Atomic layer deposited films of Al₂O₃ on fluorine-doped tin oxide electrodes: stability and barrier properties

• Hana Krýsová,
• Michael Neumann-Spallart,
• Hana Tarábková,
• Pavel Janda,
• Ladislav Kavan and
• Josef Krýsa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 24–34, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.2

• [18]. Promising properties of Al2O3 blocking layers for dye-sensitized solar cells were first reported by Palomares at al. [22]. The CVs in Figure 2 demonstrate the blocking behaviour of Al2O3 films on FTO. Increasing numbers of ALD cycles led to an increasing suppression of the peak heights in the

• buffer, pH 7.2) are shown in Figure S6 (Supporting Information File 1). The change in the surface nanoscale morphology can be explained by the replacement of SnO2 by Sn. Figure 8 and Table 2 show that increasing thickness values of ALD alumina layers led to an increase in the efficacy of suppression of

Bio-imaging with the helium-ion microscope: A review

• Matthias Schmidt,
• James M. Byrne and
• Ilari J. Maasilta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1–23, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.1

Unravelling the interfacial interaction in mesoporous SiO₂@nickel phyllosilicate/TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for photocatalytic activity

• Bridget K. Mutuma,
• Xiluva Mathebula,
• Isaac Nongwe,
• Bonakele P. Mtolo,
• Boitumelo J. Matsoso,
• Rudolph Erasmus,
• Zikhona Tetana and
• Neil J. Coville

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1834–1846, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.165

• porous silica surface and the successful growth of sheet-like NiPS particles on top of the SiO2 matrix. The addition of TiO2 (51 m2/g) as expected, led to a lower surface area of the mSiO2@NiPS/TiO2 composite (103 m2/g) compared to the mSiO2@NiPS core–shell nanostructures. Bandgap energy and surface

• photodegradation activity. Charge transfer between mSiO2@NiPS and TiO2 led to a faster charge-carrier separation and transportation at the interface, improving the photoactivity. The photocatalytic results showed that the mSiO2@NiPS/TiO2 composite exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance with a methyl violet

Molecular dynamics modeling of the influence forming process parameters on the structure and morphology of a superconducting spin valve

• Alexander Vakhrushev,
• Aleksey Fedotov,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Roman Morari and
• Anatolie Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1776–1788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.160

• the deposition flux led only to the increase in the atomic density zone in the upper region above the substrate. Leaving the evaporation zone, the deposited atoms tend to occupy a more energetically favorable state and are scattered in an evenly distributed layer throughout the entire free volume

• speed led to a deviation of the composition from the data obtained in the basic version of the calculation. A significant increase in the flux intensity leads to higher agglomeration of the metal atoms above the surface of the substrate. The structure of the resulting nanofilms directly depends on the

• in the number of vaporized atoms per unit time and the duration of the nanofilm deposition stages revealed the layer and contact area compositional dependence on the intensity of the starting element deposition. A significant increase in the deposition flux intensity led to the appearance of

The influence of an interfacial hBN layer on the fluorescence of an organic molecule

• Christine Brülke,
• Oliver Bauer and
• Moritz M. Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1663–1684, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.149

• experimental conditions led to the observation of FL peaks. Figure 4a shows a zoom-in on region II of the spectrum of 0.60 ML PTCDA on hBN/Cu(111) as deposited at a sample temperature of 20 K, and after a series of subsequent annealing steps at temperatures between 100 and 400 K. The peak on the high-energy

• carried out at a sample temperature of 20 K, the temperature-induced structural ordering upon annealing that led to the FL peaks is irreversible. The broad FL peaks are superimposed with several sharp Raman lines, which lead to modulations of the peaks. There are two important differences between the FLA

A self-powered, flexible ultra-thin Si/ZnO nanowire photodetector as full-spectrum optical sensor and pyroelectric nanogenerator

• Liang Chen,
• Jianqi Dong,
• Miao He and
• Xingfu Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1623–1630, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.145

• -infrared (NIR) (1064 nm) under zero bias with fast response speed at each wavelength. The self-power PDs exhibit high responsivity (1200 mA/W), high detectivity (1013 Jones) and fast response speed (τr = 18 μs, τf = 25 μs) under UV illumination. The pyroelectric output current can drive a LED by harvesting

