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

• two-step process on ZnO nanorod/TiO2 substrates [7]. In this study, we applied this two-step process, i.e., depositing amorphous Sb2S3 layers on planar substrates, followed by post-deposition crystallization. The aim of this study was to produce crystalline, continuous, Sb2S3 optical coatings with

• deposition of amorphous Sb2S3 layers. Second, all layers were thermally treated in an inert environment (vacuum, <4 × 10−6 Torr) to induce crystallization, without oxidation. Preliminary experiments at deposition temperatures lower than 182 °C (decomposition of SC(NH2)2 [14][15]) yielded inhomogeneous red

• -170 and 6-220-170) and narrows by 5 cm−1 at most after vacuum thermal treatment at 200 °C (3-210-200). The narrowing of the Raman bands due to thermal treatment leads us to suppose that crystallization continues during the vacuum thermal treatment and proceeds further at higher thermal treatment

Co-intercalated layered double hydroxides as thermal and photo-oxidation stabilizers for polypropylene

• Qian Zhang,
• Qiyu Gu,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Pinggui Tang,
• Dianqing Li and
• Yongjun Feng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2980–2988, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.277

• insignificant influence on the crystallization behavior of PP [24]. For HALS-Ca2Al/PP and MP-Ca2Al/PP, the typical reflection (002) peaks of HALS-Ca2Al and MP-Ca2Al clearly appear (marked with “†”) with an increase in spacing from 0.77 to 0.88 nm for HALS-Ca2Al and from 2.52 to 2.68 nm for MP-Ca2Al. Probably

• interactions between guest anions and the host LDH. Subsequently a series of HnMn′-Ca2Al/PP composite films was prepared. The results show that the addition of HnMn′-Ca2Al-LDH has no negative effect on the crystallization behavior of PP, while it improves significantly the stability of the composites against

The nanoscaled metal-organic framework ICR-2 as a carrier of porphyrins for photodynamic therapy

• Jan Hynek,
• Sebastian Jurík,
• Martina Koncošová,
• Jaroslav Zelenka,
• Ivana Křížová,
• Tomáš Ruml,
• Kaplan Kirakci,
• Ivo Jakubec,
• František Kovanda,
• Kamil Lang and
• Jan Demel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2960–2967, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.275

• preparation of nanoICR-2. The use of pure formamide (FA) or mixtures with DMF of more than 50 vol % FA at 100 °C led to the formation of nanoparticles with approximately 30 nm in diameter. The origin of the nanoparticle formation is probably the suppression of the crystallization along the c-axis leading to a

Variation of the photoluminescence spectrum of InAs/GaAs heterostructures grown by ion-beam deposition

• Alexander S. Pashchenko,
• Leonid S. Lunin,
• Eleonora M. Danilina and
• Sergei N. Chebotarev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2794–2801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.261

• container with the batch was carried out by a resistive heater to a temperature above the melting point of GaAs (1250 °C), which is the highest-melting compound. The melt was kept for 10 min under such conditions, then rapid shutdown of the heating elements was followed by crystallization of the initial

Improved catalytic combustion of methane using CuO nanobelts with predominantly (001) surfaces

• Qingquan Kong,
• Yichun Yin,
• Bing Xue,
• Yonggang Jin,
• Wei Feng,
• Zhi-Gang Chen,
• Shi Su and
• Chenghua Sun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2526–2532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.235

• treatment is employed (650 °C) as shown in Figure 2e. Moreover, the surface layers show higher crystallization after catalysis tests, as shown in Figure 2f, indicating that additional efforts to improve the thermal stability of these nanostructures is needed. Although the calculated AE and DE can provide an

ZnO-nanostructure-based electrochemical sensor: Effect of nanostructure morphology on the sensing of heavy metal ions

• Marina Krasovska,
• Vjaceslavs Gerbreders,
• Irena Mihailova,
• Andrejs Ogurcovs,
• Eriks Sledevskis,
• Andrejs Gerbreders and
• Pavels Sarajevs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2421–2431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.227

• to 2 mM). The reduction peak current for the highest concentration can be explained by mass crystallization in the solution, in parallel with the sorption process. It is the threshold above which crystallites of lead oxides become visible on the ZnO nanostructured surface by SEM. In order to visually

• compare the sedimentation characteristics of both substances, the concentration of nitrate was increased 100 times (to 300 mM), which led to an intense crystallization process and the formation of visually appealing sediments. As can be seen from Figure 6, for the same solution concentrations, Pb(NO3)2

• cadmium ions that prevent the rough ZnO surface to act as crystallization precursors in the heteroepitaxial growth process. In other words, particles will, with more probability, join an existing layer and increase its thickness rather than participate in the formation of a new precursor or the next layer

