A novel dry-blending method to reduce the coefficient of thermal expansion of polymer templates for OTFT electrodes

• Xiangdong Ye,
• Bo Tian,
• Yuxuan Guo,
• Fan Fan and
• Anjiang Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 671–677, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.53

• Telecommunications, Xi’an 710121, China 10.3762/bjnano.11.53 Abstract Among the patterning technologies for organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs), the fabrication of OTFT electrodes using polymer templates has attracted much attention. However, deviations in the electrode alignment occur because the coefficient of

• achieved the alignment of OTFT electrodes using the composite template. Keywords: coefficient of thermal expansion; dry blending; organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs); OTFT electrodes; PDMS/SiO2 composite template; Introduction Organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) provide a platform to construct next

• aligned [7]. However, the polymer template has a high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), resulting in alignment deviations of the OTFT electrodes [8][9]. Currently, one of the measures to reduce the CTE of polymer templates is wet blending, in which the low-CTE nanomaterial is directly incorporated

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

Interfacial charge transfer processes in 2D and 3D semiconducting hybrid perovskites: azobenzene as photoswitchable ligand

• Nicole Fillafer,
• Tobias Seewald,
• Lukas Schmidt-Mende and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 466–479, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.38

• states of naphthalene [23]. Regarding the electronic alignment of molecular orbitals, valence and conduction bands, the chromophore may serve as a quantum well [24]. The energy transfer between the semiconducting perovskite layer and the chromophore can easily be influenced by the chemical structure and

• ) images of the obtained 2D LHPs with AzoC2, AzoOC4 and AzoOC12 are shown. For simplification the materials are named 2D-AzoX in the following. All ligands yield a 2D LHP with a typical alignment of the PXRD reflexes. Sharp and defined reflexes obtained from 2D-AzoC2 and 2D-AzoOC4 imply the formation of an

Implementation of data-cube pump–probe KPFM on organic solar cells

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Olivier Bardagot and
• Renaud Demadrille

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 323–337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.24

• Δt − Δt + w. (a) Top: chemical structures of PTB7 (electron donor, D) and PC71BM (electron acceptor, A). Bottom: illustration of the type-II energy level alignment between the electron donor and the electron acceptor. The open-circuit voltage (VOC) is determined by the splitting of the quasi-Fermi

Rational design of block copolymer self-assemblies in photodynamic therapy

• Maxime Demazeau,
• Laure Gibot,
• Anne-Françoise Mingotaud,
• Patricia Vicendo,
• Clément Roux and
• Barbara Lonetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 180–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.15

• with parallel alignment to the membrane surface (Figure 8). Recent reviews have shown the importance of controlling the shape of the vectors, both for cell penetration but also for the behavior in the blood stream [142]. Regarding PDT more specifically, Till et al. examined the PDT efficiency of

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

• of detergent-resistant 0.8 µm-long liquid crystalline DNA nanotubes organized from a 7.3 kb scaffold strand and >170 short oligonucleotide-long staple strands. The liquid crystalline matrices of six helix DNA origami bundles induced a weak alignment of proteins within the plasma membrane. The

• solubilization and weak alignment of proteins within plasma membrane are crucial to measure the residual dipolar couplings (RDCs), and the RDCs are crucial to obtain NMR structural information on membrane-bound proteins. As reported, DNA origami-based liquid crystalline media can overcome detergent-related

Integration of sharp silicon nitride tips into high-speed SU8 cantilevers in a batch fabrication process

• Nahid Hosseini,
• Matthias Neuenschwander,
• Oliver Peric,
• Santiago H. Andany,
• Jonathan D. Adams and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2357–2363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.226

• fabrication of hydrogel probes requires processes that involve individual alignment and bonding [27]. The present work aims to overcome the primary limitation of polymer AFM cantilevers, namely the poor wear rate of polymer tips, by integrating a tip element made of a traditional tip material. The main

Atomic force acoustic microscopy reveals the influence of substrate stiffness and topography on cell behavior

• Yan Liu,
• Li Li,
• Xing Chen,
• Ying Wang,
• Meng-Nan Liu,
• Jin Yan,
• Liang Cao,
• Lu Wang and
• Zuo-Bin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2329–2337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.223

• of the L929 cells. The influence of the topography pattern on the cell alignment and morphology is even more pronounced leading to an arrangement of the cells along the nanostripe pattern. Our method is useful for the quantitative characterization of cell–substrate interactions and provides guidance

