Lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics

• Oleksandr Stroyuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2209–2235, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.207

Phosphorus monolayer doping (MLD) of silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates

• Noel Kennedy,
• Ray Duffy,
• Luke Eaton,
• Dan O’Connell,
• Scott Monaghan,
• Shane Garvey,
• James Connolly,
• Chris Hatem,
• Justin D. Holmes and
• Brenda Long

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2106–2113, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.199

• higher carrier concentration levels approaching the solid-solubility limits to be achieved in silicon. Experimental Substrate preparation SOI samples were degreased through sonication in acetone for 120 seconds followed by a dip in 2-propanol and drying under a stream of nitrogen. Samples were then

Nanoconjugates of a calixresorcinarene derivative with methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) fragments for drug encapsulation

• Alina M. Ermakova,
• Julia E. Morozova,
• Yana V. Shalaeva,
• Victor V. Syakaev,
• Aidar T. Gubaidullin,
• Alexandra D. Voloshina,
• Vladimir V. Zobov,
• Irek R. Nizameev,
• Olga B. Bazanova,
• Igor S. Antipin and
• Alexander I. Konovalov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2057–2070, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.195

• toxicity that have sizes of ≤100 nm, increase biocompatibility, stability and circulation time of the drugs, and are sensitive to release stimuli. Nanocontainers on the base of amphiphilic compounds combine these properties and are able to increase the solubility of hydrophobic drugs due to their binding

• usage of fragments of known biocompatible polymers, such as PEG, polylactic acid and polycaprolactone. The functionalization of the calixresorcinarene platform with such fragments leads to the formation of hyperbranched three-dimensional structures, which exhibit a higher solubility, lower viscosity and

• various therapeutics and nanomaterials due to a number of benefits among which its low toxicity the most important [23][24]. PEG has good solubility in water and organic solvents. When being a component of polymeric micelles, it forms the outer hydrophilic shell of the micelle, contributes the colloidal

A differential Hall effect measurement method with sub-nanometre resolution for active dopant concentration profiling in ultrathin doped Si_1−xGe_x and Si layers

• Richard Daubriac,
• Emmanuel Scheid,
• Hiba Rizk,
• Richard Monflier,
• Sylvain Joblot,
• Rémi Beneyton,
• Pablo Acosta Alba,
• Sébastien Kerdilès and
• Filadelfo Cristiano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1926–1939, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.184

• surface was maximum or close to the solubility limit at the annealing temperature. Finally, it was found that dopant activation increases with annealing time although no dopant diffusion is detected by SIMS. It is therefore important to verify if this behaviour also occurs in the case of ultrathin laser

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

• 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

A visible-light-controlled platform for prolonged drug release based on Ag-doped TiO₂ nanotubes with a hydrophobic layer

• Caihong Liang,
• Jiang Wen and
• Xiaoming Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1793–1801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.170

• their well-defined geometry, stable structure [1], high surface-to-volume ratio, highly hydrophilic wetting characteristic [2][3], and remarkable photocatalysis properties [4]. However, the traditional drug delivery systems still exhibit many obvious drawbacks such as low drug solubility, uncontrolled

Cryochemical synthesis of ultrasmall, highly crystalline, nanostructured metal oxides and salts

• Elena A. Trusova and
• Nikolai S. Trutnev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1755–1763, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.166

• possible for compact states [5][6][7]. Most often, aqueous solutions are used; however, solutions in organic solvents (e.g., acetic acid, benzene, tert-butanol, and toluene) can also be used when reasonable equilibrium pressure is applied in the solid state at low temperature. The low solubility of many

Preparation of micro/nanopatterned gelatins crosslinked with genipin for biocompatible dental implants

• Reika Makita,
• Tsukasa Akasaka,
• Seiichi Tamagawa,
• Yasuhiro Yoshida,
• Saori Miyata,
• Hirofumi Miyaji and
• Tsutomu Sugaya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1735–1754, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.165

• ]. Although the collagen/gelatin surface patterns that can be formed are in the micro- to nanoscale range, it is more difficult to fabricate surface patterns with smaller elements because of the solubility, swelling properties, and weakness of collagen/gelatin compared to engineered polymers. The type of

