Magnetic field induced orientational transitions in liquid crystals doped with carbon nanotubes

• Danil A. Petrov,
• Pavel K. Skokov and
• Alexander N. Zakhlevnykh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2807–2817, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.280

• suspension of carbon nanotubes in a nematic liquid crystal. It is shown that in a magnetic field a non-uniform and two different uniform phases are possible in the suspension. The uniform phases of the suspension differ by the type of orientational coupling of nanotubes with the liquid crystal matrix (the

• first or of second order depending on the carbon nanotubes segregation intensity. Keywords: carbon nanotubes; liquid crystal; magnetic field; orientational transitions; soft coupling; Introduction In recent years suspensions of anisometric particles in liquid crystals have become of great interest for

• ferroelectric particles, as well as of carbon nanotubes. In 1970, Brochard and de Gennes proposed to dope nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) with elongated ferromagnetic particles [3]. The magnetic susceptibility of such composite system (called ferronematic), turned out to be several orders of magnitude higher

Thermo- and electro-optical properties of photonic liquid crystal fibers doped with gold nanoparticles

• Agata Siarkowska,
• Miłosz Chychłowski,
• Daniel Budaszewski,
• Bartłomiej Jankiewicz,
• Bartosz Bartosewicz and
• Tomasz R. Woliński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2790–2801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.278

• this effect with an increase of electric field intensity. This could not be attributed to ionization of the LC (due to the use of an AC field) since Au NPs are considered as ion-capturing nanomaterials (along with carbon nanotubes, isolating and ferroelectric NPs [35]). In addition, the effect alone

Dry adhesives from carbon nanofibers grown in an open ethanol flame

• Christian Lutz,
• Julia Syurik,
• C. N. Shyam Kumar,
• Christian Kübel,
• Michael Bruns and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2719–2728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.271

• force microscopy; carbon nanofibers; Introduction One-dimensional carbon nanostructures (1D-CNs), such as carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) consisting of cylindrical graphitic sheets, are very promising materials for nanotechnology [1]. They are well known for their outstanding

• open flame, which serves as the carbon source and provides the necessary temperature. Li and Hsieh demonstrated the growth of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MW-CNTs) from the flame of a paraffin wax candle [7] and a Bunsen burner [8]. Pan and co-workers grew CNTs and CNFs with an ethanol flame [5] and

• demonstrated possible alignment during growth with an external electric [6] or magnetic field [9]. Surprisingly, these alternative growth methods for 1D-CNs did not receive much attention so far. One among many promising applications of carbon nanotubes are dense arrays that feature interesting adhesion

One-step chemical vapor deposition synthesis and supercapacitor performance of nitrogen-doped porous carbon–carbon nanotube hybrids

• Egor V. Lobiak,
• Lyubov G. Bulusheva,
• Ekaterina O. Fedorovskaya,
• Yury V. Shubin,
• Pavel E. Plyusnin,
• Pierre Lonchambon,
• Boris V. Senkovskiy,
• Zinfer R. Ismagilov,
• Emmanuel Flahaut and
• Alexander V. Okotrub

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2669–2679, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.267

• morphology and chemical bonding organization [2]. Porous graphitic materials like activated carbon may have a specific surface area exceeding 3000 m2 g−1 [3], while in this case they lose the packing density and conductivity. The latter characteristics can be improved by incorporation of carbon nanotubes

Localized growth of carbon nanotubes via lithographic fabrication of metallic deposits

• Fan Tu,
• Martin Drost,
• Imre Szenti,
• Janos Kiss,
• Zoltan Kónya and
• Hubertus Marbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2592–2605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.260

• Environmental Chemistry, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary, MTA-SZTE Reaction Kinetics and Surface Chemistry Research Group, University of Szeged, Rerrich ter 1, 6720 Szeged, Hungary 10.3762/bjnano.8.260 Abstract We report on the fabrication of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at predefined positions and controlled

• though the metal content (Co) of the latter is reduced in comparison to the Fe deposits, effective CNT growth was observed for the Co-containing deposits at lower CVD temperatures than for the corresponding Fe deposits. Keywords: autocatalytic growth; carbon nanotubes; cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl

• ; electron beam induced deposition; focused electron beam induced processing; iron pentacarbonyl; nanofabrication; Introduction Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted enormous interest due to their potential as functional building blocks in applications such as molecular electronics, sensors and energy

Ferrocholesteric–ferronematic transitions induced by shear flow and magnetic field

• Dmitriy V. Makarov,
• Alexander A. Novikov and
• Alexander N. Zakhlevnykh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2552–2561, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.255

