Cell alignment is a critical factor to govern cellular behavior and function for various tissue engineering applications ranging from cardiac to neural regeneration. In addition to physical geometry, strain is a crucial parameter to manipulate cellular alignment for functional tissue formation. In this paper, we introduce a simple approach to generate a range of gradient static strains without external mechanical control for the stimulation of cellular behavior within 3D biomimetic hydrogel microenvironments. A glass-supported microfluidic chip with a convex flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane on the top was employed for loading the cells suspended in a prepolymer solution. Following UV crosslinking through a photomask with a concentric circular pattern, the cell-laden hydrogels were formed in a height gradient from the center (maximum) to the boundary (minimum). When the convex PDMS membrane retracted back to a flat surface, it applied compressive gradient forces on the cell-laden hydrogels. The concentric circular hydrogel patterns confined the direction of hydrogel elongation, and the compressive strain on the hydrogel therefore resulted in elongation stretch in the radial direction to guide cell alignment. NIH3T3 cells were cultured in the chip for 3 days with compressive strains that varied from ~65% (center) to ~15% (boundary) on hydrogels. We found that the hydrogel geometry dominated the cell alignment near the outside boundary, where cells aligned along the circular direction, and the compressive strain dominated the cell alignment near the center, where cells aligned radially. This study developed a new and simple approach to facilitate cellular alignment based on hydrogel geometry and strain stimulation for tissue engineering applications. This platform offers unique advantages and is significantly different than the existing approaches owing to the fact that gradient generation was accomplished in a miniature device without using an external mechanical source.

Although the stability of the nanobubble remains a controversial issue that is subject to the classical predictions of high Laplace pressure, we demonstrate that a hydrogen nanobubble can be generated and stabilized in an aqueous solution of Keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) protein via an electron radiolysis process. The hydrogen gas inside the nanobubble is in a "dense gas" phase that is characterized by a Knudsen number and number density of hydrogen molecules. The dynamics of nanobubbles are analyzed using time-series electron microscopy images. The growth of small nanobubbles will be affected by the largest neighboring nanobubble; however, a diffusive shielding effect for small nanobubbles is observed. Locally, anti-Ostwald ripening of nanobubbles can be observed; however, the global growth behavior among the nanobubbles is randomly correlated because the characteristic diffusion length of the hydrogen molecules is considerably greater than the average spacing among the nanobubbles.

This paper describes a Self-Aligned Wet (SAW) cell suitable for direct-cell or bacteria incubation and observation in a wet environment inside a transmission electron microscope. This SAW cell is fabricated by a bulk-micromachining process and composed of two structurally complementary counterparts (an out-frame and an in-frame), where each contain a silicon nitride film based observation window. The in- and out-frames can be self-aligned via a mechanism of surface tension from a bio-sample droplet without the aid of positioning stages. The liquid chamber is enclosed between two silicon nitride membranes that are thin enough to allow high energy electrons to penetrate while also sustaining the pressure difference between the TEM vacuum and the vapor pressure within the liquid chamber. A large field of view (150 μm × 150 μm) in a SAW cell is favored and formed from a larger sized observation window in the out-frame, which is fabricated using a unique circular membrane formation process. In this paper, we introduce a novel design to circumvent the challenges of charging/heating problems in silicon nitride that arise from interactions with an electron beam. This paper also demonstrates TEM observations of D. Radiodurans growth in a liquid environment within a thicker chamber (20 μm) within a SAW cell.

Increasing the hot-spot area with high enhancement ability on SERS-active particles is generally acknowledged as one of the efficient ways to significantly improve the average SERS signal of nanoparticles. A method to create roughness on the surface of nanoparticles was proposed by oxygen plasma etching noncarboxylated polystyrene beads. However, the mechanism of nanocorrugation formation was not clear. Thus, in this paper, we employ argon-based reactive ion etching (RIE) incorporated with carboxylated polystyrene nanoparticles to investigate the roles of nanocorrugations’ morphologies for SERS signal enhancement. The formation mechanism of the nanocorrugations has been investigated thoroughly through a comparison with those formed by oxygen-based RIE processes from their high resolution X-ray photoelectron spectra and surface morphologies with or without hydrazine reduction treatment. Moreover, polystyrene beads with more intrinsic carboxyl groups and etched by argon plasma produce higher nanocorrugations. It is suggested that carbonyl groups with high bond energy become nanomasks on polystyrene bead surfaces and provides high selectivity between carboxyl and polystyrene surfaces under RIE. Raman intensity enhancement on a 20-nm gold coated nanocorrugated polystyrene bead array is summarized by three factors: (1) the effect of plasmonic coupling among neighboring particles, (2) the nanocorrugation-contributed roughness, and (3) the pitch size of nanocorrugations, through the analysis of SEM images, AFM height images, and LSPR signals. Among these factors, the pitch size of nanocorrugations (ranging from ∼6 nm to ∼12 nm on the surface of polystyrene beads) dominates the SERS enhancement. The 870 nm/120s oxygen plasma etched polystyrene beads (OPSBs) with a minimum pitch size of 6 nm provides the highest Raman intensity enhancement (measured by 632.8-nm He–Ne laser), which is 12 times greater than the intensity of nontreated (870 nm/0s) polystyrene beads (while the Au/Ti coating is 20 nm/5 nm).

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