Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs)

• Michelle Romero-Franco,
• Hilary A. Godwin,
• Muhammad Bilal and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 989–1014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.101

Synthesis of graphene–transition metal oxide hybrid nanoparticles and their application in various fields

• Arpita Jana,
• Elke Scheer and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 688–714, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.74

• by Kumar et al. for supercapacitor applications [206]. This hybrid can also be used as an electrochemical pseudocapacitor material for potential energy storage applications [207][208]. Copper oxide (Cu2O, CuO, CuO2, Cu2O3)–graphene hybrids Cu nanowire (NW) films and indium tin oxide (ITO) films have

Thin SnO_x films for surface plasmon resonance enhanced ellipsometric gas sensing (SPREE)

• Daniel Fischer,
• Andreas Hertwig,
• Uwe Beck,
• Volkmar Lohse,
• Detlef Negendank,
• Martin Kormunda and
• Norbert Esser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 522–529, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.56

• the problems of cross sensitivity of the MOS concept. Results: Undoped tin oxide (SnOx) and iron doped tin oxide (Fe:SnOx) thin add-on films were prepared by magnetron sputtering on the top of the actual surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing gold layer. The films were tested for their sensitivity to

• several gas species in the surface plasmon resonance enhanced (SPREE) gas measurement. It was found that the undoped tin oxide (SnOx) shows higher sensitivities to propane (C3H8) then to carbon monoxide (CO). By using Fe:SnOx, this relation is inverted. This behavior was explained by a change of the

• sensing devices with different coated SPREE sensors. Keywords: doped tin oxide; ellipsometry; gas sensing; surface plasmon resonance; thin films; transparent conductive oxides; Introduction Gas sensors are an important tool for example in the fields of process monitoring, workplace safety or

Impact of air exposure and annealing on the chemical and electronic properties of the surface of SnO₂ nanolayers deposited by rheotaxial growth and vacuum oxidation

• Monika Kwoka and
• Maciej Krzywiecki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 514–521, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.55

• the distance between the valence band edge and the Fermi level energy. This was attributed to oxygen diffusion through the porous SnO2 surface as measured by atomic force microscopy. Keywords: Fermi level position; RGVO nanolayers; rheotaxial growth and vacuum oxidation (RGVO); surface chemistry; tin

• -oxide electronics; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS); Introduction For many years, tin dioxide (SnO2) has been widely used as the active material for resistive-type gas sensors for oxidizing and reducing gases [1], thin transparent electrodes and barrier layers in solar cells [2]. This is related

• lines. However, there was also a small additional component visible at a binding energy of 485 eV, which could be attributed to elemental tin Sn0. This finding indicates that these nanolayers were not completely oxidized. In the XPS O 1s spectral lines, apart from the main expected components related to

Study of the surface properties of ZnO nanocolumns used for thin-film solar cells

• Neda Neykova,
• Jiri Stuchlik,
• Karel Hruska,
• Ales Poruba,
• Zdenek Remes and
• Ognen Pop-Georgievski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 446–451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.48

• -Si) solar cells, used for mass production, is composed of a transparent conductive oxide with roughness at the nanoscale on the front (TCO), e.g., tin oxide (SnO2) or zinc oxide (ZnO), followed by p–i–n Si layers (amorphous and/or nanocrystalline) in the cell and a back reflector [1][2]. In such a

Role of oxygen in wetting of copper nanoparticles on silicon surfaces at elevated temperature

• Tapas Ghosh and
• Biswarup Satpati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 425–433, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.45

• easily formed by thermal annealing on indium tin oxide (ITO) or glass [3]; but copper oxidation on a silicon surface may lead to copper silicidation [28]. Papadimitropoulos et al. have observed the formation of copper silicide at low annealing temperatures, and when the temperature is high, pure copper

• the agglomeration has also been observed during the oxidation of copper nanoparticles on glass substrates [38]. Similar agglomeration has been found when cuprous oxide deposited on glass or copper and tin oxide-coated glass substrates, is annealed in oxygen to form CuO [29][39]. When Cu or Cu2O in

Performance of natural-dye-sensitized solar cells by ZnO nanorod and nanowall enhanced photoelectrodes

• Saif Saadaoui,
• Mohamed Aziz Ben Youssef,
• Moufida Ben Karoui,
• Rached Gharbi,
• Emanuele Smecca,
• Vincenzina Strano,
• Salvo Mirabella,
• Alessandra Alberti and
• Rosaria A. Puglisi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 287–295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.31

