Synthesis of rare-earth metal and rare-earth metal-fluoride nanoparticles in ionic liquids and propylene carbonate

• Marvin Siebels,
• Lukas Mai,
• Laura Schmolke,
• Kai Schütte,
• Juri Barthel,
• Junpei Yue,
• Jörg Thomas,
• Bernd M. Smarsly,
• Anjana Devi,
• Roland A. Fischer and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1881–1894, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.180

• metals or rare-earth metal containing alloys or intermetallic phases. Solution synthesis of any oxide-free RE-NP was first reported by Wagner and co-workers using alkalide reduction of GdCl3 in THF solution [6]. Scalable air- and water-stable core–shell Gd@Au-NPs were obtained by using the same strategy

Synthesis of hafnium nanoparticles and hafnium nanoparticle films by gas condensation and energetic deposition

• Irini Michelakaki,
• Nikos Boukos,
• Dimitrios A. Dragatogiannis,
• Spyros Stathopoulos,
• Costas A. Charitidis and
• Dimitris Tsoukalas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1868–1880, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.179

• hexagonal biprism shape and are prone to surface oxidation when exposed to ambient air forming core–shell Hf/HfO2 structures. Hafnium nanoparticle thin films were formed through energetic nanoparticle deposition. This technique allows for the control of the energy of charged nanoparticles during vacuum

• were exposed to ambient air prior to characterization. From analysis of HRTEM images it is evident that Hf NPs have a distinct core–shell structure, consistent with a Hafnium core covered with Hafnium oxide (Figure 2). In the core the distance between adjacent planes is equal to d = 0.275 nm, value

• excluded, because of the distinct core–shell structure of the Hf NPs. If oxidation would take place inside the aggregation zone during NP formation, we would have hafnium oxide in the core. We also exclude the oxidation in the deposition chamber after landing of the nanoparticles on the substrate. Since we

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

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

• oxide particles, such as SiO2, ZrO2 and TiO2 that have well-controlled characteristics [15][30][31]. We have previously reported a reproducible sol–gel coating method for producing SiO2@TiO2 core–shell nanostructures in the presence of a surfactant in pure ethanol solution [7][8]. In addition, another

• robust sol–gel coating process in a mixed solvent of ethanol–acetonitrile (EtOH/ACN) for producing polymer@TiO2 core–shell nanostructures was reported [14]. Since the solubility of the TiO2 precursor, titanium butoxide (TBOT), is different in the two different solvents (ethanol and acetonitrile), the

• coating strategy using a mixed solvent was successfully applied for synthesizing core–shell nanostructures, to the best of our knowledge, there is no obvious report on sol–gel synthesis of uniform colloidal metal oxide particles such as TiO2 in a mixed solvent solution of ethanol–acetonitrile. In this

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

• nanocrystals on TiO2(B) single-crystal fibrils by a two-step process [23]. Li et al. prepared a biphase TiO2 core/shell nanofiber with anatase core and TiO2(B) shell [24]. Kandiel et al. used a hydrothermal technique to synthesize TiO2(B) nanofibers simultaneously decorated with anatase nanoparticles [25]. The

Robust topological phase in proximitized core–shell nanowires coupled to multiple superconductors

• Tudor D. Stanescu,
• Anna Sitek and
• Andrei Manolescu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1512–1526, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.142

• Science and Engineering, Reykjavik University, Menntavegur 1, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland 10.3762/bjnano.9.142 Abstract We consider core–shell nanowires with prismatic geometry contacted with two or more superconductors in the presence of a magnetic field applied parallel to the wire. In this geometry, the

• the value of the critical field associated with the topological quantum phase transition. Keywords: core–shell nanowires; Majorana states; multiple 1D chains; prismatic geometry; topological superconducting phase; Introduction The intense ongoing search for Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in solid states

• stability of the Majorana modes [28]. Proximitized core–shell nanowires are slightly more complex systems recently shown [29] to have interesting Majorana physics that is practically immune to orbital effects. With a conductive shell and an insulating core, such heterostructures become tubular conductors

Cathodoluminescence as a probe of the optical properties of resonant apertures in a metallic film

• Kalpana Singh,
• Evgeniy Panchenko,
• Babak Nasr,
• Amelia Liu,
• Lukas Wesemann,
• Timothy J. Davis and
• Ann Roberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1491–1500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.140

• demonstrated [50]. The spectral properties of core–shell CdSe/CdS quantum dots have also been studied using CL in a transmission electron microscope [51]. The same technique has been used to generate single photons and to characterize quantum states and the nature of the emitted beam with subwavelength

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

• core–shell nanotubes exhibited higher Cr(VI) oxyanion reduction and adsorption. The activity could be varied with concentration, pH and dopant acid [133]. Graphene-wrapped differently faceted (001 and 101) TiO2 hollow-core–shell microspheres (TGHMs) have been fabricated by Liu et al. and were applied

