Recent highlights in nanoscale and mesoscale friction

• Andrea Vanossi,
• Dirk Dietzel,
• Andre Schirmeisen,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Marcin Kisiel,
• Shigeki Kawai and
• Nicola Manini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1995–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.190

• ]. Only recently, several systems have been discovered in which structural superlubricity can be observed under ambient conditions. For graphene stacks the self-retracting motion was found to remain a robust feature even under ambient conditions, which indicates that contamination cannot enter the

• interface [50][51]. Moreover, recent studies have highlighted that structural lubricity can also be observed for nanoparticle systems under ambient conditions. More specifically, a sublinear dependence of friction on the area was found both for gold [47] (Figure 2) and platinum particles [48] on HOPG. Ab

• contact, with increased friction. It is obvious that this contamination effect is one of the major limitations for large-scale applications of structural superlubricity. However, Cihan et al. achieved structural superlubricity of gold islands (4000–130,000 nm2) on graphite even under ambient conditions

Know your full potential: Quantitative Kelvin probe force microscopy on nanoscale electrical devices

• Amelie Axt,
• Ilka M. Hermes,
• Victor W. Bergmann,
• Niklas Tausendpfund and
• Stefan A. L. Weber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1809–1819, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.172

• modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) methods under ambient conditions to investigate how these methods can measure quantitative variations in the local contact potential difference (CPD). KPFM is a scanning force microsopcy (SFM) method that correlates the local

• [23]. However, such measurements are difficult to interpret as it is unclear what the expected workfunction contrast is. This is particularly important for measurements under ambient conditions, where adsorption layers can distort the CPD contrast [28]. In our study we follow an idea by Ziegler et al

• techniques under ambient conditions. We compare AM-KPFM in lift mode, on the second eigenmode and off resonance, as well as FM-KPFM with double sideband detection and heterodyne FM-KPFM. Theory KPFM [29] utilizes a conductive SFM tip as Kelvin probe [30] to map electrical surface potential variations on a

SO₂ gas adsorption on carbon nanomaterials: a comparative study

• Deepu J. Babu,
• Divya Puthusseri,
• Frank G. Kühl,
• Sherif Okeil,
• Michael Bruns,
• Manfred Hampe and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1782–1792, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.169

• found in [45]. Under near-ambient conditions, activated carbon Norit R1 Extra exhibits the highest SO2 adsorption capacity. The significantly higher SO2 adsorption capacity for activated carbon compared to other adsorbents can be attributed to the presence of micropores. As indicated by the t-plot

• to its layered structure. Consistent with the theoretical predictions of Furmaniak et al. [42], the influence of oxygen functionalities is found to be more pronounced under near-ambient conditions where the relative pressure P/P0 is less than 0.3. In our TEM measurements of SWNTs, we have seen the

• conclusion, the SO2 adsorption characteristics of different carbon nanomaterials were investigated and compared with an activated standard carbon adsorbent. Under near-ambient conditions, the activated carbon Norit R1 Extra exhibits significantly higher SO2 uptake than all the other adsorbents investigated

Controllable one-pot synthesis of uniform colloidal TiO₂ particles in a mixed solvent solution for photocatalysis

• Jong Tae Moon,
• Seung Ki Lee and
• Ji Bong Joo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1715–1727, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.163

• the reaction mixture was ≈120 mL. The mixture was stirred for 2 h under ambient conditions and the white precipitate was isolated by centrifugation. The white precipitate was washed with ethanol and with DI water a couple of times and dried under vacuum to obtain amorphous spherical TiO2 particles

Nanoscale electrochemical response of lithium-ion cathodes: a combined study using C-AFM and SIMS

• Jonathan Op de Beeck,
• Nouha Labyedh,
• Alfonso Sepúlveda,
• Valentina Spampinato,
• Alexis Franquet,
• Thierry Conard,
• Philippe M. Vereecken,
• Wilfried Vandervorst and
• Umberto Celano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1623–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.154

