Insights into the electronic and atomic structures of cerium oxide-based ultrathin films and nanostructures using high-brilliance light sources

• Paola Luches and
• Federico Boscherini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 860–871, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.65

• pump–probe X-ray diffraction, to more complex systems like highly doped and ternary oxides, or to systems with variable and well-controlled defect densities and architecture, also under operando conditions. Optimizing the lifetime of photoexcited charges, but also understanding the mechanisms and the

Nanostructured materials characterized by scanning photoelectron spectromicroscopy

• Matteo Amati,
• Alexey S. Shkvarin,
• Alexander I. Merentsov,
• Alexander N. Titov,
• María Taeño,
• David Maestre,
• Sarah R. McKibbin,
• Zygmunt Milosz,
• Ana Cremades,
• Rainer Timm and
• Luca Gregoratti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 700–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.54

• , environmental reliability, and operando capabilities. Scanning photoelectron spectromicroscopy (SPEM) is one of the characterization tools that combine high spectral resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with submicron spatial resolution. In particular, the SPEM equipment hosted at the ESCA microscopy

• beamline at Elettra is capable of in situ and operando analysis regardless of sample morphology. The review presents three different case studies illustrating the capabilities of SPEM in the investigation of catalytic materials in different conditions and processes. Keywords: nanostructured materials

• ; operando; oxides; scanning photoelectron spectromicroscopy; semiconductor nanowires; transition metal dichalcogenides; XPS; Introduction Nanometer or micrometer-sized materials play a key role in modern technologies in the search of new routes for unforeseen performances generating breakthroughs in

ReactorAFM/STM – dynamic reactions on surfaces at elevated temperature and atmospheric pressure

• Tycho Roorda,
• Hamed Achour,
• Matthijs A. van Spronsen,
• Marta E. Cañas-Ventura,
• Sander B. Roobol,
• Willem Onderwaater,
• Mirthe Bergman,
• Peter van der Tuijn,
• Gertjan van Baarle,
• Johan W. Bakker,
• Joost W. M. Frenken and
• Irene M. N. Groot

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 397–406, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.30

• AFM; model catalysts; nc-AFM; operando catalysis; qPlus tuning fork sensor; Introduction Operando catalysis is the field of research that monitors the structure, composition, and morphology of a catalyst while simultaneously investigating its activity, reactivity, and selectivity under industrially

• AFM/STM integrated in a high-pressure gas flow reactor. The combined technique is based on the state-of-the-art tuning fork sensor in a qPlus configuration with three contacts, two for AFM and one for STM [17]. In order to illustrate the applicability of the technique, operando oxidation of Pd(100

• show operando combined AFM/STM images of a clean Pd(100) single crystal that undergoes oxidation of the surface. The oxidation happens at 450 K under 0.5 bar of oxygen atmosphere. The second experiment is a FTS experiment, where we show AFM images of catalytic cobalt nanoparticles. The nanoparticles

TiO_x/Pt₃Ti(111) surface-directed formation of electronically responsive supramolecular assemblies of tungsten oxide clusters

• Marco Moors,
• Yun An,
• Agnieszka Kuc and
• Kirill Yu. Monakhov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 203–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.16

• observed. The findings boost progress toward template-directed nucleation, growth, networking, and charge state manipulation of functional molecular nanostructures on surfaces using operando techniques. Keywords: atom manipulation; scanning tunneling microscopy; supramolecular self-assemblies; titanium

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

• , Shanghai, PR of China 10.3762/bjnano.10.12 Keywords: energy conversion and storage, in-operando, Scanning Probe Microscopy, Scanning Force Microscopy; In order to stimulate, bundle and strengthen the activities in the field of scanning probe microscopy for energy applications, we have organized a

• significant role for the in-operando characterization. SPM methods offer a plethora of operation modes beyond topography imaging, which is well reflected in the articles of this thematic issue. The majority of contributions stem from research on photovoltaic materials. Here, electrical conductive atomic force

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

• as it can probe the materials under in operando conditions [120][121][122][123]. In this way, it is possible to directly identify the different configurations of the nitrogen atoms in the carbon network using XPS during a chemical reaction. In parallel with the advancement of novel measurement

Refractive index sensing and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy using silver–gold layered bimetallic plasmonic crystals

• Somi Kang,
• Sean E. Lehman,
• Matthew V. Schulmerich,
• An-Phong Le,
• Tae-woo Lee,
• Stephen K. Gray,
• Rohit Bhargava and
• Ralph G. Nuzzo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2492–2503, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.249

• interparticle interactions mediated via operando sensitive attributes of surface charge. This intrinsically makes plasmonic crystals more attractive for sensing applications as the need to modify the surface chemistry/charge figures heavily in design of capacities to support the recognition of specific solution

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

• together with a deep understanding of the surface reactions. Operando measurements, in which electrical measurements and spectroscopic investigations are performed simultaneously on the material, have proven to be a powerful investigation tool in answering some questions about the sensing mechanism [22][23

From lithium to sodium: cell chemistry of room temperature sodium–air and sodium–sulfur batteries

• Philipp Adelhelm,
• Pascal Hartmann,
• Conrad L. Bender,
• Martin Busche,
• Christine Eufinger and
• Juergen Janek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1016–1055, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.105

Overview of nanoscale NEXAFS performed with soft X-ray microscopes

• Peter Guttmann and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 595–604, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.61

• (i.e., up to 10 µm) specimens in materials and biological sciences using photon energies that covers the K- and L-X-ray absorption edges of elements of major interest [2][3][4][5]. High-photon energy X-ray diffraction used in operando studies can correlate changes in size of the unit cell of catalysts

Materials and characterization techniques for high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

• Roswitha Zeis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 68–83, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.8

• in HT-PEM by using in operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) incorporating the Δμ technique. The goal of this study was also to investigate phosphoric acid adsorption on platinum in a real fuel cell. The technique is capable to determine adsorbates on the platinum catalyst particles by

Restructuring of an Ir(210) electrode surface by potential cycling

• Khaled A. Soliman,
• Dieter M. Kolb,
• Ludwig A. Kibler and
• Timo Jacob

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1349–1356, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.148

• ][11], (ii) structural changes in operando, e.g., for hydrogen evolution at PdAu nanoparticles [12], (iii) removal of islands by adsorbates, such as electrochemical annealing of Au(100) by adsorbed chloride [13][14], (iv) dissolution of metals at positive potentials and restructuring by oxidation

Magnesium batteries: Current state of the art, issues and future perspectives

• Rana Mohtadi and
• Fuminori Mizuno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1291–1311, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.143

• operando soft X-ray spectroscopy. Their results, combined with the transport properties of the magnesium species, also suggested the interfacial electroactive species to be MgCl+·5THF. The dimeric Mg2Cl3+ species present in the bulk, was discounted from being electrochemically active at the interface

Plasmonics-based detection of H₂ and CO: discrimination between reducing gases facilitated by material control

• Gnanaprakash Dharmalingam,
• Nicholas A. Joy,
• Benjamin Grisafe and
• Michael A. Carpenter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 712–721, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.81

• in air) these reactions would induce a change in the dielectric function of the matrix. Such operando studies, combining chemical sensing measurements with analytical methods that simultaneously probe the reaction mechanism that induces the sensing response, remain a challenging experiment under