Probing viscoelastic surfaces with bimodal tapping-mode atomic force microscopy: Underlying physics and observables for a standard linear solid model

• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1649–1663, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.176

• frequency) can be adjusted almost at will to explore a wider range of interactions with high sensitivity. There currently exists a variety of other multi-frequency techniques that use multi-eigenmode excitation with two or three drive signals [9][11][12][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], discrete multi-frequency

Precise quantification of silica and ceria nanoparticle uptake revealed by 3D fluorescence microscopy

• Adriano A. Torrano and
• Christoph Bräuchle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1616–1624, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.173

• with the cells, e.g., membrane-associated particles and intracellular particles. Mass spectroscopy offers very high sensitivity, but is a sample-destructive technique and spatial information is not obtained. Moreover, results are normally expressed in arbitrary units, and not in absolute numbers

Donor–acceptor graphene-based hybrid materials facilitating photo-induced electron-transfer reactions

• Anastasios Stergiou,
• Georgia Pagona and
• Nikos Tagmatarchis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1580–1589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.170

• demonstrates the usage of a GO–coumarin conjugate as an activated fluorescent imaging probe with high sensitivity in the visualization of cancer cells [54]. The fluorescence of the probe can be switched off or on during intracellular imaging. Normally, the probe shows no or weak fluorescence (off) due to the

Effects of palladium on the optical and hydrogen sensing characteristics of Pd-doped ZnO nanoparticles

• Anh-Thu Thi Do,
• Hong Thai Giang,
• Thu Thi Do,
• Ngan Quang Pham and
• Giang Truong Ho

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1261–1267, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.140

• the gas sensing response characteristics allows us to suggest that the dissociation of hydrogen takes place at PdZn-vacancies ([Pd 2+(4d9)]). The design of this sensor allows for a continuous monitoring in the range of 0–100% LEL H2 concentration with high sensitivity and selectivity. Keywords

• concentration in the range of 0–100% LEL with high sensitivity and selectivity. Experimental ZnO nanopowders were synthesized by a wet chemical method with zinc acetate dihydrate, Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O, sodium hydroxide, NaOH, and absolute ethanol (analytical reagents, Merck) as starting materials. In a typical

Highly NO₂ sensitive caesium doped graphene oxide conductometric sensors

• Carlo Piloto,
• Marco Notarianni,
• Mahnaz Shafiei,
• Elena Taran,
• Dilini Galpaya,
• Cheng Yan and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1073–1081, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.120

• power consumption is a critical parameter. Carbon-based materials, such as graphene and chemically derived graphene, offer high sensitivity to cost ratio even when operating at room temperature [52]. In this article, we report for the first time the fabrication, characterization and gas sensing

Growth and characterization of CNT–TiO₂ heterostructures

• Yucheng Zhang,
• Ivo Utke,
• Johann Michler,
• Gabriele Ilari,
• Marta D. Rossell and
• Rolf Erni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 946–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.108

• the research frontier due to their extraordinary properties [1][2][3][4][5]. Applications based on CNTs including high sensitivity sensors, next generation transistors and high efficiency solar cells have been proposed, and tremendous progress has been achieved. A particularly interesting research

Gas sensing with gold-decorated vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Prasantha R. Mudimela,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Oriol González-León,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Rony Snyders,
• Eduard Llobet,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 910–918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.104

• based on nanomaterials have been developed to fabricate small and inexpensive gas sensors with high sensitivity and able to work at room temperature [1]. Among the possible active materials in gas sensing devices, good candidates are carbon nanotubes (CNTs), thanks to their intrinsic properties such as

• nanotube occurs upon exposure to different gases, including NO2 [5]. Since this first study, gas sensors based on CNT films, i.e., random CNT networks (single- or multi-walled nanotubes) were intensively investigated and shown to exhibit, in some particular cases, high sensitivity (even when operated at

An analytical approach to evaluate the performance of graphene and carbon nanotubes for NH₃ gas sensor applications

• Elnaz Akbari,
• Vijay K. Arora,
• Aria Enzevaee,
• Mohamad. T. Ahmadi,
• Mehdi Saeidmanesh,
• Mohsen Khaledian,
• Hediyeh Karimi and
• Rubiyah Yusof

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 726–734, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.85

• /graphene, the carrier concentration will change due to the variability of the current in the drain and the source, which is a measurable parameter [5][25][26][27][28][29]. The best gas sensor has a high sensitivity and is capable of sensing even one atom or molecule of gas [3][30]. Numerous recent

• in conductivity depends on gas concentration, for which the equation can be written as: where the constants are calculated in the same manner to be c = 1.4129 and d = 8.0494. Conclusion Outstanding properties such as high sensitivity as well as remarkable carrier transport features make both graphene

Analytical development and optimization of a graphene–solution interface capacitance model

