Kelvin probe force microscopy work function characterization of transition metal oxide crystals under ongoing reduction and oxidation

• Dominik Wrana,
• Karol Cieślik,
• Wojciech Belza,
• Christian Rodenbücher,
• Krzysztof Szot and
• Franciszek Krok

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1596–1607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.155

• to the formation of d2 electrons. Hence, TiO is a d-band conductor with a room temperature conductivity of 3500 Ω−1 cm−1, which slowly decreases with temperature [18]. There is a growing interest in such metallic oxides, not only as oxide electrodes but also in medicine, since reduced TiO

Materials nanoarchitectonics at two-dimensional liquid interfaces

• Katsuhiko Ariga,
• Michio Matsumoto,
• Taizo Mori and
• Lok Kumar Shrestha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1559–1587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.153

• with platinum interdigitated electrodes. An excellent sensor capability for H2 gas in humid air at room temperature was observed for a film of 10 layers of the aligned one-dimensional W18O49 nanowires. Various additional techniques to fabricate two-dimensional structures have been proposed. Advincula

Rapid thermal annealing for high-quality ITO thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

• Petronela Prepelita,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Doina Craciun,
• Florin Garoi,
• Catalin Negrila,
• Beatrice Gabriela Sbarcea and
• Valentin Craciun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1511–1522, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.149

• , resulting in significant improvements of the quality of the ITO films that are commonly used as conductive transparent electrodes for photovoltaic structures. Starting from a single sintered target (purity 99.95%), ITO thin films of predefined thickness (230 nm, 300 nm and 370 nm) were deposited at room

• treatment in an open atmosphere. Such films could be used to manufacture transparent contact electrodes for solar cells. Keywords: conductive transparent electrodes; indium tin oxide (ITO) films; optical properties; radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (rfMS); rapid thermal annealing (RTA); Introduction

• Thin oxide films, used as contact electrodes [1][2][3][4], are considered to be important components of photovoltaic cells [5][6]. As an electrode candidate for solar cells, an ITO film [7][8] must present excellent optical and electrical properties for increased energy generation. At this time, the

Synthesis of P- and N-doped carbon catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction via controlled phosphoric acid treatment of folic acid

• Rieko Kobayashi,
• Takafumi Ishii,
• Yasuo Imashiro and
• Jun-ichi Ozaki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1497–1510, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.148

• 200 μg·cm−2). A reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and a glassy carbon plate were employed as reference and counter electrodes, respectively. The electrolyte was a 0.5 M solution of H2SO4 in deionized water. Prior to the measurements, dissolved oxygen in the acid solution was purged by bubbling

Flexible freestanding MoS₂-based composite paper for energy conversion and storage

• Florian Zoller,
• Jan Luxa,
• Thomas Bein,
• Dina Fattakhova-Rohlfing,
• Daniel Bouša and
• Zdeněk Sofer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1488–1496, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.147

• as amorphous carbon [8], carbon nanofibers [7], carbon nanotubes [8] and graphene [9]) has already been demonstrated to be quite attractive. Typically, the electrodes are prepared by mixing these composites as active material with a polymeric binder, conductive carbon and an organic solvent to form a

• slurry, which is then coated onto a copper foil (current collector). The copper foil and the additives increase the overall weight, which dramatically decreases the gravimetric energy density. These electrodes are not applicable as anodes in flexible batteries due to the loss of contact between the

• active material and the current collector upon bending deformation [10]. However, there are promising reports on freestanding MoS2/carbonaceous composite electrodes which have demonstrated attractive electrochemical performance [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Beside

Hierarchically structured 3D carbon nanotube electrodes for electrocatalytic applications

• Pei Wang,
• Katarzyna Kulp and
• Michael Bron

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1475–1487, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.146

• Pei Wang Katarzyna Kulp Michael Bron Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Natural Sciences II, Department of Chemistry, 06120 Halle, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.10.146 Abstract Hierarchically structured 3-dimensional electrodes based on branched carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are prepared on

• (CNT/CNT/GC) exhibit enhanced double-layer capacitance and thus larger surface area compared to CNT/GC. Pt electrodeposition onto both types of electrodes yields a uniform and homogeneous Pt nanoparticle distribution. Each preparation step is followed by scanning electron microscopy, while the CNTs

