Comparative study of sculptured metallic thin films deposited by oblique angle deposition at different temperatures

• Susann Liedtke,
• Christoph Grüner,
• Jürgen W. Gerlach and
• Bernd Rauschenbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 954–962, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.89

• deposition at 300 K. According to Wulff´s rule [18], the lowest surface energy plane of fcc Al is the (111) plane. Typically, this is the plane with the highest surface diffusion, which finally develops to the faceted surface of the crystallite under equilibrium conditions. In summary, differences in the

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

• deposition process. This result is interpreted in the light of the contributions of different energy components (surface energy and elastic modulus) which act dependently on the substrate properties, such as its nature and structure. Keywords: atomic layer deposition; cerium(IV) oxide (CeO2) microstructure

• intrinsic elastic stress and the surface energy. Above a certain critical film thickness, the surface energy which favors the (111) orientation does not contribute anymore, while the elastic energy, which can be better stored in grains with (200) orientation, correspondingly increases. Thus, grains with the

Facile chemical routes to mesoporous silver substrates for SERS analysis

• Elina A. Tastekova,
• Alexander Y. Polyakov,
• Anastasia E. Goldt,
• Alexander V. Sidorov,
• Alexandra A. Oshmyanskaya,
• Irina V. Sukhorukova,
• Dmitry V. Shtansky,
• Wolgang Grünert and
• Anastasia V. Grigorieva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 880–889, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.82

• long time in air. Mesoporous noble metals are mostly used as catalysts for high surface energy, gas sensor components, cell imaging mediators, etc. [5]. The most popular methods for mesoporous metal processing include acidic etching of bimetallic molts [6], electrochemical dealloying [7

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

• remarkably decreased. The particle size further diminishes with the addition of ZnO (B-3, Figure S1b, Supporting Information File 1). When the Zn/Bi ratio becomes 1:3 (Figure 2b), the exfoliated BiOI ultrathin layers assemble together to spontaneously form a hierarchical microsphere to reduce the surface

• energy. Coupling the elemental distribution displayed by the energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mapping (Figure 2d–h) and EDS (Figure 2i), it is clear to see that in this 3D nanoflower structure of B-4 sample the ZnO nanoparticles are uniformly embedded on the architecture built up by erect BiOI layers

Surface-plasmon-enhanced ultraviolet emission of Au-decorated ZnO structures for gas sensing and photocatalytic devices

• T. Anh Thu Do,
• Truong Giang Ho,
• Thu Hoai Bui,
• Quang Ngan Pham,
• Hong Thai Giang,
• Thi Thu Do,
• Duc Van Nguyen and
• Dai Lam Tran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 771–779, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.70

• precursors is higher, resulting in the core-spike architecture by minimizing the surface energy. It was found that the plasmonic metal nanomaterial/metal-oxide semiconductor structures were preferred as the nanometer-sized metal oxides for high photocatalytic activity and wide dispersion. However, in this

Tuning adhesion forces between functionalized gold colloidal nanoparticles and silicon AFM tips: role of ligands and capillary forces

• Sven Oras,
• Sergei Vlassov,
• Marta Berholts,
• Rünno Lõhmus and
• Karine Mougin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 660–670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.61

• bare solid, γSL is the interface energy between solid and liquid and γLV is the interface energy between liquid and vapour. This parameter shows the surface energy per unit area between the tip–liquid and substrate–liquid contacts. In the presence of humidity, Fadh is the sum of the direct adhesion Fss

Ultralight super-hydrophobic carbon aerogels based on cellulose nanofibers/poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphene oxide (CNFs/PVA/GO) for highly effective oil–water separation

• Zhaoyang Xu,
• Huan Zhou,
• Sicong Tan,
• Xiangdong Jiang,
• Weibing Wu,
• Jiangtao Shi and
• Peng Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 508–519, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.49

• aerogels with high porosity, small hole size and low surface energy. Obviously, the absorption capacity difference of the carbon aerogels was largely determined by the density of the carbon aerogel and surface tension of the solvents and oils. Additionally, the density, which demonstrates the quantity of

Review: Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based nanoelectromechanical switches – materials solutions and operational conditions

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Jelena Kosmaca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Jana Andzane and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 271–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.29

