9.1% efficient zinc oxide/silicon solar cells on a 50 μm thick Si absorber

• Rafal Pietruszka,
• Bartlomiej S. Witkowski,
• Monika Ozga,
• Katarzyna Gwozdz,
• Ewa Placzek-Popko and
• Marek Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 766–774, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.60

• using zinc oxide nanorods. The efficiency of a textured solar cell structure is compared with the one obtained for a planar zinc oxide/silicon structure. The present results show the possibility to produce efficient solar cells on a relatively thin 50 μm thick silicon substrate. Solar cells with

• structured top electrodes were examined by numerous measuring techniques. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a grain-like morphology of the magnesium-doped zinc oxide film. The size of the grains is closely related to the structure of the nanorods. The external quantum efficiency of the cells was measured

• % for planar structures, respectively. The work, therefore, describes an environmentally friendly technology for PV architecture with surface textures increasing the efficiency of PV cells. Keywords: atomic layer deposition; hydrothermal method; photovoltaics; silicon; solar cell; zinc oxide

A review of defect engineering, ion implantation, and nanofabrication using the helium ion microscope

• Frances I. Allen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 633–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.52

• by localized helium ion irradiation. For example, using a helium ion dose of 5 × 1014 ions/cm2, permanent local tuning of the charge density in an amorphous thin film of the semiconductor indium gallium zinc oxide (film thickness 50 nm) has been demonstrated, thereby enabling activation of the

Impact of GaAs(100) surface preparation on EQE of AZO/Al₂O₃/p-GaAs photovoltaic structures

• Piotr Caban,
• Rafał Pietruszka,
• Jarosław Kaszewski,
• Monika Ożga,
• Bartłomiej S. Witkowski,
• Krzysztof Kopalko,
• Piotr Kuźmiuk,
• Katarzyna Gwóźdź,
• Ewa Płaczek-Popko,
• Krystyna Lawniczak-Jablonska and
• Marek Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 578–592, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.48

• ; gallium arsenide; photovoltaics; surface passivation; Introduction The atomic layer deposition (ALD) method is used for silicon passivation in photovoltaics. In recent years we proposed the usage of ALD for the construction of simplified Si-based cells [1]. Once zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were employed as

• for aluminum-doped zinc oxide). Experimental GaAs surface treatment We used lightly Zn-doped GaAs single-crystal (100) wafer (p = 6.8 × 1016 cm−3, ρ = 3.2 × 10−1 Ω·cm, μ ≤ 225 cm2/Vs, d = 400 μm) (fabricated at the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology, ITME) as the substrate. Before starting

• -cycles. Each multi-cycle, in turn, consisted of one aluminum oxide creation cycle (TMA + H2O) and 24 cycles of zinc oxide deposition (diethylzinc/Zn(C2H5)2, DEZ, CAS:557-20-0) + H2O [2]. In the final fabrication process, a top point contact was deposited (70 nm) by aluminum-target sputtering (Kurt J

Structural and optical characteristics determined by the sputtering deposition conditions of oxide thin films

• Petronela Prepelita,
• Florin Garoi and
• Valentin Craciun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 354–365, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.29

• dioxide (SiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on quartz substrates was investigated. The deposition conditions were optimized to achieve stoichiometric thin films. The orientation of crystallites, structure, and composition were investigated by X-ray

A review on the biological effects of nanomaterials on silkworm (Bombyx mori)

• Sandra Senyo Fometu,
• Guohua Wu,
• Lin Ma and
• Joan Shine Davids

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 190–202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.15

• to generate more reactive oxygen species (ROS) and to induce oxidative stress could be a reason for their antibacterial activity against R. solanacearum in tobacco plants [23]. Aside from MgO NPs, other nanomaterials, including titanium dioxide (TiO2 NPs), zinc oxide (ZnO NPs), copper oxide (CuO NPs

• [37] and chemicals, and to evaluate nano–bio interactions. The exposure of nanomaterials (NM) to the environment is reported to have detrimental effects on human lungs. Pulmonary inflammation was reported in C57BL/6N mice exposed to zinc oxide (ZnO) (size of nanoparticles functionalized with

