Self-Spreading of Lipid Bilayer on a Hydrophobic Surface Made by Self-Assembled Monolayer with Short Alkyl Chain.

Behaviors of self-spreading of lipid bilayer membrane on a glass surface modified with self-assembled monolayer (SAM) with short alkyl chain were observed with fluorescence microscopy. Hydrophobic surface made by SAM was found to hamper the self-spreading phenomenon but the lipid bilayer spread on a hydrophilic one where SAM was decomposed by oxidation. On a binary surface having a hydrophobic region and a hydrophilic one, the lipid bilayer spread on the hydrophilic region but it stopped at the boundary of the hydrophobic region.

Direct fabrication of nanopores in a metal foil using focused ion beam with in situ measurements of the penetrating ion beam current.

A through hole with a diameter less than 100 nm was fabricated in an Ag foil using only a focused ion beam (FIB) system and in situ measurements of the penetrating ion beam. During the drilling of the foil by a FIB of Ga(+) ions, the transmitted part of the beam was measured with an electrode mounted on the back face of the foil. When the beam current penetrating through the nanopore reached a certain value, irradiation was stopped and the area of the created aperture was measured with a scanning electron microscope.

Effects of the surface pressure on the formation of Langmuir-Blodgett monolayer of nanoparticles.

The effects of the surface pressure on the particle arrangement of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) monolayers of alkanethiol-capped gold nanoparticles were studied. The LB monolayers were prepared from a highly concentrated particle solution, which increases film fabrication efficiency but readily causes small particle voids in the particle array. Overcompressing the LB monolayer to a high surface pressure restructured the particles and eliminated the voids.