The average magnetic anisotropy of polystyrene in polymersomes self-assembled from poly(ethylene glycol)-b-polystyrene.

Using the diamagnetic anisotropy of polymers for the characterization of polymers and polymer aggregates is a relatively new approach in the field of soft-matter and polymer research. So far, a good and thorough quantitative description of these diamagnetic properties has been lacking. Using a simple equation that links the magnetic properties of an average polymer repeating unit to those of the polymer vesicle of any shape, we measured, using magnetic birefringence, the average diamagnetic anisotropy of a polystyrene (PS) repeating unit, ΔχPS, inside a poly(ethylene glycol)-polystyrene (PEG-PS) polymersome membrane as a function of the PS-length and as a function of the preparation method. All obtained values of ΔχPS have a negative sign which results in polymers tending to align perpendicular to an applied magnetic field. Combined, the same order of magnitude of ΔχPS (10-12 m3 mol-1) for all polymersome shapes proves that the individual polymers are organized similarly regardless of the PS length and polymersome shape. Furthermore, the value found is only a fraction (∼1%) of what it can maximally be due to the random coiling of the polymers. We, therefore, predict that further ordering of the polymers within the membrane could lead to similar responses at much lower magnetic fields, possibly obtainable with permanent magnets, which would be highly advantageous for practical applications.

Electron-hole asymmetry of the topological surface states in strained HgTe.

Topological insulators are a new class of materials with an insulating bulk and topologically protected metallic surface states. Although it is widely assumed that these surface states display a Dirac-type dispersion that is symmetric above and below the Dirac point, this exact equivalence across the Fermi level has yet to be established experimentally. Here, we present a detailed transport study of the 3D topological insulator-strained HgTe that strongly challenges this prevailing viewpoint. First, we establish the existence of exclusively surface-dominated transport via the observation of an ambipolar surface quantum Hall effect and quantum oscillations in the Seebeck and Nernst effect. Second, we show that, whereas the thermopower is diffusion driven for surface electrons, both diffusion and phonon drag contributions are essential for the hole surface carriers. This distinct behavior in the thermoelectric response is explained by a strong deviation from the linear dispersion relation for the surface states, with a much flatter dispersion for holes compared with electrons. These findings show that the metallic surface states in topological insulators can exhibit both strong electron-hole asymmetry and a strong deviation from a linear dispersion but remain topologically protected.

Manipulation of micro- and nanostructure motion with magnetic fields.

In this review we will focus on how magnetic fields can be used to manipulate the motion of various micro- and nanostructures in solution. We will distinguish between ferromagnetic, paramagnetic and diamagnetic materials. Furthermore, the use of various kinds of magnetic fields, such as homogeneous, inhomogeneous and rotating magnetic fields, is discussed. To date most research has focused on the use of ferro- and paramagnetic materials, but here we also describe the possibilities of magnetic manipulation of diamagnetic materials. Since the vast majority of soft matter is diamagnetic, this paves the way for many new applications to manipulate the motion of micro- and nanostructures.

Preparation of biomolecule microstructures and microarrays by thiol-ene photoimmobilization.

A mild, fast and flexible method for photoimmobilization of biomolecules based on the light-initiated thiol-ene reaction has been developed. After investigation and optimization of various surface materials, surface chemistries and reaction parameters, microstructures and microarrays of biotin, oligonucleotides, peptides, and MUC1 tandem repeat glycopeptides were prepared with this photoimmobilization method. Furthermore, MUC1 tandem repeat glycopeptide microarrays were successfully used to probe antibodies in mouse serum obtained from vaccinated mice. Dimensions of biomolecule microstructures were shown to be freely controllable through photolithographic techniques, and features down to 5 microm in size covering an area of up to 75x25 mm were created. Use of a confocal laser microscope with a UV laser as UV-light source enabled further reduction of biotin feature size opening access to nanostructured biochips.

Ligand-controlled magnetic interactions in Mn(4) clusters.

A method is presented to design magnetic molecules in which the exchange interaction between adjacent metal ions is controlled by electron density withdrawal through their bridging ligands. We synthesized a novel Mn(4) cluster in which the choice of the bridging carboxylate ligands (acetate, benzoate, or trifluoroacetate) determines the type and strength of the three magnetic exchange couplings (J(1), J(2), and J(3)) present between the metal ions. Experimentally measured magnetic moments in high magnetic fields show that, upon electron density withdrawal, the main antiferromagnetic exchange constant J(1) decreases from -2.2 K for the [Mn(4)(OAc)(4)] cluster to -1.9 K for the [Mn(4)(H(5)C(6)COO)(4)] cluster and -0.6 K for the [Mn(4)(F(3)CCOO)(4)] cluster, while J(2) decreases from -1.1 K to nearly 0 K and J(3) changes to a small ferromagnetic coupling. These experimental results are further supported with density-functional theory calculations based on the obtained crystallographic structures of the [Mn(4)(OAc)(4)] and [Mn(4)(F(3)CCOO)(4)] clusters.

