Au nanostructure fabrication by pulsed laser deposition in open air: Influence of the deposition geometry

• Rumen G. Nikov,
• Anna Og. Dikovska,
• Nikolay N. Nedyalkov,
• Georgi V. Avdeev and
• Petar A. Atanasov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2438–2445, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.242

• ). Initially, PLD technology was used mainly for deposition of thin films with a high crystallinity, accurate stoichiometry, and thickness control on the order of an atomic monolayer [10]. In recent years, this method has been increasingly applied to growing nanostructures with properties that depend on the

• pulses) in order to investigate the structure of the material ablated. The TEM and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) images were taken on a HR scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) (JEOL JEM 2100) to reveal the morphology and crystallinity of the as-deposited samples. For STEM

Fabrication of CeO₂–MO_x (M = Cu, Co, Ni) composite yolk–shell nanospheres with enhanced catalytic properties for CO oxidation

• Ling Liu,
• Jingjing Shi,
• Hongxia Cao,
• Ruiyu Wang and
• Ziwu Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2425–2437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.241

• dispersed transition-metal oxide cluster species. Information about crystallinity and phases of the samples were obtained from X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Figure 6a displays the XRD patterns of the as-synthesized CeO2–MOx nanospheres. All diffraction peaks can be assigned to the fluorite-like cubic

Hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO quantum dot/KNb₃O₈ nanosheet photocatalysts for reducing carbon dioxide to methanol

• Xiao Shao,
• Weiyue Xin and
• Xiaohong Yin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2264–2270, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.226

• . The morphology of the as-synthesized KNb3O8 material is shown in the Figure 3a,b. The ZnO quantum dots were found on the surface of the KNb3O8 nanosheets. The higher loadings of ZnO quantum dots caused aggregation as shown in Figure 3d,e. The crystallinity and morphology of the 2 wt % ZnO quantum dots

Au₅₅, a stable glassy cluster: results of ab initio calculations

• Dieter Vollath,
• David Holec and
• Franz Dieter Fischer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2221–2229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.222

• originally crystalline cluster as a function of the annealing temperature. The reduction of the highest coordination number to values below twelve indicates a complete loss of crystallinity. Total energy of the originally crystalline Au55 cluster as a function of the temperature, relative to the glassy state

In situ controlled rapid growth of novel high activity TiB₂/(TiB₂–TiN) hierarchical/heterostructured nanocomposites

• Jilin Wang,
• Hejie Liao,
• Yuchun Ji,
• Fei Long,
• Yunle Gu,
• Zhengguang Zou,
• Weimin Wang and
• Zhengyi Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2116–2125, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.211

• corresponding SAED pattern (Figure 2g) indicated that the sample was a TiB2 single crystal with high crystallinity. In general, the HRTEM and SAED analysis results of the hierarchical/heterostructured nanocomposites corresponded with those of the above-mentioned XRD, EDX and FSEM characterizations. Effects of

• structures (marked with arrows in Figure 3h); however, when the endothermic rate was increased to 50%, the hexagonal prisms and short rods both vanished, and only irregularly shaped particles with poor crystallinity were found (Figure 3i,j). Moreover, the higher endothermic rate (60%) led to various

• . Consequently, the crystallinity becomes gradually worse from the outer to the inside of the TiB2/TiN rod heterostructure (Figure 2d). Moreover, it was obvious that the grains that were previously at the center of the as-synthesized TiB2/(TiB2–TiN) hierarchical/heterostructured nanocomposites displayed

Preparation and characterization of polycarbonate/multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposites

• Claudio Larosa,
• Niranjan Patra,
• Marco Salerno,
• Lara Mikac,
• Remo Merijs Meri and
• Mile Ivanda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2026–2031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.203

• dispersed phase in the composite films, while TGA and DSC analysis of the nanocomposites revealed enhanced thermal stability and decreased crystallinity, respectively, as compared to the neat polymer. The proposed composites can find application in a number of everyday products where polycarbonate is the

• loadings as high as 10 wt % [9]. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that this composite system is investigated in detail for crystallinity and thermal stability. The research activity and procedures adopted during this work and reported here are in agreement with the

• observed shift and intensity clearly indicate a change in crystallinity of the nanocomposites after nanotube loading. The Raman spectra of the different PC/MWCNT composite films are shown in Figure 4. The blue curve represents the spectrum of bare PC, with the full fingerprint of the polymer in the region