Block copolymers for designing nanostructured porous coatings

• Roberto Nisticò

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2332–2344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.218

• : i) the orientation of the polymer chains within the lamella crystals, ii) the orientation of the lamella crystals within the domain structure of the block copolymer, and iii) the domain structure itself. Additionally, it is also possible to rationalize the crystallization behavior in BCs considering

• the degree of miscibility of the components. This suggests that the microphase separation morphology is also affected by the composition of the blocks forming the BCs. Semicrystalline BCs give two different crystallization modes: break-out crystallization and confined crystallization (the last one

Nanoscale characterization of the temporary adhesive of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

• Ana S. Viana and
• Romana Santos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2277–2286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.212

• microscopy (AFM) The adhesive material was observed either dry, moist or under native conditions. In the first case, footprints deposited on mica were rinsed with distilled water to prevent imaging artefacts due to salt crystallization, then allowed to dry in ambient air for at least 24 h and further dried

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

• function of temperature and radius to characterize the status of crystallization. Figure 10 displays some of these results for four different particles sizes as function of the temperature [47]. The results displayed in Figure 10 shows an important feature: independent of the particle diameter, even at a

• temperature significantly lower than the melting temperature, the particles do not show perfect crystallization. It is important to keep in mind that the values given in Figure 10 are averaged over the whole particle. One may assume that a significant contribution to this reduced order stems from the surface

• different particle diameter as function of the temperature obtained by molecular dynamics simulations [47]. Even at a temperature significantly different from the melting temperature, perfect crystallization is not observed. Melting temperature of lead according to Coombes [16]. This figure shows two ranges

Intrinsic ultrasmall nanoscale silicon turns n-/p-type with SiO₂/Si₃N₄-coating

• Dirk König,
• Daniel Hiller,
• Noël Wilck,
• Birger Berghoff,
• Merlin Müller,
• Sangeeta Thakur,
• Giovanni Di Santo,
• Luca Petaccia,
• Joachim Mayer,
• Sean Smith and
• Joachim Knoch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2255–2264, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.210

• Moore’s law to reach the Si-crystallization limit of ca. 1.5 nm [15]. In our present work, we prove by hybrid-density functional theory (h-DFT) simulations and synchrotron-based long-term ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) that usn-Si indeed can have a massive ΔE of their electronic density of

• -type Si wafers (Sb doping, 5 to 15 × 10−3 Ω cm) of (111)-surface orientation underwent wet-chemical cleaning. After deposition the wafers were annealed in a quartz tube furnace for 1 min at 1100 °C in pure N2 ambient to induce Si crystallization. Subsequently, the samples were H2-passivated at 450 °C

• , extending the potential of structural miniaturization down to the Si-crystallization limit of ca. 1.5 nm [15]. Energy offsets with SiO2- and Si3N4-embedding for one Si10-NC (0.8 nm size) embedded in SiO2 and the other Si10-NC embedded in Si3N4 within one approximant. The main graph shows the electronic DOS

Lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics

• Oleksandr Stroyuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2209–2235, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.207

• MAPI counterpart (Eg = 1.55 eV, ≈800 nm) [74] and comparably high absorption coefficients of ≈105 cm−1 [106]. Thick MASnI3 perovskite wafers synthesized by a temperature-reduction-induced crystallization showed an even narrower bandgap of ≈1.2 eV [107]. The FASnI3 compound with a bulkier formamidinium

• -based cells with the solution-processed HP layers is also limited by a rough interface between MABI and typical ETL/HTL materials. The interface quality can be increased by controlling the rate of MABI crystallization, in particular, by introducing additions of N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) to DMF which is

• typically used as a solvent for the spin-coating deposition of MABI layers [160]. NMP slows the HP crystallization favoring the formation of a more uniform MABI layer and providing a ≈50% enhancement of the photocurrent generation efficiency. Simultaneously, the optimized morphology shows an enhanced

Spin-coated planar Sb₂S₃ hybrid solar cells approaching 5% efficiency

• Pascal Kaienburg,
• Benjamin Klingebiel and
• Thomas Kirchartz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2114–2124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.200

• routes based on different precursors reported in the literature. By studying the film morphology, sub-bandgap absorption and solar cell performance, improved annealing procedures are found and the crystallization temperature is shown to be critical. In order to determine the optimized processing

• device efficiency of 2.7% was obtained for Sb/TU ratios that imply a strongly sulfur-deficient stoichiometry according to the previously mentioned study [29]. However, Gil et al. [38] performed crystallization in an H2S atmosphere which could increase the sulfur content in the film. In a follow up work

• annealing process that considerably improves substrate coverage. We compare both process routes in terms of morphology, electronic defects and device performance with a focus on the crystallization step. For optimized annealing conditions, we vary the hole transport material and illustrate a qualitatively

