Studies of probe tip materials by atomic force microscopy: a review

• Ke Xu and
• Yuzhe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1256–1267, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.104

• , including the length, width, and thickness of the colloidal fibers. In addition, high-temperature calcination can increase the interaction force between particles, thus enhancing the mechanical properties of colloidal fibers. Due to the rough surface structure of colloidal fibers, we made them into surface

• , providing new opportunities for many fields. In practical applications, due to the surface structure of colloidal fibers, these fibers can be used as SERS sensor detection for trace detection of BPA. Although colloidal probes have many excellent properties, there are some problems in calibrating such probes

Interaction between honeybee mandibles and propolis

• Leonie Saccardi,
• Franz Brümmer,
• Jonas Schiebl,
• Oliver Schwarz,
• Alexander Kovalev and
• Stanislav Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 958–974, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.84

• “propolis bees”. Imaging and structural studies Bee mandibles were prepared and subsequently examined with binoculars, a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and a confocal 3D laser scanning microscope in order to identify anatomy and surface structure. Anatomy of the honeybee mandible Mandibles of all

• adhesion, replicas of bee mandibles were made using a two-step moulding method [26][28]. The method allows one to replicate the surface structure with nanometre precision. Replication substitutes chemical complex and heterogeneous biological surfaces with a well-studied epoxy surface. In this way the

• ]. More alkanes have been found on the bodies of forager bees compared to nursing bees [47]. Effect of the mandible surface structure on adhesion In some cases, it has been described that microstructures can reduce adhesion by decreasing the contact area [48][49]. The trochanter of ants (Camponotus

Bioselectivity of silk protein-based materials and their bio-inspired applications

• Hendrik Bargel,
• Vanessa T. Trossmann,
• Christoph Sommer and
• Thomas Scheibel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 902–921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.81

A non-enzymatic electrochemical hydrogen peroxide sensor based on copper oxide nanostructures

• Irena Mihailova,
• Vjaceslavs Gerbreders,
• Marina Krasovska,
• Eriks Sledevskis,
• Valdis Mizers,
• Andrejs Bulanovs and
• Andrejs Ogurcovs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 424–436, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.35

• nanostructures were obtained by a one-step hydrothermal oxidation method. The resulting coating is uniform and dense and shows good adhesion to the wire surface. Structure, surface, and composition of the obtained samples were studied using field-emission scanning electron microscopy along with energy-dispersive

The effect of metal surface nanomorphology on the output performance of a TENG

• Yiru Wang,
• Xin Zhao,
• Yang Liu and
• Wenjun Zhou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 298–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.25

• image that when a pressure of 3 MPa is applied to the PTFE surface at the top of the Cu nanoparticles, the surface structure of the PTFE polymer is bent (Figure 11). The large nanostructures on both edges are in contact with the polymer surface, but the small nanostructure in the middle is not in

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

• formation of significant amounts of turbostratic carbon, leading to a mesopore-like surface structure, seems to add to the performance, as does, of course, the inherent catalytic activity of the employed cobalt species. Electrode stability testing In applications, performance is important, but electrode

Interface interaction of transition metal phthalocyanines with strontium titanate (100)

• Reimer Karstens,
• Thomas Chassé and
• Heiko Peisert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 485–496, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.39

• ) layer. In contrast, the top layer of SrO-terminated STO in Figure 1b contains Sr2+ (green) and O2− (red) ions, only. The length of the cubic lattice vectors is 3.91 Å [28] for both terminations. Due to the same symmetry of the surface structure, unfortunately, we cannot distinguish between different

• terminations by LEED. It might be expected that the presence of the different metal ions on the substrate surface (Sr or Ti) affects possible interactions with deposited organic molecules. We note that the surface structure in the topmost layer of TiO2-terminated STO significantly differs from most rutile TiO2

• , we will apply two different, well-characterized preparation procedures. For preparation I, the STO single crystal was cleaned in vacuo as described above. Routinely, the cleanliness is checked by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the quality of the surface structure by LEED. Examples of LEED

Reconstruction of a 2D layer of KBr on Ir(111) and electromechanical alteration by graphene

• Zhao Liu,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Stefan Peeters,
• Sebastian Scherb,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Maria Clelia Righi and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 432–439, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.35

• a new surface structure, different from the one on other metal substrates such as Cu(111) [42]. Now, the question arises if this structure is a moiré lattice (lateral relaxation) induced by an alternating strength of interaction forces or a new reconstruction of the KBr layer. To search for this

• surface structure (e.g., cubic or stripe-like) and, with this, also to a strong change in physical surface properties, such as the work function. The in-depth understanding of such processes might allow us to tune and build up more complex 2D layered systems and adapt them to a specific application

PTCDA adsorption on CaF₂ thin films

• Philipp Rahe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1615–1622, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.144

