Superhydrophobicity in perfection: the outstanding properties of the lotus leaf

• Hans J. Ensikat,
• Petra Ditsche-Kuru,
• Christoph Neinhuis and
• Wilhelm Barthlott

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 152–161, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.19

• retraction of a drop [13], similar to the measurement shown in Figure 5. Table 1 shows, in addition to other relevant properties, the maximal adhesion forces of water drops on fresh lotus leaves and leaves of other species with intact wax. The adhesion forces are strongly dependent on surface defects which

Enhanced visible light photocatalysis through fast crystallization of zinc oxide nanorods

• Sunandan Baruah,
• Mohammad Abbas Mahmood,
• Myo Tay Zar Myint,
• Tanujjal Bora and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 14–20, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.3

• surface defects play an important role in the photocatalytic activity of metal-oxide nanostructures, as the contaminant molecules need to be adsorbed on to the photocatalytic surface for the redox reactions to occur. The higher the effective surface area, the higher will be the adsorption of target

• within the band gap (surface defects) [16], thereby affecting the optical and electronic properties [17]. Increased electron trapping due to higher defect sites leads to enhancement in the photocatalytic efficiency. This increase in photocatalytic efficiency is possible provided the electron-hole pair