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

• deposited as a low-resistivity ohmic contact via sputtering. To improve the contact parameters, the samples were annealed at 500 °C for 5 min in argon atmosphere via rapid thermal processing. Si/Al substrates were prepared in two different ways, A and B. On the surface of sample A, zinc oxide nanorods

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

• was first demonstrated by Cybart et al. for the cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO), by scanning the helium ion beam in line mode across 4 μm wide strips of YBCO that had been locally pre-thinned to a thickness of 30 nm using argon ion milling [31]. Due to the high-resolution writing capability

Stability and activity of platinum nanoparticles in the oxygen electroreduction reaction: is size or uniformity of primary importance?

• Kirill O. Paperzh,
• Anastasia A. Alekseenko,
• Vadim A. Volochaev,
• Ilya V. Pankov,
• Olga A. Safronenko and
• Vladimir E. Guterman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 593–606, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.49

• saturated with argon for 40 min. Then, 100 cycles were carried out in the potential range from 0.04 to 1.2 V relative to RHE. The potential sweep speed was 200 mV·s−1. The electrochemically active surface area was determined from the cyclic voltammogram (CV) by calculating the amount of electricity consumed

• of 0.90 V (RHE). The method of multiple voltammetric cycling in the potential range of 0.6–1.0 V (RHE) with a sweep rate of 100 mV·s−1 was chosen as a method for assessing the degree of degradation of the electrocatalysts. The cycling was carried out in a 0.1 M HClO4 solution saturated with argon at

On the stability of microwave-fabricated SERS substrates – chemical and morphological considerations

• Limin Wang,
• Aisha Adebola Womiloju,
• Christiane Höppener,
• Ulrich S. Schubert and
• Stephanie Hoeppener

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 541–551, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.44

• available microscope glass coverslips, cut into rectangles with a dimension of 20 × 10 mm, were used as substrates. The glass substrates were first cleaned by washing with demineralized water and ethanol followed by plasma cleaning (argon plasma, 5 min, Diener Electronics). For all experiments, a single

Boosting of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution via chlorine doping of polymeric carbon nitride

• Malgorzata Aleksandrzak,
• Michalina Kijaczko,
• Wojciech Kukulka,
• Daria Baranowska,
• Martyna Baca,
• Beata Zielinska and
• Ewa Mijowska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 473–484, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.38

• and sonicating for 1 h. The photocatalytic water splitting reaction was carried out in an outer irradiation-type reactor (Pyrex reaction vessel) connected to an argon source. After the reaction solution was placed in the reactor, 5 mL of lactic acid was poured into and purged with argon for air

Solution combustion synthesis of a nanometer-scale Co₃O₄ anode material for Li-ion batteries

• Monika Michalska,
• Huajun Xu,
• Qingmin Shan,
• Shiqiang Zhang,
• Yohan Dall'Agnese,
• Yu Gao,
• Amrita Jain and
• Marcin Krajewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 424–431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.34

• M LiPF6 dissolved in a mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC)/diethyl carbonate (DEC) (weight ratio of 1:1) (DoDoChem). The electrochemical cells were assembled in an argon-filled glove box. Galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) tests were performed between 0.01 and 3 V at different current density rates

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

• 200 to 300 nm, from targets in the form of a disk with 4″ diameter and 0.125″ thickness. SiO2 and ZnO (99.99% purity, Lesker) were individually sintered. Working gases (i.e., argon, 95% and oxygen, 5%) were introduced in the deposition chamber via a circuit provided with flow meters (30 and 1.5 sccm

Nickel nanoparticle-decorated reduced graphene oxide/WO₃ nanocomposite – a promising candidate for gas sensing

• Ilka Simon,
• Alexandr Savitsky,
• Rolf Mülhaupt,
• Vladimir Pankov and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 343–353, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.28

• supported on reduced graphene oxide paves the way for their application as dopant in other metal oxide gas sensors. Experimental Due to the sensitivity of the precursor substances towards moisture and oxidation, all experiments were carried out in a purified argon (grade 99.998 vol %) or nitrogen (grade

• was dried at 100 °C using a turbo molecular pump at 5 × 10−7 mbar for several days. Preparation of Ni@rGO in ionic liquid Nickel nanoparticles on rGO (Ni@rGO) were prepared in septum-sealed 10 mL microwave vessels (CEM GmbH, Germany) in a CEM Discover microwave under argon atmosphere. Ni(COD)2 (49.2

