Facile synthesis of silver/silver thiocyanate (Ag@AgSCN) plasmonic nanostructures with enhanced photocatalytic performance

• Xinfu Zhao,
• Dairong Chen,
• Abdul Qayum,
• Bo Chen and
• Xiuling Jiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2781–2789, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.277

• -based semiconductors are well known due to their excellent visible-light catalytic properties, but their easy inactivation limits their utilization in practice. Aimed at this problem, a series of methods, such as doping, surface sensitization, heterojunctions and noble-metal plasma, have been adopted to

• the metal from the Fermi level directly transfer to the conduction band of AgSCN, and the vacancies remain on the surface of the Ag particles. A dipole-based resonance energy can directly excite semiconductors to produce photogenerated electron–hole pairs that can improve the visible-light catalytic

• vacancies were left on the surface of the Ag particles. The dipole-based resonance energy can directly excite semiconductors to produce photogenerated electron–hole pairs. The presence of Ag nanoparticles can not only improve the photocatalytic efficiency, but also can trap photogenerated electrons, slow

CdSe nanorod/TiO₂ nanoparticle heterojunctions with enhanced solar- and visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Fakher Laatar,
• Hatem Moussa,
• Halima Alem,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Ghouti Medjahdi,
• Hatem Ezzaouia and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2741–2752, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.273

• Fakher Laatar Hatem Moussa Halima Alem Lavinia Balan Emilien Girot Ghouti Medjahdi Hatem Ezzaouia Raphael Schneider Laboratory of Semiconductors, Nanostructures and Advanced Technology (LSNTA), Center for Research and Technology Energy, Tourist Route Soliman, BP 95, 2050 Hammam-Lif, Tunisia rue

• recombination of photogenerated charge carriers (electrons and holes). To address these problems, a number of studies have been devoted to the improvement of light absorption and charge separation by hybridizing TiO2 with narrow bandgap semiconductors, doping with metal or nonmetal elements, association with

• separation. The interfacial electron transfer between two semiconductors has gained significant interest because the heterojunction improves both the optical absorption in the visible range and the charge separation yield and thus the charge carrier lifetime [3][4][5][6][7][8]. The photocatalytic activity is

Ab initio study of adsorption and diffusion of lithium on transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers

• Xiaoli Sun and
• Zhiguo Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2711–2718, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.270

• in the 1T or 1T' phase, but only a few of them were stable in both 2H/1T or 2H/1T' phases. The results show that lithium is energetically favourable for adsorption on MX2 monolayers, which can be semiconductors with a narrow bandgap and metallic materials. Lithium cannot be adsorbed onto 2H-WS2 and

• diffusion of lithium on the stable MX2 phase were also investigated. The results show that lithium is energetically able to adsorb on MX2 monolayers, which are semiconductors with a narrow bandgap, and on metallic materials. Lithium cannot be adsorbed on 2H-WS2 and 2H-WSe2, which have a large bandgap of

PTFE-based microreactor system for the continuous synthesis of full-visible-spectrum emitting cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals

• Chengxi Zhang,
• Weiling Luan,
• Yuhang Yin and
• Fuqian Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2521–2529, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.252

• . The red shift shown in Figure 5 suggests that the band gap of the prepared QDs is temperature dependent, which is similar to the behavior of IV, III–V, and II–VI semiconductors. According to the Varshni empirical relationship, Egap(T) = Egap(0) − αT2/(β + T) [38], (Egap(0) is the band gap at 0 K, α is

• low temperatures. The recombination of the charge carriers at a low energy state leads to the emission of light with at a longer wavelength than that at a high energy state, which results in red shift as shown in Figure 5. Such behavior is in accord with the PL behavior of most semiconductors [38][39

Robust procedure for creating and characterizing the atomic structure of scanning tunneling microscope tips

• Sumit Tewari,
• Koen M. Bastiaans,
• Milan P. Allan and
• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2389–2395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.238

• -temperature annealing as for many semiconductors. However, a well defined tip structure at the atomic scale is still hard to achieve. Mechanical grinding [1], electro-polishing [11] or electrochemical etching [12][13] are standard ex situ methods for preparing microscopically sharp tips. The tip apex can be

