Université de Fribourg

Shear stress-responsive polymersome nanoreactors inspired by the marine bioluminescence of dinoflagellates

Rifaie‐Graham, Omar ; Galensowske, Nikolas F. B. ; Dean, Charlie ; Pollard, Jonas ; Balog, Sandor ; Gouveia, Micael G. ; Chami, Mohamed ; Vian, Antoine ; Amstad, Esther ; Lattuada, Marco ; Bruns, Nico

In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2020, vol. 60, no. 2, p. 904-909

Some marine plankton called dinoflagellates emit light in response to the movement of surrounding water, resulting in a phenomenon called milky seas or sea sparkle. The underlying concept, a shear-stress induced permeabilisation of biocatalytic reaction compartments, is transferred to polymer-based nanoreactors. Amphiphilic block copolymers that carry nucleobases in their hydrophobic block...

Université de Fribourg

Characterization of the shape anisotropy of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles during thermal decomposition

Vanhecke, Dimitri ; Crippa, Federica ; Lattuada, Marco ; Balog, Sandor ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Petri-Fink, Alke

In: Materials, 2020, vol. 13, no. 9, p. 2018

Magnetosomes are near-perfect intracellular magnetite nanocrystals found in magnetotactic bacteria. Their synthetic imitation, known as superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), have found applications in a variety of (nano)medicinal fields such as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, multimodal imaging and drug carriers. In order to perform these functions in medicine,...

Université de Fribourg

Use of EpiAlveolar lung model to predict fibrotic potential of multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Barosova, Hana ; Maione, Anna G. ; Septiadi, Dedy ; Sharma, Monita ; Haeni, Laetitia ; Balog, Sandor ; O’Connell, Olivia ; Jackson, George R. ; Brown, David ; Clippinger, Amy J. ; Hayden, Patrick ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Stone, Vicki ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara

In: ACS Nano, 2020, vol. 14, no. 4, p. 3941–3956

Expansion in production and commercial use of nanomaterials increases the potential human exposure during the lifecycle of these materials (production, use, and disposal). Inhalation is a primary route of exposure to nanomaterials; therefore it is critical to assess their potential respiratory hazard. Herein, we developed a three-dimensional alveolar model (EpiAlveolar) consisting of human...

Université de Fribourg

Versatile macroscale concentration gradients of nanoparticles in soft nanocomposites

Taladriz‐Blanco, Patricia ; Rothen‐Rutishauser, Barbara ; Petri‐Fink, Alke ; Balog, Sandor

In: Small, 2020, vol. 16, no. 6, p. 1905192

Nanocomposite materials benefit from the diverse physicochemical properties featured by nanoparticles, and the presence of nanoparticle concentration gradients can lend functions to macroscopic materials beyond the realm of classical nanocomposites. It is shown here that linearity and time‐shift invariance obtained via the synergism of two independent physical phenomena—translational...

Université de Fribourg

Simple and fast evaluation of relaxation parameters of magnetic nanoparticles

Lemal, Philipp ; Balog, Sandor ; Ackermann-Hirschi, Liliane ; Taladriz-Blanco, Patricia ; Hirt, Ann M. ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Lattuada, Marco ; Petri-Fink, Alke

In: Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 2020, vol. 499, p. 166176

The efficacy of magnetic hyperthermia treatment depends on the optimal available magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) that are excited in a given alternating magnetic field and viscosity of the region of interest. In this regard, assessing the relevant relaxation parameters is of upmost importance and could improve the speed of development of efficient applications. Here, we demonstrate how to...

Université de Fribourg

Preparation of metallosupramolecular single-chain polymeric nanoparticles and their characterization by Taylor dispersion

Neumann, Laura N. ; Urban, Dominic A. ; Lemal, Philipp ; Ramani, Sushila ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Balog, Sandor ; Weder, Christoph ; Schrettl, Stephen

In: Polymer Chemistry, 2020, vol. 11, no. 2, p. 586–592

Intramolecular cross-linking of polymers can furnish single-chain polymeric nanoparticles (SCPNs), and the use of reversible non-covalent bonds for cross-linking can potentially provide such nanoparticles with stimuli-responsive properties. Here, we report the synthesis of acrylic polymers that carry pendant 2,6-bis(1′-methyl- benzimidazolyl)pyridine ligands, and use these for the...

Université de Fribourg

Polydopamine nanoparticle doped nanofluid for solar thermal energy collector efficiency increase

Hauser, Daniel ; Steinmetz, Lukas ; Balog, Sandor ; Taladriz‐Blanco, Patricia ; Septiadi, Dedy ; Wilts, Bodo D. ; Petri‐Fink, Alke ; Rothen‐Rutishauser, Barbara

In: Advanced Sustainable Systems, 2020, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 1900101

Polydopamine can form black nanoparticles and has recently been gaining attention due to its extraordinary heating properties upon excitation with light. Herein, polydopamine hybrid nanoparticles are synthesized in different sizes and subsequently added to a solar fluid to analyze heating ability. The solar fluids with the differently sized hybrid polydopamine particles are compared to a...

Université de Fribourg

The influence of substituents on gelation and stacking order of oligoaramid – based supramolecular networks

Drechsler, Susanne ; Balog, Sandor ; Kilbinger, Andreas F. M. ; Casalini, Tommaso

In: Soft Matter, 2019, vol. 15, no. 36, p. 7250–7261

Self-assembly has proven to be a powerful tool for functional, smart materials such as hydrogels derived from low molecular weight compounds. However, the targeted design of functional gelators remains difficult. Here, we present a set of four Y-shaped aromatic amide tetramers with varying functionalities able to undergo different non- covalent interactions. These compounds were explored...

Université de Fribourg

Precision of Taylor dispersion

Taladriz-Blanco, Patricia ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Balog, Sandor

In: Analytical Chemistry, 2019, vol. 91, no. 15, p. 9946–9951

Taylor dispersion is capable of measuring accurately the hydrodynamic radius over several orders of magnitude. Accordingly, it is now a highly competitive technique dedicated to characterizing small molecules, proteins, macromolecules, nanoparticles, and their self-assembly. Regardless, an in-depth analysis addressing the precision of the technique, being a key indicator of reproducibility,...

Université de Fribourg

Reduction of nanoparticle load in cells by mitosis but not exocytosis

Bourquin, Joël ; Septiadi, Dedy ; Vanhecke, Dimitri ; Balog, Sandor ; Steinmetz, Lukas ; Spuch-Calvar, Miguel ; Taladriz-Blanco, Patricia ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara

In: ACS Nano, 2019, vol. 13, no. 7, p. 7759–7770

The long-term fate of biomedically relevant nanoparticles (NPs) at the single cell level after uptake is not fully understood yet. We report that lysosomal exocytosis of NPs is not a mechanism to reduce the particle load. Biopersistent NPs such as nonporous silica and gold remain in cells for a prolonged time. The only reduction of the intracellular NP number is observed via cell division,...