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

• of switching cycles [10][11]. The operation at low on-state voltages is typically achieved by coating of Si or Ge NEM elements with some other conductive material like Au or Au alloys, Pt or amorphous carbon (aC) [9][61]. For example, coating Si NWs with metal (Au/Al) resulted in an improvement of

• the on/off current ratio by an order of magnitude [9], but coating of a Si-based NEM switch with amorphous carbon (aC) (Figure 11b) [61] allowed more than 108 switching cycles to be achieved. An alternative method of lowering the on-state voltage range is removing the native oxide layer from the

Gas-assisted silver deposition with a focused electron beam

• Luisa Berger,
• Katarzyna Madajska,
• Iwona B. Szymanska,
• Katja Höflich,
• Mikhail N. Polyakov,
• Jakub Jurczyk,
• Carlos Guerra-Nuñez and
• Ivo Utke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 224–232, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.24

• ± 0.05) × 103 μΩ·cm, is approximately 500 times better than amorphous carbon (a-C) with low amounts of silver particles a-C/Ag (1 atom %) [22]. This can be attributed to the higher silver content of our FEBID line (Table 1). The Raman spectra in Figure 5c show the sp3 and sp2 bands at 1373 cm−1 and 1591

• of amorphous carbon and about 1000 times larger than that of pure silver. Scanning electron micrographs of deposits from AgO2CC2F5 on bulk 200 nm SiO2/Si using a 25 keV/0.25 nA primary electron beam. (a) Spot deposit and close up of central area, (b) line deposit lineXENOS and close up of central

Comparative study of post-growth annealing of Cu(hfac)₂, Co₂(CO)₈ and Me₂Au(acac) metal precursors deposited by FEBID

• Marcos V. Puydinger dos Santos,
• Aleksandra Szkudlarek,
• Artur Rydosz,
• Carlos Guerra-Nuñez,
• Fanny Béron,
• Kleber R. Pirota,
• Stanislav Moshkalev,
• José Alexandre Diniz and
• Ivo Utke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 91–101, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.11

• ) (Figure 3d,e). The thermal conversion of amorphous carbon into graphite during FEBID using hydrocarbon compounds without a central metal atom has been previously reported by both Fedorov et al. [56] and Kulkarni and co-workers [57]. The rising D band peak accounts for the increase of boundaries, which

• turns the amorphous carbon into polycrystalline graphite. According to Tuinstra et al. [58], Robertson [59] and Ferrari and co-workers [60], both the G band shift and the integrated intensity ratio allow for the determination of the in-plane correlation length, or of the grain size of graphitic

• FEBID material, respectively, before monotonically increasing up to 1.64, 1.51 and 1.39, respectively, after annealing at 300 °C. According to the Tuinstra–Koenig relationship [58][59][61], values of around 0.5 represent mainly disordered (amorphous) carbon. Therefore, it mainly represents the carbon

Localized growth of carbon nanotubes via lithographic fabrication of metallic deposits

• Fan Tu,
• Martin Drost,
• Imre Szenti,
• Janos Kiss,
• Zoltan Kónya and
• Hubertus Marbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2592–2605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.260

• the bulk material dominates the detected EDX signals. For example, the penetration depth, d, of the focused electron beam with a primary energy of 10 keV within amorphous carbon or silicon can be estimated to be in the range of 1.8 µm by the following equation [44]: d (μm) = 0.1E1.5/ρ, where E is the

PTFE-based microreactor system for the continuous synthesis of full-visible-spectrum emitting cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals

• Chengxi Zhang,
• Weiling Luan,
• Yuhang Yin and
• Fuqian Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2521–2529, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.252

• rhodamine 6G (QY = 95% in ethanol [40]). HRTEM images were taken on a TEM (JEM-2100F, Jeol, USA) operated at 200 kV, and the sample was prepared by dipping an amorphous carbon–copper grid in a dilute n-hexane dispersed QD solution. The sample was then left to evaporate at room temperature. X-ray diffraction

Preparation and characterization of polycarbonate/multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposites

• Claudio Larosa,
• Niranjan Patra,
• Marco Salerno,
• Lara Mikac,
• Remo Merijs Meri and
• Mile Ivanda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2026–2031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.203

• , indicating that the nanocomposite is free from any absorbed solvent or moisture. The major mass loss of around 80% occurred from 400 to 525 °C, and is due to the decomposition of the polymer matrix. The residual mass of 20% is comprised of both the MWCNTs and the amorphous carbon, which obviously comes from

