Nanoporous water oxidation electrodes with a low loading of laser-deposited Ru/C exhibit enhanced corrosion stability

• Sandra Haschke,
• Dmitrii Pankin,
• Vladimir Mikhailovskii,
• Maïssa K. S. Barr,
• Adriana Both-Engel,
• Alina Manshina and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 157–167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.15

• Sandra Haschke Dmitrii Pankin Vladimir Mikhailovskii Maissa K. S. Barr Adriana Both-Engel Alina Manshina Julien Bachmann Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Chair of Chemistry of thin film materials, Egerlandstrasse 3a, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

Scanning probe microscopy for energy-related materials

• Rüdiger Berger,
• Benjamin Grévin,
• Philippe Leclère and
• Yi Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 132–134, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.12

• beyond the scope of solar cells. Katherine Atamanuk and co-workers impressively demonstrate that SPM methods can also be used to perform tomography [7]. They apply photoconducting scanning force microscopy for mapping the open-circuit voltage of cadmium telluride (CdTe) polycrystalline thin film solar

Wet chemistry route for the decoration of carbon nanotubes with iron oxide nanoparticles for gas sensing

• Hussam M. Elnabawy,
• Juan Casanova-Chafer,
• Badawi Anis,
• Mostafa Fedawy,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Ahmed S. G. Khalil,
• Eduard Llobet and
• Xavier Vilanova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 105–118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.10

• sensor [6]. In order to check if the deposition method (drop-coating thick film or airbrushing thin film) has an influence on the sensor behavior, an additional sensor using CNTs corresponding to sample B was prepared by air brushing. Differences in morphologies between the two approaches followed for

Pull-off and friction forces of micropatterned elastomers on soft substrates: the effects of pattern length scale and stiffness

• Peter van Assenbergh,
• Marike Fokker,
• Julian Langowski,
• Jan van Esch,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Dimitra Dodou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 79–94, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.8

• -shaped micropillars detaches via a local thin-film peeling mechanism, multiple peeling fronts are present throughout the micropattern [14]. This splitting-up of the peeling front in multiple smaller fronts results in a drastic increase in peeling line length, and therefore in high pull-off and friction

• terminal-layer geometries on hard substrates, are not involved on the tested PDMS-PVA configurations. As Heepe et al. already reasoned for a (simplified) representation of a discoidal adhesive element [6], the advantageous effect of a thin film micropattern on pull-off force is lost when the substrate is

• ]. This deformation effect of the terminal layer on pull-off force is supported by the findings by Shahsavan et al., who reported that with thin film-terminated micropillars higher compliance and pull-off forces can be realized when the terminal layer has viscoelastic material properties [41]. For

Contact splitting in dry adhesion and friction: reducing the influence of roughness

• Jae-Kang Kim and
• Michael Varenberg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1–8, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.1

• been performed so far for thin-film-based adhesives. To this end, we report on the behavior of original and split, wall-shaped adhesive microstructures on different surfaces ranging across four orders of magnitude in roughness. Our results clearly demonstrate that the adhesion- and friction-driven

• adhesion; surfaces; tribology; Introduction Biological attachment systems based on thin-film adhesion have drawn significant interest during the last two decades because of their ability to operate on nearly any surface, their efficient control of detachment and their high resistance to contamination [1

• biological thin-film-based contact elements [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. These artificial structures perform reasonably well on smooth substrates, which makes them suitable for industrial applications such as silicon wafer or display panel handling [15][16][17]. Because the ultimate goal of mimicking

Femtosecond laser-assisted fabrication of chalcopyrite micro-concentrator photovoltaics

• Franziska Ringleb,
• Stefan Andree,
• Berit Heidmann,
• Jörn Bonse,
• Katharina Eylers,
• Owen Ernst,
• Torsten Boeck,
• Martina Schmid and
• Jörg Krüger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3025–3038, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.281

• fabrication methods for microabsorbers. In thin-film photovoltaics, Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGSe) solar cells with an efficiency record of 22.9% for planar cells [2] and 19.2% for sub-modules [3] are among the leading technologies. Figure 1 shows the structure of a planar CIGSe solar cell representing the current