• far, the areas in which such behavioral patterns are induced are of several tens of micrometers, and it is still a challenge to produce patterns on the nanometer scale [11][12][13]. Controlling the substrate topography has effects on cell properties such as the cell alignment, cell shape and the

• microscope was also used to analyze the resulting cell morphology and alignment. Experimental Fabrication of SU-8 films as the stiffness and topography layers The SU-8 films on glass slides were prepared as follows. At first, glass slides (10 mm × 10 mm) were cleaned by sonication in ethanol, then washed

Liquid crystal tunable claddings for polymer integrated optical waveguides

• José M. Otón,
• Manuel Caño-García,
• Fernando Gordo,
• Eva Otón,
• Morten A. Geday and
• Xabier Quintana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2163–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.209

• conditioned with spin-coated polyimide (PIA-2304, Lixon Aligner) for homogeneous LC alignment, parallel to the plate, along the waveguide. Both the glass surface and the waveguide were gently rubbed with a velvet cloth to induce the desired orientation. If an external electric field is applied to the LC

• structure with this alignment, one mode of light propagating through the waveguide would experience a cladding with a tunable refractive index in a range close to the LC birefringence ∆n = ne − no, where ne and no are the extraordinary and the ordinary index of the LC, respectively. In a second experimental

Gold-coated plant virus as computed tomography imaging contrast agent

• Alaa A. A. Aljabali,
• Mazhar S. Al Zoubi,
• Khalid M. Al-Batanyeh,
• Ali Al-Radaideh,
• Mohammad A. Obeid,
• Abeer Al Sharabi,
• Walhan Alshaer,
• Bayan AbuFares,
• Tasnim Al-Zanati,
• Murtaza M. Tambuwala,
• Naveed Akbar and
• David J. Evans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1983–1993, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.195

• contrast agents achieve their effect by increasing the relaxation rates (longitudinal relaxation rate (R1), transverse relaxation rate (R2), and pseudo-transverse relaxation rate (R2*)) of water protons in tissues through the catalysis of alignment of nuclear spins [1], thus manipulating the MR image

First principles modeling of pure black phosphorus devices under pressure

• Ximing Rong,
• Zhizhou Yu,
• Zewen Wu,
• Junjun Li,
• Bin Wang and
• Yin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1943–1951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.190

• set of parameters based on the results from the empirical Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin method, which provides an effortless approximation to quantitatively predict the pressure-related behaviors of large pure BP devices. Keywords: band alignment; black phosphorus; first principles calculation; pressure

• introduce the first principles modeling methods. In section “Results and Discussion”, we present the numerical results and physical analysis of the BP devices including pressure-dependent mechanical and electric properties, quantum transport and band alignment. In addition, the conductance of the BP devices

• . More importantly, the conductance is not sensitive to the pressure when RC < 15% for the fully relaxed zigzag BP device, while it decreases rapidly for the fully relaxed armchair BP device. Band alignment analysis and WKB fitting The different behavior of conductance as a function of the pressure for

Remarkable electronic and optical anisotropy of layered 1T’-WTe₂ 2D materials

• Qiankun Zhang,
• Rongjie Zhang,
• Jiancui Chen,
• Wanfu Shen,
• Chunhua An,
• Xiaodong Hu,
• Mingli Dong,
• Jing Liu and
• Lianqing Zhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1745–1753, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.170

• covered with 285 nm of SiO2 for Raman spectroscopy, ADRDM and electrical characterization. The substrate had pre-patterned alignment grids and 12 electrodes (20 nm Gr/180 nm Au). XPS analysis was performed on a VG Scientific ESCALAB 250 device. The TEM images and SAED patterns were performed with on a FEI

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

• Institute), 115409 Moscow, Russia 10.3762/bjnano.10.164 Abstract Background: The alignment of liquid crystals by surfaces is crucial for applications. It determines the director configuration in the bulk, its stability against defects and electro-optical switching scenarios. The conventional planar

• alignment of rubbed polymer layers can be locally flipped to vertical by irradiation with a focused ion beam on a scale of tens of nanometers. Results: We propose a digital method to precisely steer the liquid crystal director tilt at polymer surfaces by combining micrometer-size areas treated with focused

• ion beam and pristine areas. The liquid crystal tends to average the competing vertical and planar alignment actions and is stabilized with an intermediate pretilt angle determined by the local pattern duty factor. In particular, we create micrometer-sized periodic stripe patterns with this factor