•  6a gives the SEM images illustrating the morphology of the ZnO NRs annealed in forming gas (FG) (N2/H2, 95:5). From this figure, we observe that nanorods cover the entire surface of the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conductive glass and have a hexagonal shape with uniform size and length [23]. The

Nanocrystalline TiO₂/SnO₂ heterostructures for gas sensing

• Barbara Lyson-Sypien,
• Anna Kusior,
• Mieczylaw Rekas,
• Jan Zukrowski,
• Marta Gajewska,
• Katarzyna Michalow-Mauke,
• Thomas Graule,
• Marta Radecka and
• Katarzyna Zakrzewska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 108–122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.12

• the range of 3–27 nm. Tin exhibits only the oxidation state 4+. The H2 detection threshold for the studied TiO2/SnO2 heterostructures is lower than 1 ppm especially in the case of SnO2-rich samples. The recovery time of SnO2-based heterostructures, despite their large responses over the whole

• as precursors of titanium and tin, respectively. Details of the FSS setup have been reported elsewhere [24][25]. The required composition and specific surface area (SSA) were obtained by adjusting the ratio of the precursors in the precursor mixture, the total flow rate of which was kept constant at

• and CaSnO3 as source. The Mössbauer spectra were fitted using a transmission integral in order to take into account the absorber thickness effects. The spectra were refined with quadrupole doublets of Lorentzian lines assuming a non-zero value of the electric field gradient at the tin site. Hyperfine

Obtaining and doping of InAs-QD/GaAs(001) nanostructures by ion beam sputtering

• Sergei N. Chebotarev,
• Alexander S. Pashchenko,
• Leonid S. Lunin,
• Elena N. Zhivotova,
• Georgy A. Erimeev and
• Marina L. Lunina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 12–20, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.2

• evaporator temperature on the concentration of electrically active donors at constant substrate temperature and constant growth rate of the GaAs layer. Amphoteric behavior of tin is another probable reason for the discrepancy of concentration of activated donors and injected impurities [40]. It allows tin to

Nanostructured SnO₂–ZnO composite gas sensors for selective detection of carbon monoxide

• Paul Chesler,
• Cristian Hornoiu,
• Susana Mihaiu,
• Cristina Vladut,
• Jose Maria Calderon Moreno,
• Mihai Anastasescu,
• Carmen Moldovan,
• Bogdan Firtat,
• Costin Brasoveanu,
• George Muscalu,
• Ion Stan and
• Mariuca Gartner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2045–2056, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.195

• using the low cost, ecologically friendly sol–gel/dip coating method. The precursors, zinc acetate dihydrate (Merck) as a Zn2+ source and tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate (Sigma-Aldrich), were dissolved in ethanol. Triethanolamine (Baker Analyzed) was used as a chelating agent/catalyst. The obtained solutions

• this paper where tin–zinc ceramic composites were investigated [35]. In this study the conductivity changes leading to different sensor response were motivated by the presence of different phases having different electric behaviors (ZnO, SnO2, and Zn2SnO4 phases were identified in the composite sensing

Low temperature co-fired ceramic packaging of CMOS capacitive sensor chip towards cell viability monitoring

• Niina Halonen,
• Joni Kilpijärvi,
• Maciej Sobocinski,
• Timir Datta-Chaudhuri,
• Antti Hassinen,
• Someshekar B. Prakash,
• Peter Möller,
• Pamela Abshire,
• Sakari Kellokumpu and
• Anita Lloyd Spetz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1871–1877, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.179

• had 40 Al/TiN/Cu contact pads with a size of 85 µm and a 120 µm spacing. Because oxidation of the Al in the pads at the rim of the chip prevented the bonding of the chip to the LTCC package with conductive adhesive, gold bumps were applied onto the pads with a gold wire (20 µm in diameter) bonder. The

Morphology of SiO₂ films as a key factor in alignment of liquid crystals with negative dielectric anisotropy

• Volodymyr Tkachenko,
• Antigone Marino,
• Eva Otón,
• Noureddine Bennis and
• Josè Manuel Otón

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1743–1748, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.167

• measured parameters as a function of the deposition angle. Some of the results are compared with the experimental data and simulations from literature. Experimental SiO2 films and LC cells SiO2 thin films were deposited by electron-beam evaporation on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates

Nanostructured TiO₂-based gas sensors with enhanced sensitivity to reducing gases

• Wojciech Maziarz,
• Anna Kusior and
• Anita Trenczek-Zajac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1718–1726, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.164

• electronic structure by improving electron migration from titanium dioxide to tin dioxide and promotes oxygen molecule adsorption at the surface [34]. The as-formed heterojunction (n–n type) affects the response due to the formation of the accumulation/depletion layer and increases the potential barrier at

• . The as-obtained pore network and fine grains of titanium dioxide nanoflowers promote high surface-to-volume ratio, which favor the p-type behavior. Finally, the presence of tin dioxide nanoparticles induce creation of intimate electrical contact at the TiO2/SnO2 interface [32], along which electron

• carrier transfer occurs and formation of a charge depletion layer. The discrete SnO2 nanoparticle coating acts as an oxygen adsorber, which donates electrons and increases carrier concentration, creating a stronger n–p heterojunction. As a result, tin oxide may become the primary conductive path, which

Sb₂S₃ grown by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and its application in a hybrid solar cell

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere,
• Valdek Mikli and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1662–1673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.158

• , situated in the electrical junction created by TiO2 and P3HT (polythiophene) as the electron and hole conductor, respectively. For these type of solar cells, fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) is prevalently used to contact the TiO2 while evaporated Au has been used to contact the P3HT. The use of a polymeric

• sulfide [27] and tin sulfide [28][29] grown by pneumatic CSP. At the time of the present study, no publications were available on ultrasonically spray-grown Sb2S3, and on the application of any CSP-grown Sb2S3 in a solar cell, apart from a photoelectrochemical cell that showed an efficiency of 0.3% [30

• to grow the Sb2S3 layer onto a structured substrate such as a ZnO nanorod layer. Experimental Technology of layers and solar cells We used a commercial 300 nm indium tin oxide (ITO) coated 1.1 mm glass with a sheet resistance of 10 Ω·sq.−1 from Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung

Electric field induced structural colour tuning of a silver/titanium dioxide nanoparticle one-dimensional photonic crystal

• Eduardo Aluicio-Sarduy,
• Simone Callegari,
• Diana Gisell Figueroa del Valle,
• Andrea Desii,
• Ilka Kriegel and
• Francesco Scotognella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1404–1410, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.131

• nanoparticles and titanium dioxide nanoparticles deposited on top of an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. A scheme of the photonic crystal is shown in Figure 1. The silver nanoparticles have a diameter of about 50 nm, while the TiO2 nanoparticles are smaller than 15 nm. The surface topography and phase atomic

• , resulting in a stable, milky solution. Before layer deposition, we concentrated the nanoparticle dispersion in order to make thicker layers. Photonic crystal fabrication The photonic crystal was fabricated on an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate using a spin coater (Laurell, WS-400- 6NPP-Lite). The rotation

An ellipsometric approach towards the description of inhomogeneous polymer-based Langmuir layers

• Falko O. Rottke,
• Burkhard Schulz,
• Klaus Richau,
• Karl Kratz and
• Andreas Lendlein

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1156–1165, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.107

• . In the following a short summary of the methods and the characterization of the polymers are given. PPDL-D4 was synthesized by tin(II)-mediated ring-opening polymerization of ω-pentadecalactone and di(trimethylolpropane) as the core segment. For PPDL-D4 a molecular weight Mn of 5000 g·mol−1 was

Voltammetric determination of polyphenolic content in pomegranate juice using a poly(gallic acid)/multiwalled carbon nanotube modified electrode

• Refat Abdel-Hamid and
• Emad F. Newair

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1104–1112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.103

• rectangular indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass slide (resistivity of 8–12 Ω/□) was examined using SEM (Figure 1). The film is deposited on the ITO with the same experimental conditions as for the GCE. As shown, the nanocomposite has a short, tubular topology with a smooth surface. The nanocomposites are

High-resolution noncontact AFM and Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations of self-assembled photovoltaic donor–acceptor dyads

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Pierre-Olivier Schwartz,
• Laure Biniek,
• Martin Brinkmann,
• Nicolas Leclerc,
• Elena Zaborova and
• Stéphane Méry

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 799–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.71

• dyads are used as model nanostructured heterojunctions for local investigations by noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). With the aim to probe the photo-induced charge carrier generation, thin films deposited on transparent indium tin oxide substrates are

