Material discrimination and mixture ratio estimation in nanocomposites via harmonic atomic force microscopy

• Weijie Zhang,
• Yuhang Chen,
• Xicheng Xia and
• Jiaru Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2771–2780, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.276

• ]. Nanocomposites are usually composed of a bulk matrix and some nanofillers. The fillers can be nanoparticles (NPs), nanotubes, nanorods, nanosheets and so on. The physical and chemical properties of nanocomposites will often differ from their component materials and show remarkable added functionalities [2]. The

The rational design of a Au(I) precursor for focused electron beam induced deposition

• Ali Marashdeh,
• Thiadrik Tiesma,
• Niels J. C. van Velzen,
• Sjoerd Harder,
• Remco W. A. Havenith,
• Jeff T. M. De Hosson and
• Willem F. van Dorp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2753–2765, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.274

• . High-purity Au deposits are of interest for many applications, such as the directed self-assembly of functional organic molecules [45], seeds for the growth of nanorods or nanotubes [46] and for plasmonics [47]. Two Au(I) compounds have been used for the deposition of pure gold. Utke et al

CdSe nanorod/TiO₂ nanoparticle heterojunctions with enhanced solar- and visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Fakher Laatar,
• Hatem Moussa,
• Halima Alem,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Ghouti Medjahdi,
• Hatem Ezzaouia and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2741–2752, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.273

• rue Jean Starcky, 68093 Mulhouse, France 10.3762/bjnano.8.273 Abstract CdSe nanorods (NRs) with an average length of ≈120 nm were prepared by a solvothermal process and associated to TiO2 nanoparticles (Aeroxide® P25) by annealing at 300 °C for 1 h. The content of CdSe NRs in CdSe/TiO2 composites was

• catalysts show high potential for real water decontamination. Keywords: CdSe nanorods; heterojunction; photocatalysis; TiO2; Introduction The development of efficient photocatalysts to address environmental and energy needs, such as degradation of harmful organic compounds in water and in the air or the

• ][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37], very little attention has been devoted to the influence of CdSe crystal morphology on the photocatalytic activity of the CdSe/TiO2 heterostructured photocatalysts. CdSe nanorods (NRs) and wires are of

The role of ligands in coinage-metal nanoparticles for electronics

• Ioannis Kanelidis and
• Tobias Kraus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2625–2639, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.263

• passivates certain crystal faces (circumferential {100} planes), promoting the growth of nanorods along the ends. It depends on the structure of the initially formed seeds whether the growth occurs in one or two directions [66][67]. Silver nanobars were synthesized in ethylene glycol by the reduction of

• nanoparticles by the reduction of silver nitrate in the presence of PVP. The twin boundaries served as active sites for the addition of silver atoms as the strong interaction between PVP and the sides of the initially formed nanorod allowed preferential diffusion of the silver atoms to the ends of the nanorods

• formation of gold nanorods with controllable aspect ratios. In the presence of CTAB alone, rods with a broad size distribution formed (see above [65]) in a mixture with other shapes. An improved protocol with a binary surfactant mixture of CTAB and sodium oleate led to gold nanorods with a narrower size

Synthesis of metal-fluoride nanoparticles supported on thermally reduced graphite oxide

• Alexa Schmitz,
• Kai Schütte,
• Vesko Ilievski,
• Juri Barthel,
• Laura Burk,
• Rolf Mülhaupt,
• Junpei Yue,
• Bernd Smarsly and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2474–2483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.247

• frequently showed interference patterns (lattice planes), which is an indication of crystallinity. For the iron difluoride nanoparticles nanorods were obtained besides nanoparticles (Figures S4, S8, S12 and S16 in Supporting Information File 1). For praseodymium trifluoride, spherical crystalline

Fabrication of CeO₂–MO_x (M = Cu, Co, Ni) composite yolk–shell nanospheres with enhanced catalytic properties for CO oxidation

• Ling Liu,
• Jingjing Shi,
• Hongxia Cao,
• Ruiyu Wang and
• Ziwu Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2425–2437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.241

• CO oxidation [23]. Porous CeO2:Cu2+ materials with a tunable surface area were prepared through the thermolysis of a nanosized CeCu(BTC)(H2O)6 precursor [24]. Impressively, Ce2(SO4)3 was employed as the precursor to synthesize mesoporous CeO2–CuO bimetal oxide nanorods without the need for additional

Hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO quantum dot/KNb₃O₈ nanosheet photocatalysts for reducing carbon dioxide to methanol

• Xiao Shao,
• Weiyue Xin and
• Xiaohong Yin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2264–2270, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.226

• concentration of Nb2O5 was favorable to form NaNbO3 nanorods and nanoplates, while a lower concentration of NaOH facilitated formation of NaNbO3 cubes [12]. Shi and his co-workers synthesized polymeric g-C3N4 coupled with NaNbO3 nanowires for enhancing photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into renewable fuel [13