• the solubility of collagen/gelatin scaffolds. Gelatin crosslinked with low concentrations of genipin has been shown to be biodegradable [48][49]. Islam et al. have previously reported that highly porous patterned collagen scaffolds, with porosity of 0.8 to 1.5 mm, could be fabricated by crosslinking

• solubility and degradability of the different patterns can be controlled by the concentration of genipin used for crosslinking. One limitation of this study is that the actual size of the different gelatin surface patterns could not be determined in cell culture due to technical reasons related to the

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

• robust sol–gel coating process in a mixed solvent of ethanol–acetonitrile (EtOH/ACN) for producing polymer@TiO2 core–shell nanostructures was reported [14]. Since the solubility of the TiO2 precursor, titanium butoxide (TBOT), is different in the two different solvents (ethanol and acetonitrile), the

• 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

• , TBOT molecules have a high solubility in ethanol but not in acetonitrile [14]. As a result, when the concentration of ACN increases, the TBOT and its hydrolysate molecules are forced to form nucleates rapidly and to precipitate out of the solution [32][33]. This rapid nucleation and precipitation

Multimodal noncontact atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations of organolead tribromide perovskite single crystals

• Yann Almadori,
• David Moerman,
• Jaume Llacer Martinez,
• Philippe Leclère and
• Benjamin Grévin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1695–1704, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.161

• inverse temperature solubility. The single crystal investigated under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) was fixed on a stainless steel sample UVH holder with a compatible electrically conductive silver epoxy paste (EPO-TEK E4110), which was cured at room temperature (RT) over 24 hours. The sample was subsequently

Closed polymer containers based on phenylboronic esters of resorcinarenes

• Tatiana Yu. Sergeeva,
• Rezeda K. Mukhitova,
• Irek R. Nizameev,
• Marsil K. Kadirov,
• Polina D. Klypina,
• Albina Y. Ziganshina and
• Alexander I. Konovalov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1594–1601, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.151

• as p(SRA-B) but using aqueous solutions of the dyes (5 mM) instead of water. After the synthesis, D@p(SRA-B) were dialyzed for three days. The encapsulation efficiency (EE) of p(SRA-B) toward PTS and Fl is 9.3 and 9.6%, respectively (Table 2). Due to the poor solubility of Py in water and the

Absence of free carriers in silicon nanocrystals grown from phosphorus- and boron-doped silicon-rich oxide and oxynitride

• Daniel Hiller,
• Julian López-Vidrier,
• Keita Nomoto,
• Michael Wahl,
• Wolfgang Bock,
• Tomáš Chlouba,
• František Trojánek,
• Sebastian Gutsch,
• Margit Zacharias,
• Dirk König,
• Petr Malý and
• Michael Kopnarski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1501–1511, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.141

• considered. From Figure 3a and 3b, however, it is obvious that neither a spectral shift nor an efficient PL-quenching by P-incorporation takes place. In contrast, the PL remains very intense up to a P-concentration in SRO beyond >1 atom % P, i.e., vastly exceeding the solubility limit of P in Si. An almost

Synthesis and characterization of two new TiO₂-containing benzothiazole-based imine composites for organic device applications

• Anna Różycka,
• Agnieszka Iwan,
• Krzysztof Artur Bogdanowicz,
• Michal Filapek,
• Natalia Górska,
• Damian Pociecha,
• Marek Malinowski,
• Patryk Fryń,
• Agnieszka Hreniak,
• Jakub Rysz,
• Paweł Dąbczyński and
• Monika Marzec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 721–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.67

• azomethine with the triphenylamine and 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene moieties was 11%, whereas the PCE value for 2,2’,7,7’-tetrakis-(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9’-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD) was 11.9% [28]. The total cost of this azomethine, with known solubility and energy levels, is $10 per gram, which

Cyclodextrin-assisted synthesis of tailored mesoporous silica nanoparticles

• Fuat Topuz and
• Tamer Uyar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 693–703, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.64

• functionalization-induced changes in the CD structure. The solubility of CD molecules greatly varies depending on the CD structure. Pristine CDs are poorly soluble molecules due to the presence of strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding in the crystal state (e.g., the solubility of β-CD in water is 18.5 g/L) [22

• ], while HP-functionalized CDs are highly water-soluble (according to the manufacturer “Wacker Chemie AG”, the solubility of HP-β-CD and HP-γ-CD is, respectively, 2300 g/L and 800 g/L). In water, pristine CDs form aggregates in the size range of 200–300 nm depending on the number of glucose units in the

