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

• related to the superhydrophobicity of their body surface, as an adaptation of an aquatic insect to the subaerial life at the adult stage. Indeed, leg scales with their nanostructures are able to entrap air [11][12][13] and play an important role in contact with water during egg laying, giving the mosquito

Conjugated photothermal materials and structure design for solar steam generation

• Chia-Yang Lin and
• Tsuyoshi Michinobu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 454–466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.36

• hydrophobic. The contact angle measurements revealed that the contact angles of the filter paper coated with DPP-H, DPP-DCV, and DPP-INCN were 123.9°, 113.4°, and 131.8°, respectively. In contrast, the contact angle of the bare filter paper remained at approx. 0°. These results suggest that coating the DPP

• conventional floating membranes. This is because PTMs are in most cases in contact with the bulk water. Moreover, 3D photothermal evaporators have superior properties to their 2D counterparts because solar steam evaporation can be facilitated by the increased surface area. Note that 3D evaporators enable

• observations (Figure 12a). These materials can stably float at the air–water interface (Figure 12b). The water contact angle of the bulk materials was as high as 130° without any surface modification (Figure 12c). Hydrophobic foams are considered to have advantages over hydrophilic foams, such as a greater

Plasmonic nanotechnology for photothermal applications – an evaluation

• A. R. Indhu,
• L. Keerthana and
• Gnanaprakash Dharmalingam

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 380–419, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.33

• in semiconductors in the NIR–mid-IR region is possible when the free carrier concentrations lies between 1016 and 1019 cm−3 [54]. As an example of how the free electron density influences the plasmon resonance when materials with different work functions are combined, metals in contact with

Bismuth-based nanostructured photocatalysts for the remediation of antibiotics and organic dyes

• Akeem Adeyemi Oladipo and
• Faisal Suleiman Mustafa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 291–321, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.26

Spin dynamics in superconductor/ferromagnetic insulator hybrid structures with precessing magnetization

• Yaroslav V. Turkin and
• Nataliya Pugach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 233–239, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.22

• film S that is in contact with a ferromagnetic insulator layer FI. Spin current and induced magnetization are calculated not only at the interface of the S/FI hybrid structure, but also inside the superconducting film. The new and interesting predicted effect is the frequency dependence of the induced

• perturbations produced by the spin current and induced magnetization inside the superconducting film in contact with a ferromagnetic insulator layer with precessing magnetization. Distributions of spin current and induced magnetization originating from the dynamic proximity effect in aluminium were recently

High–low Kelvin probe force spectroscopy for measuring the interface state density

• Ryo Izumi,
• Masato Miyazaki,
• Yan Jun Li and
• Yasuhiro Sugawara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 175–189, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.18

• known as a method that can measure the contact potential difference (CPD) between a tip and a sample with high spatial resolution [4][5]. KPFM is based on the detection of the electrostatic force between a tip and a sample using atomic force microscopy (AFM) [6][7][8]. CPD and topographic measurements

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

• drop inside and get in contact with the exposed Si substrate, as marked in Figure 4c. The outer SiOx NWs can be decomposed by the Si substrate, and the core particle consisting of Au and Ni can get in direct contact with the substrate. Thus, Au–Si droplets and Ni silicide can form due to the easy

Intermodal coupling spectroscopy of mechanical modes in microcantilevers

• Ioan Ignat,
• Bernhard Schuster,
• Jonas Hafner,
• MinHee Kwon,
• Daniel Platz and
• Ulrich Schmid

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 123–132, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.13

• coupling was proven in doubly clamped beams, square membranes and circular membranes [18][26][27][28][29][30][31]. For atomic force microscopy imaging, a slight angle between the sensing mechanical resonator and the sample of interest is required, ensuring that the only contact occurs between the sample

Characterisation of a micrometer-scale active plasmonic element by means of complementary computational and experimental methods

• Ciarán Barron,
• Giulia Di Fazio,
• Samuel Kenny,
• Silas O’Toole,
• Robin O’Reilly and
• Dominic Zerulla

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 110–122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.12

• on a sapphire substrate via physical vapour deposition (PVD). After this, two separate AFMs are used to machine channels in the silver film to create the desired constriction, which in this case measures 10 μm. The tip of the AFM is held at a set loading force in contact with the thin metal film and

