Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• SiGe layer, which in turn reduces the nucleation barrier. It can also be argued that since heterogeneous nucleation occurs at preferential sites (as in our case), small NCs in as-grown MLs or even the crystallites that are under strain [39][40][41][42] will further reduce the surface energy and

The impact of crystal size and temperature on the adsorption-induced flexibility of the Zr-based metal–organic framework DUT-98

• Simon Krause,
• Volodymyr Bon,
• Hongchu Du,
• Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski,
• Ulrich Stoeck,
• Irena Senkovska and
• Stefan Kaskel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1737–1744, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.169

• , smaller crystal sizes seem to stabilize the presence of a metastable op phase by impacting the activation barrier, presumably due to the contribution of the surface energy and other factors. This observation was previously made for DUT-8 for which the guest-free metastable op phase was also found to be

Precise local control of liquid crystal pretilt on polymer layers by focused ion beam nanopatterning

• Maxim V. Gorkunov,
• Irina V. Kasyanova,
• Vladimir V. Artemov,
• Alena V. Mamonova and
• Serguei P. Palto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1691–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.164

• the type of alignment is related to the difference of surface energy between the LC and the polymer [4][5]. The underlying microscopic mechanisms, however, are yet not fully clarified and valuable related facts are being continuously accumulated [6]. A planar aligning surface reduces the director

Energy distribution in an ensemble of nanoparticles and its consequences

• Dieter Vollath

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1452–1457, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.143

• temperature. Additionally, the data for gsolid ± kT [1][2], describing the limits of the fluctuations, are also given. The fluctuation limits defined by Equation 5 are indicated, too. The necessary thermodynamic data were taken from Arblaster’s review [3]. For the surface energy, in a first approximation, the

A highly efficient porous rod-like Ce-doped ZnO photocatalyst for the degradation of dye contaminants in water

• Binjing Hu,
• Qiang Sun,
• Chengyi Zuo,
• Yunxin Pei,
• Siwei Yang,
• Hui Zheng and
• Fangming Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1157–1165, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.115

• affects the formation of ZIF-8. More specifically, it undergoes three main stages: gel formation, nucleation and crystallization [23]. According to Mahmoud’s [35] report, the Ce element which is doped into the lattice of Zn seeds may lower the surface energy, thus leading to a new morphology. Labhane et

Rapid, ultraviolet-induced, reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic surfaces

• Yunlu Pan,
• Wenting Kong,
• Bharat Bhushan and
• Xuezeng Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 866–873, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.87

• photocatalysis material that has attracted attention since it is more sensitive to UV light [17]. The use of a photochemical method to strengthen the interaction between nanoparticles and organic materials is quite common [18][19]. TiO2 nanoparticles modified with organic materials that have a low surface energy

Hydrophilicity and carbon chain length effects on the gas sensing properties of chemoresistive, self-assembled monolayer carbon nanotube sensors

• Juan Casanova-Cháfer,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Eduard Llobet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 565–577, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.58

• be ruled out [42]. While hydrophilic functional groups (e.g., COOH) present high surface energy due to their high affinity towards polar molecules, such as nitrogen dioxide, hydrophobic functional groups (e.g., CH3) present low surface energy due to their low affinity to polar molecules [43]. The low

Gold nanoparticles embedded in a polymer as a 3D-printable dichroic nanocomposite material

• Lars Kool,
• Anton Bunschoten,
• Aldrik H. Velders and
• Vittorio Saggiomo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 442–447, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.43

• reflection. The explanation is that, while boiling, the gold nanowires fragment, creating nanoparticles with a large head and a slim and long tail, comparable to a tadpole. Over time the tail starts to shrink, due to intra-particle Ostwald ripening to minimize the total surface energy of the nanoparticle

Site-specific growth of oriented ZnO nanocrystal arrays

• Rekha Bai,
• Dinesh K. Pandya,
• Sujeet Chaudhary,
• Veer Dhaka,
• Vladislav Khayrudinov,
• Jori Lemettinen,
• Christoffer Kauppinen and
• Harri Lipsanen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 274–280, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.26

• surface energy of the crystal facets in an undefined and complex way, which results in the formation of branched nanostructures [21]. Another disadvantage of these solution-based techniques is that the growth takes place in the solution itself and the grown nanocrystals are distributed randomly when

• -exposed polar zinc (0001) face, six symmetric non-polar {} planes parallel to the [0001] direction, and a basal polar oxygen () face [17]. It is well known that the hexagonal wurtzite ZnO has two polar planes (0001) and (), which have high surface energy that can absorb new small particles to reduce its

• surface energy and thus ZnO NCs are oriented to grow along the [0001] direction [17]. The attractive force between the two basal planes is a prime requirement to make a twinned crystal. So, two negatively charged O (or positively charged Zn-terminated) crystal planes of ZnO can be linked together by

Uniform Sb₂S₃ optical coatings by chemical spray method

• Jako S. Eensalu,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Erki Kärber,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 198–210, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.18