In situ controlled rapid growth of novel high activity TiB₂/(TiB₂–TiN) hierarchical/heterostructured nanocomposites

• Jilin Wang,
• Hejie Liao,
• Yuchun Ji,
• Fei Long,
• Yunle Gu,
• Zhengguang Zou,
• Weimin Wang and
• Zhengyi Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2116–2125, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.211

• –500 nm, and every particle surface was covered by many multibranched, tapered nanorods with diameters in the range of 10–40 nm and lengths of 50–200 nm. In addition, the tapered nanorod presents a rough surface with abundant exposed atoms. The internal and external components of the nanorods were TiB2

• about 100–500 nm. The surface of the grain was covered by many tapered nanorods with a diameter of 10–40 nm and a length of 50–100 nm (indicated by arrows). In addition, the grain that was originally located at the center of the hierarchical structure eventually disappeared completely and transformed

• –TiN) samples where the endothermic rate is 40%. Figure 2a shows a low magnification image, and Figure 2b,c show high-magnification images. The sizes of solid grains were in the range of 100–200 nm. The nanorods also displayed solid structures with a length of 50–150 nm and tapering diameters from 5 nm

Systematic control of α-Fe₂O₃ crystal growth direction for improved electrochemical performance of lithium-ion battery anodes

• Nan Shen,
• Miriam Keppeler,
• Barbara Stiaszny,
• Holger Hain,
• Filippo Maglia and
• Madhavi Srinivasan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2032–2044, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.204

• discussed. Intermediate-sized α-Fe2O3 nanorods with length/aspect ratios of ≈240 nm/≈2.6 and ≈280 nm/≈3.0 were found to have excellent electrochemical characteristics with reversible discharge capacities of 1086 and 1072 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C after 50 cycles. Keywords: 2,3-diaminobutane; 1,2-diaminopropane

• et al. applied a hydrothermal synthesis assisted by 1,2-diaminopropane as an SCA and obtained crystallized α-Fe2O3 nanorods with high and controllable aspect ratios [22]. Lin et al. demonstrated that such α-Fe2O3 nanorods outperform sub-micrometer and micrometer-sized particles in terms of

• . Increasing the Fe3+ concentration to 0.8 M leads to an elongated nanorod shape with rod length of ≈320 nm and an aspect ratio of ≈4.7. At higher Fe3+ concentrations from 1.0 to 2.0 M, pronounced elongated nanorods with a length of ≈400 nm and aspect ratio in the range of 4.9 to 5.7 were obtained. To verify

Freestanding graphene/MnO₂ cathodes for Li-ion batteries

• Şeyma Özcan,
• Aslıhan Güler,
• Tugrul Cetinkaya,
• Mehmet O. Guler and
• Hatem Akbulut

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1932–1938, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.193

• The α-, β-, and γ-MnO2 phases were synthesized by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. α-MnO2 nanowires and β-MnO2 nanorods were prepared according to our previous report [8]. To prepare γ-MnO2, 1.83 mg of (NH4)2S2O8, 1.35 mg of MnSO4 and 3 mmol were dissolved in 80 mL of distilled water. Then

• diameter with very thin nanoneedles. The structure of graphene/MnO2 nanocomposites was also investigated. It can be seen from Figure 1d,e that α-MnO2 nanowires and β-MnO2 nanorods were homogeneously distributed on the surface and between the layers of graphene. Moreover, it also indicates that the urchin

• was 61%, the graphene/γ-MnO2 cathode showed a 55% capacity loss after 200 cycles. Tu et al. [33] also reported nanorods-shaped MnO2-graphene cathodes and a γ-MnO2 cathode, and they observed huge capacity reduction due to the formation of Li2MnO3. Conclusion A facile and rapid microwave-assisted

Evaluation of preparation methods for suspended nano-objects on substrates for dimensional measurements by atomic force microscopy

• Petra Fiala,
• Daniel Göhler,
• Benno Wessely,
• Michael Stintz,
• Giovanni Mattia Lazzerini and
• Andrew Yacoot

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1774–1785, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.179

• horizontal scars” tools in Gwyddion [13]. Under the assumption that the NP are spherical and that the nanorods (NR) have a circular section, after doing a plane fit, their diameter are extracted by measuring the height of the nano-objects by subtracting the maximum value of each NP or NR by the value of the

• significant difference in the determined average diameters could be observed between the two substrates. Conclusion The investigations showed that conventional drop-drying is a suitable method to deposit nanoparticles and nanorods on Si and SiO2 substrates, which enables the performance of quantitative

Near-infrared-responsive, superparamagnetic Au@Co nanochains

• Varadee Vittur,
• Arati G. Kolhatkar,
• Shreya Shah,
• Irene Rusakova,
• Dmitri Litvinov and
• T. Randall Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1680–1687, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.168