• contact area and Δγ is energy of adhesion: Δγ = γ1 + γ2 − γ12, where γ1 and γ2 are the surface energy of the contacting surfaces, and γ12 is the interfacial energy in the contact. γ12 = 0 if both surfaces are of the same material. Thus, the surface energy of the contacting materials is a critical factor

• approximately 104 switching cycles operating at 1 V drain voltage in a 3T configuration with 100 nm gap between the beam and the drain electrode [19]. Choice of material for the NEM switching element The material properties (Young’s modulus, free surface energy, electrical conductivity, melting temperature

• ], and low surface energy [141] – all beneficial properties for NEM switch applications. TiN is also one of the materials used in almost all standard surface and bulk micromachining, thus available from routine CMOS production, and it can be integrated in existing devices. Meanwhile TiN exhibits strong

Dopant-stimulated growth of GaN nanotube-like nanostructures on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy

• Alexey D. Bolshakov,
• Alexey M. Mozharov,
• Georgiy A. Sapunov,
• Igor V. Shtrom,
• Nickolay V. Sibirev,
• Vladimir V. Fedorov,
• Evgeniy V. Ubyivovk,
• Maria Tchernycheva,
• George E. Cirlin and
• Ivan S. Mukhin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 146–154, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.17

• diameter does not change. We suppose that lattice planes confine the hollow part due to surface energy minimization and thus determine the NT inner diameter, d. The considerations stated above allow us to develop a theoretical model of NT formation. We assume that a fast nucleation process along the NW top

Facile synthesis of silver/silver thiocyanate (Ag@AgSCN) plasmonic nanostructures with enhanced photocatalytic performance

• Xinfu Zhao,
• Dairong Chen,
• Abdul Qayum,
• Bo Chen and
• Xiuling Jiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2781–2789, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.277

• solubility product constant (Ksp) of AgSCN (Figure 3a). These nanoplates rapidly aggregated due to the high surface energy, and the crystal growth occurred simultaneously (Figure 3b). At this time, the dropwise addition of the AgNO3 solution finished. The oriented-aggregates with a size of ≈1.5 µm were

• aggregation of the nanoplates occurred to reduce the total surface energy, with the simultaneously growth of the AgSCN plates (Figure 3b). The nanoplates were arranged in a face-to-face stacking manner, and the tetragonal star-shaped Ag@AgSCN nanostructures composed of nanoplates were formed. After that, the

The role of ligands in coinage-metal nanoparticles for electronics

• Ioannis Kanelidis and
• Tobias Kraus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2625–2639, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.263

• the copper seeds and favored the crystal growth of the high-surface-energy ends of the rods [21]. Table 1 summarizes important ligands that have been used to direct the shape of metal nanoparticles. The geometry of metal nanostructures can affect the percolation threshold and, thus, the conductivity

PTFE-based microreactor system for the continuous synthesis of full-visible-spectrum emitting cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals

• Chengxi Zhang,
• Weiling Luan,
• Yuhang Yin and
• Fuqian Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2521–2529, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.252

• . The difference in the surface morphology is likely due to the orientation dependence of the specific surface energy on the fraction of halogen elements, since the growth orientation of a crystal is controlled by the minimization of total surface energy. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to characterize

Increasing the stability of DNA nanostructure templates by atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃ and its application in imprinting lithography

• Hyojeong Kim,
• Kristin Arbutina,
• Anqin Xu and
• Haitao Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2363–2375, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.236

• template relies on using water to lower the adhesion between the film and the template. The key advantage of our method is that any polymer with hydrophobicity and/or low surface energy can be patterned with the DNA nanostructure master template. Furthermore, because the method uses spin-coating instead of

Material property analytical relations for the case of an AFM probe tapping a viscoelastic surface containing multiple characteristic times

• Enrique A. López-Guerra and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2230–2244, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.223

• portion. Instead, the tip remains more time in contact with the sample during the approach than during the retract (see Figure 2). The vdW contribution will thus be referred to as surface energy hysteresis (fifth term on the right-hand side of Equation 30), and is proportional to the mismatch between the

