Implementation of data-cube pump–probe KPFM on organic solar cells

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Olivier Bardagot and
• Renaud Demadrille

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 323–337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.24

• compositional and/or morphological heterogeneities generating the dark-state SP and SPV contrast play also a key role in the photocarrier trapping process. A reasonable (yet to be definitely confirmed) scenario could invoke the existence of non-percolating PC71BM clusters acting as trapping centers. Such an

Fabrication of Ag-modified hollow titania spheres via controlled silver diffusion in Ag–TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Bogusław Budner,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Krzysztof Kopczyński and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 141–146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.12

• Ag–TiO2 CSNs, silver cores were fully converted to Ag species (i.e., positively charged Ag clusters as discussed below or other subnanometric silver species) embedded in a titania shell or smaller AgNPs located at the shell surface (Figure 2 E). To the best of our knowledge, the silver diffusion in

• in Ag@TiO2 CSNs can occur in the following manner. Titania is oxidized in an air atmosphere and as a result, holes, which may further oxidize AgNPs surrounded by the titania shell, are generated. Upon oxidation, AgNPs gain a positive electric charge and may eject positively charged Ag clusters. In

• case of Ag@TiO2 CSNs and depending on the annealing time, these ejected Ag clusters may either be accommodated within or on the titania shell. In the titania shell, these silver clusters could react with the TiO2 host through the formation of a complex [Ag–(TiO2)] [21]. Upon reaching the surface of the

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

Recent progress in perovskite solar cells: the perovskite layer

• Xianfeng Dai,
• Ke Xu and
• Fanan Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 51–60, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.5

• contain preformed perovskite clusters, which can be rapidly (within 20 s) deposited on a substrate of an area larger than 100 cm2. The MAPbI3 films formed by the wire-bar (D-bar) coating technique were highly oriented. Smooth high-quality perovskite films with an average PCE of 17.01% were obtained

Long-term stability and scale-up of noncovalently bound gold nanoparticle-siRNA suspensions

• Anna V. Epanchintseva,
• Julia E. Poletaeva,
• Dmitrii V. Pyshnyi,
• Elena I. Ryabchikova and
• Inna A. Pyshnaya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2568–2578, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.248

• suspension at 4 °C for different times resulted in the formation of particle clusters of high colloidal stability as demonstrated by conventional methods. These clusters completely disintegrated when albumin was added, indicating that they are agglomerates (and not aggregates) of AuNP-siRNA. The AuNPs-siRNA

• and Figure 3A). The appearance of rounded clusters of AuNP-siRNA with a diameter of not more than 200 nm was a consequence of aggregation/agglomeration of particles over the course of one day (Figure 3E). The particles in the clusters were arranged in several layers and were distinguishable. The

• scanning probe image processor (SPIP) analysis of the TEM image showed a predominance of clusters with a size of up to 100 nm in samples ×1 and ×10 (85–90% of the total number of clusters); about 10% of clusters had a size of 100–200 nm. Thus, the TEM study showed a tendency towards clumping of the AuNP

Advanced hybrid nanomaterials

• Andreas Taubert,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Pierre Rabu and
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2563–2567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.247

• synthesize clusters, so-called colloidal molecules [21]. Nanospherical satellites were covalently bonded via amide groups within the dimples of valence-endowed patchy nanoparticles, allowing the tuning of their topology and self-assembling ability. Polyion complex micelles formed by complexation between poly

• is the focus of an article reporting the performance of functionalized gold clusters deposited on ZrO2 nanoparticles for benzyl alcohol oxidation in [39]. Interestingly, the defunctionalized gold nanoclusters exhibit full catalytic conversion. Overall, this thematic issue clearly highlights not only

Formation of metal/semiconductor Cu–Si composite nanostructures

• Natalya V. Yumozhapova,
• Andrey V. Nomoev,
• Vyacheslav V. Syzrantsev and
• Erzhena C. Khartaeva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2497–2504, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.240

• Verlet algorithm. The visualisation and analysis of the simulation results was carried out in the OVITO program [26][27]. Figure 2 shows clusters with different silicon content at 1.5 ns after the start of simulation. As revealed in [23], with a low silicon content of 10 atom %, a core–shell structure is

