Three-in-one approach towards efficient organic dye-sensitized solar cells: aggregation suppression, panchromatic absorption and resonance energy transfer

• Jayita Patwari,
• Samim Sardar,
• Bo Liu,
• Peter Lemmens and
• Samir Kumar Pal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1705–1713, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.171

• broad wavelength range without affecting the key parameters such as open circuit voltage (Voc) or fill factor (FF) of the DSSCs [23]. An enhancement in photocurrent due to efficient energy transfer from a quantum dot to the sensitizing dye has been reported earlier for quantum dot co-sensitized DSSCs

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

• . Feng et al. reported novel CdS quantum dot (QDs) coupled with g-C3N4 photocatalysts by a chemical impregnation method [16]. The reported photocatalyst was used for visible-light-based H2 evolution from an aqueous methanol solution with Pt as a cocatalyst. The effect of CdS loading was optimized to be

Evaluation of quantum dot conjugated antibodies for immunofluorescent labelling of cellular targets

• Jennifer E. Francis,
• David Mason and
• Raphaël Lévy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1238–1249, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.125

Nano-engineered skin mesenchymal stem cells: potential vehicles for tumour-targeted quantum-dot delivery

• Liga Saulite,
• Dominyka Dapkute,
• Karlis Pleiko,
• Ineta Popena,
• Simona Steponkiene,
• Ricardas Rotomskis and
• Una Riekstina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1218–1230, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.123

• . There were successful attempts to use a similar quantum dot–chlorin e6 complex in photodynamic cancer therapy [15]. Another study has shown that QDs, conjugated with antibodies against CD44, a marker of cancer stem-like cells, can be selectively engulfed by breast cancer cells [16]. Such surface

Synthesis of graphene–transition metal oxide hybrid nanoparticles and their application in various fields

• Arpita Jana,
• Elke Scheer and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 688–714, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.74

• sandwiched GSs not only show enhanced electrial conductivity but also preserve the water molecules between the two layers of V2O5 which facilitates the Li+ diffusion, significantly improving the electrochemical performance. V2O5 quantum dot/graphene is a promising cathode material for use in long-life

Modeling of the growth of GaAs–AlGaAs core–shell nanowires

• Qian Zhang,
• Peter W. Voorhees and
• Stephen H. Davis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 506–513, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.54

• balance between diffusion and deposition yields the small facets with sizes varying slowly over time, which yield stripe structures, whereas deposition-dominated growth can lead to quantum-dot structures observed in experiments. There is no self-limiting facet size in this case. The other issue is the

• ) Detail of a Al-poor quantum dot located within the fork-like Al-rich stripes obtained in [2]. (a) Evolution of the difference of the average chemical potentials of the facets with the thickness of the shell(× 2.5 nm). (b) Evolution of the portion of Al atoms taken in the diffusion flux along the surface

Comparison of four functionalization methods of gold nanoparticles for enhancing the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

• Paula Ciaurriz,
• Fátima Fernández,
• Edurne Tellechea,
• Jose F. Moran and
• Aaron C. Asensio

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 244–253, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.27

• single recognition reaction [6][8]. Luo and co-workers showed better sensitivities and shortened times for the detection of C-reactive proteins by using a quantum-dot-labeled immunoassay [13]. Accordingly, an improvement in sensitivity of 5,000 times for the detection of the ataxia telangiectasia mutated

Performance of colloidal CdS sensitized solar cells with ZnO nanorods/nanoparticles

• Anurag Roy,
• Partha Pratim Das,
• Mukta Tathavadekar,
• Sumita Das and
• Parukuttyamma Sujatha Devi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 210–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.23

• to replace the commonly used N719 dye molecule. Various nanostructured forms of ZnO, namely, nanorod and nanoparticle-based photoanodes, have been sensitized with colloidal CdS NPs to evaluate their effective performance towards quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). A polysulphide (Sx2−)-based

• voltage (VOC) of 0.67 V was achieved for the ZnO nanorod/nanoparticle assembled structure. The introduction of ZnO nanorods over the nanoparticle led to a significant enhancement of the overall efficiency compared to the corresponding bare nanoparticles. Keywords: DSSC; QDSSC; quantum dot; solar cells

