A scanning probe microscopy study of nanostructured TiO₂/poly(3-hexylthiophene) hybrid heterojunctions for photovoltaic applications

• Laurie Letertre,
• Roland Roche,
• Olivier Douhéret,
• Hailu G. Kassa,
• Denis Mariolle,
• Nicolas Chevalier,
• Łukasz Borowik,
• Philippe Dumas,
• Benjamin Grévin,
• Roberto Lazzaroni and
• Philippe Leclère

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2087–2096, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.197

• detection range within 100 fA to 1 µA. Silicon tips coated with a PtIr conductive alloy (PPP-CONTPt from Nanosensors) were used. The tip and the back-contact were connected while the sample was locally irradiated from the bottom (through the patterned ITO–glass substrates) under AM 1.5 calibrated white

Improving the catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution of monolayered SnSe_2(1−x)S_2x by mechanical strain

• Sha Dong and
• Zhiguo Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1820–1827, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.173

• between 1.85 and 1.99 eV by varying x from 0 to 1. Other 2D-TMDs alloy nanosheets, such as Mo1−xWxSe2 [39] and WS2(1−x)Se2x [40][41], have also shown tuneable bandgaps and different electrical properties by varying the value of x. Monolayer SnS2 and SnSe2 have indirect bandgaps of 2.1 and 1.1 eV

• the electronic properties of the catalyst, they will affect the catalytic behaviour. Several TMD alloy systems have been investigated as catalysts for HER, including Mo1−xWxSe2 nanoflowers [44], WS2(1−x)Se2x nanotubes [45] and MoS2(1−x)Se2x nanobelts [46]. It was reported that alloying provides an

• −x)S2x semiconductor offers wide and continuously fine-tuneable bandgaps when varying the alloy fractions. All the simulations were performed in a 2 × 2 supper cell, which includes 8 S atoms. As 0–8 S atoms are substituted by Se atoms, the monolayer SnSe2(1−x)S2x alloys with x = 0–1 are formed. For

Increasing the performance of a superconducting spin valve using a Heusler alloy

• Andrey A. Kamashev,
• Aidar A. Validov,
• Joachim Schumann,
• Vladislav Kataev,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Yakov V. Fominov and
• Ilgiz A. Garifullin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1764–1769, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.167

• Abstract We have studied superconducting properties of spin-valve thin-layer heterostructures CoOx/F1/Cu/F2/Cu/Pb in which the ferromagnetic F1 layer was made of Permalloy while for the F2 layer we have taken a specially prepared film of the Heusler alloy Co2Cr1−xFexAl with a small degree of spin

• present experimental results that evidence a significant improvement of the magnitude of ΔTc in a Pb-based SSV by using the ferromagnetic Heusler alloy (HA) Co2Cr1−xFexAl as a material for the F2 layer. Prepared under well-defined conditions [25] the HA layer produces a substantially smaller exchange

• . It is well known [30][31] that in dilute alloys, e.g., in PdNi alloys with 10% of Ni, ξh is of the order of 5 nm, which is an order of magnitude larger compared to pure ferromagnetic elements such as Fe, Ni, or Co. As our present experimental results demonstrate, the use of a Heusler alloy for the

Chemistry for electron-induced nanofabrication

• Petra Swiderek,
• Hubertus Marbach and
• Cornelis W. Hagen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1317–1320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.124

• , through the precursor stoichiometry, the composition of an alloy to be deposited by FEBID. In this Thematic Series, a multinational collaboration has reported on a comprehensive investigation of such a novel bimetallic precursor H2FeRu3(CO)13. This work includes all steps of precursor development, from

Theoretical study of strain-dependent optical absorption in a doped self-assembled InAs/InGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot

• Tarek A. Ameen,
• Hesameddin Ilatikhameneh,
• Archana Tankasala,
• Yuling Hsueh,
• James Charles,
• Jim Fonseca,
• Michael Povolotskyi,
• Jun Oh Kim,
• Sanjay Krishna,
• Monica S. Allen,
• Jeffery W. Allen,
• Rajib Rahman and
• Gerhard Klimeck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1075–1084, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.99

• effects of alloy mole fraction of the strain controlling layer and quantum dot dimensions are discussed. Increasing the mole fraction of the strain controlling layer leads to a lower energy gap and a larger absorption wavelength. Surprisingly, the absorption wavelength is highly sensitive to the changes

• many-particle configuration interaction (CI) calculations for a proper treatment of the optical transitions. The effects of alloy mole fraction of the strain controlling layer and quantum dot dimensions are also discussed. Self-assembled quantum dots have around 10% lattice strain [5]. Atomistic strain

• transition energy. Additional comparisons with experimental measurements are provided in the discussion of the effect of alloy mole fraction on the strain-controlling layer. Band structure and states Figure 6 shows the wavefunction probability density of the first eight non-degenerate states of both

