Electrospun one-dimensional nanostructures: a new horizon for gas sensing materials

• Muhammad Imran,
• Nunzio Motta and
• Mahnaz Shafiei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2128–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.202

• materials used as an active sensing layer, including polymers, metal oxide semiconductors, graphene, and their composites or their functionalized forms. The material properties of these electrospun fibers and their sensing performance toward different analytes are explained in detail and correlated to the

• composites, are fabricated in various assemblies (e.g., as mixed nanocomposites, double-layers, core–shell or hollow forms) using the electrospinning technique [37]. These electrospun nanofibers exhibit enhanced specific surface area, superior mechanical properties, nanoporosity and improved surface

• review and summarize the fabrication of electrospun 1D nanostructures based on diverse range of materials (including polymers, metal oxide semiconductors, graphene, and their composites or their functionalized forms) and their gas sensing performance in all available sensing architectures (including

Synthesis of a MnO₂/Fe₃O₄/diatomite nanocomposite as an efficient heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst for methylene blue degradation

• Zishun Li,
• Xuekun Tang,
• Kun Liu,
• Jing Huang,
• Yueyang Xu,
• Qian Peng and
• Minlin Ao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1940–1950, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.185

• support of carriers, the prepared composites possess a much higher specific surface area, which further enhances the adsorption and the consecutive degradation performance of the catalysts. Diatomite, a natural porous mineral originating from the fossilization of diatom shells, is composed of amorphous

• assembly of composites and their application in wastewater treatments. Then, the as-prepared Fe3O4/diatomite shows a slightly rough surface and a part of the pores are blocked by the attachments, indicating the evenly loading of the tiny Fe3O4 nanoparticles. For the MnO2/Fe3O4/diatomite, a rather rough

• indicates that both of the samples show superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature [31]. The maximum saturation magnetizations of Fe3O4/diatomite and MnO2/Fe3O4/diatomite were measured to be 16.57 and 10.61 emu/g, respectively, which make the composites very easy to be separated by an external magnetic

Uniform cobalt nanoparticles embedded in hexagonal mesoporous nanoplates as a magnetically separable, recyclable adsorbent

• Can Zhao,
• Yuexiao Song,
• Tianyu Xiang,
• Wenxiu Qu,
• Shuo Lou,
• Xiaohong Yin and
• Feng Xin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1770–1781, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.168

• of the as-prepared NPLs, including the good distribution of metal nanoparticles, strong magnetic response, fast adsorption rate, high adsorption capacity, and easy regeneration, provide opportunities for designing new composites with enhanced sorption behavior. This hexagonal magnetic mesoporous NPL

• conditions. (C) and (D) Corresponding pore size distributions derived from the adsorption branches using the NLDFT method. (A) Magnetization curves of the nanoplate samples prepared by carbonization of LDH@PDA at (a–c) 800 and °C (d) 650 °C for 2 h. LDH@PDA composites were prepared with different initial

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles as sulfur encapsulator for high-performance lithium/sulfur batteries

• Yan Zhao,
• Zhengjun Liu,
• Liancheng Sun,
• Yongguang Zhang,
• Yuting Feng,
• Xin Wang,
• Indira Kurmanbayeva and
• Zhumabay Bakenov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1677–1685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.159

• shuttling effect [10]. In addition, metal oxides can be easily synthesized in various morphologies, e.g., hollow structures, to “hold” S [11]. Similar to S, metal oxides are, however, not conductive [12]. Therefore, an efficient approach is to use hybrids/composites of carbon materials and metal oxides, as

• conductivity and the ability of active nitrogen sites to enhance the electrochemical performances of Li/S batteries [13][16]. To the best of our knowledge, such uniquely structured S/ZnO@NCNT composites have been rarely reported as cathode material for Li/S battery in the literature. Here, we present a

Free-radical gases on two-dimensional transition-metal disulfides (XS₂, X = Mo/W): robust half-metallicity for efficient nitrogen oxide sensors

• Chunmei Zhang,
• Yalong Jiao,
• Fengxian Ma,
• Sri Kasi Matta,
• Steven Bottle and
• Aijun Du

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1641–1646, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.156

