Advances in nanocarbon composite materials

• Sharali Malik,
• Arkady V. Krasheninnikov and
• Silvia Marchesan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 20–21, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.3

• newer areas of nanocarbon materials for use in biomedicine and diagnostics. Energy transfer materials are also well represented with articles and reviews covering aspects of engineering, thermo-mechanical properties, photovoltaics and Li-ion battery materials. Last but not least, we would like to thank

Material discrimination and mixture ratio estimation in nanocomposites via harmonic atomic force microscopy

• Weijie Zhang,
• Yuhang Chen,
• Xicheng Xia and
• Jiaru Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2771–2780, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.276

• topographic information [5][6][7][8][9][10]. The materials can be consequently identified by differences in the measured physical characteristics, and in particular, discrimination through mechanical properties has broad potential applications. These operation modes including tapping phase, force modulation

• mode and contact resonance AFM have their own features and ideal conditions [11][12][13]. For example, the phase signal in tapping AFM carries certain information on the mechanical properties. Such a mode reduces sample damage and allows softer materials to be nondestructively scanned. However, the

• modulation and resonance frequency in contact resonance AFM are used to extract the mechanical properties quantitatively [16][17]. However, the continuous tip–sample contact may cause severe sample damage or tip wear. In tapping mode, the tip can touch the sample periodically. Due to the nonlinear contact

Patterning of supported gold monolayers via chemical lift-off lithography

• Liane S. Slaughter,
• Kevin M. Cheung,
• Sami Kaappa,
• Huan H. Cao,
• Qing Yang,
• Thomas D. Young,
• Andrew C. Serino,
• Sami Malola,
• Jana M. Olson,
• Stephan Link,
• Hannu Häkkinen,
• Anne M. Andrews and
• Paul S. Weiss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2648–2661, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.265

• the PDMS before each sample was rinsed on both sides with ethanol and blown dry. Peak-force atomic force microscopy A Bruker Dimension Icon scanning probe microscope (Bruker Nano, Santa Barbara, CA, USA) was used to map the topography and mechanical properties of flat PDMS stamps patterned with Au

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoindentation and scratch in Cu grain boundaries

• Shih-Wei Liang,
• Ren-Zheng Qiu and
• Te-Hua Fang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2283–2295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.228

• ] techniques have been used to measure the mechanical properties and wear resistance of materials with the aim to design nanoscale devices. On a microscopic level, the dislocation phenomenon of the internal material affects its structure. However, the observation of this slight change in the internal structure

• of the material along with the complex dislocation phenomenon of the grain boundary is unclear at the macroscopic scale. In the past few years, many researchers have used numerical simulation analysis to discuss the mechanical properties of metals [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17

• avoiding a smooth transmission of the force and favoring its accumulation on the grain boundary. Indentation for the vertical grain boundary The deformation behavior and the mechanical properties of the crystal layers at the different angles upon pressure from the indenter at the top of the grain boundary

Fabrication of gold-coated PDMS surfaces with arrayed triangular micro/nanopyramids for use as SERS substrates

• Jingran Zhang,
• Yongda Yan,
• Peng Miao and
• Jianxiong Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2271–2282, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.227

• mechanical properties such as hardness, elastic modulus and friction coefficient. The fabrication of micro/nanostructures using the nanoindenter method can be also achieved. The shortcomings of this technique include low machining speed, small machining area and high cost, and thus the nanoindentation method

Vapor-based polymers: from films to nanostructures

• Meike Koenig and
• Joerg Lahann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2219–2220, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.221

• exemplary application of vapor-borne coatings. Here, a 3D-printed device can be equipped with the desired functionality on its surface, while the bulk material can be chosen independently, according to the requirements of the printing process and the desired mechanical properties [7]. The conformal

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• . Particularly, the nacre-mimetic brick-and-mortar structure has shown excellent mechanical properties, as well as gas-barrier properties and optical transparency. Along with these intrinsic properties, the layered structure has also been utilized in sensing devices. Here we extend the multifunctionality of