• changes. In Figure 1c–f we show the impact of different (tip-induced) voltage stresses applied under ambient conditions on two electrodeposited cathodes, i.e., MnO2 before (Figure 1c,d) and after lithium insertion (LMO, Figure 1e,f). From the resulting modifications of the current maps (Figure 1d,f) it is

Cr(VI) remediation from aqueous environment through modified-TiO₂-mediated photocatalytic reduction

• Rashmi Acharya,
• Brundabana Naik and
• Kulamani Parida

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1448–1470, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.137

• •− and •OOH) decompose the organic pollutants to less harmful compounds like H2O and CO2 (Equation 9). Photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) The semiconductor-mediated photocatalytic reduction of aqueous Cr(VI) has also recently gained tremendous importance because of its simple operation under ambient

• conditions, low cost, high efficiency and reusability. It uses renewable and pollution-free solar energy and produces minimal secondary waste without using toxic chemicals that follow the rules of green chemistry [59][60][61]. Various semiconductor photocatalysts such as CdS, ZnO, WO3, SnO2, and TiO2 have

An implementation of spin–orbit coupling for band structure calculations with Gaussian basis sets: Two-dimensional topological crystals of Sb and Bi

• Sahar Pakdel,
• Mahdi Pourfath and
• J. J. Palacios

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1015–1023, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.94

• those expectations closer to reality [33]. It was demonstrated that it is possible to isolate few or even single stable layers of antimonene, in ambient conditions. Moreover, new procedures such as liquid exfoliation and epitaxial growth methods were reported. Theoretical works on antimonene can be

Electro-optical interfacial effects on a graphene/π-conjugated organic semiconductor hybrid system

• Karolline A. S. Araujo,
• Luiz A. Cury,
• Matheus J. S. Matos,
• Thales F. D. Fernandes,
• Luiz G. Cançado and
• Bernardo R. A. Neves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 963–974, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.90

• the sample remained grounded during the experiment. The PRA and PGf points refer to RA monolayer-covered and noncovered regions of the graphite microplate substrate, respectively. All the experiments were performed at ambient conditions. (b) Typical raw EFM image of the photo-assisted experiment. The

Nanoscale mapping of dielectric properties based on surface adhesion force measurements

• Ying Wang,
• Yue Shen,
• Xingya Wang,
• Zhiwei Shen,
• Bin Li,
• Jun Hu and
• Yi Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 900–906, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.84

• qualitatively characterize the local dielectric distribution by adhesion mapping between a dielectric layer and a biased AFM probe is described. With this method we can simultaneously obtain the topographic and dielectric properties of the sample surface under ambient conditions without requiring reference

• fuel cells [41][42]. Results and Discussion A schematic diagram indicating the working principle of dielectric property mapping based on the adhesion force in the PF-QNM mode is shown in Figure 1. A dc voltage can be applied to the AFM tip in the PF-QNM mode under ambient conditions (Figure 1a). The

• AFM tip in PF-QNM mode is shown in Figure 2. The height images of a single-layered GO sheet, which was chemically reduced (thus named as CRGO) by saturated hydrazine vapour on a mica surface, showed little change when the AFM tip bias increased from 0 to 10 V under ambient conditions (room temperature

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

• due to the low redox potential of most of the metals, leading to fast oxidation or corrosion of metal sponges in ambient conditions. The oxidation stability of noble metals makes them more reliable as functional materials and thus materials such as porous silver, gold and platinum can be kept for a

• -colored product was washed out and dried in air at ambient conditions. A mesoporous Ag film was prepared in two steps using a magnetron sputtered silver film (thickness of 150 nm) as a precursor. The primary Ag film was deposited onto a thoroughly washed glass slide in argon using a magnetron Quorum

• washed with distilled water and dried in ambient conditions for 24 h. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was applied to characterize microstructure of the individual Ag or Ag2O nanostructures and films. The analysis was performed in using a NVision 40 microscope (Carl Zeiss) at 9 kV accelerating voltage

Comparative study of antibacterial properties of polystyrene films with TiO_x and Cu nanoparticles fabricated using cluster beam technique

