Optimization of Mo/Cr bilayer back contacts for thin-film solar cells

• Nima Khoshsirat,
• Fawad Ali,
• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• Mojtaba Amjadipour,
• Hongxia Wang,
• Mahnaz Shafiei and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2700–2707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.252

• such as glass or stainless steel [17][18][19][20][21]. Cr forms an oxide interface layer by scavenging the oxygen available on the glass surface during the sputtering process. This creates nucleation centers and promotes nucleation of the next deposited material (in this case Mo), leading to a strong

Size-selected Fe₃O₄–Au hybrid nanoparticles for improved magnetism-based theranostics

• Maria V. Efremova,
• Yulia A. Nalench,
• Eirini Myrovali,
• Anastasiia S. Garanina,
• Ivan S. Grebennikov,
• Polina K. Gifer,
• Maxim A. Abakumov,
• Marina Spasova,
• Makis Angelakeris,
• Alexander G. Savchenko,
• Michael Farle,
• Natalia L. Klyachko,
• Alexander G. Majouga and
• Ulf Wiedwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2684–2699, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.251

• be adjusted by heterogeneous nucleation of NPs on noble metal seeds [21][22]. Additionally, such bifunctional Fe3O4–Au NPs are potentially applicable for targeted drug delivery, enhanced hyperthermia, multimodal imaging and theranostics [8][23][24][25][26][27]. In this work, we present the first size

Au–Si plasmonic platforms: synthesis, structure and FDTD simulations

• Anna Gapska,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2599–2608, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.241

• explained through dewetting. Dewetting of metallic thin and ultra-thin films, although known and widely studied for many years, it is still an interesting phenomenon [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Dewetting of films is driven by two main processes. The first of them is based on nucleation and growth of

• holes. The growth of holes occurs through the gathering of material from which the layer is made, along the perimeter of the hole, which results in a raised rim around the hole. Nucleation can occur in two ways, as homogeneous nucleation, when holes are caused by small thermal-density fluctuations

• (homogeneous dewetting), or as heterogeneous nucleation, which is caused by defects in the layer or on the interface of the layer and the substrate (heterogeneous dewetting). In the second process, called spinodal dewetting, instability of the film against thermally activated surface waves leads to spontaneous

Pattern generation for direct-write three-dimensional nanoscale structures via focused electron beam induced deposition

• Lukas Keller and
• Michael Huth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2581–2598, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.240

• applied. This process is not only challenging due to the need for accurate alignment of all consecutive slices, but also extremely time consuming, depending on the required resolution in the vertical dimension. Other methods are two-photon lithography [5], heterogeneous nucleation [6] or template-based

Nanocellulose: Recent advances and its prospects in environmental remediation

• Katrina Pui Yee Shak,
• Yean Ling Pang and
• Shee Keat Mah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2479–2498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.232

• ) [101]. The abundant surface –OH groups act as hydrophilic sites to accelerate nucleation and growth of inorganic particles, consequently controlling the morphology, particle size, and crystallinity [107]. Such readily available surface –OH groups offer an ideal platform for the fabrication of hybrid

Evidence of friction reduction in laterally graded materials

• Roberto Guarino,
• Gianluca Costagliola,
• Federico Bosia and
• Nicola Maria Pugno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2443–2456, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.229

• have been used in many recent studies to describe aspects of the transition from static to dynamic friction, the nucleation of rupture wave fronts, and the effects of patterning [32][33][34][35][36]. The SBM method is usually computationally faster than FEM, thus it is more practical for a qualitative

Droplet-based synthesis of homogeneous magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles

• Christian D. Ahrberg,
• Ji Wook Choi and
• Bong Geun Chung

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2413–2420, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.226

• nucleation and growth predicts a narrowing of the particle size distribution with increasing reaction time [35][36], the opposite is observed in our experiments. This is probably due to classical models not including effects such as Ostwald ripening and, in our case more significant, the aggregation of