• development of the so-called quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) [5][6][7][8][9]. Due to its natural abundance and comparatively lower cost, CdS, one of the important direct band II–VI semiconductors with a band gap of ≈2.4 eV, has been investigated for this purpose. According to the reported results

Obtaining and doping of InAs-QD/GaAs(001) nanostructures by ion beam sputtering

• Sergei N. Chebotarev,
• Alexander S. Pashchenko,
• Leonid S. Lunin,
• Elena N. Zhivotova,
• Georgy A. Erimeev and
• Marina L. Lunina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 12–20, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.2

• -assembly growth of germanium quantum-dot nanostructures. Furthermore, ion beam sputtering was used for heteroepitaxy of Ge on GaAs substrates [17] and GaAs1−xPx on Si substrates [18]. In addition, the effect of ion beam bombardment of semiconductor surfaces is used at least for two applications. First, it

• the crystallization depending on temperature, energy and beam current was not performed. Neither did we focus on doping processes in our earlier articles. The aim of the present study is to generalize features of crystallization and doping of InAs-QD/GaAs(001) quantum-dot nano-heterostructures grown

• smaller than 20 nm. Further increase in the energy leads to an increase in quantum dot size. It is interesting to note that the dimensions of the islands are 27 nm at 120 eV. Apparently, it is caused by a considerable energy dispersion of the primary bombarding ions since the Kauffman ion gun creates a

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

• luminescent organic clusters (LOC). A semiconductor quantum dot is a single collective electronic oscillator; in contrast, an organic dot is probably a clustered pack of isolated oscillators (phosphors) [19]. According to literature data, depending on the reaction conditions, (temperature, duration of the

Nonlinear thermoelectric effects in high-field superconductor-ferromagnet tunnel junctions

• Stefan Kolenda,
• Peter Machon,
• Detlef Beckmann and
• Wolfgang Belzig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1579–1585, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.152

• also been discussed theoretically for superconductor/quantum dot systems [25][26]. One aim of this paper is to understand the relation of the experimentally observed η(V) to known results of thermal transport in superconductor hybrid structures. We therefore derive here a generalized relation between

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

• optical quenching was attributed to a nonradiative energy transfer from the quantum dot to the SWCNT in the ground state [53]. In the present study, we observe an overall decrease in the PL intensity when the HfO2 nanoparticles are attached to the CNT compared to the PL emission of the free-standing

The influence of phthalocyanine aggregation in complexes with CdSe/ZnS quantum dots on the photophysical properties of the complexes

• Irina V. Martynenko,
• Anna O. Orlova,
• Vladimir G. Maslov,
• Anatoly V. Fedorov,
• Kevin Berwick and
• Alexander V. Baranov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1018–1027, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.94

• the quantum yield of PcSz and of the efficiency of energy transfer in complexes with an increasing number of PcSz molecules per quantum dot. It is evident that increasing the concentration of PcSz in our samples lead to a decrease of PL of PcSz because of nonluminescent PcSz aggregates in the

• complexes. At the same time a thorough analysis is needed to find a correlation between the FRET efficiency and the probability of the formation of PcSz aggregates. The FRET efficiency of a complex of a quantum dot with m independent acceptors arrayed around its center at a fixed distance R can be

• -average FRET efficiency from one quantum dot to m PcSz acceptors, i.e., the ensemble-average FRET efficiency in one complex for each fixed n. For this, we simply normalize Equation 5 to the fraction of bonded quantum dots in the mixture: Here, is the fraction of quantum dots bound in a complex with the

Charge and heat transport in soft nanosystems in the presence of time-dependent perturbations

• Alberto Nocera,
• Carmine Antonio Perroni,
• Vincenzo Marigliano Ramaglia and
• Vittorio Cataudella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 439–464, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.39

• -equilibrium adiabatic regimes is generalized to the case where external time-dependent perturbations are present. Then, a number of relevant applications of the method are reviewed for systems composed by a quantum dot (or molecule) described by a single electronic level coupled to a vibrational mode. Results

