Advanced scanning probe lithography using anatase-to-rutile transition to create localized TiO₂ nanorods

• Julian Kalb,
• Vanessa Knittel and
• Lukas Schmidt-Mende

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 412–418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.40

• done in argon (20 sccm) at a pressure of 6.7 × 10−3 mbar. Subsequently, the sample was annealed at 850 °C in oxygen (500 sccm) for 2 h resulting in a polycrystalline anatase TiO2 film. Optionally, an additional 3 nm thin SiO2 layer was placed on the anatase film with RC sputter deposition. Scanning

One-step nonhydrolytic sol–gel synthesis of mesoporous TiO₂ phosphonate hybrid materials

• Yanhui Wang,
• P. Hubert Mutin and
• Johan G. Alauzun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 356–362, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.35

• ppm, controlled with a Karl Fischer coulometer). All other chemicals were used without further purification. All manipulations were carried out in a glove box under argon atmosphere (<5 ppm of water and O2). Synthesis of TiO2–octylphosphonate hybrids In a typical preparation, Ti(OiPr)4 (1.72 g, 6.00

Intuitive human interface to a scanning tunnelling microscope: observation of parity oscillations for a single atomic chain

• Sumit Tewari,
• Jacob Bakermans,
• Christian Wagner,
• Federica Galli and
• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 337–348, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.33

• the simulation. The scaling factor converts approximately 10 cm of hand movement to 2 Å displacement of the STM tip. The usual imaging in STM is done using a commercial RHK SPM100 ver.8E controller. A mono-crystalline gold sample cut along the (111) surface is prepared by repeated argon sputtering and

Nanoporous water oxidation electrodes with a low loading of laser-deposited Ru/C exhibit enhanced corrosion stability

• Sandra Haschke,
• Dmitrii Pankin,
• Vladimir Mikhailovskii,
• Maïssa K. S. Barr,
• Adriana Both-Engel,
• Alina Manshina and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 157–167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.15

• ), which are due to the Ru/C layer and adventitious carbon. Argon ion sputtering results in a reduced carbon content (observable in both the C 1s and O 1s regions), as well as in a shift of the Ru 3d doublet of peaks to lower binding energies (Figure 8b and Figure S4, Supporting Information File 1). Thus

Sputtering of silicon nanopowders by an argon cluster ion beam

• Xiaomei Zeng,
• Vasiliy Pelenovich,
• Zhenguo Wang,
• Wenbin Zuo,
• Sergey Belykh,
• Alexander Tolstogouzov,
• Dejun Fu and
• Xiangheng Xiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 135–143, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.13

• surface morphology, with preferable erosion of hills as compared with valleys [6], which also results in the smoothing of the surface [7]. Sputtering by an argon cluster beam has been studied for many pure metals (Cu, Ag, Au, W, Pt, Ni) and their alloys, semiconductors (Si and SiC), and insulators (SiO2

• bombardment of gold nanoparticles with radius R = 4 nm by 100 keV gold atoms. The sputter yields ranged from only a few sputtered atoms to complete particle disintegration. Järvi et al. [17][18] have shown that the highest sputtering yield of gold nanoparticles by 25 keV gallium or 200 keV argon beams is

• sputtering yield has already been discussed by Belykh et al. [27]. In the present work, we use massive argon clusters, as projectiles, and pressed Si nanopowder consisting of nanoparticles with a mean particle diameter of 60 nm, as the sputtered material. The sputtering yield dependence versus average target

Zn/F-doped tin oxide nanoparticles synthesized by laser pyrolysis: structural and optical properties

• Florian Dumitrache,
• Iuliana P. Morjan,
• Elena Dutu,
• Ion Morjan,
• Claudiu Teodor Fleaca,
• Monica Scarisoreanu,
• Alina Ilie,
• Marius Dumitru,
• Cristian Mihailescu,
• Adriana Smarandache and
• Gabriel Prodan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 9–21, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.2

• , 95% purity) liquids from Sigma and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), oxygen (O2), argon (Ar) (99.99999 vol %) and ethylene (C2H4) (99.999 vol %) bottled gases from Linde. The reactive precursors used to obtain zinc-doped tin nanopowders, SnMe4 and ZnEt2, have no infrared absorption bands around the CO2