• structure, in particular, the size and phase composition of the nanoparticles has been presented in [5]. The analysis of the obtained data on atomic dynamics in nanoscale clusters showed that at a cooling rate of 1.5 K/ps, a core–shell structure is formed in 70% of the clusters and the Janus-like structure

• is formed in 30% of the clusters. In the obtained cluster structures, twinning prevails as a mixture of the icosahedral (IR) and dodecahedral (DK) phase (Figure 3a). With a decrease in the cooling rate to 1 K/ps, the probability of the formation of the Janus-like structure increases to 50%. In

Label-free highly sensitive probe detection with novel hierarchical SERS substrates fabricated by nanoindentation and chemical reaction methods

• Jingran Zhang,
• Tianqi Jia,
• Yongda Yan,
• Li Wang,
• Peng Miao,
• Yimin Han,
• Xinming Zhang,
• Guangfeng Shi,
• Yanquan Geng,
• Zhankun Weng,
• Daniel Laipple and
• Zuobin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2483–2496, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.239

• beam lithography and self-assembly methods to fabricate gold clusters of micrometer size and regular spacing. Subsequently, the detection resolution of 4-acetamidothiophenol was 0.05 g/L using the substrate. Nanoparticle cluster array structures with a size of 40 nm were fabricated by electron beam

• pyramidal hierarchical SERS substrates with higher sensitivity can be achieved. Therefore, the combination of Ag nanoparticle clusters on the pile-up of copper surface leads to a new nanogap and improves the density of SERS hotspots. The electric field intensity of the hierarchical substrate on the pile-ups

Dynamics of superparamagnetic nanoparticles in viscous liquids in rotating magnetic fields

• Nikolai A. Usov,
• Ruslan A. Rytov and
• Vasiliy A. Bautin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2294–2303, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.221

• ]. Inside the cells magnetic nanoparticles usually form dense clusters tightly bound to the surrounding tissues [21][22][23][24], so that the rotation of a nanoparticle as a whole in AMF is difficult or completely absent. Thus, the AMF energy absorption is only associated with the dynamics of the magnetic

Targeted therapeutic effect against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 with a CuFe₂O₄/silica/cisplatin nanocomposite formulation

• B. Rabindran Jermy,
• Vijaya Ravinayagam,
• Widyan A. Alamoudi,
• Dana Almohazey,
• Hatim Dafalla,
• Lina Hussain Allehaibi,
• Abdulhadi Baykal,
• Muhammet S. Toprak and
• Thirunavukkarasu Somanathan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2217–2228, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.214

• nanometer-sized copper spinel clusters over HYPS (Figure 5). The particle size reduction tends to decrease the saturation magnetization. In particular, noncollinear spin arrangements present at the external nanoparticle surface play a major role, which in influences the response of the material to the

Mannosylated brush copolymers based on poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(ε-caprolactone) as multivalent lectin-binding nanomaterials

• Stefania Ordanini,
• Wanda Celentano,
• Anna Bernardi and
• Francesco Cellesi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2192–2206, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.212

• ]. When multivalent carbohydrate compounds bridge multiple Con A tetramers, insoluble clusters are formed, turning the originally transparent solution turbid (Figure 6B). Each single macromolecule may interact with many Con A receptors, although steric effects prevent binding of every mannose residue [38

• multivalent fashion, leading to an increase of turbidity. Interestingly, turbidity was not observed with the monovalent compound PEG9-PCL1-Man1, suggesting that the polymer and the resulting nanosized colloid in water do not have a suitable valency for the formation of Con A clusters. We assumed that the

• showed a similar behavior as A4-PEG8-PCL2-Man2, but it reached a much lower plateau, which indicated the formation of smaller colloidal clusters when the valency was reduced from 8 to 4. Moreover, the octavalent compound seemed to bound Con A more slowly (k-octa = 0.32 AU/min vs k-tetra = 0.41 AU/min

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond for nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging applications

• Alberto Boretti,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Jonathan Blackledge and
• Stefania Castelletto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2128–2151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.207

• positive or negative imaging contrast for resolution as fine as cell clusters. The more precise the imaging that is required, the higher is the dose of the contrast medium that is necessary. This poses a question of possible toxicity that must be adequately considered and ultimately constitutes a key

Microbubbles decorated with dendronized magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical imaging: effective stabilization via fluorous interactions

