Walking energy harvesting and self-powered tracking system based on triboelectric nanogenerators

• Mingliang Yao,
• Guangzhong Xie,
• Qichen Gong and
• Yuanjie Su

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1590–1595, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.141

• the stepped floorboard and it emitted a visible light sign that indicated the instantaneous location of the pedestrian. It is important to mention that the LED light emission was powered by the triboelectric generator driven by the walking movements without any electric power source. Figure 5c and

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

• Matías Guerrero Correa,
• Fernanda B. Martínez,
• Cristian Patiño Vidal,
• Camilo Streitt,
• Juan Escrig and
• Carol Lopez de Dicastillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1450–1469, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.129

• through chemical reactions and these NPs have a strong bactericidal effect against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria [108]. Composites containing Cu NPs and ZnO were developed by deposition of needle-like and spherical Cu NPs on a ZnO surface. These composites were exposed to visible light

Structural and electronic properties of SnO₂ doped with non-metal elements

• Jianyuan Yu,
• Yingeng Wang,
• Yan Huang,
• Xiuwen Wang,
• Jing Guo,
• Jingkai Yang and
• Hongli Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1321–1328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.116

• SnO2; electronic structure; optical properties; Introduction Thin film solar cells are devices that convert solar energy into electrical energy. Transparent conductive films (TCFs) are a thin film material with both conductive capabilities and high transmittance in the visible light range (300–800 nm

• , high transmittance of visible light, good thermal stability, acid–base corrosion resistance, high material hardness, and easiness of preparation processes [5]. Non-metal atoms, such as fluorine (F) and nitrogen (N), were proved to be proper elements for doping. After doping with heteroatoms, the

Photothermally active nanoparticles as a promising tool for eliminating bacteria and biofilms

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Laura D’Alfonso,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1134–1146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.98

• efficient sterilization upon irradiation during wound healing [92]. The hybrid hydrogel exhibited excellent antibacterial properties against both S. aureus and E. coli under co-irradiation with 660 nm visible light and 808 nm near-infrared light for 10 min, due to the synergistic action of the photodynamic

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

• fungal infections, employs visible light to activate photosensitive molecules, known as photodynamic therapy (PDT) [4]. PDT was discovered in 1900 when Paramecia microorganisms were exposed to a photosensitive molecule in conjugation with sunlight, which was found to eliminate the fungal activity of

• Paramecia [5]. PDT consists of the interaction of visible-light photons with a photosensitizer located inside the cell or in close proximity to it. In this interaction, the photosensitizer produces highly reactive oxygen species (ROS) by reacting in the excited state with molecular oxygen present in the

• visible light, and also should have a high absorption coefficient at a wavelength that penetrates cellular tissue [4]. In the visible electromagnetic spectrum, red light has the largest depth penetration into biological tissue [6][7]. Among different photosensitizers, porphyrins are heterocyclic molecules

Effect of Ag loading position on the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂ nanocolumn arrays

• Jinghan Xu,
• Yanqi Liu and
• Yan Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 717–728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.59

• solar energy harvesting in photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications owing to their extremely high visible-light absorption and tuned effective band gap. In this work, Ag-loaded TiO2 nanocolumn (Ag-TNC) arrays were fabricated based on anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template by combining atomic layer

• resonance (SPR), which leads to strongly absorbed visible light and enhancement of local electromagnetic fields [14]. Among the noble metals, Ag nanostructures have been widely used as catalysts because of their reasonable cost and broad plasmon resonance in the visible region [15][16]. At present, the

• the optical absorption spectra of TNC and AFT structure samples. It can be seen that the absorption peak of TiO2 is located at 276 nm and the absorption of the samples in the visible light portion increase as the thickness of Ag increases. Moreover, the increase of the Ag thickness does not hinder the

Soybean-derived blue photoluminescent carbon dots

• Shanshan Wang,
• Wei Sun,
• Dong-sheng Yang and
• Fuqian Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 606–619, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.48

• nm made from glucose with glutathione in a temperature range of 15 to 90 °C by Wang et al. [18]. Figure 3a–c shows the PL spectra of the soybean-derived CDs. The HTC-CDs exhibited strong emission under the irradiation of UV and visible light in the wavelength range of 250 nm to 480 nm (Figure 3a

• ), indicating the broad PL characteristics of the HTC-CDs. The broad multicolor emission can be attributed to the heterogeneity of CDs due to structural variety [1], including surface-functional groups and domain structures, and to the broad absorption ranging from UV to visible light [34]. There are three

Luminescent gold nanoclusters for bioimaging applications

• Nonappa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 533–546, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.42