• ; helix unwinding; liquid crystals; magnetic field; shear flow; Introduction The dispersing of nanoparticles of different nature (e.g., carbon nanotubes, ferromagnetic or ferroelectric particles, quantum dots, silica particles) into liquid crystals (LCs) leads to a change in the properties of the

Dynamic behavior of a nematic liquid crystal mixed with CoFe₂O₄ ferromagnetic nanoparticles in a magnetic field

• Emil Petrescu,
• Cristina Cirtoaje and
• Cristina Stan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2467–2473, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.246

• , carbon nanotubes and quantum dots [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], yielding modified optical properties [23][24][25]. The main advantages of nanoparticles are given by their small dimensions and unique physical properties that strongly affect the local nematic order [26]. This leads to significant

Increasing the stability of DNA nanostructure templates by atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃ and its application in imprinting lithography

• Hyojeong Kim,
• Kristin Arbutina,
• Anqin Xu and
• Haitao Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2363–2375, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.236

• range of materials, such as proteins [16][17][18][19], carbon nanotubes [20][21][22][23] and metal nanoparticles through the direct assembly of these materials onto the DNA nanostructures [16][18][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The metallized DNA nanostructures have been used to pattern graphene [30]. DNA

Preparation and characterization of polycarbonate/multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposites

• Claudio Larosa,
• Niranjan Patra,
• Marco Salerno,
• Lara Mikac,
• Remo Merijs Meri and
• Mile Ivanda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2026–2031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.203

• , Latvia 10.3762/bjnano.8.203 Abstract A polymer nanocomposite was produced by ultrasonic-assisted dispersion of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in a polycarbonate matrix using p-xylene and dichloromethane as the solvents. The filler loading was varied from 1 to 3 wt % in order to examine the effect

• base polymer. Keywords: multiwalled carbon nanotubes; nanocomposites; polycarbonate; thermal analysis; vibrational spectroscopy; Introduction Polycarbonate (PC) is a polymer with remarkable mechanical and optical properties, broadly used for water bottles, monitor screens and aircraft interiors but

A systematic study of the controlled generation of crystalline iron oxide nanoparticles on graphene using a chemical etching process

• Peter Krauß,
• Jörg Engstler and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2017–2025, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.202

• on graphene are active in the catalytic growth of carbon nanotubes when employing a water-assisted CVD process. Keywords: carbon nanotubes; chemical vapor deposition; graphene; iron oxide; nanoparticles; Introduction Graphene was first described by Boehm and coworkers in the early 1960s [1][2][3][4

• etching process and could show that the iron oxide particles on the graphene surface are catalytically active in the growth of carbon nanotubes on the graphene surface. In order to realize a systematic investigation of that effect, we have developed a modified chemical etching process in which the

• -prepared iron oxide nanoparticles on graphene composite material for direct synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) under CVD conditions. The graphene was transferred onto a SiO2/Si wafer after CVD synthesis on a copper substrate (Figure 6). The copper substrate was etched with a solution of 1 M iron(III

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

• electrode particles from the micrometer to the nanometer regime can enhance the ion exchange rate in Li-ion batteries [15], while on the other hand, supporting the cathode with carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes, acetylene black and graphene, helps to improve the conductivity of the electrode. Among

Enhancement of mechanical and electrical properties of continuous-fiber-reinforced epoxy composites with stacked graphene

• Naum Naveh,
• Olga Shepelev and
• Samuel Kenig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1909–1918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.191

• -mechanical behavior. Keywords: composite; exfoliation; graphene; surface-active agents (SAAs); thermo-mechanical properties; Introduction Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been suggested as an efficient conductive filler because of the outstanding electrical properties and the high aspect ratio. CNT-modified

Carbon nano-onions as fluorescent on/off modulated nanoprobes for diagnostics

• Stefania Lettieri,
• Marta d’Amora,
• Adalberto Camisasca,
• Alberto Diaspro and
• Silvia Giordani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1878–1888, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.188

• biocompatibility [20]. We have previously shown that the pH-dependent switching ability of a dye is preserved when attached to CNOs [21] and on single-wall carbon nanotubes, [22] both in solution and in vitro. Thus, CNOs are suitable nanomaterials for biosensing applications. We exploited the photoinduced electron

Optical techniques for cervical neoplasia detection

• Tatiana Novikova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1844–1862, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.186

• discriminate between HSIL and LSIL/normal tissues at various imaging depths was confirmed [80][81]. Nanotheranostics The rapid progress of nanotechnology had an important impact on cancer management research. The variety of new nanoscale platforms (gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, nanocages, carbon nanotubes