Characterization and influence of hydroxyapatite nanopowders on living cells

• Przemyslaw Oberbek,
• Tomasz Bolek,
• Adrian Chlanda,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Sylwia Kusnieruk,
• Julia Rogowska-Tylman,
• Ganna Nechyporenko,
• Viktor Zinchenko,
• Wojciech Swieszkowski and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3079–3094, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.286

• confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM, Leica Confocal Microscope, SP5 Microscope model: DMI6000, Laser: Argon 10%, line length 511–520 nm) equipped with cell life support unit was used to observe interactions between cells and particles. Cells were incubated overnight in glass-bottom Petri dishes

Electrostatic force microscopy for the accurate characterization of interphases in nanocomposites

• Diana El Khoury,
• Richard Arinero,
• Jean-Charles Laurentie,
• Mikhaël Bechelany,
• Michel Ramonda and
• Jérôme Castellon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2999–3012, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.279

• . ALD is a smooth chemical vapor deposition technique, expected to leave hydroxide OH groups on the surface. Conversely, PSD might induce a more homogeneous ionic surface state; O− and O2− could be typically introduced due to the small amount of reactive oxygen gas that is added to the neutral argon gas

• ). Silicon dioxide layers were deposited by plasma sputtering in a Plassys 450S reactor using a high purity SiO2 target source. The deposition regime included a preliminary exposure to 100 sccm argon plasma at 50 W for 20 s, while substrates and SiO2 target samples were screened. Then, the target shutter was

Size limits of magnetic-domain engineering in continuous in-plane exchange-bias prototype films

• Alexander Gaul,
• Daniel Emmrich,
• Timo Ueltzhöffer,
• Henning Huckfeldt,
• Hatice Doğanay,
• Johanna Hackl,
• Muhammad Imtiaz Khan,
• Daniel M. Gottlob,
• Gregor Hartmann,
• André Beyer,
• Dennis Holzinger,
• Slavomír Nemšák,
• Claus M. Schneider,
• Armin Gölzhäuser,
• Günter Reiss and
• Arno Ehresmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2968–2979, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.276

• prototypical in-plane EB layer system Ir17Mn83 (30 nm)/Co70Fe30 (10 nm) was grown by RF sputtering at a power of 160 W and an argon gas flux of 155 sccm on a naturally oxidized 5 nm × 5 nm Si(100) wafer, with Cu (5 nm) buffer and Ta (10 nm) capping. EB at the interface between the antiferromagnetic (AF) and

• performed at beamline UE56/1-SGM of the synchrotron radiation facility BESSY II after excitation with right and left circularly polarized X-rays with an energy of 709 eV (Fe L3 edge). Prior to measurements, the capping layer was thinned by argon ion sputtering allowing the Fe photoelectrons to escape from

Investigation of CVD graphene as-grown on Cu foil using simultaneous scanning tunneling/atomic force microscopy

• Majid Fazeli Jadidi,
• Umut Kamber,
• Oğuzhan Gürlü and
• H. Özgür Özer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2953–2959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.274

• conduct simultaneous STM/AFM measurements. This system with a sensitivity of 2·10−4 Å/√Hz is capable of measuring tunnel current, force, force gradient, tunnel barrier height and energy loss [32]. The UHV chamber is equipped with an argon sputtering gun and a resistive heater that could be used for sample

In situ characterization of nanoscale contaminations adsorbed in air using atomic force microscopy

• Jesús S. Lacasa,
• Lisa Almonte and
• Jaime Colchero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2925–2935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.271

• sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), alcohols (e.g., ethanol) or acetone [24], ultraviolet (UV) [25] and ozone treatment [26], imaging of gratings [27][28], heating to evaporate contaminants [29][30], argon bombardment and even ultrasound, to much more aggressive methods, such as cleaning in piranha solution

Controlling surface morphology and sensitivity of granular and porous silver films for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, SERS

• Sherif Okeil and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2813–2831, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.263