• used to power LEDs (inset in Figure 5e). The rated power of the green LED is 0.06 W and the corresponding rated current is 20 mA. The rated power of the red LED is about 0.04 W and the corresponding rated current is also 20 mA. Based on the investigation of directly powering the LEDs, we can conclude

Oxidation of Au/Ag films by oxygen plasma: phase separation and generation of nanoporosity

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Said A. Mansour,
• Mujaheed Pasha,
• Atef Zekri,
• Janarthanan Ponraj,
• Akshath Shetty and
• Yousef Haik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1608–1614, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.143

• the dominant one. Prolonging the oxidation time to 30 min (Figure 4, pink line) led to a remarkable increase in the silver oxide phase intensity in comparison with the Au/Ag phase. This result indicates an increase in the oxide phase of the microspheres, which is consistent with the SEM results

• heat accumulation within the material during its exposure to the plasma, which probably led to the observed diffusion. Unfortunately, since the temperature rise was local it could not be experimentally measured. STEM-EDS analysis performed on a single column after oxidation, showed a phase separation

• oxidation process. This phase separation led to the transformation of the Au/Ag alloy film into a gold-enriched nanoporous film. Based on the experimental results a mechanism was proposed to explain the entire oxidation process of Au/Ag alloy films by oxygen plasma, involving silver oxidation by atomic

High-responsivity hybrid α-Ag₂S/Si photodetector prepared by pulsed laser ablation in liquid

• Raid A. Ismail,
• Hanan A. Rawdhan and
• Duha S. Ahmed

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1596–1607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.142

• observed at 125, 484 and 730 cm−1. Figure 5a shows the effect of adding CTAB on the UV–vis absorption spectrum of colloidal Ag2S NPs. The optical absorption was measured immediately after laser ablation. The addition of the cationic surfactant CTAB to the Tu solution led to a decrease in the optical

• -dispersive X-ray spectra of the Ag2S NPs prepared with and without CTAB are shown in Figure 10. Figure 10 shows that the [Ag]/[S] weight ratio decreased after adding CTAB. CTAB covered the nanoparticles and led to a decreasing ratio between Ag and S. The origin of nitrogen are thiourea traces attached to the

Walking energy harvesting and self-powered tracking system based on triboelectric nanogenerators

• Mingliang Yao,
• Guangzhong Xie,
• Qichen Gong and
• Yuanjie Su

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1590–1595, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.141

• diode (LED) bulbs. In addition, by integrating the u-TENGs with six electrode channels, a self-powered location-tracking system was developed. This walking energy harvesting device is flexible, durable, and feasible, regardless of the time of the day, season, climate, and weather, which makes it an

• . As a result, this feature leads to a larger difference in the output signal between a man (77 kg) and a woman (46 kg) according to Figure 4d. To further demonstrate the device performance, 110 LED bulbs in series were linked to the as-fabricated u-TENG. As displayed in Figure 4f, all LED bulbs were

• reached the first floorboard, a relevant voltage peak of 86.3 V was detected, as shown in Figure 5b. The signal triggered the first positioning indicator on a monitor, revealing that the pedestrian had just arrived at the first floorboard. The electric output also lit the LED bulb that was connected to

Fabrication of nano/microstructures for SERS substrates using an electrochemical method

• Jingran Zhang,
• Tianqi Jia,
• Xiaoping Li,
• Junjie Yang,
• Zhengkai Li,
• Guangfeng Shi,
• Xinming Zhang and
• Zuobin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1568–1576, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.139

• 10 min, the nanopore diameter and depth were 7.2 ± 0.3 µm and 5 ± 0.5 µm, respectively, as shown in Figure 3d. Thus, a 10 min treatment time led to the formation of pores with microscale structure. A three-dimensional AFM image of arrayed nanopores after a treatment time of 5 min is shown in Figure

Design of V-shaped cantilevers for enhanced multifrequency AFM measurements

• Mehrnoosh Damircheli and
• Babak Eslami

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1525–1541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.135

• researchers have studied the effect of geometry of rectangular cantilevers in bimodal AFM [42]. Also, the effect of the frequency ratio by considering a hole at different locations of the cantilever was studied. This led to the introduction of biharmonic AFM in the field [28]. This work focuses on using V

