Uniform Sb₂S₃ optical coatings by chemical spray method

• Jako S. Eensalu,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Erki Kärber,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 198–210, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.18

• uniform thickness. First, amorphous Sb2S3 layers, likely forming by 3D Volmer–Weber island growth through a molten phase reaction between SbCl3 and SC(NH2)2, were deposited in air on a glass/ITO/TiO2 substrate by ultrasonic spraying of methanolic Sb/S 1:3 molar ratio solution at 200–210 °C. Second, we

• produced polycrystalline uniform films of Sb2S3 (Eg 1.8 eV) with a post-deposition thermal treatment of amorphous Sb2S3 layers in vacuum at 170 °C, <4 × 10−6 Torr for 5 minutes. The effects of the deposition temperature, the precursor molar ratio and the thermal treatment temperature on the Sb2S3 layers

• ratio solution at 250 °C in air yielded separate Sb2S3 grains, which did not cover the TiO2 substrate entirely, whereas spraying the Sb/S 1:3 solution yielded an inhomogeneous mix of amorphous and polycrystalline Sb2S3 [12]. We learned to produce continuous uniform layers of polycrystalline Sb2S3 by a

Mechanism of silica–lysozyme composite formation unravelled by in situ fast SAXS

• Tomasz M. Stawski,
• Daniela B. van den Heuvel,
• Rogier Besselink,
• Dominique J. Tobler and
• Liane G. Benning

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 182–197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.17

• interactions are the key to understand the crystallisation of biominerals in living organisms (e.g., in bone formation), and to manufacture better functional materials [11][12][13][14][15]. In particular, composites of amorphous silica (SiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) and lysozyme (LZM) have attracted attention

• well-suspended. We derived a discrete size distribution (histogram in the inset of Figure 1B) for the NPs from the Monte Carlo fit implemented [29][30] in MCSAS under the a priori assumption that the NPs were spherical in shape [31] (physicochemical parameters of amorphous silica given in Table S1

• interaction between the protein LZM and amorphous silica NPs (Figure 5). Immediately upon mixing, aggregation is induced due to the opposing surface charge of the silica NPs and the protein. An infinitely extensive and open (D = 1.8–2.2) aggregate network, from the point of view of the SAXS measurement, forms

Nanoporous water oxidation electrodes with a low loading of laser-deposited Ru/C exhibit enhanced corrosion stability

• Sandra Haschke,
• Dmitrii Pankin,
• Vladimir Mikhailovskii,
• Maïssa K. S. Barr,
• Adriana Both-Engel,
• Alina Manshina and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 157–167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.15

• Ru/C layer along the inner pore walls. The amorphous material consists of metallic Ru incorporated in a carbonaceous C matrix as shown by X-ray diffraction combined with Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. These porous electrodes reveal enhanced stability during water oxidation as compared

• been reported on siliceous supports) [23][24]. The areal loadings are as low as the lowest values found in the literature (amorphous RuO2 with 49 µg cm−2 [45], mixed Ru–Pt catalyst with 15–35 µg cm−2 [20], and RuO2 nanoparticles with 49 µg cm−2) [46]. Chemical characterization of nanostructured Ru/C

• samples The chemical and phase identity of the Ru/C material obtained by laser-induced deposition is delivered by a combination of X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Firstly, the Ru/C layer is amorphous, since only crystalline Al peaks of the substrate are visible

pH-mediated control over the mesostructure of ordered mesoporous materials templated by polyion complex micelles

• Emilie Molina,
• Mélody Mathonnat,
• Jason Richard,
• Patrick Lacroix-Desmazes,
• Martin In,
• Philippe Dieudonné,
• Thomas Cacciaguerra,
• Corine Gérardin and
• Nathalie Marcotte

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 144–156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.14

• -matching pathway requires extreme pH conditions to produce OMMs, as for the synthesis of the well-known SBA (Santa Barbara Amorphous) and M41S (from Mobil Corporation) materials families, which proceed at pH < 1 and pH > 9, respectively. On the contrary, the neutral route necessitates less severe pH

New micro/mesoporous nanocomposite material from low-cost sources for the efficient removal of aromatic and pathogenic pollutants from water