• combined with TiO2 for enhanced photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI). A one-dimensional CdS–TiO2 core–shell (CdS@TiO2) nano-photocatalyst possessed higher reduction and selectivity of Cr(VI) due to the core–shell structure where hVB+ are trapped by the TiO2 shell [198]. Ultrathin TiO2-coated CdS core–shell

• spheres have also been prepared by Chen et al. A coating of an ultrathin TiO2 layer on CdS nanoparticles imparts good light harvesting properties, enhanced adsorption capacity, effective charge transport and longer lifetime of excitons, for which the core–shell spheres exhibited higher efficiency for

Atomic-level characterization and cilostazol affinity of poly(lactic acid) nanoparticles conjugated with differentially charged hydrophilic molecules

• María Francisca Matus,
• Martín Ludueña,
• Cristian Vilos,
• Iván Palomo and
• Marcelo M. Mariscal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1328–1338, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.126

• -assembling process in which a core–shell structure is observed with PLA in the core and DSPE–PEG in the shell; this model is consistent with the nanoprecipitation synthesis method previously used [34]. Methoxy-terminated NPs showed a slightly larger size compared to charged particles just as it was observed

Ag₂WO₄ nanorods decorated with AgI nanoparticles: Novel and efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for the degradation of water pollutants

• Shijie Li,
• Shiwei Hu,
• Wei Jiang,
• Yanping Liu,
• Yu Liu,
• Yingtang Zhou,
• Liuye Mo and
• Jianshe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1308–1316, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.123

• −, small AgI nanoparticles (diameter: 20–40 nm) are uniformly coated on the surface of Ag2WO4 nanorods, signifying the formation of the AgI/Ag2WO4 core–shell heterostructure. To more clearly observe the microstructure of the AgI/Ag2WO4 composite, the TEM and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) images are shown in

Understanding the performance and mechanism of Mg-containing oxides as support catalysts in the thermal dry reforming of methane

• Nor Fazila Khairudin,
• Mohd Farid Fahmi Sukri,
• Mehrnoush Khavarian and
• Abdul Rahman Mohamed

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1162–1183, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.108

• stability in stabilizing the zirconia tetragonal phase, improved basicity sites for the support, and decreased reducibility of Ni2+. Li et al. [118] designed a Ni@Ni–Mg phyllosilicate core–shell catalyst using the hydrothermal treatment of Ni@SiO2 with Mg(NO3)2. The alkalinity and porosity of the catalyst

• in hydrothermal treatment time enhanced the basicity of the catalyst from the high exposure to the Mg phase. The strong basicity properties of Mg enhanced CO2 adsorption and suppressed carbon deposition via the reverse Boudouard reaction (C + CO2 ↔ 2CO). However, the core–shell structure became

Optimisation of purification techniques for the preparation of large-volume aqueous solar nanoparticle inks for organic photovoltaics

• Furqan Almyahi,
• Thomas R. Andersen,
• Nathan A. Cooling,
• Natalie P. Holmes,
• Matthew J. Griffith,
• Krishna Feron,
• Xiaojing Zhou,
• Warwick J. Belcher and
• Paul C. Dastoor

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 649–659, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.60

• allow for a more densely packed film, assuming an optimal hexagonal packing of particles [23], which in turn lowers the risk of short circuiting through the active layer. The particle size also influences the overall domain size of donor and acceptor assuming a core–shell structure [15] and therefore

Anchoring Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in a reduced graphene oxide aerogel matrix via polydopamine coating

• Błażej Scheibe,
• Radosław Mrówczyński,
• Natalia Michalak,
• Karol Załęski,
• Michał Matczak,
• Mateusz Kempiński,
• Zuzanna Pietralik,
• Mikołaj Lewandowski,
• Stefan Jurga and
• Feliks Stobiecki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 591–601, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.55

• nanoparticles at the GO defect sites. In addition, PDA coating does not affect the magnetic properties of the iron oxide-modified rGO aerogel. It is believed that introduction of amorphous carbon-coated functional additives (core-shell structures) improves a reduced graphene oxide aerogel lattice, anchor

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

Bombyx mori silk/titania/gold hybrid materials for photocatalytic water splitting: combining renewable raw materials with clean fuels

• Stefanie Krüger,
• Michael Schwarze,
• Otto Baumann,
• Christina Günter,
• Michael Bruns,
• Christian Kübel,
• Dorothée Vinga Szabó,
• Rafael Meinusch,
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 187–204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.21

• entire UV–visible range when the TiO2 is composed of 75% of anatase and 25% of rutile with identical AuNPs [26]. In an interesting new approach, Zhang et al. found that Janus particles (rather than the core–shell or randomly organized materials described so far) based on large TiO2 particles with