Self-assembly and spectroscopic fingerprints of photoactive pyrenyl tectons on hBN/Cu(111)

• Domenik M. Zimmermann,
• Knud Seufert,
• Luka Ðorđević,
• Tobias Hoh,
• Sushobhan Joshi,
• Tomas Marangoni,
• Davide Bonifazi and
• Willi Auwärter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1470–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.130

• shifted to higher wavelengths, with two main bands observed at 463 and 438 nm (2.68 and 2.83 eV) and one at a higher energy at 338 nm (3.67 eV). The excitation of the lowest-energy bands also led to a strong emissive band, centered at 481 and 513 nm (2.58 and 2.42 eV), with a quantum yield of 84%. The

• lifetime measurements were performed on a JobinYvon-Horiba FluoroHub single-photon-counting module, using nano-LED-pulsed sources at 295 or 372 nm. The quantum yield measurements were performed using the relative determination, with coumarin 153 (C153, ϕ = 0.53 in ethanol) as the standard (st) [87]. The

Triboelectric nanogenerator based on Teflon/vitamin B1 powder for self-powered humidity sensing

• Liangyi Zhang,
• Huan Li,
• Yiyuan Xie,
• Jing Guo and
• Zhiyuan Zhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1394–1401, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.123

• the LED system luminosity can act as an alarm. Conclusion This study proposed a novel TVB-TENG using vitamin B1 powder and Teflon tape. The fabricated device integrates a self-powered energy supply with a sensing system, and the change in relative humidity of the surrounding environment is properly

Cryogenic low-noise amplifiers for measurements with superconducting detectors

• Ilya L. Novikov,
• Boris I. Ivanov,
• Dmitri V. Ponomarev and
• Aleksey G. Vostretsov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1316–1320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.115

• circuit design was to achieve a high voltage gain level at cryogenic temperatures of 77 and 48 K. This led us to use transistor bias points at high currents up to 10 mA, which is beyond the optimal working points for minimum voltage and current noise criteria. Moreover, this circuit modifies the

Growth of a self-assembled monolayer decoupled from the substrate: nucleation on-command using buffer layers

• Robby Reynaerts,
• Kunal S. Mali and
• Steven De Feyter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1291–1302, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.113

• ≈1.9 × 10−4 M to 9 × 10−5 M) while keeping the same concentration of n-C50 led to exclusive formation of polymorph A. Large domains of the polymorph A were observed with very little real-time spontaneous nucleation of domains. Considering the original goal, our pursuit for new 2D polymorphs of BA-OC14

Proximity effect in [Nb(1.5 nm)/Fe(x)]₁₀/Nb(50 nm) superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures

• Yury Khaydukov,
• Sabine Pütter,
• Laura Guasco,
• Roman Morari,
• Gideok Kim,
• Thomas Keller,
• Anatolie Sidorenko and
• Bernhard Keimer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1254–1263, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.109

• phase. Secondly, we draw attention to the difference between the transport properties of samples s5 and s6. Lowering of the deposition temperature of thick niobium TNb led to polycrystalline growth of the thick Nb layer of sample s6 and a strong decrease of its RRR (Table 1). Such a sensitivity of the

Ultrasensitive detection of cadmium ions using a microcantilever-based piezoresistive sensor for groundwater

• Dinesh Rotake,
• Anand Darji and
• Nitin Kale

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1242–1253, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.108

• essential for sustaining life, and an increase in the global population has led to an exponential increase in waste disposal, which causes significantly increased requirements regarding the control of water quality [1]. Clean water is one of the main priorities of the 21st century worldwide, and negligence

High permittivity, breakdown strength, and energy storage density of polythiophene-encapsulated BaTiO₃ nanoparticles

• Adnanullah Khan,
• Amir Habib and
• Adeel Afzal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1190–1197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.103

• storage; polythiophene; Introduction The fast-paced progress and constantly growing demand of microelectronic devices and energy storage technologies have led to extensive research on the development of new dielectric materials [1][2][3]. High-κ ceramic-based dielectric materials such as BaTiO3 (BTO