• Emmanuel I. Unuabonah,
• Robert Nöske,
• Jens Weber,
• Christina Günter and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 119–131, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.11

• from an amorphous or less crystalline (impurity) phase [41]. Overall the XRD and solid-state NMR data support the FTIR spectroscopy spectra in that all methods detect some chemical changes in the zinc-based HYCA materials compared to the starting materials, thus confirming the formation of a real

Wet chemistry route for the decoration of carbon nanotubes with iron oxide nanoparticles for gas sensing

• Hussam M. Elnabawy,
• Juan Casanova-Chafer,
• Badawi Anis,
• Mostafa Fedawy,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Ahmed S. G. Khalil,
• Eduard Llobet and
• Xavier Vilanova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 105–118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.10

• (NO3)3·9H2O 99.95% trace metal basic) Acetic acid, Fluka Analytical (CH3COOH 99.8%) Decoration and characterization of carbon nanotubes Commercial CNTs from Nanocyl functionalized with (COOH) groups were further chemically purified by an acidic treatment to remove any traces of catalyst or amorphous

• . The line shape of the C1s spectra recorded is typical for carbon nanotubes, with an asymmetric and narrow sp2 peak at 284.5 eV; this is followed by a second contribution due to carbon in amorphous or sp3 configuration at 285.0 eV [34]. The presence of these peaks associated with C–O bonds indicates

Amorphous Ni_xCo_yP-supported TiO₂ nanotube arrays as an efficient hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalyst in acidic solution

• Yong Li,
• Peng Yang,
• Bin Wang and
• Zhongqing Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 62–70, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.6

• to large-scale industrial application. Amorphous catalysts intrinsically contain more defect sites which probably work as active centers compared to the crystalline counterparts. A representative work is that by Zhang et al. where they synthesized Ni–Co–P/nickel foam electrodes via a facile

• from the electrode to the active sites owing to the large surface area and distinctive 3D well-ordered nanotube structure. Furthermore, the curved interface and confined space facilitate the formation of amorphous phases with more active catalytic sites and contribute to the stability of active

• crystallographic texture of the electrode samples was not altered by the electrodeposition of Ni–P or NiCoP. The intensity of the diffraction peaks follow the order: TNAs > Ni–P/TNAs > NixCoyP/TNAs. It is suggested that after electrodeposition, there was an amorphous deposit covering the TiO2 surface to dampen the

Surface plasmon resonance enhancement of photoluminescence intensity and bioimaging application of gold nanorod@CdSe/ZnS quantum dots

• Siyi Hu,
• Yu Ren,
• Yue Wang,
• Jinhua Li,
• Junle Qu,
• Liwei Liu,
• Hanbin Ma and
• Yuguo Tang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 22–31, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.3

• prepared by drop casting the sample dispersion onto an amorphous carbon-coated 300 mesh copper grid. Synthesis of GNRs To synthesize the GNRs, the seed-mediated growth method in CTAB solution was applied, as previously discussed [30][31]. The seed solution was prepared using 5 mL of a 0.2 M CTAB solution

Zn/F-doped tin oxide nanoparticles synthesized by laser pyrolysis: structural and optical properties

• Florian Dumitrache,
• Iuliana P. Morjan,
• Elena Dutu,
• Ion Morjan,
• Claudiu Teodor Fleaca,
• Monica Scarisoreanu,
• Alina Ilie,
• Marius Dumitru,
• Cristian Mihailescu,
• Adriana Smarandache and
• Gabriel Prodan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 9–21, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.2

• [17]. Highly conductive films based on amorphous Co-doped SnO2 were also synthesized using a pulsed spray evaporation chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique [18]. One of the most reported cationic dopants for tin oxide is Zn2+, where the obtained zinc-doped tin oxide (ZTO) films show lower bandgap

• bandgap values were shown to increase with the vacuum annealing treatment temperature (from 3.41 eV at 300 °C to 3.60 eV at 600 °C), where the amorphous to crystalline conversion was observed only at 600 °C, accompanied by an almost complete fluorine loss [33]. Results and Discussion Structural properties