• large-scale fabrication at low cost is an important issue in further enhancing the use of SERS for routine chemical analysis. Here, we systematically investigate the effect of different radio frequency (rf) plasmas (argon, hydrogen, nitrogen, air and oxygen plasma) as well as combinations of these

• temperature was set at 25 °C but heating occurred during the plasma treatment depending on the plasma treatment time. The gases used for plasma treatment were argon at a pressure of 1.5 mbar for a flow rate of 16.7 sccm, nitrogen at a pressure of 0.8 mbar for a flow rate of 12 sccm, hydrogen at a pressure of

• power has been synthesized using 12 sccm gas flow and a power of 200 W except for argon plasma where the standard gas flow used is 16.7 sccm. Samples obtained under other conditions will get a notation stating the gas flow and power used. Characterization of the as-prepared silver films The prepared

Comparative biological effects of spherical noble metal nanoparticles (Rh, Pd, Ag, Pt, Au) with 4–8 nm diameter

• Alexander Rostek,
• Marina Breisch,
• Kevin Pappert,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Marc Heggen,
• Manfred Köller,
• Christina Sengstock and
• Matthias Epple

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2763–2774, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.258

• (Millipore; molecular weight cut-off 3 kDa). The nanoparticles were purified by a final centrifugation step at 66,000 g for 30 min, followed by redispersion in ultrapure, degassed water. The dispersion was stored under argon at 4 °C to avoid oxidation. The yield was about 65 to 85% with respect to the metals

• dispersion was stored under argon at 4 °C to avoid oxidation. The yield was about 25% with respect to silver as determined by AAS. PVP-stabilized Au nanoparticles: In a 250 mL two-neck round-bottom flask, 600 mg trisodium citrate and 50 mg tannic acid were dissolved in 150 mL water under stirring and heated

• stirred for at least 12 h. Most of the water and the by-products were removed by centrifugation (4,000 rpm) in a spin filter tube. The nanoparticles were purified by a final centrifugation step at 66,000 g for 30 min and redispersed in ultrapure degassed water. The dispersion was stored under argon at 4

Accurate control of the covalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes for the electro-enzymatically controlled oxidation of biomolecules

• Naoual Allali,
• Veronika Urbanova,
• Mathieu Etienne,
• Xavier Devaux,
• Martine Mallet,
• Brigitte Vigolo,
• Jean-Joseph Adjizian,
• Chris P. Ewels,
• Sven Oberg,
• Alexander V. Soldatov,
• Edward McRae,
• Yves Fort,
• Manuel Dossot and
• Victor Mamane

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2750–2762, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.257

• defects introduced by tuning the irradiation time. A few milligrams of the corresponding oxidized SWCNTs were analyzed in each case before proceeding to step 2. At this stage, the samples were protected under argon gas to avoid any moisture contamination and directly analyzed by HRTEM, XPS and TGA-MS

• with FcETGn [9]: COCl-SWCNTs (10 mg) were suspended in dry toluene (50 mL) under argon. Then, FcETGn (20–30 mg) and triethylamine (0.1 mL) were added. The mixture was heated to 100 °C and stirred for 24 h under argon. After cooling, the SWCNTs were washed under sonication three times with MeOH (10 mL

• ) and three times with THF (10 mL) in order to remove unreacted FcETGn. After filtration, the HIPCO-Ox-FcETGn (22–33 mg) were dried under vacuum and stored under argon at room temperature. Electrode preparation [11]: GCEs (3 mm in diameter) were polished with alumina slurry (1 μm and 0.05 µm particles

Optimization of Mo/Cr bilayer back contacts for thin-film solar cells

• Nima Khoshsirat,
• Fawad Ali,
• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• Mojtaba Amjadipour,
• Hongxia Wang,
• Mahnaz Shafiei and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2700–2707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.252

• with Argon in order to remove any oxide layer or contamination. During the deposition, the substrates were continuously rotating with a speed of 20 rpm to ensure a homogeneous coverage all over the substrate surface. The sputtering time was determined from the deposition rate under different working

