The origin of black and white coloration of the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

• Manuela Rebora,
• Gianandrea Salerno,
• Silvana Piersanti,
• Alexander Kovalev and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 496–508, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.41

• illumination/observation configuration; (2) light scattering, which might be subdivided in (a) Rayleigh scattering on nanostructures, (b) scattering on partially regular micro- and nanostructures, and (c) thin film interference scales; (3) selective absorption by various molecules present in the cuticle; and

• (and also the black) appearance and demonstrates the importance of multiple reflections for the appearance of the white scales (Figure 6c). Thin film interference In the microscopic areas on the scales with relatively constant cuticle thickness, the effect of interference in thin films can be observed

A novel approach to pulsed laser deposition of platinum catalyst on carbon particles for use in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

• Bogusław Budner,
• Wojciech Tokarz,
• Sławomir Dyjak,
• Andrzej Czerwiński,
• Bartosz Bartosewicz and
• Bartłomiej Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 190–204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.19

• ) number of electrons per O2 molecule formed during the ORR, (d) %H2O2 formed during the ORR. Curves (c) and (d) were calculated from the data in panels (a) and (b) using Equations 1 and 2, respectively, with η = 0.152 for 900 rpm. The thin film RRDE experiments were done in a four-electrode arrangement in

Structural, optical, and bioimaging characterization of carbon quantum dots solvothermally synthesized from o-phenylenediamine

• Zoran M. Marković,
• Milica D. Budimir,
• Martin Danko,
• Dušan D. Milivojević,
• Pavel Kubat,
• Danica Z. Zmejkoski,
• Vladimir B. Pavlović,
• Marija M. Mojsin,
• Milena J. Stevanović and
• Biljana M. Todorović Marković

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 165–174, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.17

• 2.2 mg/mL. These specimens were designated as CQDs/PU. For bioimaging studies, toluene was evaporated, and a thin film of CQDs was redissolved in water and filtered. The prepared QCD samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier

Formation of nanoflowers: Au and Ni silicide cores surrounded by SiO_x branches

• Feitao Li,
• Siyao Wan,
• Dong Wang and
• Peter Schaaf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 133–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.14

• substrate at higher temperatures in oxygen-deficient environment [3][4]. Another cost-effective nanofabrication method, thin film dewetting, driven by the reduction of the surface energy and the interface energy has also been profusely studied because it provides a straightforward and fast way to produce

• nanoparticles [5][6][7]. The research of thin film dewetting has been extended to bilayers and multilayers for the synthesis of multicomponent nanoparticles [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], like alloyed AuNi and AuAg nanoparticles produced by the solid-state dewetting of bilayers [17][18][19][20][21][22][23

• small pieces were ready for thin film deposition. Metallic bilayers of Au and Ni of three different thickness ratios and a total thickness of 20 nm were deposited onto the SiO2/Si substrate by electron beam evaporation (CS400ES, VON ARDENNE) at a working pressure of 1 × 10−6 mbar. The Au layer was

Combining physical vapor deposition structuration with dealloying for the creation of a highly efficient SERS platform

• Adrien Chauvin,
• Walter Puglisi,
• Damien Thiry,
• Cristina Satriano,
• Rony Snyders and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 83–94, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.10

• complexity and the high cost of gold restrict its use in devices. Here, we report on a novel two-step approach that combines the deposition of a silver–aluminum thin film with dealloying to design and fabricate efficient SERS platforms. The magnetron sputtering technique was used for the deposition of the

• alloy thin film to be dealloyed. After dealloying, the resulting silver nanoporous structures revealed two degrees of porosity: macroporosity, associated to the initial alloy morphology, and nanoporosity, related to the dealloying step. The resulting nanoporous columnar structure was finely optimized by

• rhodamine B. Keywords: dealloying; magnetron sputtering; nanoporous thin film; nanostructuring; SERS; Introduction Pollutant residues are strictly regulated in most countries to ensure water and food safety. In this context, there is an increasing demand for pollutant analysis tools with practical and

Upper critical magnetic field in NbRe and NbReN micrometric strips

• Zahra Makhdoumi Kakhaki,
• Antonio Leo,
• Federico Chianese,
• Loredana Parlato,
• Giovanni Piero Pepe,
• Angela Nigro,
• Carla Cirillo and
• Carmine Attanasio

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 45–51, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.5

• the electrical resistivity [6]. This feature is related to the polycrystalline or amorphous nature of these materials when deposited in a thin-film form [4][7][8]. In addition to the applicative interest, the study of these materials is relevant from a fundamental point of view. NbxRe1−x (NbRe) for

Electrical and optical enhancement of ITO/Mo bilayer thin films via laser annealing

• Abdelbaki Hacini,
• Ahmad Hadi Ali,
• Nurul Nadia Adnan and
• Nafarizal Nayan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1589–1595, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.133

