Facile one-step radio frequency magnetron sputtering of Ni/NiO on stainless steel for an efficient electrode for hydrogen evolution reaction

• Ha Huu Do,
• Khac Binh Nguyen,
• Phuong N. Nguyen and
• Hoai Phuong Pham

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 837–846, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.63

• may introduce a facile and eco-friendly strategy for fabricating noble metal-free, efficient nanomaterials for electrocatalytic HER. Keywords: electrocatalysts; magnetron sputtering; nickel; nickel oxide; water electrolysis; Introduction The world is facing a critical challenge through the

Emerging strategies in the sustainable removal of antibiotics using semiconductor-based photocatalysts

• Yunus Ahmed,
• Keya Rani Dutta,
• Parul Akhtar,
• Md. Arif Hossen,
• Md. Jahangir Alam,
• Obaid A. Alharbi,
• Hamad AlMohamadi and
• Abdul Wahab Mohammad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 264–285, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.21

• -based materials Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a metal-free semiconductor material with distinct optical, electrical, structural, and physicochemical characteristics [99]. These properties make it well-suited for applications in energy and environmental fields. Because of its narrow bandgap of 2.7

• materials as photocatalysts. GO has attracted interest as another metal-free carbon material, owing to its two-dimensional ultrathin layered structure, robust stability, and remarkable capacity to transport charge carriers [110]. When coupled with suitable semiconductor materials or modified to other forms

Mn-doped ZnO nanopowders prepared by sol–gel and microwave-assisted sol–gel methods and their photocatalytic properties

• Cristina Maria Vlăduț,
• Crina Anastasescu,
• Silviu Preda,
• Oana Catalina Mocioiu,
• Simona Petrescu,
• Jeanina Pandele-Cusu,
• Dana Culita,
• Veronica Bratan,
• Ioan Balint and
• Maria Zaharescu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 1283–1296, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.104

• technologies. Despite the many works dealing with ZnO-based materials dedicated to catalytic applications, there is still room for investigation on inexpensive, noble metal-free active materials under solar irradiation. These materials are more valuable when targeting the organic pollution mineralization from

LED-light-activated photocatalytic performance of metal-free carbon-modified hexagonal boron nitride towards degradation of methylene blue and phenol

• Nirmalendu S. Mishra and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1380–1392, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.114

Tin dioxide nanomaterial-based photocatalysts for nitrogen oxide oxidation: a review

• Viet Van Pham,
• Hong-Huy Tran,
• Thao Kim Truong and
• Thi Minh Cao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 96–113, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.7

• TiO2 and BiOBr, recent works reported the successful combination of SnO2 nanomaterials with conjugated polymers such as graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and polyaniline (PANI), yielding metal-free visible-light-driven photocatalysts for addressing NO gas pollution. Such combinations hold great

Sputtering onto liquids: a critical review

• Anastasiya Sergievskaya,
• Adrien Chauvin and
• Stephanos Konstantinidis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 10–53, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.2

The effect of cobalt on morphology, structure, and ORR activity of electrospun carbon fibre mats in aqueous alkaline environments

• Markus Gehring,
• Tobias Kutsch,
• Osmane Camara,
• Alexandre Merlen,
• Hermann Tempel,
• Hans Kungl and
• Rüdiger-A. Eichel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1173–1186, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.87

• graphitic nitrogen. The peak at approximately 398.7 eV was attributed to pyridinic nitrogen, the peak at approximately 402.8 eV to pyridinic N-oxides. To obtain comparable results for the metal-free reference system, the signal intensities of pyrrolic and graphitic nitrogen were summed up for the samples

Irradiation-driven molecular dynamics simulation of the FEBID process for Pt(PF₃)₄

• Alexey Prosvetov,
• Alexey V. Verkhovtsev,
• Gennady Sushko and
• Andrey V. Solov’yov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1151–1172, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.86

• induces the release of metal-free ligands and the growth of metal-enriched deposits. It involves a complex interplay of phenomena taking place on different temporal and spatial scales: (i) deposition, diffusion, and desorption of precursor molecules on the substrate; (ii) transport of the primary

Progress and innovation of nanostructured sulfur cathodes and metal-free anodes for room-temperature Na–S batteries