• mechanism of Cr and Na to the top layer, we first heated the Mo/Cr films on SLG to 550 °C for 30 min in argon atmosphere. This is the temperature that is normally used for sulfurization and selenization of CIGS and CZTS layers. Then XPS depth profiling was performed on the annealed Mo/Cr films to search for

• any Cr or Na signal in the Mo layer, by etching the film via argon gas cluster ions for 4 min before each XPS acquisition until the signal from the substrate was visible. The result is shown in Figure 7 for a Mo/Cr film deposited at 200 W and 3 mTorr (high-resolution spectra of Mo 3d and Cr 2p are

Size-selected Fe₃O₄–Au hybrid nanoparticles for improved magnetism-based theranostics

• Maria V. Efremova,
• Yulia A. Nalench,
• Eirini Myrovali,
• Anastasiia S. Garanina,
• Ivan S. Grebennikov,
• Polina K. Gifer,
• Maxim A. Abakumov,
• Marina Spasova,
• Makis Angelakeris,
• Alexander G. Savchenko,
• Michael Farle,
• Natalia L. Klyachko,
• Alexander G. Majouga and
• Ulf Wiedwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2684–2699, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.251

• mL oleic acid was heated up to 120 °C under argon atmosphere and kept at this temperature for 30 min. Then, 0.28 mL of Fe(CO)5 was added. Three minutes later, a mixture of HAuCl4∙3H2O (45 mg), 5 mL solvent and 0.5 mL oleylamine was added, and the final solution was slowly (3 °C/min) heated up to

• ) were grown by thermal decomposition of Fe(CO)5 in the presence of Au NPs following a modified protocol [84][99]. A mixture of 1 mL oleic acid and 20 mL solvent (phenyl ether for sample MNP-25 or benzyl ether for sample MNP-44) was heated up to 120 °C under argon atmosphere and kept at this temperature

Au–Si plasmonic platforms: synthesis, structure and FDTD simulations

• Anna Gapska,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2599–2608, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.241

• ) under pure Ar plasma conditions (Argon, Air Products 99.999%). The Au target had 99.99% purity, the rate of Au layer deposition was about 0.4 nm·s−1 and the incident power was 32 W. The thickness of the films was measured in situ by a quartz crystal microbalance. The films were subsequently annealed at

SERS active Ag–SiO₂ nanoparticles obtained by laser ablation of silver in colloidal silica

• Cristina Gellini,
• Francesco Muniz-Miranda,
• Alfonso Pedone and
• Maurizio Muniz-Miranda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2396–2404, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.224

• in the 200–800 nm region by using a Cary 5 Varian spectrophotometer. SERS spectra were recorded using the 514.5 nm line of a Coherent Argon ion laser (power: 50 mW) and a Jobin-Yvon HG2S monochromator equipped with a cooled RCA-C31034A photomultiplier. Power density measurements were performed with a

Hydrothermal-derived carbon as a stabilizing matrix for improved cycling performance of silicon-based anodes for lithium-ion full cells

• Mirco Ruttert,
• Florian Holtstiege,
• Jessica Hüsker,
• Markus Börner,
• Martin Winter and
• Tobias Placke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2381–2395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.223

• acetone and dried at 60 °C in ambient atmosphere. Afterwards, the dried products were carbonized at a temperature of 900 °C for six hours in an argon atmosphere, applying a heating ramp of 300 °C h−1, in order to remove heteroatoms and increase the electronic conductivity of the materials. Electrode

• thickness of 100 µm was applied, leading to an average mass loading of ≈2.0 mg cm−2. After drying for one hour at 50 °C, circular electrodes with a diameter of 12 mm were punched out and dried under reduced pressure (<0.05 mbar) at 170 °C for at least 24 h and stored in a glove box with argon atmosphere

• . Cell assembly and electrochemical investigations Electrochemical investigations were carried out in a three electrode configuration using Swagelok-type T-cells that were assembled in a glove box (UNIlab, MBraun) with argon atmosphere and H2O and O2-values below 0.1 ppm. The composite electrodes

High-throughput micro-nanostructuring by microdroplet inkjet printing

• Hendrikje R. Neumann and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2372–2380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.222