• ., glass, SiO2, indium tin oxide, oriented poly(tetrafluoroethylene)). The D–A co-oligomers self-assemble in a zipper-like structure such that the donor groups and the PDI units form distinct D and A lamellae. In thin films, both standing and flat-on lamellae were evidenced as illustrated in the schematic

• the processing conditions. Flat-on lamellae were obtained on oriented substrates of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) [21], while the films deposited on glass, SiO2 or indium tin oxide are mainly composed of standing lamellae. In these standing lamellae, two molecular orientations of the D–A oligomers

Bacteriorhodopsin–ZnO hybrid as a potential sensing element for low-temperature detection of ethanol vapour

• Saurav Kumar,
• Sudeshna Bagchi,
• Senthil Prasad,
• Anupma Sharma,
• Ritesh Kumar,
• Rishemjit Kaur,
• Jagvir Singh and
• Amol P. Bhondekar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 501–510, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.44

• bR. Results In this work, ZnO thin films (ZnO-TF) and ZnO nanorods (ZnO-NRs) were grown via the hydrothermal method on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates (25 × 25 mm) and both structures were used for the preparation of a sensitive film for gas testing. The precursor solution (zinc acetate dihydrate

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

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of hybrid metallic–dielectric plasmonic nanoantennas

• Mario Hentschel,
• Bernd Metzger,
• Bastian Knabe,
• Karsten Buse and
• Harald Giessen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 111–120, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.13

• , Utikal et al. [61] buried gold gratings within dielectric waveguides consisting of alumina, indium tin oxide, or tungsten trioxide, respectively, and studied the third harmonic spectra. They found that the overall signal is generated not only by the gold itself, but by the dielectric waveguide as well

• , depending on its microscopic nonlinearity. Results and Discussion One obvious idea drawn from these earlier experiments is thus to use standard nonlinear materials such as lithium niobate crystals (LiNbO3) or indium tin oxide (ITO) and selectively position them inside the gaps of nanoantennas, as shown in

Charge injection and transport properties of an organic light-emitting diode

• Peter Juhasz,
• Juraj Nevrela,
• Michal Micjan,
• Miroslav Novota,
• Jan Uhrik,
• Lubica Stuchlikova,
• Jan Jakabovic,
• Ladislav Harmatha and
• Martin Weis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 47–52, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.5

• correlation between obtained results of different characterization techniques is reliable only for the same device. This study demonstrates charge transport properties in OLED devices formed by indium tin oxide (ITO)/N,N'-di-1-naphthyl-N,N'-diphenyl-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine (α-NPD)/Alq3/Al system. The

Self-organization of gold nanoparticles on silanated surfaces

• Htet H. Kyaw,
• Salim H. Al-Harthi,
• Azzouz Sellai and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2345–2353, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.242

• various surfaces in which the stability of AuNPs, interface layer and the support surface are important for the self-organization. Han et al. have demonstrated the growth of a single layer AuNPs film deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate without using an adhesive layer by utilizing diblock

• and after functionalization of glass substrates for 24 h with 1% APTES are shown in Figure 1. The survey spectra (Figure 1a) show oxygen, carbon, silicon, tin, potassium, calcium and sodium KLL peaks of non-functionalized glass substrates as well as APTES-modified glass substrates (The core peak of Na

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

• transparency over the entire visible light range. A solid solution of indium oxide and substantial amounts of tin oxide for electronic doping (ITO) is currently the most prominent example for the class of so-called TCOs (transparent conducting oxides). Due to the limited, natural occurrence of indium and its

• semiconductor material, and substantial chemical doping leads to a sufficient amount of mobile charge carriers. The best-known example for TCOs is indium tin oxide (ITO) [4]. ITO can be characterized as a tin-doped indium oxide material with up to 90% content of In2O3. It is characterized by a low specific

Mapping bound plasmon propagation on a nanoscale stripe waveguide using quantum dots: influence of spacer layer thickness

• Chamanei S. Perera,
• Alison M. Funston,
• Han-Hao Cheng and
• Kristy C. Vernon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2046–2051, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.208

• beneficial in studying light matter interaction in nanoscale devices and all-optical circuitry. Theory COMSOL Multiphysics was used to run simulations on silver stripe waveguides supported on an indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) cladding. The width of the