• + WO3 (blue), WO3 (red), and Ni@rGO (black) samples under exposure to a gas mixture containing 10 ppm NO2 in air. Left: magnetization as a function of temperature for the Ni@rGO composite in argon atmosphere. Right: magnetic susceptibility as a function of temperature for nickel in argon atmosphere

Exploring the fabrication and transfer mechanism of metallic nanostructures on carbon nanomembranes via focused electron beam induced processing

• Christian Preischl,
• Linh Hoang Le,
• Elif Bilgilisoy,
• Armin Gölzhäuser and
• Hubertus Marbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 319–329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.26

• CHEMICALS, 99.9%). The precursor 1,1′,4′,1′′-terphenyl-4-thiol (TPT) (Sigma-Aldrich, 97%) was sublimated before use. Preparation of SAMs/Ag follows the wet method for the analogous SAMs/Au as described elsewhere [26]. Silver substrates were immersed in a ca. 1 mM TPT solution under argon environment for 24

• h at 70 °C. Then, a repetition of rinsing in DMF and ethanol was applied to the samples in order to remove physically absorbed TPT molecules. The samples were consequently dried by a stream of nitrogen gas and preserved in argon environment until use in FEBID experiments. The FEBIP experiments were

A review on the green and sustainable synthesis of silver nanoparticles and one-dimensional silver nanostructures

• Sina Kaabipour and
• Shohreh Hemmati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 102–136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.9

• chamber where the metal of interest is vaporized into a low-density gas phase, becomes supersaturated by decreasing temperature, and then is condensed to form nuclei which then grow into nanoparticles [113][137]. The chamber gas usually contains an inert gas such as helium or argon [113][224]. AgNPs

Fusion of purple membranes triggered by immobilization on carbon nanomembranes

• René Riedel,
• Natalie Frese,
• Fang Yang,
• Martin Wortmann,
• Raphael Dalpke,
• Daniel Rhinow,
• Norbert Hampp and
• Armin Gölzhäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 93–101, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.8

• . Afterwards the sample was rinsed with ethanol, dried in a stream of nitrogen, and stored under argon gas. Sample characterization X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been conducted in an Omicron Multiprobe UHV system (Scienta Omicron GmbH, Taunusstein, Germany) using monochromatic Al Kα irradiation, a

Effect of different silica coatings on the toxicity of upconversion nanoparticles on RAW 264.7 macrophage cells

• Cynthia Kembuan,
• Helena Oliveira and
• Christina Graf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 35–48, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.3

• (30% v/v) were added, respectively. The mixture was stirred overnight under argon atmosphere, followed by heating under reflux for 1 h. For the particles with thicker silica coating, 1.5 mL (c = 20 g/L in ethanol, particle mass = 30 mg) of the dispersion was diluted to c = 1 g/L and reacted with 25 µL

Atomic layer deposited films of Al₂O₃ on fluorine-doped tin oxide electrodes: stability and barrier properties

• Hana Krýsová,
• Michael Neumann-Spallart,
• Hana Tarábková,
• Pavel Janda,
• Ladislav Kavan and
• Josef Krýsa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 24–34, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.2

• , and water and dried in a stream of argon. Si(100) wafers with a 300 nm thick thermal oxide layer (Silicon Quest International, USA) were treated successively with acetone/ethanol/water. Al2O3 films were grown by using an ALD system R200 (Picosun, Finland) in the thermal mode with varying numbers of

Towards 3D self-assembled rolled multiwall carbon nanotube structures by spontaneous peel off

• Jonathan Quinson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1865–1872, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.168

• prepared by following a general approach detailed recently [16]. MWCNTs were synthesized at 800 °C with argon (Ar, 99.999%, BOC) as the carrier flow using an AACVD setup [12][23]. Briefly, MWCNTs were grown on silicon wafer substrates (10 × 20 mm2, Sibert, UK) by using an aerosol CVD setup consisting of a

• (≥99.995%, BOC) at 30 sccm in an argon flow for 20 min. For this last step, the injection of toluene and ferrocene mixture was stopped. The catalyst for the formation of MWCNTs was formed from the initially introduced ferrocene precursor [21]. In a second approach, the synthesis to obtain C1/N2/C3/N4

Oxidation of Au/Ag films by oxygen plasma: phase separation and generation of nanoporosity

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Said A. Mansour,
• Mujaheed Pasha,
• Atef Zekri,
• Janarthanan Ponraj,
• Akshath Shetty and
• Yousef Haik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1608–1614, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.143

