Influence of stabilising agents and pH on the size of SnO₂ nanoparticles

• Olga Rac,
• Patrycja Suchorska-Woźniak,
• Marta Fiedot and
• Helena Teterycz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2192–2201, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.228

• ]. Nanocrystalline tin oxide for various applications is also frequently obtained by sol–gel methods [12][13], or by a chemical method in precipitation reactions from a cold solution [14]. The literature also describes a method for preparing tin dioxide nanowires with good sensor properties [15]. These nanowires

Biopolymer colloids for controlling and templating inorganic synthesis

• Laura C. Preiss,
• Katharina Landfester and
• Rafael Muñoz-Espí

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2129–2138, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.222

• synthetic polymers (see Section 4 in [60] for a review), but only a limited number of works are found for biopolymers. Li et al. [61] prepared cross-linked chitosan microspheres and immobilized bovine serum albumin covalently on their surface. On the resulting particles, silica was formed by a sol–gel

• conventional sol–gel methods. The preparation of sol–gel silicates have been reported by several research groups [71][72]. Nevertheless, the use of chitosan is not limited to silicates and titanates. El Kadib et al. [73] demonstrated the use of chitosan microspheres as templates for vanadium, tungsten, and

• gold salts. Like other gel biopolymer templates, gelatin has also been used in silicate sol–gel processes [72][85][86]. Ethirajan et al. [87] used the confinement provided by gelatin particles prepared through a miniemulsion to template the crystallization of hydroxyapatite (Figure 7). A further

Towards bottom-up nanopatterning of Prussian blue analogues

• Virgile Trannoy,
• Marco Faustini,
• David Grosso,
• Sandra Mazerat,
• François Brisset,
• Alexandre Dazzi and
• Anne Bleuzen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1933–1943, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.204

• monolayers fabricated through sol–gel chemistry were used to grow isolated particles of Prussian blue analogues (PBA). The elaboration of the TiO2/CoFe PBA nanocomposites involves five steps. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), infrared

• to sol–gel chemistry combined with organic templating agents. Coordination chemistry allowing for the controlled assembly of a large variety of transition metal building units is preferred to build the functional compound. Prussian blue analogs (PBAs) are interesting for the design of bistable

• between hexacyanometalates and hydrated cations of the transition metal series in aqueous solution. The resulting solid exhibits the well-known face centered cubic structure of Prussian blue [9]. The sol–gel process is a method for producing metal oxides from small molecules via inorganic polymerization

Mechanical properties of sol–gel derived SiO₂ nanotubes

• Boris Polyakov,
• Mikk Antsov,
• Sergei Vlassov,
• Leonid M Dorogin,
• Mikk Vahtrus,
• Roberts Zabels,
• Sven Lange and
• Rünno Lõhmus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1808–1814, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.191

• Nanotechnology Competence Centre, Ravila 14c, 50412, Tartu, Estonia ITMO University, Kronverkskiy pr., 49, 197101, Saint Petersburg, Russia 10.3762/bjnano.5.191 Abstract The mechanical properties of thick-walled SiO2 nanotubes (NTs) prepared by a sol–gel method while using Ag nanowires (NWs) as templates were

• time [1]. The sol–gel technology for the synthesis of silica nanomaterials is well established, flexible and cost-effective [2][3]. One-dimensional silica nanostructures have plenty of potential applications due to their optical and chemical properties. These include the chemical protection of

• prepared by sol–gel synthesis. Dikin et al. and Ni et al. studied SiO2 nanowires (NWs) grown at high temperature with the vapor–liquid–solid method, by using resonance and the three-point bending methods, respectively [13][14]. Houmadi et al. investigated the mechanical properties of SiO2 nanotubes (NTs

Nanocrystalline ceria coatings on solid oxide fuel cell anodes: the role of organic surfactant pretreatments on coating microstructures and sulfur tolerance

• Chieh-Chun Wu,
• Ling Tang and
• Mark R. De Guire

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1712–1724, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.181

• porous anode structure, can lead to the reduction or elimination of sulfur poisoning. The procedures used by other groups to infiltrate ceria into SOFC anodes usually involve immersing the anodes into a precursor solution, e.g., of cerium nitrate [16][18][22][23][24] or through a sol–gel route [25

Ionic liquid-assisted formation of cellulose/calcium phosphate hybrid materials

• Ahmed Salama,
• Mike Neumann,
• Christina Günter and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1553–1568, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.167

• cellulose/TiO2 hybrids via a sol–gel reaction in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [Bmim][Cl] [47]. Ti(OBu)4 was used as TiO2 precursor and a network of TiO2 layered fibers was observed after the sol–gel reaction. Amarasekara and Owereh prepared cellulose carbamate/silica hybrid materials in [Bmim][Cl