Electrostatic force microscopy for the accurate characterization of interphases in nanocomposites

• Diana El Khoury,
• Richard Arinero,
• Jean-Charles Laurentie,
• Mikhaël Bechelany,
• Michel Ramonda and
• Jérôme Castellon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2999–3012, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.279

• [54]. Shells Alumina thin layers: atomic layer deposition (ALD). The ALD method was used to grow Al2O3 layers on the nanoparticles [55][56]. ALD is a thin film deposition technique where the film thickness is precisely controlled at the atomic level [57]. The deposition is based on sequential chemical

• ) and stirred with a magnetic stirrer until no particulate was visible (around 30 min). The spinning program used for thin film deposition was: a) 100 rpm for 15 s, b) 500 rpm for 15 s, and c) 2000 rpm for 60 s, all with a ramp of 2000 rpm. Silicon dioxide thin films: plasma sputter deposition (PSD

Size limits of magnetic-domain engineering in continuous in-plane exchange-bias prototype films

• Alexander Gaul,
• Daniel Emmrich,
• Timo Ueltzhöffer,
• Henning Huckfeldt,
• Hatice Doğanay,
• Johanna Hackl,
• Muhammad Imtiaz Khan,
• Daniel M. Gottlob,
• Gregor Hartmann,
• André Beyer,
• Dennis Holzinger,
• Slavomír Nemšák,
• Claus M. Schneider,
• Armin Gölzhäuser,
• Günter Reiss and
• Arno Ehresmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2968–2979, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.276

• with a spatial resolution significantly smaller than the domain wall width. Results: We demonstrate the application of a helium ion microscope with a beam diameter of 8 nm as a mask-less method for local domain patterning of magnetic thin-film systems. For a prototypical in-plane exchange-bias system

• engineering in an in-plane exchange-bias thin film as a prototypical system. For two-dimensional domains the limit depends on the domain geometry. The relative orientation between domain wall and anisotropy axes is a crucial parameter and therefore influences the achievable minimum domain size dramatically

• . Keywords: exchange bias; helium ion microscopy; ion bombardment induced magnetic patterning; magnetic domains; magnetic nanostructures; Introduction Engineered magnetic domains with deliberately set magnetic properties and designed shapes in thin-film systems have proven to be useful in memory [1][2] and

Ternary nanocomposites of reduced graphene oxide, polyaniline and hexaniobate: hierarchical architecture and high polaron formation

• Claudio H. B. Silva,
• Maria Iliut,
• Christopher Muryn,
• Christian Berger,
• Zachary Coldrick,
• Vera R. L. Constantino,
• Marcia L. A. Temperini and
• Aravind Vijayaraghavan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2936–2946, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.272

• ][49][65]. Although this result does not stimulate studies focusing on the application of rGO/PANI/hexNb in energy-storage devices, the thin film obtained by dropcasting has potential to be explored for other purposes since the amount of charge carriers is increased in the ternary nanocomposite

Time-resolved universal temperature measurements using NaYF₄:Er³⁺,Yb³⁺ upconverting nanoparticles in an electrospray jet

• Kristina Shrestha,
• Arwa A. Alaulamie,
• Ali Rafiei Miandashti and
• Hugh H. Richardson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2916–2924, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.270

• scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of a thin film of NaYF4:Er3+,Yb3+ UCNPs drop-cast on a glass coverslip is shown in Figure 1. The UCNPs are relatively uniform in size and shape with an average diameter around 300 nm and a height of around 80 nm. The height (thickness) of the UCNPs is determined by

Charged particle single nanometre manufacturing

• Philip D. Prewett,
• Cornelis W. Hagen,
• Claudia Lenk,
• Steve Lenk,
• Marcus Kaestner,
• Tzvetan Ivanov,
• Ahmad Ahmad,
• Ivo W. Rangelow,
• Xiaoqing Shi,
• Stuart A. Boden,
• Alex P. G. Robinson,
• Dongxu Yang,
• Sangeetha Hari,
• Marijke Scotuzzi and
• Ejaz Huq

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2855–2882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.266