• were additionally characterized by Raman spectroscopy. In this way it is demonstrated that by varying the parameters during the electrodeposition and CVD steps, a tuning of the structural parameters of the hierarchical electrodes is possible. The suitability of the hierarchical electrodes for

Growth of lithium hydride thin films from solutions: Towards solution atomic layer deposition of lithiated films

• Ivan Kundrata,
• Karol Fröhlich,
• Lubomír Vančo,
• Matej Mičušík and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.142

• , Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 41 Bratislava, Slovakia Saint Petersburg State University, Institute of Chemistry, Universitetskii pr. 26, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia 10.3762/bjnano.10.142 Abstract Lithiated thin films are necessary for the fabrication of novel solid-state batteries, including the electrodes and

• applications in electrodes, hydrogen storage [25], fuel cells [26][27], and neutron shielding [28]. Illustration of the experimental deposition chamber. Top view, without cover. The chamber is closed from the top and then sequentially flooded with solutions. Chamber cover after deposition. The shape of the

Gas sensing properties of individual SnO₂ nanowires and SnO₂ sol–gel nanocomposites

• Alexey V. Shaposhnik,
• Dmitry A. Shaposhnik,
• Sergey Yu. Turishchev,
• Olga A. Chuvenkova,
• Stanislav V. Ryabtsev,
• Alexey A. Vasiliev,
• Xavier Vilanova,
• Francisco Hernandez-Ramirez and
• Joan R. Morante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1380–1390, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.136

• ]. The use of metal oxide nanowires as sensing elements in gas sensors continues along two directions: The first direction involves the use of large quantities of nanowires or “nanosponge”. For example, nanowires can be grown on the surface of metallic electrodes deposited on a dielectric substrate

• , wherein random electrical contact between wires located on different electrodes are formed. The contact between each pair of nanowires is not stable, but due to the large number of contacts, completely stable electrical contact behavior is observed (on a statistical average). Sensors based on such systems

• between the nanowires and electrodes is provided; secondly, the possibility for the manufacture of devices with ultralow energy consumption opens up. In the case of individual nanowires, two pairs of electrodes are deposited onto the nanowire. The outer pair is used for applying electrical heater current

A biomimetic nanofluidic diode based on surface-modified polymeric carbon nitride nanotubes

• Kai Xiao,
• Baris Kumru,
• Lu Chen,
• Lei Jiang,
• Bernhard V. K. J. Schmidt and
• Markus Antonietti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1316–1323, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.130

• transmembrane potential used in this work was stepped from −0.5 to +0.5 V at 0.05 V/step with 1 s/step (0.05 V/s). CNNMs before and after modification were mounted between two chambers of a custom-made H cell, which was filled with electrolyte. Ag/AgCl electrodes were used to collect the current and voltage

Alloyed Pt₃M (M = Co, Ni) nanoparticles supported on S- and N-doped carbon nanotubes for the oxygen reduction reaction

• Stéphane Louisia,
• Yohann R. J. Thomas,
• Pierre Lecante,
• Marie Heitzmann,
• M. Rosa Axet,
• Pierre-André Jacques and
• Philippe Serp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1251–1269, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.125

• ESCA presents a higher specific activity and the catalyst with the higher ECSA has the lowest specific activity. This effect has been previously reported in the literature [71]. Nevertheless, we need to mention that the relatively high thickness of our prepared electrodes enhances the O2 diffusion

• of 37%. The electrode is polished with 1 µm diamond paste and 0.05 µm alumina paste before use. The RRDE electrodes were prepared from a suspension of PtCo/CNT catalyst in 4 mL of isopropanol/DI water/Nafion® dispersion (type D-2020 from Dupont Fluoroproduct, 20% Nafion® dissolved in aliphatic

Porous N- and S-doped carbon–carbon composite electrodes by soft-templating for redox flow batteries

• Maike Schnucklake,
• László Eifert,
• Jonathan Schneider,
• Roswitha Zeis and
• Christina Roth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1131–1139, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.113

