Nanocasting synthesis of BiFeO₃ nanoparticles with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Thomas Cadenbach,
• Maria J. Benitez,
• A. Lucia Morales,
• Cesar Costa Vera,
• Luis Lascano,
• Francisco Quiroz,
• Alexis Debut and
• Karla Vizuete

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1822–1833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.164

• hygroscopic nature of bismuth nitrate, we observed higher yields and the formation of pure-phase BiFeO3 powders when fresh Bi(NO3)3·5H2O was used. The influence of different calcination conditions was then analyzed. It should be noted that precursor powder resulting from the synthesis of bismuth and iron

Self-standing heterostructured NiC_x-NiFe-NC/biochar as a highly efficient cathode for lithium–oxygen batteries

• Shengyu Jing,
• Xu Gong,
• Shan Ji,
• Linhui Jia,
• Bruno G. Pollet,
• Sheng Yan and
• Huagen Liang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1809–1821, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.163

• the previous literatures [40][41][42]. However, a hydrothermal process was introduced here as a new treatment step prior to the precursor calcination in order to modify the properties of the prepared electrode materials. Heterostructured NiCx-NiFe-NC derived from bimetallic Prussian blue supported on

• structure. As shown in the inset of Figure 2d, the main diffraction peaks of the Ni–Fe PBA precursor are consistent with the standard patterns of Ni3[Fe(CN)6]2 (JCPDS: 51-1897). During a hydrothermal pretreatment, the ion-exchange reaction of OH−/[Fe(CN)6]3− occurred at the interface between NiFe-PBA cubes

• . Conclusion In this investigation, heterostructured NiCx-NiFe-NC derived from bimetallic Prussian blue supported on biochar was successfully synthesized to improve the electronic conductivity and electrocatalytic activity, and was used as the cathode material for Li–O2 batteries. When the precursor was heated

Nanomechanics of few-layer materials: do individual layers slide upon folding?

• Ronaldo J. C. Batista,
• Rafael F. Dias,
• Ana P. M. Barboza,
• Alan B. de Oliveira,
• Taise M. Manhabosco,
• Thiago R. Gomes-Silva,
• Matheus J. S. Matos,
• Andreij C. Gadelha,
• Cassiano Rabelo,
• Luiz G. L. Cançado,
• Ado Jorio,
• Hélio Chacham and
• Bernardo R. A. Neves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1801–1808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.162

• material and the precursor layered material. As a result of the variational procedure, we obtain (see Supporting Information File 1): and Equation 1 and Equation 2 can be used to determine either the geometry of the folded edge from the properties of the 2D material (κ/α and thickness) or vice versa. In

Electron beam-induced deposition of platinum from Pt(CO)₂Cl₂ and Pt(CO)₂Br₂

• Aya Mahgoub,
• Hang Lu,
• Rachel M. Thorman,
• Konstantin Preradovic,
• Titel Jurca,
• Lisa McElwee-White,
• Howard Fairbrother and
• Cornelis W. Hagen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1789–1800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.161

• scanning electron microscope (SEM), wherein series of pillars were successfully grown from both precursors. The growth of the pillars was studied as a function of the electron dose and compared to deposits grown from the commercially available precursor MeCpPtMe3. The composition of the deposits was

• precursor gas into the vacuum chamber of an electron microscope [2][3]. At specific locations on the substrate exposed to the electron beam, the transiently adsorbed precursor molecules decompose, forming a deposit while the volatile byproducts of the reaction desorb into the vacuum [4][5][6][7]. One of the

• main challenges associated with FEBID is the typical low purity of the deposits. Many FEBID precursors are organometallic, leading to high carbon content in the deposit [6][8][9]. Often, unwanted fragments of the precursor molecules remain in the deposits [10]. Some precursors perform better in this

The influence of an interfacial hBN layer on the fluorescence of an organic molecule

• Christine Brülke,
• Oliver Bauer and
• Moritz M. Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1663–1684, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.149