Process-specific mechanisms of vertically oriented graphene growth in plasmas

• Subrata Ghosh,
• Shyamal R. Polaki,
• Niranjan Kumar,
• Sankarakumar Amirthapandian,
• Mohamed Kamruddin and
• Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1658–1670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.166

• growth is initiated with a buffer layer consisting of amorphous carbon and carbon onion structures, nanographitic (NG) island formation, or through carbide formation. The factors responsible for the vertical growth are stress relaxation through NG islands, inherent electric field and thermophoretic force

• the plasma is high and plasma-generated carbon species attach to the reactive edges of the vertical sheets through chemisorption and diffusion, thus promoting the growth of crystalline sheets. In contrast, hydrogen species, mostly radicals, chemically etch the small flakes and amorphous carbon, which

Fixation mechanisms of nanoparticles on substrates by electron beam irradiation

• Daichi Morioka,
• Tomohiro Nose,
• Taiki Chikuta,
• Kazutaka Mitsuishi and
• Masayuki Shimojo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1523–1529, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.153

• located around the particle into amorphous carbon. The amorphous carbon immobilizes the particle on the substrate. Finally, the unfixed nanoparticles are removed. However, in this original technique, the area in which the nanoparticles were fixed was wider than the electron-probe size of a few nanometers

• gold nanoparticles are fixed on the substrate by electron beam irradiation. Finally, the unfixed nanoparticles are removed. In the second step, the organic molecules (e.g. citrate) surrounding the nanoparticles are decomposed to amorphous carbon, and this amorphous carbon existing in the gap between

Characterization of ferrite nanoparticles for preparation of biocomposites

• Urszula Klekotka,
• Magdalena Rogowska,
• Dariusz Satuła and
• Beata Kalska-Szostko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1257–1265, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.127

• grid covered with an amorphous carbon film to provide good support for the particles. Energy dispersive X-ray spectra (EDX) were collected during the TEM measurements. The analysis of the crystal structure was done by X-ray diffraction (XRD) on an Agilent Technologies SuperNova diffractometer with a Mo

Investigation of growth dynamics of carbon nanotubes

• Marianna V. Kharlamova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 826–856, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.85

3D Nanoprinting via laser-assisted electron beam induced deposition: growth kinetics, enhanced purity, and electrical resistivity

• Brett B. Lewis,
• Robert Winkler,
• Xiahan Sang,
• Pushpa R. Pudasaini,
• Michael G. Stanford,
• Harald Plank,
• Raymond R. Unocic,
• Jason D. Fowlkes and
• Philip D. Rack

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 801–812, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.83

• resemble that of amorphous carbon [68]. Following the laser treatment, the characteristic π* and σ* peaks have sharper spectral features, indicating that the carbon has been transformed from amorphous to graphitic. The laser treatment thus induces C phase transformation from amorphous to graphite, which is

• conditions. For reference, bulk platinum has a resistivity on the order of 11 µΩ·cm. As shown in Figure 3a deposits grown using the MeCpPt(IV)Me3 precursor have a microstructure that consists of nanocrystalline platinum grains embedded in an amorphous carbon matrix which is consistent with many previous

• the resultant calculated resistivity versus electron beam dwell time for various EBID conditions. Purification of the nanobridges can be qualitatively indicated by their resistivity. Lower resistivity corresponds to a higher platinum concentration as well as graphitization of the amorphous carbon

Ion beam profiling from the interaction with a freestanding 2D layer

• Ivan Shorubalko,
• Kyoungjun Choi,
• Michael Stiefel and
• Hyung Gyu Park

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 682–687, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.73

• molecules, these will decompose during the ion beam irradiation or exposure to secondary electrons and will deposit as amorphous carbon on the graphene surface competing with the sputtering process. This will result in an incorrect determination of dwell time and false beam profile curves. The second

Liquid permeation and chemical stability of anodic alumina membranes

• Dmitrii I. Petukhov,
• Dmitrii A. Buldakov,
• Alexey A. Tishkin,
• Alexey V. Lukashin and
• Andrei A. Eliseev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 561–570, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.60

• error limits; however, slightly better stability of carbon-coated membranes was noticed. Therefore, both the thermal treatment procedure and the CVD coating of the membrane with an amorphous carbon results in the stabilization of AAO membranes towards dissolution in water. This therefore allows 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

• , compound 8 and 9 (see Figure 3). Generally, CNMs show two main bands in their Raman spectra: one at ≈1580 cm−1 (G band) related to sp2 graphitic domain and the second at ≈1360 cm−1 (D band) attributed to the amorphous carbon or deformation vibrations of a hexagonal ring [15]. Raman spectra of ox-MWCNTs 4