Pinning of a ferroelectric Bloch wall at a paraelectric layer

• Vilgelmina Stepkova and
• Jiří Hlinka

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2356–2360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.220

• parallel to it. Since the domain wall has lower energy when located right at the SrTiO3 layer, one can speculate that a pair of such layers can be used as a nucleation center for favoring antiparallel ferroelectric domain with desirable crystallographic orientation of adjacent domain walls. For example

Electrospun one-dimensional nanostructures: a new horizon for gas sensing materials

• Muhammad Imran,
• Nunzio Motta and
• Mahnaz Shafiei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2128–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.202

• ]. The average diameter of as-spun fibers is 412 nm which, after annealing, reduces to 315 nm. The fiber diameter increases with increasing Au content. The average diameters of the WO3–Au-0.01M, and WO3–Au-0.1M composite NFs are 350 nm, and 370 nm, respectively. Au NPs act as nucleation sites (seed) on

Spin-coated planar Sb₂S₃ hybrid solar cells approaching 5% efficiency

• Pascal Kaienburg,
• Benjamin Klingebiel and
• Thomas Kirchartz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2114–2124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.200

• ] – especially when devices are compared that apply the same HTM and Sb2S3 deposition method [26][29][30][31]. Typically Sb2S3 is fabricated via chemical bath deposition (CBD) [2][39][40][41] with the drawback of a complex growth mechanism that includes heterogeneous nucleation and exponential growth which

Recent highlights in nanoscale and mesoscale friction

• Andrea Vanossi,
• Dirk Dietzel,
• Andre Schirmeisen,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Marcin Kisiel,
• Shigeki Kawai and
• Nicola Manini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1995–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.190

• frictional sliding observed in the case of overlayer/substrate lattice mismatch. Nucleation dynamics characterizes the depinning mechanism of a stiff commensurate colloidal monolayer [167]. In contrast, if the interface is characterized by a lattice mismatch, the presence/absence of static friction depends

Synthesis of carbon nanowalls from a single-source metal-organic precursor

• André Giese,
• Sebastian Schipporeit,
• Volker Buck and
• Nicolas Wöhrl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1895–1905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.181

• number of dangling bonds that act as nucleation sites for randomly orientated carbon nanoflakes. 2D growth and the subsequent formation of (few-layer) graphene sheets follow. The nanoflakes being almost vertically aligned on the substrate grow fastest to finally form vertically standing nanosheets. The

• carbon solubility, and it was expected, that this should have a strong influence on the nucleation and growth process of the CNWs. Three different substrate temperatures were used to investigate the influence on the growth process (350, 425 and 500 °C). Furthermore, the bias voltage was set to values of

• length for the growth species at the surface is larger and nucleation occurs more separated in space (similar to the Volmer–Weber growth). Nanoflakes can grow subsequently from these nucleation sites leading to the formation of straight CNWs. This process is similar to the model suggested by Kondo and co

Synthesis of hafnium nanoparticles and hafnium nanoparticle films by gas condensation and energetic deposition

• Irini Michelakaki,
• Nikos Boukos,
• Dimitrios A. Dragatogiannis,
• Spyros Stathopoulos,
• Costas A. Charitidis and
• Dimitris Tsoukalas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1868–1880, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.179

• target (99.95%). Due to collisions with Ar gas, cooling of the sputtered metal atoms takes place, leading to a supersaturated metal atom vapor. Collisions between the cooled metal atoms lead to nucleation and growth of initial clusters. Collisions between these initial cluster ‘seeds’ followed by

Controllable one-pot synthesis of uniform colloidal TiO₂ particles in a mixed solvent solution for photocatalysis

• Jong Tae Moon,
• Seung Ki Lee and
• Ji Bong Joo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1715–1727, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.163

• nucleation/growth rate of TBOT and its hydrolysate is finely controlled by regulating the ethanol–acetonitrile ratio. The spherical curvature and smoothness of the TiO2 layers was also tuned using the ethanol–acetonitrile solvent conditions that resulted from the controlled diffusion rate of TBOT and its