• Vladimir N. Popok,
• Cesarino M. Jeppesen,
• Peter Fojan,
• Anna Kuzminova,
• Jan Hanuš and
• Ondřej Kylián

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 861–869, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.80

• antibacterial effect. Furthermore, Cu NPs under ambient conditions can easily lead to the formation of CuO, which also displays a direct toxicity for microorganisms [18]. They already disturb microorganisms when being in contact with the bacterial surface by reacting with proteins forming pores in the membrane

Towards the third dimension in direct electron beam writing of silver

• Katja Höflich,
• Jakub Mateusz Jurczyk,
• Katarzyna Madajska,
• Maximilian Götz,
• Luisa Berger,
• Carlos Guerra-Nuñez,
• Caspar Haverkamp,
• Iwona Szymanska and
• Ivo Utke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 842–849, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.78

• resonant behavior in the visible range without suffering from losses due to interband transitions [20]. However, the coinage metal silver comes with some technical issues. It tends to react to silver sulfide under ambient conditions [21] and hence requires an encapsulation within the final device

Noble metal-modified titania with visible-light activity for the decomposition of microorganisms

• Maya Endo,
• Zhishun Wei,
• Kunlei Wang,
• Baris Karabiyik,
• Kenta Yoshiiri,
• Paulina Rokicka,
• Bunsho Ohtani,
• Agata Markowska-Szczupak and
• Ewa Kowalska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 829–841, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.77

• localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) at ca. 410–430 nm), they were easily oxidized under ambient conditions, and the resultant silver deposits on titania were composed of a zero valent silver core and a silver oxide shell. XRD analysis confirmed XPS data showing silver in three oxidation states (Ag(0

Graphene composites with dental and biomedical applicability

• Sharali Malik,
• Felicite M. Ruddock,
• Adam H. Dowling,
• Kevin Byrne,
• Wolfgang Schmitt,
• Ivan Khalakhan,
• Yoshihiro Nemoto,
• Hongxuan Guo,
• Lok Kumar Shrestha,
• Katsuhiko Ariga and
• Jonathan P. Hill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 801–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.73

• ). Characterization The MLG and FLG material was characterized by Raman spectroscopy (Renishaw at 514 nm) and the AFM measurements were performed on a MultiMode V AFM (Veeco) in tapping mode under ambient conditions. RTESP silicon probes (Veeco) were used with a nominal tip radius of 10 nm and nominal spring constant

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

• was achieved by argon bubbling through the solution for about 10 min before measurement. All electrochemical experiments were carried out under ambient conditions. (a) Adsorption and desorption N2 isotherms of TiO2 at liquid nitrogen temperature. (b) Pore size distribution of TiO2 using Gaussian

Combined pulsed laser deposition and non-contact atomic force microscopy system for studies of insulator metal oxide thin films

• Daiki Katsube,
• Hayato Yamashita,
• Satoshi Abo and
• Masayuki Abe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 686–692, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.63

• the surface quality can be expected without the sputtering and annealing. Of course, one can perform experiments of the same surface without the combined system. Some insulator thin films such as TiO2 made by PLD and left under ambient conditions can be cleaned by an iteration of sputtering and

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

• force microscopy in ambient conditions. Au NPs were synthesized by chemical reduction of metal salts and functionalized with thiols presenting different tail groups varying from a very hydrophobic to a highly hydrophilic behavior. The tail groups were either an amino (–NH2), hydroxy (–OH), carboxyl

• interactions represent a major part of the molecular forces acting between both contact surfaces, however, the presence of water vapor (humidity rate of the order of 35%) in air, has a strong impact on these results via capillary forces. In ambient conditions a water mono-bilayer with thickness around 1 nm can

• that under ambient conditions an adsorbed thin water film exists at the NPs–substrate interface, that should increase the capillary forces and indirectly the adhesion between NPs and tip. On the other hand, high polarity of –COOH group increases the reactivity of NPs with airborne contaminants, which

Kinetics of solvent supported tubule formation of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) wax on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) investigated by atomic force microscopy

• Sujit Kumar Dora,
• Kerstin Koch,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Klaus Wandelt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 468–481, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.45