Template-directed synthesis and characterization of microstructured ceramic Ce/ZrO₂@SiO₂ composite tubes

• Jörg J. Schneider and
• Meike Naumann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1152–1159, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.126

• deposited onto structured one-dimensional objects is presented. In particular, CeO2/ZrO2@SiO2 composite tubes were synthesized in a two-step procedure by using electrospun polystyrene fibers as fiber template. First, a sol–gel approach based on an exo-templating technique was employed to obtain polystyrene

• the surface of the silica host structure and determination of the O, Zr and Ce elemental distribution with nm precision. Keywords: electrospinning; exotemplating; nanostructured solid solution; sol–gel chemistry; Stoeber process; ternary oxide; Introduction Ceria, CeO2, is well-known for its unique

• -precipitation for the preparation of powders [13], impregnation [9], dip-coating [5], or hydrothermal synthesis [4], sol–gel synthesis routes have been widely employed for the preparation of CexZr1−xO2 solid solutions [14]. Pure aqueous sols or sols stabilized by the addition of organics, e.g., surfactants

Characterization and photocatalytic study of tantalum oxide nanoparticles prepared by the hydrolysis of tantalum oxo-ethoxide Ta₈(μ₃-O)₂(μ-O)₈(μ-OEt)₆(OEt)₁₄

• Subia Ambreen,
• N D Pandey,
• Peter Mayer and
• Ashutosh Pandey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1082–1090, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.121

• (μ-OEt)6(OEt)14 (1) was obtained by the controlled hydrolysis of tantalum ethoxide Ta(OEt)5 in the presence of ammonia. Compound 1 is considered as the intermediate building block in the sol–gel polymerization of Ta(OEt)5. Further hydrolysis of compound 1 yielded nanoparticles of Ta2O5, which were

• the organic dye rhodamine B. Keywords: bandgap; tantalum-oxo-ethoxide; Tauc plot; tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5); Introduction Metal alkoxides, being excellent precursors in the sol–gel process for preparation of metal oxides have attained huge attention of researchers. Several attempts have been made

• in order to modify the highly moisture sensitive metal alkoxides into less sensitive species [1][2][3][4] as precursors for metal oxides with new and better properties. However, due to the fast kinetics of the hydrolysis and condensation reactions in the sol–gel route, relatively little information

Growth and characterization of CNT–TiO₂ heterostructures

• Yucheng Zhang,
• Ivo Utke,
• Johann Michler,
• Gabriele Ilari,
• Marta D. Rossell and
• Rolf Erni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 946–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.108

• the recent progress achieved in these areas is reviewed here. ALD growth of CNT–TiO2 Many methods have been developed to fabricate CNT–metal/metal oxide nanocomposites. For CNT–TiO2, the methods that are mostly adopted are sol–gel and hydrothermal deposition. A good summary of the synthesis methods

Controlling mechanical properties of bio-inspired hydrogels by modulating nano-scale, inter-polymeric junctions

• Seonki Hong,
• Hyukjin Lee and
• Haeshin Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 887–894, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.101

• and height of 1 mm. The time dependent rheology test showed that the sol–gel transition was finished within 1 min (data not shown). In order to test the mechanical properties of the hydrogels in a stable condition, we carried out the frequency and strain sweep test 10 min after the gel formed

One-step synthesis of high quality kesterite Cu₂ZnSnS₄ nanocrystals – a hydrothermal approach

• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• John Bell and
• Hongxia Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 438–446, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.51

• the bright future for CZTS based PVs. The highest efficiency CZTS solar cell was made using hydrazine based sol–gel method. However, hydrazine is a highly toxic, dangerously unstable solvent and requires extra caution in handling and storage [9]. Therefore, a safer, simple yet convenient method for

Preparation of poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone)-stabilized ZnO colloid nanoparticles

• Tatyana Gutul,
• Emil Rusu,
• Nadejda Condur,
• Veaceslav Ursaki,
• Evgenii Goncearenco and
• Paulina Vlazan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 402–406, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.47

• colloidal solutions with good luminescence properties are obtained by using PVP as stabilizer in the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles by a sol–gel method assisted by ultrasound. Nanoparticles with sizes of 30–40 nm in a PVP matrix are produced as a solid product. The colloidal ZnO/PVP/methanol solution, apart

• from the most intense PL band at 356 nm coming from the PVP, exhibits a strong PL band at 376 nm (3.30 eV) which corresponds to the emission of the free exciton recombination in ZnO nanoparticles. Keywords: colloidal solutions; nanocomposite; poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone); sol–gel; zinc oxide

• ; Introduction Zinc oxide is widely used in various applications such as gas sensors, solar cells, antireflection coatings, varistors, surface acoustic wave devices, light emitting diodes and random lasers [1][2][3][4]. Among different processing methods, the sol–gel technique has various advantages such as cost

