Sugarcane juice derived carbon dot–graphitic carbon nitride composites for bisphenol A degradation under sunlight irradiation

• Lan Ching Sim,
• Jing Lin Wong,
• Chen Hong Hak,
• Jun Yan Tai,
• Kah Hon Leong and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 353–363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.35

• of the positive results, the self-modification consumes concentrated alkali and acid, which is harmful to our environment and health. It has been accepted that the coupling of nanocarbon materials with other semiconductors [21] could induce synergetic effects like photosensitization, electron

Review: Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based nanoelectromechanical switches – materials solutions and operational conditions

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Jelena Kosmaca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Jana Andzane and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 271–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.29

• nanostructures (e.g., thin films [5][6][7], nanobundles [8], nanowires [9][10][11][12][13][14], nanotubes [15][16]) fabricated from different materials (e.g., metals [17][18][19], semiconductors [9][10][20][21][22][23], carbon allotropes, including graphene [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and carbon nanotubes

• if the Fermi level of the metal falls in between the valence and conduction bands of the semiconductor. The type of the contact (ohmic or Schottky) between two semiconductors is determined by the Fermi energies of contacting materials. The presence of a nonconductive oxide layer between the

• . Semiconductors Silicon and germanium: Both Si and Ge have a long history as semiconductor device materials. Comparable relatively high Young’s moduli (Si, 130–188 GPa [129] and Ge, 103–150 GPa) [130][131] make these materials useful for applications in NEM devices. Due to the possibility of anisotropic etching

Al₂O₃/TiO₂ inverse opals from electrosprayed self-assembled templates

• Arnau Coll,
• Sandra Bermejo,
• David Hernández and
• Luís Castañer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 216–223, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.23

• issues with structure definition [25]. Inverse opals can be created using colloidal crystals (CCs) as templates to build close packed assemblies of air spheres. Several materials have been used as templates, for example, metal oxides [26][27][28][29], semiconductors [30] or silicon [31][32][33][34

Bombyx mori silk/titania/gold hybrid materials for photocatalytic water splitting: combining renewable raw materials with clean fuels

• Stefanie Krüger,
• Michael Schwarze,
• Otto Baumann,
• Christina Günter,
• Michael Bruns,
• Christian Kübel,
• Dorothée Vinga Szabó,
• Rafael Meinusch,
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 187–204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.21

• bandgap of the TiO2 semiconductors [21]. Gallo et al. used amorphous TiO2 doped with Au and/or platinum (Pt) NPs to split water under ultraviolet (UV)-A light and simulated sunlight. Best results with 1.6 mmol/(h·g) of H2 production were obtained with Au0.5Pt0.5/TiO2 catalysts [22]. Chen et al. used

Design of photonic microcavities in hexagonal boron nitride

• Sejeong Kim,
• Milos Toth and
• Igor Aharonovich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 102–108, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.12

• in higher Q-factors. We also modelled the effect of the refractive index of an underlying substrate, as is shown in Figure 2c. Because the refractive index of hBN is relatively low compared to that of typical semiconductors, the increase in substrate index greatly degrades the Q-factor of the L11

Review on optofluidic microreactors for artificial photosynthesis

• Xiaowen Huang,
• Jianchun Wang,
• Tenghao Li,
• Jianmei Wang,
• Min Xu,
• Weixing Yu,
• Abdel El Abed and
• Xuming Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 30–41, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.5

• . developed a hybrid approach that combined highly efficient light harvesting of inorganic semiconductors with biocatalysts [79]. As shown in Figure 7, they induced a non-photosynthetic bacterium with biologically precipitated CdS nanoparticles, enabling the photosynthesis of acetic acid from CO2. The CdS

Gas-sensing behaviour of ZnO/diamond nanostructures

• Marina Davydova,
• Alexandr Laposa,
• Jiri Smarhak,
• Alexander Kromka,
• Neda Neykova,
• Josef Nahlik,
• Jiri Kroutil,
• Jan Drahokoupil and
• Jan Voves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 22–29, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.4

• oxides or noble metals [14][15][16][17]. Aside from n-type semiconductors, p-type semiconductor materials have also been extensively used for the detection of toxic gases [3][18][19]. Recently, nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films have been utilized for advanced electronic devices because of their

• ), the electric resistance decreases for p-type H-terminated NCD (Figure 2b); on the contrary, with n-type ZnO the resistance increases (Figure 2d). In general, this response behaviour is in concordance with the typical gas sensing mechanism of p- and n-type semiconductors [22][31]. The gas sensing

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