Noble metal-modified titania with visible-light activity for the decomposition of microorganisms

• Maya Endo,
• Zhishun Wei,
• Kunlei Wang,
• Baris Karabiyik,
• Kenta Yoshiiri,
• Paulina Rokicka,
• Bunsho Ohtani,
• Agata Markowska-Szczupak and
• Ewa Kowalska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 829–841, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.77

• samples (eight orders of decrease after three hours of vis irradiation and one order in the dark), only the silver-modified samples under vis irradiation caused continuous evolution of carbon dioxide suggesting a mineralization of bacterial cells [54]. To check if bacterial cells were really decomposed

Perovskite-structured CaTiO₃ coupled with g-C₃N₄ as a heterojunction photocatalyst for organic pollutant degradation

• Ashish Kumar,
• Christian Schuerings,
• Suneel Kumar,
• Ajay Kumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 671–685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.62

• interface to produce active species, which causes mineralization of pollutants. Therefore, our photocatalytic activity studies illustrate that the CTCN heterojunction formed by coupling CT with g-C3N4 performs well in comparison to its bare counterparts under all three irradiation conditions (i.e., UV

Photocatalytic and adsorption properties of TiO₂-pillared montmorillonite obtained by hydrothermally activated intercalation of titanium polyhydroxo complexes

• Mikhail F. Butman,
• Nikolay L. Ovchinnikov,
• Nikita S. Karasev,
• Nataliya E. Kochkina,
• Alexander V. Agafonov and
• Alexandr V. Vinogradov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 364–378, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.36

• to anionic ones. The pillared materials prepared using hydrothermal treatment combine sorptive and photocatalytic properties and can be recommended for mineralization and decomposition of organic contaminants, even in highly acidic media. Experimental Montmorillonite A fraction of MM particles with a

Two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalytic energy generation and environmental remediation applications

• Suneel Kumar,
• Ashish Kumar,
• Ashish Bahuguna,
• Vipul Sharma and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1571–1600, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.159

• aqueous solution to generate hydrogen, or it can produce a superoxide radical anion (O2−*) by reacting with the dissolved oxygen, hydroperoxide radical (*OOH) upon reaction with H+ ions [4]. These reactive radical species also have potential to accomplish complete mineralization of the pollutants into H2O

Preparation of thick silica coatings on carbon fibers with fine-structured silica nanotubes induced by a self-assembly process

• Benjamin Baumgärtner,
• Hendrik Möller,
• Thomas Neumann and
• Dirk Volkmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1145–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.116

• support or as a catalytic active material. The second possibility can be fulfilled for instance by introducing a titania precursor in the mineralization process. A silica/titania mixture is able to catalyze liquid phase epoxidation [35], the NOx abatement under UV irradiation [36] or the photocatalytic

• of the fiber with LPEI aggregates can be obtained which serves as both catalyst and template in the following mineralization step. The nature of LPEI enables access to a nanostructured patterning of the resulting silica shell. LPEI/silica composite particles and their immobilization on carbon fibers

• highly branched. The fiber bundle morphology is preserved in the subsequent mineralization process initialized by addition of 3 vol % silica precursor tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS) in a mixture of ethanol and water (1:1, v/v). The polymer aggregates are encapsulated by a silica shell in a very short

High photocatalytic activity of Fe₂O₃/TiO₂ nanocomposites prepared by photodeposition for degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

• Shu Chin Lee,
• Hendrik O. Lintang and
• Leny Yuliati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 915–926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.93

• nonahydrate precursor, which gave more than two times higher activity than the bare TiO2 [15]. The photocatalytic oxidation of 2,4-D by active species involves various steps, including formation of intermediates before its mineralization to CO2 and H2O. Decarboxylation has been reported as the initial step

• be suggested that 2,4-D was firstly oxidized by the active species (photogenerated holes and superoxide radicals) before decarboxylation and the formation of 2,4-DCP. The dechlorination of 2,4-DCP then took place, leading to ring opening, hydrocarbon chain breaking, and finally, the mineralization to

• photogenerated holes are left in the VB. The photogenerated electrons could reduce oxygen to form superoxide radicals, while holes could directly oxidize 2,4-D to 2,4-DCP before its mineralization. The presence of Fe2O3 reduces electron–hole recombination on the TiO2. Since the CB edge energy level of Fe2O3

Recombinant DNA technology and click chemistry: a powerful combination for generating a hybrid elastin-like-statherin hydrogel to control calcium phosphate mineralization

• Mohamed Hamed Misbah,
• Mercedes Santos,
• Luis Quintanilla,
• Christina Günter,
• Matilde Alonso,
• Andreas Taubert and
• José Carlos Rodríguez-Cabello