Fundamental properties of high-quality carbon nanofoam: from low to high density

• Natalie Frese,
• Shelby Taylor Mitchell,
• Christof Neumann,
• Amanda Bowers,
• Armin Gölzhäuser and
• Klaus Sattler

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2065–2073, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.197

• . A large variety of carbon materials have been investigated by XPS. In particular, XPS reveals important bonding information about carbons with nanoscale units such as carbon nanotubes [31], diamond-like carbon films [32], nanostructured carbon films [33], tetrahedral amorphous carbon films [34

• ], amorphous carbon [35], nanoporous carbon [36], activated carbon [37], or carbon black [38]. In addition, XPS is important for the analysis of chemical structure [39], in particular, for the investigation of the sp2/sp3 hybridization ratio [35]. Results Density We determined the density of the foam by

• carbon (1.8–2.1 g·cm−3), carbon nanotubes (1.6 g cm−3) or diamond (3.515 g·cm−3) [40]. Various types of low-weight carbons have been reported in the literature, with densities typically between 100 and 300 mg·cm−3. Among these are carbon aerogels [41][42][43], amorphous carbon nanoparticles [44][45

Effect of nanostructured carbon coatings on the electrochemical performance of Li_1.4Ni_0.5Mn_0.5O_2+x-based cathode materials

• Konstantin A. Kurilenko,
• Oleg A. Shlyakhtin,
• Oleg A. Brylev,
• Dmitry I. Petukhov and
• Alexey V. Garshev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1960–1970, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.187

• .7.187 Abstract Nanocomposites of Li1.4Ni0.5Mn0.5O2+x and amorphous carbon were obtained by the pyrolysis of linear and cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in presence of Li1.4Ni0.5Mn0.5O2+x. In the case of linear PVA, the formation of nanostructured carbon coatings on Li1.4Ni0.5Mn0.5O2+x particles is

• carbon coatings can be clearly observed on the particle surface as well as amorphous carbon bottlenecks between particles forming a consolidated 3D network (Figure 1B). Concerning the LNM/C composites obtained from cross-linked PVA, the continuous carbonaceous coatings on oxide particles are absent. The

• PVA, the polymer pyrolysis tentatively occurs without preliminary melting. The pyrolysis of PVA particles allocated in the voids between LNM crystallites results in forming mesoporous particulates of amorphous carbon in the interparticular space. Another difference between the pyrolysis products of

Facile fabrication of luminescent organic dots by thermolysis of citric acid in urea melt, and their use for cell staining and polyelectrolyte microcapsule labelling

• Nadezhda M. Zholobak,
• Anton L. Popov,
• Alexander B. Shcherbakov,
• Nelly R. Popova,
• Mykhailo M. Guzyk,
• Valeriy P. Antonovich,
• Alla V. Yegorova,
• Yuliya V. Scrypynets,
• Inna I. Leonenko,
• Alexander Ye. Baranchikov and
• Vladimir K. Ivanov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1905–1917, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.182

• temperature (up to 200 °C) causes the formation of polymerized species forming amorphous carbon dots with partial sp2 hybridization. Song et al. demonstrated [39] that the primary fluorophore of a carbon dot is an independent fluorescent molecule, or possibly a molecule linked to the surface or incorporated

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

• construction [12], we have been able to systematically show that our clusters are nanocrystallized and well-faceted (Figure 2). In order to avoid magnetic interactions among the NPs, the samples are prepared with a cluster concentration of less than 1 vol %. Notice that the amorphous carbon matrix is chosen to

In situ formation of reduced graphene oxide structures in ceria by combined sol–gel and solvothermal processing

• Jingxia Yang,
• Johannes Ofner,
• Bernhard Lendl and
• Ulrich Schubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1815–1821, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.174

• attributed to the D- (1388 cm−1) and the G- (1577 cm−1) band of graphene (Figure 1f). As amorphous carbon shows no D-band [22][23], the organic residues have a graphene-like structure, indicating graphene-like structures in the organic residue. Furthermore, the F2g band of CeO2 was also observed at 461 cm−1

Numerical investigation of depth profiling capabilities of helium and neon ions in ion microscopy

• Patrick Philipp,
• Lukasz Rzeznik and
• Tom Wirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1749–1760, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.168

• surface by disordering the surface structure and forming hydrogenated amorphous carbon [4]. Similarly, Ga+ irradiation of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) results in micro- and nanopatterns with controlled stiffness for potential applications in tissue engineering [5]. Overall, the properties depend on the

• . Finally, a transition of a carbonised phase to an amorphous carbon or graphite-like material occurs [13]. Another interesting field of investigation is the formation of nanoparticles by ion implantation. By adapting the impact energy, the implantation depth can be well controlled, and so the localisation

