Synthesis of hydrophobic photoluminescent carbon nanodots by using L-tyrosine and citric acid through a thermal oxidation route

• Venkatesh Gude

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1513–1522, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.164

• quantum yield of the mixture of CNDs [37]. Another interesting optical property of these tyrosine-passivated CNDs is upconversion photoluminescence (UCPL) when irradiated with wavelengths above 500 nm, which is very important for applications as photocatalyst and for light harvesting applications [2][5

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

• ; Introduction Owing to its chemical durability, non-toxicity, and abundance, TiO2 has attracted great attention as a good photoelectrode material in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) [1][2]. In particular, the light harvesting capacity and dye loading, which are the important parameters affecting the amount of

• photogenerated electron charges for DSSCs performance, can be controlled by the structure and morphology of TiO2. For instance, roughness-increased surface-structured TiO2 photoelectrode layers, composed of sub-micrometer sized particulate, 2D-structured, or 1D-structured TiO2, can improve the light harvesting

• channels of the TNT array is scattered into deeper sites of the nanotubes, generating larger volume of excited electrons, thus enhancing the light harvesting efficiency in DSSCs [5][13]. Likewise, one of the strategies to improve the photovoltaic performance of the DSSCs is to increase the light harvest by

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

• coefficient, increased band-gap energy, a reduced carrier-scattering rate, and higher reactive sites [7][8][9][10], which sums up to nanomaterials having superior properties in light harvesting and energy transfer efficiency. Thus, the usage of nanomaterials as new building blocks has opened a new way to

• dipole–dipole interaction between the gold core and the Cu2O semiconductor shell. Plasmonic metal nanostructures have been incorporated into different transition metal oxides to enhance the solar-light harvesting and the energy-conversion efficiency for the photoelectrochemical water splitting. For

• role of a co-catalyst, which may act as electron sinks to draw them away from the holes and enhance their lifetimes [64]. Under visible light, the plasmonic nanostructures enhance the solar-light harvesting and increase the visible-light energy-conversion efficiency as photosensitizer. It is well-known

Dye-sensitized Pt@TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for the efficient photocatalytic generation of hydrogen

• Jun Fang,
• Lisha Yin,
• Shaowen Cao,
• Yusen Liao and
• Can Xue

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 360–364, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.41

• noble metal (e.g., Pt) nanoparticles as co-catalysts that can act as electron-sinks to achieve effective charge separation on TiO2 [7][8][9][10][11]. Dye-sensitization has been widely used to enable visible light harvesting by wide band gap semiconductors. Since the seminal work reported by O’Regan and

Near-field effects and energy transfer in hybrid metal-oxide nanostructures

• Ulrich Herr,
• Barat Achinuq,
• Cahit Benel,
• Giorgos Papageorgiou,
• Manuel Goncalves,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Peter Marek and
• Horst Hahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 306–317, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.34

• applications such as dye-sensitized solar cells introduced by M. Grätzel. Applications in energy technology are based on the transfer and conversion of energy. Following the example of photosynthesis, this requires a combination of light harvesting, transfer of energy to a reaction center, and conversion to

• Eu fluorescence can be suppressed by covering the nanoantennas with a 10 nm thick SiOx layer. Keywords: confocal microscopy; energy transfer; field enhancement; light harvesting; luminescence; nano-antennas; nanosphere lithography; nanostructures; plasmonics; simulation; TiO2 nanoparticles

• the organic dye molecules and the semiconductor to make the process efficient. The Grätzel cell thus mimics the natural process of photosynthesis, where light harvesting, energy transfer to a reaction center, and conversion to chemical energy by an electron-transfer reaction, take place at different

Nanostructure-directed chemical sensing: The IHSAB principle and the dynamics of acid/base-interface interaction

• James L. Gole and
• William Laminack

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 20–31, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.3

• , the creation of highly active, nanopore-coated microporous extrinsic semiconductor interfaces, their ability to provide readily accessible significant light-harvesting surface areas [5], and their ability to be transformed with selective nanostructure sites, enables sensing based on efficient electron

• this process induces. In combination, this provides a focused chemistry that tailors electron flow at the interface, differentiates electron transduction versus chemisorption, and can enhance light-harvesting efficiency. This approach is now developed to the extent that the dynamics of analyte

Low-temperature synthesis of carbon nanotubes on indium tin oxide electrodes for organic solar cells

• Andrea Capasso,
• Luigi Salamandra,
• Aldo Di Carlo,
• John M. Bell and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 524–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.60

• synthesized by chemical vapor deposition, using ultrathin Fe layers as catalyst. The process parameters (temperature, gas flow and duration) were carefully refined to obtain the appropriate size and density of MWCNTs with a minimum decrease of the light harvesting in the cell. When used as anodes for organic