• as dimerization, dehydrogenation, polymerization, reticulation, aromatization and carbonization with the final formation of amorphous hydrogenated carbon. For the ZTO0.44 case, in spite of an apparent oxygen excess, the carbon is still formed (the EDX-extracted carbon atomic percent is the smallest

Characterization and influence of hydroxyapatite nanopowders on living cells

• Przemyslaw Oberbek,
• Tomasz Bolek,
• Adrian Chlanda,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Sylwia Kusnieruk,
• Julia Rogowska-Tylman,
• Ganna Nechyporenko,
• Viktor Zinchenko,
• Wojciech Swieszkowski and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3079–3094, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.286

• measured by using the following equation [42][43][44]: where ΣAc is the sum of the area under all of the reflections in the diffraction pattern, and ΣAc + ΣAA is the summarized area under all crystalline and amorphous reflections of HAp. Cell assays Four different cell lines were used to assess

Investigation of CVD graphene as-grown on Cu foil using simultaneous scanning tunneling/atomic force microscopy

• Majid Fazeli Jadidi,
• Umut Kamber,
• Oğuzhan Gürlü and
• H. Özgür Özer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2953–2959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.274

• would be useful in understanding the mechanisms of such interactions. Nowadays, a variety of methods are used to prepare graphene. Mechanical exfoliation of graphite facilitates obtaining micrometer-scale graphene layers on amorphous substrates such as silicon oxide [1]. Graphene monolayers have been

Site-controlled formation of single Si nanocrystals in a buried SiO₂ matrix using ion beam mixing

• Xiaomo Xu,
• Thomas Prüfer,
• Daniel Wolf,
• Hans-Jürgen Engelmann,
• Lothar Bischoff,
• René Hübner,
• Karl-Heinz Heinig,
• Wolfhard Möller,
• Stefan Facsko,
• Johannes von Borany and
• Gregor Hlawacek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2883–2892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.267

• are based on p-doped Si wafers with a specific resistivity of 10 Ω cm. The buried SiO2 layer was grown via thermal oxidation at 1123 K in dry O2 atmosphere in a furnace followed by RF-sputtering of an amorphous Si layer. The thickness of the oxide layer was measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry in

Charged particle single nanometre manufacturing

• Philip D. Prewett,
• Cornelis W. Hagen,
• Claudia Lenk,
• Steve Lenk,
• Marcus Kaestner,
• Tzvetan Ivanov,
• Ahmad Ahmad,
• Ivo W. Rangelow,
• Xiaoqing Shi,
• Stuart A. Boden,
• Alex P. G. Robinson,
• Dongxu Yang,
• Sangeetha Hari,
• Marijke Scotuzzi and
• Ejaz Huq

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2855–2882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.266

• carbons in a ring structure as possible, as is the case of a monoadduct methanofullerene derivative. The fullerene molecule gives the maximum possible value of ring parameter and the minimum possible Ohnishi number [37]. The sub-nanometre fullerene molecule forms amorphous films and has been shown

Near-infrared light harvesting of upconverting NaYF₄:Yb³⁺/Er³⁺-based amorphous silicon solar cells investigated by an optical filter

• Daiming Liu,
• Qingkang Wang and
• Qing Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2788–2793, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.260

• light seriously restricts the photoelectric conversion efficiency of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells. Spectral upconversion is of great significance in reducing the wastage. Herein, the upconverting compound NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ was synthesized via a hydrothermal method. SEM and

• cells, the hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film solar cell is one of the most promising candidates due to its high inherent absorption coefficient, short charge-carrier diffusion length and low production cost [1]. Films of a-Si:H with a wide bandgap of ca. 1.75 eV have a high absorption in

Disorder in H⁺-irradiated HOPG: effect of impinging energy and dose on Raman D-band splitting and surface topography

• Lisandro Venosta,
• Noelia Bajales,
• Sergio Suárez and
• Paula G. Bercoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2708–2717, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.253

• structural disorder from hydrogenation is not possible, because the cross section of C–C sp3 bonds in visible Raman characterization is negligible [9][18][21]. Besides, the observed shapes of the ID/IG ratio and the G band are consistent with those corresponding to graphite-like hydrogenated amorphous carbon