• diameters of ca. 440 nm and AuNPs with diameters of ca. 60 nm could split water in the visible range, even at low Au fractions of only 1.8% [27]. Finally, Seh et al. showed that TiO2/Au Janus nanoparticles have a higher photocatalytic activity than the corresponding core–shell particles [28]. All materials

Comparative study of post-growth annealing of Cu(hfac)₂, Co₂(CO)₈ and Me₂Au(acac) metal precursors deposited by FEBID

• Marcos V. Puydinger dos Santos,
• Aleksandra Szkudlarek,
• Artur Rydosz,
• Carlos Guerra-Nuñez,
• Fanny Béron,
• Kleber R. Pirota,
• Stanislav Moshkalev,
• José Alexandre Diniz and
• Ivo Utke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 91–101, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.11

• ], ferromagnetic nanostructures for magnetic logic and memory [23][24][25], as well as functional core–shell ferromagnetic nanowires with improved magnetic properties [26] have already been realised through this technique. It is worth mentioning that the superior conductivity of Cu, compared to other non-noble

Gas-sensing behaviour of ZnO/diamond nanostructures

• Marina Davydova,
• Alexandr Laposa,
• Jiri Smarhak,
• Alexander Kromka,
• Neda Neykova,
• Josef Nahlik,
• Jiri Kroutil,
• Jan Drahokoupil and
• Jan Voves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 22–29, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.4

• core–shell nanowires) were investigated by Hwang and co-workers. The gas response of ZnO–SnO2 core–shell nanowires to 10 ppm NO2 at 200 °C and 300 °C were 66.3 and 12.4, respectively, which is ca. 33- and ca. 8.9-times higher than the respective values of 2.0 and 1.4 for ZnO nanowires [26]. Presently

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

• to develop TiO2-based solar cells. Core/shell TiO2/CdSe NRs were also prepared by growing CdSe quantum dots onto TiO2 NRs at high temperature [42]. In this paper, we report an investigation on the synthesis of CdSe-NR-sensitized TiO2 nanoparticles and on the use of these materials for the degradation

Fabrication of CeO₂–MO_x (M = Cu, Co, Ni) composite yolk–shell nanospheres with enhanced catalytic properties for CO oxidation

• Ling Liu,
• Jingjing Shi,
• Hongxia Cao,
• Ruiyu Wang and
• Ziwu Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2425–2437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.241

• heat treatment, and the resultant sample exhibited enhanced catalytic activity in the oxidation of CO [25]. Otherwise, as a special composite structure, heterogeneous core@shell structures are believed to integrate the function of individual nanocrystals and induce the unique synergetic catalytic

• activities. For instance, ZnCo2O4@CeO2 core@shell spheres [14] and Co3O4@CeO2 core@shell cubes [26] with tunable CeO2 shell thickness were prepared by a facile self-assembly method and exhibited promising performance in the catalytic oxidation of CO. Consequently, a suitable choice of templates or cerium

Evaluating the toxicity of TiO₂-based nanoparticles to Chinese hamster ovary cells and Escherichia coli: a complementary experimental and computational approach

• Alicja Mikolajczyk,
• Natalia Sizochenko,
• Ewa Mulkiewicz,
• Anna Malankowska,
• Michal Nischk,
• Przemyslaw Jurczak,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Grzegorz Nowaczyk,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska,
• Jerzy Leszczynski,
• Agnieszka Gajewicz and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2171–2180, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.216

• Toxicity evaluation Three types of TiO2-based NPs were synthetized: (1) monometallic (Au, Pd) clusters, (2) core–shell particles and (3) alloy bimetallic clusters (Au/Pd). The cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity of TiO2 modified with palladium and/or gold NPs is presented in Table 1. Inhibition of

• NPs (Table 1). The correlation between the amount of metal precursor and the structure of nanoparticles is presented in Figure 1. For lower concentrations of Au precursor (Pd > Au), core–shell types of nanoparticles (Aucore/Pdshell) were formed more likely, whereas the increasing concentration of Au

• for all types of NPs, while third-order polynomials were overfitted (R2 > 0.9 for five data points) for alloys and core–shell NPs. With regard to the results obtained, we assumed that the best equations included in the final nano-QSAR model should be the third-order correlation for cytotoxicity and

Synthesis and characterization of noble metal–titania core–shell nanostructures with tunable shell thickness

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Dariusz Zasada and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2083–2093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.208

• , Kaliskiego 2 Str. 00-908 Warsaw, Poland 10.3762/bjnano.8.208 Abstract Core–shell nanostructures have found applications in many fields, including surface enhanced spectroscopy, catalysis and solar cells. Titania-coated noble metal nanoparticles, which combine the surface plasmon resonance properties of the