• to the external drive in the weakly nonlinear regime. Finally, stochastic forces induced by quantum and thermal fluctuations due to the electron charging of the quantum dot are shown to affect in a significant way a Thouless charge pump realized with an elastically deformable quantum dot. In this

• case, the pumping mechanism is also shown to be magnified when the frequency of the external drive is resonant with the proper frequency of the deformable quantum dot. In this regime, the pumping current is not strongly reduced by the temperature, giving a measurable effect. Conclusion: Aim of this

Early breast cancer screening using iron/iron oxide-based nanoplatforms with sub-femtomolar limits of detection

• Dinusha N. Udukala,
• Hongwang Wang,
• Sebastian O. Wendel,
• Aruni P. Malalasekera,
• Thilani N. Samarakoon,
• Asanka S. Yapa,
• Gayani Abayaweera,
• Matthew T. Basel,
• Pamela Maynez,
• Raquel Ortega,
• Yubisela Toledo,
• Leonie Bossmann,
• Colette Robinson,
• Katharine E. Janik,
• Olga B. Koper,
• Ping Li,
• Massoud Motamedi,
• Daniel A. Higgins,
• Gary Gadbury,
• Gaohong Zhu,
• Deryl L. Troyer and
• Stefan H. Bossmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 364–373, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.33

• and in vivo and in vitro detection in rodent models for cancers [12][13], but not for the in vitro detection of human cancers [14] in their earliest stages. Competing technologies for quantitative protease detection, such as immunosorbent assays [15], quantum dot barcode technology [16], and

Hemolysin coregulated protein 1 as a molecular gluing unit for the assembly of nanoparticle hybrid structures

• Tuan Anh Pham,
• Andreas Schreiber,
• Elena V. Sturm (née Rosseeva),
• Stefan Schiller and
• Helmut Cölfen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 351–363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.32

• between the NPs, leading to an enhancement of the magnetic spin in system. In conclusion, we could utilize the cysteine-modified toroid protein Hcp1_cys3 as an effective glue to form linear chains of NPs to extend the previously reported CdSe quantum dot/Au NP systems [21][22]. Generally, we can state two

Single-molecule mechanics of protein-labelled DNA handles

• Vivek S. Jadhav,
• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Florian Wruck and
• Martin Hegner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 138–148, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.16

• . These protein-modified DNA hybrids were also interconnected in situ with other tethered biotinylated DNA molecules. Electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD) imaging control experiments revealed that quantum dot–streptavidin conjugates at the end of DNA handles remain freely accessible. The experiments presented

• featured the characteristic double-handle contour length of 680 nm at a tension of approx. 10 pN. Fluorescence measurements of Qdot–streptavidin conjugates that were attached to freely accessible DIG -λ-dsDNA-Bio strands. a) The blue circle highlights the fluorescent emission of a quantum dot at 525 nm

• , and the red circle shows the auto-fluorescent bead on the pipette, the yellow arrow represents the direction of the flow. b–h) are the consecutive images obtained via EMCCD video recording. These images show one cycle of the relative position change of the tethered quantum dot, whilst bound to the

Effects of spin–orbit coupling and many-body correlations in STM transport through copper phthalocyanine

• Benjamin Siegert,
• Andrea Donarini and
• Milena Grifoni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2452–2462, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.254

• effective Hamiltonians have been derived microscopically for widely studied molecular magnets such as Fe8, Fe4 and Mn12 [4]. Recently, magnetic anisotropy effects could be directly probed by magnetotransport spectroscopy for Fe4 in quantum-dot setups [5][6]. An interesting question is hence if other classes

• molecule is put on a thin insulating layer grown on top of a conducting substrate. The layer functions as a tunneling barrier and decouples the molecule from the substrate. Hence the CuPc molecule acts as a molecular quantum dot weakly coupled by tunneling barriers to metallic leads (here the STM tip and

• the substrate). This quantum dot configuration should be favourable to experimentally probe SOI splittings and magnetic anisotropies when an external magnetic field is applied to the system, in analogy to the experiments in [6]. Indeed, we demonstrate that experimentally resolvable SOI splitting