• et al. [15] investigated the multi-wavelength Raman spectra of a variety of hydrogenated amorphous carbon materials, which allowed them to estimate values for their bond structure, hydrogen content and mechanical properties. A remarkable conclusion is that UV Raman spectroscopy allows for the

Impact of the anodization time on the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ nanotubes

• Jesús A. Díaz-Real,
• Geyla C. Dubed-Bandomo,
• Juan Galindo-de-la-Rosa,
• Luis G. Arriaga,
• Janet Ledesma-García and
• Nicolas Alonso-Vante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2628–2643, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.244

• along the length and the wall thickness of the TNTs due to etching during the growth process. In his work, he chose f = 3 Hz to avoid interferences from the double-layer capacitance. Considering the amorphous-semiconductor theory [78] in the interpretation of the M–S plots of Di Quarto et al. [79], the

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

• ] but also various oxides and carbides in either amorphous or polycrystalline form [18][19] are accessible. By employing additional postdeposition treatments the metal volume content of some otherwise granular metals can be increased to virtually 100% [20][21][22]. Despite the apparent simplicity of the

Exploring the photoleakage current and photoinduced negative bias instability in amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors with various active layer thicknesses

• Dapeng Wang and
• Mamoru Furuta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2573–2580, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.239

• and illumination stress (NBIS)-induced instability in amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors (a-IGZO TFTs) with various active layer thicknesses (TIGZO) were investigated. The photoleakage current was found to gradually increase in a-IGZO TFTs irrespective of the TIGZO when the photon energy of

• . Keywords: active layer thickness; gate bias; illumination stress; InGaZnO; photoleakage current; thin-film transistors; Introduction Over the last decade, the amorphous oxide-based semiconductor thin-film transistors (AOS TFTs) have attracted global attention for use in advanced display technologies due

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

• with CNF, such as nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), nanofibrillar cellulose, nanofibrous cellulose, and bacterial nanocellulose (BC) [24][29][30]. CNFs can be distinguished through their structure which is comprised of stretched masses of elementary nanofibrils with alternating crystalline and amorphous

• due to its higher crystallinity (Figure 2b). This is because CNCs have an elongated rod-like shape made up of crystalline regions isolated from CNFs [24]. Its assembly occurs through a series of alterations, beginning with the excision of amorphous regions in CNFs to isolate the crystalline regions

• common technique used to extract CNC from cellulose. Unlike mechanical disintegration, this technique destroys the amorphous region (non-crystalline region) in microfibrils, leaving the crystalline regions intact. Liu et al. [76] have demonstrated that CNC obtained through sulphuric acid hydrolysis (with

ZnO-nanostructure-based electrochemical sensor: Effect of nanostructure morphology on the sensing of heavy metal ions

• Marina Krasovska,
• Vjaceslavs Gerbreders,
• Irena Mihailova,
• Andrejs Ogurcovs,
• Eriks Sledevskis,
• Andrejs Gerbreders and
• Pavels Sarajevs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2421–2431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.227

• along the (002) plane, whereas the intensity of all the remaining peaks is negligible, confirming that the ZnO nanostructure arrays are well-aligned and have a strong preferential orientation in the (002) plane direction (Figure 3). Low levels of amorphous background reveal that the nanostructures have

• forms well-developed crystallites of lead oxides mixture, whereas Cd(NO3)2 forms a very thin amorphous layer on the ZnO surface. The SEM images were recorded using secondary electrons, whose output depth is within the range of 1–10 nm; the fact that the contours of the ZnO nanotubes (bright points) are

Hydrothermal-derived carbon as a stabilizing matrix for improved cycling performance of silicon-based anodes for lithium-ion full cells

• Mirco Ruttert,
• Florian Holtstiege,
• Jessica Hüsker,
• Markus Börner,
• Martin Winter and
• Tobias Placke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2381–2395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.223

• 46, 48149 Münster, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.9.223 Abstract In this work, silicon/carbon composites are synthesized by forming an amorphous carbon matrix around silicon nanoparticles (Si-NPs) in a hydrothermal process. The intention of this material design is to combine the beneficial properties of

