Electron microscopy studies are used to explore the morphology of thin poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) and polystyrene sulfonate acid (PEDOT:PSS) films. The figures show that the films are composed of grains with diameters in the range of about 50 nm. Energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy analysis reveals that individual grains have a PEDOT‐rich core and a PSS‐rich shell with a thickness of about 5–10 nm. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is then used to analyze the topography of fracture surfaces of ruptured PEDOT:PSS tensile specimens. These AFM scans also show that the films are composed of grains dispersed in a matrix. The investigations presented herein yield a picture of PEDOT:PSS morphology with unprecedented clarity.

The ideal nanoscale drug delivery vehicle allows control over the released dose in space and time. We demonstrate that this can be achieved by stealth liposomes comprising self-assembled superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) individually stabilized with palmityl-nitroDOPA incorporated in the lipid membrane. Alternating magnetic fields were used to control timing and dose of repeatedly released cargo from such vesicles by locally heating the membrane, which changed its permeability without major effects on the environment.

We fabricate and demonstrate optically active quantum dots embedded in single nanowires. Observation of photon antibunching proves the zero dimensionality of these heterostructures that can be epitaxially grown on various substrates, including silicon. We show that the nanowire dots are intense single photon sources, typically an order of magnitude brighter than self-assembled quantum dots. Due to control over their composition, size, and position, nanowire dots are ideal building blocks for fully controlled quantum dot molecules.

Modern nanoelectronics has advanced to a point at which it is impossible to image entire devices and their interconnections non-destructively because of their small feature sizes and the complex three-dimensional structures resulting from their integration on a chip. This metrology gap implies a lack of direct feedback between design and manufacturing processes, and hampers quality control during production, shipment and use. Here we demonstrate that X-ray ptychography-a high-resolution coherent diffractive imaging technique-can create three-dimensional images of integrated circuits of known and unknown designs with a lateral resolution in all directions down to 14.6 nanometres. We obtained detailed device geometries and corresponding elemental maps, and show how the devices are integrated with each other to form the chip. Our experiments represent a major advance in chip inspection and reverse engineering over the traditional destructive electron microscopy and ion milling techniques. Foreseeable developments in X-ray sources, optics and detectors, as well as adoption of an instrument geometry optimized for planar rather than cylindrical samples, could lead to a thousand-fold increase in efficiency, with concomitant reductions in scan times and voxel sizes.

The rapidly increasing production of engineered nanoparticles has created a demand for particle removal from industrial and communal wastewater streams. Efficient removal is particularly important in view of increasing long-term persistence and evidence for considerable ecotoxicity of specific nanoparticles. The present work investigates the use of a model wastewater treatment plant for removal of oxide nanoparticles. While a majority of the nanoparticles could be captured through adhesion to clearing sludge, a significant fraction of the engineered nanoparticles escaped the wastewater plant's clearing system, and up to 6 wt % of the model compound cerium oxide was found in the exit stream of the model plant. Our study demonstrates a significant influence of surface charge and the addition of dispersion stabilizing surfactants as routinely used in the preparation of nanoparticle derived products. A detailed investigation on the agglomeration of oxide nanoparticles in wastewater streams revealed a high stabilization of the particles against clearance (adsorption on the bacteria from the sludge). This unexpected finding suggests a need to investigate nanoparticle clearance in more detail and demonstrates the complex interactions between dissolved species and the nanoparticles within the continuously changing environment of the clearing sludge.