• speed and no intentional heating was applied to the substrate during the procedure. To ensure a proper adhesion of the Au/Ag alloy films, prior to each deposition a ≈100 nm thick chromium layer was deposited by sputtering of a chromium target (99.99% in purity), under pure argon atmosphere at 10 mT, for

Helium ion microscope – secondary ion mass spectrometry for geological materials

• Matthew R. Ball,
• Richard J. M. Taylor,
• Joshua F. Einsle,
• Fouzia Khanom,
• Christelle Guillermier and
• Richard J. Harrison

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1504–1515, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.133

• extended to the heavier noble gas neon [2] and may be applicable for even heavier noble gases such as argon. Whilst the HIM was shown to achieve exceptional imaging resolution using secondary electrons generated by the primary ion beam [3][4][5][6], it lacked microanalytical capabilities. There were

One-step synthesis of carbon-supported electrocatalysts

• Sebastian Tigges,
• Nicolas Wöhrl,
• Ivan Radev,
• Ulrich Hagemann,
• Markus Heidelmann,
• Thai Binh Nguyen,
• Stanislav Gorelkov,
• Stephan Schulz and
• Axel Lorke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1419–1431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.126

• illustrated in Figure 1. For details on the experimental procedures, see the Experimental section. A typical CNW sheet of a sample processed at 8 Pa chamber pressure, 60 sccm argon carrier gas flow rate, and 350 °C substrate temperature is shown in a bright-field transmission electron microscope (TEM

• to <5 × 10−6 mbar before the deposition process. The precursor was evaporated at a constant temperature of 128 °C, and argon flow was used to carry the precursor into the reaction zone of the plasma. The precursor flow rate was determined as constant at approimately 0.1 ± 0.01 sccm, which was found

• ionic species from the plasma onto the substrate. The chamber pressure, argon carrier gas flow rate, substrate temperature, and gas composition were adjusted, as stated in the Results and Discussion section. The plasma properties were monitored in situ by optical emission spectroscopy (see Supporting

Controlling the proximity effect in a Co/Nb multilayer: the properties of electronic transport

• Sergey Bakurskiy,
• Mikhail Kupriyanov,
• Nikolay V. Klenov,
• Igor Soloviev,
• Andrey Schegolev,
• Roman Morari,
• Yury Khaydukov and
• Anatoli S. Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1336–1345, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.118

• transport measurements was etched under pure argon atmosphere (Ar+ milling) in a CRYO RIE Alba Nova machine (Stockholm University). The patterned design allowed for a four-point type measurement of six segments of the sample in one cooling cycle (Figure 4). The pair of contacts was applied for setting the

Effect of localized helium ion irradiation on the performance of synthetic monolayer MoS₂ field-effect transistors

• Jakub Jadwiszczak,
• Pierce Maguire,
• Conor P. Cullen,
• Georg S. Duesberg and
• Hongzhou Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1329–1335, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.117

• the deposited metal–semiconductor contact interface. Recent work has shown that irradiation-induced heating of the electrode area can reverse majority carrier polarity in MoTe2 [31], while pre-treatment with a broad-beam argon ion source can decrease the contact resistance of Ni-MoS2 two-fold [32]. In

Role of redox-active axial ligands of metal porphyrins adsorbed at solid–liquid interfaces in a liquid-STM setup

• Thomas Habets,
• Sylvia Speller and
• Johannes A. A. W. Elemans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1264–1271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.110

• ] were synthesized according to literature procedures. Synthesis of MnTUPOAc A solution of the free ligand TUP [7] (50 mg, 0.054 mmol) and Mn(OAc)2·4H2O (52 mg, 0.21 mmol) in argon-purged DMF (5 mL) was stirred and heated at reflux under argon for 3 h. After cooling, the solvent was evaporated and the

• Au(111)–n-tetradecane interface; the light blue spots are the native MnTUPCl molecules, the red spots their respective Mn=O complexes; left image: in argon atmosphere, a few Mn=O species are present; right image: in oxygen atmosphere, more Mn=O species have been formed. The color bar on the right

Magnetic-field-assisted synthesis of anisotropic iron oxide particles: Effect of pH

• Andrey V. Shibaev,
• Petr V. Shvets,
• Darya E. Kessel,
• Roman A. Kamyshinsky,
• Anton S. Orekhov,
• Sergey S. Abramchuk,
• Alexei R. Khokhlov and
• Olga E. Philippova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1230–1241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.107