Influence of wide band gap oxide substrates on the photoelectrochemical properties and structural disorder of CdS nanoparticles grown by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method

• Mikalai V. Malashchonak,
• Alexander V. Mazanik,
• Olga V. Korolik,
• Еugene А. Streltsov and
• Anatoly I. Kulak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2252–2262, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.231

• ; semiconductor photoelectrochemistry; wide band gap oxide; Introduction Quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) utilize light absorbed by semiconductor nanoparticles (CdS, CdSe, CdTe, PbS, etc.) deposited on wide band gap oxide (WBGO) scaffolds (TiO2, ZnO, In2O3) which act as a photoanode [1][2][3][4][5][6

Thermoelectricity in molecular junctions with harmonic and anharmonic modes

• Bijay Kumar Agarwalla,
• Jian-Hua Jiang and
• Dvira Segal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2129–2139, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.218

• utilized to study charge transfer in donor–bridge–acceptor organic molecules [11] and organic molecular semiconductors [12], as well as thermoelectric effects in quantum dot devices [13][14]. Recently, Erpenbeck et al. had provided a thorough computational study of transport characteristics with

Mapping bound plasmon propagation on a nanoscale stripe waveguide using quantum dots: influence of spacer layer thickness

• Chamanei S. Perera,
• Alison M. Funston,
• Han-Hao Cheng and
• Kristy C. Vernon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2046–2051, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.208

• for the stripe waveguides was found to be around 20 nm. Authors believe that the findings of this paper prove beneficial for the development of plasmonic devices utilising stripe waveguides. Keywords: photoluminescence; plasmonics; quantum dot; spacer layer; stripe waveguide; Introduction Plasmons

• metal surface is vital to enhance the PL intensity. In this paper we present the mapping of the above bound plasmon mode using quantum dot photoluminescence. For a plasmonic stripe waveguide, we demonstrate that QD to waveguide surface distance is a critical factor on the QD PL [11]. We use degree of

Experiences in supporting the structured collection of cancer nanotechnology data using caNanoLab

• Stephanie A. Morris,
• Sharon Gaheen,
• Michal Lijowski,
• Mervi Heiskanen and
• Juli Klemm

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1580–1593, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.161

• encapsulated in a quantum dot) and supports the capture of properties unique to each particle type. Nanomaterial characterizations include physico-chemical, in vitro, and in vivo characterizations. When submitting characterizations, submitters can specify the protocol, instruments, and techniques used in the

Carrier multiplication in silicon nanocrystals: ab initio results

• Ivan Marri,
• Marco Govoni and
• Stefano Ossicini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 343–352, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.33

• approaches [21][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] although only recently was a full ab initio interpretation of CM proposed [31]. Recently, a relevant photocurrent enhancement arising from CM was observed in a PbSe-based, quantum dot (QD) solar cell [32], which proves the possibility of exploiting CM effects to

Comparative evaluation of the impact on endothelial cells induced by different nanoparticle structures and functionalization

• Lisa Landgraf,
• Ines Müller,
• Peter Ernst,
• Miriam Schäfer,
• Christina Rosman,
• Isabel Schick,
• Oskar Köhler,
• Hartmut Oehring,
• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Thomas Basché,
• Carsten Sönnichsen,
• Wolfgang Tremel and
• Ingrid Hilger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 300–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.28

• better insight into general rules determining the biocompatibility of gold, Janus and semiconductor (quantum dot) nanoparticles. Endothelial cells were subject of this study, since blood is the first barrier after intravenous nanoparticle application. In particular, stronger effects on the viability of

The effect of surface charge on nonspecific uptake and cytotoxicity of CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots

• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Anna Pietuch,
• Marco Tarantola,
• Thomas Basché and
• Andreas Janshoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 281–292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.26

• (a,b) and pre-incubated with 100 µM nocodazole (c,d) MDCKII cells exposed to 50 nM solution of DPA–QDs for 24 h (blue channel: DAPI-stained nuclei; green channel: Alexa Fluor 488-stained microtubules, QDs). CdSe/ZnS quantum dot with the ligands used in this study. Ligands and solvents used for QD