• out in an ultrahigh-vacuum chamber with a base pressure of 2.3 × 10−10 mbar. The Cu(111) sample could be heated up to 1100 K via a tungsten filament and electron bombardment and cooled down to 20 K by using liquid helium. The hBN layer was grown by dosing the precursor borazine [(HBNH)3] into the

High-responsivity hybrid α-Ag₂S/Si photodetector prepared by pulsed laser ablation in liquid

• Raid A. Ismail,
• Hanan A. Rawdhan and
• Duha S. Ahmed

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1596–1607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.142

• bromide (CTAB) surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method [15]. Zhang et al. synthesized monodisperse Ag2S NPs using thermolysis of harmless silver xanthates as a single-source molecular precursor and controlled the particle size by changing the alkyl chain length in the precursors [16]. Recently, Kang et al

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

• Matías Guerrero Correa,
• Fernanda B. Martínez,
• Cristian Patiño Vidal,
• Camilo Streitt,
• Juan Escrig and
• Carol Lopez de Dicastillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1450–1469, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.129

• diameters ranging between 80 and 180 nm and length values that can reach several tens of micrometers. The chemical reduction method was initially proposed by Michael Faraday in 1856–1857 while investigating the properties of colloidal gold. This method generally uses a precursor, a reducing agent, and a

• ) and controlling the NP size. Green synthesis Generally, the procedures for obtaining nanoparticles are physical and/or chemical methods in which a precursor material reacts with reducing agents, as mentioned earlier. Nevertheless, both methods have been proven to be harmful for the environment and

One-step synthesis of carbon-supported electrocatalysts

• Sebastian Tigges,
• Nicolas Wöhrl,
• Ivan Radev,
• Ulrich Hagemann,
• Markus Heidelmann,
• Thai Binh Nguyen,
• Stanislav Gorelkov,
• Stephan Schulz and
• Axel Lorke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1419–1431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.126

• process at a substrate temperature as low as 350 °C using platinum acetylacetonate as a single-source precursor was established for the deposition of a Pt/C electrocatalyst. Platinum in the form of NPs is homogeneously distributed in a carbon support structure due to the simultaneous deposition of both

• by cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements. Results and Discussion One-step synthesis and its product Platinum acetylacetonate was used as a single-source precursor for the deposition of Pt-NPs embedded in the supporting CNW matrix. CNWs are vertically aligned, graphitic, multilayer carbon sheets, which

• degree of oxidation of the Pt-NPs can be found. Other elemental signals besides carbon, oxygen, or platinum were not detected, which is expected, as the precursor Pt(acac)2 only consists of these elements and hydrogen. The Pt4f signal is divided into elemental Pt (Pt0) at ≈71 eV and oxidized Pt (PtII

Analysis of catalyst surface wetting: the early stage of epitaxial germanium nanowire growth

• Owen C. Ernst,
• Felix Lange,
• David Uebel,
• Thomas Teubner and
• Torsten Boeck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1371–1380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.121

• dewetting process, since the name of the resulting structures are nanoparticles or clusters but rarely droplets. Nevertheless, the origin of these structures from fluid-like states offers the opportunity for novel bottom-up techniques to produce precursor materials for functional materials, such as

Structural and electronic properties of SnO₂ doped with non-metal elements

• Jianyuan Yu,
• Yingeng Wang,
• Yan Huang,
• Xiuwen Wang,
• Jing Guo,
• Jingkai Yang and
• Hongli Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1321–1328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.116

• (substituting O) can effectively increase the carrier concentration and improve the conductivity. Majumder successfully prepared SnO2:F thin films using spray pyrolysis with SnF2 as the precursor. By adjusting the concentration of the precursor solution, doped SnO2 films with different properties were obtained

• . When the concentration of the precursor solution was adjusted to 0.15 M and the substrate temperature was 773 K, a film with a resistivity of 1.2 × 10−4 Ω·cm was obtained [10]. Theoretical calculations, based on first principles, show that the doping of N into the SnO2 crystal structure can introduce