• measurements were carried out with a Picoscan AFM (Molecular Imaging, Tempe, AZ, USA) with a PicoScan controller coupled with a MAC Mode controller. The system was used to operate in the MAC Mode employing type I MAC levers under ambient conditions. Type I MAC silicon cantilevers with a length of 90 µm and a

Sugarcane juice derived carbon dot–graphitic carbon nitride composites for bisphenol A degradation under sunlight irradiation

• Lan Ching Sim,
• Jing Lin Wong,
• Chen Hong Hak,
• Jun Yan Tai,
• Kah Hon Leong and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 353–363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.35

• detection of elemental C and N (inset of Figure 1b) using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was attributed to the presence of pristine g-C3N4 and CDs [44]. A small peak of elemental O inevitably appeared due to reaction under ambient conditions. Figure 1e and Figure S2 (Supporting Information File

Wafer-scale bioactive substrate patterning by chemical lift-off lithography

• Chong-You Chen,
• Chang-Ming Wang,
• Hsiang-Hua Li,
• Hong-Hseng Chan and
• Wei-Ssu Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 311–320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.31

• achieved and delivers applications such as protein–ligand binding study and biological species sensing [7][8][9]. The other widely adopted system, the self-assembled monolayer (SAM), provides ease of operation and high stability under ambient conditions [10][11]. These approaches utilize the self

• steps, and biomolecule anchoring. It should be noted that the conformal contact reaction requires no external pressure, and the lift-off operation is performed under ambient conditions. As shown in the AFM images of Figure 1, the SAM-modified Au surface reveals a depressed square pattern after CLL

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

Growth model and structure evolution of Ag layers deposited on Ge films

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Jakub Kierdaszuk and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 66–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.9

• evolution of the film structure. If stored under ambient conditions for the first week after deposition, the changes in the transmission spectra are smaller than the measurement accuracy. Over the course of the following three weeks, the segregation-induced effects result in considerably modified

Response under low-energy electron irradiation of a thin film of a potential copper precursor for focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID)

• Leo Sala,
• Iwona B. Szymańska,
• Céline Dablemont,
• Anne Lafosse and
• Lionel Amiaud

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 57–65, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.8

• ligands that are solid and stable under ambient conditions. They are directly deposited on the surface for studying the fragmentation with surface science tools. Results: Infrared spectroscopy and high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) are combined to show that the precursor is able to

• the four perfluorinated carboxylate ligands. The use of lightly bound amine and carboxylate ligands gives complexes that are stable in gel form under ambient conditions but yield a copper purity from 60% to 80% in CVD. In these CVD studies, the sublimation of the full complexes was observed to be

• has already been studied by variable temperature infrared spectroscopy (VT-IR) [8]. The effect of vacuum exposure is detailed hereafter. Amine ligand stability under ambient conditions The IR spectra of the pristine compounds A and B are recorded in Poland (Figure 2, respectively, spectrum a and c

A robust AFM-based method for locally measuring the elasticity of samples

• Alexandre Bubendorf,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.1

• quantitative determination of local elastic modulus of sample under ambient conditions (humidity and temperature). It combines the simplicity of the theoretical model developed by Herruzo et al. [7] for the determination of sample elasticity from 1 MPa to 3 GPa with a robust measuring method based on contact

CdSe nanorod/TiO₂ nanoparticle heterojunctions with enhanced solar- and visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Fakher Laatar,
• Hatem Moussa,
• Halima Alem,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Ghouti Medjahdi,
• Hatem Ezzaouia and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2741–2752, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.273

• mL glass flask and the mixture was magnetically stirred in the dark under ambient conditions for 45 min to reach a thorough adsorption–desorption equilibrium. After that period, the light was turned on. Aliquots of 2 mL were taken at regular time intervals and centrifuged (4000 rpm for 2 min) to

• ) was used and the areas of each component were modified according to classical Scofield sensitivity factors. All the optical measurements were performed at room temperature (20 ± 1 °C) under ambient conditions. The absorption spectra of liquid samples were recorded on a Thermo Scientific Evolution 220