Growth Dynamics of Self-Assembled Monolayers in Dip-Pen Nanolithography

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we studied the growth mechanism of self-assembled monolayers in dip-pen nanolithography. A molecule dropping from the tip kicks out a molecule sitting on the substrate, and the displaced molecule in turn kicks out a molecule next to it. This kicking propagates and finally stops when it hits the periphery of the monolayer. This monolayer growth is faster than predicted from the previous diffusion theory. Increasing the molecule−substrate binding strength enhances the molecular deposition rate and makes the monolayer well-ordered

A New Tool for Studying the in Situ Growth Processes for Self-Assembled Monolayers under Ambient Conditions

A new tool for studying self-assembled monolayer (SAM) nucleation and growth processes on faceted inorganic substrates under ambient conditions is reported herein. The methodology involves coating an atomic force microscope tip with molecules of interest and raster scanning across a substrate of interest with the modified tip. Large scale images of the deposition process provide kinetic information about the nucleation and growth of SAMs. The water meniscus, which is the transport medium in these experiments, is proposed to strongly influence the growth process for 1-octadecanethiol and 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid. The former involves an island formation and subsequent growth behavior while the latter shows evidence of more random growth. Lattice-resolved images of both SAM structures have been obtained at the end of film growth, and in the case of the 1-octadecanethiol SAM, lattice-resolved images were obtained for the SAM islands. The virtues of this novel technique are its simplicity, adsorbate generality, and serial nature, which allows one to control monolayer growth in a step-by-step process with concomitant imaging capabilities

Highly Selective Environmental Nanosensors Based on Anomalous Response of Carbon Nanotube Conductance to Mercury Ions

We have developed a selective, sensitive, and fast single-walled carbon nanotube (swCNT) field effect transistor (FET) sensor for Hg2+ ion detection. This sensor is based on the anomalous response of swCNT conductance to the exposure of Hg2+, which provides the selectivity toward Hg2+ over various other metal ions through a strong redox reaction between swCNTs and Hg2+. Our sensor system exhibited a detection limit of 10 nM for Hg2+ in water, which is comparable with the maximum allowable limit of mercury ions in drinking water set by most government environmental protection agencies. It also has a wide measurable detection range from 10 nM to 1 mM and a sensitive quantifying range with a steep slope for Hg2+ detection

Improved Imaging of Soft Materials with Modified AFM Tips

Herein, we report a simple method for making silicon nitride tips hydrophobic without significantly changing their shape. Specifically, we show that atomic force microscope (AFM) tips coated with physisorbed multilayers of 1-dodecylamine, when used in air, offer enhanced resolution for both organic and inorganic materials. The reason for this is due to a significant reduction in the capillary effect associated with water condensation between the tip and substrate

Highly Sensitive Real-Time Monitoring of Adenosine Receptor Activities in Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer Cells Using Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors

Adenosine metabolism through adenosine receptors plays a critical role in lung cancer biology. Although recent studies showed the potential of targeting adenosine receptors as drug targets for lung cancer treatment, conventional methods for investigating receptor activities often suffer from various drawbacks, including low sensitivity and slow analysis speed. In this study, adenosine receptor activities in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells were monitored in real time with high sensitivity through a carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (CNT-FET). In this method, we hybridized a CNT-FET with NSCLC cells expressing A2A and A2B adenosine receptors to construct a hybrid platform. This platform could detect adenosine, an endogenous ligand of adenosine receptors, down to 1 fM in real time and sensitively discriminate adenosine among other nucleosides. Furthermore, we could also utilize the platform to detect adenosine in complicated environments, such as human serum. Notably, our hybrid platform allowed us to monitor pharmacological effects between adenosine and other drugs, including dipyridamole and theophylline, even in human serum samples. These results indicate that the NSCLC cell-hybridized CNT-FET can be a practical tool for biomedical applications, such as the evaluation and screening of drug-candidate substances

Wide Contact Structures for Low-Noise Nanochannel Devices Based on a Carbon Nanotube Network

We have developed a wide contact structure for low-noise nanochannel devices based on a carbon nanotube (CNT) network. This low-noise CNT network-based device has a dumbbell-shaped channel, which has wide CNT/electrode contact regions and, in effect, reduces the contact noise. We also performed a systematic analysis of structured CNT networks and established an empirical formula that can explain the noise behavior of arbitrary-shaped CNT network-based devices including the effect of contact regions and CNT alignment. Interestingly, our analysis revealed that the noise amplitude of <i>aligned</i> CNT networks behaves quite differently compared with that of <i>randomly oriented</i> CNT networks. Our results should be an important guideline in designing low-noise nanoscale devices based on a CNT network for various applications such as a highly sensitive low-noise sensor

Controlling the Growth and Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells by the Arrangement of Individual Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotube (CNT) networks on solid substrates have recently drawn attention as a means to direct the growth and differentiation of stem cells. However, it is still not clear whether cells can recognize individual CNTs with a sub-2 nm diameter, and directional nanostructured substrates such as aligned CNT networks have not been utilized to control cell behaviors. Herein, we report that human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) grown on CNT networks could recognize the arrangement of individual CNTs in the CNT networks, which allowed us to control the growth direction and differentiation of the hMSCs. We achieved the directional growth of hMSCs following the alignment direction of the individual CNTs. Furthermore, hMSCs on aligned CNT networks exhibited enhanced proliferation and osteogenic differentiation compared to those on randomly oriented CNT networks. As a plausible explanation for the enhanced proliferation and osteogenic differentiation, we proposed mechanotransduction pathways triggered by high cytoskeletal tension in the aligned hMSCs. Our findings provide new insights regarding the capability of cells to recognize nanostructures smaller than proteins and indicate their potential applications for regenerative tissue engineering

“Bio-switch Chip” Based on Nanostructured Conducting Polymer and Entrapped Enzyme

We report a switchable biochip strategy where enzymes were entrapped in conducting polymer layers and the enzymatic reaction of the entrapped enzymes was controlled in real-time via electrical stimuli on the polymer layers. This device is named here as a “bio-switch chip” (BSC). We fabricated BSC structures using polypyrrole (Ppy) with entrapped glucose oxidase (GOx) and demonstrated the switching of glucose oxidation reaction in real-time. We found that the introduction of a negative bias voltage on the BSC structure resulted in the enhanced glucose oxidation reaction by more than 20 times than that without a bias voltage. Moreover, because the BSC structures could be fabricated on specific regions, we could control the enzymatic reaction on specific regions. In view of the fact that enzymes enable very useful and versatile biochemical reactions, the ability to control the enzymatic reactions via conventional electrical signals could open up various applications in the area of biochips and other biochemical industries

Selective Assembly and Guiding of Actomyosin Using Carbon Nanotube Network Monolayer Patterns

We report a new method for the selective assembly and guiding of actomyosin using carbon nanotube patterns. In this method, monolayer patterns of the single-walled carbon nanotube (swCNT) network were prepared via the self-limiting mechanism during the directed assembly process, and they were used to block the adsorption of both myosin and actin filaments on specific substrate regions. The swCNT network patterns were also used as an efficient barrier for the guiding experiments of actomyosin. This is the first result showing that inorganic nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes can be used to control the adsorption and activity of actomyosin. This strategy is advantageous over previous methods because it does not require complicated biomolecular linking processes and nonbiological nanostructures are usually more stable than biomolecular linkers