• setup used to perform such measurements. An Adama NM-RC probe (spring constant: 290.3 N/m, nominal resonance frequency: 814 kHz) has been used in contact mode to scan the topography of an electrically modulated sample with a loading force of 1.9 μN. This particular probe is intended for use in

• diamond with a tip radius of 10 ± 5 nm. The deflection sensitivity of the probe was measured to be 81.09 nm/V. To perform an SJEM measurement, a sinusoidal voltage is applied to the metallic element. The surface of the element is then scanned with an AFM in contact mode. Contact mode was selected in this

Antimicrobial and mechanical properties of functionalized textile by nanoarchitectured photoinduced Ag@polymer coating

• Jessica Plé,
• Marine Dabert,
• Helene Lecoq,
• Sophie Hellé,
• Lydie Ploux and
• Lavinia Balan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 95–109, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.11

• Attenuance measurements (OD600, i.e., OD at 600 nm), performed on microbial suspensions in contact with the functionalized textiles after 1, 3, 6, and 24 h of immersion, are plotted in Figure 10. For both E. coli and C. albicans microorganisms, control cultures (without any textile or with silver-free

• fungicidal effect. This is similar to the efficacy of acetic acid and can be classified as slightly fungicidal [53][54]. The inhibition rate of microorganism growth was determined from the OD600nm measurements, for suspensions in contact with 3 wt % and 5 wt % AgNO3-loaded samples. The results are presented

• , which may limit the interactions with silver in comparison to Gram-positive bacteria, that exhibit a peptidoglycan layer directly in contact with the surrounding medium. Similar to Gram-positive bacteria, C. albicans exhibits an external cell wall, in direct contact with the surrounding medium, which

Frontiers of nanoelectronics: intrinsic Josephson effect and prospects of superconducting spintronics

• Anatolie S. Sidorenko,
• Horst Hahn and
• Vladimir Krasnov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 79–82, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.9

• -electron bolometers, with photon NEP of 1.1 × 10−16 W/Hz(1/2), achieved by replacing one of two single superconductor–insulator–normal (SIN) tunnel junctions with a single superconductor–normal (SN) contact [21]. Proposing a new type of cold electron bolometers with traps and hybrid superconducting

Liquid phase exfoliation of talc: effect of the medium on flake size and shape

• Samuel M. Sousa,
• Helane L. O. Morais,
• Joyce C. C. Santos,
• Ana Paula M. Barboza,
• Bernardo R. A. Neves,
• Elisângela S. Pinto and
• Mariana C. Prado

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 68–78, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.8

• be in contact with it for 30 to 60 s to ensure optimal coverage. Then the sample is rinsed again in DI water to remove loose flakes and residual surfactant. An in-depth discussion of this procedure can be found in [24]. AFM measurements were performed on a Park XE-70 microscope, in intermittent

• contact mode using commercial silicon probes (MikroMasch, HQ:NSC35/AlBs or HQ:NSC36/AlBs). For each sample, nine different 5 μm × 5 μm fields were chosen at random and scanned at 0.5 Hz with 500 pixels/line (lateral resolution of 10 nm/pixel). Image processing (line and plane corrections) and flake

Cooper pair splitting controlled by a temperature gradient

• Dmitry S. Golubev and
• Andrei D. Zaikin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 61–67, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.7

• integrals are taken over the contact areas , and tr(x) denote coordinate- and spin-independent tunneling amplitudes. Let us denote the probability for N1 and N2 electrons to be transferred, respectively, through the junctions 1 and 2 during the observation time t as Pt(N1,N2). Introducing the so-called

• the importance of CAR processes in this limit, see also Figure 4. Yet another important physical limit is realized provided the contact has the form of a short diffusive wire with the corresponding Thouless energy exceeding the superconducting gap Δ. In this diffusive limit the transmission

Gap-directed chemical lift-off lithographic nanoarchitectonics for arbitrary sub-micrometer patterning

• Chang-Ming Wang,
• Hong-Sheng Chan,
• Chia-Li Liao,
• Che-Wei Chang and
• Wei-Ssu Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 34–44, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.4