Structure and electrochemical performance of electrospun-ordered porous carbon/graphene composite nanofibers

• Yi Wang,
• Yanhua Song,
• Chengwei Ye and
• Lan Xu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1280–1290, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.112

• nanofibers have been widely used as a material to synthesize electrodes upon a carbonization step [13][14]. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is often used as a precursor to synthesize carbon nanofibers. It can be obtained from a variety of sources and it has good spinnability [14][15]. However, carbon-based materials

Magnetic-field-assisted synthesis of anisotropic iron oxide particles: Effect of pH

• Andrey V. Shibaev,
• Petr V. Shvets,
• Darya E. Kessel,
• Roman A. Kamyshinsky,
• Anton S. Orekhov,
• Sergey S. Abramchuk,
• Alexei R. Khokhlov and
• Olga E. Philippova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1230–1241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.107

• ][30][31][32], solvothermal [33] and hydrothermal [34] reactions, the polyol method [35], dehydration or reduction of precursor rod-like particles [8][11], sonochemical oxidation [36], thermal decomposition [23][26], sol–gel reactions [37], synthesis in worm-like surfactant micellar solutions [38][39

Gas sorption porosimetry for the evaluation of hard carbons as anodes for Li- and Na-ion batteries

• Yuko Matsukawa,
• Fabian Linsenmann,
• Maximilian A. Plass,
• George Hasegawa,
• Katsuro Hayashi and
• Tim-Patrick Fellinger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1217–1229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.106

• ]. The first step was a hydrothermal synthesis of a precursor, followed by a pyrolytic carbonization to get the final HC product. At first, a 25 wt % solution of ᴅ-fructose (Sigma-Aldrich, Germany) in deionized water (Millipore, Merck, Germany) was prepared. Similar to a synthesis reported by Fellinger

• precursor overnight at 70 °C under vacuum, it was carbonized in a tube furnace with argon flow at a rate of higher than 0.5 L min−1 at 1000 °C for 1, 5, or 10 h. The carbons produced by this hydrothermal method (HT carbons) will be called HTx, where x is an integer. The synthesis conditions (temperature of

Influence of the magnetic nanoparticle coating on the magnetic relaxation time

• Mihaela Osaci and
• Matteo Cacciola

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1207–1216, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.105

• additional step in which the hydrothermal method or thermal decomposition technique are used. The method used to obtain nanoparticles by thermal decomposition of an iron precursor in the presence of NaBH4 in a polyol was found to be suitable for size control in both chemical approaches [1][2][3][4][6]. Since

3D superconducting hollow nanowires with tailored diameters grown by focused He⁺ beam direct writing

• Rosa Córdoba,
• Alfonso Ibarra,
• Dominique Mailly,
• Isabel Guillamón,
• Hermann Suderow and
• José María De Teresa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1198–1206, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.104

• . Helium ion microscopy in combination with a precursor gas can be used for direct writing of three-dimensional nanostructures with a precise control of their geometry, and a significantly higher aspect ratio than other additive manufacturing technologies. We report here on the deposition of 3D hollow

• is based on Ga+ ions. Functional 3D nanomaterials have been grown by Ga+ FIBID in the last decade [21][22][23][24][25][26]. In particular, Ga+ FIBID in combination with W(CO)6 as precursor material yielded 3D superconducting W-based wires with a critical temperature (Tc) below 5 K and a critical

• advantage of its small beam diameter (approx. 0.3 nm) and low proximity effect [28]. When precursor molecules from the gas phase are adsorbed on a substrate surface, He+ FIB dissociates them into non-volatile and volatile products. The non-volatile products attach to the surface, resulting in a deposit

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• Pt(111) by exposing the heated (1300 K) surface to the molecular precursor C2H4 (purity 99.9%) at a partial pressure of 10−4 Pa for 120 s [23]. C42H28 molecules were sublimated from a powder (purity 98%), deposited in a heated (500 K) W crucible and directed towards the sample surface at room

