Photoactive nanoarchitectures based on clays incorporating TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles

• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky,
• Pilar Aranda,
• Marwa Akkari,
• Nithima Khaorapapong and
• Makoto Ogawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1140–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.114

• often than ZnO NPs regarding their use as photocatalysts. One of the main applications of clay–semiconductor materials is the mineralization of organic pollutants, which represents an ideal solution for the remediation of wastewater contaminated with diverse organic species. This process consists in the

• other photocatalytic reactions assisted by semiconductor photocatalysts. The use of TiO2 and ZnO NPs, particularly the anatase and wurtzite phases, as heterogeneous photocatalysts attracted great attention over the last years. Atmospheric oxygen is used as oxidant to achieve complete mineralization of

• ]. Probably the first contribution was introduced by Bel Hadjltaief and co-workers [158], using a Tunisian Na+-smectite treated with titanium(IV) isopropoxide and zinc acetate. This ZnO–TiO2@clay material shows that a rapid and complete mineralization of methyl green dye in water can be achieved with the

Hierarchical heterostructures of Bi₂MoO₆ microflowers decorated with Ag₂CO₃ nanoparticles for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic removal of toxic pollutants

• Shijie Li,
• Wei Jiang,
• Shiwei Hu,
• Yu Liu,
• Yanping Liu,
• Kaibing Xu and
• Jianshe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2297–2305, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.214

• established. However, the conventional wastewater treatments are usually accompanied by high cost, low efficiency and other insufficiencies [2]. The decomposition and mineralization of pollutants under sunlight through photocatalysis has been demonstrated to be an effective and green technology for

• /Bi2MoO6 [22]. As shown in Figure S3 (Supporting Information File 1), ACO/BMO-30 is much more active than Ag2MoO4/Bi2MoO6, but not as active as Ag/Ag2CO3/Bi2MoO6 due to the fact that Ag/Ag2CO3/Bi2MoO6 is a ternary composite. To examine the mineralization ability of ACO/BMO-30, the total organic carbon (TOC

• -30 shows a decent mineralization ability. To test the durability of ACO/BMO-30, repeated runs were carried out under unchanging conditions. As depicted in Figure 8a, after six consecutive runs, the RhB degradation efficiency is still about 92.2%. Additionally, no apparent change of the crystalline

Synthesis of a MnO₂/Fe₃O₄/diatomite nanocomposite as an efficient heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst for methylene blue degradation

• Zishun Li,
• Xuekun Tang,
• Kun Liu,
• Jing Huang,
• Yueyang Xu,
• Qian Peng and
• Minlin Ao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1940–1950, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.185

• mineralization rate of about 60% in 60 min and great recyclability with a recycle efficiency of 86.78% after five runs for MB. The probable mechanism of this catalytic system is also proposed as a synergistic effect between MnO2 and Fe3O4. Keywords: diatomite; Fenton-like oxidation; hybrid catalyst; iron(II,III

A visible-light-controlled platform for prolonged drug release based on Ag-doped TiO₂ nanotubes with a hydrophobic layer

• Caihong Liang,
• Jiang Wen and
• Xiaoming Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1793–1801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.170

• essential to human being, previously published work [26] showed that Zn can greatly improve cell functionality by enhancing osteoblast proliferation and mineralization and promoting mesenchymal stem cell osteogenic differentiation. Meanwhile, its anti-inflammatory properties have also drawn wide attention

Ag₂WO₄ nanorods decorated with AgI nanoparticles: Novel and efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for the degradation of water pollutants

• Shijie Li,
• Shiwei Hu,
• Wei Jiang,
• Yanping Liu,
• Yu Liu,
• Yingtang Zhou,
• Liuye Mo and
• Jianshe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1308–1316, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.123

• still achieves the highest apparent rate constant (0.0292 min−1 for MO degradation and 0.0129 min−1 for 4-CP degradation) among all these samples. The mineralization of organic pollutants is crucial for pollutant treatment [46]. Thus, the total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency of RhB over 0.3AgI

Noble metal-modified titania with visible-light activity for the decomposition of microorganisms

• Maya Endo,
• Zhishun Wei,
• Kunlei Wang,
• Baris Karabiyik,
• Kenta Yoshiiri,
• Paulina Rokicka,
• Bunsho Ohtani,
• Agata Markowska-Szczupak and
• Ewa Kowalska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 829–841, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.77

• samples (eight orders of decrease after three hours of vis irradiation and one order in the dark), only the silver-modified samples under vis irradiation caused continuous evolution of carbon dioxide suggesting a mineralization of bacterial cells [54]. To check if bacterial cells were really decomposed

