Some aspects of formation and tribological properties of silver nanodumbbells.

Unlabelled: In this paper, metal nanodumbbells (NDs) formed by laser-induced melting of Ag nanowires (NWs) on an oxidized silicon substrate and their tribological properties are investigated. The mechanism of ND formation is proposed and illustrated with finite element method simulations. Tribological measurements consist in controllable real-time manipulation of NDs inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with simultaneous force registration.

Manipulation of nanoparticles of different shapes inside a scanning electron microscope.

In this work polyhedron-like gold and sphere-like silver nanoparticles (NPs) were manipulated on an oxidized Si substrate to study the dependence of the static friction and the contact area on the particle geometry. Measurements were performed inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) that was equipped with a high-precision XYZ-nanomanipulator. To register the occurring forces a quartz tuning fork (QTF) with a glued sharp probe was used.

Fibroblast growth on micro- and nanopatterned surfaces prepared by a novel sol-gel phase separation method.

Physical characteristics of the growth substrate including nano- and microstructure play crucial role in determining the behaviour of the cells in a given biological context. To test the effect of varying the supporting surface structure on cell growth we applied a novel sol-gel phase separation-based method to prepare micro- and nanopatterned surfaces with round surface structure features. Variation in the size of structural elements was achieved by solvent variation and adjustment of sol concentration.

Simultaneous measurement of static and kinetic friction of ZnO nanowires in situ with a scanning electron microscope.

A novel method for in situ measurement of the static and kinetic friction is developed and demonstrated for zinc oxide nanowires (NWs) on oxidised silicon wafers. The experiments are performed inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a nanomanipulator with an atomic force microscope tip as a probe. NWs are pushed by the tip from one end until complete displacement is achieved, while NW bending is monitored by the SEM.

Formation of thick dielectrophoretic carbon nanotube fibers.

The aim of this work was to study the formation process of dielectrophoretic (DEP) carbon nanotube fibers (CNT-fibers) and characterize the fiber properties relevant to their technological applications. The fiber diameter was shown to increase when applied voltage was increased (up to 350 V(pp)) and when retraction speed was decreased (down from 400 µm s(-1)) in accordance with theoretical expectations. This paper represents the first demonstration of the formation of thick DEP CNT-fibers (up to ∼ ∅0.

Electrically conductive and optically transparent Sb-doped SnO2 STM-probe for local excitation of electroluminescence.

We demonstrate that an optically transparent and electrically conductive antimon-doped tin-oxide tip that is prepared in a sol-gel process can be used as a probe for scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), yielding atomic vertical and nanometre lateral resolution. Emission of visible light from the tunnelling junction between gold particles and the tip is observed for bias voltages above 7 V. In contrast to the metallic tips generally used in STM, this tip does not significantly perturb the local optical response.