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

• 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

• photodegradation. Finally, although the operating conditions and the structure of the pollutant were different from those used in this study, the CdSe NR/TiO2 nanoparticle photocatalyst favorably compares with catalysts engineered from CdSe quantum dots and TiO2 nanoparticles or nanotubes [9][11][12][22][26][31

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

• its pure state before growth [35]. Based on our observations, we conclude that the 60 nm copper layer on the Si substrate plays an important role for the reduction of the nickel catalysts because experiments with nickel on pure Si or SiO2 substrates without copper show no or diminishing CNF growth

• . Kumar et al. [36] reported that copper–nickel catalysts are very efficient to produce hydrogen in an ethanol flame. This means that nickel is reduced to a pure state by hydrogen created in the ethanol flame. Our vertical setup results in a fairly stable ethanol flame in the sample area due to a constant

• -containing salt. The left sample is a clean silicon substrate without catalyst. After 20 s, the ethanol flame went green suggesting that NiCl2·6H2O is transformed to Ni-containing catalysts. Shortly after that, the area initially covered with Ni-containing salt, became black indicating the growth of carbon

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

• over magnesium-oxide-supported metal catalysts. CNx nanotubes were grown on Co/Mo, Ni/Mo, or Fe/Mo alloy nanoparticles, and MgO grains served as a template for the porous carbon. The simultaneous formation of morphologically different carbon structures was due to the slow activation of catalysts for

• clusters produces metal molybdates which, when heated in hydrogen atmosphere, are reduced to bimetallic alloys catalyzing the CCVD growth of few-walled CNTs [22]. Here, the catalysts were activated by slow heating in a carbon-containing environment from room temperature to 900 °C. The structure and

• composition of the obtained CNx hybrids were correlated with the data of cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements in 1 M H2SO4 electrolyte. Experimental Synthesis Catalysts were prepared using polyoxomolybdate clusters of the ε-Keggin-type structure Mo12O28(μ2-OH

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

• an Al2O3 layer on a silicon sample. A peculiar lift-up of the Fe seed structures as “flakes” was observed and the mechanism was discussed. Finally, a proof-of-principle was presented showing that EBID deposits from the precursor Co(CO)3NO are also very effective catalysts for the CNT growth. Even

• storage [1][2][3][4]. The most common synthesis method for CNTs is chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [5][6][7][8], in which statistically distributed, metal-containing particles act as catalysts for CNT growth. Thereby, not only does the random position of the catalyst particles determine the position of

• the CNT, but also the catalyst size, chemical composition and the surface structure has an influence on the growth of the CNTs [9][10][11][12]. Therefore, it is important to fabricate catalysts of controlled size and chemical composition at the desired spatial position in order to fabricate CNTs in

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

• metals are readily immobilized on graphene oxide by means of cation exchange with carboxylic acid groups, followed by thermal reduction to produce metal nanoparticles supported on functionalized graphene. Such palladium nanoparticles supported on graphene were used as highly active catalysts for the

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

• conversion as reached at a relatively low temperature of 145 °C over the CeO2–CuOx-2 sample. Furthermore, the CeO2–CuOx catalyst is more active than the CeO2–CoOx and CeO2–NiO catalysts, indicating that the catalytic activity is correlates with the metal oxide. Additionally, this versatile synthesis approach

• (CeO2) has attracted a great deal of research attention due to its high oxygen storage capacity (OSC) and good redox properties [1][2][3]. Because of these unique characteristics, CeO2 has been widely used as environmental catalysts for the removal of harmful pollutants from exhaust gases, such as

• noble metal-based catalysts in some catalytic reactions [11][12]. So far, a remarkable process has been developed for the synthesis of CeO2-based composite oxides, including CeO2–CuOx [13], CeO2–ZnCo2O4 [14], CeO2–CoOx [15], CeO2–MnOx [16], CeO2–ZnO [17], CeO2–Fe2O3 [18], and CeO2–ZrO2 systems [19

Comparing postdeposition reactions of electrons and radicals with Pt nanostructures created by focused electron beam induced deposition