• ], composites of nanoflower-like CuxO and multilayer graphene (CuMGCs) [5] have been successfully synthesized as new types of room-temperature NO gas sensors. Compared with 3D materials [6], two-dimensional (2D) materials (sheets with thickness of on atom) [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] such as graphene [8

Nanoscale electrochemical response of lithium-ion cathodes: a combined study using C-AFM and SIMS

• Jonathan Op de Beeck,
• Nouha Labyedh,
• Alfonso Sepúlveda,
• Valentina Spampinato,
• Alexis Franquet,
• Thierry Conard,
• Philippe M. Vereecken,
• Wilfried Vandervorst and
• Umberto Celano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1623–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.154

• established nanoscale analysis techniques namely conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). We present a platform to study Li-ion composites with nanometer resolution that allows one to sense a multitude of key characteristics including structural, electrical and

• the reproducibility and quantitative interpretation of C-AFM [17]. At the same time, we do not expect the high-vacuum environment to be completely free from humidity. Therefore, in these measurements the formation of any Li composites such as Li2O and Li2CO3 cannot be excluded as also considered by

Cr(VI) remediation from aqueous environment through modified-TiO₂-mediated photocatalytic reduction

• Rashmi Acharya,
• Brundabana Naik and
• Kulamani Parida

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1448–1470, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.137

• electrons from TiO2 are efficiently transported to graphene, leading to enhanced photocatalytic activity (Figure 7). Liu et al. reported that TiO2–RGO composites exhibited enhanced photocatalytic performance for the reduction of Cr(VI) by UV light illumination as compared to pure TiO2 and commercial P25

• recombination of electron–hole pairs instead of providing an electron pathway [129][130] and maximizes the light harvesting competition between TiO2 and RGO [128]. Zhao et al. prepared TiO2–RGO composites with large specific surface area (104.9 m2/g) [131]. At low pH, the large surface of the composite becomes

• (visible region) for generation of photoelectrons as well as favors the effective transfer of these photoinduced electrons for enhanced photocatalytic activity towards reduction of Cr(VI). About 86.5% of Cr(VI) was photoreduced by TiO2–RGO composites, while TiO2 photoreduced only 54.2% of Cr(VI). They

New 2D graphene hybrid composites as an effective base element of optical nanodevices

• Olga E. Glukhova,
• Igor S. Nefedov,
• Alexander S. Shalin and
• Мichael М. Slepchenkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1321–1327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.125

• absorbed by the film induces electron transport of 105 electrons, and the response time amounts to ca. 100 microseconds [9]. It should be noted that modern synthesis technologies for such composites have allowed us to provide “cross-linking” between CNTs and graphene during synthesis without further

• -mechanical SCC DFTB method [12][13] The 2D CNT–graphene hybrid film was modelled by two graphene monolayers between which single-walled CNTs with different diameters were regularly arranged at different distances from each other. As was shown earlier [14], the composites with zigzag tubes (n, 0) (n = 10, 12

Ag₂WO₄ nanorods decorated with AgI nanoparticles: Novel and efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for the degradation of water pollutants

• Shijie Li,
• Shiwei Hu,
• Wei Jiang,
• Yanping Liu,
• Yu Liu,
• Yingtang Zhou,
• Liuye Mo and
• Jianshe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1308–1316, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.123

• these disadvantages [38][39][40][41][42]. The integration of VLD components with wide bandgap semiconductors having well-matched energy bands has provided a new opportunity for the development of VLD photocatalysts [12]. As a consequence, some Ag2WO4-based composites containing VLD components such as

• indexed to (002), (231), (400), (402), (361) and (333) diffraction planes, respectively [31][41]. The diffraction peaks of pure AgI match well with those of the standard hexagonal phase (JCPS no 29-1154) [43]. It can be seen that all the AgI/Ag2WO4 composites display both Ag2WO4 and AgI phases. Of note is

• /Ag2WO4, 0.3AgI/Ag2WO4, and 0.4AgI/Ag2WO4) show greatly improved photocatalytic activity compared with pure Ag2WO4, and their degradation efficiency (within 60 min of reaction) are 56.8%, 72.7%, 91.3% and 85.6%, respectively. Among these composites, 0.3AgI/Ag2WO4 shows the highest performance. Apparently

