Flexible photonic crystal membranes with nanoparticle high refractive index layers

• Torben Karrock,
• Moritz Paulsen and
• Martina Gerken

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 203–209, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.22

• highly flexible photonic crystal slabs by utilizing nanoreplication of a linear grating nanostructure with a period of 400 nm into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane and subsequent spin coating of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. Investigations with 300 nm and 500 nm gratings lead to similar

• step, high refractive index TiO2 nanoparticles are deposited onto the membrane by spin coating to create the waveguiding layer of the photonic crystal slab. Nanoimprint of PDMS membranes Nanoimprint is an easy, low-cost fabrication technique for high throughput and high resolution replication of large

• is used to create the supported membrane. Spin coating of the high index layer The second step to create the flexible photonic crystal membrane is to apply a layer of material with a high refractive index on top of the nanostructure to form a structured waveguide. We used TiO2 nanoparticles (titanium

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

• its low band gap and large optical absorption [20][21] in the visible and IR spectral range. This material has also encouraged theoretical studies due to its peculiarities related to the hydrogen insertion. In the case of TiO2 nanoparticles, hydrogen induces the amorphization of a layer at the surface

• /cm2. A schematic representation of the sample preparation procedure is shown in Figure 1. During laser irradiation, TiO2 nanoparticles were obtained in solution, as also reported in a previous publication [24][26], and a thin black layer of TiOx was formed on the top of the Ti foil (Figure 1a). The

Electric field induced structural colour tuning of a silver/titanium dioxide nanoparticle one-dimensional photonic crystal

• Eduardo Aluicio-Sarduy,
• Simone Callegari,
• Diana Gisell Figueroa del Valle,
• Andrea Desii,
• Ilka Kriegel and
• Francesco Scotognella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1404–1410, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.131

• nanoparticles and titanium dioxide nanoparticles deposited on top of an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. A scheme of the photonic crystal is shown in Figure 1. The silver nanoparticles have a diameter of about 50 nm, while the TiO2 nanoparticles are smaller than 15 nm. The surface topography and phase atomic

• of a more compact layer with a reduced surface roughness is most probably a result of the small TiO2 nanoparticles deposited onto the Ag films, which fill the empty voids between the Ag aggregates and promote a certain degree of intermixing between the two different types of nanoparticles at the Ag

High antiviral effect of TiO₂·PL–DNA nanocomposites targeted to conservative regions of (−)RNA and (+)RNA of influenza A virus in cell culture

• Asya S. Levina,
• Marina N. Repkova,
• Elena V. Bessudnova,
• Ekaterina I. Filippova,
• Natalia A. Mazurkova and
• Valentina F. Zarytova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1166–1173, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.108

• previously proposed the TiO2·PL–DNA system [17], where oligonucleotides were noncovalently immobilized on TiO2 nanoparticles through the polylysine (PL) linker. It was shown that TiO2·PL–DNA nanocomposites can penetrate into cells without any additional treatment (i.e., transfection agents or physical impact

• noncovalently immobilized on TiO2 nanoparticles (≈5 nm in diameter) in the anatase form [17] due to the affinity of polylysine to the TiO2 surface. This affinity can be explained in all likelihood by the electrostatic interaction between the positively charged amino groups of PL and the negatively charged TiO2

• surface at neutral pH [22]. Since the PL–DNA conjugate contains a 100-fold excess of the amino groups over an oligonucleotide [17], the majority of the amino groups are free to interact with the negatively charged surface of the TiO2 nanoparticles. The resultant TiO2·PL–DNA nanocomposite was used to

Manufacturing and investigation of physical properties of polyacrylonitrile nanofibre composites with SiO₂, TiO₂ and Bi₂O₃ nanoparticles

• Tomasz Tański,
• Wiktor Matysiak and
• Barbara Hajduk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1141–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.106

• , thermal and tribological design properties of the obtained composite materials can be controlled. The studies carried out hitherto have shown [14][15][16][17] that using SiO2 or TiO2 nanoparticles in a polymer matrix as the reinforcing phase (in the case of SiO2 even amounts as low as 1 wt % and without