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy [15]. The observed chirality, R-C42H28 and L-C42H28, therefore results from the left or right pair of phenyl groups of a twisted C42H28 molecule being closer to the surface. On Au(111) the formation of homochiral clusters led to remarkable

Photothermally active nanoparticles as a promising tool for eliminating bacteria and biofilms

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Laura D’Alfonso,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1134–1146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.98

• eliminated the pathogenic P. aeruginosa upon NIR irradiation [49]. Gold nanorods were also applied to efficiently ablate (up to 97%) S. aureus upon NIR laser irradiation [50]. In these studies, the results suggested that the thermal damage of the bacterial membranes led to bacterial death. In 2013, the first

• nanohole arrays with reduced graphene oxide nanosheets in a unique and flexible polyimide film for laser-gated pathogen inactivation. For the in vivo experiments, the patch was irradiated for 5 min with an LED array (940 nm, 10 W) and the patch surface temperature increased to 52 °C. These tests indicated

Thermophoretic tweezers for single nanoparticle manipulation

• Jošt Stergar and
• Natan Osterman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1126–1133, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.97

• implemented using a custom-built fluorescence microscope. By using an LED-optimized filter cube (Dapi/FITC/Cy3/Cy5 Quad LED HC Filter Set, AHF analysentechnik AG), Köhler illumination is utilized for fluorescence imaging using an LED as its light source. Light is collected from the sample plane by a 63

Gram-scale synthesis of splat-shaped Ag–TiO₂ nanocomposites for enhanced antimicrobial properties

• Mohammad Jaber,
• Asim Mushtaq,
• Kebiao Zhang,
• Jindan Wu,
• Dandan Luo,
• Zihan Yi,
• M. Zubair Iqbal and
• Xiangdong Kong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1119–1125, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.96

• Zhejiang-Mauritius Joint Research Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Hangzhou 310018, China 10.3762/bjnano.11.96 Abstract The control over contagious diseases caused by pathogenic organisms has become a serious health issue. The extensive usage of antibiotics has led to the development of

Straightforward synthesis of gold nanoparticles by adding water to an engineered small dendrimer

• Sébastien Gottis,
• Régis Laurent,
• Vincent Collière and
• Anne-Marie Caminade

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1110–1118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.95

• compound 4 in organic solvents such as methanol or DMSO yielded colorless solutions. On the other hand, when the white powdered form of compound 4 was dissolved in water it instantaneously led to a deep red colloidal suspension, as shown in Figure 2. The red color was a strong indicator of the presence of

Applications of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in drug and therapeutic delivery, and biotechnological advancements

• Maria Suciu,
• Corina M. Ionescu,
• Alexandra Ciorita,
• Septimiu C. Tripon,
• Dragos Nica,
• Hani Al-Salami and
• Lucian Barbu-Tudoran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1092–1109, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.94

• medium, led to nanoparticle agglomeration. Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) with added serum yielded the highest nanoparticle stability compared to other media [54][87]. Also, PVA-coated SPIONs were not internalized by cells when the cell culture medium had serum in it. Without serum cell uptake

• et al. [27] concluded that intermediate SPION dimensions (around 37 nm) are the most effective for uptake. Also, higher concentrations led to a higher uptake (up to 250 μg/mL). The authors also found that the maximal uptake was registered 4 h after the treatment with SPIONs and the declining plateau

• conclusions. Which is the best coating for cellular uptake or for reduced cell uptake and longer circulation time? Or which synthesis conditions are the best for low cytotoxicity? Similar in vitro conditions led to different results, and in vivo analyses changed the entire setting, having no correspondence to

Plant growth regulation by seed coating with films of alginate and auxin-intercalated layered double hydroxides

• Vander A. de Castro,
• Valber G. O. Duarte,
• Danúbia A. C. Nobre,
• Geraldo H. Silva,
• Vera R. L. Constantino,
• Frederico G. Pinto,
• Willian R. Macedo and
• Jairo Tronto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1082–1091, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.93

• , and evaluated the influence of temperature, pH value, and electrolyte solutions on the in vitro release. At a temperature of 25 °C, the release of NAA and IBA was quick in the first 100 min, followed by a gradual release profile. The increase in temperature led to a higher release of NAA and IBA