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

• Figure 1. The diffraction peaks in Figure 1a correspond well to the typical planes of CoAl LDH, suggesting its good crystallization and high purity. After coating with PDA, the resulting core–shell composite (LDH@PDA-2.5) displays characteristic diffraction peaks located at the same Bragg angles as pure

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

• (−196 °C) using a special jet injector with a cylindrical nozzle. The spray torch was sent to the liquid nitrogen container, where the formation of cryogranules occurred at a high cooling rate. The instantaneous freezing of the droplets produced by spraying led to the formation and crystallization of

• diameter of the resulting metal oxide powders was many times smaller (3–18) than for materials prepared without cryotreatment of the sols (Table 1). Apparently, the beginning of crystallization and the formation of the nanoparticle surface occurred even under the ice shell in the cryosols. According to the

Multimodal noncontact atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations of organolead tribromide perovskite single crystals

• Yann Almadori,
• David Moerman,
• Jaume Llacer Martinez,
• Philippe Leclère and
• Benjamin Grévin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1695–1704, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.161

• tribromide single crystals (millimeter- to centimeter-sized) were grown from N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution at constant temperature. In this process [12] CH3NH3Br and PbBr2 precursors are used that are soluble in DMF at room temperature, and the crystallization occurs between 90 °C and 100°C due to

Sulfur-, nitrogen- and platinum-doped titania thin films with high catalytic efficiency under visible-light illumination

• Boštjan Žener,
• Lev Matoh,
• Giorgio Carraro,
• Bojan Miljević and
• Romana Cerc Korošec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1629–1640, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.155

• (ammonium nitrate, urea), sulfur (thiourea) and platinum (chloroplatinic acid), coated onto glass substrates by dip-coating, and thermally treated in a muffle furnace to promote crystallization. The resulting thin films were then characterized by various techniques (i.e., TGA-DSC-MS, XRD, BET, XPS, SEM

• determine the crystallization temperature of different xerogel samples and the course of their thermal decomposition. The thermal decomposition of the amorphous xerogels, followed by the complementary techniques of thermal analysis of different samples are shown in Figure 1. The thermal decomposition of

• , carbon dioxide (m/z = 44) also evolved from the sample in the third step. Exothermic peaks in the DSC curve from ≈300 °C onward are due to the process of crystallization of the sample. Around 450 °C, the mass loss and exothermic processes are completed, meaning that the final oxide material is formed

Sheet-on-belt branched TiO₂(B)/rGO powders with enhanced photocatalytic activity

• Huan Xing,
• Wei Wen and
• Jin-Ming Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1550–1557, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.146

• the pristine TiO2(B) in the precursor solution at 60 °C, which then grow continuously during the prolonged duration. After the final calcination at 400 °C for 1 h in air, the titanate branches decomposed to TiO2(B) instead of anatase TiO2. It thus suggests that the decomposition and crystallization of

• hydrogen titanates depends on the substrates. The TiO2(B) trunk may guide the TiO2 crystallization. The chemical bonding states of the TGN-branch 4 h were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS). Elements of Ti, C and O have been detected in the XPS survey spectra (Figure 5a). The binding energy of

Induced smectic phase in binary mixtures of twist-bend nematogens

• Anamarija Knežević,
• Irena Dokli,
• Marin Sapunar,
• Suzana Šegota,
• Ute Baumeister and
• Andreja Lesac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1297–1307, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.122

• determination of the virtual nematic to NTB transition temperatures of the later [20]. For the crystallization points, two trends are detectable. Upon addition of 8 mol % of BB to CBI, the transition to the solid phase decreases to 3 °C, compared to 75 °C of the pure CBI. Increasing the concentration of BB

• further up to 50 mol % causes a rather steep temperature increase up to 60 °C. In the range of 56 < mol % BB < 88 crystallization temperatures remain approximately the same at about 68 °C. Considering the phase behaviour of the pure compounds, the expected Iso–N–NTB phase sequence was observed across the

• features that can be related to a nanometer-scale pitch. Up to 40 mol % of BB large suppression of crystallization resulted in a wide temperature range of the NTB phase. This enabled direct comparison of the surface morphology and periodicity modulations between several mixtures of different concentration

Formation and development of nanometer-sized cybotactic clusters in bent-core nematic liquid crystalline compounds

• Yuri P. Panarin,
• Sithara P. Sreenilayam,
• Jagdish K. Vij,
• Anne Lehmann and
• Carsten Tschierske

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1288–1296, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.121

• clusters) [38]. The results from the dielectric studies are shown in Figure 3. The dielectric strength of the relaxation process P1 (Δε1) increases upon cooling from ≈0.11 (101 °C) to ≈1.85 at 65 °C (close to the transition to the smectic phase or to its crystallization), whereas the Δε2 of the process P2