• Julie A. Spencer,
• Michael Barclay,
• Miranda J. Gallagher,
• Robert Winkler,
• Ilyas Unlu,
• Yung-Chien Wu,
• Harald Plank,
• Lisa McElwee-White and
• D. Howard Fairbrother

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2410–2424, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.240

• surface area Pt catalysts and may reverse the effects of sintering. In marked contrast to the effect observed with AH, densification of the structure was observed during the postdeposition purification of PtCx deposits created from MeCpPtMe3 using atomic oxygen (AO), although the limited penetration depth

• of highly porous Pt structures, and in some instances, to a loss of structural integrity, neither of which are desirable for FEBID structures. These porous structures could, however, have interesting applications, for example, as high surface area catalysts. This phenomenon of AH-mediated dispersion

• applications, but potentially useful in reversing the effects of sintering in catalysis and in creating high surface area catalysts. The purification of PtCx deposits created from MeCpPtMe3 using AO was found to exhibit many of the same characteristics of postdeposition purification using electron beam

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

• ) 2.0 M; (d) 3.0 M; (e) 4.0 M. X-ray diffraction patterns of catalysts loaded with different amounts of ZnO quantum dots: (a) pure KNb3O8; (b) 1 wt % ZnO–KNb3O8; (c) 2 wt % ZnO–KNb3O8; (d) 3 wt % ZnO–KNb3O8; (e) 4 wt % ZnO–KNb3O8. SEM images (some with higher resolution) of different ZnO loadings on

Dissociative electron attachment to coordination complexes of chromium: chromium(0) hexacarbonyl and benzene-chromium(0) tricarbonyl

• Janina Kopyra,
• Paulina Maciejewska and
• Jelena Maljković

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2257–2263, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.225

• ; dissociative electron attachment; gas phase reactions; mass spectrometry; Introduction Organometallic compounds are a large class of compounds with numerous applications such as homogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of fine chemicals or even enantiomerically pure products used in the pharmaceutical industry

Synthesis and characterization of noble metal–titania core–shell nanostructures with tunable shell thickness

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Dariusz Zasada and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2083–2093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.208

• , methylamine, was then added to a suspension of NPs. The role of the amine catalysts is to transfer a proton from the water molecule to the oxygen atoms in titanium alkoxide molecules. As a result, good leaving groups of alcohols are formed, which are then easily replaced by hydroxide anions. In the next step

• introduced to the reaction mixture in a controlled way from two sources, NPs suspensions (≈199 µL) and amine catalysts solutions (≈24 µL of water), before addition of the shell precursor. The total volume of added water to the reaction mixture was kept constant, which allowed the control of thicknesses of

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

• low cost [7]. It has gained a great deal of attention because of its wide application in areaa such as catalysts for Li–air batteries [8], molecular sieves [9] and electrodes in rechargeable batteries [10][11][12]. However, its drastic volume change, aggregation problems, and poor electronic

Synthesis and catalytic application of magnetic Co–Cu nanowires

• Lijuan Sun,
• Xiaoyu Li,
• Zhiqiang Xu,
• Kenan Xie and
• Li Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1769–1773, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.178

• run. Table 1 compares the catalytic activity in terms of TOF values of different catalysts used for the hydrolysis of AB. It is clear that Co–Cu nanowires possess enhanced performance as compared to the other catalysts listed in Table 1, and they were much less expensive than these precious metal

• material based catalysts. Therefore, Co–Cu nanowires show a great promise in the prospect of catalytic systems. Conclusion In summary, magnetic bimetallic Co–Cu nanowires were successfully synthesized by a rapid, inexpensive, template-free method under an external magnetic field for the first time. The SEM

• plots of catalytic hydrolysis of AB and (c) hydrogen generation from AB catalyzed by bimetallic Co–Cu nanowires from the 1st to 4th cycles. Catalytic activity of different catalysts used for the hydrolysis of AB. Acknowledgements This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China