• synthesized composites show a strong improvement in long-term cycling performance (capacity retention after 103 cycles: ≈55% (20 wt % Si composite) and ≈75% (10 wt % Si composite)), indicating that a homogeneous embedding of Si into the amorphous carbon matrix has a highly beneficial effect. The most

• composites (Si/C), dealing with the incorporation of Si into a variety of different carbon materials, such as graphite, graphene sheets [46][47], porous carbon structures [37][38][48] or the coating of Si using different precursors as carbon sources [49][50][51]. One simple method to form amorphous carbon

High-throughput micro-nanostructuring by microdroplet inkjet printing

• Hendrikje R. Neumann and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2372–2380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.222

• machine to 10 µm, but varies depending on the substrate material (see Figure 2 and Figure 3A–E), based on the interaction between fluid and substrate. As a consequence, poly-Si and both of the amorphous silicon (a-Si 200 and a-Si 400) samples have a droplet diameter size in the range of 76 to 84 µm, while

• the mean value of the diameter is nearly the same as the median. Amorphous silicon results in a less symmetric diameter distribution: while 50% of the droplet diameters are within the upper and lower quartiles on a-Si 400 sample and vary around 83 µm, droplet diameters on a-Si 200 sample are slightly

• voltage were optimized iteratively for each substrate between 6–12 kHz and 16–20 V. A pattern of 4 × 4 droplets with a set droplet diameter of 10 µm was printed on the following substrates: poly-silicon, amorphous silicon of 200 nm thickness (prepared by Fraunhofer ISIT, Itzehoe), amorphous silicon of 400

Performance analysis of rigorous coupled-wave analysis and its integration in a coupled modeling approach for optical simulation of complete heterojunction silicon solar cells

• Ziga Lokar,
• Benjamin Lipovsek,
• Marko Topic and
• Janez Krc

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2315–2329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.216

• (EVA) encapsulation (Figure 3). The front of the basic solar cell structure consists of transparent conductive oxide (e.g., indium tin oxide (ITO)), a thin p-doped and intrinsic amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layer for electrical passivation, a slightly n-doped crystalline Si (c-Si) wafer (absorber), and

• carriers from the c-Si wafer and neglected contributions of carriers from thin amorphous layers (replicating state-of-the-art devices). Under this realistic assumption, the A can be assumed to be equal to the external quantum efficiency, EQE, of the device [18]. In this case, the potential JSC of the solar

Intrinsic ultrasmall nanoscale silicon turns n-/p-type with SiO₂/Si₃N₄-coating

• Dirk König,
• Daniel Hiller,
• Noël Wilck,
• Birger Berghoff,
• Merlin Müller,
• Sangeeta Thakur,
• Giovanni Di Santo,
• Luca Petaccia,
• Joachim Mayer,
• Sean Smith and
• Joachim Knoch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2255–2264, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.210

• electronic DOS were calculated from MO eigenenergies, applying a Gaussian broadening of 0.2 eV. Sample preparation Samples comprising a Si3N4-embedded NWell were fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) using SiH4+NH3+N2 for Si3N4 and SiH4+Ar for amorphous Si [24]. As substrates, n

• respective energy values as extracted from the spectra (dashed lines). The light green and cyan lines show the background fit of the amorphous Si3N4-matrix. The lower signal-to-noise ratio for Si-NWells embedded in Si3N4 as compared to SiO2 is comprehensively evaluated and discussed in Supporting Information

Lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics

• Oleksandr Stroyuk

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

• , respectively, and CB/VB positions suitable for most of ETL/HTL combinations (Figure 2d) [90]. Amorphous MA3Sb2I9 films were reported to have a bandgap of 2.14 eV and relatively high absorption coefficients of an order of 105 cm−1 [153]. The films also demonstrated considerable sub-bandgap absorption with a

• characteristic Urbach energy of ≈60 meV, indicating a substantial level of structural and energetic disorder. Due to the disorder, planar inverted solar cells based on amorphous MA3Sb2I9 showed low photocurrent densities, however, with a relatively high open-circuit voltage (≈890 meV) and a decent fill factor