• distance between the electrodes was changed between 12.5 and 20.0 cm. Finally, four types of fibrous mats were obtained: (I) PAN polymer nanofibres, (II) PAN composite nanofibres reinforced with 4, 8 and 12 wt % TiO2 nanoparticles, (III) PAN composite nanofibres reinforced with 4, 8 and 12 wt % Bi2O

• results of the ellipsometry and UV–vis analyses are characterised by high accuracy and low error. Results and Discussion 1 Structural analysis of the nanoparticles The diffractogram of the TiO2 nanoparticles (Figure 2) shows diffraction lines characteristic for a tetragonal rutile (space group P42/mnm, 98

Nanoinformatics for environmental health and biomedicine

• Rong Liu and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2449–2451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.253

• components calculated from nanoparticle size and surface properties using Kriging estimations [14]. Another contribution reports on the development of models to predict the cytotoxicity of PAMAM dendrimers using molecular descriptors [15]. Nanomaterials that have potential to cause disease (e.g., TiO2

• nanoparticles, carbon black, and carbon nanotubes) were also identified using biclustering of gene expression data and gene set enrichment analysis methods [16]. Various visual analytical approaches (e.g., bipartite graphs, log-ratio analysis, and multidimensional scaling) are demonstrated in another study for

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

• the insignificant enhancement of MB discoloration. Conclusion This study addressed the photocatalysis performance of suspended catalysts in an aggregated state. In particular, we examined to what degree the state of dispersion of aggregated TiO2 nanoparticles (P25) affects the photodegradation of

Effect of SiN_x diffusion barrier thickness on the structural properties and photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ films obtained by sol–gel dip coating and reactive magnetron sputtering

• Mohamed Nawfal Ghazzal,
• Eric Aubry,
• Nouari Chaoui and
• Didier Robert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2039–2045, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.207

• grown on the SLG. The grain size appeared to be reduced and the thickness of the SiNx barrier decreased. The evolution of the grain size of TiO2 nanoparticles is also confirmed by the results extracted from the XRD patterns (Figure 5a). The film thickness, estimated from the cross section, indicates

Experimental determination of the light-trapping-induced absorption enhancement factor in DSSC photoanodes

• Serena Gagliardi and
• Mauro Falconieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 886–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.91

• average diameter of the TiO2 nanoparticles contained in the photoanode fabricated in this work (17.5 nm). The large differences in the short-circuit current density obtained in the presence or absence of light trapping underlines that (a) considering light diffusion in porous titania electrodes is

• star represents the value of the current density calculated for the case of experimentally determined light trapping using the average diameter of the TiO2 nanoparticles. Example of a J–V characteristic of a DSSC based on the studied PA; the photovoltaic parameters are also reported. Acknowledgements

Tm-doped TiO₂ and Tm₂Ti₂O₇ pyrochlore nanoparticles: enhancing the photocatalytic activity of rutile with a pyrochlore phase

• Desiré M. De los Santos,
• Javier Navas,
• Teresa Aguilar,
• Antonio Sánchez-Coronilla,
• Concha Fernández-Lorenzo,
• Rodrigo Alcántara,
• Jose Carlos Piñero,
• Ginesa Blanco and
• Joaquín Martín-Calleja

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 605–616, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.62

• Departamento de Ciencias de los Materiales, Ingeniería Metalúrgica y Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Cádiz, E-11510 Puerto Real (Cádiz), Spain 10.3762/bjnano.6.62 Abstract Tm-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized using a water-controlled hydrolysis reaction. Analysis was performed

• study, Tm-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized using a water-controlled hydrolysis reaction. The effect of the dopant concentration and the annealing temperature on the resulting phase, crystallinity, and electronic and optical properties was analyzed. A pyrochlore phase (Tm2Ti2O7) was observed in

• sonication (130 W, 20 Hz) to titanium(IV) isopropoxide (10 mL, purity 97%, Sigma-Aldrich) for 5 min. To synthesize pure TiO2 nanoparticles, only water (7 mL) was added. The reaction conditions were 323 K and pH 4. The solvent was evaporated by means of a progressive increase in the oven temperature until the