ZnO and MXenes as electrode materials for supercapacitor devices

• Ameen Uddin Ammar,
• Ipek Deniz Yildirim,
• Feray Bakan and
• Emre Erdem

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 49–57, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.4

• materials; electrodes; MXenes; supercapacitors; zinc oxide (ZnO); Introduction In this article, the past, the present, and the prospects of ZnO and MXenes are discussed in terms of their usage as electrode materials in supercapacitor devices. Recently, supercapacitors gained a lot of attention due to their

• and 3D materials will be of utmost benefit to the interested community. Review ZnO as electrode material for supercapacitors Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a highly defective semiconductor material, regardless of its synthesis route, that has a large bandgap energy (Eg) at room temperature. However, defect types

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

• Matías Guerrero Correa,
• Fernanda B. Martínez,
• Cristian Patiño Vidal,
• Camilo Streitt,
• Juan Escrig and
• Carol Lopez de Dicastillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1450–1469, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.129

• -based NPs have demonstrated antimicrobial activity over the last years. Several metal and metal oxide NPs, such as silver, copper, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, copper oxide, and nickel oxide NPs, are known to display antimicrobial activity [15][16][17] that depends on their composition, surface

• nanomaterials which have also presented relevant antimicrobial properties against several pathogenic microorganisms. Zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, copper oxide, and nickel oxide are the most typical metal-oxide NPs with potential antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activities [127][128]. These oxides have

• ]. Silver, gold, zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide NPs can be attracted to the cell wall by electrostatic attraction [161], van der Waals forces [162], and hydrophobic interactions [163], inducing changes in the shape, function and permeability of the cells. Proteins and DNA Proteins play a fundamental role

Gram-scale synthesis of splat-shaped Ag–TiO₂ nanocomposites for enhanced antimicrobial properties

• Mohammad Jaber,
• Asim Mushtaq,
• Kebiao Zhang,
• Jindan Wu,
• Dandan Luo,
• Zihan Yi,
• M. Zubair Iqbal and
• Xiangdong Kong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1119–1125, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.96

• , silver (Ag), zinc oxide (ZnO), copper oxide (CuO), iron oxide (Fe3O4) and titanium oxide (TiO2) are well recognized options due to their outstanding antibacterial properties. These nanoparticles have antibacterial activity due to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) [9][10][11]; more

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

Novel hollow titanium dioxide nanospheres with antimicrobial activity against resistant bacteria

• Carol López de Dicastillo,
• Cristian Patiño,
• María José Galotto,
• Yesseny Vásquez-Martínez,
• Claudia Torrent,
• Daniela Alburquenque,
• Alejandro Pereira and
• Juan Escrig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1716–1725, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.167

• -positive and Gram-negative bacteria [2]. In recent years, metal and metal oxide NPs, such as silver, gold, titanium and zinc oxide NPs, have been extensively studied due to their interesting antimicrobial character [3][4][5]. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) NPs have also attracted significant attention due to

High-temperature resistive gas sensors based on ZnO/SiC nanocomposites

• Vadim B. Platonov,
• Marina N. Rumyantseva,
• Alexander S. Frolov,
• Alexey D. Yapryntsev and
• Alexander M. Gaskov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1537–1547, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.151

• of zinc oxide contains an intense broad signal, corresponding to the stretching vibrations of Zn–O bonds (635–400 cm−1). The above spectrum also shows the signals from the multi-phonon vibrational modes of the ZnO lattice (990 and 870 cm−1). In accordance with the literature data, such oscillations

• do not appear at 78 K, but are noticeable at room temperature [20]. Nitro and nitrite groups [21][22] formed during the decomposition of PVP are also present on the surface of zinc oxide, as evidenced by the appearance of IR signals in the 1430–1260 cm−1 region, corresponding to the symmetric and

• components. The first one (O1) at 530.2 eV corresponds to the lattice oxygen in the ZnO phase, while the high-energy component (O2) at 531.2 eV is assigned to the different oxygen-containing species on the zinc oxide surface, which include hydroxy groups and different forms of chemisorbed oxygen [25][26][27

