Advanced atomic force microscopy techniques II

• Thilo Glatzel,
• Ricardo Garcia and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2326–2327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.241

• scientific community within the last years. Similar to the first volume [5], the development of advanced techniques and their application is the focus of this Thematic Series. Contributions related to energy conversion and storage systems have been addressed, e.g., the analysis of cathodes of lithium–sulfur

Two-dimensional and tubular structures of misfit compounds: Structural and electronic properties

• Tommy Lorenz,
• Jan-Ole Joswig and
• Gotthard Seifert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2171–2178, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.226

• as a true intercalated system. Figure 5 in [35] shows this XAS spectra of the K absorption edge of sulfur for the systems TiS2, PbS, PbTiS3 (=MLC (PbS)1.18TiS2), and Fe1/3TiS2. The shapes of the PbTiS3 and Fe1/3TiS2 spectra are quite similar. From this, charge transfer was concluded, which should

• . The explanation might be that the charge transfer does not take place from metal to metal (Sn2+ → Sn4+), because Sn is not a transition metal, in contrast to the TMX2 systems discussed above. Thus, the sulfur atoms of the SnS2 layer could act as donors and Sn2+ atoms in the SnS layer as acceptors

• . Generally, Sn2+ can act as an acceptor if a stronger reducer is present. By comparing the standard potentials of the S2−/S and Sn/Sn2+ systems, it appears that this explanation is possible and is supported by the fact that in the SnS2–SnS bilayer, only the SnS2-sulfur atoms facing the SnS layer become

PVP-coated, negatively charged silver nanoparticles: A multi-center study of their physicochemical characteristics, cell culture and in vivo experiments

• Sebastian Ahlberg,
• Alexandra Antonopulos,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Ralf Dringen,
• Matthias Epple,
• Rebekka Flöck,
• Wolfgang Goedecke,
• Christina Graf,
• Nadine Haberl,
• Jens Helmlinger,
• Fabian Herzog,
• Frederike Heuer,
• Stephanie Hirn,
• Christian Johannes,
• Stefanie Kittler,
• Manfred Köller,
• Katrin Korn,
• Wolfgang G. Kreyling,
• Fritz Krombach,
• Jürgen Lademann,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Eva M. Luther,
• Marcelina Malissek,
• Martina C. Meinke,
• Daniel Nordmeyer,
• Anne Pailliart,
• Jörg Raabe,
• Fiorenza Rancan,
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser,
• Eckart Rühl,
• Carsten Schleh,
• Andreas Seibel,
• Christina Sengstock,
• Lennart Treuel,
• Annika Vogt,
• Katrin Weber and
• Reinhard Zellner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1944–1965, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.205

• as reducing sugar, and cysteine as a model compound for sulfur-containing proteins. H2O2 was used as strongly oxidizing compound. Furthermore, we analyzed the behavior of silver nanoparticles after their immersion in cell culture media (DMEM, RPMI and LB medium) [20]. Figure 3A shows that the

• , the dissolution rate is strongly increased. On the other hand, the dissolution is significantly slower in the presence of dissolved NaCl, a fact that may be due to the formation of insoluble silver chloride. An even stronger inhibiting effect is exerted by the sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine. We

• model is discussed in detail in [20]. It mainly involves an oxidative dissolution of silver nanoparticles, typically by dissolved oxygen, and a passivation of the surface by chloride and sulfur-containing biomolecules. So far, there are no quantitative data on the dissolution of silver nanoparticles in

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

• of the perforations, the presence of sulfur atoms at the surface of the sample was monitored by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) throughout the functionalization step. XPS was carried out right after removing the sample from the MHA solution and after rinsing with EtOH (Figure 7). Before

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

• alkyl bromide to a sulfonate functionality. The ceria coatings deposited after the thiol pretreatment, and on anodes with no pretreatment, were continuous and uniform, with thicknesses of 60–170 nm and 100–140 nm, respectively, and those cells exhibited better lifetime performance and sulfur tolerance