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

• through Pd NPs onto anatase TiO2 for the enhancement of visible-light-driven photocatalysis. Results and Discussion Synthesis of Pd/TiO2 through solar-assisted photodeposition The Pd/TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized through photodeposition using solar energy. The irradiation with sunlight was

Hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells: polymeric nanoparticle uptake and lineage differentiation

• Ivonne Brüstle,
• Thomas Simmet,
• Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus,
• Katharina Landfester and
• Volker Mailänder

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 383–395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.38

• from toxicity as Liu et al. demonstrated that even for toxic nanoparticles, differentiation may not be affected [34] while Hou et al. showed that TiO2 nanoparticles do affect viability and differentiation [35]. To explore whether the particles could disrupt the differentiation process, the

Carbon-based smart nanomaterials in biomedicine and neuroengineering

• Antonina M. Monaco and
• Michele Giugliano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1849–1863, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.196

• -regulated for hNSCs grown on graphene. Akhavan et al. [145] studied the differentiation of hNSCs on GO nanogrids deposited on a substrate made of TiO2 nanoparticles over SiO2, which made them photosensitive. The authors observed an increase in cell growth and alignment along the geometrical pattern of the

Biocompatibility of cerium dioxide and silicon dioxide nanoparticles with endothelial cells

• Claudia Strobel,
• Martin Förster and
• Ingrid Hilger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1795–1807, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.190

• also known for other metal oxide nanoparticles, such as TiO2 nanoparticles [34] or iron oxide nanoparticles [35]. This indicates that the peri-nuclear accumulation is not dependent on the nanoparticle chemistry. Although the concentration-dependent nanoparticle exposure revealed no obvious differences

Organic and inorganic–organic thin film structures by molecular layer deposition: A review

• Pia Sundberg and
• Maarit Karppinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1104–1136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.123

DFT study of binding and electron transfer from colorless aromatic pollutants to a TiO₂ nanocluster: Application to photocatalytic degradation under visible light irradiation

• Corneliu I. Oprea,
• Petre Panait and
• Mihai A. Gîrţu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1016–1030, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.115

• are in place. We model TiO2 nanoparticles by a geometry optimized cluster with the molecular formula Ti24O50H4. Prior to optimization, the cluster was cut from the experimental anatase structure with (101) and (001) surfaces [44]. The optimization led to some slight distortions from the lattice

Functionalized nanostructures for enhanced photocatalytic performance under solar light

• Liejin Guo,
• Dengwei Jing,
• Maochang Liu,
• Yubin Chen,
• Shaohua Shen,
• Jinwen Shi and
• Kai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 994–1004, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.113

• significantly affect the photocatalytic process. For example, Jang and co-workers reported that bulky CdS decorated with TiO2 nanoparticles was much more active than bulky TiO2 decorated with CdS nanoparticles [32]. We have prepared CdS/titanate nanotubes (CdS/TNTs) photocatalysts with a unique morphology by a

Growth and characterization of CNT–TiO₂ heterostructures

• Yucheng Zhang,
• Ivo Utke,
• Johann Michler,
• Gabriele Ilari,
• Marta D. Rossell and
• Rolf Erni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 946–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.108

• layer deposition (ALD) has recently been used to deposit TiO2 nanoparticles on CNTs in a controllable fashion. Characterization of the interface will help to understand the mechanisms, and requires techniques capable of revealing structural details on a nanometer and atomic scale, for which electron

Optical modeling-assisted characterization of dye-sensitized solar cells using TiO₂ nanotube arrays as photoanodes

• Jung-Ho Yun,
• Il Ku Kim,
• Yun Hau Ng,
• Lianzhou Wang and
• Rose Amal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 895–902, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.102

• TiO2 nanoparticles, vertically well-ordered TNT-based DSSCs presented an enhanced electron transport by efficiently reducing the recombination possibility of photogenerated charge carriers through minimizing the trapping sites that normally exist in the grain boundaries of randomly oriented TiO2

Enhancement of photocatalytic H₂ evolution of eosin Y-sensitized reduced graphene oxide through a simple photoreaction