• Da Shi,
• Justine Wallyn,
• Dinh-Vu Nguyen,
• Francis Perton,
• Delphine Felder-Flesch,
• Sylvie Bégin-Colin,
• Mounir Maaloum and
• Marie Pierre Krafft

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2103–2115, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.205

• physiological media [30]. To the best of our knowledge, the implementation of dendronized IONPs in phospholipid-shelled MBs has not yet been reported. This approach is expected to combine some advantages over existing methods, including the ability to graft isolated IONPs instead of clusters at the MB surface

The importance of design in nanoarchitectonics: multifractality in MACE silicon nanowires

• Stefania Carapezzi and
• Anna Cavallini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2094–2102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.204

• according to literature [38], and a Poisson’s ratio of 0.22. The values of ARcrit thus obtained range from 2.2 to 1.5, while the aspect ratios of the NWs are of 555 for sample SiNW1 and of 144 for sample SiNW2. This confirms theoretically the stability of the observed NW clusters. The process of self

Porous silver-coated pNIPAM-co-AAc hydrogel nanocapsules

• William W. Bryan,
• Riddhiman Medhi,
• Maria D. Marquez,
• Supparesk Rittikulsittichai,
• Michael Tran and
• T. Randall Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1973–1982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.194

• -magnification image of a THPC gold-seeded pDADMAC-modified pNIPAM-co-AAc hydrogel core particle. Due to insufficient electron density in the pNIPAM-co-AAc, the polymer core is not visible by TEM. However, due to the consistent size measurements of the gold clusters, and the absence of randomness in the gold

Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• HiPIMS and dcMS followed by rapid thermal annealing (1 min) at different temperatures. It is shown that HiPIMS deposition facilitates the formation of small nanoparticles/clusters in the as-grown structures. A suitable selection of annealing temperature and time results in the columnar self-assembly of

Engineered superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) for dual-modality imaging of intracranial glioblastoma via EGFRvIII targeting

• Xianping Liu,
• Chengjuan Du,
• Haichun Li,
• Ting Jiang,
• Zimiao Luo,
• Zhiqing Pang,
• Daoying Geng and
• Jun Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1860–1872, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.181

• size of whole clusters was around 100 nm, which is much larger than the diameter as determined by TEM. This discrepancy might be due to nanoprobe cluster formation in water. Nanoparticles of diameter around 110 nm can successfully escape the phagocytosis of the reticuloendothelial system (RES) and

Toxicity and safety study of silver and gold nanoparticles functionalized with cysteine and glutathione

• Barbara Pem,
• Igor M. Pongrac,
• Lea Ulm,
• Ivan Pavičić,
• Valerije Vrček,
• Darija Domazet Jurašin,
• Marija Ljubojević,
• Adela Krivohlavek and
• Ivana Vinković Vrček

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1802–1817, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.175

• lead to the formation of thiol-coated AgNPs [48]. New clusters consisting of Ag2S can be created from free Ag+ [47]. This process, known as sulfidation, affects AgNP behavior in the biological system [49], most notably by reducing their toxicity [47][50]. The binding of thiols to AuNP surfaces has been

Synthesis of nickel/gallium nanoalloys using a dual-source approach in 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazole ionic liquids

• Ilka Simon,
• Julius Hornung,
• Juri Barthel,
• Jörg Thomas,
• Maik Finze,
• Roland A. Fischer and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1754–1767, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.171

• carbene ligands (NHC) stabilize metal clusters and nanoparticles [44]. By insertion of the transition-metal center into the C2–H bond of imidazolium salts, transition-metal hydride complexes are formed [45]. Finally, H transfer reactions from the transition metal to GaCp* lead to the release of Cp*H

• assume that during the dispersion a chemical reaction of the precursors to Ni/Ga clusters occurs. The formation of clusters from metal precursor materials in ionic liquids has been described before, for example, [EMIm][Ni(P2S8)] [51], [BMMIm]16[Sn24Se56] [52], [Ru2Bi14Br4][AlCl4] [53], [Bi5(AlCl4)3] [53

• ], [Au(Bi8)(AlCl4)5] [54], and [(CuBi8)(AlCl4)] [55] In organic solvents, organometallic Ni complexes, e.g., Ni(COD)2 and Ni(CO)4 are known to form different types of intermetallic clusters with GaCp* and similar compounds, such as Ni(Cp*Ga)(CO)3, Ni4(Cp*Ga)4(CO)6, Ni(GaCp*)4 [46][56][57][58][59][60