Thermal stability and reduction of iron oxide nanowires at moderate temperatures

• Annalisa Paolone,
• Marco Angelucci,
• Stefania Panero,
• Maria Grazia Betti and
• Carlo Mariani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 323–328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.36

• mesoporous silica (SBA-15) synthesized through the sol–gel method. In order to embed the iron oxide nanowires, 0.01 M Fe(NO3)3·9H2O was dissolved in 50 mL of ethanol and added to 1 g of SBA-15. This solution was mixed at room temperature, dried at 310 K for 1 week, and the resulting powder was sintered at

Challenges in realizing ultraflat materials surfaces

• Takashi Yatsui,
• Wataru Nomura,
• Fabrice Stehlin,
• Olivier Soppera,
• Makoto Naruse and
• Motoichi Ohtsu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 875–885, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.99

• involved the fabrication of a nanostripe pattern on TiO2. Direct ArF-laser photopatterning was followed by the application of a sol–gel negative tone photoresist to produce TiO2 nanostructures by using deep-UV (DUV) direct-write imaging [42][43]. Figure 4c and Figure 4f show representative AFM images taken

• at different positions (positions A and B, respectively) of a TiO2 sol–gel photoresist nanostripe corrugation pattern on a Si wafer. DPP etching was performed under CW laser illumination (λ = 532 nm; power density (spatially uniform) 0.28 W·cm−2) and Cl2 gas exposure. Figure 4d and Figure 4f show

Controlled synthesis and tunable properties of ultrathin silica nanotubes through spontaneous polycondensation on polyamine fibrils

• Jian-Jun Yuan,
• Pei-Xin Zhu,
• Daisuke Noda and
• Ren-Hua Jin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 793–804, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.90

• aggregates as templates for sol–gel reactions has received a great deal of attention, since this method is advantageous for controlling the structure, tuning the chemical composition and accessing surface functionalizations [7]. Shinkai and co-workers [8] reported the pioneering work on the formation of

• aggregates from surfactants or functional small molecules have also been developed for templating the formation of silica nanotubes [10][11][12][13][14][15]. However, these conventional methods cannot, in principle, avoid a non-templated silica deposition and also need harsh sol–gel conditions, such as long

• may collapse upon calcination at temperatures higher than 750 °C [40]. Regarding this, it should be noted that the conventional surfactant-based sol–gel reaction is catalyzed by HCl or NaOH. In this system, the silica sol forms in aqueous solution and then subsequently precipitates within the space of

A facile synthesis of a carbon-encapsulated Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite and its performance as anode in lithium-ion batteries

• Raju Prakash,
• Katharina Fanselau,
• Shuhua Ren,
• Tapan Kumar Mandal,
• Christian Kübel,
• Horst Hahn and
• Maximilian Fichtner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 699–704, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.79

• strategies, such as carbon coatings [7], carbon core–shells [8], nanocomposites [9], nanostructures [10], or nano-encapsulation [11], have recently been explored to circumvent this problem. These strategies apply various synthetic methods [12] such as hydrothermal, coprecipitation, microemulsion, sol–gel

Evolution of microstructure and related optical properties of ZnO grown by atomic layer deposition

• Adib Abou Chaaya,
• Roman Viter,
• Mikhael Bechelany,
• Zanda Alute,
• Donats Erts,
• Anastasiya Zalesskaya,
• Kristaps Kovalevskis,
• Vincent Rouessac,
• Valentyn Smyntyna and
• Philippe Miele

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 690–698, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.78

• different deposition techniques such as sol–gel [18], chemical vapor deposition [19], electro-deposition [5][6][7], RF sputtering, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) [16][17]. It is well known that the optoelectronic properties of zinc oxide thin film [20][21] are strongly dependent on the structure [11][22

Ultramicrosensors based on transition metal hexacyanoferrates for scanning electrochemical microscopy

• Maria A. Komkova,
• Angelika Holzinger,
• Andreas Hartmann,
• Alexei R. Khokhlov,
• Christine Kranz,
• Arkady A. Karyakin and
• Oleg G. Voronin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 649–654, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.72

• . Operational stability of the PB can be improved by covering its surface with polymer films [21][22], by entrapment of the catalysts into sol–gel [23][24][25], and by conductive polymer matrixes [26][27]. In [20] we have demonstrated a novel approach for the stabilization of a sensor based on mixed iron-nickel

Ferromagnetic behaviour of Fe-doped ZnO nanograined films

• Boris B. Straumal,
• Svetlana G. Protasova,
• Andrei A. Mazilkin,
• Thomas Tietze,
• Eberhard Goering,
• Gisela Schütz,
• Petr B. Straumal and
• Brigitte Baretzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 361–369, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.42

