Functionalized TiO₂ nanoparticles by single-step hydrothermal synthesis: the role of the silane coupling agents

• Antoine R. M. Dalod,
• Lars Henriksen,
• Tor Grande and
• Mari-Ann Einarsrud

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 304–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.33

• materials. The resulting hydrophobic properties of the nanoparticles depend on organic chain length and surface coverage [17], and are comparable to results reported by Iijima and co-workers on TiO2 nanoparticles post-modified with decyltrimethoxysilane and APTMS in mixed solutions of toluene and methanol

Template-controlled piezoactivity of ZnO thin films grown via a bioinspired approach

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Fabian Streb,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Zaklina Burghard and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 296–303, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.32

• indicates that the sulfonate functionality leads to a highly polar surface of the template, whereas the carboxylate is less negatively charged. However, it has to be taken into account that the deposition experiments take place in methanol. The solvent influences the effective surface charge of the

• substrate and particles in the solution and therefore, the interaction between both is affected. For example it was found that silica shows a decreasing surface potential if methanol is added to an aqueous electrolyte solution [41][42]. This can be explained by the lower ability of methanol to stabilize

• ions as can be seen from the pKa values reported by Rived et al. [43]. Therefore, it is probable that the surface charge of the used templates is lower in methanol than it could be expected from zeta potential measurements in water. Nevertheless, the polarity of the two templates is high enough to

Colorimetric gas detection by the varying thickness of a thin film of ultrasmall PTSA-coated TiO₂ nanoparticles on a Si substrate

• Urmas Joost,
• Andris Šutka,
• Meeri Visnapuu,
• Aile Tamm,
• Meeri Lembinen,
• Mikk Antsov,
• Kathriin Utt,
• Krisjanis Smits,
• Ergo Nõmmiste and
• Vambola Kisand

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 229–236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.25

• under reflux conditions. The nanoparticles were washed twice with methanol using centrifugation at 12000g for 1 h. The synthesis was optimized to obtain ultrasmall nanoparticles (roughly 3 nm in diameter) to attain a high sample surface area. Our modified synthesis protocol had a NP yield more than 50

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering of self-assembled thiol monolayers and supported lipid membranes on thin anodic porous alumina

• Marco Salerno,
• Amirreza Shayganpour,
• Barbara Salis and
• Silvia Dante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 74–81, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.8

• , to let the sulfur of the –SH group bind covalently to the Au surface (chemisorption). The substrates were then gently washed with their aqueous solutions and dried under nitrogen flow. All the lipids were dissolved in chloroform/methanol 2:1 vol/vol, dried under a gentle nitrogen flux in a test tube

From iron coordination compounds to metal oxide nanoparticles

• Mihail Iacob,
• Carmen Racles,
• Codrin Tugui,
• George Stiubianu,
• Adrian Bele,
• Liviu Sacarescu,
• Daniel Timpu and
• Maria Cazacu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2074–2087, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.198

• (vs), 1450 (vs), 1589 (vs), 1688 (s), 2545 (vw), 2636 (vw), 3413 (s). Iron furoate [Fe3O(C4H3OCOO)6(CH3OH)3]NO3∙2CH3OH (FeF) was obtained as reddish single crystals following the procedure described by Melnic et. al. [35] from a mixture of Cu2(C4H3OCOO)4∙4H2O, Fe(NO3)3∙9H2O and methanol. The structure

• )3∙9H2O (0.5 g) in 5 mL methanol. The process took place at 60 °C for 5 h, with heating and cooling rates of 0.1 °C/min. Dark brown reddish single crystals were observed directly in the autoclave at the end of the process. The structure of the compound was confirmed by FTIR, EDX and single crystal

A dioxaborine cyanine dye as a photoluminescence probe for sensing carbon nanotubes

• Mohammed Al Araimi,
• Petro Lutsyk,
• Anatoly Verbitsky,
• Yuri Piryatinski,
• Mykola Shandura and
• Aleksey Rozhin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1991–1999, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.190