Adsorption and diffusion characteristics of lithium on hydrogenated α- and β-silicene

• Fadil Iyikanat,
• Ali Kandemir,
• Cihan Bacaksiz and
• Hasan Sahin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1742–1748, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.175

• for the hydrogenated forms of α- and β-silicene on a Ag(111) surface. The adsorption of alkali metal atoms provides various ways to modify the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of 2D materials. It was found that adsorption of alkali atoms is a proper way to dope carbon nanotubes

• chemically [31][32]. It was reported that the hydrogen storage capacity and conductivity of single-walled carbon nanotubes could be enhanced by doping with Li and K [33]. The adsorption of Li atoms on the graphene surface was extensively studied [34][35][36]. It was found that the interaction of alkali metal

Fluorination of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes: from CF₄ plasma chemistry to surface functionalization

• Claudia Struzzi,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Jean-François Colomer,
• Alberto Verdini,
• Luca Floreano,
• Rony Snyders and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1723–1733, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.173

• , Belgium CNR-IOM, Laboratorio Nazionale TASC, I-34149 Trieste, Italy Materia Nova Research Center, 7000 Mons, Belgium 10.3762/bjnano.8.173 Abstract The surface chemistry of plasma fluorinated vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (vCNT) is correlated to the CF4 plasma chemical composition. The results

• investigate the evolution of the electronic properties as a function of the fluorine content at the vCNT surface. The samples suffer a limited ageing effect, with a small loss of fluorine functionalities after two weeks in ambient conditions. Keywords: carbon nanotubes; CF4 plasma; fluorination; plasma

• ][26][27]. However, a combined study including the effect of the plasma treatment at the carbon nanotubes surface and the fundamental processes involving the production of CFx radicals and ions is lacking. Additionally, molecules as water or residual oxygen in the background pressure of the

Effect of the fluorination technique on the surface-fluorination patterning of double-walled carbon nanotubes

• Lyubov G. Bulusheva,
• Yuliya V. Fedoseeva,
• Emmanuel Flahaut,
• Jérémy Rio,
• Christopher P. Ewels,
• Victor O. Koroteev,
• Gregory Van Lier,
• Denis V. Vyalikh and
• Alexander V. Okotrub

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1688–1698, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.169

• possibility of different patterning of carbon surfaces through choosing the fluorination method. Keywords: double-walled carbon nanotubes; fluorination; NEXAFS; quantum-chemical modeling; Introduction Even after surface chemical functionalization, due to their inner shell double-walled carbon nanotubes

• (DWCNTs) display many advantages characteristic of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), particularly small diameter, high strength and flexibility [1]. Carbon nanotube (CNT) surfaces are rather inert to chemical functionalization. The highest possible concentration of attached surface species is

• University of Brussels (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium Donostia International Physics Center, Departamento de Fisica de Materiales and CFM-MPC UPV/EHU, 20080 San Sebastian, Spain IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Spain 10.3762/bjnano.8.169 Abstract Double-walled carbon

Uptake and intracellular accumulation of diamond nanoparticles – a metabolic and cytotoxic study

• Antonín Brož,
• Lucie Bačáková,
• Pavla Štenclová,
• Alexander Kromka and
• Štěpán Potocký

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1649–1657, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.165

• reactive oxygen species. Alternatively, it could have been caused just by mechanical obstruction of the cell adhesion and division by ND agglomerates, as confirmed by live-cell imaging. A similar effect was also observed in human osteoblast-like MG 63 cells cultured in a medium with multiwalled carbon

• nanotubes (MWCNTs) at concentrations of 4, 40, 400, 4000 and 40000 µg/mL. On days 1, 3 and 7 after seeding, the number of MG 63 in the media with 4 and 40 µg/mL of MWCNTs was similar to or even higher than in the control cultures without MWCNTs, while at higher concentrations of MWCNTs, it decreased in a

Oxidative stabilization of polyacrylonitrile nanofibers and carbon nanofibers containing graphene oxide (GO): a spectroscopic and electrochemical study

• İlknur Gergin,
• Ezgi Ismar and
• A. Sezai Sarac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1616–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.161

• interior pores filled with electrolyte. Keywords: carbon nanofiber; graphene oxide; oxidized polyacrylonitrile (PAN); Introduction Carbon nanofibers are of great interest because of their chemical similarity to fullerenes and carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanofibers (CNF) have promising electrochemical and

• -polymers as carbon nanofiber precursors [13][18]. Graphene has several desirable features, such as high surface area, high aspect ratio and other properties comparable to those of carbon nanotubes. Thus, graphene attracts attention in science as a new class of material for polymer-based composites [23