The electrical conductivity of CNT/graphene composites: a new method for accelerating transmission function calculations

• Olga E. Glukhova and
• Dmitriy S. Shmygin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1254–1262, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.117

• (CNTs)/graphene. The electrical conductance of different models of this material was calculated in two mutually perpendicular directions. Regularities in resistance values were found. Keywords: carbon composites; electronic properties; interpolation; quantum transport; transmission function

• ; Introduction The development of technologies for the synthesis of graphene nanomaterials has led to an expansion of the scope of their application. One of the graphene composites that have been actively studied in the last few years is pillared graphene [1]. It is a graphene layer, connected seamlessly by

• graphene/CNT composites Using the developed method for calculating the transmission function we investigated the transmission functions and electrical conductance of 2D graphene/CNT composites. The investigated film was modelled by two layers of graphene connected by single-layer armchair tubes (9,9) with

Review on nanoparticles and nanostructured materials: history, sources, toxicity and regulations

• Jaison Jeevanandam,
• Ahmed Barhoum,
• Yen S. Chan,
• Alain Dufresne and
• Michael K. Danquah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1050–1074, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.98

• nanofibers) or more complicated structures, such as a metal-organic frameworks. The composites may be any combinations of carbon-based, metal-based, or organic-based NMs with any form of metal, ceramic, or polymer bulk materials. NMs are synthesized in different morphologies as mentioned in Figure 1

• , the Gleiter scheme was not fully complete because the dimensionality of the NPs and NSMs was not considered [17]. In 2007, Pokropivny and Skorokhod made a new scheme of classification for NMs which included the recently developed composites such as 0D, 1D, 2D and 3D NMs, as shown in Figure 1 [18

• drugs that can inhibit the growth of these harmful bacteria in its early stage. Nanoparticles and nanostructures in plants Wood is made of natural fibers that are considered as cellular hierarchical bio-composites. Natural fibers are composites of cellulosic-fibrils at the nanoscale level. The simplest

Bioinspired self-healing materials: lessons from nature

• Joseph C. Cremaldi and
• Bharat Bhushan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 907–935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.85

Comparative study of antibacterial properties of polystyrene films with TiO_x and Cu nanoparticles fabricated using cluster beam technique

• Vladimir N. Popok,
• Cesarino M. Jeppesen,
• Peter Fojan,
• Anna Kuzminova,
• Jan Hanuš and
• Ondřej Kylián

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 861–869, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.80

• affecting in a destructive way the cell components but rendering innocuous products (mechanism ii) [5][6]. Thus, both Cu and TiO2 nanoparticles are excellent candidates for the formation of composites with antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. For more convenience in use and extended applications, NPs

• can be embedded into polymer films. Polymers have a clear advantage as cheap and plastic materials that can be easily fabricated in shapes and forms convenient for practical and simple use. Hence, metal–polymer composites have become very attractive, for example, in food packaging or the fabrication

• resistant against washing out in procedures. It has recently been shown that the deposition of metal NPs using the cluster beam technique is an efficient approach in the formation of polymer composite films with antibacterial properties. The composites can be formed by either incorporation of particles

Effect of ferroelectric BaTiO₃ particles on the threshold voltage of a smectic A liquid crystal

• Abbas R. Imamaliyev,
• Mahammadali A. Ramazanov and
• Shirkhan A. Humbatov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 824–828, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.76

• of other functional materials. In polymer-dispersed LCs used in flexible displays, small drops of LC are distributed in a polymer medium [5]. In colloidal LC composites, vice versa, micrometer- or submicrometer-sized particles of various nature (e.g., ferromagnetic or ferroelectric) are dispersed in

Graphene composites with dental and biomedical applicability

• Sharali Malik,
• Felicite M. Ruddock,
• Adam H. Dowling,
• Kevin Byrne,
• Wolfgang Schmitt,
• Ivan Khalakhan,
• Yoshihiro Nemoto,
• Hongxuan Guo,
• Lok Kumar Shrestha,
• Katsuhiko Ariga and
• Jonathan P. Hill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 801–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.73