• Electron beam induced deposition. We begin with a brief review of EBID, which addresses the fabrication of dots and lines in SEM, TEM and STM on bulk and thin film substrates, as well as sub-10 nm FEBIP for specialised applications. Since the darkening due to decomposition of surface contaminants was first

• combined with CVD. As another example, 5 nm GaN quantum dots were deposited by Crozier [86] by EBID from a specially tailored precursor resulting in high-quality uniform deposits on a thin film of Si/SiO2. Shimojo [87] demonstrated the deposition of self-standing nanorods, 10 nm in diameter, by electrons

• profile as a technique to overcome this limit on both thin film and bulk substrates. It is well known that, during EBIE, the competing deposition due to EBID from hydrocarbons in the chamber influences the resolution as well as the etch rate. Upon changing the electron flux, an abrupt transition between

Nanostructure-induced performance degradation of WO₃·nH₂O for energy conversion and storage devices

• Zhenyin Hai,
• Mohammad Karbalaei Akbari,
• Zihan Wei,
• Danfeng Cui,
• Chenyang Xue,
• Hongyan Xu,
• Philippe M. Heynderickx,
• Francis Verpoort and
• Serge Zhuiykov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2845–2854, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.265

• support the performance degradation. Specifically, the nanostructured flower-like balls and the nanosheets in the samples synthesized at 80 °C seem to be glued together in Figure 7a, forming a thin film-like structure as indicated in the inset of Figure 7a, which could be a result of strong reaction

Near-infrared light harvesting of upconverting NaYF₄:Yb³⁺/Er³⁺-based amorphous silicon solar cells investigated by an optical filter

• Daiming Liu,
• Qingkang Wang and
• Qing Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2788–2793, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.260

• Daiming Liu Qingkang Wang Qing Wang College of Physics and Lab of New Fibre Materials and Modern Textile Growing Base for State Key Laboratory, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, P.R. China Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Electronic

• light seriously restricts the photoelectric conversion efficiency of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells. Spectral upconversion is of great significance in reducing the wastage. Herein, the upconverting compound NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ was synthesized via a hydrothermal method. SEM and

• cells, the hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film solar cell is one of the most promising candidates due to its high inherent absorption coefficient, short charge-carrier diffusion length and low production cost [1]. Films of a-Si:H with a wide bandgap of ca. 1.75 eV have a high absorption in

Accurate control of the covalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes for the electro-enzymatically controlled oxidation of biomolecules

• Naoual Allali,
• Veronika Urbanova,
• Mathieu Etienne,
• Xavier Devaux,
• Martine Mallet,
• Brigitte Vigolo,
• Jean-Joseph Adjizian,
• Chris P. Ewels,
• Sven Oberg,
• Alexander V. Soldatov,
• Edward McRae,
• Yves Fort,
• Manuel Dossot and
• Victor Mamane

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2750–2762, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.257

• deposited onto the GCE surface to obtain a stable thin film after drying. Chitosan films containing either diaphorase (DI) or glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) and DI were prepared by mixing 10 µL of 0.5 wt % chitosan solution with 5 µL of DI (5 mg·mL−1) or 15 µL of 0.5 wt % chitosan with 10 µL of GDH (1000 U·mL

Oriented zinc oxide nanorods: A novel saturable absorber for lasers in the near-infrared

• Pavel Loiko,
• Tanujjal Bora,
• Josep Maria Serres,
• Haohai Yu,
• Magdalena Aguiló,
• Francesc Díaz,
• Uwe Griebner,
• Valentin Petrov,
• Xavier Mateos and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2730–2740, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.255

• substrates beaded with ZnO nanoparticles [25]. This effect was demonstrated at 0.780 µm with femtosecond pulses. Ahmad et al. employed ZnO nanoparticles in a polymer thin film as a SA for an Er fiber laser. The absorption saturation experiment performed at 1.560 µm revealed a saturation intensity as low as

• compared to the SWCNT-SAs, while the latter are less attractive since they are deposited in the form of a polymer thin film. For the Tm laser, the best output characteristics are again achieved with the SWCNT-SA. The PQS performance of the ZnO NRs is better than other 2D materials (graphene-SA with a