• Marina Tabuyo-Martínez,
• Bernd Wicklein and
• Pilar Aranda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 995–1020, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.75

• investigation and innovation is needed until RT Na–S batteries can be commercialized. Keywords: composites; metal-free anode; Na–S; sodium nanostructures; sodium–sulfur batteries; sulfur nanostructures; Introduction The progress and innovation of cheaper, cleaner, safer, and more efficient electrical energy

• the drawbacks of sulfur-based cathodes. The strategies to solve the polysulfide shuttle effect, conductivity drop, and structural damage caused by sulfur volume expansion are discussed. Moreover, concepts for Na metal-free anodes in Na–S batteries are reviewed and analyzed. Other strategies including

• sub-micrometer-sized sulfur NPs within milliseconds [62]. The resulting sulfur–PVP composite cathode had a capacity of 808 mAh·g−1 after 50 cycles at 0.1C. Sodium metal-free anodes The reason for the widespread use of metal Na anodes in Na–S batteries is the very high capacity of 1165 mAh·g−1 of

Nanoporous and nonporous conjugated donor–acceptor polymer semiconductors for photocatalytic hydrogen production

• Zhao-Qi Sheng,
• Yu-Qin Xing,
• Yan Chen,
• Guang Zhang,
• Shi-Yong Liu and
• Long Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 607–623, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.50

• photocatalyst (i.e., poly(p-phenylene)) for PHP was reported, but did not attract much attention due to the low hydrogen evolution rate (HER) [11]. In 2009, Wang et al. reported a novel metal-free polymeric photocatalyst (i.e., graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4)), which could efficiently reduce protons to

• pyrazole-triazine-based CTFs, that is, P9 (A–D–A) and P10 (D–A) (Figure 2) by a metal-free catalyzed approach [50]. Compared with P10, introducing a benzothiadiazole unit into P9 effectively reduced the optical bandgap from 2.94 eV to the ideal value of 2.33 eV. They further probed the influence of

Boosting of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution via chlorine doping of polymeric carbon nitride

• Malgorzata Aleksandrzak,
• Michalina Kijaczko,
• Wojciech Kukulka,
• Daria Baranowska,
• Martyna Baca,
• Beata Zielinska and
• Ewa Mijowska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 473–484, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.38

• semiconductor polymer, as a metal-free and visible-light-responsive photocatalyst, has attracted dramatically growing attention in the field of visible-light-induced hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). It is characterized by facile synthesis, easy functionalization, attractive electronic band structure, and

Wafer-level integration of self-aligned high aspect ratio silicon 3D structures using the MACE method with Au, Pd, Pt, Cu, and Ir

• Mathias Franz,
• Romy Junghans,
• Paul Schmitt,
• Adriana Szeghalmi and
• Stefan E. Schulz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1439–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.128

• catalytic metal that supports the wet etching of silicon. However, copper dissolves in the harsh HF/H2O2 solution too fast for the etching of high aspect ratio templates. On the other side, this metal can be used to increase surface roughness. The complete dissolution of copper leaves a clean metal-free

Nickel nanoparticles supported on a covalent triazine framework as electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reactions

• Secil Öztürk,
• Yu-Xuan Xiao,
• Dennis Dietrich,
• Beatriz Giesen,
• Juri Barthel,
• Jie Ying,
• Xiao-Yu Yang and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 770–781, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.62

• application. Consequently, researchers are working on discovering and developing catalysts for OER and ORR that are metal-free or based on non-noble metals, stable and earth-abundant [6][7][8][9][10]. Among the transition-metal-based OER and ORR catalysts, Ni-containing catalysts are promising candidates [7

• thermal stability of the CTF support is another advantage, as this is often a problem of many other catalysts. CTF-1-600, as a metal-free electrocatalyst, showed better performance than N-doped carbon nanomaterials, which required an overpotential of 0.38 V vs RHE at 10 mA/cm2 [57], better performance

Electrochemically derived functionalized graphene for bulk production of hydrogen peroxide

• Munaiah Yeddala,
• Pallavi Thakur,
• Anugraha A and
• Tharangattu N. Narayanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 432–442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.34