Review on nanoparticles and nanostructured materials: history, sources, toxicity and regulations

• Jaison Jeevanandam,
• Ahmed Barhoum,
• Yen S. Chan,
• Alain Dufresne and
• Michael K. Danquah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1050–1074, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.98

• found that the Lycurgus Cups contain Ag–Au alloy NPs, with a ratio of 7:3 in addition to about 10% Cu [29]. Later, red and yellow colored stained glass found in medieval period churches was produced by incorporating colloidal Au and Ag NPs, respectively [25]. During the 9th century, Mesopotamians

• . These are called as nanobacteria and are highly useful in the biosynthesis of low toxicity NPs [137]. Pseudomonas stutzeri A259 is the first bacteria to be used to produce Ag NPs [138]. Later, many metal NPs, such as gold [139][140], alloy NPs [141][142], nonmagnetic oxide NPs [143][144][145][146][147

• synthezing NPs with various sizes and shapes. It is noted that Fusarium oxysporum and Verticillium sp. of fungi have been noted to aid in Au, Ag and Au–Ag alloy NP synthesis [141][172][173]. Enzymes in Fusarium oxysporum fungi also help in the synthesis of CdS quantum dots [174] and serve as a source of

Magnetic characterization of cobalt nanowires and square nanorings fabricated by focused electron beam induced deposition

• Federico Venturi,
• Gian Carlo Gazzadi,
• Amir H. Tavabi,
• Alberto Rota,
• Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski and
• Stefano Frabboni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1040–1049, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.97

• high spatial resolution. Moreover, it is also possible to deposit oxides [10] and, by co-injecting different precursors, alloy materials with tunable properties [11]. A review of the application of the technique to the deposition of magnetic nanostructures has recently been published [12]. It should be

Single-crystalline FeCo nanoparticle-filled carbon nanotubes: synthesis, structural characterization and magnetic properties

• Rasha Ghunaim,
• Maik Scholz,
• Christine Damm,
• Bernd Rellinghaus,
• Rüdiger Klingeler,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Michael Mertig and
• Silke Hampel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1024–1034, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.95

• about 1–1.2, whereas 24% had aspect ratios larger than 1.2, but did not exceed 1.5. Hence, the morphology became more homogenous after further heat treatment. We attribute the homogeneity in the morphology of the annealed samples to the non-wetting behavior of the Fe–Co alloy nanoparticles and carbon

• or carbides were detected. It is worth to mention that Zhang et al. reported the synthesis of Fe–Co nanoparticles encapsulated inside CNTs in a similar way to our first filling approach [45]. However, XRD diffraction patterns revealed the coexistence of several alloy phases with different Fe/Co

Bioinspired self-healing materials: lessons from nature

• Joseph C. Cremaldi and
• Bharat Bhushan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 907–935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.85

Electron interactions with the heteronuclear carbonyl precursor H₂FeRu₃(CO)₁₃ and comparison with HFeCo₃(CO)₁₂: from fundamental gas phase and surface science studies to focused electron beam induced deposition

• Ragesh Kumar T P,
• Paul Weirich,
• Lukas Hrachowina,
• Marc Hanefeld,
• Ragnar Bjornsson,
• Helgi Rafn Hrodmarsson,
• Sven Barth,
• D. Howard Fairbrother,
• Michael Huth and
• Oddur Ingólfsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 555–579, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.53

• induced decomposition of these compounds in the gas phase, on the surface and during FEBID. The choice of H2FeRu3(CO)13 was motivated by its structural similarities to those of HFeCo3(CO)12 which, in turn, has proven exceptionally good performance in FEBID of pure, stoichiometric metal alloy structures

Response under low-energy electron irradiation of a thin film of a potential copper precursor for focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID)

• Leo Sala,
• Iwona B. Szymańska,
• Céline Dablemont,
• Anne Lafosse and
• Lionel Amiaud

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 57–65, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.8

• been proposed in situations where a good control of the composition is needed, for example in the case of alloy deposition [5]. A new group of copper precursors [Cu2(R′NH2)2(μ-O2CR)4] synthetized with two copper(II) cations has been designed by the co-authors at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

Dry adhesives from carbon nanofibers grown in an open ethanol flame

• Christian Lutz,
• Julia Syurik,
• C. N. Shyam Kumar,
• Christian Kübel,
• Michael Bruns and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2719–2728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.271

• Ni-based, as suggested by Chai and co-workers [37]. However, it might be possible that the catalytic particles are an alloy of Ni and small amounts of Cu. An improvement of the CNFs orientation is observed with the use of the magnet (Figure 3b). In this case CNFs are mostly orientated away from the

One-step chemical vapor deposition synthesis and supercapacitor performance of nitrogen-doped porous carbon–carbon nanotube hybrids