• the PAN cyclization at lower temperature via ionic mechanisms. In addition, the performance of an electrochemical capacitor prepared from carbon nanotubes/carbon nanofiber (CNT/CNF) composites is influenced by the oxidation level. Increasing the O/C ratio improves the capacitance of CNT/CNF composites

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

• of the most abundant elements on the earth. In the past two decades, carbon-based materials such as graphene, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), fullerenes and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been explored for various applications such as Li-ion batteries [22], supercapacitors [23], energy storage [24

• mention here that the work function of any material is an important parameter for many technical applications, mainly device fabrication as it decides contact properties with foreign material and charge transfer direction in nanocomposites. The work function of carbon-based materials, graphene, GO, carbon

• nanotubes (CNT) and g-C3N4 has been presented in Table 1. The role of graphene as a cocatalyst has been investigated by various research groups. Peng et al. [123] reported graphene oxide (GO)–CdS nanocomposites for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution by using Na2S and Na2SO3 as sacrificial agents, where GO

Low-temperature CO oxidation over Cu/Pt co-doped ZrO₂ nanoparticles synthesized by solution combustion

• Amit Singhania and
• Shipra Mital Gupta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1546–1552, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.156

• , different types of catalysts including monometallic (e.g., Pt, Pd, Rh, Au, Ni, Co and Sn), bimetallic (e.g., Pd–Au, Pd–Rh, Pt–Co, Cu–Rh, Au–Cu and Au–Ag) along with various types of supports (e.g., CeO2, SiO2, Al2O3, Co3O4, Fe2O3, activated carbon (AC), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and ZrO2) have been reported

Development of a nitrogen-doped 2D material for tribological applications in the boundary-lubrication regime

• Shende Rashmi Chandrabhan,
• Velayudhanpillai Jayan,
• Somendra Singh Parihar and
• Sundara Ramaprabhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1476–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.147

• C60 molecules as additive in lubricant oil [8][9][10]. Subsequently, researchers studied the tribological properties of carbon-based additives such as graphite [1], graphene [2][6], carbon spheres [11][12] and carbon nanotubes [13][14][15]. In addition, several reports are available on the

• carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide nanosheets as additives for water-based lubricants and found that graphene oxide nanosheets improved the tribological properties more than the carbon nanotubes [23]. Zhang et al. studied the tribological properties of an oil lubricant with oleic acid-modified graphene

Miniemulsion copolymerization of (meth)acrylates in the presence of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes for reinforced coating applications

• Bertha T. Pérez-Martínez,
• Lorena Farías-Cepeda,
• Víctor M. Ovando-Medina,
• José M. Asua,
• Lucero Rosales-Marines and
• Radmila Tomovska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1328–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.134

• with modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were synthesized by in situ miniemulsion polymerization. The MWCNTs were pretreated by an air sonication process and stabilized by polyvinylpyrrolidone. The presence of the MWCNTs had no significant effect on the polymerization kinetics, but strongly

• ; miniemulsion polymerization; multiwalled carbon nanotubes; Introduction Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are hollow, fiber-like materials, with a diameter on the nanometer scale and a relatively long length on the micrometer scale, resulting in a very high aspect ratio material. Two types of CNTs exist, those made of

• a single graphene layer rolled-up into a cylinder (single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)) or multiwalled CNTs (MWCNTs) that consist of two or more sheets of graphene concentrically rolled around a hollow core. Due to the excellent electrical, optical, thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties

Carbon nanomaterials sensitize prostate cancer cells to docetaxel and mitomycin C via induction of apoptosis and inhibition of proliferation

• Kati Erdmann,
• Jessica Ringel,
• Silke Hampel,
• Manfred P. Wirth and
• Susanne Fuessel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1307–1317, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.132

• , Dresden 01171, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.8.132 Abstract We have previously shown that carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can sensitize prostate cancer (PCa) cells to platinum-based chemotherapeutics. In order to further verify this concept and to avoid a bias, the present study

• last decades, various nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) have been extensively investigated for their utilization as drug carriers and delivery vehicles. They possess great potential for such biomedical applications based on their ability to be loaded with

Nanotopographical control of surfaces using chemical vapor deposition processes

• Meike Koenig and
• Joerg Lahann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1250–1256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.126

• chloride. Membranes with a pore diameter of 20 nm or 100 nm were used. Dissolving the membrane in sodium hydroxide resulted in a solution of nanotubes, which were further carbonized to carbon nanotubes. The wall diameter was controlled to be between 12 to 34 nm by using different amounts of the monomer