Giant magnetoresistance ratio in a current-perpendicular-to-plane spin valve based on an inverse Heusler alloy Ti₂NiAl

• Yu Feng,
• Zhou Cui,
• Bo Wu,
• Jianwei Li,
• Hongkuan Yuan and
• Hong Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1658–1665, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.161

• –Yosida (RKKY) indirect exchange mechanism. According to the RKKY mechanism, the magnetic coupling among d-electron atoms is transferred through the conduction electrons, and the cooperative magnetic states would exhibit ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic alignment of the moments largely dependent upon

Materials nanoarchitectonics at two-dimensional liquid interfaces

• Katsuhiko Ariga,
• Michio Matsumoto,
• Taizo Mori and
• Lok Kumar Shrestha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1559–1587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.153

High-temperature resistive gas sensors based on ZnO/SiC nanocomposites

• Vadim B. Platonov,
• Marina N. Rumyantseva,
• Alexander S. Frolov,
• Alexey D. Yapryntsev and
• Alexander M. Gaskov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1537–1547, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.151

• formation of n–n heterocontacts at the ZnO/SiC interface [35]. According to a previous report [36] the conduction band minimum (CBM) of n-type ZnO lies 0.4 eV lower than the CBM of n-type SiC. The calculated band alignment of the wurtzite (2H) ZnO and SiC phases is presented in previous reports [37][38

• ]. Taking into account the difference in the band gap (Eg) of 2H-SiC (Eg = 3.3 eV [39]) and 3C-SiC (Eg = 2.36 eV [40]) polytypes, and assuming that the position of the valence band for these polytypes does not vary significantly, we constructed a diagram of the band alignment for ZnO and 3C-SiC phases

• alignment of the wurtzite ZnO and 3C-SiC phases. Adapted from [37] with permission from the American Chemical Society, copyright 2013. Microstructure characteristics and electrophysical properties of ZnO nanofibers, ZnO/SiC nanocomposites and nanocrystalline SiC powder. Sensor response of conductometric gas

Highly ordered mesoporous silica film nanocomposites containing gold nanoparticles for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

• Mohamad Azani Jalani,
• Leny Yuliati,
• Siew Ling Lee and
• Hendrik O. Lintang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1368–1379, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.135

• template materials. The best quality of the silica/gold film nanocomposites was found by thermal hydrogen reduction at 210 °C as determined from its intense d100 peak and clear TEM image with a hexagonal alignment of the nanopores. Both heat treatment methods could be successfully used to produce gold

Pure and mixed ordered monolayers of tetracyano-2,6-naphthoquinodimethane and hexathiapentacene on the Ag(100) surface

• Robert Harbers,
• Timo Heepenstrick,
• Dmitrii F. Perepichka and
• Moritz Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1188–1199, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.118

• density of states is present. Their arrangement reveals that the orientation of the molecules is very close to the direction of the long diagonal of the unit cell. The hard-sphere model in Figure 2b, derived from LEED, indicates an included angle of about 1.5°. The alignment of the diagonal of the unit

Synthesis and characterization of quaternary La(Sr)S–TaS₂ misfit-layered nanotubes

• Marco Serra,
• Erumpukuthickal Ashokkumar Anumol,
• Dalit Stolovas,
• Iddo Pinkas,
• Ernesto Joselevich,
• Reshef Tenne,
• Andrey Enyashin and
• Francis Leonard Deepak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1112–1124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.111

• the MLC lattice. An analysis of the electron density distribution within the studied (SrxLa1−xS)1.11TaS2 misfits unveils the localization of excessive electron density due to charge transfer not only at 5dz2 orbitals of Ta atoms. Rather, redistribution and alignment of the charge between the La atoms

Electronic and magnetic properties of doped black phosphorene with concentration dependence

• Ke Wang,
• Hai Wang,
• Min Zhang,
• Yan Liu and
• Wei Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 993–1001, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.100

• isosurfaces are separated by ±0.04 e/Å3. Top view and side view of the physical model of doped monolayer phosphorene. Band alignment of phosphorene calculated by using (a) the GGA of PBEsol and (b) HSE06. The inset shows the path in the Brillouin zone. The Fermi level is shifted to zero. Acknowledgements

Experimental study of an evanescent-field biosensor based on 1D photonic bandgap structures