• using a mixture of hydrogen and argon gas (10% hydrogen, 90% argon) in a plasma etcher (TePla 100 plasma system, PVA, Germany) at 0.4 mbar and 300 W for 1 h. Inkjet printing A piezoelectric, laboratory scale inkjet printer (Dimatix Materials Printer DMP-2850) was used to generate micropatterns of the

Nanoconjugates of a calixresorcinarene derivative with methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) fragments for drug encapsulation

• Alina M. Ermakova,
• Julia E. Morozova,
• Yana V. Shalaeva,
• Victor V. Syakaev,
• Aidar T. Gubaidullin,
• Alexandra D. Voloshina,
• Vladimir V. Zobov,
• Irek R. Nizameev,
• Olga B. Bazanova,
• Igor S. Antipin and
• Alexander I. Konovalov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2057–2070, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.195

• was synthesized according to a previously reported procedure [38]. Synthesis of tetraundecylcalixresorcinarene–mPEG conjugate 3 1 g of tetraundecylcalixresorcinarene 1 (7.2 mmol of OH group) in 100 mL of dry DMFA and 1.34 g of K2CO3 (9.72 mmol) were mixed at room temperature for 30 min under argon

• atmosphere. Then 8 g of 2 in 50 mL of dry DMFA was added and the reaction was carried out at 90 °С for 70 h under argon atmosphere. The solvent was evaporated under reduced pressure and the mixture was poured into a large amount of acetone to remove the inorganic salt. Then the evaporated mixture was

Metal-free catalysis based on nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials: a photoelectron spectroscopy point of view

• Mattia Scardamaglia and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2015–2031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.191

• the ion mass, the aforementioned probability is lower for nitrogen than for argon. The energy required to displace a C atom from the hexagonal network was reported to be about 22 eV [87]. This allows for the creation of carbon vacancies that are subsequently filled by N atoms. It was shown that at

• contained a significant amount of oxygen due to the used synthesis conditions, leading to a relatively high concentration of nitrogen oxide groups. Annealing the samples in argon atmosphere at temperatures ranging from 500 to 1000 °C, the authors observed changes induced in the amount and the surface

Synthesis of carbon nanowalls from a single-source metal-organic precursor

• André Giese,
• Sebastian Schipporeit,
• Volker Buck and
• Nicolas Wöhrl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1895–1905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.181

• CNW deposition in literature gaseous precursors have been used as carbon source. Gases used are typically methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2) and hexafluoroethane (C2F6) mixed with argon or hydrogen as carrier gas. The synthesis from the solid metal-organic precursor Al(acac)3 was up to now only reported

• inductively coupled plasma antenna allowing for high plasma densities even at low particle energies [26]. The Al(acac)3 precursor in powder form was sublimated in a fluidized bed evaporator at a constant temperature of 127 °C and then transported into the reaction chamber by using argon as carrier gas

• . According to the vapor-pressure curve taken from Siddiqi et al. and a publication from Nielsen et al. [27][28] the precursor flow can be estimated to be about 1.66 sccm. The precursor flow and the flow of the Argon carrier gas (40 sccm) were kept constant for all experiments. Depositions were performed at a

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

• , Supporting Information File 1). The rare-earth metal amidinates and Eu(dpm)3 were suspended under an argon atmosphere in dried IL or in PC. The compounds were decomposed by microwave irradiation for 20 min at a power of 50 W at a temperature of 230 °C (Scheme 1). The size distributions of the obtained

• study the catalytic properties of the obtained intermetallic M/RE-NPs in extension of our previous work on Ni/Ga nanophases derived from organometallic precursors by co-thermolysis in ILs and PC [59]. Experimental All synthesis experiments were carried out with Schlenk techniques under nitrogen or argon

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

• , the argon (Ar) flow rate was in all cases kept at 60 sccm and the sputtering power at 32 W. During deposition in the soft-landing regime, no substrate bias voltage was applied (Vs = 0 kV). Thus, the kinetic energy of the nanoparticles was mainly defined by the pressure difference between the