• Egor V. Lobiak,
• Lyubov G. Bulusheva,
• Ekaterina O. Fedorovskaya,
• Yury V. Shubin,
• Pavel E. Plyusnin,
• Pierre Lonchambon,
• Boris V. Senkovskiy,
• Zinfer R. Ismagilov,
• Emmanuel Flahaut and
• Alexander V. Okotrub

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2669–2679, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.267

• over magnesium-oxide-supported metal catalysts. CNx nanotubes were grown on Co/Mo, Ni/Mo, or Fe/Mo alloy nanoparticles, and MgO grains served as a template for the porous carbon. The simultaneous formation of morphologically different carbon structures was due to the slow activation of catalysts for

Localized growth of carbon nanotubes via lithographic fabrication of metallic deposits

• Fan Tu,
• Martin Drost,
• Imre Szenti,
• Janos Kiss,
• Zoltan Kónya and
• Hubertus Marbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2592–2605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.260

• summarized as sketched in Figure 9. We speculate that the Fe EBID deposits eventually sinter or alloy to a certain extent with the underlying alumina layer. By chance this process might lead to increased tension within the deposited structure and could cause lifting at the rim of the latter. During CVD, the

PTFE-based microreactor system for the continuous synthesis of full-visible-spectrum emitting cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals

• Chengxi Zhang,
• Weiling Luan,
• Yuhang Yin and
• Fuqian Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2521–2529, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.252

• , there is no report on the continuous synthesis of perovskite nanocrystals via microreactor systems, even though these systems have been successfully used to synthesize CdSe [25], CdSe/ZnS [26], CdSexTe1−x [27], and CdS [28] QDs, as well as monodisperse Au–Ag alloy nanoparticles [29]. In this work, we

Synthesis of metal-fluoride nanoparticles supported on thermally reduced graphite oxide

• Alexa Schmitz,
• Kai Schütte,
• Vesko Ilievski,
• Juri Barthel,
• Laura Burk,
• Rolf Mülhaupt,
• Junpei Yue,
• Bernd Smarsly and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2474–2483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.247

• constant, ILs are an ideal media for microwave reactions and for the stabilization of M-NPs [34][35][36][37]. Soft wet-chemical synthesis in organic solvents from metal-organic complexes is an essential method to obtain metal or metal alloy nanoparticles [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50

Evaluating the toxicity of TiO₂-based nanoparticles to Chinese hamster ovary cells and Escherichia coli: a complementary experimental and computational approach

• Alicja Mikolajczyk,
• Natalia Sizochenko,
• Ewa Mulkiewicz,
• Anna Malankowska,
• Michal Nischk,
• Przemyslaw Jurczak,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Grzegorz Nowaczyk,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska,
• Jerzy Leszczynski,
• Agnieszka Gajewicz and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2171–2180, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.216

• Toxicity evaluation Three types of TiO2-based NPs were synthetized: (1) monometallic (Au, Pd) clusters, (2) core–shell particles and (3) alloy bimetallic clusters (Au/Pd). The cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity of TiO2 modified with palladium and/or gold NPs is presented in Table 1. Inhibition of

• (Au > Pd) resulted in the formation of alloy structures. More details about the characterization of Au/Pd-TiO2 structures are reported in our previous study [5]. The relationship between the amount of noble metals (Au, Pd) in the sample and the cytotoxicity to CHO-K1 cells expressed as EC50 values

• type of TiO2-based nanoparticles, which were: 8.9 for pure NPs, 26.0 for core–shell NPs and 17.3 for alloy NPs, respectively. As one can notice, small set of separate polynomials provided cytotoxicity values with higher errors than the initially developed nano-QSAR model. As mentioned before, one of

Magnetic properties of optimized cobalt nanospheres grown by focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID) on cantilever tips

• Soraya Sangiao,
• César Magén,
• Darius Mofakhami,
• Grégoire de Loubens and
• José María De Teresa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2106–2115, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.210

• in [11][49]. The source of the field gradient is a millimeter long, 16 µm diameter cylinder of CoFeNiSiB alloy, with a saturation magnetization of 510 kA/m. The cobalt nanosphere is positioned at a distance between 5 µm and 20 µm from the top surface of the cylinder to perform the measurements. A

Coexistence of strongly buckled germanene phases on Al(111)

• Weimin Wang and
• Roger I. G. Uhrberg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1946–1951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.195

• “silicene” on Pt(111). Based on their theoretical calculation, they believed that a Si3Pt surface alloy was formed that resembles a twisted kagome lattice. By an extension of their interpretation, they suggested that the (√19×√19) superstructure of Ge on Pt(111) in [8] is also a surface alloy composed of

