ZnO and MXenes as electrode materials for supercapacitor devices

• Ameen Uddin Ammar,
• Ipek Deniz Yildirim,
• Feray Bakan and
• Emre Erdem

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 49–57, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.4

• ]. Therefore, MXene-based composites have a promising future [16][17]. MXenes have been shown to be potential electrode materials both for Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors [20][21]. After the initial discovery, different researchers from all around the world have been combining efforts to synthesize MXenes

• -dimensional (1D) and 2D nanomaterials, a good electrochemical performance can be obtained [20]. Li et al. developed dodecaborate/MXene composites. Borate has strong B–B bonds and is an important photoelectric material. Due to its high optical and electrochemical activity, borate is preferred in energy storage

• specific capacitance of the resultant composites was twice as high as that of Co(OH)2 nanosheets [17]. Liu et al. synthesized a MXene/nickel sulfide (NiS) nanocomposite using a basic hydrothermal technique and measured a specific capacitance of 857.8 F·g−1. NiS has advantages such as good conductivity and

Unravelling the interfacial interaction in mesoporous SiO₂@nickel phyllosilicate/TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for photocatalytic activity

• Bridget K. Mutuma,
• Xiluva Mathebula,
• Isaac Nongwe,
• Bonakele P. Mtolo,
• Boitumelo J. Matsoso,
• Rudolph Erasmus,
• Zikhona Tetana and
• Neil J. Coville

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1834–1846, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.165

• surface [23]. Thus, silica-based core–shell nanocomposites offer added advantages of manipulating the pore structure, surface area, morphology, and catalyst reactivity [28]. Unlike the metal oxide–metal oxide composites, the use of metal oxide core@metal nanocomposites as dopants for titania

• obtained via a hydrothermal treatment method using solid SiO2 spheres, urea, and nickel nitrate hexahydrate. Although NiPS compounds are extensively used as catalysts, to our knowledge, reports on the use of core–shell based nickel–phyllosilicate composites in dye photodegradation are yet to be reported

• ) [60][62][63][64]. This illustrates that the samples were comprised of silicate and composites of nickel phyllosilicate with SiO2. The lower binding energies of the Si 2p peak in mSiO2@NiPS/TiO2 indicate a possible interaction between the silicates and TiO2 [65]. The O 1s spectrum was deconvoluted into

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

• Matías Guerrero Correa,
• Fernanda B. Martínez,
• Cristian Patiño Vidal,
• Camilo Streitt,
• Juan Escrig and
• Carol Lopez de Dicastillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1450–1469, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.129

• through chemical reactions and these NPs have a strong bactericidal effect against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria [108]. Composites containing Cu NPs and ZnO were developed by deposition of needle-like and spherical Cu NPs on a ZnO surface. These composites were exposed to visible light

• radiation in order to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) against S. aureus and E. coli. The composites exhibited antibacterial activities with low MIC and MBC values for E. coli (250 µg/mL and 750 µg/mL, respectively) and S. aureus (250 µg/mL

• antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis and Enterobacter aerogenes bacteria [109]. Titanium dioxide is also an inorganic material that is widely used in several products, including cosmetics and orthodontic composites, due to its excellent whitening, photocatalytic, and antimicrobial properties [131

An atomic force microscope integrated with a helium ion microscope for correlative nanoscale characterization

• Santiago H. Andany,
• Gregor Hlawacek,
• Stefan Hummel,
• Charlène Brillard,
• Mustafa Kangül and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1272–1279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.111

• of vertical and lateral resolution, nanoscale machining, and measurement of physical properties of the sample will allow for a multi-physics investigation in many areas of materials science and technology, such as energy materials, magnetic nanostructures, and (bio-)composites. Experimental All AFM

High permittivity, breakdown strength, and energy storage density of polythiophene-encapsulated BaTiO₃ nanoparticles

• Adnanullah Khan,
• Amir Habib and
• Adeel Afzal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1190–1197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.103

• Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Hafr Al Batin, PO Box 1803, Hafr Al Batin, 39524, Saudi Arabia 10.3762/bjnano.11.103 Abstract High permittivity and breakdown strength are desired to improve the energy storage density of dielectric materials based on reinforced polymer composites

• , they are inherently poor dielectrics with very low permittivity (values in the range of 2–10) [2]. Thus, organic polymers are often reinforced with ceramic-based dielectric materials such as BTO. The dielectric properties of BTO–polymer composites are known to improve considerably with the inclusion of

