Semi-automatic spray pyrolysis deposition of thin, transparent, titania films as blocking layers for dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells

• Hana Krýsová,
• Josef Krýsa and
• Ladislav Kavan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1135–1145, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.105

• ) equipped with a Rh anode end window and a 4GN-type X-ray tube fitted with a 50 μm Be window. The obtained data were evaluated by Uniquant 4 software. Photo-electrochemical and electrochemical experiments were carried out in a one-compartment three-electrode cell using an Autolab Pgstat 101 instrument

Scanning speed phenomenon in contact-resonance atomic force microscopy

• Christopher C. Glover,
• Jason P. Killgore and
• Ryan C. Tung

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 945–952, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.87

• indented into a mica surface with a force of 100 nN in an environment with a relative humidity (RH) of 41% and scanned in a direction orthogonal to the long axis of the cantilever (scan angle of 90°). The resulting in-contact natural frequencies of the cantilever are measured while the tip is moved across

• believe that the presence of a thin film of water and hydrodynamic lift explains the scan speed-dependent phenomenon observed on our mica sample at 41% RH. Many studies have found that an “ice-like” or “solid-like” layer of structured water is found on hydrophilic surfaces under the right temperature

• be approximately 1 nm in thickness and formed at approximately 40% RH on mica [26][27]. The water film was found to have elastic, viscous, and energy dissipation properties that changed when the driving amplitude was varied [30][33][34]. Hofbauer et al. found that “the mechanical stress exerted by

Nanoscale mapping of dielectric properties based on surface adhesion force measurements

• Ying Wang,
• Yue Shen,
• Xingya Wang,
• Zhiwei Shen,
• Bin Li,
• Jun Hu and
• Yi Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 900–906, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.84

• 18–25 °C, and relative humidity (RH) 35–60%) (Figure 2a,c). However, the contrast of the corresponding adhesion images increases significantly (Figure 2b,d). When the tip bias was lowered back to 0 V, both height and adhesion images returned to the original state before the dc voltage was applied

• AFM tip changed very little, which is quite different from the result in our previous SPFM experiment, in which the apparent height of RGO sheets under a biased tip usually increased sharply when RH was lower than 40% [32]. This is because the set point of the force, which is used as the feedback

• temperature 18–25 °C, RH 35–60%). All of the sheets in the height image have similar contrast (Figure 3a) but are quite different in the adhesion force images (Figure 3b,c). When the tip bias was 0 V, although the contrast of all sheets is darker than that of the mica substrate, the sheets can still be

Optimal fractal tree-like microchannel networks with slip for laminar-flow-modified Murray’s law

• Dalei Jing,
• Shiyu Song,
• Yunlu Pan and
• Xiaoming Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 482–489, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.46

• -like microchannel network with N branches and m levels, the total hydraulic resistance of the fluid flow in the entire network can be obtained using the electric circuit analogy based on the physical similarities between microfluidics and electronics as follows [17][27]. where RH is the total hydraulic

Facile synthesis of ZnFe₂O₄ photocatalysts for decolourization of organic dyes under solar irradiation

• Arjun Behera,
• Debasmita Kandi,
• Sanjit Manohar Majhi,
• Satyabadi Martha and
• Kulamani Parida

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 436–446, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.42

• , FESEM, UV–vis DRS, PL, FTIR and photocurrent measurements. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared material is studied with regard to the degradation of rhodamine B (Rh B) and Congo red under solar irradiation. The kinetic study showed that the material exhibits zeroth and first order reaction

• kinetics for the degradation of Rh B and Congo red, respectively. The photocatalytic behaviour of ZnFe2O4 was systematically studied as a function of the activation temperature. ZnFe2O4 prepared at 500 °C showed the highest activity in degrading Rh B and Congo red. The highest activity of ZnFe2O4-500 °C