• , and hence their economic viability for the future technologies is highly questionable [10][24][25][26][27]. Hence new metal-free electrode materials for H2O2 generation are highly sought after for future technologies. Recently, carbon-based catalysts have emerged as an alternate material for existing

Synthesis of amorphous and graphitized porous nitrogen-doped carbon spheres as oxygen reduction reaction catalysts

• Maximilian Wassner,
• Markus Eckardt,
• Andreas Reyer,
• Thomas Diemant,
• Michael S. Elsaesser,
• R. Jürgen Behm and
• Nicola Hüsing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1–15, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.1

• . Both rely on the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The best established ORR catalysts are so far based on Pt nanoparticles or Pt alloys. However, Pt is expensive and its stability under fuel-cell working conditions is limited. Therefore, alternative catalysts based on noble-metal-free, less expensive

• and stable materials are highly needed. Metal-free carbon materials, single- or multi-doped with N, B, P, S, halogens, Si or Se, have turned out to be promising ORR catalysts [1][2][3][4][5][6]. N-doped carbon materials show promising ORR activities along with high electric conductivity, in addition

Review of advanced sensor devices employing nanoarchitectonics concepts

• Katsuhiko Ariga,
• Tatsuyuki Makita,
• Masato Ito,
• Taizo Mori,
• Shun Watanabe and
• Jun Takeya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2014–2030, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.198

• processes, such as catalytic reactions and fluorescence quenching, often improves sensor capabilities through component nanoarchitectonics. Imanaka and co-workers used a combustion process induced by a precious-metal-free CeO2–ZrO2–ZnO catalyst for CO gas detection [87]. The semiconducting (p-type) La2CuO4

Synthesis of P- and N-doped carbon catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction via controlled phosphoric acid treatment of folic acid

• Rieko Kobayashi,
• Takafumi Ishii,
• Yasuo Imashiro and
• Jun-ichi Ozaki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1497–1510, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.148

• materials [11]) and further improved their ORR activity and durability to afford a commercial CAC [12][13] and thus realized the world’s first portable PEFC cell containing a non-precious-metal cathode catalyst [14][15]. Much effort has been directed at the development of transition-metal-free carbon

• catalysts for the ORR, with the best practical performance so far observed for N-doped carbon materials [16]. For example, a recently reported metal-free catalyst based on N-doped carbon nanotubes showed high ORR activity even under acidic conditions and allowed for facile electricity generation when

Playing with covalent triazine framework tiles for improved CO₂ adsorption properties and catalytic performance

• Giulia Tuci,
• Andree Iemhoff,
• Housseinou Ba,
• Lapo Luconi,
• Andrea Rossin,
• Vasiliki Papaefthimiou,
• Regina Palkovits,
• Jens Artz,
• Cuong Pham-Huu and
• Giuliano Giambastiani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1217–1227, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.121

• ). Moreover, following our recent achievements in the field of steam- and oxygen-free dehydrogenation catalysis using CTFs as metal-free catalysts, the new samples with highest N contents have been scrutinized in the process to provide additional insights to their complex structure–activity relationship

• stability) as metal-free catalysts in gas-phase processes. Our recent achievements in the use of highly porous and N-rich carbon nanomaterials as metal-free catalysts for the steam- and oxygen-free dehydrogenation catalysis (DDH) of ethylbenzene (EB) to styrene (ST) have shown unique outcomes in terms of

• -dicyanoimidazole (DCI) or its equimolar mixtures with the aforementioned dicyanoaryl units (see Scheme 1 below) [45]. The as-prepared samples have been investigated as CO2 storage materials as well as metal-free catalysts for the gas-phase DDH of EB to ST. Notably, mixed CTF samples from this series have shown CO2

Glucose-derived carbon materials with tailored properties as electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction

• Rafael Gomes Morais,
• Natalia Rey-Raap,
• José Luís Figueiredo and
• Manuel Fernando Ribeiro Pereira

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1089–1102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.109

• materials [3][4] have been widely studied as electrocatalysts in ORR due to their attractive physical and electrochemical properties. Among these materials, metal-free carbon materials have received tremendous attention due to their versatility and lower price in comparison with metal-based materials [2