• , the particle morphology changed to spherical with an increase of the CD content. At higher CD concentrations, the formation of single particles was apparent. This might be attributed to high water solubility of HP-γ-CDs. These moieties might shield the particle surface from fusion with other particles

Green synthesis of fluorescent carbon dots from spices for in vitro imaging and tumour cell growth inhibition

• Nagamalai Vasimalai,
• Vânia Vilas-Boas,
• Juan Gallo,
• María de Fátima Cerqueira,
• Mario Menéndez-Miranda,
• José Manuel Costa-Fernández,
• Lorena Diéguez,
• Begoña Espiña and
• María Teresa Fernández-Argüelles

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 530–544, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.51

• environmental hazard concerns [2]. Furthermore, due to their ultra-small size, the Brownian motion provides enough energy to prevent nanoparticle aggregation, giving rise to an excellent solubility and stability in aqueous media [3][4]. Their excitation wavelength-dependent emission, their environmental

• compatibility and water solubility without the need of performing surface chemistry after their synthesis make them the perfect candidates for optical bioimaging and other biomedical applications [5][6][7]. The fluorescence mechanism of C-dots is not fully understood and there is an ongoing debate on the origin

Ultralight super-hydrophobic carbon aerogels based on cellulose nanofibers/poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphene oxide (CNFs/PVA/GO) for highly effective oil–water separation

• Zhaoyang Xu,
• Huan Zhou,
• Sicong Tan,
• Xiangdong Jiang,
• Weibing Wu,
• Jiangtao Shi and
• Peng Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 508–519, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.49

• consequence, we report a CNF-based aerogel (CNFs/PVA/GO aerogel) composed of a CNF skeleton combined with PVA and GO, which could conquer these drawbacks. PVA is a polymer that has many excellent properties such as biodegradability, low cost, biocompatibility and water solubility [25]. Additionally, GO was

Kinetics of solvent supported tubule formation of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) wax on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) investigated by atomic force microscopy

• Sujit Kumar Dora,
• Kerstin Koch,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Klaus Wandelt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 468–481, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.45

• in four different types of chloroform based solutions: i) pure chloroform containing different wax concentrations (0.2, 0.8, 1.0, 10 mg/mL); ii) a solution of 0.8 mg/mL of wax in water saturated chloroform (solubility of water in chloroform 0.56% at 20 °C); iii) a solution of 0.8 mg/mL of wax in

• may suggest that salts like ammonium-nitrate or -sulfate do not seem to interact with wax molecules at all and, hence, have no effect on tubule growth rate or orientation. But a too low solubility of these two salts in chloroform (dipole moment 1.15 D) in order to expect any influence cannot be

Temperature-tunable lasing from dye-doped chiral microdroplets encapsulated in a thin polymeric film

• Gia Petriashvili,
• Mauro Daniel Luigi Bruno,
• Maria Penelope De Santo and
• Riccardo Barberi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 379–383, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.37

• film. Here, we report on the possibility to tune the laser emission as a function of temperature. Using a chiral dopant with temperature dependent solubility, the emitted laser wavelength can be tuned in a range of 40 nm by a temperature variation of 18 °C. The proposed device can have applications in

• systems [6][7][8]. Further, since the PBG spectral position can be shifted, also the laser emission wavelength can be tuned by using external factors as the temperature variations. CLCs are often mixtures of nematic liquid crystal and chiral dopant. A chiral dopant with temperature dependent solubility

• that the laser emission tuning can be obtained preparing the CLC mixture by using a chiral dopant with temperature-dependent solubility. For both emulsion and thin film form, the laser emission wavelength can be tuned. In particular, laser emission from the thin film is tuned over a range of about 40

Sugarcane juice derived carbon dot–graphitic carbon nitride composites for bisphenol A degradation under sunlight irradiation

• Lan Ching Sim,
• Jing Lin Wong,
• Chen Hong Hak,
• Jun Yan Tai,
• Kah Hon Leong and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 353–363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.35

• drawn the attention of researchers. Such green CDs are widely applied in bioimaging [6][12], sensing [13] and solar cells [14]. However, the obtained CDs showed superior water solubility, limiting their down-to-earth applicability for photocatalysis in aqueous solution. It is well-known that the organic