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 772–783, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.80

• bind to and nucleate calcium phosphate. The benefit of using click chemistry is that the hybrid elastin-like-statherin recombinamers cross-link without losing their fibrillar structure. Mineralization of the resulting hybrid elastin-like-statherin recombinamer hydrogels with calcium phosphate is

• biomaterials. Keywords: calcium phosphate; elastin-like recombinamers; hydroxyapatite; mineralization; SNA15; Introduction Combination of the specific properties of two materials is often a key to generating a new material, whose properties are superior to those of its individual components, with improved

• materials with a high application potential [14]. Although organic additives can be used to control the CP mineralization process in aqueous solution, their soluble nature restricts their use in potential applications. To overcome this problem, organic chains are introduced as insoluble additives, for

Nanostructured carbon materials decorated with organophosphorus moieties: synthesis and application

• Giacomo Biagiotti,
• Vittoria Langè,
• Cristina Ligi,
• Stefano Caporali,
• Maurizio Muniz-Miranda,
• Anna Flis,
• K. Michał Pietrusiewicz,
• Giacomo Ghini,
• Alberto Brandi and
• Stefano Cicchi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 485–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.52

• Flash E1112 analyzer. ICP analysis were made using an Optima 2000 Perkin Elmer Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Dual Vision instrument after acidic mineralization. TEM images were acquired at the electronic microscopic center CNR Florence (CE.M.E.) with a Philips CM12 with CRYO-GATAN UHRST 3500

Template-controlled piezoactivity of ZnO thin films grown via a bioinspired approach

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Fabian Streb,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Zaklina Burghard and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 296–303, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.32

• applied. Another approach is bioinspired mineralization. Here, principles from nature are adapted to deposit inorganic materials under mild reaction conditions. The crystal growth is controlled by organic additives in the mineralization solution that act as structure directing agents [18][19][20][21][22

• this model system, we deposit ZnO via bioinspired mineralization onto templates with different functionalities. In our recent work [39] we have demonstrated that the piezoactivity of the grown ZnO film strongly depends on the template. In particular, the impact of a piezoactive template (i.e., a layer

• of tobacco mosaic viruses) on the mineralization processes of ZnO films has been investigated and an extraordinary high degree of orientation was observed. In this study, we elucidate the influence of the negative charge density of two non-piezoelectric templates on the deposition of ZnO films from

Photocatalysis applications of some hybrid polymeric composites incorporating TiO₂ nanoparticles and their combinations with SiO₂/Fe₂O₃

• Andreea Laura Chibac,
• Tinca Buruiana,
• Violeta Melinte and
• Emil C. Buruiana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 272–286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.30

• constants were around 18 × 10−3 min−1 (Figure 7d) for the two photocatalysts S3 and S4. The mineralization of phenol, i.e., the complete degradation of phenol and its decomposition intermediates to CO2, was investigated by measuring the concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) in the solutions irradiated

• with visible light for 250 min in presence of the S4 polymeric film. The TOC analysis indicated a phenol mineralization of about 46%, the result suggesting that the speed of TOC removal is slower (approximately half) than the phenol degradation into intermediate species. A different photobehaviour was

Laser irradiation in water for the novel, scalable synthesis of black TiO_x photocatalyst for environmental remediation

• Massimo Zimbone,
• Giuseppe Cacciato,
• Mohamed Boutinguiza,
• Vittorio Privitera and
• Maria Grazia Grimaldi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 196–202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.21

• widely used for both water splitting and mineralization of organic contaminants in solution [2]. The applications range from third generation solar cells [3] to material for air or water purification [4] to antifogging and self-cleaning surfaces [5][6]. The main advantage of this material is its high

3D printing of mineral–polymer bone substitutes based on sodium alginate and calcium phosphate

• Aleksey A. Egorov,
• Alexander Yu. Fedotov,
• Anton V. Mironov,
• Vladimir S. Komlev,
• Vladimir K. Popov and
• Yury V. Zobkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1794–1799, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.172

• the carboxylate group of alginate. This physical bonding translates to mixtures that are rich in electronic pairs leading to a higher reactivity and mineralization potential that can be transformed into composite materials [13]. According to X-ray diffraction data, synthesis in the presence of

Role of RGO support and irradiation source on the photocatalytic activity of CdS–ZnO semiconductor nanostructures

• Suneel Kumar,
• Rahul Sharma,
• Vipul Sharma,
• Gurunarayanan Harith,
• Vaidyanathan Sivakumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1684–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.161