• ][52][54][55][58][64] or nanopowders [24][29][32][41][42][46][53][56][59][65][66], or for films obtained by sol–gel method, pyrolysis, CVD or PLD [22][23][25][27][28][45]. If the samples mentioned in the analysed papers were not poreless, such as in the partly sintered powders (open and filled diamonds

Photocatalytic antibacterial performance of TiO₂ and Ag-doped TiO₂ against S. aureus. P. aeruginosa and E. coli

• Kiran Gupta,
• R. P. Singh,
• Ashutosh Pandey and
• Anjana Pandey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 345–351, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.40

• bacterial strains under visible-light irradiation. The TiO2 and Ag-doped TiO2 photocatalysts were synthesized by acid catalyzed sol–gel technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–vis spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). The XRD pattern revealed

• zero viability at 40 mg/30 mL culture in the case of P. aeruginosa only. Keywords: Ag-doped TiO2; antimicrobial activity; sol–gel; Introduction The photocatalytic agent TiO2, known for its chemical stability and optical competency, has been used extensively for killing different groups of

• acid-catalyzed sol–gel technique. The prepared particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV–vis) and photoluminescence (PL). Furthermore, the antibacterial activity of the TiO2 and Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles were

Photoelectrochemical and Raman characterization of In₂O₃ mesoporous films sensitized by CdS nanoparticles

• Mikalai V. Malashchonak,
• Sergey K. Poznyak,
• Eugene A. Streltsov,
• Anatoly I. Kulak,
• Olga V. Korolik and
• Alexander V. Mazanik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 255–261, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.27

• investigation of nanostructured In2O3 sensitization is also explained by the fact that the Ec level of In2O3 can be managed by the thermal treatment during preparation by the sol–gel method. The aim of this work was to investigate the photoelectrochemical behavior of mesoporous nanocrystalline In2O3 films

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

• salts diluted in alcoholic solutions; however, stable solutions by using surfactants [38] or applying a sol–gel process [39] can be also used. The main disadvantage of the chemical method is the difficulty of optimizing the catalyst solution. The template-based approach in which the catalysts are

Characterization and properties of micro- and nanowires of controlled size, composition, and geometry fabricated by electrodeposition and ion-track technology

• Maria Eugenia Toimil-Molares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 860–883, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.97

• growth, sol–gel and other chemical methods [10][11]. This review focuses on the bottom-up template method, which provides nanowires of a great variety of materials, from metals to semiconductors, including polymers as well as inorganic and organic compounds [12]. The material of interest is synthesized

• , polymerisation reactions, sol–gel template synthesis, and high-pressure injection of a melted material are examples of available techniques suitable for filling the pores. The electrodeposition of 40 nm diameter metal nanowires (Sn, In, and Zn) in etched fission tracks in mica was reported by Possin et al. back

• photovoltaic applications. CdTe and CdS rods are mostly synthesized by chemical vapour deposition, and sol–gel processes. Electrodeposition of stoichiometric CdTe nanowires with diameters between 80 nm and 1 μm was reported by Enculescu et al. [95]. In addition to SEM, TEM, EDX, and XRD characterization, they

Plasmonics-based detection of H₂ and CO: discrimination between reducing gases facilitated by material control

• Gnanaprakash Dharmalingam,
• Nicholas A. Joy,
• Benjamin Grisafe and
• Michael A. Carpenter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 712–721, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.81

• and the use of both temperature changes as well as physical and chemical filters [19]. Another example in the direction of materials development is the work by Buso et al., who monitored specific wavelengths of the absorption spectrum of SiO2 sol–gel films containing NiO and Au NPs during gas

• exposures. They demonstrated the selective detection of H2 over CO, based on the differing response characteristics of the films in the different wavelength regions [20]. In another study, Gaspera et al. investigated the role of sol–gel-synthesized metal-oxide (NiO and TiO2) films that were coated over Au

• NPs. One of the motivations of this work was to examine if the catalytic activity of the sol–gel-coated Au NPs increased due to the reduction in temperature-driven sintering of the Au NPs by the metal-oxide films, which would serve to reduce the Au NP size. They showed that such an arrangement had a

FTIR nanobiosensors for Escherichia coli detection

• Stefania Mura,
• Gianfranco Greppi,
• Maria Laura Marongiu,
• Pier Paolo Roggero,
• Sandeep P. Ravindranath,
• Lisa J. Mauer,
• Nicoletta Schibeci,
• Francesco Perria,
• Massimo Piccinini,
• Plinio Innocenzi and
• Joseph Irudayaraj

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 485–492, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.55

• traditional devices into biosensing systems with high sensitivity. In particular, mesoporous titania thin films synthesized with the sol–gel method, were used to immobilize biomolecules (antibodies and pathogens) thanks to the high surface area due to their nano-organization, visible in a AFM image (Figure 1