-IR lasers in bulk and waveguide geometries.
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    Electroluminescence and current-voltage measurements of single-(In,Ga)N/GaN-nanowire light-emitting diodes in a nanowire ensemble
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2019) van Treeck, David; Ledig, Johannes; Scholz, Gregor; Lähnemann, Jonas; Musolino, Mattia; Tahraoui, Abbes; Brandt, Oliver; Waag, Andreas; Riechert, Henning; Geelhaar, Lutz
    We present the combined analysis of electroluminescence (EL) and current-voltage (I-V) behavior of single, freestanding (In,Ga)N/GaN nanowire (NW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in an unprocessed, self-assembled ensemble grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The data were acquired in a scanning electron microscope equipped with a micromanipulator and a luminescence detection system. Single NW spectra consist of emission lines originating from different quantum wells, and the width of the spectra increases with decreasing peak emission energy. The corresponding I-V characteristics are described well by a modified Shockley equation. The key advantage of this measurement approach is the possibility to correlate the EL intensity of a single-NW LED with the actual current density in this NW. This way, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) can be investigated as a function of the current in a single-NW LED. The comparison of the EQE characteristic of single NWs and the ensemble device allows for a quite accurate determination of the actual number of emitting NWs in the working ensemble LED and the respective current densities in its individual NWs. This information is decisive for a meaningful and comprehensive characterization of a NW ensemble device, rendering the measurement approach employed here a very powerful analysis tool. © 2019 van Treeck et al.
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    Adsorption characteristics of Er3N@C80on W(110) and Au(111) studied via scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2017-5-23) Schimmel, Sebastian; Sun, Zhixiang; Baumann, Danny; Krylov, Denis; Samoylova, Nataliya; Popov, Alexey; Büchner, Bernd; Hess, Christian
    We performed a study on the fundamental adsorption characteristics of Er3N@C80 deposited on W(110) and Au(111) via room temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Adsorbed on W(110), a comparatively strong bond to the endohedral fullerenes inhibited the formation of ordered monolayer islands. In contrast, the Au(111)-surface provides a sufficiently high mobility for the molecules to arrange in monolayer islands after annealing. Interestingly, the fullerenes modify the herringbone reconstruction indicating that the molecule–substrate interaction is of considerable extent. Investigations concerning the electronic structure of Er3N@C80/Au(111) reveals spatial variations dependent on the termination of the Au(111) at the interface.