• Hediyeh Karimi,
• Rasoul Rahmani,
• Reza Mashayekhi,
• Leyla Ranjbari,
• Amir H. Shirdel,
• Niloofar Haghighian,
• Parisa Movahedi,
• Moein Hadiyan and
• Razali Ismail

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 603–609, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.71

• -based EGFETs device performance. Conclusion Graphene as a 2D sheet of hexagonally arranged carbon atoms exhibits amazing carrier transport properties and a high sensitivity at the single-molecule level, which makes it a promising material for nanoscale devices. According to the graphene structure, it

Hole-mask colloidal nanolithography combined with tilted-angle-rotation evaporation: A versatile method for fabrication of low-cost and large-area complex plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials

• Jun Zhao,
• Bettina Frank,
• Frank Neubrech,
• Chunjie Zhang,
• Paul V. Braun and
• Harald Giessen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 577–586, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.68

• extremely small resonance width. Furthermore, Fano resonances show a very high sensitivity for the change of the surrounding refractive index, which is a singularly appropriate platform for localized surface plasmon resonant (LSPR) sensing [5][6][7][8]. In order to evaluate the suitability of this first

Frequency, amplitude, and phase measurements in contact resonance atomic force microscopies

• Gheorghe Stan and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 278–288, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.30

• topographical measurement, while one or more higher eigenmodes are driven simultaneously in order to also map compositional (viscoelastic) contrast. Since the higher eigenmodes are not directly affected by the topographical acquisition controls, they can be tuned independently to map Vts and Pts with high

• sensitivity. However, with the exception of small-amplitude FM-AFM [28][29] in which the tip–sample force gradient can be measured directly, the mapping of Vts and Pts in intermittent-contact imaging generally only provides a qualitative map of surface viscoelasticity. In this work the focus is on the CR-AFM

Unlocking higher harmonics in atomic force microscopy with gentle interactions

• Sergio Santos,
• Victor Barcons,
• Josep Font and
• Albert Verdaguer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 268–277, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.29

• , and by driving with sufficiently small (sub-nanometer) second mode amplitudes, the first mode amplitude [24] or frequency [17] can be employed to track the sample in amplitude or frequency modulation (AM and FM), respectively. The second mode can then be left as an open loop for high sensitivity

• shift induced by variations in Hamaker alone Finally, a parameter that quantifies the sensitivity of the phase shift to noise and signal, the phase ratio PR() can be defined from the ratio between Equation 19 and Equation 18: Large values of PR result in a high sensitivity of the phase shift to the

Structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of flower-like ZnO nanostructures prepared by a facile wet chemical method

• Sini Kuriakose,
• Neha Bhardwaj,
• Jaspal Singh,
• Biswarup Satpati and
• Satyabrata Mohapatra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 763–770, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.87

• ], gas sensors [29][30], clean energy applications [31] and UV detection [32]. Xia et al. [12] synthesized nanostructured ZnO flowers made up of bundled nanochains that could detect dopamine in the presence of L-ascorbic acid with high sensitivity and selectivity. Flower-shaped ZnO nanostructures were

In situ monitoring magnetism and resistance of nanophase platinum upon electrochemical oxidation

• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Stefan Topolovec,
• Stephan Landgraf,
• Heinz Krenn and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 394–399, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.46

• , exhibiting a total variation ΔR/R0 of about 6% (Figure 2b). The variation of R with the potential U exhibits a pronounced hysteresis, which indicates a high sensitivity of R with respect to superficial oxygen adsorption. This sensitivity is also clearly reflected by the steep increase or decrease of R right

A highly pH-sensitive nanowire field-effect transistor based on silicon on insulator

• Denis E. Presnov,
• Sergey V. Amitonov,
• Pavel A. Krutitskii,
• Valentina V. Kolybasova,
• Igor A. Devyatov,
• Vladimir A. Krupenin and
• Igor I. Soloviev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 330–335, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.38

• conventional FET and nanomechanical systems. This extremely high sensitivity gives an opportunity to construct local potential probes with nanoscale lateral resolution based on NW FET. In comparison with single-electron transistors [6], it is easy to fabricate a device operating at room temperature, which can

Continuous parallel ESI-MS analysis of reactions carried out in a bespoke 3D printed device

• Jennifer S. Mathieson,
• Mali H. Rosnes,
• Victor Sans,
• Philip J. Kitson and
• Leroy Cronin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 285–291, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.31

• purity. Electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is an excellent analytical tool for flow chemistry due to its high sensitivity, allowing for low sample concentrations and production of structural information that you may not get from other techniques. There are several reports in which ESI-MS

Micro- and nanoscale electrical characterization of large-area graphene transferred to functional substrates