• nanoparticles [25] by reducing an organo-gold compound onto a cobalt seed with a weak reducing agent in toluene. These particles showed superparamagnetic behavior and a strong optical extinction at ca. 680 nm. Similarly, Wetz and co-workers prepared hybrid Co–Au nanorods via decomposition of an organometallic

Two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalytic energy generation and environmental remediation applications

• Suneel Kumar,
• Ashish Kumar,
• Ashish Bahuguna,
• Vipul Sharma and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1571–1600, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.159

Fabrication of hierarchically porous TiO₂ nanofibers by microemulsion electrospinning and their application as anode material for lithium-ion batteries

• Jin Zhang,
• Yibing Cai,
• Xuebin Hou,
• Xiaofei Song,
• Pengfei Lv,
• Huimin Zhou and
• Qufu Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1297–1306, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.131

• and nanorods are considered to be promising electrode materials for excellent lithium-ion battery performance. This is partly because of their small size enabling fast electron transport and decreasing retardation at the interface [21][22]. Electrospinning, a simple and versatile method, has been

• et al. reported the fabrication of hierarchical TiO2 nanorods via ME-ES and the application as photoanode material for dye-sensitized solar cells [25]. According to Shi et al., highly porous SnO2/TiO2 composite nanofibers were prepared successfully by ME-ES and subsequent calcination [28]. There are

Metal oxide nanostructures: preparation, characterization and functional applications as chemical sensors

• Dario Zappa,
• Angela Bertuna,
• Elisabetta Comini,
• Navpreet Kaur,
• Nicola Poli,
• Veronica Sberveglieri and
• Giorgio Sberveglieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1205–1217, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.122

• could be the higher dimensionality (3D) of these nanostructures compared to nanowires (1D), originating from the aggregation of 1D or 2D objects (such as nanowires, nanorods, nanosheets) occurring during the growth [26]. In particular, nanowires exhibit a very high surface-to-volume ratio, and have a

Hierarchically structured nanoporous carbon tubes for high pressure carbon dioxide adsorption

• Julia Patzsch,
• Deepu J. Babu and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1135–1144, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.115

• attractive as a potential material for catalysis and electronic and photonic devices due to its semiconducting nature with a wide band gap, excellent mechanical properties, chemical inertness and thermal conductivity [13][14][15][16][17]. Especially, one-dimensional SiC in the form of nanowires or nanorods

ZnO nanoparticles sensitized by CuInZn_xS_2+x quantum dots as highly efficient solar light driven photocatalysts

• Florian Donat,
• Serge Corbel,
• Halima Alem,
• Steve Pontvianne,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Ghouti Medjahdi and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1080–1093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.110

• in size and morphology and the sample contains spherical and ellipsoidal nanoparticles as well as nanorods (Figure 1c). To build the heterojunction between ZCIS QDs and ZnO nanoparticles, the nanoparticles were first dispersed in chloroform and stirred at room temperature without any protection until

Structural properties and thermal stability of cobalt- and chromium-doped α-MnO₂ nanorods

• Romana Cerc Korošec,
• Polona Umek,
• Alexandre Gloter,
• Jana Padežnik Gomilšek and
• Peter Bukovec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1032–1042, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.104

• Solides, Université Paris Sud, CNRS UMR 8502, F-91405 Orsay, France Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia 10.3762/bjnano.8.104 Abstract α-MnO2 nanorods were synthesized via the hydrothermal decomposition of KMnO4 in an acidic environment in the

• synthesized at 170 °C is significantly lower than in the undoped samples. Analysis of an individual cobalt-doped α-MnO2 nanorod with HAADF-STEM reveals that the distribution of cobalt through the cross-section of the nanorod is uniform. The course of thermal decomposition of the doped nanorods is similar to

• that of the undoped ones. Dopant ions do not preserve the MnO2 phase at higher temperatures nor do they destabilize the cryptomelane structure. Keywords: α-MnO2; doping; EXAFS; nanorods; XANES; Introduction The wide range of physical and chemical properties of manganese dioxide (MnO2), which exists

Synthesis of coaxial nanotubes of polyaniline and poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) by oxidative/initiated chemical vapor deposition

• Alper Balkan,
• Efe Armagan and
• Gozde Ozaydin Ince

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 872–882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.89

• applicable in different areas [7][8]. Among these, the conducting polymer (CP) nanostructures, such as nanowires, nanorods, nanotubes or nanospheres have been extensively studied through solution-based techniques, such as chemical polymerization [9][10][11] or electrochemical polymerization [12][13][14] for

Selective detection of Mg²⁺ ions via enhanced fluorescence emission using Au–DNA nanocomposites