• photocatalytic decomposition of organic pollutants [4][5][6][7][8]. These semiconductor photocatalysts not only degrade the contaminants, but also cause their complete mineralization into CO2, H2O and mineral acids [9][10]. Thus, it is advantageous over physico-chemical methods such as flocculation–coagulation

Novel roles for well-known players: from tobacco mosaic virus pests to enzymatically active assemblies

• Claudia Koch,
• Fabian J. Eber,
• Carlos Azucena,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Alexander M. Bittner,
• Holger Jeske,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Fania C. Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 613–629, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.54

• play a leading role among the most promising viral backbones [5][7][91][92]. TMV and closely related tobamoviruses have been applied as versatile templates for the metallization or mineralization of their inner or outer surfaces, respectively, yielding nanosized components for, e.g., electronic devices

Chemical bath deposition of textured and compact zinc oxide thin films on vinyl-terminated polystyrene brushes

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Caroline G. Hofmeister,
• Peter Lindemann,
• Cheng Huang,
• Johannes Baier,
• Andreas Leineweber,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Christof Wöll,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 102–110, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.12

• polystyrene brush on the deposition of ZnO thin films under moderate conditions. On a non-modified SiOx surface, island growth is observed, whereas the polymer brush induces homogeneous film growth. A chemical modification of the polystyrene brushes during the mineralization process occurs, which enables

• deposition processes for ZnO nanostructures. For example, biopolymers can control the mineralization and the structure formation of inorganic materials in an aqueous environment. Biopolymeric templates and their structure-inducing properties are in the focus of many recent works and issued in a recent

• °. On the other hand, the surface decorated with a PS brush is hydrophobic with a WCA of 85°. Transesterification of polystyrene brushes During the ZnO mineralization, a modification of the PS brush was observed that leads to a hydrophilic surface, which can improve the interaction with the ZnO

Impact of ultrasonic dispersion on the photocatalytic activity of titania aggregates

• Hoai Nga Le,
• Frank Babick,
• Klaus Kühn,
• Minh Tan Nguyen,
• Michael Stintz and
• Gianaurelio Cuniberti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2423–2430, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.250

• oxidation, discoloration, mineralization, and degradation of organic pollutants [1][2]. Photocatalysis is an example of an AOP that has been effectively applied for the treatment of highly polluted water such as dye sewage [3][4]. Among the materials for this application, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a very

Template-controlled mineralization: Determining film granularity and structure by surface functionality patterns

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Jonathan Berson,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Johannes Baier,
• Joachim Bill and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1763–1768, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.180

• the site-selective mineralization of a semiconductor material, zinc oxide (ZnO), on a chemically patterned surface [3]. ZnO thin films are of special interest since they can be used for different applications such as solar cells [16], biosensing devices [17] and others [18]. By using a nearly

• , as both surfaces exhibit an rms-roughness value of 0.1 nm. After mineralization, the APTES islands are covered by a homogenous, smooth film with an rms-roughness of 1 nm. AFM images show a granular structure that is not clearly visible in the corresponding SEM image. This might be due to the lower

• mineralization. Mineralization experiment All deposition solutions were freshly prepared prior to use to ensure clear starting solutions. Stock solutions of Zn(NO3)2∙6H2O (Sigma-Aldrich, ≥99.0%), hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA, Sigma-Aldrich, ≥99.5%) and L-histidine (Sigma-Aldrich, ≥99%) in Milli-Q water each at a

Towards multifunctional inorganic materials: biopolymeric templates

• Claudia Steinem and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1698–1699, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.172

• aforementioned manufacturing methods, biomineralization leads to fascinating, complex-structured, inorganic materials under ambient conditions. The corresponding processes have been evolutionarily optimized over millions of years and involve biopolymeric templates, which control the mineralization and the

Peptide-equipped tobacco mosaic virus templates for selective and controllable biomineral deposition

• Klara Altintoprak,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alexander Welle,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Nina Stitz,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Joachim Bill,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Holger Jeske,
• Dirk Rothenstein,
• Fania Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1399–1412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.145

• mineralization-directing peptides designed to yield silica coatings in a reliable and predictable manner via precipitation from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) precursors. Three peptide groups were compared regarding their influence on silica polymerization: (i) two peptide variants with alternating basic and acidic

• peptides with high ZnO binding affinity. Differential effects on the mineralization of the TMV surface were demonstrated, where a (KD)x charge-relay peptide (designed in this study) led to the most reproducible and selective silica deposition. A homogenous coating of the biotemplate and tight control of

• mineral deposition in living organisms known also as “biologically controlled mineralization” [12][13]. Such bio-inspired mineralization approaches can accomplish precise coating processes and offer several benefits such as environmentally friendly fabrication routes and reaction parameters compatible