• and device fabrication [13][14]. Nevertheless, pattern resolution and reproducibility in contact printing approaches are affected by several factors, most notably the ink molecule lateral diffusion, gas phase transportation, and rubber stamp deformation [15][16]. These are unavoidable issues in soft

• master mold is placed in contact with the SAM, which initiates a covalent bonding between stamp surface siloxyl groups and alkanethiol hydroxy tails. Removal of the stamp from the SAM-covered surface lifts off alkanethiol molecules at the contact region, and thus circumventing the lateral diffusion issue

• placed in the gap between the supporting substrate and a capping layer [43][44][45]. On the other hand, capillary force can induce the formation of nanochannel gaps when a structural top layer is brought into contact with the bottom surface [43]. Through these techniques, structures that are at the

The influence of structure and local structural defects on the magnetic properties of cobalt nanofilms

• Alexander Vakhrushev,
• Aleksey Fedotov,
• Olesya Severyukhina and
• Anatolie Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 23–33, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.3

• problem of obtaining clearly separated contact layers is highly relevant. Using simulations, it was demonstrated that optimization of the nanofilm interface can be obtained either by introducing additional intermediate thin layers neutral to the original composition, such as aluminum oxide, or by

Atmospheric water harvesting using functionalized carbon nanocones

• Fernanda R. Leivas and
• Marcia C. Barbosa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.1

• molecular dynamics simulations the process of capturing and collecting water in a functionalized carbon nanocone. The process is analyzed in a system in which the larger diameter of the cone is in contact with a vapor reservoir and the smaller diameter is in contact with an initially empty reservoir. The

• idea of combining thermostats to produce vapor is not new. It has already been used to reproduce water evaporation and condensation [45][46]. In contact with the carbon slab on region 1, there is a carbon nanocone constructed by cutting the apex angle, as illustrated in Figure 3. This nanocone has a

• mesh method. Periodic boundary conditions were applied along the x- and y-directions, and non-periodic boundary conditions were applied along the z-direction (see Figure 1). Results and Discussion Figure 1 illustrates the analyzed system, composed of a water vapor reservoir in contact with the base of

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

• resistivity follows for higher annealing energies. The resistivity variation can be explained by the behavior of the metal–semiconductor contact and the effect of laser annealing on the structural defects of the surface. The inclusion of a thin metal film with low resistivity and the reduction of grain

Utilizing the surface potential of a solid electrolyte region as the potential reference in Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Nobuyuki Ishida

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1558–1563, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.129

• contact potential difference (CPD) between a tip and the sample. It has been used to evaluate a wide range of electronic and ionic devices [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The CPD is quantified by applying a regulated DC voltage, relative to an electrical ground, to the tip or the sample, to minimize the

• the reduction of Ti ions in the solid electrolyte owing to direct contact between the Li metal and solid electrolyte, a poly(ethylene oxide)-based polymer electrolyte film (Osaka Soda Co., Ltd.), denoted PEO, was inserted between them. Before the KPFM measurements, the sample was heated at 150 °C for

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

• the preparation of a sample for electron microscopy. Results and Discussion The experiment was carried out in a four-contact configuration at direct or alternating currents. Both R(T) and V(I) dependences of the Pb–PDP–Pb sandwich could be measured, as shown in Figure 2a, and the transport

• is significantly different. In particular, as the voltage increases, there is the tendency for the current flowing through the heterostructure to saturate. Previously [2], it was found that at high temperatures, the mechanism of overcoming the barrier at the metal/polymer contact is satisfactorily

• temperature, k is the Boltzmann constant, e is the electron charge, A is the contact area, A* is the Richardson constant, Is the saturation current. To proceed, it is important to determine the saturation current using, e.g., the semi-logarithmic dependence of the current on applied voltage. This is the so

Frequency-dependent nanomechanical profiling for medical diagnosis

• Santiago D. Solares and
• Alexander X. Cartagena-Rivera

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1483–1489, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.122

• measured while it is in close contact with the surrounding tissue. Similar developments could be envisioned for measurements inside veins or arteries, in which case the sensing device could be inserted by means of a catheter, such as those already in use [33]. In this case, greater miniaturization would be