• additional challenges. This is attributed to an increased complexity, a decreased transmission of visible light through biological tissues, the interaction with various biomolecules and a possible degradation of the luminescent materials. However, NIR emission, biocompatibility, and photothermal stability

Evolution of Ag nanostructures created from thin films: UV–vis absorption and its theoretical predictions

• Robert Kozioł,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Damian Koszelow,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 494–507, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.40

• pulse duration was set to 2.5 fs, thus it contained all frequencies within the visible light range. This allowed for the use of discrete Fourier transformation for switching from the time domain to the frequency domain and calculating the spectral response of the sample. Also, the Mie theory [18] was

• exhibit transitions between separated bands. This can be observed in Ag, where a transition of electrons induced by visible light can take place between the d band and the sp band [6][7][28][29][30][31][32]. The width of the gap between s band and d band is in this case in the range of 3.7–3.9 eV [7][29

Synthesis and enhanced photocatalytic performance of 0D/2D CuO/tourmaline composite photocatalysts

• Changqiang Yu,
• Min Wen,
• Zhen Tong,
• Shuhua Li,
• Yanhong Yin,
• Xianbin Liu,
• Yesheng Li,
• Tongxiang Liang,
• Ziping Wu and
• Dionysios D. Dionysiou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 407–416, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.31

• ) spectra were analyzed using an A300 spectrometer (Bruker, Germany) with DMPO as a free radical scavenger under visible light irradiation (λ = 420 nm) for 20 min. The surface properties were characterized via an ASAP 2020 instrument (Micromeritics, USA). The zeta potential was measured with a ZETASIZER

• carriers. The photocatalytic degradation of MB was conducted to evaluate the properties of the samples. To assess any real visible-light photocatalytic activity, the adsorption should be excluded [36][37][38][39]. Judging from Figure 6a, CuO and CuO/tourmaline-4:1 composite contributed to MB adsorption of

• , volume = 100 mL, temperature = 25 °C. EPR signals of (e) DMPO-•OH and (f) DMPO-O2•− adducts of the CuO and CuO/tourmaline composite under visible-light irradiation. (a) MB degradation over the CuO/tourmaline-4:1 composite with different initial solution pH. Experimental conditions: [MB]0 = 0.01 g L−1

Fabrication of Ag-modified hollow titania spheres via controlled silver diffusion in Ag–TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Bogusław Budner,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Krzysztof Kopczyński and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 141–146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.12

• fabricated in a multistep process including a two-step hydrothermal treatment [11]. Ag-modified TiO2 HSs showing efficient photocatalysis in the visible-light range were synthesized in a multistep process through a sacrificial core technique using AgBr as the core [12]. A hard-templating method with a silica

Advanced hybrid nanomaterials

• Andreas Taubert,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Pierre Rabu and
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2563–2567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.247

• devices based on the combination of dicyanomethylene and pyranine as organic dyes supported on zinc single-layered hydroxide” [31]. In this article, two fluorescent organic dyes, dicyanomethylene and pyranine, emit visible light upon blue LED excitation and are tethered to single layer hydroxide platelets

Evaluation of click chemistry microarrays for immunosensing of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)

• Seyed Mohammad Mahdi Dadfar,
• Sylwia Sekula-Neuner,
• Vanessa Trouillet,
• Hui-Yu Liu,
• Ravi Kumar,
• Annie K. Powell and
• Michael Hirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2505–2515, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.241

• in the release of N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS). For labeling AFP, we used NHS–rhodamine, a succinimidyl-ester functional group attached to the rhodamine core. This fluorescent labeling reagent absorbs green visible light (552 nm) and emits orange-red visible light (575 nm). Before labeling, the AFP

Abrupt elastic-to-plastic transition in pentagonal nanowires under bending

• Sergei Vlassov,
• Magnus Mets,
• Boris Polyakov,
• Jianjun Bian,
• Leonid Dorogin and
• Vahur Zadin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2468–2476, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.237

• conductive network [14][15][16]. Ag NWs are a promising material for flexible transparent electrodes [17]. Plasmon propagation and the optical properties of Ag and Au NWs make them attractive for nanophotonics as waveguides for visible light [18][19][20][21][22][23]. In all these applications, NWs may

Coating of upconversion nanoparticles with silica nanoshells of 5–250 nm thickness

• Cynthia Kembuan,
• Maysoon Saleh,
• Bastian Rühle,
• Ute Resch-Genger and
• Christina Graf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2410–2421, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.231