Process-specific mechanisms of vertically oriented graphene growth in plasmas

• Subrata Ghosh,
• Shyamal R. Polaki,
• Niranjan Kumar,
• Sankarakumar Amirthapandian,
• Mohamed Kamruddin and
• Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1658–1670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.166

• and the substrate, and (c) increasing the discharge power. The correlation between the wetting characteristics, morphology and structural quality is established. It is also demonstrated that morphology, crystallinity, wettability and sheet resistance of the VGNs can be varied while maintaining the

• crystallinity to facilitate grain growth in nanocrystalline materials. This trend, clearly shown in Figure 3c, implies that the initial growth of the vertical sheets can be attributed to the relaxation of stress that starts at grain boundaries of NG islands. The higher growth rates at high temperature could be

• . Larger crystallite sizes were obtained for the film grown at a closer distance, while the sp3 content remains almost equal, as shown in Figure 6c. This relationship clearly indicates the improved crystallinity of the samples produced at a lower distance from the plasma source. The above experimental

Oxidative stabilization of polyacrylonitrile nanofibers and carbon nanofibers containing graphene oxide (GO): a spectroscopic and electrochemical study

• İlknur Gergin,
• Ezgi Ismar and
• A. Sezai Sarac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1616–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.161

• ]. The ratio of the D and G bands provides an information about the crystallinity of the carbonaceous material [52][54]. The G band (1590 cm−1) represents ordered graphitic crystallites [52], while the D band around 1350 cm−1 is related to disordered turbostratic structures [55]. The measured intensity

Two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalytic energy generation and environmental remediation applications

• Suneel Kumar,
• Ashish Kumar,
• Ashish Bahuguna,
• Vipul Sharma and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1571–1600, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.159

• separation and migration of charge carriers to the surface. Higher crystallinity and smaller size of particles play a significant role in enhancing the photocatalytic activity by decreasing the recombination probability of photogenerated charge carriers [4]. It is well known that higher crystallinity leads

Parylene C as a versatile dielectric material for organic field-effect transistors

• Tomasz Marszalek,
• Maciej Gazicki-Lipman and
• Jacek Ulanski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1532–1545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.155

• polymers are partially crystalline materials. It was found that both deposition rate and post-deposition thermal treatment significantly affected the crystallinity of the Parylene C films. Both as-deposited and thermally annealed films were subjected to X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements and showed a

• crystallinity of Parylene C films affects their mechanical properties such as elastic modulus and/or Poisson’s ratio. The sample with higher crystallinity has approximately 30% greater tensile strength than the as-deposited films, a feature highly required from the point of view of material flexibility. The

• sensitive to high-temperature treatment, such as thermal annealing, has been discussed in one of the previous chapters. When heated, this material becomes harder, more rigid and more brittle. A simple explanation of this effect is the increase of the degree of polymer crystallinity at elevated temperatures

Calcium fluoride based multifunctional nanoparticles for multimodal imaging

• Marion Straßer,
• Joachim H. X. Schrauth,
• Sofia Dembski,
• Daniel Haddad,
• Bernd Ahrens,
• Stefan Schweizer,
• Bastian Christ,
• Alevtina Cubukova,
• Marco Metzger,
• Heike Walles,
• Peter M. Jakob and
• Gerhard Sextl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1484–1493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.148

• Malvern Instruments. The DLS measurement was carried out in aqueous solutions. X-ray diffraction measurements were carried out on a Phillips PW 1730/10 employing Cu Kα radiation. The composition of the NPs was determined by ICP-OES using a Varian Wista Pro spectrometer. The crystallinity of the powder

Formation of ferromagnetic molecular thin films from blends by annealing

• Peter Robaschik,
• Ye Ma,
• Salahud Din and
• Sandrine Heutz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1469–1475, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.146

• their application in optoelectronic and spintronic devices [1][2]. One of the key physical properties determining the performance is crystallinity, which significantly influences electron/hole mobility and magnetic coupling [3][4]. We recently reported on an approach to achieve crystalline porphyrazine

Comprehensive Raman study of epitaxial silicene-related phases on Ag(111)

• Dmytro Solonenko,
• Ovidiu D. Gordan,
• Guy Le Lay,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn and
• Patrick Vogt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1357–1365, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.137