• Jad Sabek,
• Francisco Javier Díaz-Fernández,
• Luis Torrijos-Morán,
• Zeneida Díaz-Betancor,
• Ángel Maquieira,
• María-José Bañuls,
• Elena Pinilla-Cienfuegos and
• Jaime García-Rupérez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 967–974, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.97

• (i.e., ca. 10 points per period of the PBG structure). The whole system (photonic chip, input fiber and SNOM tip) can be previsualized with an optical microscope used to obtain a proper alignment of the input fiber as well as an accurate positioning of the SNOM probe. Finite-Difference time-domain

Nanoscale optical and structural characterisation of silk

• Meguya Ryu,
• Reo Honda,
• Adrian Cernescu,
• Arturas Vailionis,
• Armandas Balčytis,
• Jitraporn Vongsvivut,
• Jing-Liang Li,
• Denver P. Linklater,
• Elena P. Ivanova,
• Vygantas Mizeikis,
• Mark J. Tobin,
• Junko Morikawa and
• Saulius Juodkazis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 922–929, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.93

• orientation and alignment of crystalline microvolumes, it is important to characterise structure at the highest lateral and longitudinal resolutions [6][7]. Anderson localisation of light and thermal cooling of silk at IR wavelengths was recently demonstrated to be related to the fibril substructure of silk

• estimate of the order of magnitude since the calibration of the LC retarder is carried out at a single wavelength, while the imaging is done under white-light illumination. The birefringence originates from the alignment of the structures, which is determined by the fiber orientation down to molecular

• bonds and spans hierarchically over a wide range of wavelengths due to secondary ordering [19]. Previously, longitudinal ca. 1 μm thick silk slices were measured in transmission mode using synchrotron IR radiation to characterise the molecular alignment of the typical amide bands [20], including amide

Synthesis of novel C-doped g-C₃N₄ nanosheets coupled with CdIn₂S₄ for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

• Jingshuai Chen,
• Chang-Jie Mao,
• Helin Niu and
• Ji-Ming Song

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 912–921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.92

• visible-light range. This phenomenon may be ascribed to the introduction of CdIn2S4 with slightly narrower bandgaps and the band alignment of the two materials. Furthermore, the introduction of CdIn2S4 into the matrix of CCN has an important impact on the optical absorption properties of CISCCN

Magnetic field-assisted assembly of iron oxide mesocrystals: a matter of nanoparticle shape and magnetic anisotropy

• Julian J. Brunner,
• Marina Krumova,
• Helmut Cölfen and
• Elena V. Sturm (née Rosseeva)

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 894–900, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.90

• focused on the formation and structural characterisation of “directed mesocrystals”. This research demonstrates how the external magnetic field affects the assembly process of magnetite nanocrystals and morphological and structural features of mesocrystals. Furthermore, the alignment of the nanoparticles

• -to-face alignment (i.e., interaction of the particle {110} faces with other particle faces within the layer) and on the other side magnetic anisotropy of magnetite nanoparticles induces the alignment of the <111>magnetite easy axis parallel to the direction of the external magnetic field

• alignment of the magnetic dipole between the nanocrystals and the nanocrystals will then tend to orient their easy axis along the direction of the magnetic field. The magnetic dipole of each nanocrystal will interact with those of the surrounding nanocrystals and they attract to each other with specific

Periodic Co/Nb pseudo spin valve for cryogenic memory

• Nikolay Klenov,
• Yury Khaydukov,
• Sergey Bakurskiy,
• Roman Morari,
• Igor Soloviev,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Thomas Keller,
• Mikhail Kupriyanov,
• Anatoli Sidorenko and
• Bernhard Keimer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 833–839, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.83

• memory applications. As a basis for a weak link we propose to use a periodic structure composed of ferromagnetic (F) layers spaced by thin superconductors (s). Our calculations based on the Usadel equations show that switching from parallel (P) to antiparallel (AP) alignment of neighboring F layers can

• lead to a significant enhancement of the critical current through the junction. To control the magnetic alignment we propose to use a periodic system whose unit cell is a pseudo spin valve of structure F1/s/F2/s where F1 and F2 are two magnetic layers having different coercive fields. In order to check

• alignment can be controlled with a magnetic field of only several tens of Oersted. Keywords: cryogenic computing; neutron scattering; spin valve; superconducting spintronics; Findings Superconductor digital devices have attracted growing attention due to their unique energy efficiency and performance [1