• correlates well with the lowest PL intensity, highest photocurrent and lowest particle size. Keywords: Congo red; electrochemical study; phenol; photocatalyst; rhodamine B (Rh B); ZnFe2O4; Introduction Photocatalysis is a “green” technology for the treatment of environmental pollutants with solar energy [1

Review: Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based nanoelectromechanical switches – materials solutions and operational conditions

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Jelena Kosmaca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Jana Andzane and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 271–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.29

Synthesis of metal-fluoride nanoparticles supported on thermally reduced graphite oxide

• Alexa Schmitz,
• Kai Schütte,
• Vesko Ilievski,
• Juri Barthel,
• Laura Burk,
• Rolf Mülhaupt,
• Junpei Yue,
• Bernd Smarsly and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2474–2483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.247

• Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction [14]. In 2011, metal carbonyls in dispersion with TRGO and ionic liquid (IL) were exposed to short low-energy microwave irradiation. The resulting Ru@TRGO and Rh@TRGO particles had high catalytic hydrogenation activity [12]. Metallic nanoparticles on graphene have

Strategy to discover full-length amyloid-beta peptide ligands using high-efficiency microarray technology

• Clelia Galati,
• Natalia Spinella,
• Lucio Renna,
• Danilo Milardi,
• Francesco Attanasio,
• Michele Francesco Maria Sciacca and
• Corrado Bongiorno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2446–2453, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.243

• have been stored in a humidity chamber that was provided with a constant-humidity environment at a controlled temperature (22 °C and 95% relative humidity, RH). The physical state of the amyloid peptides was then tested by TEM. TEM analysis was performed with a Jeol JEM 2010 electron microscope

• volume of the spotted drops was 333 pL ± 5%. After dispensing, all slides were placed in a humidity chamber at 22 °C and 95% RH overnight. Spotted slides were then scanned with a PerkinElmer Scanarray express laser scanner apparatus. The slides were then blocked with 1% (w/v) BSA in phosphate buffer for

• 1 h, washed three times under stirring with phosphate buffer for 2 min, and finally washed with water for 10 min. For the Aβ40 incubation test, the blocked slides were incubated with the 1 μM Cy3-Aβ40 solution in a humidity chamber at 22 °C and 95% RH. After 1 h, the incubation was stopped with the

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• conditions (≈20 °C and ≈40% RH). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were taken using a FEI Teneo LV. Samples were casted on a glass slide, then cooled down with liquid nitrogen and broken in half. They were then placed at a 45-degree angle with respect to the electron gun, in order to observe the

Application of visible-light photosensitization to form alkyl-radical-derived thin films on gold

• Rashanique D. Quarels,
• Xianglin Zhai,
• Neepa Kuruppu,
• Jenny K. Hedlund,
• Ashley A. Ellsworth,
• Amy V. Walker,
• Jayne C. Garno and
• Justin R. Ragains

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1863–1877, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.187

• turns over the photosensitizer (Equation 2) [39]. The fate of 7 is protonation, possibly by BNAH∙+ (4), to generate phthalimide [39]. Alkyl radical R∙ would then be subject to processes including reduction to alkane RH with generation of benzyl nicotinamide radical (BNA∙, 8, Equation 3) or fully

• to generate Au–C bonds at the surface [3][4][5][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], adsorption of RH to the surface, and crosslinking of radicals at the surface [42][43][44]. While this approach to alkyl radical formation has been exploited in the synthesis of small organic molecules [35][36][37][38][39

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

• cocatalysts, such as Pt, Rh, NiO, and RuO2. These cocatalysts are mainly helpful to introduce the active sites on the photocatalyst surface, to facilitate the electron transfer from the CB of excited semiconductor, and hence, to enhance the process of H2 generation [11]. However, the sacrificial agents

• nanoparticles and accelerate the photocatalytic rate by introducing more reaction sites and promoting charge separation in semiconductors [115]. In water splitting reactions, generally noble metals (e.g., Pt, Rh) and some metal oxides (e.g., NiO) act as the cocatalyst and these are loaded on the surface of