• ) light) and emit photons of higher energy (e.g., visible light) via a two- or multiphoton upconversion mechanism involving several energy transfer steps [2][3][4][5]. Advantages of UCNPs compared to organic dyes or other inorganic nanoscale reporters are the emission of a multitude of characteristic

Polyvinylpyrrolidone as additive for perovskite solar cells with water and isopropanol as solvents

• Chen Du,
• Shuo Wang,
• Xu Miao,
• Wenhai Sun,
• Yu Zhu,
• Chengyan Wang and
• Ruixin Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2374–2382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.228

• comparison to the film without PVP, the film with added PVP displays a better capability of absorption in the visible-light range, which is due to PVP triggering a slight red shift in the absorption edge. This is attributed to a smaller number of defects and possibly less reflection [37]. To explore the

• crystallization process. The optimum amount of PVP additive was 1 mg/mL, which was effective in reducing the number of defects of the perovskite film leading to better charge transfer and separation on the interface. Besides, the film exhibited a stronger absorption in the visible-light range. The best

Improved adsorption and degradation performance by S-doping of (001)-TiO₂

• Xiao-Yu Sun,
• Xian Zhang,
• Xiao Sun,
• Ni-Xian Qian,
• Min Wang and
• Yong-Qing Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2116–2127, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.206

• performance. Li et al. synthesized composites of mesoporous (001)-TiO2 and C applying a one-pot hydrothermal strategy in the presence of glucose and hydrofluoric acid (HF). The composites an exhibited excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance [14]. Chen et al. synthesized a composite of g-C3N4

• and B-doped (001)-TiO2 via a solvothermal method in order to improve the visible-light photocatalytic activity [15]. Cao et al. used first-principles simulations to study the electronic and optical properties of (001)-TiO2 and MoS2 composites. Their results suggested that the effective

• photosensitization of MoS2 and the stable interface between the two phases could promote the transfer of electrons from MoS2 to (001)-TiO2 and enhance its visible-light response [16]. It was also demonstrated that Au nanoparticles deposited on the surface of (001)-TiO2 particles could promote the separation of photo

Optimization and performance of nitrogen-doped carbon dots as a color conversion layer for white-LED applications

• Tugrul Guner,
• Hurriyet Yuce,
• Didem Tascioglu,
• Eren Simsek,
• Umut Savaci,
• Aziz Genc,
• Servet Turan and
• Mustafa M. Demir

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2004–2013, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.197

• eye sensitivity [35][60]) together with the total visible light output (luminous flux) are presented as a function of the N-CDot amount. At the lowest N-CDot amount (15 µL), there is no valid registered CRI (filled circles) or CCT (empty circles) output. As the amount increases, the CRI increases

• efficiency loss in the produced visible light output. Meanwhile, the luminous flux (empty circles) of the produced white light decays exponentially (dashed line) from 66.7 to 26.5 lm as the N-CDot amount increases. This behavior is expected since the total PL intensity of the PVP/N-CDot composites decreases

• of the luminous flux, which is also a function of the fiber amount. Going from 10 mg to 30 mg of incorporated fibers, the total visible light output of the WLEDs reduces from 41 to 24 lm, corresponding to a reduction of almost 41%. This effect supports the proposed idea that incorporating a larger

Pulsed laser synthesis of highly active Ag–Rh and Ag–Pt antenna–reactor-type plasmonic catalysts

• Kenneth A. Kane and
• Massimo F. Bertino

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1958–1963, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.192

• –reactor; catalysis; heterostructures; laser ablation; multicomponent; nanoparticles; 4-nitrophenol; plasmonic; Pt; Rh; Introduction Metal nanoparticles can interact with visible light through an excitation of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The LSPR is a resonant, collective oscillation

• to be stable, and the activity was measured for a variety of Ag–Rh/Pt loading ratios, demonstrating that the enhancement persisted at low loading ratios. Further and future inquiry will include: (1) studying the reaction kinetics in the absence of visible light to confirm plasmonic enhancement; (2

Direct observation of oxygen-vacancy formation and structural changes in Bi₂WO₆ nanoflakes induced by electron irradiation

• Hong-long Shi,
• Bin Zou,
• Zi-an Li,
• Min-ting Luo and
• Wen-zhong Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1434–1442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.141

• ][2][3], and pyroelectric and non-linear optical properties [4][5]. Recently, Bi2WO6 has shown good performance in the degradation of organic compounds [6][7][8], and photocatalytic oxygen evolution [9][10] and CO2 reduction [11][12][13] under visible-light irradiation. Bi2WO6 is the simplest member