• ), contact-resonance force microscopy (mechanical properties), and SEM combined with a variety of stress-strain AFM experiments and AFM numerical simulations (internal structure). We further study the nanoclay’s response to the application of pressure with multifrequency AFM and conductive AFM, whereby

• received much attention due to its remarkable mechanical properties and convoluted structure. Nacre is composed of 95% aragonite platelets separated by 5% organic matter, displaying a multiscale hierarchical structure with features ranging from molecular to macroscopic scales [8]. The experimental approach

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

• serious thermal stability issues at the hot embossing temperature of PC. It has been suggested that the addition of MWCNTs can significantly change the mechanical properties of PC, as well as affect the crystallization behavior [5]. In former work, the effect of adding gold nanoparticles on the optical

• used p-xylene and dichloromethane solvent to mix MWCNTs and prevent their agglomeration induced by strong van der Waals forces. Previous work carried out on PC/MWCNT composites with focus on the mechanical properties showed an increase in the storage modulus obtained from indentation measurements at

Enhancement of mechanical and electrical properties of continuous-fiber-reinforced epoxy composites with stacked graphene

• Naum Naveh,
• Olga Shepelev and
• Samuel Kenig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1909–1918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.191

• epoxy/SG composites at lower percolation thresholds, and improved thermo-mechanical properties were measured with either Kevlar, carbon or glass-fiber-reinforced composites. Several compositions with SAA-modified SG led to higher dynamic moduli especially at high temperatures, reflecting the better

• -mechanical behavior. Keywords: composite; exfoliation; graphene; surface-active agents (SAAs); thermo-mechanical properties; Introduction Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been suggested as an efficient conductive filler because of the outstanding electrical properties and the high aspect ratio. CNT-modified

• , thus contributing to the mechanical properties and percolation threshold reduction of conductive polymer/graphite nanocomposites [11][12]. Graphite intercalation compounds (GIC) may provide a plausible high-yield source for polymer nanocomposites [8]. However, most of the methods described in the

Evaluation of preparation methods for suspended nano-objects on substrates for dimensional measurements by atomic force microscopy

• Petra Fiala,
• Daniel Göhler,
• Benno Wessely,
• Michael Stintz,
• Giovanni Mattia Lazzerini and
• Andrew Yacoot

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1774–1785, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.179

• held responsible for the use of, or inability to use, any products mentioned herein that have been used by TU Dresden or NPL. Acknowledgements This research was supported by the European Union by funding the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) project “Traceable measurement of mechanical

• properties of nano-objects (MechProNO)”. All authors wish to thank all members of the MechProNO project for their support and discussions.

Nanotribological behavior of deep cryogenically treated martensitic stainless steel

• Germán Prieto,
• Konstantinos D. Bakoglidis,
• Walter R. Tuckart and
• Esteban Broitman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1760–1768, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.177

• behavior and mechanical properties at the nano-scale of cryogenically and conventionally treated AISI 420 martensitic stainless steel were evaluated. Conventionally treated specimens were subjected to quenching and annealing, while the deep cryogenically treated samples were quenched, soaked in liquid

• controlling with high precision the applied force, and measuring the topographical modifications and the friction forces. The purpose of this paper is to deepen the understanding of the influence of cryogenic treatments on the wear resistance and the mechanical properties of a low-carbon AISI 420 martensitic

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

• mechanical properties and a potential for a variety of applications; such as supercapacitor applications, battery applications, and catalyst support materials. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is one of the well-known precursor for obtaining carbon nanofibers that have a diameter ranging between nanometers and

• mechanical properties because of the interaction between nanofibers and the matrix material [4]. CNF can be used as reinforcing material inside the polymer composites thanks to their enhanced mechanical and physical properties [5][6][7]. The manufacturing of CNF/polymer composites is challenging and the

• carbonization was performed at 900 °C for 1 h under nitrogen atmosphere. Characterization Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy were used to record the characteristic peaks of the oxidized and carbonized nanofibers. Mechanical properties of