Optical contrast and refractive index of natural van der Waals heterostructure nanosheets of franckeite

• Patricia Gant,
• Foad Ghasemi,
• David Maeso,
• Carmen Munuera,
• Elena López-Elvira,
• Riccardo Frisenda,
• David Pérez De Lara,
• Gabino Rubio-Bollinger,
• Mar Garcia-Hernandez and
• Andres Castellanos-Gomez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2357–2362, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.235

• that franckeite is a semiconductor with narrow band gap. Other 2D semiconductors, such as MoS2, present refractive indexes whose imaginary part vanishes within the visible region of the spectrum. Moreover, the refractive index of transition-metal dichalcogenides shows sharp features associated to the

Expanding the molecular-ruler process through vapor deposition of hexadecanethiol

• Alexandra M. Patron,
• Timothy S. Hooker,
• Daniel F. Santavicca,
• Corey P. Causey and
• Thomas J. Mullen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2339–2344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.233

• ; Findings In a time when many technological advances are driven by the miniaturization of fabrication methods, much effort has been placed on the development of novel methods to produce nanoscale features with chemical functionalities that go beyond traditional semiconductors [1][2][3]. Recent advances in

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

• displayed an absorption threshold at 376 nm. Compared with the pure KNb3O8 nanosheets, we found a significant red-shift of the absorption edge, which could attribute to the enhancement observed by the ZnO quantum dots upon visible-light absorption. The optical band gap (Eg) of semiconductors could be

Evaluating the toxicity of TiO₂-based nanoparticles to Chinese hamster ovary cells and Escherichia coli: a complementary experimental and computational approach

• Alicja Mikolajczyk,
• Natalia Sizochenko,
• Ewa Mulkiewicz,
• Anna Malankowska,
• Michal Nischk,
• Przemyslaw Jurczak,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Grzegorz Nowaczyk,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska,
• Jerzy Leszczynski,
• Agnieszka Gajewicz and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2171–2180, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.216

• ), platinum (Pt), or palladium (Pd) [13][14], (e) the use of dye-modified TiO2 [15][16], or (f) coupling TiO2 with other semiconductors [17][18]. In the current work, we will focus on surface modification methods. Metal-ion doped TiO2 (so-called second generation nanomaterials) may cause adverse effects not

Substrate and Mg doping effects in GaAs nanowires

• Perumal Kannappan,
• Nabiha Ben Sedrine,
• Jennifer P. Teixeira,
• Maria R. Soares,
• Bruno P. Falcão,
• Maria R. Correia,
• Nestor Cifuentes,
• Emilson R. Viana,
• Marcus V. B. Moreira,
• Geraldo M. Ribeiro,
• Alfredo G. de Oliveira,
• Juan C. González and
• Joaquim P. Leitão

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2126–2138, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.212

• for application in solar cells owing to their high absorption, direct bandgap, high carrier mobility and well-developed synthesis techniques [5][6][7][8][9]. Among the group III–V semiconductors, GaAs is one of the most intensively studied materials and has a suitable bandgap energy value for solar

• bandgap in the whole temperature range for several semiconductors, namely for the ZB crystalline phase of GaAs, was proposed by Pässler [63]: where Eg(0) is the bandgap energy at 0 K, α is the T→∞ limit of −dEg(T)/dT, Θ is a parameter related with the Debye temperature, and q is an adjustable parameter

Functional materials for environmental sensors and energy systems

• Michele Penza,
• Anita Lloyd Spetz,
• Albert Romano-Rodriguez and
• Meyya Meyyappan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2015–2016, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.201

• nanomaterials (e.g., nanowires, nanotubes, graphene, metal oxides, carbon nanostructures, large band gap semiconductors, and metals) with new sensing properties (e.g., ppb-level detection, high sensitivity, selectivity) that are self-heating and provide durable operation for low-power devices (tens of μW to

Charge transfer from and to manganese phthalocyanine: bulk materials and interfaces

• Florian Rückerl,
• Daniel Waas,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Martin Knupfer,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn,
• Francisc Haidu,
• Torsten Hahn and
• Jens Kortus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1601–1615, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.160