• of the sample was measured by the degradation of methylene blue under visible-light irradiation using a 300W Xe lamp, which is shown in Figure 1d. After irradiation for 3 h, the degradation efficiency of the sample increases to over 80%. This may result from the high concentration of surface dangling

• (condenser lens aperture) opening of 70 μm. Experiments of photocatalytic activity The photocatalytic activity of the samples was determined by measuring the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible-light irradiation using a 300 W Xe lamp with a 420 nm cut-off filter. In the experiment, 40 mg Bi2WO6

BiOCl/TiO₂/diatomite composites with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B

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

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1412–1422, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.139

• Abstract A BiOCl/TiO2/diatomite (BTD) composite was synthesized via a modified sol–gel method and precipitation/calcination method for application as a photocatalyst and shows promise for degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater upon visible-light irradiation. In the composite, diatomite was used as

• degradation product and visible light (λ > 400 nm) was used as the light source for the evaluation of the photocatalytic properties of the prepared BTD composite. The results show that the catalytic performance of the BTD composite under visible-light irradiation is much higher than that of TiO2 or BiOCl

• alone. When the molar ratio of BiOCl to TiO2 is 1:1 and the calcination temperature is 400 °C, the composite was found to exhibit the best catalytic effect. Through the study of the photocatalytic mechanism, it is shown that the strong visible-light photocatalytic activity of the BTD composite results

Construction of a 0D/1D composite based on Au nanoparticles/CuBi₂O₄ microrods for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

• Weilong Shi,
• Mingyang Li,
• Hongji Ren,
• Feng Guo,
• Xiliu Huang,
• Yu Shi and
• Yubin Tang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1360–1367, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.134

• development of visible-light-driven photocatalysts is highly desirable because visible light accounts for about 43% of the solar spectrum. Currently, bismuth-based semiconductor materials, including Bi2O3 [4], BiVO4 [5][6], Bi2WO6 [7], Bi2MoO6 [8], BiOX (X = Cl, Br, I) [9], and Bi2O2CO3 [10], are explored as

• novel visible-light-driven photocatalysts. Due to the valence-band hybridization of O 2p and Bi 6s, the bismuth-based photocatalysts possess a relatively narrow bandgap. Moreover, benefiting from the filled Bi 6s band of Bi3+ or the empty 6s band of Bi5+, Bi-containing compounds strongly absorb visible

• light. Among these compounds, the spinel-type compound CuBi2O4 has attracted much attention because of its low phonon energy, strong visible-light response and adequate thermal stability [11][12]. Because of these attractive features, CuBi2O4 has been widely studied as a photocatalytic material in the

A biomimetic nanofluidic diode based on surface-modified polymeric carbon nitride nanotubes

• Kai Xiao,
• Baris Kumru,
• Lu Chen,
• Lei Jiang,
• Bernhard V. K. J. Schmidt and
• Markus Antonietti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1316–1323, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.130

• created on the surface of g-CN through irradiation with visible light and different molecules can then be grafted to integrate various functionalities. The modification of CNNM with AHPA was confirmed by elemental mapping. As shown in Figure 4b, elemental mapping of the AHPA-modified membrane clearly

Angle-dependent structural colors in a nanoscale-grating photonic crystal fabricated by reverse nanoimprint technology

• Xu Zheng,
• Qing Wang,
• Jinjin Luan,
• Yao Li,
• Ning Wang and
• Rui Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1211–1216, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.120

• different brilliant structural colors in the visible-light region. As period and depth of the optical structure of the photonic crystal are fixed, the structural color depends on the observation angle [3][4]. Studies show that photonic crystals with grating pattern are the favorable candidates for a variety

Photoactive nanoarchitectures based on clays incorporating TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles

• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky,
• Pilar Aranda,
• Marwa Akkari,
• Nithima Khaorapapong and
• Makoto Ogawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1140–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.114

• alternative interesting semiconductor–semiconductor heterojunctions. Finally, another approach to increase the photo-efficiency of the considered systems is the photosensitization of TiO2 and ZnO NPs to obtain visible-light responsive photocatalysts as well as solar-cell components [93][141][142]. These

• 2.25 eV, corresponding to a light wavelength of 550 nm suitable for a photocatalyst responsive to visible light was reported. The co-doping of N and S [149] and Cu, Ag, and Fe on TiO2@bentonite has also been reported [150]. Other authors also reported the modification of the photoactivity

• ′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) intercalated in the interlayer space was complexed with TiO2 NPs [166]. The resulting material shows enhanced stability toward visible-light irradiation, if compared with the TiO2 (P25) standard material photosensitized by an analogous commercially available photosensitizer (tris(2,2