• hydrolysate in a mixed solvent [14][32][33]. Without a sacrificial core material, it should be noted that this sol–gel strategy allows the colloidal TiO2 particles to have finely tuned properties due to the well-controlled nucleation/growth rate of TBOT in mixed solvent conditions. Although this sol–gel

• the particle shape became irregular. These phenomena can be explained by not only the solubility of TBOT and the surfactant, but also by the nucleation-growth kinetics of TBOT in different solvent conditions. It is well-known that acetonitrile is more hydrophobic than ethanol [14]. As the relative ACN

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles as sulfur encapsulator for high-performance lithium/sulfur batteries

• Yan Zhao,
• Zhengjun Liu,
• Liancheng Sun,
• Yongguang Zhang,
• Yuting Feng,
• Xin Wang,
• Indira Kurmanbayeva and
• Zhumabay Bakenov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1677–1685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.159

• of nucleation sites in NCNT allows ZnO to uniformly grow on its surface with a small size. Also, NCNT has a higher electrical conductivity due to its additional free electron pairs compared to CNT without nitrogen doping. The ZnO@NCNT composite showed excellent electrochemical properties in lithium

Light extraction efficiency enhancement of flip-chip blue light-emitting diodes by anodic aluminum oxide

• Yi-Ru Huang,
• Yao-Ching Chiu,
• Kuan-Chieh Huang,
• Shao-Ying Ting,
• Po-Jui Chiang,
• Chih-Ming Lai,
• Chun-Ping Jen,
• Snow H. Tseng and
• Hsiang-Chen Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1602–1612, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.152

• the LEDs was grown in accordance with a previously published procedure [8]. The textured surface of the PSS occurred at the initial growth site of a GaN nucleation layer. A thick n-type GaN layer (4 μm) doped with Si, a ten-period InGaN/GaN heterostructure used as the MQW, and a p-type GaN layer (120

• nm) doped with Mg were vertically arranged on the nucleation layer in sequence. In the AAO process, a plate layer of aluminum film with a thickness of 2 μm was coated onto the LED surface, and a 0.3 M oxalic acid solution was prepared. The LED was placed into the solution to act as the anode, and a

Inverse proximity effect in semiconductor Majorana nanowires

• Alexander A. Kopasov,
• Ivan M. Khaymovich and
• Alexander S. Mel'nikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1184–1193, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.109

• Novgorod, 23 Gagarina, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia 10.3762/bjnano.9.109 Abstract We study the influence of the inverse proximity effect on the superconductivity nucleation in hybrid structures consisting of semiconducting nanowires placed in contact with a thin superconducting film and discuss the

Understanding the performance and mechanism of Mg-containing oxides as support catalysts in the thermal dry reforming of methane

• Nor Fazila Khairudin,
• Mohd Farid Fahmi Sukri,
• Mehrnoush Khavarian and
• Abdul Rahman Mohamed

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1162–1183, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.108

• . Rapid reactions occur between the active plasma species and catalyst precursors compared to the thermal decomposition technique. Therefore, this may encourage the rapid nucleation of the crystals under plasma treatment. The application of low temperature may result in slow crystal growth, which

Review on nanoparticles and nanostructured materials: history, sources, toxicity and regulations

• Jaison Jeevanandam,
• Ahmed Barhoum,
• Yen S. Chan,
• Alain Dufresne and
• Michael K. Danquah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1050–1074, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.98

• the formation of Ag NPs along with possible nucleation mechanisms are presented in recent review articles [153][181][182][183][184]. This list assists in identifying the crucial factor that induces nanoparticle nucleation. This identification results in the preparation of nanometer-sized targeted

Fatigue crack growth characteristics of Fe and Ni under cyclic loading using a quasi-continuum method