A highly efficient porous rod-like Ce-doped ZnO photocatalyst for the degradation of dye contaminants in water

• Binjing Hu,
• Qiang Sun,
• Chengyi Zuo,
• Yunxin Pei,
• Siwei Yang,
• Hui Zheng and
• Fangming Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1157–1165, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.115

• decarboxylation. Generally, zinc oxide materials can be synthesized via a hydrothermal process [18], sol–gel method [19], microemulsion method [20], among others. Due to its narrow band, the application of zinc oxide is limited, thus it is common to modify ZnO using rare-earth ions [9]. Koao et al. [21

• into the solution of Zn(OAc)2·2H2O. After stirring at room temperature for 12 h, the white precipitate (ZIF-8) was centrifuged and washed thoroughly with MeOH and dried at 60 °C for 1 h [40]. After calcination at 500 °C for 3 h, the zinc oxide micro–nanomaterial was obtained. Synthesis of CZO For the

Photoactive nanoarchitectures based on clays incorporating TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles

• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky,
• Pilar Aranda,
• Marwa Akkari,
• Nithima Khaorapapong and
• Makoto Ogawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1140–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.114

• dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles with clay minerals to give diverse clay–semiconductor nanoarchitectures are summarized and critically discussed in this review article. The possibility to use clay minerals as starting components showing different morphologies, such as layered, fibrous, or tubular

• . They represent a source of components easily applicable to the development of new photocatalysts based on these silicates. We have above examined how titanium oxide and zinc oxide NPs can be assembled to diverse type of clay minerals of variable topologies leading to nanoarchitectured materials with

Quantitative analysis of annealing-induced instabilities of photo-leakage current and negative-bias-illumination-stress in a-InGaZnO thin-film transistors

• Dapeng Wang and
• Mamoru Furuta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1125–1130, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.112

• temperature on the initial electrical characteristics and photo-induced instabilities of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). The extracted electrical parameters from transfer curves suggest that a low-temperature treatment maintains a high density of defects in the IGZO

Novel reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic surfaces induced by charge injection and heating

• Xiangdong Ye,
• Junwen Hou and
• Dongbao Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 840–847, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.84

• contact angle of 0°. Li et al. [8] prepared a superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic zinc oxide film on a bamboo surface. The surface was irradiated by ultraviolet radiation/darkroom for 12 h. A storage period of ten days induced the reversible switching between superhydrophilicity and superhydrophobicity

Geometrical optimisation of core–shell nanowire arrays for enhanced absorption in thin crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Robin Vismara,
• Olindo Isabella,
• Andrea Ingenito,
• Fai Tong Si and
• Miro Zeman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 322–331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.31

• . Multiple studies of nanowire solar cells can be found in literature, using different materials: indium phosphide [18][19], gallium arsenide [20][21], zinc oxide [15][22], crystalline silicon [6][8][11][12][13][16][17][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], amorphous silicon alloys [35][36][37

Site-specific growth of oriented ZnO nanocrystal arrays

• Rekha Bai,
• Dinesh K. Pandya,
• Sujeet Chaudhary,
• Veer Dhaka,
• Vladislav Khayrudinov,
• Jori Lemettinen,
• Christoffer Kauppinen and
• Harri Lipsanen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 274–280, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.26

• ; growth kinetics; nanocrystals; nucleation; twinning; zinc oxide; Introduction Metal oxide semiconductor nanostructures are quite interesting not only in terms of the basic growth mechanism involved in their fabrication, but also due to the large number of applications based on them in the field of

Graphene-enhanced metal oxide gas sensors at room temperature: a review

• Dongjin Sun,
• Yifan Luo,
• Marc Debliquy and
• Chao Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2832–2844, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.264

• achieved at all [19][20]. Metal-oxide semiconductors (MOS), including tin oxide (SnO2), titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), copper oxide (CuO), tungsten oxide (WO3), indium oxide (In2O3), ferric oxide (Fe2O3) and cobalt oxide (Co3O4) are important materials for gas sensors [21][22][23][24][25][26