• Technology, Institute of Physical Chemistry, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.10.113 Abstract Highly porous carbon–carbon composite electrodes for the implementation in redox flow battery systems have been synthesized by a novel soft-templating approach. A PAN-based carbon felt was embedded into a

• (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The N- and S-doped carbon electrodes show promising activity for the positive side reaction and could be seen as a significant advance in the design of carbon felt electrodes for use in redox flow batteries. Keywords: N- and S-doped carbon

• energy is stored in the form of vanadium containing electrolytes, which consist of V2+/3+ at the negative and V4+/5+ at the positive side. These are flowed through carbon materials, which are usually porous felts or carbon paper electrodes [4]. Carbon electrodes exhibit good stability and electrochemical

Glucose-derived carbon materials with tailored properties as electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction

• Rafael Gomes Morais,
• Natalia Rey-Raap,
• José Luís Figueiredo and
• Manuel Fernando Ribeiro Pereira

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1089–1102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.109

• a glassy carbon rod were used as reference and counter electrode, respectively. Working electrodes were prepared by depositing a suspension of the carbon samples on a glassy carbon rotating disk electrode (3 mm of diameter, Metrohm). These suspensions were prepared by dispersing 1 mg of the prepared

Concurrent nanoscale surface etching and SnO₂ loading of carbon fibers for vanadium ion redox enhancement

• Jun Maruyama,
• Shohei Maruyama,
• Tomoko Fukuhara,
• Toru Nagaoka and
• Kei Hanafusa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 985–992, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.99

• Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, 1-6-50, Morinomiya, Joto-ku, Osaka 536-8553, Japan Power Systems R&D Center, Sumitomo Electric Industries, 1-1-3, Shimaya, Konohana-ku, Osaka 554-0024, Japan 10.3762/bjnano.10.99 Abstract Facile and efficient methods to prepare active electrodes for

• redox reactions of electrolyte ions are required to produce efficient and low-cost redox flow batteries (RFBs). Carbon-fiber electrodes are widely used in various types of RFBs and surface oxidation is commonly performed to enhance the redox reactions, although it is not necessarily efficient. Quite

• types of RFBs have been developed using aqueous and nonaqueous electrolytes with inorganic and organic electroactive species [1][2][3][4]. There is an increasing demand for electrodes that are active in the redox reactions of every type of RFBs to enhance the reaction rate, improve the energy efficiency

In situ AFM visualization of Li–O₂ battery discharge products during redox cycling in an atmospherically controlled sample cell

• Kumar Virwani,
• Younes Ansari,
• Khanh Nguyen,
• Francisco José Alía Moreno-Ortiz,
• Jangwoo Kim,
• Maxwell J. Giammona,
• Ho-Cheol Kim and
• Young-Hye La

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 930–940, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.94

• and O2 reactions have been the subject of intense experimental and theoretical investigations [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Of particular relevance are investigations that shed light on the morphological changes that occur on the electrodes during the Li/O2 electrochemical reactions. Jung et

Comparing a porphyrin- and a coumarin-based dye adsorbed on NiO(001)

• Sara Freund,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Nathalie Marinakis,
• Edwin C. Constable,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Catherine E. Housecroft and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 874–881, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.88

• first step towards the design of tandem solar cells with two photoactive electrodes [17][18]. In p-type DSSCs, the charge transfer is in the opposite direction to that in n-type devices. Holes are injected from the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the dye to the valence band (VB) of the

• charge transfer intensity appears to be roughly equal to −0.06e−/nm2 when calculated as a function of active area instead of single molecules. Consequently, if we think about building a DSSC device, this implies that C343 will result in active electrodes that would be 2.5-times less efficient in terms of

Novel reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic surfaces induced by charge injection and heating

• Xiangdong Ye,
• Junwen Hou and
• Dongbao Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 840–847, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.84

• between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity using a folded graphene coating that was prepared by ethanol drying and prewetting. The wettability of droplets on electrodes coated with an insulator thin film can be changed by applying direct or alternating-current potentials. This phenomenon is

• -voltage electric field between two electrodes. The charge was injected through the electrodes and accumulated on the coating by controlling the voltage, temperature, and time. The surface wettability of the coating changed from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic and was restored by heating. Experimental