The impact of crystal size and temperature on the adsorption-induced flexibility of the Zr-based metal–organic framework DUT-98

• Simon Krause,
• Volodymyr Bon,
• Hongchu Du,
• Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski,
• Ulrich Stoeck,
• Irena Senkovska and
• Stefan Kaskel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1737–1744, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.169

• supramolecular building blocks (SBBs), which consist of Zr6 clusters interconnected by 3,6-carbazole dicarboxylate ligands [20]. An additional benzoate functionality of the ligand connects the SBB into a 3D framework with a structure (Figure 1) similar to MIL-53 [21][22]. Upon removal of the solvent molecules

• cluster of 1.5 nm, which is in good agreement with the lattice parameter and the inter-cluster distance of the DUT-98op crystal structure (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S8). The regular arrangement of the clusters indicates a high symmetry that matches the tetragonal symmetry in DUT-98op. In

Kelvin probe force microscopy work function characterization of transition metal oxide crystals under ongoing reduction and oxidation

• Dominik Wrana,
• Karol Cieślik,
• Wojciech Belza,
• Christian Rodenbücher,
• Krzysztof Szot and
• Franciszek Krok

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1596–1607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.155

• equiprobable orientations of (√5×√5)R26.6° domains, both rotated with respect to the (1×1) surface by 26.6 degrees. Those two domains are labeled A and B, both in LEED and STM images. Bright protrusions seen in the STM picture, which also decorate domain boundaries, are either oxygen vacancies/vacancy clusters

Materials nanoarchitectonics at two-dimensional liquid interfaces

• Katsuhiko Ariga,
• Michio Matsumoto,
• Taizo Mori and
• Lok Kumar Shrestha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1559–1587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.153

• systems fabricated with low-dimensional materials are actively investigated. For example, Lvov and co-workers reported the immobilization of small functional materials such as metal clusters and metal catalysts within one-dimensional halloysite clay nanotubes to make them work under appropriate protection

Growth of lithium hydride thin films from solutions: Towards solution atomic layer deposition of lithiated films

• Ivan Kundrata,
• Karol Fröhlich,
• Lubomír Vančo,
• Matej Mičušík and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.142

• , indicating and increase in mass with decrease of frequency [21]. SEM images of the surface show clusters of crystals that grew possibly due to bubbles forming in the chamber shown in Figure 3 or the influence of air sensitivity. One such crystal is presented in Figure 9. The film covering the sample appears

Direct observation of oxygen-vacancy formation and structural changes in Bi₂WO₆ nanoflakes induced by electron irradiation

• Hong-long Shi,
• Bin Zou,
• Zi-an Li,
• Min-ting Luo and
• Wen-zhong Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1434–1442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.141

• clusters on the nanoflake surfaces, and the oxygen atoms are released from the nanoflakes, while the W–O networks reconstruct to form WO3. A possible mechanism that accounts for the observed processes of Bi cluster formation and oxygen release under energetic electron irradiation is also discussed

• suggests that released Bi and O do not recrystallize into BiOx; instead the Bi atoms precipitate at the surfaces to form Bi clusters, and the O atoms are released into the vacuum. The background-removed intensity ratio I(110)/I(012) of bismuth precipitates was 0.68, 0.35, 0.83, 1.42, and 1.84 after an

• irradiation, in this case, is far too low to decompose Bi2WO6 nanoflakes. Besides, loops or defect clusters were not observed during the whole irradiation process suggesting that the knock-off or sputtering effects can be neglected. When a high-energy electron beam passes through the sample, an electric field

Gas sensing properties of individual SnO₂ nanowires and SnO₂ sol–gel nanocomposites

• Alexey V. Shaposhnik,
• Dmitry A. Shaposhnik,
• Sergey Yu. Turishchev,
• Olga A. Chuvenkova,
• Stanislav V. Ryabtsev,
• Alexey A. Vasiliev,
• Xavier Vilanova,
• Francisco Hernandez-Ramirez and
• Joan R. Morante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1380–1390, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.136

• occurs, the thin dioxide nanowires begin to crystallize. The diameter of the growing wires is defined by the diameter of the initial tin nanodrops. Such a process, taking place without hetero-element clusters, is called a self-catalytic process. A nanodrop of liquid metal with dissolved tin oxide is