PLGA nanoparticles as a platform for vitamin D-based cancer therapy

• Maria J. Ramalho,
• Joana A. Loureiro,
• Bárbara Gomes,
• Manuela F. Frasco,
• Manuel A. N. Coelho and
• M. Carmo Pereira

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1306–1318, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.135

• targeting gene expression via both genomic and nongenomic pathways [1]. Although known as an important regulator of calcium homeostasis and bone mineralization [3], several studies support that vitamin D also plays a major role in tumor pathogenesis, progression and therapy [2]. Calcitriol is also regarded

High photocatalytic activity of V-doped SrTiO₃ porous nanofibers produced from a combined electrospinning and thermal diffusion process

• Panpan Jing,
• Wei Lan,
• Qing Su and
• Erqing Xie

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1281–1286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.132

• , chemical fertilizers and phenol [4]. Fortunately, a new and eco-friendly photocatalysis technique has drawn much attention. Photocatalysts are capable of accelerating the oxidation and mineralization of such organic substances with a fast removal rate [5][6] by producing strongly reactive and nonselective

Microwave assisted synthesis and characterisation of a zinc oxide/tobacco mosaic virus hybrid material. An active hybrid semiconductor in a field-effect transistor device

• Shawn Sanctis,
• Rudolf C. Hoffmann,
• Sabine Eiben and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 785–791, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.81

• semiconducting material based on a microwave assisted ZnO mineralization of the TMV [17]. The resultant TMV/ZnO nanoscale hybrid material exhibits functional transistor behaviour with a reasonable performance without any post-processing at higher temperature. Experimental section All reagents were purchased from

• ]. Results and Discussions Synthesis and characterization of the wt TMV/ZnO hybrid material In order to facilitate the controlled mineralization of zinc oxide onto the TMV template, the microwave conditions for synthesis of the zinc oxide in due consideration of the stability of the TMV template had to be

• the ZnO nanoparticles within the deposited ZnO film [21][22]. In order to perform an in situ microwave-based mineralization of the TMV, it is essential to ensure that the virus particle adheres to the substrate during the microwave irradiation. Intense microwave irradiations are known to have a strong

Palladium nanoparticles anchored to anatase TiO₂ for enhanced surface plasmon resonance-stimulated, visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

• Kah Hon Leong,
• Hong Ye Chu,
• Shaliza Ibrahim and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 428–437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.43

• degradation of AMX are of pseudo-first-order (Figure 12). The obtained kinetics parameters are tabulated in Table S2 (Supporting Information File 1). Finally, the degree of mineralization of AMX during the photocatalytic degradation was also presented through a total organic carbon (TOC) analysis and depicted

• was mounted with a C18 column at 40 °C (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 μm particle size) using KH2PO4 (pH 1.8)/methanol (80:20) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. The amoxicillin was detected with a set wavelength of 228 nm. The degrees of mineralization of AMX were appraised from the amount of total

Multifunctional layered magnetic composites

• Maria Siglreitmeier,
• Baohu Wu,
• Tina Kollmann,
• Martin Neubauer,
• Gergely Nagy,
• Dietmar Schwahn,
• Vitaliy Pipich,
• Damien Faivre,
• Dirk Zahn,
• Andreas Fery and
• Helmut Cölfen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 134–148, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.13

• certain increase in the stiffness of the composite material. Keywords: bio-inspired mineralization; biomineralization; chitin; ferrogel; hybrid materials; magnetite; nacre; Introduction Biominerals, which are organic–inorganic hybrids and highly sophisticated materials with optimal assimilated

• mineralization, hierarchical structure and toughness enhancement [23][29]. Different techniques have been used to resolve the chemical and structural composition of the organic matrix. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) is a non-destructive method to study the nacreous organic matrix without potential changes

• purple area next to the matrix in Figure 3d represents excess of gelatin on the sample surface. These studies reveal that the chitin–gelatin composite can be used as a template for the mineralization of magnetite and therefore act as a building block for the formation of a multifunctional composite

Chemoselective silicification of synthetic peptides and polyamines

• Maryna Abacilar,
• Fabian Daus and
• Armin Geyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 103–110, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.10

• template is entrapped in the inorganic precipitate while the others remain in solution. This straightforward method identifies cooperativity of bioorganic templates in solution and can be easily transferred to other mineralization experiments. Experimental The NMR spectra were recorded at 300 MHz and the

• ). Again, 1 is the better precipitator although both organic molecules are consumed during the mineralization process. Expansions from the 1H NMR spectra (300 MHz, 300 K) of 1 a) and 4 b) and the spectrum of an equimolar mixture of both c) before the addition of orthosilicic acid at pH 7 together with the