• (IV) oxide; microstructure; organic self-assembled monolayers; solid oxide fuel cells; sulfur tolerance; Introduction Fuel cells convert chemical energy directly to electrical energy. Compared to conventional power sources, fuel cells offer higher efficiencies, lower emissions, modular installation

• , releasing electrons into an external circuit to do electrical work before they pass to the cathode for consumption in the oxygen reduction reaction. It is well known that the performance of SOFC anodes, typically composites of nickel metal with a zirconia or ceria ionic conductor, is degraded by sulfur

The influence of molecular mobility on the properties of networks of gold nanoparticles and organic ligands

• Edwin J. Devid,
• Paulo N. Martinho,
• M. Venkata Kamalakar,
• Úna Prendergast,
• Christian Kübel,
• Tibebe Lemma,
• Jean-François Dayen,
• Tia. E. Keyes,
• Bernard Doudin,
• Mario Ruben and
• Sense Jan van der Molen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1664–1674, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.177

• or silver and is a further indication of binding through sulfur or thioacetate [35][36]. The second most intense feature in the SERS spectrum is a mode at 1076 cm−1, which is assigned to the aromatic C–S stretch shifted from 1095 cm−1 in the powder sample. Both the shift and enhancement of this mode

Growth evolution and phase transition from chalcocite to digenite in nanocrystalline copper sulfide: Morphological, optical and electrical properties

• Priscilla Vasthi Quintana-Ramirez,
• Ma. Concepción Arenas-Arrocena,
• José Santos-Cruz,
• Marina Vega-González,
• Omar Martínez-Alvarez,
• Víctor Manuel Castaño-Meneses,
• Laura Susana Acosta-Torres and
• Javier de la Fuente-Hernández

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1542–1552, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.166

• solvent It consisted of a one-pot colloidal process previously reported by Wang et al. [15] with slight modifications. In this reaction, C2H3CuO2 was the copper precursor and C12H25SH the sulfur precursor. In brief, 1g of TOPO and 0.0488 g of C2H3CuO2 were mixed with 30 mL of C18H36 in a three-neck flask

• aqueous solution In this reaction thiourea and copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4·5H2O) were the sulfur and copper precursors, respectively, and the TEA ligand was an intermediary in the reaction. The synthesis proceeded as follows: A three-necked reactor containing 440 mL of deionized water was

Protein-coated pH-responsive gold nanoparticles: Microwave-assisted synthesis and surface charge-dependent anticancer activity

• Dickson Joseph,
• Nisha Tyagi,
• Christian Geckeler and
• Kurt E.Geckeler

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1452–1462, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.158

• interaction. Those AuNPs that enter the cells do not affect it more than OVA, which contains a disulfide bridge that is broken during microwave irradiation. The breaking of the disulfide bridge allows two sulfur groups to bind to the AuNPs covalently, reducing the exposure of the surface of the AuNP to the

Magnesium batteries: Current state of the art, issues and future perspectives

• Rana Mohtadi and
• Fuminori Mizuno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1291–1311, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.143

Self-organization of mesoscopic silver wires by electrochemical deposition

• Sheng Zhong,
• Thomas Koch,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Harald Rösner,
• Eberhard Nold,
• Aaron Kobler,
• Torsten Scherer,
• Di Wang,
• Christian Kübel,
• Mu Wang,
• Horst Hahn and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1285–1290, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.142

• , on which the sample has been deposited. Cobalt and iron most likely come from the pole pieces of the objective lens. Oxygen and sulfur signals are not observed. Therefore, one can conclude that the silver wires grown in the experiments presented here are chemically pure. The application of silver

• cobalt peaks were also found. Gold and carbon come from the substrate. The cobalt and iron signal comes from the pole pieces of the objective lens; no peak can be attributed to sulfur, nitrogen or oxygen, the latter demonstrating that the silver wires are not oxidized at ambient conditions in air. Auger