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

• vapor deposition (CCVD) at atmospheric pressure. The catalysts are prepared by magnetron sputtering: a 30 nm Al2O3 buffer layer is deposited on Si wafers with native SiO2 and a 6 nm Fe layer is then deposited to form nanoparticles which catalyse the vCNT growth. Then, the substrate is placed inside the

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

• charge transfer and better catalytic dispersion to enhance the photocatalytic activity. The 2D carbon-based nanomaterials combine several of the above-mentioned advantages of both 2D and carbon-based materials, and have shown great prospects as catalysts for various applications. As this is currently an

• the g-C3N4–BiVO4 nanocomposite and the comparative rate of rate of O2 evolution for various prepared catalysts along with control samples. It is well known that perovskite-type oxides (ABO3) constitute one of the promising classes of materials with diverse properties [148]. The main advantage of using

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

• .8.156 Abstract Zirconia (ZrO2) nanoparticles co-doped with Cu and Pt were applied as catalysts for carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation. These materials were prepared through solution combustion in order to obtain highly active and stable catalytic nanomaterials. This method allows Pt2+ and Cu2+ ions to

• , cigarettes, proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, air purifiers, methanol production and water-gas shift reaction [1][2][3][4]. The catalytic oxidation of CO was revolutionized by Haruta et al. [5]. They worked on supported nanogold catalysts and found them to be highly active for CO oxidation. Till date

• , 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

Synthesis of [Fe(L_eq)(L_ax)]_n coordination polymer nanoparticles using blockcopolymer micelles

• Christoph Göbel,
• Ottokar Klimm,
• Florian Puchtler,
• Sabine Rosenfeldt,
• Stephan Förster and
• Birgit Weber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1318–1327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.133

• networks are of great interest in current research because of their various applications as sensors, data-storage devices, catalysts or contrast agents [1][2][3][4][5]. For these applications the formation of stable, uniform and monodisperse particles with defined properties is necessary. Synthetic

Preparation of thick silica coatings on carbon fibers with fine-structured silica nanotubes induced by a self-assembly process

• Benjamin Baumgärtner,
• Hendrik Möller,
• Thomas Neumann and
• Dirk Volkmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1145–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.116

• resistance, could be advantageous compared with the traditional powder or pellet form of silica based catalysts. For example, Joule heating of the contiguous carbon fiber felts offers additional benefits regarding desorption for their in situ regeneration in volatile organic compounds treatment processes [2

• fibers was conducted with 30 vol % tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS) in a mixture of water and ethanol (one-to-one by volume) within 40 min. The presence of the polyamine catalysts facilitates the silica deposition, and furthermore, the localization of the silica on the carbon fiber surface. The presence

Growth, structure and stability of sputter-deposited MoS₂ thin films

• Reinhard Kaindl,
• Bernhard C. Bayer,
• Roland Resel,
• Thomas Müller,
• Viera Skakalova,
• Gerlinde Habler,
• Rainer Abart,
• Alexey S. Cherevan,
• Dominik Eder,
• Maxime Blatter,
• Fabian Fischer,
• Jannik C. Meyer,
• Dmitry K. Polyushkin and
• Wolfgang Waldhauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.113

• , Austria Institute of Life Technologies, HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Route du Rawyl 64, CP, 1950 Sion 2, Switzerland 10.3762/bjnano.8.113 Abstract Molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) thin films have received increasing interest as device-active layers in low-dimensional electronics and also as novel catalysts in

• amorphous MoS2 films, deposited via simple electro-polymerization procedures, the precatalysts could be MoS3 or MoS2; the active form of the catalysts was identified as amorphous MoS2 [19]. Narrow molybdenum disulfide nanosheets with the edge-terminated structure and a significantly expanded interlayer were

• synthesized through reduction and microwave heating [18]. The expanded interlayer distance with modified electronic structure is also responsible for the observed catalytic improvement, which suggests a potential way to design newly advanced molybdenum disulfide catalysts through modulating the interlayer

Fully scalable one-pot method for the production of phosphonic graphene derivatives