• Ge3Pt tetramers. In another study, Au(111) was chosen as a possible substrate for the formation of germanene because alloy formation was believed to be avoided using this substrate. Deposition of one monolayer (ML) of Ge on Au(111) at ≈200 °C resulted in low energy electron diffraction (LEED) data

Self-assembly of chiral fluorescent nanoparticles based on water-soluble L-tryptophan derivatives of p-tert-butylthiacalix[4]arene

• Pavel L. Padnya,
• Irina A. Khripunova,
• Olga A. Mostovaya,
• Timur A. Mukhametzyanov,
• Vladimir G. Evtugyn,
• Vyacheslav V. Vorobev,
• Yuri N. Osin and
• Ivan I. Stoikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1825–1835, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.184

• ) were prepared similar to those studied by DLS. The sample on the chuck was moved in the vacuum chamber apparatus by Quorum (Q 150T ES). A conductive layer was deposited by the cathode sputtering technique using an Au/Pd alloy (80/20). The thickness of the alloy was 15 nm. Possible paths of the

Development of a nitrogen-doped 2D material for tribological applications in the boundary-lubrication regime

• Shende Rashmi Chandrabhan,
• Velayudhanpillai Jayan,
• Somendra Singh Parihar and
• Sundara Ramaprabhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1476–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.147

• sonicator (Sonics, 500 W). Tribological testing The tribological properties of nanolubricants were studied using a four-ball tester (Magnum Engineers, Bengaluru, India). The test balls are made of chrome steel alloy having a diameter of 12.7 mm according to ANSI standard. The measurements were performed

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

• , acting as a catalyst for the synthesis of nanowires. Figure 14 shows the basic mechanism of the evaporation–condensation process including three phases of material. At a certain temperature, the formation of a liquid alloy of metal and catalyst starts by absorbing vapors of the source material. As vapors

Atomic structure of Mg-based metallic glass investigated with neutron diffraction, reverse Monte Carlo modeling and electron microscopy

• Rafał Babilas,
• Dariusz Łukowiec and
• Laszlo Temleitner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1174–1182, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.119

• results of ND measurements, was used to develop a realistic structure model of a quaternary alloy in a glassy state. The calculated model consists of a random packing structure of atoms in which some ordered regions can be indicated. The amorphous structure was also described by peak values of partial

• atomic configurations. The nanocrystalline character of the alloy after annealing was also studied by HRTEM. The selected HRTEM images of the nanocrystalline regions were also processed by inverse Fourier transform analysis. The high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) technique was used to determine phase

• the ternary Mg–Cu–Y glasses. Gao et al. [11] performed ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of the structural evolution of a Mg65Cu25Y10 alloy from liquid to glass state. Moreover, Laws et al. [12] provided an analysis of the dynamic crystallization in Mg65Cu25Y10 bulk metallic glass using

Investigation of growth dynamics of carbon nanotubes

• Marianna V. Kharlamova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 826–856, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.85

• Si whiskers, the initial condition was the formation of a liquid droplet of the alloy of Si with Au impurity on a Si wafer. The liquid Au–Si alloy acted as a preferred sink for the deposition of Si atoms from the vapor that was obtained as a result of the thermally-induced decomposition of gaseous

• SiCl4. As soon as the liquid alloy particle was supersaturated, the growth of the whisker started. It occurred by the precipitation of Si atoms from the droplet at the interface between solid Si and liquid alloy. As a result, the alloy droplet was displaced from the Si substrate crystal to the tip of

• [116], CoMn [117], Ni [118], Fe [119][120], CoPt [121], CoxMg1−xO [122], CoSO4 [123], WCo alloy [124][125] and Mo2C [126]. SiO2 or MgO were used as catalyst support. The synthesis was conducted using different carbon precursors: CO [105][106][107][108][112][113][114][115][117][118][119][122][123

Diffusion and surface alloying of gradient nanostructured metals

• Zhenbo Wang and
• Ke Lu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 547–560, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.59

• activation enthalpy were measured in the nanostructured Cu synthesized by IGC [14][15][16]. And a comparable diffusivity with that of conventional grain boundaries (GBs) was revealed in a nanostructured γ-Fe–Ni alloy prepared by ball milling with subsequent sintering (BMS), while inter-agglomerate boundaries

• CG sample. The diffusion coefficients along some ultra-fast channels (together with some conventional GBs) in an UFG Cu–Zr alloy sample prepared via SPD were found to be ≈103 times higher than those along GBs in a high-purity CG Cu sample [21]. In order to differentiate these ultra-fast diffusion

• nonequilibrium GBs after SPD processing has been supported by strain mapping results in a SPD Pd–Ag alloy, in which the GB thickness (with evident strain) is determined to be ≈1.5 nm and is markedly larger than the thickness of relaxed GBs (≈0.5 nm) [24]. In addition, the higher energy of nonequilibrium GBs as