Low-temperature CO oxidation over Cu/Pt co-doped ZrO₂ nanoparticles synthesized by solution combustion

• Amit Singhania and
• Shipra Mital Gupta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1546–1552, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.156

• , different types of catalysts including monometallic (e.g., Pt, Pd, Rh, Au, Ni, Co and Sn), bimetallic (e.g., Pd–Au, Pd–Rh, Pt–Co, Cu–Rh, Au–Cu and Au–Ag) along with various types of supports (e.g., CeO2, SiO2, Al2O3, Co3O4, Fe2O3, activated carbon (AC), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and ZrO2) have been reported

• ZrO2-based composite showed very high catalytic activity [23]. The addition of Pt, Ni, Rh and Cu into the support result in an increase in oxygen vacancies, oxygen storage capacity, smaller particle size, high specific surface area, and better stability of the material [24][25][26][27][28]. Recently

Adsorption and electronic properties of pentacene on thin dielectric decoupling layers

• Sebastian Koslowski,
• Daniel Rosenblatt,
• Alexander Kabakchiev,
• Klaus Kuhnke,
• Klaus Kern and
• Uta Schlickum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1388–1395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.140

• electronic properties of pentacene deposited onto h-BN/Rh(111) and compare them with those of pentacene deposited onto KCl on various metal surfaces. When deposited onto KCl, the HOMO and LUMO energies of the pentacene molecules scale with the work functions of the combined KCl/metal surface. The magnitude

• individual molecules on thin electronically decoupling layers. Depositing pentacene onto h-BN/Rh(111) results in significantly different adsorption characteristics, due to the topographic corrugation of the surface as well as the lateral electric fields it presents. These properties are reflected in the

• divergence from the aforementioned trend for the orbital energies of pentacene deposited onto h-BN/Rh(111), as well as in the different adsorption geometry. Thus, the highly desirable capacity of h-BN to trap molecules comes at the price of enhanced metal–molecule interaction, which decreases the HOMO–LUMO

Synthesis of [Fe(L_eq)(L_ax)]_n coordination polymer nanoparticles using blockcopolymer micelles

• Christoph Göbel,
• Ottokar Klimm,
• Florian Puchtler,
• Sabine Rosenfeldt,
• Stephan Förster and
• Birgit Weber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1318–1327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.133

• measurement consisted of three consecutive runs. Mössbauer spectroscopy: 57Fe Mössbauer spectra were recorded in transmission geometry under constant acceleration using a conventional Mössbauer spectrometer with a 50 mCi 57Co(Rh) source. The samples were sealed in the sample holder in an argon atmosphere. The

Treatment of fly ash from power plants using thermal plasma

• Sulaiman Al-Mayman,
• Ibrahim AlShunaifi,
• Abdullah Albeladi,
• Imed Ghiloufi and
• Saud Binjuwair

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1043–1048, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.105

• such as V, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Ni, and Rh. The scanning electron microscopy analysis shows that fly ash particles are porous and have very irregular shapes with particle sizes of 20–50 μm. The treatment of fly ash was carried out in a plasma reactor and in two steps. In the first step, fly ash was treated

• were V, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Ni, and Rh. The minor constituents (10–100 mg/kg) include Br, Si, and Al. The fly ash contains also toxic elements such as Pb, As, Zn, and Cr but with relatively low concentrations. In addition, the fly ash samples have been analyzed for carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and hydrogen

• disposed in landfill. Conclusion Fly ash collected in exhaust treatment system of power plants using heavy fuel oils is mainly composed of carbon (90.81 wt %), sulfur (6.17 wt %) and residue ash such as V, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Ni, and Rh. Fly ash particles are porous, they have very irregular shapes and

Study of the correlation between sensing performance and surface morphology of inkjet-printed aqueous graphene-based chemiresistors for NO₂ detection

• F. Villani,
• C. Schiattarella,
• T. Polichetti,
• R. Di Capua,
• F. Loffredo,
• B. Alfano,
• M. L. Miglietta,
• E. Massera,
• L. Verdoliva and
• G. Di Francia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1023–1031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.103