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

• interface to produce active species, which causes mineralization of pollutants. Therefore, our photocatalytic activity studies illustrate that the CTCN heterojunction formed by coupling CT with g-C3N4 performs well in comparison to its bare counterparts under all three irradiation conditions (i.e., UV

Photocatalytic and adsorption properties of TiO₂-pillared montmorillonite obtained by hydrothermally activated intercalation of titanium polyhydroxo complexes

• Mikhail F. Butman,
• Nikolay L. Ovchinnikov,
• Nikita S. Karasev,
• Nataliya E. Kochkina,
• Alexander V. Agafonov and
• Alexandr V. Vinogradov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 364–378, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.36

• to anionic ones. The pillared materials prepared using hydrothermal treatment combine sorptive and photocatalytic properties and can be recommended for mineralization and decomposition of organic contaminants, even in highly acidic media. Experimental Montmorillonite A fraction of MM particles with a

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

• aqueous solution to generate hydrogen, or it can produce a superoxide radical anion (O2−*) by reacting with the dissolved oxygen, hydroperoxide radical (*OOH) upon reaction with H+ ions [4]. These reactive radical species also have potential to accomplish complete mineralization of the pollutants into H2O

Preparation of thick silica coatings on carbon fibers with fine-structured silica nanotubes induced by a self-assembly process

• Benjamin Baumgärtner,
• Hendrik Möller,
• Thomas Neumann and
• Dirk Volkmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1145–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.116

• support or as a catalytic active material. The second possibility can be fulfilled for instance by introducing a titania precursor in the mineralization process. A silica/titania mixture is able to catalyze liquid phase epoxidation [35], the NOx abatement under UV irradiation [36] or the photocatalytic

• of the fiber with LPEI aggregates can be obtained which serves as both catalyst and template in the following mineralization step. The nature of LPEI enables access to a nanostructured patterning of the resulting silica shell. LPEI/silica composite particles and their immobilization on carbon fibers

• highly branched. The fiber bundle morphology is preserved in the subsequent mineralization process initialized by addition of 3 vol % silica precursor tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS) in a mixture of ethanol and water (1:1, v/v). The polymer aggregates are encapsulated by a silica shell in a very short

High photocatalytic activity of Fe₂O₃/TiO₂ nanocomposites prepared by photodeposition for degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

• Shu Chin Lee,
• Hendrik O. Lintang and
• Leny Yuliati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 915–926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.93

• nonahydrate precursor, which gave more than two times higher activity than the bare TiO2 [15]. The photocatalytic oxidation of 2,4-D by active species involves various steps, including formation of intermediates before its mineralization to CO2 and H2O. Decarboxylation has been reported as the initial step

• be suggested that 2,4-D was firstly oxidized by the active species (photogenerated holes and superoxide radicals) before decarboxylation and the formation of 2,4-DCP. The dechlorination of 2,4-DCP then took place, leading to ring opening, hydrocarbon chain breaking, and finally, the mineralization to

• photogenerated holes are left in the VB. The photogenerated electrons could reduce oxygen to form superoxide radicals, while holes could directly oxidize 2,4-D to 2,4-DCP before its mineralization. The presence of Fe2O3 reduces electron–hole recombination on the TiO2. Since the CB edge energy level of Fe2O3

Recombinant DNA technology and click chemistry: a powerful combination for generating a hybrid elastin-like-statherin hydrogel to control calcium phosphate mineralization

• Mohamed Hamed Misbah,
• Mercedes Santos,
• Luis Quintanilla,
• Christina Günter,
• Matilde Alonso,
• Andreas Taubert and
• José Carlos Rodríguez-Cabello

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 772–783, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.80

• bind to and nucleate calcium phosphate. The benefit of using click chemistry is that the hybrid elastin-like-statherin recombinamers cross-link without losing their fibrillar structure. Mineralization of the resulting hybrid elastin-like-statherin recombinamer hydrogels with calcium phosphate is

• biomaterials. Keywords: calcium phosphate; elastin-like recombinamers; hydroxyapatite; mineralization; SNA15; Introduction Combination of the specific properties of two materials is often a key to generating a new material, whose properties are superior to those of its individual components, with improved

• materials with a high application potential [14]. Although organic additives can be used to control the CP mineralization process in aqueous solution, their soluble nature restricts their use in potential applications. To overcome this problem, organic chains are introduced as insoluble additives, for