• applicability, methods to produce larger than lab-scale quantities of graphene are required. Here, we present a simple method to make large quantities of FLG starting with commercially available multi-layer graphene (MLG). This FLG material was then used to fabricate graphene dental-polymer composites. The

• resultant graphene-modified composites show that low concentrations of graphene (ca. 0.2 wt %) lead to enhanced performance improvement in physio-mechanical properties – the mean compressive strength increased by 27% and the mean compressive modulus increased by 22%. Herein we report a new, cheap and simple

• method to make large quantities of few-layer graphene which was then incorporated into a common dental polymer to fabricate graphene-composites which shows very promising mechanical properties. Keywords: biocompatibility; bioglass; graphene; mechanical properties; nanocomposite; Introduction Now that

Facile synthesis of a ZnO–BiOI p–n nano-heterojunction with excellent visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Mengyuan Zhang,
• Jiaqian Qin,
• Pengfei Yu,
• Bing Zhang,
• Mingzhen Ma,
• Xinyu Zhang and
• Riping Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 789–800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.72

• Zn/Bi, the morphology varies from nanoplates, flowers to nanoparticles. The heterojunction formed between ZnO and BiOI decreases the recombination rate of photogenerated carriers and enhances the photocatalytic activity of ZnO/BiOI composites. The obtained ZnO/BiOI heterostructured nanocomposites

• properties [33]. In 2014, spin-coating was utilized to prepare ZnO nanowire arrays with tunable band gap, layered BiOBr–BiOI composites onto them. It showed that the BiOBr/BiOI composites played the role of sensitizer in the heterojunctions and were tunable by varying the BiOBr/BiOI ratio [34]. Kuang et al

• heterostructured nanocomposites of ZnO and BiOI. The structural characteristics of the as-prepared ZnO/BiOI composites were revealed by nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms shown in Figure S3, Supporting Information File 1. The isotherm of sample B-4, with a unique hysteresis loop and a classical two capillary

Surface-plasmon-enhanced ultraviolet emission of Au-decorated ZnO structures for gas sensing and photocatalytic devices

• T. Anh Thu Do,
• Truong Giang Ho,
• Thu Hoai Bui,
• Quang Ngan Pham,
• Hong Thai Giang,
• Thi Thu Do,
• Duc Van Nguyen and
• Dai Lam Tran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 771–779, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.70

• proposed NO2 sensors with some previously reported ZnO composites. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 34: Additional spectra. Acknowledgements This work was financially supported by a grant from the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED, code: 104.04-2014.19

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

• of imine:TiO2 composites for organic device applications were examined. The investigated titanium dioxide (in anatase form, obtained via the sol–gel method) exhibited a surface area of 59.5 m2/g according to Brunauer–Emmett–Teller theory, and its structure is a combination of both meso- and

• interaction. Also the temperature of the phase transition was slightly affected with the increase of TiO2 concentration in imine-based composites. The changes observed in the Fourier transform middle-infrared absorption (FT-MIR) spectra confirmed the significant influence of TiO2 on structural properties of

• both investigated imines. Similar interactions of oxygen vacancies existing on the TiO2 surface with SP1 and SP2 were observed. The imine:TiO2 mixtures showed good air stability and reusability, which demonstrates its potential for organic device applications. Keywords: azomethines; composites; HOMO

Perovskite-structured CaTiO₃ coupled with g-C₃N₄ as a heterojunction photocatalyst for organic pollutant degradation

• Ashish Kumar,
• Christian Schuerings,
• Suneel Kumar,
• Ajay Kumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 671–685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.62

• in the literature [32][33]. Xian and coworkers have studied the photocatalytic degradation of MO under simulated solar light irradiation in BaTiO3–g-C3N4 composites with an efficient charge separation of photogenerated charge carriers at the interfaces [30]. Leong et al. have successfully made a

• promising amalgamated g-C3N4–SrTiO3 photocatalyst by a simple thermal method. The as-prepared composites showed exceptional properties for photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A (BPA) under intense sunlight due to the enhanced migration of photogenerated charges over the close interfacial connections

Facile phase transfer of gold nanorods and nanospheres stabilized with block copolymers