Confining Potential as a Function of Polymer Stiffness and Concentration in Entangled Polymer Solutions.

We directly track the tubelike motion of individual fluorescently labeled polymer molecules in a concentrated solution of unlabeled polymers. We use a single molecule wide-field fluorescence microscopy technique that is able to determine characteristic properties of the polymer dynamics, such as the confining potential, the tube diameter, and the Rouse time. The use of synthetic polymers allows us to investigate the confined motion of the polymer chains not only as a function of polymer concentration (mesh size) but also versus the persistence length of the matrix polymers. Although the polymers used have a persistence length much smaller than their contour length, our experimental results lead to a dependence of the tube diameter on both the mesh size and the persistence length, which follows the theoretically predicted relation for semiflexible chains.

Synthesis and single enzyme activity of a clicked lipase-BSA hetero-dimer.

Click chemistry is used to construct a novel lipase-BSA hetero-dimer, in which the latter protein acts as a foot enabling the anchoring of the enzyme onto the surface for single enzyme studies.

Effect of Electron-Hole Overlap and Exchange Interaction on Exciton Radiative Lifetimes of CdTe/CdSe Heteronanocrystals.

Wave function engineering has become a powerful tool to tailor the optical properties of semiconductor colloidal nanocrystals. Core-shell systems allow to design the spatial extent of the electron (e) and hole (h) wave functions in the conduction- and valence bands, respectively. However, tuning the overlap between the e- and h-wave functions not only affects the oscillator strength of the coupled e-h pairs (excitons) that are responsible for the light emission, but also modifies the e-h exchange interaction, leading to an altered excitonic energy spectrum. Here, we present exciton lifetime measurements in a strong magnetic field to determine the strength of the e-h exchange interaction, independently of the e-h overlap that is deduced from lifetime measurements at room temperature. We use a set of CdTe/CdSe core/shell heteronanocrystals in which the electron-hole separation is systematically varied. We are able to unravel the separate effects of e-h overlap and e-h exchange on the exciton lifetimes, and we present a simple model that fully describes the recombination lifetimes of heteronanostructures (HNCs) as a function of core volume, shell volume, temperature, and magnetic fields.

Nanoscale Study of Polymer Dynamics.

The thermal motion of polymer chains in a crowded environment is anisotropic and highly confined. Whereas theoretical and experimental progress has been made, typically only indirect evidence of polymer dynamics is obtained either from scattering or mechanical response. Toward a complete understanding of the complicated polymer dynamics in crowded media such as biological cells, it is of great importance to unravel the role of heterogeneity and molecular individualism. In the present work, we investigate the dynamics of synthetic polymers and the tube-like motion of individual chains using time-resolved fluorescence microscopy. A single fluorescently labeled polymer molecule is observed in a sea of unlabeled polymers, giving access to not only the dynamics of the probe chain itself but also to that of the surrounding network. We demonstrate that it is possible to extract the characteristic time constants and length scales in one experiment, providing a detailed understanding of polymer dynamics at the single chain level. The quantitative agreement with bulk rheology measurements is promising for using local probes to study heterogeneity in complex, crowded systems.

Observation of the full exciton and phonon fine structure in CdSe/CdS dot-in-rod heteronanocrystals.

Light emission of semiconductor nanocrystals is a complex process, depending on many factors, among which are the quantum mechanical size confinement of excitons (coupled electron-hole pairs) and the influence of confined phonon modes and the nanocrystal surface. Despite years of research, the nature of nanocrystal emission at low temperatures is still under debate. Here we unravel the different optical recombination pathways of CdSe/CdS dot-in-rod systems that show an unprecedented number of narrow emission lines upon resonant laser excitation. By using self-assembled, vertically aligned rods and application of crystallographically oriented high magnetic fields, the origin of all these peaks is established. We observe a clear signature of an acoustic-phonon assisted transition, separated from the zero-phonon emission and optical-phonon replica, proving that nanocrystal light emission results from an intricate interplay between bright (optically allowed) and dark (optically forbidden) exciton states, coupled to both acoustic and optical phonon modes.