• product was dissolved in 80% aqueous ethanol and then the solution of sodium acetate (0.2 g) in ethanol was added. The precipitate was filtered out and purified via chromatography on a silica column (7:3 v/v acetone/methanol as an eluent) to yield 300 mg (20%) of product as a green powder. 1H NMR (300 MHz

Organoclay hybrid materials as precursors of porous ZnO/silica-clay heterostructures for photocatalytic applications

• Marwa Akkari,
• Pilar Aranda,
• Abdessalem Ben Haj Amara and
• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1971–1982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.188

• in the preparation of the CTA-clay derivatives. Ultra-pure deionized water (18.2 MΩ·cm) was produced in an Elga Maxima Ultra-Pure Water system). Methanol and 2-propanol (Fluka, p.a.) were used as solvents or reactants. Zinc(II) acetate dihydrate (CH3COO)2Zn·2H2O and KOH were purchased from Merck

Chitosan-based nanoparticles for improved anticancer efficacy and bioavailability of mifepristone

• Huijuan Zhang,
• Fuqiang Wu,
• Yazhen Li,
• Xiping Yang,
• Jiamei Huang,
• Tingting Lv,
• Yingying Zhang,
• Jianzhong Chen,
• Haijun Chen,
• Yu Gao,
• Guannan Liu and
• Lee Jia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1861–1870, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.178

• 100 μL of methanol–water solution (50:50 v/v) followed by vortex-mixing for 3 min and then centrifuged at 15,000 rpm for 10 min. Afterwards, a 4 μL aliquot of the supernatant was injected into the chromatographic systems for analysis. Quantification The MIF concentration in plasma was determined using

• LC-MS/MS analysis according to the method reported earlier by Chen et al. [37] with slight modifications. Liquid chromatography was performed on an ACQUITY UPLC system using a BEH C18 column (50 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm, Waters Corporation, USA). The mobile phase solution was composed of methanol (A) and

Nanostructured TiO₂-based gas sensors with enhanced sensitivity to reducing gases

• Wojciech Maziarz,
• Anna Kusior and
• Anita Trenczek-Zajac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1718–1726, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.164

• as H2 [7], NO2 [8], NOx [9], CO [10], NH3 [11], H2S [12], and VOCs (i.e., methanol, ethanol, propanol [13], and acetone [14]). The influence of effective surface area on the gas sensing properties of TiO2 thin films is also frequently observed and investigated [15]. TiO2 is a wide-band gap

Sb₂S₃ grown by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and its application in a hybrid solar cell

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere,
• Valdek Mikli and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1662–1673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.158

• films whereas films prepared from non-aqueous solvents have been reported as polycrystalline [22][24]. So far, we have shown that for growing Sb2S3 by pneumatic CSP the use of SbCl3 and thiourea (tu) precursors with an SbCl3/tu molar ratio of 1:3 dissolved in methanol and sprayed on substrate at a

• glove box with controlled humidity (less than 14 ppm). The solution contained SbCl3 (with Sb3+ concentration of 15 mmol/L) and SC(NH2)2 precursors at a molar ratio of 1:x (x = 2, 3, 6, 9) in methanol as the solvent. SbCl3 was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (≥99.0%, p.a.) and SC(NH2)2 from Merck (≥99.0

• ) form the Sb(tu)2Cl3 complex compound in methanol and undergo thermal decomposition slightly above 200 °C according to a TG-DTA study [69]. This is characteristic for different metal chloride–thiourea complexes such as In(tu)3Cl3 [25][70], Sn(tu)2Cl2 [28] and CuCl–tu complexes with different

Influence of hydrothermal synthesis parameters on the properties of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles

• Sylwia Kuśnieruk,
• Jacek Wojnarowicz,
• Agnieszka Chodara,
• Tadeusz Chudoba,
• Stanislaw Gierlotka and
• Witold Lojkowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1586–1601, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.153