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

• . Carbon-based 2D materials Graphene Since the discovery of graphene in 2004, it has attracted great attention because of its fascinating electrical, thermal, optical and mechanical properties. Basically, graphene consists of a single layer of sp2 hybridized carbon atoms densely packed into an atomically

• , thermal, optical and mechanical properties, graphene helps to enhance the photocatalytic performance by acting as excellent electron acceptor and transporter in nanocomposites. Moreover, enhanced pollutant adsorption on the surface of graphene is an additional advantage, which accelerates the

High-speed dynamic-mode atomic force microscopy imaging of polymers: an adaptive multiloop-mode approach

• Juan Ren and
• Qingze Zou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1563–1570, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.158

• and evaluation of the AMLM technique by imaging three types of polymer samples different in both topography features and heterogeneous mechanical properties. The three samples, made of polystyrene–low-density polyethylene (PS–LDPE), styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) and celgard, respectively, have over

• the capability of the AMLM technique in high-quality high-speed imaging on a wide variety of samples with largely different feature sizes and mechanical properties. Conclusion In this work, the performance of the adaptive multiloop-mode (AMLM) imaging technique has been tested and assessed via high

• two orders of magnitude different lateral feature sizes, ranging from 10 nm (Celgard) to 100 nm (SBS) and up to 2 μm (PS–LDPE), respectively. The elasticity also differs over two orders of magnitude, ranging from 20 MPa (SBS) to 2 GPa (PS). These samples, with largely heterogeneous mechanical

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

• 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

• the results obtained for bent transistors, that the encapsulation layer substantially improves mechanical properties of the devices. Parylene C as a gate insulating layer The purity of thin dielectric films has a tremendous impact on their electrical properties. Results of electrical breakdown voltage

• . Parylene C forms transparent, pinhole-free conformal coatings of thicknesses as low as 0.1 μm with excellent dielectric and mechanical properties. Increasing thickness to 0.2 mm suffices to uniformly cover rough colloidal-graphite contacts. Transistors with rubrene as semiconductor and parylene as

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

• favorable chemical and mechanical properties. They seem to be perfect materials as fluorescence host matrix owing to their low phonon energies and they subsequently minimize the quenching of the excited state of rare-earth ions. In contrast to chloride or bromide hosts, fluorides are completely air stable

Miniemulsion copolymerization of (meth)acrylates in the presence of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes for reinforced coating applications

• Bertha T. Pérez-Martínez,
• Lorena Farías-Cepeda,
• Víctor M. Ovando-Medina,
• José M. Asua,
• Lucero Rosales-Marines and
• Radmila Tomovska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1328–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.134

• composites maintained the reinforcement, whereas the blends behaved as a liquid-like material. This suggests the formation of a 3D network, in good agreement with the high content of insoluble polymer in the in situ composites. Keywords: electrical conductivity; hybrid polymers; mechanical properties

• between the clamps of 2 mm. The mechanical properties of the films were determined by tensile test measurement. The films with an average thickness of 450 µm were prepared by drying in Teflon molds at 25 °C and 80% humidity for 3 days. The measurements were performed in an MTS Insight 10 instrument at a

• dissipation mechanism when the MWCNTs slide at the interface with polymer in presence of PVP, as previously reported in case of organic/inorganic hybrids [43]. The strong polymer–MWCNT interaction substantially improves the mechanical properties of the in situ composites, particularly at high temperatures

Atomic structure of Mg-based metallic glass investigated with neutron diffraction, reverse Monte Carlo modeling and electron microscopy

• Rafał Babilas,
• Dariusz Łukowiec and
• Laszlo Temleitner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1174–1182, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.119

• , Gd, Nd) system is one of the most highly investigated [8]. The good mechanical properties together with a large supercooled liquid region and high glass-forming ability with critical cooling rates below 103 K/s make the Mg-TM-RE amorphous alloys attractive for a wide range of engineering applications

Preparation of thick silica coatings on carbon fibers with fine-structured silica nanotubes induced by a self-assembly process