• (surface energy) is also omitted. Although the analytical equations derived here are shown to follow consistently the numerical results for all the cases we have studied, they are still approximations prone to error. The viscoelastic treatment used, based on transformational calculus, carries the intrinsic

• ); the second one is proportional to the loss modulus G″(ω); the third term is related to the transients (associated with the poles of the transfer function); the fourth term relates to the relaxation modulus (G(t)); and the fifth term is related to the adhesion component of the vdW interaction (surface

Au₅₅, a stable glassy cluster: results of ab initio calculations

• Dieter Vollath,
• David Holec and
• Franz Dieter Fischer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2221–2229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.222

• that is close to the melting enthalpy of bulk gold. Additionally, the surface energy of this cluster was calculated using two different theoretical approaches resulting in values close to the surface energy for bulk gold. It shall be emphasized that it is now possible to give a confidence interval for

• the value of the surface energy. Keywords: amorphous; Au55 cluster; glass structure; phase transformation; surface energy; Introduction There is a lot of discussion about the structure and surface energy of small nanoparticles. However, this discussion is rather limited due to the fact that there

• × 10−10 m [30]. Estimation of the surface energy Energetic conditions The most straightforward approach to estimate the surface energy of the nanoparticle is to evaluate it as the difference between the total energy of a particle Eparticle and the cohesive energy of the same number n of atoms in the

Substrate and Mg doping effects in GaAs nanowires

• Perumal Kannappan,
• Nabiha Ben Sedrine,
• Jennifer P. Teixeira,
• Maria R. Soares,
• Bruno P. Falcão,
• Maria R. Correia,
• Nestor Cifuentes,
• Emilson R. Viana,
• Marcus V. B. Moreira,
• Geraldo M. Ribeiro,
• Alfredo G. de Oliveira,
• Juan C. González and
• Joaquim P. Leitão

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2126–2138, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.212

• structure, but when scaled down to the nanowire form, the occurrence of the wurtzite (WZ) crystalline phase is more prevalent due to a high surface-to-volume ratio and a low surface energy [10][11][12]. The WZ phase is more favorable for nanowires with small diameters, whereas for larger diameters, the ZB

In situ controlled rapid growth of novel high activity TiB₂/(TiB₂–TiN) hierarchical/heterostructured nanocomposites

• Jilin Wang,
• Hejie Liao,
• Yuchun Ji,
• Fei Long,
• Yunle Gu,
• Zhengguang Zou,
• Weimin Wang and
• Zhengyi Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2116–2125, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.211

• -like short chains (Figure 4d) followed by rods (Figure 4e) in order to satisfy the minimized surface energy [31]. Then the N* and the rest of the Ti* could be co-precipitated on the surface of the TiB2 short rods to generate the TiN outer layers (Figure 4f,g). The different atom deposition rates of the

Coexistence of strongly buckled germanene phases on Al(111)

• Weimin Wang and
• Roger I. G. Uhrberg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1946–1951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.195

• have different signs of the stress, so a coexistence could probably reduce the surface energy. Figure 2a is an atomically resolved STM image showing two rotated domains of the (√7×√7) reconstruction with a measured periodicity of ≈7.5 Å. The orientations of these two domains are indicated by two blue

Enhancement of mechanical and electrical properties of continuous-fiber-reinforced epoxy composites with stacked graphene

• Naum Naveh,
• Olga Shepelev and
• Samuel Kenig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1909–1918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.191

• wetting ability of the modified nanoparticles. The hydrophilic/hydrophobic nature of the SAA dictates the surface energy balance. More hydrophilic SAAs promoted localization of the SG at the Kevlar/epoxy interface, and morphology seems to be driven by thermodynamics, rather than the kinetic effect of

• viscosity. This effect was less obvious with carbon or glass fibers, due to the lower surface energy of the carbon fibers or some incompatibility with the glass-fiber sizing. Proper choice of the surfactant and fine-tuning of the crosslink density at the interphase may provide further enhancements in thermo

• spite of the very low viscosity of GLYMO. The hydrophilic/hydrophobic nature of the SAA dictates the surface energy balance, such that more hydrophilicity (thus, higher surface energies) drives the treated nanoparticles to the fiber/matrix interface, due to the higher surface energy of the Kevlar fibers