• Ren-Zheng Qiu,
• Yi-Chen Lin and
• Te-Hua Fang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1000–1014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.93

• . Zhang et al. have examined the effect of the phase boundary on the fatigue crack propagation in an α/β-iron biphasic system under cyclic tensile loading [13]. They found that the nucleation of new cracks typically appears at the phase boundary because of dislocation pile-ups. However, most of these

Effect of annealing treatments on CeO₂ grown on TiN and Si substrates by atomic layer deposition

• Silvia Vangelista,
• Rossella Piagge,
• Satu Ek and
• Alessio Lamperti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 890–899, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.83

• depends also on the nature of the surface. Metallic surfaces offer less centers of nucleation for diketonate molecules, implying a further reduction of the complete surface coverage and leaving space between Ce atoms to be occupied by O atoms during the subsequent O3 pulse. The alternating presence of Ce

• study of the first deposition steps of CeO2 by thermal ALD upon different substrates is required to fully elucidate the mechanism of the growth and nucleation of CeO2, and possibly validate our proposed phenomenological model. A possible approach would be the study by dedicated in situ ALD growth at

Facile chemical routes to mesoporous silver substrates for SERS analysis

• Elina A. Tastekova,
• Alexander Y. Polyakov,
• Anastasia E. Goldt,
• Alexander V. Sidorov,
• Alexandra A. Oshmyanskaya,
• Irina V. Sukhorukova,
• Dmitry V. Shtansky,
• Wolgang Grünert and
• Anastasia V. Grigorieva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 880–889, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.82

• role as surfactant, partly blocking the nucleation at (100) facets if the prevalent growth mechanism is normal or lateral layer-by-layer growth [28]. Presumably, the PVP adsorbates remained at the Ag2O crystallite surface after the washing procedure. Remarkably, the porous polyhedron-like silver

Dynamics and fragmentation mechanism of (C₅H₄CH₃)Pt(CH₃)₃ on SiO₂ surfaces

• Kaliappan Muthukumar,
• Harald O. Jeschke and
• Roser Valentí

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 711–720, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.66

• fragmentation pathways qualitatively. In a recent investigation, thickness-controlled site-selective Pt deposits were obtained by direct atomic layer deposition (ALD) in which ALD was performed on EBID patterned substrates. In this ALD process, an O2 pulse is used to obtain better nucleation, even though the

Mechanistic insights into plasmonic photocatalysts in utilizing visible light

• Kah Hon Leong,
• Azrina Abd Aziz,
• Lan Ching Sim,
• Pichiah Saravanan,
• Min Jang and
• Detlef Bahnemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 628–648, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.59

• were used to prepare Ag-ZnO nanostructures, in which both green extracts acted as a shape controllers and reducing agents of Ag+ to overcome the self-nucleation problem of Ag NPs [164][165]. Direct photocatalysis by plasmonic metals Plasmonic catalyst systems have almost exclusively focused on the

Colloidal solution of silver nanoparticles for label-free colorimetric sensing of ammonia in aqueous solutions

• Alessandro Buccolieri,
• Antonio Serra,
• Gabriele Giancane and
• Daniela Manno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 499–507, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.48

• nucleation rate (0 < a < 1), b is connected to the dimensionality of the growing particles (b can assume the values: 1, 2, and 3), and c is the growth rate in each dimension (c is either 0.5 or 1) [33][34][35]. It can be shown that Figure 6d report the experimental values as suggest by Equation 3: Y(t) as a

• function of log(t). In this way, the constants k and n can be obtained from the line intercept with the y-axis and the slope of the straight line (Table 2). Different NH3 concentrations give rise to different Ag nanoparticles agglomeration and nucleation rates. In particular, the rate of nucleation of the

• solutions, has the capability to control and stabilize the nanoparticles. In addition, as also observed by Nesakumar et al. the formation of the diamine silver complex increases the SPR absorbance of AgNPs in solutions containing ammonia, which increases the rate of nucleation [28]. Compared to literature