P3HT:PCBM blend films phase diagram on the base of variable-temperature spectroscopic ellipsometry

• Barbara Hajduk,
• Henryk Bednarski,
• Bożena Jarząbek,
• Henryk Janeczek and
• Paweł Nitschke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1108–1115, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.102

• transitions and to determine the glass transition temperatures and melting crystallization points of the P3HT:PCBM blend films. By analyzing the influence of the temperature T on the raw ellipsometric data, we have identified a high sensitivity of the ellipsometric angle Δ at a wavelength of 280 nm to

• is a very sensitive optical technique to investigate the phase transitions and to determine the glass temperatures and melting crystallization points for the P3HT:PCBM blend films. By analyzing the influence of the temperature on the raw ellipsometric data, we have identified the high sensitivity of

• for PCBM show Tg at 124.03 °C and two peaks of exothermic crystallization processes with maxima at 191.08 °C and at 265.44 °C. Also, the subsequent melting endotherm with a sharp minimum at 284.53 °C is visible. Having determined phase transitions from the DSC measurements, we return to our

A simple extension of the commonly used fitting equation for oscillatory structural forces in case of silica nanoparticle suspensions

• Sebastian Schön and
• Regine von Klitzing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1095–1107, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.101

• nature of this phenomenon it has implications for a broad range of applications in microfluidic devices, for the stability of colloidal suspensions, or in a biological context, e.g., transport processes between biological surfaces or crystallization of proteins. Confined molecules or particles

Effect of annealing treatments on CeO₂ grown on TiN and Si substrates by atomic layer deposition

• Silvia Vangelista,
• Rossella Piagge,
• Satu Ek and
• Alessio Lamperti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 890–899, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.83

• crystallization. When ceria is deposited on TiN, the temperature has to be limited to 600 °C due to the thermal instability of the underlying TiN substrate with a broadening of the interface, while there are no changes detected inside the CeO2 films. As-deposited CeO2 films show a cubic fluorite polycrystalline

• atmosphere with the aim to passivate the film defects, namely the oxygen vacancies. A second set of samples has been annealed at high temperatures (600–900 °C) to induce full crystallization in CeO2 films and follow the corresponding structural and chemical changes induced by the annealing process

• appear well ordered, as only in small regions of the film is possible to clearly recognize ordered planes, suggesting an incomplete crystallization. XPS analysis of the samples annealed at high temperature gives us insights on the off-stoichiometry of the oxide layers induced by the thermal treatment

Facile synthesis of a ZnO–BiOI p–n nano-heterojunction with excellent visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Mengyuan Zhang,
• Jiaqian Qin,
• Pengfei Yu,
• Bing Zhang,
• Mingzhen Ma,
• Xinyu Zhang and
• Riping Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 789–800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.72

• -5). To give more details on ZnO’s impact on the crystallization of BiOI, the (102) diffraction peak is chosen to roughly estimate the average BiOI crystal size of samples B-2 through B-5 by the Scherrer equation (Table S2, Supporting Information File 1). The estimates show that the average crystal

• size of BiOI decreases with increasing ZnO, which indicates that the existence of ZnO may impede the crystallization and lead to the exfoliation of BiOI [33]. Y. Tong [36] also reported the broadening and shifting of the (102) diffraction peak of ZnO/BiOI composite samples, which is never mentioned in

Heavy-metal detectors based on modified ferrite nanoparticles

• Urszula Klekotka,
• Ewelina Wińska,
• Elżbieta Zambrzycka-Szelewa,
• Dariusz Satuła and
• Beata Kalska-Szostko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 762–770, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.69

• nanoparticles estimated from TEM images are collected. The obtained average particle sizes are close to those calculated for pure magnetite nanoparticles, which implies that proposed ions do not disturb the crystallization process and used synthesis constituents fulfill the same growth regimes [23]. X-ray

Synthesis and characterization of two new TiO₂-containing benzothiazole-based imine composites for organic device applications

• Anna Różycka,
• Agnieszka Iwan,
• Krzysztof Artur Bogdanowicz,
• Michal Filapek,
• Natalia Górska,
• Damian Pociecha,
• Marek Malinowski,
• Patryk Fryń,
• Agnieszka Hreniak,
• Jakub Rysz,
• Paweł Dąbczyński and
• Monika Marzec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 721–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.67

• . This may be because the thickness of this substance is too high or due to the very slow crystallization from isotropic liquid. Furthermore, both the imines (SP1 and SP2) aggregate into small islands after evaporation of solvent (not shown here). After 3 months of being kept in air atmosphere, both SP2