• electron microscopy (TEM) (JEM2000EX; JEOL, Tokyo, Japan). The TEM, high-resolution TEM, and selected area electron diffraction tests were conducted at 200 kV. The samples for the TEM observations were prepared by dropping the methanol particle dispersion, created by an ultrasonic technique, on a carbon

Development of adsorptive membranes by confinement of activated biochar into electrospun nanofibers

• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Mitra Naghdi,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• Emile Knystautas,
• Mausam Verma,
• Rao. Y. Surampalli and
• Jose. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1556–1563, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.149

• electrospinning continued for 12 h and the deposited mats were soaked in methanol for 60 min to remove residual solvents. The soaked mats were washed with distilled water several times and dried for 10 h at 50 ± 1 °C. To determine the amount of residual solvent, samples for thermogravimetric analysis were not

• subjected to methanol and heat treatment. Characterization of fabricated NFMs The surface morphology of the fabricated membranes was examined using a JSM-840A (JEOL, Japan) scanning electron microscope (SEM) at an acceleration voltage of 10 kV. For this analysis, small amounts of the samples were coated

• . Also the entrapment of biochar particles among fibers was perfect since after washing several times with methanol, no leaching was observed visually. The distribution of the fiber diameter was analyzed using Image-J software with Diameter-J module and the average diameters are listed in Table 1

Dealloying of gold–copper alloy nanowires: From hillocks to ring-shaped nanopores

• Adrien Chauvin,
• Cyril Delacôte,
• Mohammed Boujtita,
• Benoit Angleraud,
• Junjun Ding,
• Chang-Hwan Choi,
• Pierre-Yves Tessier and
• Abdel-Aziz El Mel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1361–1367, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.127

• electrolytic solution, dipped in distilled water and then rinsed with methanol. Characterization The SEM images were recorded using a JEOL JSM 7600 F microscope operating at 5 kV. The AFM images were recorded using a NanoWizard 3 from JPK instruments. TEM imaging was performed on a Hitachi H9000-NAR microscope

Ammonia gas sensors based on In₂O₃/PANI hetero-nanofibers operating at room temperature

• Qingxin Nie,
• Zengyuan Pang,
• Hangyi Lu,
• Yibing Cai and
• Qufu Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1312–1321, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.122

• selectivity of In2O3/PANI-2 nanofibers sensor. Figure 8 shows the dynamic response of In2O3/PANI-2 nanofibers sensor to methanol, ethanol, acetone and ammonia at a concentration of 1000 ppm. It is obvious that the In2O3/PANI-2 nanofibers sensor was almost insensitive to methanol, ethanol and acetone vapors

• to NH3 vapor at room temperature, and this sensor was further investigated for its selectivity by interfering with methanol, ethanol and acetone vapors. The results indicated that the In2O3/PANI-2 nanofiber sensor had excellent selectivity, good repeatability and reversibility. The enhancement of gas

• methanol, ethanol, acetone and ammonia. Sensing repeatability and reversibility of In2O3/PANI-2 nanofibers sensor to 1000 ppm NH3 vapor. Schematic of p–n junction of In2O3/PANI nanofibers and its potential energy barrier change when exposed to NH3.

Preparation of alginate–chitosan–cyclodextrin micro- and nanoparticles loaded with anti-tuberculosis compounds

• Albert Ivancic,
• Fliur Macaev,
• Fatma Aksakal,
• Veaceslav Boldescu,
• Serghei Pogrebnoi and
• Gheorghe Duca

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1208–1218, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.112

• -(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-2-[(2,6-dichlorophenyl)methoxy]ethyl]-1H-imidazole mononitrate, Figure 1, compound 2) is a white to light yellow powder soluble in methanol, dimethyl sulfoxide, slightly soluble in ethanol and hardly soluble in water. ISN has antifungal activity and is used to treat dermatophytosis

The influence of phthalocyanine aggregation in complexes with CdSe/ZnS quantum dots on the photophysical properties of the complexes

• Irina V. Martynenko,
• Anna O. Orlova,
• Vladimir G. Maslov,
• Anatoly V. Fedorov,
• Kevin Berwick and
• Alexander V. Baranov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1018–1027, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.94