Probing morphological changes in polymersomes with magnetic birefringence.

Magnetic birefringence was used for in situ monitoring of the morphological changes in diamagnetic polymersomes during shape-transformation by dialysis. The birefringence was found to be very sensitive to the polymersome morphology, as determined by electron microscopy. The deflation of polymersomes into disks was observed, followed by a bending and partial inflation into stomatocytes.

Single-biomolecule kinetics: the art of studying a single enzyme.

The potential of single-enzyme studies to unravel the complex energy landscape of these polymeric catalysts is the next critical step in enzymology. From its inception in Rotman's emulsion experiments in the 1960s, the field of single-molecule enzymology has now advanced into the time-resolved age. Technological advances have enabled individual enzymatic turnover reactions to be observed with a millisecond time resolution. A number of initial studies have revealed the underlying static and dynamic disorder in the catalytic rates originating from conformational fluctuations. Although these experiments are still in their infancy, they may be able to relate the topography of the energy landscape to the biological function and regulation of enzymes. This review summarizes some of the experimental techniques and data-analysis methods that have been used to study individual enzyme molecules in search of a deeper understanding of their kinetics.

A virus-based biocatalyst.

Virus particles are probably the most precisely defined nanometre-sized objects that can be formed by protein self-assembly. Although their natural function is the storage and transport of genetic material, they have more recently been applied as scaffolds for mineralization and as containers for the encapsulation of inorganic compounds. The reproductive power of viruses has been used to develop versatile analytical methods, such as phage display, for the selection and identification of (bio)active compounds. To date, the combined use of self-assembly and reproduction has not been used for the construction of catalytic systems. Here we describe a self-assembled system based on a plant virus that has its coat protein genetically modified to provide it with a lipase enzyme. Using single-object and bulk catalytic studies, we prove that the virus-anchored lipase molecules are catalytically active. This anchored biocatalyst, unlike man-made supported catalysts, has the capability to reproduce itself in vivo, generating many independent catalytically active copies.

A virus-based single-enzyme nanoreactor.

Most enzyme studies are carried out in bulk aqueous solution, at the so-called ensemble level, but more recently studies have appeared in which enzyme activity is measured at the level of a single molecule, revealing previously unseen properties. To this end, enzymes have been chemically or physically anchored to a surface, which is often disadvantageous because it may lead to denaturation. In a natural environment, enzymes are present in a confined reaction space, which inspired us to develop a generic method to carry out single-enzyme experiments in the restricted spatial environment of a virus capsid. We report here the incorporation of individual horseradish peroxidase enzymes in the inner cavity of a virus, and describe single-molecule studies on their enzymatic behaviour. These show that the virus capsid is permeable for substrate and product and that this permeability can be altered by changing pH.

Macroscopic hierarchical surface patterning of porphyrin trimers via self-assembly and dewetting.

The use of bottom-up approaches to construct patterned surfaces for technological applications is appealing, but to date is applicable to only relatively small areas (approximately 10 square micrometers). We constructed highly periodic patterns at macroscopic length scales, in the range of square millimeters, by combining self-assembly of disk-like porphyrin dyes with physical dewetting phenomena. The patterns consisted of equidistant 5-nanometer-wide lines spaced 0.5 to 1 micrometers apart, forming single porphyrin stacks containing millions of molecules, and were formed spontaneously upon drop-casting a solution of the molecules onto a mica surface. On glass, thicker lines are formed, which can be used to align liquid crystals in large domains of square millimeter size.

High anisotropy of the field-effect transistor mobility in magnetically aligned discotic liquid-crystalline semiconductors.

A magnetic field has been utilized for producing highly oriented films of a substituted hexabenzocoronene (HBC). Optical microscopy studies revealed large area HBC monodomains that covered the entire film, while wide-angle X-ray measurements showed that the HBC molecules are aligned with their planes along the applied field. On the basis of this method, solution-processed field-effect transistors (FET) have been constructed with charge carrier mobilities of up to 10(-3) cm2/V.s, which are significantly enhanced with respect to the unaligned material. Exceptionally high mobility anisotropies of 25-75 for current flow parallel and perpendicular to the alignment direction have been measured as a function of the channel length. Atomic force microscopy performed on the FET structures reveals fibril superstructures that are oriented perpendicularly to the magnetic field direction, consisting of molecular columns with a slippage angle of 40 degrees between the molecules. For channel lengths larger than 2.5 mum, the fibrils are smaller than the electrode spacing, which adversely affects the device performance.