Purification of ethanol for highly sensitive self-assembly experiments

• Kathrin Barbe,
• Martin Kind,
• Christian Pfeiffer and
• Andreas Terfort

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1254–1260, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.139

• remain within the monolayer [4]. On the other hand, ethanol is typically produced by fermentation of biomass [22]. In this process, driven by yeasts like Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a plethora of sulfur-containing compounds is produced, among them hydrogen sulfide, dimethyl sulfoxide, short-chained

• these contaminants, yet even very low concentrations of remaining sulfur-containing molecules are sufficient to cover a gold surface: To form a dense monolayer, only about 1 nmol cm−2 of surface-active molecules is needed [4]. Even highly pure commercially available ethanol, such as the one produced for

• high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), suffers from the drawback that the purification procedure is not specific for sulfur-containing contaminations. While these contaminations might only play a minor role in most cases of SAM formation, where thermodynamic equilibrium can be approached by

Organic and inorganic–organic thin film structures by molecular layer deposition: A review

• Pia Sundberg and
• Maarit Karppinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1104–1136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.123

Optimizing the synthesis of CdS/ZnS core/shell semiconductor nanocrystals for bioimaging applications

• Li-wei Liu,
• Si-yi Hu,
• Ying Pan,
• Jia-qi Zhang,
• Yue-shu Feng and
• Xi-he Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 919–926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.105

• generation of multifunction agents for clinic diagnosis and treatment. Experimental Materials Cadmium oxide (CdO, 99.9+%), oleic acid (OA, 99%), sulfur (S, 99%), zinc chloride anhydrous (ZnCl2, 98+%), sodium diethyldithiocarbamate trihydrate (Na(DDTC), 98%), were purchased from Alfa Aesar. 1-Octadecene (ODE

• drying oven at 60 °C. Finally, 1 mmol of Zn(DDTC) was added to a flask with 10 mL of OAm, and sonicated for 20 min under N2 flow. Preparation of sulfur solution The sulfur solution was prepared by reducing 1 mmol of sulfur powder with 5 mL of OAm in a flask. After degassing at room temperature for 10 min

• , the solution was heated to 100 °C under N2 flow, and the temperature was maintained for 10 min. The resulting sulfur solution was then cooled to room temperature for further application. Synthesis of CdS/ZnS core/shell QDs Synthesis of CdS/ZnS was based on a procedure reported previously [37]. The Cd

Pyrite nanoparticles as a Fenton-like reagent for in situ remediation of organic pollutants

• Carolina Gil-Lozano,
• Elisabeth Losa-Adams,
• Alfonso F.-Dávila and
• Luis Gago-Duport

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 855–864, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.97

• a cheap alternative to conventional Fenton approaches for the selective oxidation of pollutant dyes. Experimental Chemicals Copper phthalocyanine-3, 4´, 4´´, 4´´´- tetrasulfonic acid tetrasodium salt (85%), oleylamine (OA, 70%), sulfur (99.99%) and toluene (99.8% anhydrous) were purchased from Sigma

• -probe controlled. Sulfur and FeCl2·4H2O were used as starting materials. Briefly, 0.4 mmol of FeCl2·4H2O were dehydrated and dissolved in 6 mL of OA under N2 atmosphere. The resulting solution was maintained at 100 °C for 1 h, until an Fe–OA complex was formed. A solution of 2.4 mmol of sulfur in 6 mL

Biomolecule-assisted synthesis of carbon nitride and sulfur-doped carbon nitride heterojunction nanosheets: An efficient heterojunction photocatalyst for photoelectrochemical applications

• Hua Bing Tao,
• Hong Bin Yang,
• Jiazang Chen,
• Jianwei Miao and
• Bin Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 770–777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.89

• Hua Bing Tao Hong Bin Yang Jiazang Chen Jianwei Miao Bin Liu School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637459, Singapore 10.3762/bjnano.5.89 Abstract A biomolecule-assisted pyrolysis method has been developed to synthesize sulfur

