Reduced electron recombination of dye-sensitized solar cells based on TiO₂ spheres consisting of ultrathin nanosheets with [001] facet exposed

• Hongxia Wang,
• Meinan Liu,
• Cheng Yan and
• John Bell

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 378–387, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.44

• resintered at 450 °C for 30 min. The geometrical area of the TiO2 film was 0.25 cm2. The TiO2 film (with or without TiCl4 treatment) when it was still warm (around 80 °C) was immersed in a dye solution containing 0.25 mM cis-bis(isothiocyanato) bis(2,2´- bipyridyl-4,4´-dicarboxylate) ruthenium(II) bis

Dipole-driven self-organization of zwitterionic molecules on alkali halide surfaces

• Laurent Nony,
• Franck Bocquet,
• Franck Para,
• Frédéric Chérioux,
• Eric Duverger,
• Frank Palmino,
• Vincent Luzet and
• Christian Loppacher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 285–293, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.32

• composed of a sulfonato endgroup (SO3−), which carries a negative charge and which is linked via an alkyl-chain to a pyridinum ring carrying a positive charge (N+). MSPS molecules adopt two main conformations corresponding to the cis/trans isomerization of the C–C double bond. Cis (agraffe-like) and trans

• (scorpion-like) are described in Figure 1. However, only the scorpion-like isomer is obtained after the synthesis, because it is more stable than the cis isomer. The permanent electric dipole of the trans isomer is 16.8 D, the total length of this isomer is 1.28 nm. Due to the isomerization of the C–C

• double bond, the cis isomer is shorter than the trans isomer (0.53 vs 1.28 nm). The ionic single-crystal substrates (MaTecK GmbH, Jülich, Germany) were cleaved ex situ and annealed in situ (UHV conditions) to 150–250 °C in order to obtain clean terraces and well-defined step edges. The molecules were

Direct monitoring of opto-mechanical switching of self-assembled monolayer films containing the azobenzene group

• Einat Tirosh,
• Enrico Benassi,
• Silvio Pipolo,
• Marcel Mayor,
• Michal Valášek,
• Veronica Frydman,
• Stefano Corni and
• Sidney R. Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 834–844, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.93

• Support, Rehovot Israel 10.3762/bjnano.2.93 Abstract The potential for manipulation and control inherent in molecule-based motors holds great scientific and technological promise. Molecules containing the azobenzene group have been heavily studied in this context. While the effects of the cis–trans

• show that the modulus of the cis-form is approximately twice that of the trans-isomer. Quantum mechanical and molecular dynamics studies show good agreement with this experimental result, and indicate that the stiffer response in the cis-form comprises contributions both from the individual molecular

• through a facile cis↔trans isomerization that is controlled by UV and visible light. The forces involved in this transition have been characterized by a number of techniques. For instance, changes in the stiffness of azobenzene-containing films were monitored by nanoindentation [1], by quartz-crystal