Revealing the local crystallinity of single silicon core–shell nanowires using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

• Marius van den Berg,
• Ardeshir Moeinian,
• Arne Kobald,
• Yu-Ting Chen,
• Anke Horneber,
• Steffen Strehle,
• Alfred J. Meixner and
• Dai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1147–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.99

• growth temperature of 720 °C, which yields a certain SiNW diameter distribution. VLS nanowire growth is carried out in a quartz tube furnace with a precursor gas mixture of H2 (270 sccm) and SiH4 (30 sccm), at a pressure of 100 mbar. Silicon shells are grown at a temperature of 520 °C with a gas mixture

Gram-scale synthesis of splat-shaped Ag–TiO₂ nanocomposites for enhanced antimicrobial properties

• Mohammad Jaber,
• Asim Mushtaq,
• Kebiao Zhang,
• Jindan Wu,
• Dandan Luo,
• Zihan Yi,
• M. Zubair Iqbal and
• Xiangdong Kong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1119–1125, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.96

• , magnetron sputtering, molecular precursor techniques and photo-deposition techniques have been applied to the preparation of nanocomposites [6][21][22]. However, these techniques are very sophisticated and not optimized for synthesis on a large scale. Herein, a simple hydrothermal process was employed to

• with ethanol and centrifuged for further use. Pure TiO2 NPs were also prepared by using the above method without the addition of Ag as a precursor. Sample characterizations The crystal structure of the samples was investigated through X-ray diffraction (XRD, ARL X'TRA, Thermo Techno, USA) using a

Straightforward synthesis of gold nanoparticles by adding water to an engineered small dendrimer

• Sébastien Gottis,
• Régis Laurent,
• Vincent Collière and
• Anne-Marie Caminade

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1110–1118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.95

• them [8][9]. AuCl(tht) (tht = tetrahydrothiophene) has also been shown to be an interesting precursor of gold nanoparticles, but only in a few cases [10]. Among the stabilizing agents, dendrimers [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] have long emerged as a powerful stabilizer not only for nanoparticles in

• ], platinum [31], ruthenium (in the presence of a reducer) [32], titanium oxo-clusters [33][34] and even from crystals of Au55 gold clusters [35][36]. In most cases, the oxidation state of the metal precursor was either zero (Pd0, Pt0, Au0) or four (TiIVO2 clusters) and no change in the oxidation state

• happened in the nanoparticle metal precursor, except in the case when a reducer was used for the Ru nanoparticle synthesis. Commercially available gold nanoparticles are sold as colloidal suspensions that are generally dissolved either in water or in buffer. As an alternative to this commonly used method

Uniform Fe₃O₄/Gd₂O₃-DHCA nanocubes for dual-mode magnetic resonance imaging

• Miao Qin,
• Yueyou Peng,
• Mengjie Xu,
• Hui Yan,
• Yizhu Cheng,
• Xiumei Zhang,
• Di Huang,
• Weiyi Chen and
• Yanfeng Meng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1000–1009, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.84

• gadolinium chloride hexahydrate (GdCl3·6H2O) were purchased from Rhawn technology Co, Ltd. Ultrapure water was purified by Ulupure (UPR-II, China). All the reagents used in the experiments were of analytical grade and used as received without further purification. Synthesis of metal oleate precursor The

• similar way. Synthesis of Fe3O4/Gd2O3-OA (FGOA) nanocubes The uniformly distributed FGOA nanocubes were synthesized by the one-step thermal decomposition method. 1.12 g of metal oleate precursor, 0.17 mL of oleic acid and 15 mL of 1-octadecene were added into a 250 mL three-necked flask. The reaction

• salts was added to a three-necked flask where it was heated and refluxed at 75 °C for 4 h. After cooling, the organic phase obtained was rinsed and dried, forming the metal oleic acid precursor. Next, the precursors were mixed with octadecene and the reaction was heated up to 310 °C and refluxed for 30

