Q150r s coater

The lemma and lamina micromorphology within Stipa × lazkovii, S. krylovii, and S. bungeana were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The dried samples were coated with a gold layer using a Quorum Q150R S coater (Quorum, UK). The SEM images were obtained by a scanning electron microscope S-4700 (Hitachi, Japan). Further, we examined the adaxial and abaxial surfaces of lamina, and five sets of diagnostic characters of lemma micromorphology: (1) long cells, (2) silica bodies, (3) hooks, (4) prickles, (5) macrohairs.

The growth morphology was studied in six-day-old fungal cultures for the three species (controls and the Cu-NPs treatments). For these studies, the mycelial discs were cut from the peripheral in a 10 × 10 mm² area and fixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde at 4 °C for 24 h. Subsequently, the samples were washed with Sorensen phosphate buffer three times for 1 min. Then, the samples were dehydrated in a graded series of ethanol, started with gradual dehydration in ethanol from 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 to 90% for 40 min in each aqueous solution. The last step was performed in 100% ethanol for 30 min thrice. The dehydrated samples were dried in a Quorum K850 critical point dryer and placed in aluminum specimens on double adhesive carbon conductive tape and finally gold-coated for one minute in a Quorum Q150R S coater.²³ Finally, the samples were observed in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) FEI Quanta 250 FEG.

For laser two-photon polymerisation, a droplet of a hybrid material was placed on a glass slide and then left in a fume hood to evaporate overnight while covered from ambient light. After 24 h such samples were used for structure fabrication on a commercially available Nanoscribe^® Photonic Professional GT system (Nanoscribe GmbH, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany) that is based at the Department of Chemistry at Lancaster University. A 63X 1.4 NA oil immersion lens was used to focus the laser beam into the polymer. Stereolithography (STL) flies were downloaded from the internet [28 ] and sliced using proprietary Nanoscribe software (DeScribe 2.3.3). Hatching and slicing distances in X, Y and Z coordinates were set to 100 nm. The laser scanning speed was set to 10 mm/s and the laser power was in the range of 20% to 100% (corresponding to 10–50 mW). After polymerization, the Al based hybrid material was developed in toluene for at least 15 min, followed by air-drying. The structures were then sputter-coated at a thickness of 10 nm using a Q150 RS coater (Quorum Technologies, Lewes, UK) and subsequently observed using a SEM (JSM 7800F, JEOL, Tokyo, Japan) operating at 10–15 kV at the Department of Chemistry at Lancaster University.