• annealing, a laser beam irradiates the surface layer of the thin film without causing damage. The temperature increases quickly during the process within a short period [24][27]. The laser beam must have a uniform intensity with asymmetrical distribution to obtain surfaces of good morphology with low

• plasma cleaner. In the IM structure, the thickness of ITO was 125 nm while the thickness of Mo was 10 nm. The thickness was controlled by two quartz crystal balances integrated within the chamber. After deposition, the bilayer thin film was treated using a Nd:YAG pulsed laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm

• were determined using a four-point probe system. Results and Discussion The crystalline structure of the ITO/Mo bilayer thin film after laser annealing was investigated using XRD. Figure 1 shows the structural evolution for the as-deposited and the samples annealed with different laser energies. Most

Single-step extraction of small-diameter single-walled carbon nanotubes in the presence of riboflavin

• Polina M. Kalachikova,
• Anastasia E. Goldt,
• Eldar M. Khabushev,
• Timofei V. Eremin,
• Timofei S. Zatsepin,
• Elena D. Obraztsova,
• Konstantin V. Larionov,
• Liubov Yu. Antipina,
• Pavel B. Sorokin and
• Albert G. Nasibulin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1564–1571, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.130

• properties [3][4][5]. Moreover, as-synthesized SWCNTs typically possess a wide range of diameters and chiralities, leading to an inhomogeneous distribution of optical and electronic properties [5]. Nevertheless, most SWCNT applications, including thin-film electronics, require individual constituent parts

Induced electric conductivity in organic polymers

• Konstantin Y. Arutyunov,
• Anatoli S. Gurski,
• Vladimir V. Artemov,
• Alexander L. Vasiliev,
• Azat R. Yusupov,
• Danfis D. Karamov and
• Alexei N. Lachinov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1551–1557, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.128

• mechanical stress is applied. In this work, the transport properties of thin-film layered lead–PDP–lead structures were experimentally studied in a wide temperature range. At sufficiently high temperatures, the current voltage characteristics are satisfactorily described in terms of the injection model of

• currents limited by the space charge. At temperatures below ≈8 K, a number of samples exhibit features that can be explained by the effect of induced superconductivity in a thin film of conducting polymer enclosed between two massive superconductors (lead). Keywords: conducting polymer; superconductivity

• of thin-film lead electrodes with thicknesses from 50 nm to 200 nm was carried out by thermal evaporation in vacuum. The critical temperature of bulk lead is Тс(Pb3D) = 7.2 K. However, in the form of a thin film, the critical temperature of a superconductor can differ significantly from the tabulated

Near-infrared photoactive Ag-Zn-Ga-S-Se quantum dots for high-performance quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

• Roopakala Kottayi,
• Ilangovan Veerappan and
• Ramadasse Sittaramane

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1337–1344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.110

• [16]. Recently, Larsen et al. reported that, due to the appropriate bandgap (1.6–1.8 eV), AgGaSe2 is a wide-range light absorber in thin film solar cells [17]. Tianya Bai et al. [18] examined that ZnS-coated AgGaS2 nanocrystals (AgGaS2/ZnS core–shell nanocrystals) have a tunable bandgap and PL colors

Role of titanium and organic precursors in molecular layer deposition of “titanicone” hybrid materials

• Arbresha Muriqi and
• Michael Nolan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1240–1255, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.103

• growth could be achieved. Keywords: density functional theory (DFT) studies; double reactions; surface chemistry; titanicone; Introduction Molecular layer deposition (MLD), a thin film deposition technique, has attracted significant attention in recent years as a suitable approach for the deposition of

Roll-to-roll fabrication of superhydrophobic pads covered with nanofur for the efficient clean-up of oil spills

• Patrick Weiser,
• Robin Kietz,
• Marc Schneider,
• Matthias Worgull and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1228–1239, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.102

• /contaminated or by shredding and extruding a new support film. This sacrificial layer is essential to produce a thin film. It is necessary to find a material that sticks to the polymer the nanofur is to be made of, but can also easily be separated after the structuring step. For films thicker than 1 mm, the

Application of nanoarchitectonics in moist-electric generation

• Jia-Cheng Feng and
• Hong Xia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1185–1200, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.99

• , there are also some novel innovations in energy-harvesting structures, such as the construction of lateral gradients of nanomaterials, the construction of multilayer structures, and the direct use of ion distribution gradients in liquids. With a PVP thin film of 290 nm thickness as the dielectric layer

Effects of focused electron beam irradiation parameters on direct nanostructure formation on Ag surfaces

• Jānis Sniķeris,
• Vjačeslavs Gerbreders,
• Andrejs Bulanovs and
• Ēriks Sļedevskis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1004–1010, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.87