• Gabriele Fisichella,
• Salvatore Di Franco,
• Patrick Fiorenza,
• Raffaella Lo Nigro,
• Fabrizio Roccaforte,
• Cristina Tudisco,
• Guido G. Condorelli,
• Nicolò Piluso,
• Noemi Spartà,
• Stella Lo Verso,
• Corrado Accardi,
• Cristina Tringali,
• Sebastiano Ravesi and
• Filippo Giannazzo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 234–242, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.24

• . The torsion amplitude is used as the feedback signal to measure surface morphology. A dc bias was applied to a macroscopic metal contact deposited onto graphene, and the current locally injected from the nanometric conductive tip into graphene was probed by a high sensitivity (fA) current sensor

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

Plasmonics-based detection of H₂ and CO: discrimination between reducing gases facilitated by material control

• Gnanaprakash Dharmalingam,
• Nicholas A. Joy,
• Benjamin Grisafe and
• Michael A. Carpenter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 712–721, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.81

• , and particularly for plasmonics-based gas sensing. The extremely high sensitivity of the plasmon resonance peak to changes in the free-electron density of gold nanoparticles or a change in the dielectric function of the metal-oxide host material due to adsorbate reactions on surfaces makes this a

FTIR nanobiosensors for Escherichia coli detection

• Stefania Mura,
• Gianfranco Greppi,
• Maria Laura Marongiu,
• Pier Paolo Roggero,
• Sandeep P. Ravindranath,
• Lisa J. Mauer,
• Nicoletta Schibeci,
• Francesco Perria,
• Massimo Piccinini,
• Plinio Innocenzi and
• Joseph Irudayaraj

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 485–492, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.55

• traditional devices into biosensing systems with high sensitivity. In particular, mesoporous titania thin films synthesized with the sol–gel method, were used to immobilize biomolecules (antibodies and pathogens) thanks to the high surface area due to their nano-organization, visible in a AFM image (Figure 1

Macromolecular shape and interactions in layer-by-layer assemblies within cylindrical nanopores

• Thomas D. Lazzara,
• K. H. Aaron Lau,
• Wolfgang Knoll,
• Andreas Janshoff and
• Claudia Steinem

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 475–484, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.54

• of colloidal particles or cylindrical nanoporous membranes, the direct investigation of surface processes occurring within nanosized pores has been hampered by the limited availability of in situ, high-sensitivity, surface characterization techniques to monitor changes occurring inside the porous

Mapping mechanical properties of organic thin films by force-modulation microscopy in aqueous media

• Jianming Zhang,
• Zehra Parlak,
• Carleen M. Bowers,
• Terrence Oas and
• Stefan Zauscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 464–474, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.53

• illustrate the effect of grafting density and molecular packing on the apparent layer stiffness, but also demonstrate the high sensitivity of FMM in solution for imaging self-assembled monolayers. The third row (Figure 4c) shows images obtained on a sample first patterned by exposure in 10 µM EG3-thiol for 1

Current-induced forces in mesoscopic systems: A scattering-matrix approach

• Niels Bode,
• Silvia Viola Kusminskiy,
• Reinhold Egger and
• Felix von Oppen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 144–162, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.15

• transport current can excite mechanical modes, and vice versa, the mechanical motion affects the transport current. The reduced size and high sensitivity of the resulting devices make them attractive for applications such as sensors of mass or charge, nanoscale motors, or switches [17]. On a more

An MCBJ case study: The influence of π-conjugation on the single-molecule conductance at a solid/liquid interface

• Wenjing Hong,
• Hennie Valkenier,
• Gábor Mészáros,
• David Zsolt Manrique,
• Artem Mishchenko,
• Alexander Putz,
• Pavel Moreno García,
• Colin J. Lambert,
• Jan C. Hummelen and
• Thomas Wandlowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 699–713, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.76

• -designed MCBJ setup was equipped with a high-sensitivity logarithmic I–V converter [53] , which enabled current measurements down to 10 fA with a high dynamic range. The paper is organized as follows: We will first introduce our novel instrumental and methodological developments, and we shall subsequently

• in AC molecular bridges [24]. From a technical point of view, the accessibility and reliability of the low conductance data for the AQ molecular junction also illustrates the high sensitivity of our new MCBJ setup. Figure 8C shows the 1-D conductance histogram of the dihydroanthracene wire AH with a

Distinguishing magnetic and electrostatic interactions by a Kelvin probe force microscopy–magnetic force microscopy combination

• Miriam Jaafar,
• Oscar Iglesias-Freire,
• Luis Serrano-Ramón,
• Manuel Ricardo Ibarra,
• Jose Maria de Teresa and
• Agustina Asenjo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 552–560, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.59

• different short, medium and long range interactions with high sensitivity and lateral resolution. The spreading of this technique was possible thanks to the development of specific operation modes and to the functionalization of the probes. Thus, regarding the mode employed, SFM can be used to characterize