• Benjamin Baumgärtner,
• Hendrik Möller,
• Thomas Neumann and
• Dirk Volkmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1145–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.116

• oxidation protection of carbon fibers at elevated temperatures. The good mechanical properties of carbon fibers are preserved under vacuum and inert atmospheres up to temperatures higher than 2000 °C. However, in an oxidative environment, carbon fibers show a low oxidation resistance, i.e., even at

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

• attractive as a potential material for catalysis and electronic and photonic devices due to its semiconducting nature with a wide band gap, excellent mechanical properties, chemical inertness and thermal conductivity [13][14][15][16][17]. Especially, one-dimensional SiC in the form of nanowires or nanorods

Assembly of metallic nanoparticle arrays on glass via nanoimprinting and thin-film dewetting

• Sun-Kyu Lee,
• Sori Hwang,
• Yoon-Kee Kim and
• Yong-Jun Oh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1049–1055, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.106

• result strongly supports the effect of a stiffer substrate on the properties of thin films, as already indicated by other researchers [33][34]. However, despite this effect, the plots clearly reveal the effect of the annealing temperature on the mechanical properties of the resists: the modulus and

• a hardness of 7 GPa and a modulus of 55 GPa, the resist was expected to mostly transform into pure silica in the annealing process at 550 °C. The resist annealed at 600 °C showed dramatic degradation of its mechanical properties. This is attributed to the residual stress built up between the

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

• ), this allows for the deposition of highly hydrophobic p-(PFDA-co-EGDMA) surfaces with control over the thermal expansion (and mechanical properties) being established by the cross-linker degree. Conclusion The morphological and structural properties of linear and cross-linked p-PFDA films deposited by

Bio-inspired micro-to-nanoporous polymers with tunable stiffness

• Julia Syurik,
• Ruth Schwaiger,
• Prerna Sudera,
• Stephan Weyand,
• Siegbert Johnsen,
• Gabriele Wiegand and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 906–914, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.92

• Background: Inspired by structural hierarchies and the related excellent mechanical properties of biological materials, we created a smoothly graded micro- to nanoporous structure from a thermoplastic polymer. Results: The viscoelastic properties for the different pore sizes were investigated in the glassy

• several examples of porous structures and composites having excellent mechanical properties that surpass the properties of the constituent materials. Prominent examples are wood, bone, or bird beaks [1]. The outstanding properties of the pomelo peel, though, are less known. The pomelo (Citrus maxima) is a

• method was successfully used to characterize the influence of the microstructure of a new type of polyurethanes on their mechanical properties [26] and is, therefore, promising to characterize the graded porous materials. SEM images of the porous surface before and after nanoindentation are shown in

Relationships between chemical structure, mechanical properties and materials processing in nanopatterned organosilicate fins

• Gheorghe Stan,
• Richard S. Gates,
• Qichi Hu,
• Kevin Kjoller,
• Craig Prater,
• Kanwal Jit Singh,
• Ebony Mays and
• Sean W. King

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 863–871, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.88

• molecular/chemical structure characterization has only been recently demonstrated with the advent of atomic-force-microscopy-based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) and related techniques. Therefore, we have combined measurements of chemical structures with AFM-IR and of mechanical properties with contact

• resonance AFM (CR-AFM) to investigate the fabrication of 20–500 nm wide fin structures in a nanoporous organosilicate material. We show that by combining these two techniques, one can clearly observe variations of chemical structure and mechanical properties that correlate with the fabrication process and

• /erosion rate of the photoresist and hardmask layers utilized to define and transfer the desired pattern into the nanoporous organosilicate [35]. As we will show, feature-size dependences also manifest as variations of composition and mechanical properties within the resulting nanoporous organosilicate

Hybrid nanomaterials: from the laboratory to the market

• Verónica de Zea Bermudez,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Pierre Rabu and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 861–862, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.87

• context is that the most desirable properties typically do not arise from a single material or chemical composition. Rather, these highly sought after properties, such as specific magnetic, optical, electrical, biological, or mechanical properties, arise from a delicate interplay of several material