• aqueous solution PcSz is a mixture of phthalocyanine molecules with a different number of negative charges. Paper chromatography was used in order to obtain phthalocyanine mixtures enriched in either tetrasulfopthalocyanine (PcS4) or disulfopthalocyanine (PcS2) [43]. Toluene, methanol, trioctylphosphine

Dielectrophoresis of gold nanoparticles conjugated to DNA origami structures

• Anja Henning-Knechtel,
• Matthew Wiens,
• Mathias Lakatos,
• Andreas Heerwig,
• Frieder Ostermaier,
• Nora Haufe and
• Michael Mertig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 948–956, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.87

• 30 min and the supernatant carefully removed. The remaining pellet was resuspended in a mixture of 100 µL of 2.5 mM BSPP and 100 µL of methanol. The solution was once more spun down to dissolve the pellet in 2.5 mM BSPP. The gold nanoparticles were further modified with oligonucleotides that included

Large-scale fabrication of achiral plasmonic metamaterials with giant chiroptical response

• Morten Slyngborg,
• Yao-Chung Tsao and
• Peter Fojan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 914–925, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.83

• -etching system. Al foils (99.98%, Advent Research Materials Ltd. AL103310) were used as substrates after cleaning in an ultrasonic bath with a sequence of acetone, deionized water and methanol for 1 min each. In total three types of molds were prepared with different interpore distances: 300, 430 and 600

Reconstitution of the membrane protein OmpF into biomimetic block copolymer–phospholipid hybrid membranes

• Matthias Bieligmeyer,
• Franjo Artukovic,
• Stephan Nussberger,
• Thomas Hirth,
• Thomas Schiestel and
• Michaela Müller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 881–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.80

• . After 3 h, the desired volume of purified ethylene oxide at −110 °C is distilled to the reaction mixture and polymerization of the second block is carried out at room temperature over night. Active chains are deactivated by adding a degassed 1:1 mixture of acetic acid and methanol via a syringe. After

Efficient electron-induced removal of oxalate ions and formation of copper nanoparticles from copper(II) oxalate precursor layers

• Kai Rückriem,
• Sarah Grotheer,
• Henning Vieker,
• Paul Penner,
• André Beyer,
• Armin Gölzhäuser and
• Petra Swiderek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 852–861, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.77

• chemisorbed species, two possibilities arise. The first is a dissociative adsorption of CO2 on the copper nanoparticles that are formed under electron exposure. This process is important for the chemical understanding of the industrial methanol synthesis with Cu–ZnO–Al2O3 catalysts [48] and has been observed

Assembling semiconducting molecules by covalent attachment to a lamellar crystalline polymer substrate

• Rainhard Machatschek,
• Patrick Ortmann,
• Renate Reiter,
• Stefan Mecking and
• Günter Reiter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 784–798, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.70

• process [7][11], we refrained from adding surfactants as we wanted to avoid to have surfactant molecules included in the monolayers transferred onto a solid substrate. Accordingly, we spread CPE45 nanocrystals from a 1:1 methanol–water dispersion onto a water surface at pH 11. After Langmuir–Schäfer

• equal parts with methanol and filtered through a 220 nm pore size Teflon membrane filter in order to remove precipitated nanocrystal aggregates. A micropipette was used to apply the dispersion to the surface of an aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide at pH 11, contained in a Teflon beaker (h = 24 mm

• dispersion was diluted with methanol in a ratio of 1:1 or 1:3. These diluted dispersions were spread on a Langmuir trough. The inset of the trough was milled from a solid block of Teflon. It was filled with an aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide at pH 12. On basis of the DLVO theory, we estimated that

Selective photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to methanol in CuO-loaded NaTaO₃ nanocubes in isopropanol

• Tianyu Xiang,
• Feng Xin,
• Jingshuai Chen,
• Yuwen Wang,
• Xiaohong Yin and
• Xiao Shao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 776–783, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.69

• photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, UV–vis, EDS and XPS and used to photocatalytically reduce CO2 in isopropanol. This worked to both absorb CO2 and as a sacrificial reagent to harvest CO2 and donate electrons. Methanol and acetone were generated as the reduction product of CO2 and the oxidation

• product of isopropanol, respectively. NaTaO3 nanocubes loaded with 2 wt % CuO and synthesized in 2 mol/L NaOH solution showed the best activity. The methanol and acetone yields were 137.48 μmol/(g·h) and 335.93 μmol/(g·h), respectively, after 6 h of irradiation. Such high activity could be attributed to

• the good crystallinity, morphology and proper amount of CuO loading, which functioned as reductive sites for selective formation of methanol. The reaction mechanism was also proposed and explained by band theory. Keywords: CO2 reduction; CuO loading; isopropanol; NaTaO3 nanocubes; photocatalysis

Influence of calcium on ceramide-1-phosphate monolayers

• Joana S. L. Oliveira,
• Gerald Brezesinski,
• Alexandra Hill and
• Arne Gericke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 236–245, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.22

• ) was purchased from Matreya, LLC (PA, USA). EDTA (≥99.4%), NaCl (≥99.5%), NaOH (≥99.5%), CaCl2 (≥99%) and HCl were purchased from Sigma Aldrich GmbH (Taufkirchen, Germany). Chloroform (≥99.9%) and citric acid monohydrate (≥99.5%) were purchased from Carl Roth GmbH (Karlsruhe, Germany) and methanol

• experiments, Milli-Q Millipore water with a specific resistance of 18.2 MΩ·cm and pH approx. 6.2 was used. Monolayer experiments For monolayer experiments, a stock solution with a concentration of around 1 mM of C1P was prepared in a chloroform/methanol/0.5 N HCl (2:0.9:0.1 v/v) mixture, and vortexed until

Chemical bath deposition of textured and compact zinc oxide thin films on vinyl-terminated polystyrene brushes

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Caroline G. Hofmeister,
• Peter Lindemann,
• Cheng Huang,
• Johannes Baier,
• Andreas Leineweber,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Christof Wöll,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 102–110, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.12

• charge of the SiOx is highly negative whereas under the same conditions, the PS brush is much less negatively charged. It is noteworthy that the reaction takes place in methanol instead of water. For mixtures of water and alcohol it is known, that the ζ-potential is decreasing with higher alcohol content

• [38]. This could lead to a smaller difference in the ζ-potential of the SiOx and PS brush in methanol as compared to the results in water. Water contact angle (WCA) measurements confirm the findings of the ζ-potential measurements. The SiOx surface exhibits a high hydrophilicity with a WCA below 4

• molecule is split into two parts. The smaller part R2 with the ester group is soluble in methanol, whereas the longer chain R1 remains insoluble. Due to the washing steps during modification, the smaller molecules are removed from the reaction vessel. Therefore, the number of ester groups present in the

Chemiresistive/SERS dual sensor based on densely packed gold nanoparticles

• Sanda Boca,
• Cosmin Leordean,
• Simion Astilean and
• Cosmin Farcau

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2498–2503, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.259

•  3a. The electrically connected IDE with assembled Au NPs is immersed in a methanol (MeOH) bath, by taking care to leave the two electrode tracks outside of the liquid. Since the Au NPs are dispersable in water, the exposure to alcohol does not damage markedly the assembled film. Upon immersion of the

• solvent environment; at the same time it could indicate small disturbances in the microscopic NP arrangement, induced by the solvent. Subsequently, the analyte (here MBA in methanol solution) is pipetted (one drop) into the methanol bath (the final MBA solution concentration is 10−5 M). Again, the

• 1182 and 1487 cm−1, can also be observed, which were present in the spectrum measured before MBA exposure, due to folic acid molecules. Note that a flat gold film deposited by thermal evaporation did not exhibit any visible Raman bands, under the same experimental conditions (exposure to methanol, MBA