• calculated molecular orbital shapes with the experimental STM data suggests a strong influence of the LUMO in filled-state STM imaging on the CaF1 interface layer. Instead, the absence of long-range order on the CaF2 films is explained by a mismatch of the common PTCDA motifs with the CaF2 surface structure

Adsorption and self-assembly of porphyrins on ultrathin CoO films on Ir(100)

• Feifei Xiang,
• Tobias Schmitt,
• Marco Raschmann and
• M. Alexander Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1516–1524, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.134

• we imply that the surface is oxygen-terminated and shows a wurtzite-type of surface termination [19]. This has been confirmed by surface X-ray diffraction analysis of the 2BL film [21]. Although the 2BL film is structurally close to a c(10 × 2) surface structure it may be considered as a flat, quasi

Atomic-resolution imaging of rutile TiO₂(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface by non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Daiki Katsube,
• Shoki Ojima,
• Eiichi Inami and
• Masayuki Abe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 443–449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.35

• force microscopy; (1 × 2) reconstruction; rutile; surface structure; titanium dioxide (TiO2); Introduction Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a well-known photocatalyst and has been studied for applications in water splitting and the coating of materials [1]. To optimize the photocatalytic function, it is

• not the periodic (1 × 2) surface is a symmetric structure. The determination of the surface structure is crucial to understand the surface phenomena, such as adsorption, absorption, and decomposition in photocatalytic reactions. In this study, we characterized the periodic structure of the rutile TiO2

• -AFM and tunneling current for STM), the surface structure sometimes results in different contrasts in both images. In Figure 3, white squares and circles indicate line defects and protrusions, which are considered to be adsorbates or contamination. A line defect was imaged as a likely vacancy by STM

Understanding nanoparticle flow with a new in vitro experimental and computational approach using hydrogel channels

• Armel Boutchuen,
• Dell Zimmerman,
• Abdollah Arabshahi,
• John Melnyczuk and
• Soubantika Palchoudhury

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 296–309, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.22

• showed the smoothest surface of all gel formulations. The gels prepared with 1.5 mL DI water showed a distinctly porous surface structure. Therefore, the 1.3 mL DI water hydrogels were most suitable for making flow channels of negligible friction to resemble the vascular microenvironment. The hollow 3D

An investigation on the drag reduction performance of bioinspired pipeline surfaces with transverse microgrooves

• Weili Liu,
• Hongjian Ni,
• Peng Wang and
• Yi Zhou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 24–40, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.3

• the drag [12]. It is well known that organisms found in nature provide substantial inspiration for solving engineering problems. Bionic research has found that some natural organisms form a specific surface structure with antidrag [13], antiwear [14][15], and hydrophobic [16][17] performance through

Ion mobility and material transport on KBr in air as a function of the relative humidity

• Dominik J. Kirpal,
• Korbinian Pürckhauer,
• Alfred J. Weymouth and
• Franz J. Giessibl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2084–2093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.203

• additional layer forming by increasing RH to 60% and further growth of the water film up to 2.7 nm (ca. 10 monolayers) thickness at higher humidities [1]. On the atomic level, water and adsorbed molecules can arrange according to the surface structure and form ordered hydration layers that are also referred

Tuning the performance of vanadium redox flow batteries by modifying the structural defects of the carbon felt electrode

• Ditty Dixon,
• Deepu Joseph Babu,
• Aiswarya Bhaskar,
• Hans-Michael Bruns,
• Joerg J. Schneider,
• Frieder Scheiba and
• Helmut Ehrenberg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1698–1706, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.165

• (NHE)) reaction is very close to HER (0 V vs NHE). To minimize the HER, the negative electrode surface structure should be tuned in such a way that it tends to preferably bind V3+/V2+ ions over H+ ions. Creating oxygen functional groups on the surface of the anode is one way to achieve this [5][6

Hierarchically structured 3D carbon nanotube electrodes for electrocatalytic applications

• Pei Wang,
• Katarzyna Kulp and
• Michael Bron

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1475–1487, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.146

• -oxidation of COad compared to Pt-CNT/GC The reason for this improved poisoning tolerance is not known to us at the moment. However, it is known from literature that methanol as well as CO oxidation are very sensitive to Pt surface structure. It might be that a defect-rich structure of our Pt nanoparticles

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

• embedded in the interlayer space of the organoclays or dispersed on its external surface. These nanomaterials can be applied as antibactericide. It has been observed that they destroy the cellular surface structure of Microcystis aeruginosa, and also inhibit the physiological activity of M. aeruginosa

Porous N- and S-doped carbon–carbon composite electrodes by soft-templating for redox flow batteries

• Maike Schnucklake,
• László Eifert,
• Jonathan Schneider,
• Roswitha Zeis and
• Christina Roth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1131–1139, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.113