• Weiying Zhang,
• Yuexiang Li,
• Shaoqin Peng and
• Xiang Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 801–811, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.92

• composites, a nanographene shell on a TiO2 core and TiO2 nanoparticles on a graphene sheet, exhibit a higher photocatalytic H2 evolution than TiO2 under UV irradiation. This can be attributed to an efficient electron transfer from TiO2 to graphene [9][10]. Interestingly, single reduced graphene oxide itself

Antimicrobial properties of CuO nanorods and multi-armed nanoparticles against B. anthracis vegetative cells and endospores

• Pratibha Pandey,
• Merwyn S. Packiyaraj,
• Himangini Nigam,
• Gauri S. Agarwal,
• Beer Singh and
• Manoj K. Patra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 789–800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.91

• deadly B. anthracis spores and vegetative cells. However the limited work still underscores the potential of a nanomaterial-mediated decontamination of BW agents. Prasad et al. [13] have reported some degree of deactivation of B. anthracis cells by UV light assisted TiO2 nanoparticles at a dosage ranging

Manipulation of isolated brain nerve terminals by an external magnetic field using D-mannose-coated γ-Fe₂O₃ nano-sized particles and assessment of their effects on glutamate transport

• Tatiana Borisova,
• Natalia Krisanova,
• Arsenii Borуsov,
• Roman Sivko,
• Ludmila Ostapchenko,
• Michal Babic and
• Daniel Horak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 778–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.90

• directly influence intracellular proteins, organelles, and DNA within the cells that may cause the development of neurotoxic effects [2][28]. It was shown that TiO2 nanoparticles induced an increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein, producing positive astrocytes in the CA4 region, which correlated with

• have a potential to cross the blood brain barrier that may open new ways for drug delivery into the brain [22]. Cobalt ferrite nanoparticles coated by silica, with a size of 50 nm, were found in the brain after being administered via an intravenous injection in mice [23]. After exposure of mice to TiO2

• nanoparticles, they were found in the brain [24]. Nanoparticles instilled intranasally may target the central nervous system by formation of deposits of the particles on the olfactory mucosa of the nasopharyngeal region of the respiratory tract and their subsequent translocation via the olfactory nerve. One

Nanostructure sensitization of transition metal oxides for visible-light photocatalysis

• Hongjun Chen and
• Lianzhou Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 696–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.82

• ][44], CdTe quantum dot monolayer sensitized ZnO nanowire [45], CdS nanoparticle/ZnO nanowire array [46][47], CdS/ TiO2 nanofibers heteroarchitectures [48], ZnO/CdS core/shell nanowire [49], CdS nanowires decorated with TiO2 nanoparticles [50], and their potential applications for photoelectrochemical

• quantum dots and TiO2 nanoparticles on the electron injection from photoexcited CdS to TiO2 [54]. They found the electron injection yield decreased with increasing chain length of the linker and interparticle separation. Parkinson et al. compared the in situ ligand exchange method and the ex situ ligand

• spectra between transition metal oxides and gold nanoparticles. Due to N-doping and N- and F-impurities generated in the anodization process, the N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles and TiO2 nanotubes have absorption spectra in the visible range and show an overlap with that of gold nanoparticles. Therefore, when

A visible-light-driven composite photocatalyst of TiO₂ nanotube arrays and graphene quantum dots

• Donald K. L. Chan,
• Po Ling Cheung and
• Jimmy C. Yu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 689–695, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.81

• confinement and edge effects, GQDs possess a size-dependent band gap and other interesting properties [29][30]. In recent years, GQDs have been explored for their potential applications in bioimaging [31], sensing [32], photovoltaics [33][34]. Besides, they have been coupled with TiO2 nanoparticles to achieve

Quantum size effects in TiO₂ thin films grown by atomic layer deposition

• Massimo Tallarida,
• Chittaranjan Das and
• Dieter Schmeisser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 77–82, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.7

• ]. Recently, TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with an average diameter of 2 nm showed quantum size effects on unoccupied states [10], which involved the hybridization of Ti 3d and Ti 4s orbitals with O 2p orbitals in covalent bonds. The conformal growth of ALD gives the possibility of having homogeneous films below 2