Synthesis of novel C-doped g-C₃N₄ nanosheets coupled with CdIn₂S₄ for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

• Jingshuai Chen,
• Chang-Jie Mao,
• Helin Niu and
• Ji-Ming Song

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 912–921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.92

• metal-free organic catalysts with visible-light response, has been extensively used in pollutant elimination, hydrogen production and photoreduction of CO2 because of its facile fabrication, superior physicochemical stability, appropriate energy band structure, and low cost [7][8][9]. Nevertheless, the

Reduced graphene oxide supported C₃N₄ nanoflakes and quantum dots as metal-free catalysts for visible light assisted CO₂ reduction

• Md Rakibuddin and
• Haekyoung Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 448–458, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.44

• distributed on the rGO surface within the GCN hybrid material. Among the as-prepared GCN hybrid materials, GCN-5 QDs exhibit excellent CO2 reductive activity for the generation of formaldehyde, HCHO (10.3 mmol h−1 g−1). Therefore, utilization of metal-free carbon-based GCN hybrid materials could be very

• promising for CO2 photoreduction because of their excellent activity and environmental sustainability. Keywords: CO2 reduction; metal-free hybrid; nanoflakes; photocatalyst; quantum dots; Introduction The solar-light-assisted photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into useful chemicals, such as HCOOH, HCHO, CH4

• conduction band (CB) and valence band (VB) edge positions, exhibit efficient charge separation, have a large surface area, and it must be cost effective. Considering the above factors, nontoxic metal-free catalysts, such as graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) have received wide

Electrolyte tuning in dye-sensitized solar cells with N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) iron(II) sensitizers

• Mariia Karpacheva,
• Catherine E. Housecroft and
• Edwin C. Constable

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3069–3078, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.285

• realized with ruthenium-based [2], zinc(II) porphyrin-based [5][6][7][8][9] or metal-free organic dyes [10][11][12]. In a recent review [2], Nazeeruddin points to the fact that only incremental enhancements of the photoconversion efficiencies of ruthenium dyes have occurred during the last two decades

The nanoscaled metal-organic framework ICR-2 as a carrier of porphyrins for photodynamic therapy

• Jan Hynek,
• Sebastian Jurík,
• Martina Koncošová,
• Jaroslav Zelenka,
• Ivana Křížová,
• Tomáš Ruml,
• Kaplan Kirakci,
• Ivo Jakubec,
• František Kovanda,
• Kamil Lang and
• Jan Demel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2960–2967, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.275

• corresponding spectra of the free porphyrins. The absorption spectra show characteristic absorption bands of metal-free porphyrins: the Soret band at 415 nm and four Q-bands in the region between 500 and 650 nm. The comparison of the absorption spectra of free TPPPi(Ph) and corresponding nanoICR-2/TPPPi(Ph

Metal-free catalysis based on nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials: a photoelectron spectroscopy point of view

• Mattia Scardamaglia and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2015–2031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.191

• have addressed in the last decades are described, in particular the enduring debate on the role of the different nitrogen functionalities in the catalytic activity of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes and graphene. Keywords: catalysis; carbon nanotubes; graphene; metal-free; nitrogen doping

• absorption of H2 on the catalyst lowering the cell performance [6]. In parallel, the research on the catalytic activity of low-cost and metal-free catalysts has proceeded for decades. The discovery of catalytic properties of carbon alloys with nitrogen dates back to 1926 when Rideal and Wright reported their

• discovery of their catalytic performance in the ORR: beginning with nitrogen-doped carbon fibres (2006 [18]), followed by carbon nanotubes (2009 [19]) and finally graphene (2010 [20]). In 2006, Matter and Ozkan reported on a metal-free ORR catalyst containing nitrogen-doped carbon fibers. The authors

Perovskite-structured CaTiO₃ coupled with g-C₃N₄ as a heterojunction photocatalyst for organic pollutant degradation

• Ashish Kumar,
• Christian Schuerings,
• Suneel Kumar,
• Ajay Kumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 671–685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.62

• 2D–2D nanocomposites could effectively improve the specific surface area and provide abundant reaction sites to adsorb reactant species on their surface, which can significantly enhance the photocatalytic activity [15][16]. Recently, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), which is a metal-free polymeric