• dissolving 1 M FeCl3 and 0.5 M FeSO4 in 0.1 M HCl under magnetic stirring. In order to prevent the oxidation of Fe2+ ions, the solution was degassed by purging with argon for 5 min. For the synthesis, the reverse co-precipitation method was used in a similar manner as previously described [30]: 2 mL of the

• iron ion solution were quickly added to a 5 mL of the NaOH solution of an appropriate concentration under stirring, upon a static magnetic field of 0.4 T and constant purging of argon. The magnetic field was applied during the whole synthesis procedure. The intensity of the magnetic field (0.4 T) was

Gas sorption porosimetry for the evaluation of hard carbons as anodes for Li- and Na-ion batteries

• Yuko Matsukawa,
• Fabian Linsenmann,
• Maximilian A. Plass,
• George Hasegawa,
• Katsuro Hayashi and
• Tim-Patrick Fellinger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1217–1229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.106

• precursor overnight at 70 °C under vacuum, it was carbonized in a tube furnace with argon flow at a rate of higher than 0.5 L min−1 at 1000 °C for 1, 5, or 10 h. The carbons produced by this hydrothermal method (HT carbons) will be called HTx, where x is an integer. The synthesis conditions (temperature of

• hydrothermal treatment and carbonization time under argon flow) are listed in Table 2. Preparation of carbons from resorcinol-formaldehyde gels Porous carbon monoliths were obtained by carbonization of resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF) gels obtained via a sol–gel process as previously reported [28][29]. In short

• carbonized at 1000 or 1600 °C for 2 h in a stream of argon gas (1 L min−1). The carbon samples derived from RF gels (RF carbons) were labeled with the carbonization temperature, namely RF-1000 and RF-1600. Characterization Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements and Raman spectroscopy were employed to

Straightforward synthesis of gold nanoparticles by adding water to an engineered small dendrimer

• Sébastien Gottis,
• Régis Laurent,
• Vincent Collière and
• Anne-Marie Caminade

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1110–1118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.95

• was used as purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). AuCl(tht) was synthesized according to a published procedure [69]. Compound 1 was synthesized as previously reported [37]. All reactions were carried out under an argon atmosphere using the standard Schlenk techniques. All the solvents

• used for the NMR assignments is depicted in Figure 5. Synthesis and characterization of dendrimer complex 2 107 mg (9.79 × 10−2 mmol) of 1 and 73.31 mg (0.229 mmol; 2.3 equiv) of AuCl(tht) (in dry CH2Cl2) were solubilized in a 10 mL round-bottom flask under argon atmosphere at room temperature. The

• under an argon atmosphere. The solvent was then evaporated and the crude product was washed twice with 25 mL of CHCl3. 1.548 g (quantitative yield) of 3 were obtained as a white powder. 31P {1H} NMR (121 MHz, D2O) 21.3 (d, 2JPP = 29 Hz, P=N), 50.6 (d, 2JPP = 29 Hz, P=S); 1H NMR (300 MHz, DMSO-d6) 1.28

A few-layer graphene/chlorin e6 hybrid nanomaterial and its application in photodynamic therapy against Candida albicans

• Selene Acosta,
• Carlos Moreno-Aguilar,
• Dania Hernández-Sánchez,
• Beatriz Morales-Cruzado,
• Erick Sarmiento-Gomez,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Luis Octavio Sánchez-Vargas and
• Mildred Quintana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1054–1061, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.90

• measurements, dual beam charge neutralization composed of an electron gun (≈1 eV) and an argon ion gun (≤10 eV) was used. The XPS spectra were deconvoluted using commercially available software (CASA-XPS). TEM images were obtained using a JEOL JEM-2100 instrument with a voltage acceleration of 200 kV. The

Gas-sensing features of nanostructured tellurium thin films

• Dumitru Tsiulyanu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1010–1018, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.85

• . Subsequent studies showed that it was possible to increase the concentration range sensitivity to more than 300 ppm NO2 by growing single-crystalline microtubes. In order to do that, Te metal was evaporated onto quartz substrates under an inert argon gas at ambient pressure [7]. Later, it was also found that

• galvanic displacement of sacrificial cobalt nanowires were employed [15]. Lastly, to grow one-dimensional nanostructures, either template-free electrodeposition of Te, from an ionic liquid binary mixture [16], or thermal evaporation in a furnace under argon gas flow [17] were strategies utilized. The

• sensing parameters did not differ much from the similar parameters obtained earlier for microcrystalline Te films. Further investigations have been extended to Te nanotubes grown on quartz or Si(111) substrates through a catalyst-free growing process in a furnace filled with argon [21]. Another study used