• characterization of metal–metal oxide core–shell nanostructures. Keywords: Ag@TiO2; Au@TiO2; core–shell nanostructures; titania coating; titanium dioxide; tunable resistive pulse sensing; Introduction In recent years, core–shell nanostructures (CSNs) have become one of the most widely studied hybrid structures

• observed formation of the multi-core@shell particles, which are also very interesting due to the combined plasmonic effect of metallic cores. In the case of AgNPs, the synthesized metal NPs were stabilized with citrate ions either during the synthesis or after, in order to prevent aggregation in the

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• approach is to dilute the “as prepared” core/shell dispersion. The amount of solids available per unit volume decreases, resulting in thinner films when the solution is casted. Four different dilutions (1:2, 1:4, 1:8 and 1:16) were used for casting samples in the present study, and the coating was

• 768642, abbreviated as PPSS), a high-conductivity grade polymer, in 1.0 wt % solution in water was used as received. The core/shell nanoplatelets were prepared by slowly adding the nanoclay dispersion to a stirred polymer solution with a 33:67 (clay/polymer) weight ratio, which was further stirred for

• . The core/shell nanoplatelet dispersions were mixed with DI-H2O in 1:2, 1:4, 1:8 and 1:16 dilutions and casted. This reduces the amount of core/shell nanoplatelets per casting and results in thinner films. Three different substrates were used: silicon wafers (thickness measurements), indium tin oxide

Advances and challenges in the field of plasma polymer nanoparticles

• Andrei Choukourov,
• Pavel Pleskunov,
• Daniil Nikitin,
• Valerii Titov,
• Artem Shelemin,
• Mykhailo Vaidulych,
• Anna Kuzminova,
• Pavel Solař,
• Jan Hanuš,
• Jaroslav Kousal,
• Ondřej Kylián,
• Danka Slavínská and
• Hynek Biederman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2002–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.200

• plasma polymerization of volatile monomers or via radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering of conventional polymers. The formation of hydrocarbon, fluorocarbon, silicon- and nitrogen-containing plasma polymer nanoparticles as well as core@shell nanoparticles based on plasma polymers is discussed with a

• , interaction with cells, and in other applications. Core@shell nanoparticles The versatility of GAS may be further extended if two different processes are combined in one experimental run. One can take advantage of magnetron sputtering of metals and plasma polymerization of organic precursors to create

• heterogeneous NPs in which metallic inclusions are enveloped by layers of plasma polymer (core@shell NPs). For example, the process can be performed in the GAS by RF magnetron sputtering of metal in argon with the addition of an organic precursor (Figure 12a) or metal NPs can be pre-formed in the GAS by DC

Fabrication of carbon nanospheres by the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile–poly(methyl methacrylate) core–shell composite nanoparticles

• Dafu Wei,
• Youwei Zhang and
• Jinping Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1897–1908, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.190

• , College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China 10.3762/bjnano.8.190 Abstract Carbon nanospheres with a high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area were fabricated via the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile–poly(methyl methacrylate) (PAN–PMMA) core–shell

• . In this study, PAN-based carbon nanopsheres were fabricated from the PAN–PMMA core–shell nanoparticles precursor. Specifically, PAN–PMMA core–shell latexes at high concentration and low surfactant content were first synthesized via a two-stage AIBN-initiated semicontinuous emulsion polymerization

• 0.8 are displayed as a core–shell structure composed of dark inner cores with irregular contours and light outer layers with smooth contours (Figure 4b). The presence of smooth outer contours indicates the successful growth of the outer PMMA layer on the surface of PAN seed particles. The distinct

Synthesis and functionalization of NaGdF₄:Yb,Er@NaGdF₄ core–shell nanoparticles for possible application as multimodal contrast agents

• Dovile Baziulyte-Paulaviciene,
• Vitalijus Karabanovas,
• Marius Stasys,
• Greta Jarockyte,
• Vilius Poderys,
• Simas Sakirzanovas and
• Ricardas Rotomskis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1815–1824, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.183

• ultrasmall core and core–shell UCNPs were synthesized via a thermal decomposition method. Furthermore, it was shown that the epitaxial growth of a NaGdF4 optical inert layer covering the NaGdF4:Yb,Er core effectively minimizes surface quenching due to the spatial isolation of the core from the surroundings

• . The mean diameter of the synthesized core and core–shell nanoparticles was ≈8 and ≈16 nm, respectively. Hydrophobic UCNPs were converted into hydrophilic ones using a nonionic surfactant Tween 80. The successful coating of the UCNPs by Tween 80 has been confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR

• ) spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) spectra and magnetic resonance (MR) T1 relaxation measurements were used to characterize the size, crystal structure, optical and magnetic properties of the core and core–shell nanoparticles. Moreover