• charge-transfer reaction is confined to the interface region. In general, charge transfer from insulators or semiconductors on one side of the interface to those on the other side can have dramatic effects and result in interfacial electronic properties that differ substantially from those of the

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

• achieved in 1972 by Fujishima and Honda on a TiO2 anode and Pt cathode under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation [6]. After this, research interest in exploring semiconductors for hydrogen production has grown significantly and many research groups have focussed their studies in this direction [7][8][9][10

• ]. Hence, in the recent decade, heterogeneous photocatalysis has been widely explored for the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy and for pollutant removal from water [11][12]. Up to now, various interesting semiconductors such as TiO2, ZnO, WO3, CdS, Bi2O3, Fe2O3, SnO2, BiVO4, etc. have been

• scientific community such as heteroatom doping [34], noble metal doping [35], coupling with semiconductors [36] and nanocomposite formation with carbon-based materials, such as graphene [37] and g-C3N4 [38], to enhance the photocatalytic efficiency. Among the various types of nanocomposites, the materials

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

• remarkable progress in synthesis of a variety of organic semiconductors, allowing one to design and to fabricate, so far on a laboratory scale, different organic electronic devices of satisfactory performance. However, a complete technology requires upgrading of fabrication procedures of all elements of

• of molecular materials and enhanced processing conditions. Over the past 20 years, the work has been mainly dedicated to the selection and processing of organic semiconductors: either small molecules [1][2] or systems with high molecular weight [3][4]. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that it

• is not only semiconductors that constitute crucial elements of organic field-effect transistor (OFET) architecture. The role of both interfaces, namely those of dielectric/semiconductor [5][6][7] and semiconductor/electrode [8][9] is widely discussed in the literature. In addition, elements such as

Light-induced magnetoresistance in solution-processed planar hybrid devices measured under ambient conditions

• Sreetama Banerjee,
• Daniel Bülz,
• Danny Reuter,
• Karla Hiller,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn and
• Georgeta Salvan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1502–1507, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.150

• temperature and in low magnetic fields of several milliteslas [2]. Several organic semiconductors consisting of small molecules such as aluminium-tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) (Alq3) [3][4], pentacene [5], α-sexithiophene [6] or even conjugated polymers such as poly(N-vinyl carbazole) and poly (p-phenylene

Spin-chemistry concepts for spintronics scientists

• Konstantin L. Ivanov,
• Alexander Wagenpfahl,
• Carsten Deibel and
• Jörg Matysik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1427–1445, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.143

• technologies, we will focus here on the spin processes from absorption to the generation of free charge carriers. The study of spins in organic semiconductors has a long-standing history, but their role in the fundamental processes in OSC has only very recently been highlighted in key publications [29][30][31

• ]. Also, exploiting the unique properties of electronic spin interactions, the development of novel routes to enhance both the power conversion efficiency and lifespan of solar cells should be possible. State-of-the-art OSCs consist of the combination of two organic semiconductors, (electron) donor and

• yield in some organic semiconductors [39]. It can therefore be seen as down conversion and so-called multiexciton generation. An enhanced power conversion efficiency is then foreseen, with the premise that fission of these high-energy singlet excitations into two independent triplets is quantitative

Two-dimensional silicon and carbon monochalcogenides with the structure of phosphorene

• Dario Rocca,
• Ali Abboud,
• Ganapathy Vaitheeswaran and
• Sébastien Lebègue

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1338–1344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.135

• these monolayers were determined using density functional theory. By using accurate hybrid functionals it was found that these materials are semiconductors and span a broad range of bandgap values and types. Similarly to phosphorene, the computed effective masses point to a strong in-plane anisotropy of

Charge transport in organic nanocrystal diodes based on rolled-up robust nanomembrane contacts

• Vineeth Kumar Bandari,
• Lakshmi Varadharajan,
• Longqian Xu,
• Abdur Rehman Jalil,
• Mirunalini Devarajulu,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Feng Zhu and
• Oliver G. Schmidt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1277–1282, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.129

• space-charge-limited current under different conditions, for instance, temperature and bias. Keywords: charge transport; nanomembrane; organic diode; organic nanocrystal; rolled-up nanotechnology; Introduction Organic semiconductors have been widely applied in developing optoelectronic devices