• surface tension of the prepared dispersion has been evaluated by using the contact angle equipment OCA20-Dataphysics in pendant drop configuration. The measurements have been performed under ambient conditions (21 °C, RH 50%) and the estimated value has been the result of measurements repeated five times

• °C), the relative humidity (RH = 50%) and under controlled nitrogen environment at atmospheric pressure, by keeping the flow constant at 500 sccm. All devices, biased at 1 V, have been analyzed through a measurement protocol consisting of an exposure towards the analyte for 10 min, preceded and

CVD transfer-free graphene for sensing applications

• Chiara Schiattarella,
• Sten Vollebregt,
• Tiziana Polichetti,
• Brigida Alfano,
• Ettore Massera,
• Maria Lucia Miglietta,
• Girolamo Di Francia and
• Pasqualina Maria Sarro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1015–1022, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.102

• , setting the flow rate at 500 sccm, the temperature at 25 °C and the relative humidity (RH) at 50%. An increase of the conductance response has been recorded upon exposure towards NO2, whereas a decrease of the signal has been detected towards NH3. The material appears totally insensitive towards CO

Synthesis of coaxial nanotubes of polyaniline and poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) by oxidative/initiated chemical vapor deposition

• Alper Balkan,
• Efe Armagan and
• Gozde Ozaydin Ince

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 872–882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.89

• the probes in the presence of gold electrodes. For PANI flat films, the actual resistance values (R) versus relative humidity (RH%) are plotted in Figure 7. The resistance slightly decreases as RH% increases up to a certain value (RH% of 84.3%). Above 84.3% resistance starts to increase with humidity

• hoping distances and creates distortion in the polymer chains, reducing the conductivity. The maximum resistance of 4372 kΩ was obtained at RH% of 11.3%, whereas the minimum was obtained at 84.3% which is 3301 kΩ. Single-component PANI and coaxial PANI/pHEMA nanotubes were fabricated using sacrificial

• resistance on the humidity as observed in the thin films was also observed in the nanotube samples (Figure 9). This type of parabolic dependence of resistance on the humidity was previously reported for PANI nanotubes [53]. The competition between the doping and swelling effects determines at which RH% value

α-((4-Cyanobenzoyl)oxy)-ω-methyl poly(ethylene glycol): a new stabilizer for silver nanoparticles

• Jana Lutze,
• Miguel A. Bañares,
• Marcos Pita,
• Andrea Haase,
• Andreas Luch and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 627–635, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.67

• synthesis, that is, no dilution or other sample processing was performed prior to Raman analysis. NMR spectroscopy. 1H NMR spectra were recorded on a Bruker Avance 300 MHz or 500 MHz spectrometer in D2O with TMS as an internal standard. Light scattering and zeta potential. The hydrodynamic diameter Rh and

• dispersion at pH 7 via dynamic light scattering (DLS) yields a hydrodynamic radius Rh of around 60 nm after dialysis; often the samples have a bimodal size distribution (Table 1). Figure 2C shows Raman spectra of a dispersion of CBAmPEG@SNP and of an aqueous solution of the pure polymer CBAmPEG. The intense

• ) for samples incubated in dispersions with a pH of 12. In contrast, the zeta potentials measured for samples treated at lower pH are around −20 to −30 mV. Unlike the zeta potential, the hydrodynamic radius Rh (as determined by DLS) remains the same at all pH values and over the entire time of

Gas sensing properties of MWCNT layers electrochemically decorated with Au and Pd nanoparticles

• Elena Dilonardo,
• Michele Penza,
• Marco Alvisi,
• Riccardo Rossi,
• Gennaro Cassano,
• Cinzia Di Franco,
• Francesco Palmisano,
• Luisa Torsi and
• Nicola Cioffi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 592–603, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.64