• -doped graphitic carbon nitride (CNS) nanosheets. During the synthesis, sulfur could be introduced as a dopant into the lattice of carbon nitride (CN). Sulfur doping changed the texture as well as relative band positions of CN. By growing CN on preformed sulfur-doped CN nanosheets, composite CN/CNS

• : graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4); heterojunction; photoelectrochemical; photocatalysis; sulfur doping; Introduction Over the past few years, graphitic carbon nitride (CN) has attracted significant research attention in visible-light-driven photocatalysis because of its unique physical and chemical

Resonance of graphene nanoribbons doped with nitrogen and boron: a molecular dynamics study

• Ye Wei,
• Haifei Zhan,
• Kang Xia,
• Wendong Zhang,
• Shengbo Sang and
• Yuantong Gu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 717–725, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.84

• techniques presented herein should also be applicable to graphene with other dopant elements (e.g., sulfur or silicon). (a) A perfect GNR with 3% B-dopant. (b) A perfect GNR with 1.5% B- and 1.5% N-dopant. (c) Velocity excitation profile. The regions highlighted in red in (a) and (b) represent the fixed

Magnesiothermic conversion of the silica-mineralizing golden algae Mallomonas caudata and Synura petersenii to elemental silicon with high geometric precision

• Janina Petrack,
• Steffen Jost,
• Jens Boenigk and
• Matthias Epple

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 554–560, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.65

• spectroscopy (EDX) of the golden algae before the conversion are shown in Figure 4. Besides silicon, a couple of other elements were detected. The carbon and gold signals are due to the carbon sample holder and the gold sputtering, but the elements oxygen, sodium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, and iron were

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 peaks of Sn 3d show binding energies at 486.35 and at 494.77 eV respectively, which is in good agreement with the value of Sn(IV). The S 2p peaks are located at 161.76 and 162.92 eV, which are consistent with the binding energy of sulfur in sulfide state of CZTS. These results are in agreement

• have a relatively high mobility which can accommodate an exchange with other metal ions at a low energy cost [28]. In addition, the crystal structure of Cu1.8S has a cubic close packing (ccp) array of sulfur ions which is similar to the arrangement of sulfur in kesterite CZTS crystal framework. Hence

Effect of contaminations and surface preparation on the work function of single layer MoS₂

• Oliver Ochedowski,
• Kolyo Marinov,
• Nils Scheuschner,
• Artur Poloczek,
• Benedict Kleine Bussmann,
• Janina Maultzsch and
• Marika Schleberger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 291–297, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.32

• plane of molybdenum atoms that are sandwiched between sulfur atoms. The main reason for this is the transition from an indirect (bulk MoS2) to a direct (single layer MoS2) band gap semi-conductor [5]. Single layer MoS2 has a strong photoluminescence signal [5][6][7][8][9] and other interesting

Nanoscale patterning of a self-assembled monolayer by modification of the molecule–substrate bond

• Cai Shen and
• Manfred Buck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 258–267, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.28

• . The local modification of the sulfur–substrate bond by intercalation of Cu at the Au–substrate interface yields a latent image, which is straightforwardly developed into a patterned binary SAM. Harnessing the significant difference in the strength of the S–Au and S–Cu bond this involves a potential

Surface assembly and nanofabrication of 1,1,1-tris(mercaptomethyl)heptadecane on Au(111) studied with time-lapse atomic force microscopy

• Tian Tian,
• Burapol Singhana,
• Lauren E. Englade-Franklin,
• Xianglin Zhai,
• T. Randall Lee and
• Jayne C. Garno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 26–35, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.3

• with a side-on configuration, with the alkyl backbone aligned parallel to the substrate. It is likely that one sulfur of the tridentate molecule attaches to the surface in the initial molecular adsorption step. As time progresses, a second sulfur attached to the surface with rearrangement to a canted