• DC electric field on the wettability of the coating, an experiment setup as shown in Figure 1a was used. The device was composed of a power supply, electrodes, a heating plate, and a glass slide with a sprayed coating. The coated glass slide was sandwiched between two Cu electrodes, and half of the

Periodic Co/Nb pseudo spin valve for cryogenic memory

• Nikolay Klenov,
• Yury Khaydukov,
• Sergey Bakurskiy,
• Roman Morari,
• Igor Soloviev,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Thomas Keller,
• Mikhail Kupriyanov,
• Anatoli Sidorenko and
• Bernhard Keimer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 833–839, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.83

• . Finally, the boundary conditions on the surfaces of the outer electrodes are where δ0 is the bulk value of the pair potential at a certain temperature and χL,R are the phases at the left and right ends of the structure, which generate the phase difference φ = χR − χL along the junction. Figure 1a and

• differing by 2πn in the phase of the outer S electrodes. To avoid any errors we calculate the critical current dependence in an iterative manner over the phase difference, initially solving the problem at φ = 0 and then continuously increasing the phase, using the results of the previous step as the initial

• ) electrodes. Using neutron reflectometry we demonstrated that an AP state can be created and erased by applying a field of 30 Oe. The normalized critical current of the S/F/s/F/S (solid lines) and S/F/N/F/S (dashed lines) structures as a function of the thickness of the spacing layer (a) and the dimensionless

An efficient electrode material for high performance solid-state hybrid supercapacitors based on a Cu/CuO/porous carbon nanofiber/TiO₂ hybrid composite

• Mamta Sham Lal,
• Thirugnanam Lavanya and
• Sundara Ramaprabhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 781–793, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.78

• proportional with the pore size of the active electrode materials [14]. The synthesis of carbon materials with very high surface area and appropriate pore size suitable for supercapacitor electrodes is a major challenge. It has been shown that this could be achieved by addition of sacrificial polymers, which

• , CNF, PCNF, Cu/PCNF and Cu/CuO/PCNF/TiO2 composite electrodes at a scan rate of 100 mV s−1 in the potential range (0–1 V). CNF, PCNF and Cu/PCNF samples show a quasi-rectangular box loop which represents electric double layer capacitance performance. Besides, the Cu/CuO/PCNF/TiO2 composite displays

• the specific capacitance of the composite electrodes decreases with increase of the current density from 1 to 10 A g−1 yet retains the specific capacitance value of 200 F g−1 at 10 A g−1 with 61% of capacitance retention. This signifies the outstanding rate capability performance of SSHSC which makes

On the transformation of “zincone”-like into porous ZnO thin films from sub-saturated plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

• Alberto Perrotta,
• Julian Pilz,
• Stefan Pachmajer,
• Antonella Milella and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 746–759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.74

• oxides in photocatalysis [30][33] and as electrodes for lithium-ion batteries [12][18], or for protective and passivating layers [28][32][35]. In this contribution, an alternative method was adopted for the formation of Zn-alkoxide layers. While ALD is known to deliver pure dense ZnO, applied in many

An iridescent film of porous anodic aluminum oxide with alternatingly electrodeposited Cu and SiO₂ nanoparticles

• Menglei Chang,
• Huawen Hu,
• Haiyan Quan,
• Hongyang Wei,
• Zhangyi Xiong,
• Jiacong Lu,
• Pin Luo,
• Yaoheng Liang,
• Jianzhen Ou and
• Dongchu Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 735–745, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.73

• . Galvanic deposition of Cu NPs In a CuSO2 solution (60 g/L), the anodically oxidized sample was colorized using an electrical supply (EOECD-30A) with a constant voltage of 15 V for a deposition time of 35 s. During the electrodeposition process, the sample was kept parallel to the electrodes and at equal

• s deposition. The sample was kept parallel to the electrode, and the distance between the sample and electrodes was kept equal during the deposition process. After the deposition, the sample was removed, washed with DI water to get rid of the SiO2 deposition liquid, blow-dried with a hair dryer, and