• to be removed from the vacuum chamber during the cleaning procedure since the N plasma cleaning procedure affected the Ag surface, most notably by forming a layer which produces thin film interference. The sample irradiation was repeated 15 min, 30 min, 1 h, and 2 h after the end of the cleaning

• , radiolysis by collisions with electrons seeming like the most obvious one. It should be noted that N plasma treatment in this case also affected the clean Ag surface, turning it into an interfering thin film. We believe that controlled etching with plasma has the potential to explore the structure of metal

Theoretical investigations of oxygen vacancy effects in nickel-doped zirconia from ab initio XANES spectroscopy at the oxygen K-edge

• Dick Hartmann Douma,
• Lodvert Tchibota Poaty,
• Alessio Lamperti,
• Stéphane Kenmoe,
• Abdulrafiu Tunde Raji,
• Alberto Debernardi and
• Bernard M’Passi-Mabiala

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 975–985, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.85

• structure. The fluorite structure is not stable under ambient conditions and, thus, zirconia is usually found in the monoclinic phase. The cubic distorted fluorite structure may however be stabilized by a doping or by deposition as a thin film (because the surface energy of the cubic structure is lower than

Bioselectivity of silk protein-based materials and their bio-inspired applications

• Hendrik Bargel,
• Vanessa T. Trossmann,
• Christoph Sommer and
• Thomas Scheibel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 902–921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.81

• obtained from fluorinated silica colloids, thin film deposition of silicone elastomers or nanoengineered superhydrophobic surfaces of Teflon®-coated aluminium [63][64][65]. Superhydrophobic surfaces have also been reported to be unfavorable for mammalian cell attachment and growth. This may be due to the

Ultrafast signatures of magnetic inhomogeneity in Pd_1−xFe_x (x ≤ 0.08) epitaxial thin films

• Andrey V. Petrov,
• Sergey I. Nikitin,
• Lenar R. Tagirov,
• Amir I. Gumarov,
• Igor V. Yanilkin and
• Roman V. Yusupov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 836–844, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.74

• ]. Superconducting spintronics is a branch of superconducting electronics, the key components of which are thin-film magnetic Josephson junctions (MJJs), which include layers of superconductors (S), ferromagnets (F) and insulators (I) [1][2][3][14][15]. The use of MJJs considerably reduces the energy consumption

• measurements at temperatures from 4.2 to 300 K, the films under study were mounted to the cold finger of the Janis ST-500 helium-flow cryostat. Permanent NdFeB magnets were fixed there, creating a magnetic field directed along the easy axis of the thin film in its plane with a magnitude of 470 Oe at room

Modeling a multiple-chain emeraldine gas sensor for NH₃ and NO₂ detection

• Hana Sustkova and
• Jan Voves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 721–729, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.64

• nitrogen dioxide containing a flexible PANI thin film sensing area deposited on interleaved electrodes were produced by Posta et al. [13] and by Kroutil and co-workers [7]. In the experiments of Posta and Kroutil, the gas sensors for ammonia and nitrogen dioxide were exposed for 20 min to synthetic air

Experimental and theoretical study of field-dependent spin splitting at ferromagnetic insulator–superconductor interfaces

• Peter Machon,
• Michael J. Wolf,
• Detlef Beckmann and
• Wolfgang Belzig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 682–688, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.60

• treat the dirty limit appropriate for typical thin film structures. In [37], spin mixing in these systems was described in terms of an expansion for small phase shifts, where the linear order is equivalent to a Zeeman-type spin splitting, and the second order is equivalent to pair breaking by spin

• orbital depairing in the fits, with an orbital depairing parameter [44] for a thin film in an in-plane field. From known sample parameters we estimate Bc,orb ≈ 2 T and ε’ ≈ 70, which leaves us with Δ and δφ as free parameters. The fits give a good account of the observed spin splitting. The spin mixing

Revealing local structural properties of an atomically thin MoSe₂ surface using optical microscopy

• Lin Pan,
• Peng Miao,
• Anke Horneber,
• Alfred J. Meixner,
• Pierre-Michel Adam and
• Dai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 572–581, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.49

• CuPc as a Raman probe, because CuPc exhibits a large Raman scattering cross section and an extremely weak photoluminescence signal. A thin film of 5 nm of CuPc was deposited on the triangular MoSe2 flakes through thermal vapor deposition. Figure 1a shows a bright-field optical image of CuPc/MoSe2. From

• , which is parallel to the sample plane. To explain this phenomenon, we turn our discussions to the molecular orientation of CuPc on the MoSe2 flake. For a thin film thermally evaporated on a MoS2 flake surface, the CuPc molecule has been reported to adopt π-face-on orientation because the Cu metal center

• of face-on lying CuPc and the MoSe2 flake is the most efficient. With increasing film thickness, we assume that the CuPc molecular orientation varies, such as adopting a tilt angle with respect to the sample surface. The evolution of molecular orientation was observed in a FePc thin film that was