Near-infrared light harvesting of upconverting NaYF₄:Yb³⁺/Er³⁺-based amorphous silicon solar cells investigated by an optical filter

• Daiming Liu,
• Qingkang Wang and
• Qing Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2788–2793, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.260

• prepared (Figure 3a). One a-Si:H layer of ca. 350 nm is sandwiched between two aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) contacts. The thickness of the AZO contacts is approximately 1.5 μm. From Figure 3b, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the a-Si:H solar cell is calculated to be 6.68% at the maximum power

Oriented zinc oxide nanorods: A novel saturable absorber for lasers in the near-infrared

• Pavel Loiko,
• Tanujjal Bora,
• Josep Maria Serres,
• Haohai Yu,
• Magdalena Aguiló,
• Francesc Díaz,
• Uwe Griebner,
• Valentin Petrov,
• Xavier Mateos and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2730–2740, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.255

• , Applied Physics Department, School of Engineering Sciences, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Isafjordsgatan 22, SE-164 40 Kista Stockholm, Sweden 10.3762/bjnano.9.255 Abstract Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) oriented along the crystallographic [001] axis are grown by the hydrothermal method on glass

• nanorods; Q-switching; saturable absorption; solid-state lasers; zinc oxide; Introduction Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a well-known II–IV group wide-bandgap semiconductor (Eg = 3.37 eV), possessing a hexagonal wurtzite-type (sp. gr. P63mc) structure with unit cell parameters a = 3.25 Å, c = 5.20 Å. In recent years

Exploring the photoleakage current and photoinduced negative bias instability in amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors with various active layer thicknesses

• Dapeng Wang and
• Mamoru Furuta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2573–2580, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.239

• to their outstanding properties such as high electron mobility, good transparency to visible light, and low process temperature with good uniformity [1][2][3][4]. Among the numerous AOS materials, indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) is one of the most promising candidates used as the active layer

ZnO-nanostructure-based electrochemical sensor: Effect of nanostructure morphology on the sensing of heavy metal ions

• Marina Krasovska,
• Vjaceslavs Gerbreders,
• Irena Mihailova,
• Andrejs Ogurcovs,
• Eriks Sledevskis,
• Andrejs Gerbreders and
• Pavels Sarajevs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2421–2431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.227

• stream of dry nitrogen and thermally treated at 350 °C for 30 min in air, such that zinc acetate was completely converted into zinc oxide. Subsequently, the samples were slowly cooled to room temperature. The nanostructured layer of the electrode was obtained by the hydrothermal synthesis method using an

Electrospun one-dimensional nanostructures: a new horizon for gas sensing materials

• Muhammad Imran,
• Nunzio Motta and
• Mahnaz Shafiei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2128–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.202

• ], Co3O4 [113][114], iron oxide (Fe2O3) [115][116], tin dioxide (SnO2) [76][117][118][119][120][121][122][123], zinc oxide (ZnO) [124][125][126][127][128][129][130], and indium oxide (In2O3) [78][80][131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138]. Table S2 in Supporting Information File 1 summarizes the sensing

Fabrication of photothermally active poly(vinyl alcohol) films with gold nanostars for antibacterial applications

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Maria Moros,
• Claudia Tortiglione,
• Serena Bertoldi,
• Nicola Contessi,
• Silvia Faré,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Agnese D’Agostino,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2040–2048, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.193

• studies have reported the preparation and the antibacterial efficacy of PVA films containing plant extracts, silver nanoparticles or zinc oxide nanoparticles [17][18][19][20][21][22]. However, when bacteria start to form biofilms they become resistant and conventional antibiotics do not eradicate biofilms

Nonlinear effect of carrier drift on the performance of an n-type ZnO nanowire nanogenerator by coupling piezoelectric effect and semiconduction

• Yuxing Liang,
• Shuaiqi Fan,
• Xuedong Chen and
• Yuantai Hu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1917–1925, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.183

• -axis; piezoelectric potential; semiconductor; zinc oxide (ZnO); Introduction An acoustic wave propagating in piezoelectric semiconductors usually stimulates electric fields that bring charge carriers into motion, and conversely, the carrier motion will produce an opposite effect on the electric fields