• . The electrochemical measurements were carried out using an electrochemical workstation (CS-310) in a three-electrode system, where the platinum electrode and saturated calomel electrode (SCE) worked as the counter and reference electrodes, respectively. The scanning range of the potentiodynamic

A carrier velocity model for electrical detection of gas molecules

• Ali Hosseingholi Pourasl,
• Sharifah Hafizah Syed Ariffin,
• Mohammad Taghi Ahmadi,
• Razali Ismail and
• Niayesh Gharaei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 644–653, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.64

• adsorption or desorption of molecules [3][4]. Thus, many studies have been conducted regarding the synthesis, characterization and implementation of GNRs for the detection of gas molecules and biomolecular species. The importance of the GNR-based electrodes, surface functionalization techniques, and

Hydrophilicity and carbon chain length effects on the gas sensing properties of chemoresistive, self-assembled monolayer carbon nanotube sensors

• Juan Casanova-Cháfer,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Eduard Llobet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 565–577, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.58

• onto Au-decorated CNTs [28], in order to enhance the properties required to detect toxic gases. Additionally, the electronic properties of single-wall CNTs heavily depend on chirality, and the conduction properties of single-wall CNT films on top of interdigitated electrodes change dramatically

• were taken at 80 kV. Fabrication of the sensor substrate A 10 × 10 mm2 alumina substrate was employed. Interdigitated electrodes and a heating resistor were screen-printed on either side of the substrate employing a platinum ink (see Supporting Information File 1, Figure S6). The electrode area was

Widening of the electroactivity potential range by composite formation – capacitive properties of TiO₂/BiVO₄/PEDOT:PSS electrodes in contact with an aqueous electrolyte

• Konrad Trzciński,
• Mariusz Szkoda,
• Andrzej P. Nowak,
• Marcin Łapiński and
• Anna Lisowska-Oleksiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 483–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.49

• -ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) have attracted great attention due to their high electrical capacitance even at very high charge/discharge rates [16]. The advantage of a conducting polymer over the other electrode materials, e.g., carbon-based electrodes, is that not only the surface but also the bulk of CPs gives an

• cell was used for cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge–discharge cycles measurements. Platinum mesh acted as a counter electrode, and Ag/AgCl (0.1 M KCl) was used as the reference electrode. The geometric surface area of tested electrodes was equal to 0.5 cm2. Current densities used for charge

• %) electrolyte containing 0.27 M NH4F and 1 M H3PO4 described previously [31]. The anodization process was performed in a two-electrode cell using platinum mesh as the cathode. The distance between the electrodes was about 2 cm. The anodization voltage was kept at 40 V for 2 h. The as-prepared electrodes were

Nanocomposite–parylene C thin films with high dielectric constant and low losses for future organic electronic devices

• Marwa Mokni,
• Gianluigi Maggioni,
• Abdelkader Kahouli,
• Sara M. Carturan,
• Walter Raniero and
• Alain Sylvestre

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 428–441, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.42

• dielectric, S the surface of electrodes and ε’ (often named k in the industry of microelectronics) is the dielectric constant (more rigorously called relative permittivity). As seen by this equation, the insulating gate capacitance Ci is directly proportional to ε’. Typically, for parylene C ε’ = 3.15 (at 1

• distribution of the potential during the dielectric measurements, top gold electrodes with a thickness of 100 nm were deposited by thermal evaporation with the sample held at room temperature. Chemical composition of pure parylene C films and NCPC thin films was investigated at room temperature by Fourier

Improving control of carbide-derived carbon microstructure by immobilization of a transition-metal catalyst within the shell of carbide/carbon core–shell structures

• Teguh Ariyanto,
• Jan Glaesel,
• Andreas Kern,
• Gui-Rong Zhang and
• Bastian J. M. Etzold

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 419–427, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.41

• 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany Ernst-Berl-Institut für Technische und Makromolekulare Chemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Alarich-Weiss-Strasse 8, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.10.41 Abstract Carbon materials for electrical energy devices, such as battery electrodes or fuel-cell

• large specific surface area and distinct pore character. For applications in which electrical conductivity plays an important role, e.g., battery electrodes, fuel-cell catalysts or supercapacitors [14][15][16], it is necessary for carbon to not only show porosity but also to feature a graphitic