• large islands to minimize Sb2S3–air interfacial free surface energy (2), and form grain boundaries during crystallization in vacuum or inert environment (3). B – Sb2S3 crystallizes into separate grains if either the deposition temperature, the deposition time or the excess of TU in Sb/S precursor molar

Pull-off and friction forces of micropatterned elastomers on soft substrates: the effects of pattern length scale and stiffness

• Peter van Assenbergh,
• Marike Fokker,
• Julian Langowski,
• Jan van Esch,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Dimitra Dodou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 79–94, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.8

• might be explained by PVA having a low surface energy (ca. 50 mN/m [32]), and because of the presence of water at the PVA–micropattern interface, which might be squeezed out of the PVA gel during loading. Whereas geometry did not show consistent effects on pull-off force, the substrate stiffness did

• , as long as the elastic penalty of the substrate deformation does not dominate over surface energy effects. Because the formed intimate contact between a micropatterned adhesive and a conformed soft substrate is a singular contact, geometry-induced defect control and stress distribution are not

• the substrate [30], generating a higher contact area compared to other geometries. Because of the high surface energy of glass (about 1000 mJ/m2 [39]), the formed contact points between the micropattern and the substrate are stronger than the contact points between micropattern and PVA substrates

A novel polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane-modified layered double hydroxide: preparation, characterization and properties

• Xianwei Zhang,
• Zhongzhu Ma,
• Hong Fan,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jintao Wan and
• Philippe Dubois

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3053–3068, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.284

• together compactly and the char after degradation in air consists of dense blocks. It is proposed here that the flexible nature of polysiloxane and its weak intermolecular forces give rise to low surface energy and a high spreading coefficient. When heated, the siloxane moiety migrates to the surface and

Hydrogen-induced plasticity in nanoporous palladium

• Markus Gößler,
• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Markus Stütz,
• Norbert Enzinger and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3013–3024, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.280

• necessary to activate this mechanism of plastic deformation. The phase transition that induces the required mismatch strains for the plasticity enhancement is again the PdHβ-to-PdHα transition. In combination with the driving force being the reduction in surface energy, ISP can be observed during hydrogen

In situ characterization of nanoscale contaminations adsorbed in air using atomic force microscopy

• Jesús S. Lacasa,
• Lisa Almonte and
• Jaime Colchero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2925–2935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.271

• the other (described by the surface energy w(d)). In the context of the present work we note that Equation 1 may be understood in the following way: it separates the tip–sample interaction into a term describing the geometry (radius R) and a term w(d) describing the chemistry of the system. In the

• of contamination as the rest of the cantilever and as the chip onto which the tip and cantilever are attached. Second, we will assume that by precisely measuring the tip–sample interaction we can infer properties related to the surface energy as well as the contact potential, which allows one to

• sides of the tip may be huge if two plane sides of the probe-tip and the sample-tip interact together. In a sense, such a tip-probe versus tip-sample system has an infinite effective radius R resulting in a huge adhesion force (Fadh = 4πR·γ·cos(φ), with γ being the surface energy of water and φ being

Biomimetic surface structures in steel fabricated with femtosecond laser pulses: influence of laser rescanning on morphology and wettability

• Camilo Florian Baron,
• Alexandros Mimidis,
• Daniel Puerto,
• Evangelos Skoulas,
• Emmanuel Stratakis,
• Javier Solis and
• Jan Siegel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2802–2812, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.262

• influences the surface energy and thus the wetting behavior [5][6][7][8][9][10]. A particular kind of controllable surface modification induced by pulsed lasers was discovered in 1965 by Milton Birnbaum [11] – upon irradiation of a germanium wafer with multiple laser pulses, self-organized periodic surface

• dependence of surface wetting on surface energy and topography makes it particularly difficult to predict the wetting scenario, knowledge of the apparent contact angle alone is often sufficient for practical applications. For the particular case of steel, it is known that the laser-processed material evolves

Comparative biological effects of spherical noble metal nanoparticles (Rh, Pd, Ag, Pt, Au) with 4–8 nm diameter

• Alexander Rostek,
• Marina Breisch,
• Kevin Pappert,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Marc Heggen,
• Manfred Köller,
• Christina Sengstock and
• Matthias Epple

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2763–2774, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.258

• properties of nanomaterials originate from the large surface-to-volume ratio and the local configuration of atoms [69]. The morphology of nanoparticles is defined by the contributions of the cohesive energy, the surface energy, the twinning energy, and the strain energy [88]. Based on the Wulff construction

Characterization of the microscopic tribological properties of sandfish (Scincus scincus) scales by atomic force microscopy

• Weibin Wu,
• Christian Lutz,
• Simon Mersch,
• Richard Thelen,
• Christian Greiner,
• Guillaume Gomard and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2618–2627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.243

• to obtain spherical probes with different surface energy (Figure 2d). The microtribometer experiments were performed with our custom-built reciprocating linear setup similar to the one described elsewhere [19]. The different materials tested were paired against polished sapphire spheres with a