Nanostructured carbon materials decorated with organophosphorus moieties: synthesis and application

• Giacomo Biagiotti,
• Vittoria Langè,
• Cristina Ligi,
• Stefano Caporali,
• Maurizio Muniz-Miranda,
• Anna Flis,
• K. Michał Pietrusiewicz,
• Giacomo Ghini,
• Alberto Brandi and
• Stefano Cicchi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 485–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.52

• Flash E1112 analyzer. ICP analysis were made using an Optima 2000 Perkin Elmer Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Dual Vision instrument after acidic mineralization. TEM images were acquired at the electronic microscopic center CNR Florence (CE.M.E.) with a Philips CM12 with CRYO-GATAN UHRST 3500

Template-controlled piezoactivity of ZnO thin films grown via a bioinspired approach

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Fabian Streb,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Zaklina Burghard and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 296–303, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.32

• applied. Another approach is bioinspired mineralization. Here, principles from nature are adapted to deposit inorganic materials under mild reaction conditions. The crystal growth is controlled by organic additives in the mineralization solution that act as structure directing agents [18][19][20][21][22

• this model system, we deposit ZnO via bioinspired mineralization onto templates with different functionalities. In our recent work [39] we have demonstrated that the piezoactivity of the grown ZnO film strongly depends on the template. In particular, the impact of a piezoactive template (i.e., a layer

• of tobacco mosaic viruses) on the mineralization processes of ZnO films has been investigated and an extraordinary high degree of orientation was observed. In this study, we elucidate the influence of the negative charge density of two non-piezoelectric templates on the deposition of ZnO films from

Photocatalysis applications of some hybrid polymeric composites incorporating TiO₂ nanoparticles and their combinations with SiO₂/Fe₂O₃

• Andreea Laura Chibac,
• Tinca Buruiana,
• Violeta Melinte and
• Emil C. Buruiana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 272–286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.30

• constants were around 18 × 10−3 min−1 (Figure 7d) for the two photocatalysts S3 and S4. The mineralization of phenol, i.e., the complete degradation of phenol and its decomposition intermediates to CO2, was investigated by measuring the concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) in the solutions irradiated

• with visible light for 250 min in presence of the S4 polymeric film. The TOC analysis indicated a phenol mineralization of about 46%, the result suggesting that the speed of TOC removal is slower (approximately half) than the phenol degradation into intermediate species. A different photobehaviour was

Laser irradiation in water for the novel, scalable synthesis of black TiO_x photocatalyst for environmental remediation

• Massimo Zimbone,
• Giuseppe Cacciato,
• Mohamed Boutinguiza,
• Vittorio Privitera and
• Maria Grazia Grimaldi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 196–202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.21

• widely used for both water splitting and mineralization of organic contaminants in solution [2]. The applications range from third generation solar cells [3] to material for air or water purification [4] to antifogging and self-cleaning surfaces [5][6]. The main advantage of this material is its high

3D printing of mineral–polymer bone substitutes based on sodium alginate and calcium phosphate

• Aleksey A. Egorov,
• Alexander Yu. Fedotov,
• Anton V. Mironov,
• Vladimir S. Komlev,
• Vladimir K. Popov and
• Yury V. Zobkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1794–1799, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.172

• the carboxylate group of alginate. This physical bonding translates to mixtures that are rich in electronic pairs leading to a higher reactivity and mineralization potential that can be transformed into composite materials [13]. According to X-ray diffraction data, synthesis in the presence of

Role of RGO support and irradiation source on the photocatalytic activity of CdS–ZnO semiconductor nanostructures

• Suneel Kumar,
• Rahul Sharma,
• Vipul Sharma,
• Gurunarayanan Harith,
• Vaidyanathan Sivakumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1684–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.161

• photocatalytic decomposition of organic pollutants [4][5][6][7][8]. These semiconductor photocatalysts not only degrade the contaminants, but also cause their complete mineralization into CO2, H2O and mineral acids [9][10]. Thus, it is advantageous over physico-chemical methods such as flocculation–coagulation

Novel roles for well-known players: from tobacco mosaic virus pests to enzymatically active assemblies

• Claudia Koch,
• Fabian J. Eber,
• Carlos Azucena,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Alexander M. Bittner,
• Holger Jeske,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Fania C. Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 613–629, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.54

• play a leading role among the most promising viral backbones [5][7][91][92]. TMV and closely related tobamoviruses have been applied as versatile templates for the metallization or mineralization of their inner or outer surfaces, respectively, yielding nanosized components for, e.g., electronic devices