Structural model of silicene-like nanoribbons on a Pb-reconstructed Si(111) surface

• Agnieszka Stępniak-Dybala and
• Mariusz Krawiec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1836–1843, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.185

• ) surface is proposed. The model, which is based on first principles density functional theory calculations, features a deformed honeycomb structure directly bonded to the Si(111) surface underneath. Pb atoms stabilize the nanoribbons, as they passivate the uncovered substrate, thus lower the surface energy

• , the DFT calculations reveal the hexagonal structure of the Si nanoribbons, which are directly bonded to the bare Si(111) surface. However, Pb atoms play an important role in stabilizing the structure, as they lower the surface energy. The proposed structural model features a deformed honeycomb

• cell forming a NR. The relative surface energies γNR(Si) and distances between BPs dBP, if available, of some representative structural models are listed in Table 1. The surface energy γNR(Si) is defined as where Etot and Ebare are total energies of the NR on the Si(111) surface and on the Si(111

Evaluation of preparation methods for suspended nano-objects on substrates for dimensional measurements by atomic force microscopy

• Petra Fiala,
• Daniel Göhler,
• Benno Wessely,
• Michael Stintz,
• Giovanni Mattia Lazzerini and
• Andrew Yacoot

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1774–1785, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.179

• homogenisation and dispersion, the drop-sampling, as different pipette drop volume or a remaining amount of particles in the pipette. We assumed an inaccuracy in the sampling volume of ±5 vol %. Another cause of the observed difference in drop dissemination was attributed to the different surface energy of the

Collembola cuticles and the three-phase line tension

• Håkon Gundersen,
• Hans Petter Leinaas and
• Christian Thaulow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1714–1722, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.172

• state after the early proposed equation of Cassie and Baxter (Equation 1) based on a surface-energy argument for the case of a droplet resting on a composite surface [15], where θ* is the apparent contact angle, fi is the fraction of the surface i in contact with the water drop and θi is the inherent

Process-specific mechanisms of vertically oriented graphene growth in plasmas

• Subrata Ghosh,
• Shyamal R. Polaki,
• Niranjan Kumar,
• Sankarakumar Amirthapandian,
• Mohamed Kamruddin and
• Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1658–1670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.166

• contribute to the defect band intensity through graphite structure amorphization and growth orientation [27][47]. The substrate properties such as surface energy, thermal conductivity and atomic density play a major role in determining the structure and morphology of substrate-supported VGNs [24]. In general

• maintained constant. Hence, this result is related to the increased mobility of surface atoms such that the rates of adsorption and surface chemical reactions become higher at high temperatures; this reduces the surface energy of the substrate. Similar transformations of islands to VGNs have also been

Uptake and intracellular accumulation of diamond nanoparticles – a metabolic and cytotoxic study

• Antonín Brož,
• Lucie Bačáková,
• Pavla Štenclová,
• Alexander Kromka and
• Štěpán Potocký

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1649–1657, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.165

• and surface energy of the NDs. The presence of photoluminescent N-V centers had no negative effect on cell viability in the concentrations studied (3 µg/cm2 and 30 µg/cm2). Similar to the other HPHT NDs with an oxidized surface, the NDs with N-V optical centers expressed no significant toxicity when

Parylene C as a versatile dielectric material for organic field-effect transistors

• Tomasz Marszalek,
• Maciej Gazicki-Lipman and
• Jacek Ulanski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1532–1545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.155

• sufficient paths for charge carrier transport [48]. Roughness is not the only surface parameter that may influence the supramolecular organization of the semiconductor film. The correlation between surface energy and charge transport in organic semiconductors has been discussed for TTF-based transistors

• produced on two different silicon dioxide substrates, characterized by surface energies of 51.8 and 40.1 mN/m, respectively [10]. It was found, that the average charge-carrier mobility was considerably higher (μ = 0.2 cm2/V·s ) when the SiO2 surface energy was lower. The substrate with the higher surface

• configuration (0.02 cm2/Vs) [58]. Changes in the surface energy between Parylene C (bottom gate, top contacts) and glass with gold electrodes (top gate, bottom contacts) are the main factor responsible for variations in the organization of semiconductor molecules. Additionally, parameters such as wettability