• of CNT-based sensors, due to an increase in the number of the adsorption sites for the targeted gases [18]. CNT sidewalls can be decorated with various noble metals such as Au, Pt, Pd, Rh, and Ag [19][20][21][22][23][24]. Different methods have been used to decorate CNTs, including electrodeposition

Nanoscale isoindigo-carriers: self-assembly and tunable properties

• Tatiana N. Pashirova,
• Andrei V. Bogdanov,
• Lenar I. Musin,
• Julia K. Voronina,
• Irek R. Nizameev,
• Marsil K. Kadirov,
• Vladimir F. Mironov,
• Lucia Ya. Zakharova,
• Shamil K. Latypov and
• Oleg G. Sinyashin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 313–324, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.34

• -order cumulant expansion methods. The effective hydrodynamic radius (RH) was calculated according to the Einstein–Stokes equation: D = kBT/6πηRH, in which D is the diffusion coefficient, kB is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature, and η is the viscosity. The diffusion coefficient was

Nanocrystalline ZrO₂ and Pt-doped ZrO₂ catalysts for low-temperature CO oxidation

• Amit Singhania and
• Shipra Mital Gupta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 264–271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.29

• anthropogenic activities. The catalytic CO oxidation is a very well established and exploited process. So far, noble metals such as Pt, Pd, Rh and Au dominated as catalysts for CO oxidation [10][11][12]. Various supports such as Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2, CeO2, Fe2O3 and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have also been used for

• CO oxidation by different researchers [13][14][15][16]. The addition of precious metals such as Pd, Pt and Rh increased the reactivity of the support by increasing its oxygen mobility and number of oxygen vacancies (the source of oxygen in CO oxidation) [10][11][12]. In recent years, ZrO2 has been

Nanocrystalline TiO₂/SnO₂ heterostructures for gas sensing

• Barbara Lyson-Sypien,
• Anna Kusior,
• Mieczylaw Rekas,
• Jan Zukrowski,
• Marta Gajewska,
• Katarzyna Michalow-Mauke,
• Thomas Graule,
• Marta Radecka and
• Katarzyna Zakrzewska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 108–122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.12

• were carried out in dry atmosphere. The synthetic air contained less than 1 ppm of water vapor while that of hydrogen + argon mixture had less than 10 ppm of contaminants. The relative humidity level was verified to be of about 0–1% RH at room temperature. Dynamic changes in the electrical resistance

Cubic chemically ordered FeRh and FeCo nanomagnets prepared by mass-selected low-energy cluster-beam deposition: a comparative study

• Veronique Dupuis,
• Anthony Robert,
• Arnaud Hillion,
• Ghassan Khadra,
• Nils Blanc,
• Damien Le Roy,
• Florent Tournus,
• Clement Albin,
• Olivier Boisron and
• Alexandre Tamion

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1850–1860, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.177

• of chemical ordering in the B2 phase for equiatomic AB alloys. The B2 structure can be seen as the imbrication of two simple cubic sub-lattices, each occupied by either A or B atoms (with A = Fe and B = Rh/Co for FeRh/FeCo). Indeed, the structure factor is expected to present two maxima at fA + fB

• spectroscopy experiments at each specific Fe and Rh M edge (respectively the Co L edge), at the “X-Treme” beamline at the Swiss Light Source for the FeRh sample and at the “DEIMOS” beamline at the SOLEIL synchrotron for FeCo for various nanocluster sizes (Figure 9); before and after annealing of the same

• obtained the experimental persistence of high ferromagnetic magnetization down to 3 K for size-selected chemically ordered B2-like FeRh nanocrystals up to 5 nm in diameter. In particular, magnetic measurements on annealed 3.3 nm FeRh samples, have demonstrated ferromagnetic alignment of Fe and Rh at low

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

• degradation of MO under irradiation from natural sun light. Comparison of photocatalytic activities of CdS–ZnO–RGO based nanocomposites for degradation of pollutants, including methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (Rh B) and MO. Acknowledgements We are thankful to Advanced Materials Research Centre (AMRC), IIT