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

• carriers results in an increase (for n-type semiconductors) or decrease (for p-type semiconductors) of the electrical conductance, respectively. For example, if we consider CO as target species to be detected we have (Equation 1) [14]: In the presence of oxidizing species such as NO2, the interaction on

• of Nb2O5. Theoretical calculations have shown that the response of p-type metal oxide semiconductors toward a specific target compound should be equal to the square root of that of an n-type metal oxide semiconductor under the same conditions (morphology, structure). This is due to the intrinsic

Enhanced catalytic activity without the use of an external light source using microwave-synthesized CuO nanopetals

• Govinda Lakhotiya,
• Sonal Bajaj,
• Arpan Kumar Nayak,
• Debabrata Pradhan,
• Pradip Tekade and
• Abhimanyu Rana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1167–1173, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.118

• carbon monoxide (CO) [7][8][9]. CuO is one of the few p-type metal oxide semiconductors with a narrow band gap ≈1.24 eV [10]. The properties of CuO nanomaterials (nanoparticles, nanowires, nanosheets, etc.) are closely related to morphology and crystallite size [7]. These different nanoscale morphologies

• ]. This blue shift in the absorption further confirms the nanometer range of synthesized material. Catalytic activity of nanopetals for the degradation of methylene blue The use of inorganic semiconductors as a heterogeneous, photocatalytic material has been extensively investigated under UV–vis light

Ultrasmall magnetic field-effect and sign reversal in transistors based on donor/acceptor systems

• Thomas Reichert and
• Tobat P. I. Saragi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1104–1114, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.112

• ionizing donor–acceptor interaction can thus be regarded as a promising concept for the generation of highly conductive, magnetosensitive transport layers. Hence, organic transistors appear to represent an upcoming platform for studying spin-dependent processes in molecular semiconductors thereby leading

Fully scalable one-pot method for the production of phosphonic graphene derivatives

• Kamila Żelechowska,
• Marta Prześniak-Welenc,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Izabela Kondratowicz and
• Tadeusz Miruszewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1094–1103, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.111

• applied model and experimental results (R2 ≈ 0.998) indicates that the electrical conductivity at higher temperatures of the analyzed GO-P sample can be well described by an Arrhenius temperature dependence model for semiconductors. The results presented in Figure 10 clearly shows that the phosphonated

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

• air [1][2][3][4][5] and can also be used to produce energy vectors such as hydrogen from water [6][7][8]. Due to their strong catalytic activity, reasonable photo- and chemical stability, and weak toxicity, TiO2 and ZnO semiconductors are the most commonly used photocatalysts. However, their large

• developed. This can be achieved by combining TiO2 or ZnO with narrow bandgap semiconductors such as quantum dots (QDs), where generally cadmium or lead chalcogenides are applied [9]. Due to the close interfacial contact between the semiconductors, the electronic structures of ZnO or TiO2 are strongly

• contain highly toxic elements, which severely restricts their use. In recent years, I–III–VI2 group semiconductors such as CuInS2 (CIS) have emerged as environmentally friendly alternatives to Cd- or Pb-based QDs [20]. CIS QDs can be alloyed with ZnS to generate CuInZnxS2+x (ZCIS) nanocrystals with high

The integration of graphene into microelectronic devices

• Guenther Ruhl,
• Sebastian Wittmann,
• Matthias Koenig and
• Daniel Neumaier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1056–1064, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.107

• integration of graphene demands a paradigm shift for material integration concepts, in conventional semiconductors the materials properties are mostly determined by the bulk of the semiconductor, and the surface can be cleaned and modified without significantly affecting the materials properties. On the other

CVD transfer-free graphene for sensing applications

• Chiara Schiattarella,
• Sten Vollebregt,
• Tiziana Polichetti,
• Brigida Alfano,
• Ettore Massera,
• Maria Lucia Miglietta,
• Girolamo Di Francia and
• Pasqualina Maria Sarro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1015–1022, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.102

• strip by using the previous calculations. As far as NH3 is concerned, has been multiplied by the adjusting factor 250−2/3 in order to normalize the concentrations for both analytes. Analogously to the conventional treatment of doped semiconductors, after having estimated the maximum number of adsorbed