Improved lithium-ion battery anode capacity with a network of easily fabricated spindle-like carbon nanofibers

• Mengting Liu,
• Wenhe Xie,
• Lili Gu,
• Tianfeng Qin,
• Xiaoyi Hou and
• Deyan He

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1289–1295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.120

• into the amorphous carbon matrix. When directly used as a binder-free anode for lithium-ion batteries, the network showed excellent electrochemical performance with high capacity, good rate capacity and reliable cycling stability. Under a current density of 0.2 A g−1, it delivered a high reversible

• vibration [4][8]. The other two peaks at about 1366 and 1592 cm−1 correspond to the D-band and G-band of disordered carbon and graphitic carbon, respectively. The higher intensity of the D-band means that the amorphous carbon has more defects and can offer more lithium storage sites [8][26]. It also reveals

• that the major component of the obtained beaded nanofiber network is amorphous carbon with a small amount of MnO, which is in accordance with the XRD results. Moreover, an XPS investigation was performed to clarify the elements and their chemical states on the surface of the samples. All the XPS

Mesoporous hollow carbon spheres for lithium–sulfur batteries: distribution of sulfur and electrochemical performance

• Anika C. Juhl,
• Artur Schneider,
• Boris Ufer,
• Torsten Brezesinski,
• Jürgen Janek and
• Michael Fröba

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1229–1240, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.114

• density of liquid sulfur is used again. The density of the carbon is unknown, but as the HCS are obtained by carbonization at 900 °C and the XRD pattern indicates mainly amorphous carbon, the density of amorphous carbon (ρamorphousC = 1.8 g·cm−3) [12] is assumed. This way a sulfur loading of 81 wt % is

• the samples impregnated at ambient pressure (Figure 5a) show that up to a sulfur content of 60 wt % there are only the broad reflections of amorphous carbon visible. In the literature this behavior is attributed to sulfur being dispersed in mesopores, thereby losing its crystallinity [22][40]. For a

Reasons and remedies for the agglomeration of multilayered graphene and carbon nanotubes in polymers

• Rasheed Atif and
• Fawad Inam

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1174–1196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.109

• shortening of CNTs and in the introduction of surface defects at sidewalls [53]. It has been reported that sonication parameters such as time and aggressiveness, if not optimized, may damage the CNTs converting them into amorphous carbon nano-fibers [40]. Calendering: The calender is a three-roll mill that

• discharge can be used to produce MWNTs with very few defects [2] and the production of large quantities is possible at low cost [127]. However, they contain a large amount of impurities such as graphite fragments, amorphous carbon, polyhedral carbon and metal catalyst particles. The carbonaceous impurities

Photocurrent generation in carbon nanotube/cubic-phase HfO₂ nanoparticle hybrid nanocomposites

• Protima Rauwel,
• Augustinas Galeckas,
• Martin Salumaa,
• Frédérique Ducroquet and
• Erwan Rauwel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1075–1085, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.101

• , amorphous carbon and different defects [30][31], generally qualified as either topological or localized. The most common defects are comprised of edges and dangling bonds in addition to pentagonal and heptagonal defects, creating bends in the CNTs known to accommodate foreign atoms in the sp2-hybridized

• increase in the intensity of the 285 eV edge and an even more featureless broad hump starting above 288 eV and extending up to 305 eV due to the C 1s → σ* transition, typical for extremely disordered carbon-carbon bonds. In fact, the smearing of this edge is characteristic of amorphous carbon, similar to

• the C-K edge of the amorphous carbon support of the TEM grid used as a reference, shown in Figure 4b. Moreover, the apparent increase in the integrated area of the π* peak indicates an increase in the sp2 bonding fraction compared to other regions of the CNT and could be attributed to pyrolytic carbon

Signal enhancement in cantilever magnetometry based on a co-resonantly coupled sensor

• Julia Körner,
• Christopher F. Reiche,
• Thomas Gemming,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Gerald Gerlach and
• Thomas Mühl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1033–1043, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.96

• individual nanotube was picked from a forest of FeCNTs grown by chemical vapor deposition [10] by a Kleindiek micromanipulator and placed at the free end of the cantilever. Electron beam-induced deposition of amorphous carbon on the contact point between FeCNT and cantilever ensures a strong attachment of

• the nanotube. Next, amorphous carbon was also deposited at the free end of the FeCNT to lower its resonance frequency from above 2 MHz close to that of the cantilever. Throughout the process of carbon deposition, the oscillation of the FeCNT was observed with SEM to ensure close matching of the two