• Tanushree Basu,
• Khyati Rana,
• Niranjan Das and
• Bonamali Pal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 762–771, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.79

• show any band in this region as seen in Figure 1a. The anisotropic Au nanorods (AuNRs) also displayed a red shift in the transverse and longitudinal bands after DNA addition, as shown in Figure 1b [22][23][24]. The shift in λmax was 13 nm and 28 nm for transversal and longitudinal peaks, respectively

• clustering of gold nanorods around the DNA. As shown in Figure 5, the height of the sample from the surface was estimated to be around 20.3 nm. The brighter areas on the image had a maximum height of 20.3 nm. Figure 5d shows the amplitude of DNA–AuNR to be 38.2 mV. Figure 6 shows the 3D visualization of the

• nanospheres and nanorods Gold nanospheres (AuNSs) were prepared as reported previously [35]. Typically, 10 mM of HAuCl4·H2O (250 μL) and 10 mM of freshly prepared ice-cold NaBH4 (600 μL) solution were added to 10 mL CTAB (100 mM) with gentle mixing, and labeled as seed solution (Solution A). Further, the

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

• higher than the efficiency of TiO2 nanospheres (65%) [97]. The graphene-based nanoarchitecture of TiO2 nanospindles [98], TiO2 nanorods [92] and TiO2 mesoporous [99] shows improved photocatalytic performance via structural optimisation of the architecture. Although most of the applications of graphene

• thermochromic transition at 257 °C and this material is used as a catalyst for industrial processes, gas sensors and in LIBs [105]. Various nanostructures of V2O5 such as nanotubes, nanowires, nanofibers, nanobelts, and nanorods have been prepared by sol–gel processes, hydrothermal processes [106

Formation and shape-control of hierarchical cobalt nanostructures using quaternary ammonium salts in aqueous media

• Ruchi Deshmukh,
• Anurag Mehra and
• Rochish Thaokar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 494–505, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.53

• present work. In this study, we report the formation of various nanostructures of cobalt such as nanoplates, nanorods, nanospheres and nanospindles with well-defined crystal planes by performing an aqueous syntheses at ambient temperature. Various synthesis strategies have been used in the literature to

• radiation (hν = 1486.6 eV) with a spectral resolution of 0.1 eV. Results and Discussion The role of TMAH in the formation of nanoplates and nanorods During the formation of nanoplates four important observations were made: (i) Nanoplates are formed only at a certain concentration of hydroxide ions; (ii

• experimental conditions, with the exception of an elevated temperature (50 °C) nanorods are obtained (Figure 1d). We therefore hypothesize that a synergistic effect of OH− adsorption [23][24][29][30], inherent magnetic moment, controlled aggregation and growth temperature are the factors influencing the

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

• recent years, several CuO nanostructure syntheses and their applications have been reported. Different shaped CuO nanostructures such as nanowires, nanoplatelets, nanorods, and nanoflowers have been employed as the anode material for lithium ion batteries [4][5][6][7], and improved performance has also

Comparison of four methods for the biofunctionalization of gold nanorods by the introduction of sulfhydryl groups to antibodies

• Xuefeng Wang,
• Zhong Mei,
• Yanyan Wang and
• Liang Tang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 372–380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.39

• sulfhydryl groups to biomolecules to functionalize gold nanorods (GNRs) is an attractive method that involves the creation of a strong Au–S bond. Previously, we developed a facile method to functionalize GNR surfaces by thiolating antibodies using Traut’s reagent. In the current study, we evaluated several

• GNR biofunctionalization and can be easily extended to other sensing applications based on other gold nanostructures or new biomolecules. Keywords: biofunctionalization; biosensing; four methods; gold nanorod; introduction of sulfhydryl groups; Introduction Gold nanorods (GNRs) are widely used in

• five-fold enhancement in spectral sensitivity to the refractive index change due to target binding compared with electropolymeric coating to functionalize GNRs [17]. In our previous work a high-throughput biochip for multi-sample detection with multiplexed gold nanorods functionalized by Traut’s

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

• ; nanorods; nanowalls; natural dye; ZnO; Introduction Energy demand has increased rapidly during the last forty years to reach a growth rate of 1.8% per year [1]. To satisfy this growing need, it is necessary to find new sources of renewable energy. For instance, photovoltaic (PV) technologies offer a

• ) has been studied as a mesoporous wide band gap semiconductor for use in DSSCs. It presents itself in the form of different morphological nanostructures, such as nanorods, nanocrystals, nanowires, nanotubes and nanowalls that can be exploited to optimize the dye loading [6][7][8][9]. The main purpose

• semiconductor thin layer film and the efficiency of the collected dye molecules [3][14][15]. The adsorption of the dye can be improved by various means, such as increasing the thickness and/or the porosity of the photoelectrode or by using organized structures, such as nanowalls or nanorods. The Voc can be