• body through small insertions. It is also worth mentioning that the AFM measurement principle does not need to be limited to the use of microscale or nanoscale probes. In fact, the mathematics of the viscoelastic contact problem between a probe of known geometry (e.g., a sphere) and a flat surface [15

Structural studies and selected physical investigations of LiCoO₂ obtained by combustion synthesis

• Monika Michalska,
• Paweł Ławniczak,
• Tomasz Strachowski,
• Adam Ostrowski and
• Waldemar Bednarski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1473–1482, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.121

• also observed using this microscope. The SEM images show the morphology of the LiCoO2 obtained at different synthesis temperatures. Before analysis, the samples were sputtered with graphite to improve the electrical contact. All samples were observed at 1 kV. EPR analysis Electron paramagnetic

Coherent amplification of radiation from two phase-locked Josephson junction arrays

• Mikhail A. Galin,
• Vladimir M. Krasnov,
• Ilya A. Shereshevsky,
• Nadezhda K. Vdovicheva and
• Vladislav V. Kurin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1445–1457, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.119

• substrate with the thickness 0.38 mm. It contains three closely located straight strips with a separation of only 4 μm. Each strip has the length L = 5 mm and the width w = 14 μm and contains 332 JJs distributed uniformly along the strip. The junction area is 8 × 8 μm2. Contact electrodes are connected to

• facilitate access to the contact pads of the bottom array, the substrate of the top array was trimmed to a width of about 3 mm. The arrays are similar to those in sample-1, but with a different shape of connecting electrodes (cf. Figure 1a,b and Figure 5a), which does not influence the measurements. The

Dry under water: air retaining properties of large-scale elastomer foils covered with mushroom-shaped surface microstructures

• Matthias Mail,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Wilhelm Barthlott,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Lars Heepe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1370–1379, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.113

• the surface tension of water, cos θ is the water contact angle of poly(vinylsiloxane) which was assumed to be 95°, and ρw = 997 kg/m3 the density of water, and g the gravitational acceleration. The reduced bubble lifetime for h > hmax whereas Vi is the initial volume of the air layer, with Ai the

• investigations of the diffusion behavior at different pressures are plotted in the graph. The results are in good agreement with the theoretically predicted values. Further, our results indicate that both the size and shape of the contact area between water and air plays a crucial role for the stability of the

• air layer. The loss of air happened not only at the interface of water and air between the top side of the MSM, but also on the sides. This means the water-contact-area/volume ratio of the air layer is a crucial parameter for the long term stability of the kept air. Previous works have focused

Straight roads into nowhere – obvious and not-so-obvious biological models for ferrophobic surfaces

• Wilfried Konrad,
• Christoph Neinhuis and
• Anita Roth-Nebelsick

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1345–1360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.111

• is described that started with a posed technical problem for which seemingly obvious biological models exist. The technical problem was to devise a ferrophobic surface that prevents the contact between the copper surface of a tuyère (a water cooled aeration pipe within a blast furnace) and liquid

• extend a short distance into the blast furnace (Figure 1b,c). Occasionally, liquid iron that runs down along the inner side of the outer wall of the furnace makes contact with the tuyère. If the heat input exceeds the capacity of the tuyère’s water cooling system, the tuyère burns through, and, as a

• straightforward to search for suitable biological models of external surfaces that prevent the contact to a liquid and that are able to create stable air/liquid interfaces resilient to perturbation. The biological models we considered first were the structured surfaces of Salvinia molesta leaves (see Figure 2

Bending and punching characteristics of aluminum sheets using the quasi-continuum method

• Man-Ping Chang,
• Shang-Jui Lin and
• Te-Hua Fang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1303–1315, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.108

• the adhesion force increases with an increase of the contact area between the punch and the workpiece. However, when the debris crumple, the slip phenomenon appears [61]. Besides, comparing the three crystal orientation curves, O1 shows a more stable curve during the loading process, while the O2 and

• increased with an increase of the taper angle. When the taper angle increases, the contact area between the punch and the workpiece is decreased, and a higher internal energy is stored in the atoms, resulting in a higher fracture strength [63]. Figure 14 shows the shear stress distribution of various taper