• Kamila Żelechowska,
• Marta Prześniak-Welenc,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Izabela Kondratowicz and
• Tadeusz Miruszewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1094–1103, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.111

• , selective adsorbents and catalysts, is well known [7][8][9]. One of the most commonly used reactions is the conversion of carboxylic acids into the respective bisphosphonic acids using a mixture of PCl3 and H3PO3 [9]. In this paper, we present a reaction adapted from classical organic chemistry as a

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

• to any light irradiation, the reaction mixture was stirred in the dark for 30 min to reach adsorption/desorption equilibrium. Blank experiments in the absence of irradiation but in the presence of the ZnO/ZCIS catalysts demonstrated that no significant change in the Orange II concentration was

• the increased number of catalytically active sites (k values are 0.017, 0.018 and 0.022 min−1 for catalysts amounts of 15, 30 and 60 mg in 50 mL of the dye) (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S7). After 120 min of irradiation, the percentage of photodegradation leveled off due to the weak amount

Assembly of metallic nanoparticle arrays on glass via nanoimprinting and thin-film dewetting

• Sun-Kyu Lee,
• Sori Hwang,
• Yoon-Kee Kim and
• Yong-Jun Oh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1049–1055, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.106

• surface [1][2]. Because it is a relatively simple process [3], this technique opens up numerous applications, such as high-density magnetic recording media [2][4], photovoltaic devices [5][6][7][8][9][10], photocatalysts [11] and catalysts for the fabrication of carbon nanotubes and nanowires. However

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

• oxidation states of manganese [1], while the partial exchange of K+ with protons yielded excellent acid catalysts for selective oxidation reactions [13]. The incorporation of metal cations with different valencies (Cu2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Ag+, V5+, W6+, Mo6+) into the channels or in the cryptomelane structure

CVD transfer-free graphene for sensing applications

• Chiara Schiattarella,
• Sten Vollebregt,
• Tiziana Polichetti,
• Brigida Alfano,
• Ettore Massera,
• Maria Lucia Miglietta,
• Girolamo Di Francia and
• Pasqualina Maria Sarro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1015–1022, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.102

• made as thin as 50 nm without any segregation at the graphene CVD temperature (≈1000 °C), because of the higher melting point of Mo (2623 °C) compared to that of other conventional catalysts such as Cu (1085 °C) or Ni (1455 °C). Moreover, this allows a pre-patterning the film for the selective growth

High photocatalytic activity of Fe₂O₃/TiO₂ nanocomposites prepared by photodeposition for degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

• Shu Chin Lee,
• Hendrik O. Lintang and
• Leny Yuliati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 915–926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.93

• preparation of Fe2O3/TiO2 as it offers a simple process. However, there are contradicting reports on the performance of Fe2O3/TiO2 catalysts prepared by the impregnation method. While some groups reported good photocatalytic activity [5][6], others showed contrasting results [16][17][18], which have resulted

• /TiO2 catalysts without heat treatment at ambient conditions. Using iron(III) nitrate nonahydrate as the precursor, active and stable Fe2O3/TiO2 was successfully prepared via photodeposition [15]. However, the actual amount of iron precursor in the prepared Fe2O3/TiO2 was much lower than that added. In

Investigation of growth dynamics of carbon nanotubes

• Marianna V. Kharlamova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 826–856, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.85

• growth of carbon filaments on liquid catalysts [24][25][26]. Later on, the VLS model was applied to describe the growth of MWCNTs [27] and SWCNTs [28][29] on liquid-metal particles. The atomic-level description of the VLS growth process of SWCNTs was performed by molecular dynamics simulations [29][30

• surface diffusion model for the growth of carbon fibers on metallic catalysts on the basis of the fact that the calculated activation energies of the growth were much lower than those of the bulk carbon diffusion in the metal. They suggested that the surface carbon diffusion on the catalytic particle was

• carbon atoms was the growth rate-limiting process. The surface diffusion mechanism of the growth of carbon nanofibers and nanotubes on metallic catalysts was also revealed by theoretical methods [41][42][44]. In [44], Raty with co-authors reported ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of the formation