• enhanced crystallinity if grown at 390 °C, instead, Liu et al. [16] showed that it comprises ordered and disordered areas, while Acun et al. [17] underlined the beginning of the distortion of epitaxial silicene, which leads to its destruction at 300 °C, caused by a dewetting process. Angle-resolved

Synthesis of [Fe(L_eq)(L_ax)]_n coordination polymer nanoparticles using blockcopolymer micelles

• Christoph Göbel,
• Ottokar Klimm,
• Florian Puchtler,
• Sabine Rosenfeldt,
• Stephan Förster and
• Birgit Weber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1318–1327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.133

• physical properties such as magnetism, structure or colour, which make these materials interesting for sensors [2][24][25][26], display devices [27][28][29] or as functional contrast agents [30][31][32][33][34]. The SCO properties deeply depend on the precise control of size and crystallinity of the

• [21][40][41][42][43]. This is most likely due to a loss of the crystallinity of the particles. Especially SCO complexes are highly sensitive to small changes in the crystal packing and thus excellently suited to investigate the impact of nanostructuration of the material. In our recent work [13] we

• used the block copolymer polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) to prepare spherical nanoparticles of the 1D spin-crossover coordination polymer [FeLeq(bipy)]n. We were able control the crystallinity of the [FeLeq(bipy)]n core through successive addition of starting material and by variation

Metal oxide nanostructures: preparation, characterization and functional applications as chemical sensors

• Dario Zappa,
• Angela Bertuna,
• Elisabetta Comini,
• Navpreet Kaur,
• Nicola Poli,
• Veronica Sberveglieri and
• Giorgio Sberveglieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1205–1217, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.122

• , highlighting the lack of a preferred orientation on the substrate. The average diameter of the nanowires is very small (20–30 nm) while the length is approximately 1–2 μm. Raman spectroscopy was performed on the samples to evaluate the crystallinity and the composition of the material. Figure 6 reports the

Hierarchically structured nanoporous carbon tubes for high pressure carbon dioxide adsorption

• Julia Patzsch,
• Deepu J. Babu and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1135–1144, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.115

• silica particles. The carbonization process generates graphitic regions even at 950 °C (Figure 3b). Their crystallinity increases by further increasing the carbonization temperature up to 1300 °C and 1600 °C, giving rise to the formation of graphitic regions with turbostratic ordering of the graphitic

Growth, structure and stability of sputter-deposited MoS₂ thin films

• Reinhard Kaindl,
• Bernhard C. Bayer,
• Roland Resel,
• Thomas Müller,
• Viera Skakalova,
• Gerlinde Habler,
• Rainer Abart,
• Alexey S. Cherevan,
• Dominik Eder,
• Maxime Blatter,
• Fabian Fischer,
• Jannik C. Meyer,
• Dmitry K. Polyushkin and
• Wolfgang Waldhauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.113

• amorphous MoS2 from RT deposition (for both tested 10 nm and 100 nm film thicknesses). This suggests that the higher degree of crystallinity combined with the larger specific surface area from the nano-grained surface morphology in our 400 °C PVD MoS2 films are advantageous towards better HER

ZnO nanoparticles sensitized by CuInZn_xS_2+x quantum dots as highly efficient solar light driven photocatalysts

• Florian Donat,
• Serge Corbel,
• Halima Alem,
• Steve Pontvianne,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Ghouti Medjahdi and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1080–1093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.110

• obvious changes in crystallinity and morphology were detected, indicating its good stability. Mechanism The photocatalytic ROS production by the ZnO and ZnO/ZCIS materials was evaluated using selective spectroscopic probes. In a first set of experiments, disodium terephthalate (DST), nitroblue tetrazolium

Structural properties and thermal stability of cobalt- and chromium-doped α-MnO₂ nanorods

• Romana Cerc Korošec,
• Polona Umek,
• Alexandre Gloter,
• Jana Padežnik Gomilšek and
• Peter Bukovec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1032–1042, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.104

• in agreement with our findings reported in the study of the impact of the reaction conditions on dimensions of α-MnO2 nanorods [26]. In addition, all samples appear to be very homogenous regarding morphology. Information on the diameter and crystallinity of the synthesized nanorods was obtained from

• state. Only in the Co-90 sample (XANES results) is the oxidation state of both manganese and cobalt slightly lower, leading to increasing lattice parameter a in a tetragonal structure. With increasing reaction temperature, the crystallinity of nanorods improves while incorporation of Cr3+ and Co3+ is

Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs)