• Supra 55VP, Carl Zeiss SMT Ltd.) with an acceleration voltage of 5–10 kV and an in-lens detector was utilized to obtain details of the surface structure. High-resolution images (Figure 2) were captured at several magnifications to investigate features at the microscale and the nanoscale. Energy

Concurrent nanoscale surface etching and SnO₂ loading of carbon fibers for vanadium ion redox enhancement

• Jun Maruyama,
• Shohei Maruyama,
• Tomoko Fukuhara,
• Toru Nagaoka and
• Kei Hanafusa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 985–992, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.99

• demonstration of this surface-structure change is difficult through FESEM observation only, Raman spectroscopy and electrochemical measurements can show clear differences as described below. The degree of the surface etching depends on the temperature of the thermal oxidation (Figure 1e and Figure S2

• drastic change in the surface structure was attributed to a temperature-dependent catalytic effect of the tin-oxide nanoparticles on the carbon surface oxidation leading to fine etching. A significant enhancement of the activity for the V2+/3+ redox reactions was also observed at TGP-CSnPc-550Air. The

• TGP-CSnPc-TAir. For comparison, the heat treatment of TGP without CSnPc was also performed in air at 550 °C for 1 h (TGP-550Air). Characterization of carbon fiber surface A field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM, JSM-6700F, JEOL) was used to observe the surface structure. The Raman spectra

Ultraviolet patterns of flowers revealed in polymer replica – caused by surface architecture

• Anna J. Schulte,
• Matthias Mail,
• Lisa A. Hahn and
• Wilhelm Barthlott

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 459–466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.45

• replication technique, we transferred the petal surface structure onto a transparent polymer. Upon illumination with UV-light, we observed structural-based patterns in the replicas that were surprisingly comparable to those of the original petals. For the first time, this experiment has shown that the

• parameters of the surface structure lead to an enhancement in the amount of absorbed UV-radiation. Spectrophotometric measurements revealed up to 50% less reflection in the UV-absorbing regions than in the UV-reflecting areas. A comparative characterization of the micromorphology of the UV-reflecting and UV

• -absorbing areas showed that, in principle, a hierarchical surface structure results in more absorption. Therefore, the results of our experiments demonstrate the structural-based amplification of UV-reflection and provide a starting point for the design of bioinspired antireflective and respectively

A comparison of tarsal morphology and traction force in the two burying beetles Nicrophorus nepalensis and Nicrophorus vespilloides (Coleoptera, Silphidae)

• Liesa Schnee,
• Benjamin Sampalla,
• Josef K. Müller and
• Oliver Betz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 47–61, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.5

• , no sex-dependent difference in traction force has been seen on either combination of surface structure. However, the established morphological differences might take effect only under certain biological contexts such as mating or parental care, which were not measured in our test setup. Measurements

Apparent tunneling barrier height and local work function of atomic arrays

• Neda Noei,
• Alexander Weismann and
• Richard Berndt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3048–3052, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.283

• filament and, consequently, on the local surface structure. Keywords: scanning tunneling microscopy; tunneling barrier height; work function; Findings The work function of a metal surface [1], the work required at temperature T = 0 K to move an electron from the metal to infinity, is relevant for, e.g

Controlling surface morphology and sensitivity of granular and porous silver films for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, SERS

• Sherif Okeil and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2813–2831, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.263

• indicates, together with the different surface structure, a dedicated influence of the nitrogen plasma in addition to the impact of nitrogen ions on the silver surface. XRD analysis of the 200 nm as-sputtered silver film as well as hydrogen, nitrogen and argon plasma treated silver films of this thickness

Characterization of the microscopic tribological properties of sandfish (Scincus scincus) scales by atomic force microscopy

• Weibin Wu,
• Christian Lutz,
• Simon Mersch,
• Richard Thelen,
• Christian Greiner,
• Guillaume Gomard and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2618–2627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.243

• , it is highly unlikely that the surface structure of the scales is responsible for the observed low abrasion. Baumgartner and co-workers [10][11][16] measured adhesion by atomic force microscopy (AFM) on scales of S. scincus and observed extremely low values. They analysed the chemical composition of

Toward the use of CVD-grown MoS₂ nanosheets as field-emission source

• Geetanjali Deokar,
• Nitul S. Rajput,
• Junjie Li,
• Francis Leonard Deepak,
• Wei Ou-Yang,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jean-Francois Colomer and
• Mustapha Jouiad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1686–1694, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.160

• the voltage applied between the flat cathode and the anode screen and d is the distance in between (220 µm). A and B are constants (A = 1.54 × 10−6 AeV·V−1, B = 6.83 × 106 eV−3/2·Vnm−1) that depend on the surface structure. λM is a macroscopic pre-exponential correction factor. UF (the correction