Influence of thickness and morphology of MoS₂ on the performance of counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells

• Lam Thuy Thi Mai,
• Hai Viet Le,
• Ngan Kim Thi Nguyen,
• Van La Tran Pham,
• Thu Anh Thi Nguyen,
• Nguyen Thanh Le Huynh and
• Hoang Thai Nguyen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 528–537, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.44

• City, 700000, Vietnam Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam 10.3762/bjnano.13.44 Abstract Non-platinum electrodes for photoelectric devices are challenging and attractive to the scientific community. A thin film of molybdenum

• of the MoS2 thin films were controlled via the concentration of precursor solution. The obtained results showed that MoS2 thin films formed at a low precursor concentration had a layered morphology while a honeycomb-like MoS2 thin film was formed at a high precursor concentration. Both types of MoS2

• thin film were composed of 1T and 2H structures and exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity for the I3–/I− redox couple. DSSCs assembled using these MoS2 CEs showed a maximal power conversion efficiency of 7.33%. The short-circuit value reached 16.3 mA·cm−2, which was higher than that of a

Selected properties of Al_xZn_yO thin films prepared by reactive pulsed magnetron sputtering using a two-element Zn/Al target

• Witold Posadowski,
• Artur Wiatrowski,
• Jarosław Domaradzki and
• Michał Mazur

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 344–354, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.29

• : aluminium zinc oxide; magnetron sputtering; thin film; transparent conducting oxide; transparent electronics; Introduction Aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is a potential alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO) for transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes in transparent electronic and photovoltaic

• , and the glass substrate itself. For comparison, the thin film spectra are presented together with the T characteristic of a bare glass substrate. As can be seen, all films, measured at different places of the substrate as a function of X, were well transparent, with an average transmission of about 70

• (Figure 11). The results presented in Figure 11 support the optical bandgap results presented in Figure 10. The higher the Al content, the wider the optical bandgap of the prepared thin film [1][24][25]. Discussion The analysis described in this paper showed a strong dependence of thickness as well as

Controllable two- and three-state magnetization switching in single-layer epitaxial Pd_1−xFe_x films and an epitaxial Pd_0.92Fe_0.08/Ag/Pd_0.96Fe_0.04 heterostructure

• Igor V. Yanilkin,
• Amir I. Gumarov,
• Gulnaz F. Gizzatullina,
• Roman V. Yusupov and
• Lenar R. Tagirov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 334–343, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.28

• epitaxial thin-film heterostructure Pd0.92Fe0.08(20 nm)/Ag(20 nm)/Pd0.96Fe0.04(20 nm) were grown in an ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) apparatus (SPECS, Germany) by molecular beam deposition. Epi-polished MgO(100) single-crystal plates (Crystal GmbH, Germany) were used as substrates. The deposition routine and

Interfacial nanoarchitectonics for ZIF-8 membranes with enhanced gas separation

• Season S. Chen,
• Zhen-Jie Yang,
• Chia-Hao Chang,
• Hoong-Uei Koh,
• Sameerah I. Al-Saeedi,
• Kuo-Lun Tung and
• Kevin C.-W. Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 313–324, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.26

• -octanol solution was added dropwise to the zinc nitrate solution. The mixture was kept at 80 °C in an oil bath for 12 h to form a ZIF-8 free-standing thin film on the liquid–liquid interface. After the reaction, fragments of the ZIF-8 thin film were dispersed in methanol to remove solvents and unreacted

• synthesis method. Figure 1a shows that the XRD patterns of the as-synthesized free-standing ZIF-8 thin film was identical to that of a ZIF-8 crystal simulated with data from Crystallography Open Database (Mercury, version 3.6), indicating the success of the synthesis of ZIF-8 crystals by interfacial

Investigation of a memory effect in a Au/(Ti–Cu)Ox-gradient thin film/TiAlV structure

• Damian Wojcieszak,
• Jarosław Domaradzki,
• Michał Mazur,
• Tomasz Kotwica and
• Danuta Kaczmarek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 265–273, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.21

• analysis of resistive switching properties observed in a Au/(Ti–Cu)Ox/TiAlV structure with a gradient distribution of Cu and Ti along the (Ti–Cu)Ox thin film thickness. Thin films were prepared via multisource reactive magnetron co-sputtering. The programmed profile of the pulse width modulation

• coefficient during sputtering of the Cu target allowed us to obtain the designed gradient U-shape profile of the Cu concentration in the deposited thin film. Electrical measurements of the Au/(Ti–Cu)Ox/TiAlV structure showed the presence of nonpinched hysteresis loops in the voltage–current plane testifying a

• investigations allowed us to conclude about the possible mechanism for the observed resistive switching mechanism. Keywords: gradient thin film; magnetron sputtering; memory effect; resistive switching; Introduction In recent years, significant development has been observed in design, simulation, manufacturing