• mediator and acceptor and increasing adsorption [33][34]. Therefore, g-C3N4 could be combined with CDs to overcome the solubility problem of CDs and to boost the performance of g-C3N4. Besides, the CDs can also act as photosensitizers to harvest a wide spectrum of solar light to achieve efficient daylight

Dopant-stimulated growth of GaN nanotube-like nanostructures on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy

• Alexey D. Bolshakov,
• Alexey M. Mozharov,
• Georgiy A. Sapunov,
• Igor V. Shtrom,
• Nickolay V. Sibirev,
• Vladimir V. Fedorov,
• Evgeniy V. Ubyivovk,
• Maria Tchernycheva,
• George E. Cirlin and
• Ivan S. Mukhin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 146–154, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.17

• be noted that the dopant concentration in the heavily doped shell may significantly exceed the solubility limit of Si atoms in planar GaN layers (which is about 5∙1019 cm−3 [31]). In the case of 2D layers, such a high doping level leads to an increase of the elastic stress and massive emergence of

• threading dislocations [32][33][34] followed by transition to three-dimensional growth of nanoislands [33][35]. The phenomenon of the Si solubility limit elevation in GaN NWs is usually explained again through effective stress relaxation due to the large surface area of these nanostructures. This work is

• magnitude higher than in the bulk [43]. A similar effect of doping level elevation (which value may even exceed the Si solubility limit in bulk GaN) was observed in the surface layer of GaN NWs [27][28]. The preferential incorporation of Si in the outer part (shell) of the NW leads to formation of point

Atomic layer deposition and properties of ZrO₂/Fe₂O₃ thin films

• Kristjan Kalam,
• Helina Seemen,
• Peeter Ritslaid,
• Mihkel Rähn,
• Aile Tamm,
• Kaupo Kukli,
• Aarne Kasikov,
• Joosep Link,
• Raivo Stern,
• Salvador Dueñas,
• Helena Castán and
• Héctor García

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 119–128, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.14

• stoichiometry of ZrFe2O5, the synthesis of ZrFe2O5 has not been convincingly completed. Instead, one can believe that the solubility of iron oxide in zirconia is rather low and, in addition, it requires rather aggressive heat treatments. No crystallographic traces of ternary ZrFe2O5 have been registered, and

Facile synthesis of silver/silver thiocyanate (Ag@AgSCN) plasmonic nanostructures with enhanced photocatalytic performance

• Xinfu Zhao,
• Dairong Chen,
• Abdul Qayum,
• Bo Chen and
• Xiuling Jiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2781–2789, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.277

• solubility product constant (Ksp) of AgSCN (Figure 3a). These nanoplates rapidly aggregated due to the high surface energy, and the crystal growth occurred simultaneously (Figure 3b). At this time, the dropwise addition of the AgNO3 solution finished. The oriented-aggregates with a size of ≈1.5 µm were

L-Lysine-grafted graphene oxide as an effective adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue and metal ions

• Yan Yan,
• Jie Li,
• Fangbei Kong,
• Kuankuan Jia,
• Shiyu He and
• Baorong Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2680–2688, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.268

• graphene oxide (GO) with malononitrile can increase the solubility in either organic or aqueous environments [21]. However, no practical application for the malononitrile-modified GO was described. Interestingly, Ma et al. reported an polyethyleneimine-functionalized ultra-light graphene aerogel (PFGA

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

• synthesized using Ni/Mo, Co/Mo, and Fe/Mo catalysts are 0.9, 1.5, and 2.3 atom %, respectively. The obtained concentrations correlate with nitrogen solubility in liquid nickel and binary nickel-containing alloys [30]. The XPS N 1s spectra of the three hybrid materials are compared in Figure 5a. The spectra

The role of ligands in coinage-metal nanoparticles for electronics

• Ioannis Kanelidis and
• Tobias Kraus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2625–2639, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.263

• ligands are employed during synthesis to determine geometry [2][8], to control colloidal stability [5][26][27][28], to expand the solubility range through end-functionalization [29], or to influence the electro-optical features [26][30] of the resulting nanoparticles (NPs). They can act as cross-linkers

• modified nanoparticles exhibited resistivities that were six and ten orders of magnitude below that of films prepared from the original oleylamine-stabilized Au NPs [102]. The commonly used CTAB forms insulating layers, too, and has limited solubility even in water that makes ink formulation challenging