Chemical bath deposition of textured and compact zinc oxide thin films on vinyl-terminated polystyrene brushes

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Caroline G. Hofmeister,
• Peter Lindemann,
• Cheng Huang,
• Johannes Baier,
• Andreas Leineweber,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Christof Wöll,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 102–110, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.12

• polystyrene brush on the deposition of ZnO thin films under moderate conditions. On a non-modified SiOx surface, island growth is observed, whereas the polymer brush induces homogeneous film growth. A chemical modification of the polystyrene brushes during the mineralization process occurs, which enables

• deposition processes for ZnO nanostructures. For example, biopolymers can control the mineralization and the structure formation of inorganic materials in an aqueous environment. Biopolymeric templates and their structure-inducing properties are in the focus of many recent works and issued in a recent

• °. On the other hand, the surface decorated with a PS brush is hydrophobic with a WCA of 85°. Transesterification of polystyrene brushes During the ZnO mineralization, a modification of the PS brush was observed that leads to a hydrophilic surface, which can improve the interaction with the ZnO

Impact of ultrasonic dispersion on the photocatalytic activity of titania aggregates

• Hoai Nga Le,
• Frank Babick,
• Klaus Kühn,
• Minh Tan Nguyen,
• Michael Stintz and
• Gianaurelio Cuniberti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2423–2430, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.250

• oxidation, discoloration, mineralization, and degradation of organic pollutants [1][2]. Photocatalysis is an example of an AOP that has been effectively applied for the treatment of highly polluted water such as dye sewage [3][4]. Among the materials for this application, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a very

Template-controlled mineralization: Determining film granularity and structure by surface functionality patterns

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Jonathan Berson,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Johannes Baier,
• Joachim Bill and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1763–1768, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.180

• the site-selective mineralization of a semiconductor material, zinc oxide (ZnO), on a chemically patterned surface [3]. ZnO thin films are of special interest since they can be used for different applications such as solar cells [16], biosensing devices [17] and others [18]. By using a nearly

• , as both surfaces exhibit an rms-roughness value of 0.1 nm. After mineralization, the APTES islands are covered by a homogenous, smooth film with an rms-roughness of 1 nm. AFM images show a granular structure that is not clearly visible in the corresponding SEM image. This might be due to the lower

• mineralization. Mineralization experiment All deposition solutions were freshly prepared prior to use to ensure clear starting solutions. Stock solutions of Zn(NO3)2∙6H2O (Sigma-Aldrich, ≥99.0%), hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA, Sigma-Aldrich, ≥99.5%) and L-histidine (Sigma-Aldrich, ≥99%) in Milli-Q water each at a

Towards multifunctional inorganic materials: biopolymeric templates

• Claudia Steinem and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1698–1699, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.172

• aforementioned manufacturing methods, biomineralization leads to fascinating, complex-structured, inorganic materials under ambient conditions. The corresponding processes have been evolutionarily optimized over millions of years and involve biopolymeric templates, which control the mineralization and the

Peptide-equipped tobacco mosaic virus templates for selective and controllable biomineral deposition

• Klara Altintoprak,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alexander Welle,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Nina Stitz,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Joachim Bill,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Holger Jeske,
• Dirk Rothenstein,
• Fania Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1399–1412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.145

• mineralization-directing peptides designed to yield silica coatings in a reliable and predictable manner via precipitation from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) precursors. Three peptide groups were compared regarding their influence on silica polymerization: (i) two peptide variants with alternating basic and acidic

• peptides with high ZnO binding affinity. Differential effects on the mineralization of the TMV surface were demonstrated, where a (KD)x charge-relay peptide (designed in this study) led to the most reproducible and selective silica deposition. A homogenous coating of the biotemplate and tight control of

• mineral deposition in living organisms known also as “biologically controlled mineralization” [12][13]. Such bio-inspired mineralization approaches can accomplish precise coating processes and offer several benefits such as environmentally friendly fabrication routes and reaction parameters compatible

PLGA nanoparticles as a platform for vitamin D-based cancer therapy

• Maria J. Ramalho,
• Joana A. Loureiro,
• Bárbara Gomes,
• Manuela F. Frasco,
• Manuel A. N. Coelho and
• M. Carmo Pereira

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1306–1318, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.135

• targeting gene expression via both genomic and nongenomic pathways [1]. Although known as an important regulator of calcium homeostasis and bone mineralization [3], several studies support that vitamin D also plays a major role in tumor pathogenesis, progression and therapy [2]. Calcitriol is also regarded