TY - JOUR A1 - Kneipp, Janina A1 - Zancajo, Victor M.R. A1 - Diehn, S. A1 - Filiba, N. A1 - Elbaum, R. T1 - Spectroscopic Discrimination of Sorghum Silica Phytoliths JF - Frontiers in Plant Science N2 - Grasses accumulate silicon in the form of silicic acid, which is precipitated as amorphous silica in microscopic particles termed phytoliths. These particles comprise a variety of morphologies according to the cell type in which the silica was deposited. Despite the evident morphological differences, phytolith chemistry has mostly been analysed in bulk samples, neglecting differences between the varied types formed in the same species. In this work, we extracted leaf phytoliths from mature plants of Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. Using solid state NMR and thermogravimetric analysis, we show that the extraction methods alter greatly the silica molecular structure, its condensation degree and the trapped organic matter. Measurements of individual phytoliths by Raman and synchrotron FTIR microspectroscopies in combination with multivariate analysis separated bilobate silica cells from prickles and long cells, based on the silica molecular structures and the fraction and composition of occluded organic matter. The variations in structure and composition of sorghum phytoliths suggest that the biological pathways leading to silica deposition vary between these cell types. KW - Phytoliths KW - Biosilicification KW - Raman KW - Sorghum KW - Solid state NMR KW - Synchrotron FTIR PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-502672 DO - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01571 VL - 10 SP - 1571 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne AN - OPUS4-50267 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schürmann, Robin A1 - Ebel, Kenny A1 - Nicolas, C. A1 - Milosavljevic, A. R. A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - Role of valence band states and plasmonic enhancement in electron-transfer-induced transformation of nitrothiophenol JF - The journal of physical chemistry letters N2 - Hot-electron-induced reactions are more and more recognized as a critical and ubiquitous reaction in heterogeneous catalysis. However, the kinetics of these reactions is still poorly understood, which is also due to the complexity of plasmonic nanostructures. We determined the reaction rates of the hot-electron-mediated reaction of 4-nitrothiophenol (NTP) on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using fractal kinetics as a function of the laser wavelength and compared them with the plasmonic enhancement of the system. The reaction rates can be only partially explained by the plasmonic response of the NPs. Hence, synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements of isolated NTP-capped AuNP clusters have been performed for the first time. In this way, it was possible to determine the work function and the accessible valence band states of the NP systems. The results show that besides the plasmonic enhancement, the reaction rates are strongly influenced by the local density of the available electronic states of the system. KW - Photocatalytic reduction KW - Raman-spectroscopy KW - Hot-electrons KW - Work function KW - Surface KW - Nanaoparticles KW - Scattering KW - Molecule KW - Carriers KW - Layers PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-486464 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b00848 SN - 1948-7185 VL - 10 IS - 11 SP - 3153 EP - 3158 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-48646 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heck, Christian A1 - Kanehira, Y. A1 - Kneipp, Janina A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - Amorphous Carbon Generation as a Photocatalytic Reaction on DNA-Assembled Gold and Silver Nanostructures JF - Molecules N2 - Background signals from in situ-formed amorphous carbon, despite not being fully understood, are known to be a common issue in few-molecule surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Here, discrete gold and silver nanoparticle aggregates assembled by DNA origami were used to study the conditions for the formation of amorphous carbon during SERS measurements. Gold and silver dimers were exposed to laser light of varied power densities and wavelengths. Amorphous carbon prevalently formed on silver aggregates and at high power densities. Time-resolved measurements enabled us to follow the formation of amorphous carbon. Silver nanolenses consisting of three differently-sized silver nanoparticles were used to follow the generation of amorphous carbon at the single-nanostructure level. This allowed observation of the many sharp peaks that constitute the broad amorphous carbon signal found in ensemble measurements. In conclusion, we highlight strategies to prevent amorphous carbon formation, especially for DNA-assembled SERS substrates. KW - Amorphous carbon KW - DNA origami KW - SERS KW - Nanoparticle dimers KW - Nanolenses PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-486484 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24122324 SN - 1420-3049 VL - 24 IS - 12 SP - Article Number: 2324-1 EP - 10 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-48648 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yadav, Anur A1 - Iost, R. M. A1 - Neubert, T. J. A1 - Baylan, S. A1 - Schmid, Thomas A1 - Balasubramanian, Kannan T1 - Selective electrochemical functionalization of the graphene edge JF - Chemical Science N2 - We present a versatile and simple method using electrochemistry for the exclusive functionalization of the edge of a graphene monolayer with metal nanoparticles or polymeric amino groups. The attachment of metal nanoparticles allows us to exploit surface-enhanced Raman scattering to characterize the chemistry of both the pristine and the functionalized graphene edge. For the pristine patterned graphene edge, we observe the typical edge-related modes, while for the functionalized graphene edge we identify the chemical structure of the functional layer by vibrational fingerprinting. The ability to obtain single selectively functionalized graphene edges routinely on an insulating substrate opens an avenue for exploring the effect of edge chemistry on graphene properties systematically. KW - Graphene KW - Nanoparticles KW - Nanosciences KW - Surface-enhanced Raman scattering KW - Atomic force microscopy PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-474357 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/C8SC04083D SN - 2041-6520 VL - 10 IS - 3 SP - 936 EP - 942 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-47435 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Choi, Youngeun A1 - Schmidt, Carsten A1 - Tinnefeld, Philip A1 - Bald, Ilko A1 - Roedinger, Stefan T1 - A new reporter design based on DNA origami nanostructures for quantification of short oligonucleotides using microbeads JF - Scientific reports N2 - The DNA origami technique has great potential for the development of brighter and more sensitive reporters for fluorescence based detection schemes such as a microbead-based assay in diagnostic applications. The nanostructures can be programmed to include multiple dye molecules to enhance the measured signal as well as multiple probe strands to increase the binding strength of the target oligonucleotide to these nanostructures. Here we present a proof-of-concept study to quantify short oligonucleotides by developing a novel DNA origami based reporter system, combined with planar microbead assays. Analysis of the assays using the VideoScan digital imaging platform showed DNA origami to be a more suitable reporter candidate for quantification of the target oligonucleotides at lower concentrations than a conventional reporter that consists of one dye molecule attached to a single stranded DNA. Efforts have been made to conduct multiplexed analysis of different targets as well as to enhance fluorescence signals obtained from the reporters. We therefore believe that the quantification of short oligonucleotides that exist in low copy numbers is achieved in a better way with the DNA origami nanostructures as reporters. KW - Origami KW - Nanostructures KW - Microbeads KW - DNA origami KW - Oligonucleotides PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-476443 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41136-x SN - 2045-2322 VL - 9 SP - 4769, 1 EP - 8 PB - Nature AN - OPUS4-47644 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -