Synthesis and applications of carbon nanomaterials for energy generation and storage

• Marco Notarianni,
• Jinzhang Liu,
• Kristy Vernon and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 149–196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.17

• coming from the gas source to diffuse into the metal. The process is very difficult to control, and especially so in polycrystalline metals where the grain boundaries act as nucleation sites for multilayer growth [141]. For this reason, single crystal and atomically smooth metals are usually preferred to

• quality. In fact, the graphene produced is mostly polycrystalline with aperiodic heptagon/pentagon pairs [143] or overlapped bilayer regions [144] at the grain boundaries (Figure 22b). It has also been demonstrated that the presence of grain boundaries can reduce the mechanical and electrical properties

Evaluation of gas-sensing properties of ZnO nanostructures electrochemically doped with Au nanophases

• Elena Dilonardo,
• Michele Penza,
• Marco Alvisi,
• Cinzia Di Franco,
• Francesco Palmisano,
• Luisa Torsi and
• Nicola Cioffi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 22–31, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.3

• possibly related to transducer function. Rai et al. [5] reported that the presence of a great number of grain boundaries in ZnO nanospheres acts as a highly resistive barrier, inducing the increase of the overall device resistance, since the electrical conductivity is equally influenced by the density and

Fabrication of hybrid graphene oxide/polyelectrolyte capsules by means of layer-by-layer assembly on erythrocyte cell templates

• Joseba Irigoyen,
• Nikolaos Politakos,
• Eleftheria Diamanti,
• Elena Rojas,
• Marco Marradi,
• Raquel Ledezma,
• Layza Arizmendi,
• J. Alberto Rodríguez,
• Ronald F. Ziolo and
• Sergio E. Moya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2310–2318, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.237

• ratio of 0.8. The D resonance corresponds to the vibration of sp2 carbon while G corresponds to sp3 carbon and defects associated with vacancies and grain boundaries [28]. The peaks at higher wavenumbers are also characteristic of graphene oxide. XRD results (Figure 1d) indicate the absence of graphite

Plasma fluorination of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes: functionalization and thermal stability

• Claudia Struzzi,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Axel Hemberg,
• Luca Petaccia,
• Jean-François Colomer,
• Rony Snyders and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2263–2271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.232

• associated to the A1g-mode breathing vibrations of six-membered sp2 carbon rings. It becomes Raman active after neighboring sp2 carbons are converted to sp3 hybridization in graphitic materials. This can be due to the presence of in-plane substitutional heteroatom vacancies, grain boundaries, or other

A single-source precursor route to anisotropic halogen-doped zinc oxide particles as a promising candidate for new transparent conducting oxide materials

• Daniela Lehr,
• Markus R. Wagner,
• Johanna Flock,
• Julian S. Reparaz,
• Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres,
• Alexander Klaiber,
• Thomas Dekorsy and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2161–2172, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.222

• portion of grain boundaries. To get further information about the influence of doping on the conductivity, measurements of the complex dielectric function in the THz frequency range were performed. Time-domain THz spectroscopy [56][57] is a method to investigate the transmission and/or reflection of a

• could be proven by several methods, that the desired materials were obtained, due to the current, powder-like nature, the electronic properties are yet dominated by grain boundary effects. Therefore, future research in this field will address the synthesis of thin films minimizing the amount of grain

• boundaries. Furthermore, we could not yet realize a F-containing precursor. F@ZnO materials are also expected to be interesting TCO candidates and potential ITO substitutes. 1H NMR spectra (Zn–CH3 region) for the reaction of I2 with [MeZnOiPr]4 before (a) and after purification (b), and for the reaction with

High I_on/I_off current ratio graphene field effect transistor: the role of line defect

• Mohammad Hadi Tajarrod and
• Hassan Rasooli Saghai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2062–2068, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.210

• the best candidates for changing the hexagon structure of graphene with acceptable C–C distances and angles for sp2 hybridization [7]. These defects play a remarkable role in graphene and nano-structured devices. One controlled defect in graphene are grain boundaries. The electrical and thermal

• conductivity decrease with grain boundaries in materials [8][9]. By studying the grain boundaries in graphite, extended line defects become visible in the STM analysis [10]. The first experimental report of the extended line defect (ELD), which was studied through alternating Stone–Thrower–Wales defects, was

Nitrogen-doped graphene films from chemical vapor deposition of pyridine: influence of process parameters on the electrical and optical properties

• Andrea Capasso,
• Theodoros Dikonimos,
• Francesca Sarto,
• Alessio Tamburrano,
• Giovanni De Bellis,
• Maria Sabrina Sarto,
• Giuliana Faggio,
• Angela Malara,
• Giacomo Messina and
• Nicola Lisi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2028–2038, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.206

• [17]. Besides, the electron mobility itself can be greatly affected by the presence of substitutional atoms (which are a kind of lattice defects, such as vacancies, and grain boundaries) [18]. Graphene can be doped through surface proximity by layering it with other materials (such as metals [19

• the lattice or along grain boundaries. In Figure 2a, the influence of temperature and hydrogen flow on the G and 2D Raman bands is further investigated. When lowering the CVD temperature, the position of the G peak is observed to slightly upshift, while the 2D peak position downshifts. Raman

Surface engineering of nanoporous substrate for solid oxide fuel cells with atomic layer-deposited electrolyte

• Sanghoon Ji,
• Waqas Hassan Tanveer,
• Wonjong Yu,
• Sungmin Kang,
• Gu Young Cho,
• Sung Han Kim,
• Jihwan An and
• Suk Won Cha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1805–1810, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.184

• . Results and Discussion Highly dense ALD thin film electrolyte Thin films fabricated via low-temperature vacuum deposition techniques typically have lower packing density than powder-processed thin films due to the presence of high density of grain-boundaries inside the thin films [9][10]. The density

Possibilities and limitations of advanced transmission electron microscopy for carbon-based nanomaterials

• Xiaoxing Ke,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Gustaaf Van Tendeloo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1541–1557, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.158

• vacancies, dislocations, grain boundaries and strain can be revealed in great detail. The fundamental understanding of CNTs, particularly of graphene in the past decade, have largely benefited from the development in electron microscopy. Taking CNTs again as an example, the direct imaging of a zig-zag

• polycrystalline morphology with defects such as grain boundaries [62][63] and therefore suffers from a degradation of its physical properties. Characterization of the intrinsic defects and their further relation to the synthesis conditions, e.g., substrate lattice mismatch and annealing temperature is therefore

Thermal treatment of magnetite nanoparticles

• Beata Kalska-Szostko,
• Urszula Wykowska,
• Dariusz Satula and
• Per Nordblad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1385–1396, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.143

• good agreement with the speculation that polycrystallinity causes the presence of grain boundaries, which significantly influences the stability/susceptibility to the oxide. On the other hand, in the case of polycrystalline particles, their structure is also less dense and oxygen can penetrate more

• treated as single crystals, have been obtained. This can be seen in HRTEM studies [49]. Therefore, oxide penetration is hampered and becomes much slower. The stepwise decomposition of the Fe(acac)3 complex causes the presence of grain-like growth of each subsequent layer. This introduces many more grain

• boundaries and dislocations, and therefore, more room for oxide penetration, which significantly facilitates the oxidation process. Conclusion The performed experiments show that thermal stability of magnetite nanoparticles is dependent on the fabrication procedure. The temperature scans, combined with

The Kirkendall effect and nanoscience: hollow nanospheres and nanotubes

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Ryusuke Nakamura and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1348–1361, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.139

• present within the formed bismuth oxide shell (such as grain boundaries) serve as diffusion channels which enhance the outward diffusion of bismuth. They have further demonstrated that before being oxidized, bismuth tends to condense into several nanodroplets on the outer layer of the nanoparticle (Figure

Characterization of nanostructured ZnO thin films deposited through vacuum evaporation

• Jose Alberto Alvarado,
• Arturo Maldonado,
• Héctor Juarez,
• Mauricio Pacio and
• Rene Perez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 971–975, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.100

• of particles that do not have an ordering, and thus the grain boundaries from each nanoparticle are not activated. Therefore, the adherence to the substrate is poor, which is also seen in the transmittance results. Varying the duration for which the films are annealed results in a perceptible

• , and the extrapolation of the straight line to zero gives the value of the energy gap of the film. The energy value obtained for this film is about 3.22 eV, and can be due to the grain boundaries and the size of the nanoparticles. As seen in the HRSEM images, there are a lot of grain boundaries and

Mapping of elasticity and damping in an α + β titanium alloy through atomic force acoustic microscopy

• M. Kalyan Phani,
• Anish Kumar,
• T. Jayakumar,
• Walter Arnold and
• Konrad Samwer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 767–776, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.79

• for studying their deformation behavior, crack nucleation and propagation, dislocation activity and interaction with grain boundaries and also even helps in understanding the bulk elastic properties of multiphase materials [1][2]. Over the last two decades many contact-resonance-based atomic force

Morphological and structural characterization of single-crystal ZnO nanorod arrays on flexible and non-flexible substrates

• Omar F. Farhat,
• Mohd M. Halim,
• Mat J. Abdullah,
• Mohammed K. M. Ali and
• Nageh K. Allam

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 720–725, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.73

• superior to polycrystalline architectures in a unique way: the decrease of the number of grain boundaries ameliorates charge-carrier transport by permitting a direct and quick charge transport pathway and thus decreases the carrier path length, which in turn decreases recombination losses. To this end

Chains of carbon atoms: A vision or a new nanomaterial?

• Florian Banhart

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 559–569, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.58

• requires a high energy (18 eV/atom). A similar picture has been obtained in calculations of the fracture of strained graphene ribbons at grain boundaries [77]. Chains often appear as the last link between two separating grains. The kinetics of disintegration is also of importance as shown by Kotakoski et

Size-dependent density of zirconia nanoparticles

• Agnieszka Opalinska,
• Iwona Malka,
• Wojciech Dzwolak,
• Tadeusz Chudoba,
• Adam Presz and
• Witold Lojkowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 27–35, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.4

• depends on the exposed surface of the sintered aggregates. During the sintering process, the –OH groups are most likely removed by evaporation of water, and the thus created dangling bonds are presumably saturated by creating chemical bonds between zirconium and oxygen atoms across the grain boundaries

• size from 5 nm to 60 nm and an increase of the pellet density, which was attributed to a decrease of total surface of grain boundaries. The experimental and calculated results of the density as a function of grain size for nano-ZrO2 are presented in Figure 6B. Assuming that the surface layer is Zr(OH)4

Gas sensing properties of nanocrystalline diamond at room temperature

• Marina Davydova,
• Pavel Kulha,
• Alexandr Laposa,
• Karel Hruska,
• Pavel Demo and
• Alexander Kromka

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2339–2345, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.243

• consisting of grains as small as 80 nm was used as the functional layer of a semiconductor gas sensor. Metallic electrodes were buried beneath the diamond film. This design protected them from harmful substances and the current flow localized at the grain boundaries. In this specific case, the H-terminated

Properties of plasmonic arrays produced by pulsed-laser nanostructuring of thin Au films

• Katarzyna Grochowska,
• Katarzyna Siuzdak,
• Peter A. Atanasov,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Anna Dikovska,
• Nikolay N. Nedyalkov and
• Gerard Śliwiński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2102–2112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.219

• nanostructuring, the grainy, thin metal film sputtered onto the substrate (e.g., glass, ITO, or Si) is melted and fragmented by irradiation with laser pulses under defined conditions. The film fragmentation starts at the grain boundaries. The poor wetting of the substrate by the liquid metal, in this case Au, and

Optical properties and electrical transport of thin films of terbium(III) bis(phthalocyanine) on cobalt

• Peter Robaschik,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Daniel Bülz,
• Peter Richter,
• Manuel Monecke,
• Michael Fronk,
• Svetlana Klyatskaya,
• Daniel Grimm,
• Oliver G. Schmidt,
• Mario Ruben,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn and
• Georgeta Salvan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2070–2078, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.215

• exhibit a higher hole mobility as compared to the porphyrins [25], which could lead to a higher current. When comparing the topographic characteristics of TbPc2 samples with 20 nm and 80 nm (see Figures 4 and 5), the variation with grain size would induce more grain boundaries for electron scattering in

• lying molecules in the first layers to standing molecules in a thick film. The current flow through our organic layers is homogeneous within a standard deviation of about 10%, with lower values at the grain boundaries as compared to the top of the grains (see Figure S5 of Supporting Information File 1

Quasi-1D physics in metal-organic frameworks: MIL-47(V) from first principles

• Danny E. P. Vanpoucke,
• Jan W. Jaeken,
• Stijn De Baerdemacker,
• Kurt Lejaeghere and
• Veronique Van Speybroeck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1738–1748, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.184

• Pt on the spin configuration may provide insight in the relation between the ground state and the grain size. It is well-known that defects in a solid, such as grain boundaries, promote the presence of non-ground-state (sub)structures. When grains are, therefore, considered to consist of an internal

Nanocrystalline ceria coatings on solid oxide fuel cell anodes: the role of organic surfactant pretreatments on coating microstructures and sulfur tolerance

• Chieh-Chun Wu,
• Ling Tang and
• Mark R. De Guire

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1712–1724, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.181

• ) were mostly uniform and continuous (Figure 5b). The presence of a coating can be readily detected in the covering of the polygonal NiO grains, giving them a more rounded appearance. The untreated coating exhibited a few cracks at grain boundaries and occasional gaps (indicated by a circle in Figure 5b

• ). The Ni:Ce atomic ratio was 2.60 (27.8 atom % Ce) (Table 1). On thiol-treated anodes (treatment 3; Figure 5c) the ceria coating was uniform and continuous. Cracks in the coating were occasionally evident at the grain boundaries. The Ni:Ce atomic ratio was 2.01 (33.2 atom % Ce) (Table 1). On sulfonate

On the structure of grain/interphase boundaries and interfaces

• K. Anantha Padmanabhan and
• Herbert Gleiter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1603–1615, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.172

• sufficient, condition. For example, not all properties associated with grain boundaries (GBs) in all face-centered cubic (fcc) metals, e.g., the presence or absence of an orientation-dependence of the grain boundary energy, are identical, although the geometry of their atomic structure is the same. In this

• properties. It is interesting that to this day nano-glasses have been produced by using only compositions out of which melt-quenched metallic glasses have been formed in the past. In all these types of materials, the grain boundaries/interfaces have a well-defined structure (not necessarily crystalline) with

• glassy structures as well as the grain boundaries of crystalline materials [5][14]. When these differences are ignored and the interatomic forces present in melt-cooled glasses, as used in MD simulations, are used in the calculations, the time of stability of nano-glasses is predicted to be about 10−6 s

Formation of Cu_xAu_1−x phases by cold homogenization of Au/Cu nanocrystalline thin films

• Alona Tynkova,
• Gabor L. Katona,
• Gabor A. Langer,
• Sergey I. Sidorenko,
• Svetlana M. Voloshko and
• Dezso L. Beke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1491–1500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.162

• , which leads to formation of intermetallic phases. Different compounds can be formed depending on the initial thickness ratio. The process starts with grain boundary interdiffusion, which is followed by a formation of reaction layers at the grain boundaries that leads to the motion of the newly formed

• questions about the contributions of a fast mass transport along different grain boundaries (GBs, i.e., short circuits) can be mentioned; they can have an important effect on the entire intermixing process in nanocrystalline bi- or multilayers. In addition the GB diffusion coefficients can cover a range of

• layer [7][8][9]: The new phase(s) can be formed at grain boundaries, GBs, and can grow further by the motion of the new interfaces perpendicular to the original GB plane [10]. There are examples in the literature, in which the so-called “cold homogenization” was observed: Although the bulk diffusion

Purification of ethanol for highly sensitive self-assembly experiments

• Kathrin Barbe,
• Martin Kind,
• Christian Pfeiffer and
• Andreas Terfort

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1254–1260, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.139

• the pores of the zeolite, it might be concluded that the NPs destroyed the pores during growth. Anyway, we rather believe that the NPs were formed at grain boundaries, which exist in abundance and where size restrictions apply less rigidly. The ability of the zeolite-supported gold-NPs to remove

Sublattice asymmetry of impurity doping in graphene: A review

• James A. Lawlor and
• Mauro S. Ferreira

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1210–1217, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.133

• seen experimentally (see Figure 2 and [41]) would naturally fall in with the graphene grain boundaries, but this has not been observed. The role of inter-impurity interactions has been considered as an alternative, through both tight binding [43] and DFT [39][44] formalisms, although with differing

• energy. Such a mechanism would explain both the non-commensurability between crystal grain boundaries and segregation domains, and would suggest why the alternative synthesis method of nitrogen implantation followed by high temperature annealing also results in impurities preferring to occupy the same