• Yaroslav I. Derikov,
• Georgiy A. Shandryuk,
• Raisa V. Talroze,
• Alexander A. Ezhov and
• Yaroslav V. Kudryavtsev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 616–627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.58

• hydro- and organosols with the data of numerical simulations of the surface plasmon resonance, we find that nanoparticles do not aggregate and confirm the transmission electron microscopy data regarding their shape and size. The proposed approach can be effective in preparing hybrid composites without

• cylinders of ca. 100 nm diameter in PS bulk, so that Au nanorods of 30–40 nm diameter can be selectively located within the P2VP domains. It is also important that we avoid using an additional third component stabilizer that is usually present in diblock copolymer composites with Au nanoparticles

Fabrication and photoactivity of ionic liquid–TiO₂ structures for efficient visible-light-induced photocatalytic decomposition of organic pollutants in aqueous phase

• Anna Gołąbiewska,
• Marta Paszkiewicz-Gawron,
• Aleksandra Sadzińska,
• Wojciech Lisowski,
• Ewelina Grabowska,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska and
• Justyna Łuczak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 580–590, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.54

• the IL–TiO2 composites, for example, for photo-electrochemical water splitting [26][27], photo-oxidation of benzyl alcohol [12], phenol [28], degradation of chlorophenol [17][29], reduction of Cr6+ to Cr3+ [30] and the photocatalytic desulfurization of diesel oil [31]. Nevertheless, in most of these

• issue in the field of IL–TiO2 composites, that is, which structural descriptors of ILs are crucial for the preparation of visible-light-active photocatalysts with desired morphology and properties and how to predict the properties of the IL–TiO2 material on the basis of the structure and properties of

• Table 2. The average crystal size values of the IL–TiO2 composites generally increased with the addition of ILs in comparison to pristine TiO2. This could suggest that the addition of ILs during the preparation of TiO2 affects the growth of the anatase nanocrystals, forming microparticles. Similar

Single-step process to improve the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube yarn

• Maria Cecilia Evora,
• Xinyi Lu,
• Nitilaksha Hiremath,
• Nam-Goo Kang,
• Kunlun Hong,
• Roberto Uribe,
• Gajanan Bhat and
• Jimmy Mays

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 545–554, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.52

• electrical properties (Young’s modulus of 1 TPa, tensile strength above 100 GPa), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising materials for various advanced technologies, including CNT-reinforced polymer composites [1][2]. Although many investigations have been carried out with these materials, it still remains a

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

• is considered to be an economical choice because of its physical collection, lower costs, simplicity and high efficiency [1][2]. However, traditional sorbents, such as various synthetic organic polymers, natural organic materials, inorganic sorbents and polymer-based composites, tend to suffer from

Influence of the preparation method on the photocatalytic activity of Nd-modified TiO₂

• Patrycja Parnicka,
• Paweł Mazierski,
• Tomasz Grzyb,
• Wojciech Lisowski,
• Ewa Kowalska,
• Bunsho Ohtani,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska and
• Joanna Nadolna

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 447–459, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.43

• Instrument PIXIS:256E digital CCD camera, equipped with a SP-2156 Imaging Spectrograph and an Opolette 355LD UVDM tunable laser as the excitation source. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were used for chemical characterization of the Nd-TiO2 composites surface. The high-resolution (HR) XPS

Engineering of oriented carbon nanotubes in composite materials

• Razieh Beigmoradi,
• Abdolreza Samimi and
• Davod Mohebbi-Kalhori

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 415–435, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.41

• electronic, military, and new composites, has drawn the attention of researchers to this topic in recent decades [3][4][5]. Figure 1 and Figure 2 represent the growth rate of papers and patents and the fields of application of CNTs in the past 16 years, based on Scopus data, respectively. As indicated, the

• and whether they are open- or close-ended), their arrays and arrangement in composite materials may lead to different properties. For example, in their recent research, Nam et al. have shown the effect of diameter in a composite material containing aligned CNTs [9]. This study showed that composites

• fabricated with a smaller average diameter have significantly better mechanical properties. Gulotty et al. have reported that CNTs with a longer and larger diameter more efficiently improve the thermal conductivity of polymer composites [10]. Furthermore, it has been shown that for biological applications