• ), which likely has all three sulfur groups attached to the surface. Although we have no direct evidence of the numbers of sulfur groups attached to the substrate using AFM characterizations, the range of intermediate height measurements of Figure 2 suggest a step-wise attachment of the sulfur moieties

• nanografted patterns is shorter than that expected for an upright configuration of TMMH, likely attributable to the dilute conditions of the experiment. This may be attributable to an incomplete surface assembly of all three sulfurs of the tridentate group, with only one or two sulfur atoms attaching to the

Synthesis of indium oxi-sulfide films by atomic layer deposition: The essential role of plasma enhancement

• Cathy Bugot,
• Nathanaëlle Schneider,
• Daniel Lincot and
• Frédérique Donsanti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 750–757, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.85

• pyrolysis technique, Maha et al. have inserted sulfur atoms in In2O3 thin films and obtained optical band gaps in the range from 3.85 to 3.96 eV [18]. Thus, based on our previous results and those studies, we became interested in adjusting the optical properties of In2S3 by incorporating oxygen atoms while

• increase with the number of In2O3 cycles during the deposition process of In2S3. The atomic ratios of oxygen, sulfur and indium determined by using EDX are presented in Table 2 and correlated to the optical band gap values. The dependence of the atomic ratio of oxygen and the optical band gap on the number

• the oxygen contained in In2(S,O)3 films is not generated from single layers of In2O3 but rather by exchange reactions as described in the previous section. Indeed, the O2 plasma can directly react with the film surface and induce an exchange reaction with surface sulfur atoms. Figure 7 presents a

AFM as an analysis tool for high-capacity sulfur cathodes for Li–S batteries

• Renate Hiesgen,
• Seniz Sörgel,
• Rémi Costa,
• Linus Carlé,
• Ines Galm,
• Natalia Cañas,
• Brigitta Pascucci and
• K. Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 611–624, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.68

• Center, Stuttgart, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.4.68 Abstract In this work, material-sensitive atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques were used to analyse the cathodes of lithium–sulfur batteries. A comparison of their nanoscale electrical, electrochemical, and morphological properties was performed with

• cathodes. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements of Li2S exposed to ambient air showed that insulating Li2S hydrolyses to insulating LiOH. This validates the significance of electrical ex-situ AFM analysis after cycling. Conductive tapping mode AFM indicated the existence of large carbon-coated sulfur

• particles. Based on the analytical findings, the first results of an optimized cathode showed a much improved discharge capacity of 800 mA·g(sulfur)−1 after 43 cycles. Keywords: conductive AFM; high capacity; lithium-sulfur batteries; material-sensitive AFM; sulfur cathode; Introduction Lithium

Large-scale atomistic and quantum-mechanical simulations of a Nafion membrane: Morphology, proton solvation and charge transport

• Pavel V. Komarov,
• Pavel G. Khalatur and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 567–587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.65

Current–voltage characteristics of single-molecule diarylethene junctions measured with adjustable gold electrodes in solution

• Bernd M. Briechle,
• Youngsang Kim,
• Philipp Ehrenreich,
• Artur Erbe,
• Dmytro Sysoiev,
• Thomas Huhn,
• Ulrich Groth and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 798–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.89

• , Germany Chemistry Department, University of Konstanz, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.3.89 Abstract We report on an experimental analysis of the charge transport through sulfur-free photochromic molecular junctions. The conductance of individual molecules contacted with gold electrodes and the

• presence of sulfur atoms in the switching core. For this study we chose the recently developed class of sulfur-free diarylethenes (with proper side-arms and end-groups) in which the thiophene rings have been replaced by furans that are assumed to be less prone to unspecific binding to the metal electrodes

• molecules using the MCBJ technique in a liquid environment at room temperature. We have investigated three different diarylethene molecules with a sulfur-free switching core to reduce the possibility of unspecific binding. The conductance has been examined during repeated breaking and forming of the atomic