• Michelle Romero-Franco,
• Hilary A. Godwin,
• Muhammad Bilal and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 989–1014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.101

• particle size, surface area, composition, crystallinity, and surface chemistry); system-dependent properties (e.g., dissolution rate in biological simulation fluid (BSF), release of toxic ions, size in relevant media and dispersibility); biopersistence (e.g., property of the ENM to persist in a cell

• , crystallinity, and surface chemistry). In tier 1, the ENM can be assigned into one of the following groups of intrinsic material properties: water solubility, particle morphology (PPS and shape, including aspect ratio and surface area) and chemical composition. Tier 2 focuses on the ENM’s i) intrinsic

Vapor-phase-synthesized fluoroacrylate polymer thin films: thermal stability and structural properties

• Paul Christian and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 933–942, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.95

• the PFDA homopolymer displays a strong increase in intensity. In addition, a further (higher order) reflection of the lamellar structure emerges at qz = 5.86 nm−1, corresponding to the 003 plane. This behavior suggests that thermal treatment greatly improves crystallinity and/or mosaicity of the PFDA

• homopolymer, but does not lead to the formation of crystalline domains in the cross-linked films. Likely, with a lower cross-linker fraction, some degree of crystallinity might be preserved. To gain further insight into the thermally induced structural changes of p-PFDA films, in situ X-ray diffraction

• stability can be greatly improved by the addition of a cross-linker. When the linear p-PFDA was exposed to the heating cycles, the chemistry remained unchanged while the crystallinity of the films was largely improved and the morphological character of the surface became smoother. Nevertheless, the thermal

High photocatalytic activity of Fe₂O₃/TiO₂ nanocomposites prepared by photodeposition for degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

• Shu Chin Lee,
• Hendrik O. Lintang and
• Leny Yuliati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 915–926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.93

• , Figure S1). After heat treatment, the TiO2 (IM_T) sample showed improved crystallinity without any changes in the structural phase, which was found to be pure anatase. After addition of Fe species, the crystallinity of the Fe2O3/TiO2 (IM) nanocomposites did not change and was confirmed to be similar to

• (IM_T). Since there was no much difference in the crystallinity and crystallite size between the TiO2 (IM_T) and Fe2O3/TiO2 (IM), it was suggested that the improved crystallinity and crystallite size as compared to TiO2 (NT) was mostly due to the heat treatment only and not to the addition of Fe2O3. The

• XRD patterns of the Fe2O3/TiO2 (PD) series that was synthesized by the photodeposition method were also recorded (see Supporting Information File 1, Figure S2). Different from the case of heat treatment with the impregnation method, the photodeposition treatment did not change the crystallinity of

Synthesis of coaxial nanotubes of polyaniline and poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) by oxidative/initiated chemical vapor deposition

• Alper Balkan,
• Efe Armagan and
• Gozde Ozaydin Ince

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 872–882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.89

• the band gap energy. The crystallinity of the deposited films was studied by using XRD analysis (Figure 3). The spectra of the non-annealed, as-deposited samples did not show any distinct peaks, indicating the amorphous state of the films. However, after an annealing process at 80 °C for 4 h, the

• degree of crystallinity [47]. The surface morphology of the PANI thin films was examined by using AFM analysis (Figure 4). The RMS surface roughness of the as-deposited thin films of 350 nm thickness was measured as 30 nm on a flat substrate, and the roughness increased with film thickness. When the

• 40 to 180 °C for 4 h. The highest conductivity value of ca. 26 S/cm was obtained with the sample annealed at 100 °C. This conductivity increase is attributed to the increase in crystallinity with annealing, which leads to reduced hopping distance between chains and crystal domains [50]. However

Investigation of growth dynamics of carbon nanotubes

• Marianna V. Kharlamova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 826–856, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.85

Recombinant DNA technology and click chemistry: a powerful combination for generating a hybrid elastin-like-statherin hydrogel to control calcium phosphate mineralization

• Mohamed Hamed Misbah,
• Mercedes Santos,
• Luis Quintanilla,
• Christina Günter,
• Matilde Alonso,
• Andreas Taubert and
• José Carlos Rodríguez-Cabello

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 772–783, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.80

• size and morphologies of CP under mild reaction conditions, it is difficult to control the crystallinity and phase purity of the synthesized CP nanostructures with narrow size distribution [9][12]. Furthermore, the generation of delicate nanostructures, for example neuron-like morphology of amorphous