Optimization of Mo/Cr bilayer back contacts for thin-film solar cells

• Nima Khoshsirat,
• Fawad Ali,
• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• Mojtaba Amjadipour,
• Hongxia Wang,
• Mahnaz Shafiei and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2700–2707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.252

• .9.252 Abstract Molybdenum (Mo) is the most commonly used material as back contact in thin-film solar cells. Adhesion of Mo film to soda–lime glass (SLG) substrate is crucial to the performance of solar cells. In this study, an optimized bilayer structure made of a thin layer of Mo on an ultra-thin

• chromium (Cr) adhesion layer is used as the back contact for a copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) thin-film solar cell on a SLG substrate. DC magnetron sputtering is used for deposition of Mo and Cr films. The conductivity of Mo/Cr bilayer films, their microstructure and surface morphology are studied at

• the back contact thickness to 600 nm. That is two thirds to half of the thickness that is currently being used for bilayer and single layer back contact for thin-film solar cells. We demonstrate the excellent properties of Mo/Cr bilayer as back contact of a CZTS solar cell. Keywords: back contact

Au–Si plasmonic platforms: synthesis, structure and FDTD simulations

• Anna Gapska,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2599–2608, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.241

• place also in our samples. On the other hand, many defects are already created when a thin film of metal is deposited on the Si(111) surface, so heterogeneous dewetting must be also considered. During the formation of nanostructures from thin metallic films, it is necessary to take into account, in

• between them can be different. In turn, this can be a driving force for the dewetting process [15][22]. XPS was used to determine the valence state of Au films and Au nanostructures. The Au 4f doublet of the 2.8 nm thin film after annealing at 550 °C for 15 min is presented in Figure 8. For comparison the

• nanostructures the shift of binding energy is also observed. Also a small asymmetry of the 4f7/2 peak can be noticed on its higher-energy side. However there is no difference between the spectra of nanostructures and thin film. In the XPS results only the states corresponding to metallic gold are observed. The

Exploring the photoleakage current and photoinduced negative bias instability in amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors with various active layer thicknesses

• Dapeng Wang and
• Mamoru Furuta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2573–2580, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.239

• and illumination stress (NBIS)-induced instability in amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors (a-IGZO TFTs) with various active layer thicknesses (TIGZO) were investigated. The photoleakage current was found to gradually increase in a-IGZO TFTs irrespective of the TIGZO when the photon energy of

• . Keywords: active layer thickness; gate bias; illumination stress; InGaZnO; photoleakage current; thin-film transistors; Introduction Over the last decade, the amorphous oxide-based semiconductor thin-film transistors (AOS TFTs) have attracted global attention for use in advanced display technologies due

Nanocellulose: Recent advances and its prospects in environmental remediation

• Katrina Pui Yee Shak,
• Yean Ling Pang and
• Shee Keat Mah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2479–2498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.232

• nanostructures in the form of thin film, membrane, fibre and hybrid materials under UV and visible light irradiation. Nanocellulose–metal oxide (TiO2, ZnO, graphene oxide, and Fe2O3) composites have been used as photocatalysts to improve the degradation rate of organic pollutants as compared to individual

• in recycling and reuse. However, a rigid cellulose matrix has been recruited for its three-dimensional porous structure to act as a catalyst support and prevent the aggregation and growth of nanoparticles [120]. The application of a nanocellulose-based thin film and membrane showed great potential in

• ]. Mohamed et al. [121] reported that the optical properties of a transparent nanocellulose/TiO2 hybrid thin film were imperative for the UV or visible light irradiation. This led to the enhancement of the electron distribution and transfer to the surface of metal oxide. Consequently, the recombination rate

ZnO-nanostructure-based electrochemical sensor: Effect of nanostructure morphology on the sensing of heavy metal ions

• Marina Krasovska,
• Vjaceslavs Gerbreders,
• Irena Mihailova,
• Andrejs Ogurcovs,
• Eriks Sledevskis,
• Andrejs Gerbreders and
• Pavels Sarajevs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2421–2431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.227

• carried out with the LAB18 thin film deposition system (Kurt J. Lesker, USA) in DC magnetron sputtering mode. As a result, a set of electrodes consisted of four mutually separated planar elements, as illustrated in Figure 1. All of the manipulations described below were carried out using a metal mask