Wet-spinning of magneto-responsive helical chitosan microfibers

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johanna Michel,
• Naiana Suter,
• Matheus Grande de Aguiar and
• Michael Maas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 991–999, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.83

• chitosan solutions containing IOPs (orange lines). The precursor solution consisted of 30 mg·mL−1 chitosan and 10 mg·mL−1 IOPs. (C) Chitosan–IOP microfibers on a glass slide obtained by wet-spinning followed by coagulation in ethanol. Vibrating sample magnetometer analysis of bare IOPs (brown line), bare

Atomic layer deposition for efficient oxygen evolution reaction at Pt/Ir catalyst layers

• Stefanie Schlicht,
• Korcan Percin,
• Stefanie Kriescher,
• André Hofer,
• Claudia Weidlich,
• Matthias Wessling and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 952–959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.79

• well documented in the literature, and this paper provides a direct comparison under identical experimental conditions of electrochemical measurements and in identical units. In the first method, based on classical engineering, the bimetallic catalyst is deposited by dip-coating in a precursor solution

• consider here two distinct catalyst preparation methods. As a standard method used in the engineering context, we perform an acid etch of the titanium fibers (to generate surface roughness and thereby increase the specific surface area), followed by dip-coating of a noble metal salt precursor solution on

• the performance comparison. Results and Discussion Catalyst coating: thermal decomposition In the thermal decomposition method, platinum and iridium metal salts (the perchlorometallates) were dissolved in 1:1 ratio in butanol to form the catalyst precursor solution. The Ti felts (two distinct

Band tail state related photoluminescence and photoresponse of ZnMgO solid solution nanostructured films

• Vadim Morari,
• Aida Pantazi,
• Nicolai Curmei,
• Vitalie Postolache,
• Emil V. Rusu,
• Marius Enachescu,
• Ion M. Tiginyanu and
• Veaceslav V. Ursaki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 899–910, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.75

• to some Zn clusters [43]. A peak at 40.5° marked with an asterisk in Figure 6b was previously found in ZnO nanopowders prepared by the sol–gel method with zinc acetate dihydrate as a precursor [44]. In contrast to this, only peaks related to the Zn0.8Mg0.2O phase are observed in the film annealed at

• the oxygen gas flow by means of a syringe controlled by a stepper motor (Jova Solutions TIMS-0201™), operated by a computer. The produced film thickness is determined by the rate of precursor solution injection and the duration of deposition process. Usually, an injection rate of 0.33 mL/min was used

Simulations of the 2D self-assembly of tripod-shaped building blocks

• Łukasz Baran,
• Wojciech Rżysko and
• Edyta Słyk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 884–890, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.73

• this research, several factors have been established that can help to control the self-assembly process, such as precursor design [4][5], substrate nature and symmetry [6][7], type of solvent and its concentration, and thermodynamic conditions. The knowledge of the influence of these variables is

Transition from freestanding SnO₂ nanowires to laterally aligned nanowires with a simulation-based experimental design

• Jasmin-Clara Bürger,
• Sebastian Gutsch and
• Margit Zacharias

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 843–853, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.69

• temperature, the inflow was changed to a gas mixture of 5% oxygen in argon, which initiates the NW growth. Although often no inflow of oxygen is reported in literature, oxygen as a process gas has to be provided and – as we showed previously – it cannot originate from the precursor powder [19]. The oxygen of

• the thermally reduced SnO2 powder of the precursor will be bound in the CO/CO2 gas generated by the carbothermal reduction. After a specified process duration, the introduced gases were changed back to 100% Ar and a volumetric flow of 25 sccm was maintained during the cool down phase the furnace

• of oxygen consumed by the carbon due to CO or CO2 formation [19][20]. As previously discussed, taking care to ensure a vacuum-tight system and a homogeneous temperature distribution for the powder precursor as well as for the substrate position, the main influencing parameters on the growth mode