• studies [10][11] report very low or nearly vanishing adhesion on scales of S. scincus. Low adhesion is a sign of low surface energy, which typically coincides with high contact angles [21]. As shown in Figure 1c, however, we observe contact angles of about 100° on single sandfish scales with small water

• unusually high compared to other reptiles or insects and do not suggest low surface energy or low adhesion. We, therefore, examined the adhesion of sandfish scales in more detail. Adhesion properties Several different types of AFM probes were utilised to measure the adhesion force on dorsal scales. Figure

Au–Si plasmonic platforms: synthesis, structure and FDTD simulations

• Anna Gapska,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2599–2608, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.241

• are seen after thermal annealing at 350 °C (Figure 2f). It is clear that the formation of gold nanostructures on silicon starts below the eutectic temperature where the main force leading to the nanostructures formation is the reduction of the surface energy. This behavior of thin films can be

Surface energy of nanoparticles – influence of particle size and structure

• Dieter Vollath,
• Franz Dieter Fischer and
• David Holec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2265–2276, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.211

• .9.211 Abstract The surface energy, particularly for nanoparticles, is one of the most important quantities in understanding the thermodynamics of particles. Therefore, it is astonishing that there is still great uncertainty about its value. The uncertainty increases if one questions its dependence on

• particle size. Different approaches, such as classical thermodynamics calculations, molecular dynamics simulations, and ab initio calculations, exist to predict this quantity. Generally, considerations based on classical thermodynamics lead to the prediction of decreasing values of the surface energy with

• definition of the particle size. A more realistic definition of the particle size is possible only by a detailed analysis of the electronic structure obtained from initio calculations. Except for minor variations caused by changes in the structure, only a minor dependence of the surface energy on the

Electrospun one-dimensional nanostructures: a new horizon for gas sensing materials

• Muhammad Imran,
• Nunzio Motta and
• Mahnaz Shafiei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2128–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.202

• ratio, high surface active sites, high specific surface area and reactivity [12][13]. Among these nanostructured materials, one-dimensional (1D) materials are known to be highly suitable candidates due to their higher surface energy, increased number of reactive sites, effective charge carrier transport

Synthesis of a MnO₂/Fe₃O₄/diatomite nanocomposite as an efficient heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst for methylene blue degradation

• Zishun Li,
• Xuekun Tang,
• Kun Liu,
• Jing Huang,
• Yueyang Xu,
• Qian Peng and
• Minlin Ao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1940–1950, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.185

• agglomerate and are difficult to be dispersed because of the large surface energy, thus active sites on the surface of catalysts are covered, which causes huge impact on the practical catalytic performance. In order to solve the problem, loading the catalysts on appropriate carriers to form a core–shell

Synthesis of hafnium nanoparticles and hafnium nanoparticle films by gas condensation and energetic deposition

• Irini Michelakaki,
• Nikos Boukos,
• Dimitrios A. Dragatogiannis,
• Spyros Stathopoulos,
• Costas A. Charitidis and
• Dimitris Tsoukalas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1868–1880, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.179

• by surface-energy minimization. Each free surface is characterized by its surface energy, the physical origin of which is the fact that atoms at the free surfaces have unsaturated chemical bonds. The crystalline solids exhibit different surface energies for the various crystalline planes, which leads

Uniform cobalt nanoparticles embedded in hexagonal mesoporous nanoplates as a magnetically separable, recyclable adsorbent

• Can Zhao,
• Yuexiao Song,
• Tianyu Xiang,
• Wenxiu Qu,
• Shuo Lou,
• Xiaohong Yin and
• Feng Xin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1770–1781, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.168

• area and high surface energy [1][2]. In the past few decades, researchers showed great interest in designing various nanocomposites for many potential applications, among which water pollution treatment has become an important issue for human health and environmental protection [3][4][5]. A large

Cryochemical synthesis of ultrasmall, highly crystalline, nanostructured metal oxides and salts

• Elena A. Trusova and
• Nikolai S. Trutnev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1755–1763, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.166

• predetermined size that are several nanometers in diameter in the form of clusters or crystallites with an almost ideal lattice. It has been shown that when a colloid undergoes nitrogen cryotreatment, the formed nanoparticles, having a high surface energy, are characterized by a low degree of aggregation due to

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles as sulfur encapsulator for high-performance lithium/sulfur batteries

• Yan Zhao,
• Zhengjun Liu,
• Liancheng Sun,
• Yongguang Zhang,
• Yuting Feng,
• Xin Wang,
• Indira Kurmanbayeva and
• Zhumabay Bakenov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1677–1685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.159

• surface energy and therefore to be more active than the polar (100) plane [20]. Moreover, the high-Miller-index surface (103) observed in SAED pattern is usually more active than a low-Miller-index surface [21]. Therefore, one can expect that these active ZnO surfaces in the ZnO@NCNT composite can exhibit