High-throughput micro-nanostructuring by microdroplet inkjet printing

• Hendrikje R. Neumann and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2372–2380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.222

• the droplet diameter on freestanding NiTi foil and the 200 nm thick sputtered NiTi thin film varies between 55 and 65 µm. These were the smallest possible diameters that could be generated with our setup. The maximum size of the droplets depends on the maximum droplet volume, which can be up to 10 pL

• diameters on the 50 µm thick free-standing NiTi sample: about 50% of the droplets have a diameter between 49 to 70 µm. For the sputtered NiTi thin film, the droplet diameters have a narrower distribution around the mean value of 63 µm, but the distribution has long tails, as shown by the upper whisker

• result of the distinct arrangement of the gold nanodots in the texture-induced grooves on these samples. The distribution for the sputtered NiTi thin film differs from the other samples. The mean NND here is about 27 nm and 50% of the data set for this sample has a small variation of 10 nm. However, the

Magnetism and magnetoresistance of single Ni–Cu alloy nanowires

• Andreea Costas,
• Camelia Florica,
• Elena Matei,
• Maria Eugenia Toimil-Molares,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Andrei Kuncser,
• Victor Kuncser and
• Ionut Enculescu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2345–2355, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.219

• temperature of 50 °C. The working electrode, a thin film (50 nm) of Au, was sputtered on one side of the polycarbonate membrane and was subsequently electrochemically thickened with a thin layer of Cu (10 µm). The electrodeposition was made using a modified Watts bath containing: 225 g·L−1 NiSO4, 2 g·L−1

• electrode potential than Ni. Electrodeposition was performed using a potentiostat/galvanostat (PARSTAT 2276) controlled by a PC and employing a typical three-electrode configuration: a platinum foil of 1 cm2 (counter electrode), a thin film of Au covering one side of the polycarbonate membrane (working

Block copolymers for designing nanostructured porous coatings

• Roberto Nisticò

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2332–2344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.218

• polymeric blocks are linked via metal–ligand complexes) [63]. In this particular case, the approach consists of firstly, the self-assembly of the metallo-supramolecular block copolymer, forming a well-ordered thin film, and secondly, the opening of the metallo-complex via redox reaction, extracting the PEO

• control the orientation of the PEO cylindrical domains within the PS thin film [89][90]. In particular, at high humidity conditions, it has been found that PEO cylindrical domains are vertically (perpendicular) oriented with respect to the thin film surface, whereas at low humidity conditions, the PEO

• centered spheres; CPS: closed-packed spheres; and DIS: disordered. Schematic representation of the solvent evaporation in a thin film made by block copolymer. At the surface, the concentration of the solvent is low and the copolymer undergoes a well-ordered microphase separation. A gradient in the

Performance analysis of rigorous coupled-wave analysis and its integration in a coupled modeling approach for optical simulation of complete heterojunction silicon solar cells

• Ziga Lokar,
• Benjamin Lipovsek,
• Marko Topic and
• Janez Krc

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2315–2329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.216

• modeling techniques have been used in simulations of solar cells [11][12][13][14], and among them, rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) has been employed for the optical simulation of thin film or wafer-based solar cells with various textures [2][3][15][16][17]. However, its applicability, limitations and

• ][29], which was previously tested and experimentally verified on different solar cell structures, including thick macrotextured layers (RT simulation) and thin-film layers (TMM simulation). Whereas RCWA is used for detailed description of optical situation in thin nanometer-textured stacks, raytracing

• ) properties at the front interfaces, compared to the flat structure in this case. For wavelengths in the range 500–800 nm, the optimized front thin film stack serves as an efficient AR coating already in the flat device, so the addition of nanotexture does not improve the results much further in this

Lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics

• Oleksandr Stroyuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2209–2235, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.207

• have been employed as nanometer-thin-film light harvesters, such as Cu(Ga)InS(Se)2 or CdTe, showing a light conversion efficiency of up to 21% [1][2]. Progress in dye-sensitized solar cells (reaching ≈12% efficiency [1][2]) has stimulated attempts in using metal chalcogenide nanocrystals (NCs) as