• breakdown strength of BTO-polymer composites is considerably reduced after increasing the BTO content to 30–40 wt % because of the free-charge accumulation at the interface of BTO and polymer [10]. We believe that core–shell structure of BTO-PTh nanoparticles and good interfacial compatibility between the

Photothermally active nanoparticles as a promising tool for eliminating bacteria and biofilms

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Laura D’Alfonso,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1134–1146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.98

• nanostructures provided rapid and efficient eradication of up to 99% of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria within 10 min of NIR laser irradiation. In a very recent publication, poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel incorporating reduced graphene oxide composites (MoS2/Ag3PO4) was fabricated to yield a highly

Applications of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in drug and therapeutic delivery, and biotechnological advancements

• Maria Suciu,
• Corina M. Ionescu,
• Alexandra Ciorita,
• Septimiu C. Tripon,
• Dragos Nica,
• Hani Al-Salami and
• Lucian Barbu-Tudoran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1092–1109, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.94

A few-layer graphene/chlorin e6 hybrid nanomaterial and its application in photodynamic therapy against Candida albicans

• Selene Acosta,
• Carlos Moreno-Aguilar,
• Dania Hernández-Sánchez,
• Beatriz Morales-Cruzado,
• Erick Sarmiento-Gomez,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Luis Octavio Sánchez-Vargas and
• Mildred Quintana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1054–1061, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.90

• results in the decay of ROS production due to molecular degradation. There have been several attempts to enhance the PDT properties of organic molecules like Ce6 by the preparation of composites using nanoparticles [14][15][16]. Such hybrid nanomaterials take advantage of both the good photosensitizer

• biological applications, such as biosensors, protein detection, bioimaging and drug delivery [17][18]. In recent years, graphene nanoparticles have been used in many different applications ranging from enhanced spectroscopy techniques, coatings, polymeric composites, sensors, drug delivery systems and others

Uniform Fe₃O₄/Gd₂O₃-DHCA nanocubes for dual-mode magnetic resonance imaging

• Miao Qin,
• Yueyou Peng,
• Mengjie Xu,
• Hui Yan,
• Yizhu Cheng,
• Xiumei Zhang,
• Di Huang,
• Weiyi Chen and
• Yanfeng Meng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1000–1009, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.84

• distributed Fe3O4/Gd2O3 composites. FGOA nanocubes are hydrophobic since they are covered by oleic acid, which is enriched in alkyl groups. In order to increase the hydrophilicity of FGOA nanocubes so they could be used as a contrast agent in vivo, FGOA was exchanged with DHCA via the ligand-exchange method

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

• immobilized on the CTFs via the decomposition of the metal precursor in the IL (Scheme 1). The composites were designated Ni/CTF-1-400-X and Ni/CTF-1-600-X, where X represents the weight percentage of nickel in the composite material based on flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Nickel loadings of 20

• (69 and 71 wt %, respectively, see Table S3, Supporting Information File 1). In the literature, there are various reports on Ni/carbon and Ni/N-doped carbon composites (Table S3, Supporting Information File 1). These composites are largely obtained by pyrolysis of Ni precursors or Ni-containing metal

• as support for nanoparticles can yield an advantage in terms of metal–support interactions compared to activated carbon [40]. In PXRD measurements, both cubic (fcc) and hexagonal (hcp) crystalline phases of nickel [45] were observed in all composites (Figure 1). When the nickel loading was low (20–22

Effect of Ag loading position on the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂ nanocolumn arrays

• Jinghan Xu,
• Yanqi Liu and
• Yan Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 717–728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.59

• Technology, Ministry of Education, Research Institute of Laser Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, No. 100 Pingle Park, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124, People’s Republic of China 10.3762/bjnano.11.59 Abstract Plasmonic metal/semiconductor composites have attracted great attention for efficient

A novel dry-blending method to reduce the coefficient of thermal expansion of polymer templates for OTFT electrodes

• Xiangdong Ye,
• Bo Tian,
• Yuxuan Guo,
• Fan Fan and
• Anjiang Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 671–677, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.53

• the EPI to prepare a polyimide–silica hybrid film having a low CTE. However, because of the poor dispersion of the nanomaterial and the high viscosity of the polymer during wet blending [17][18], the nanomaterial content in the composites is usually low, which causes the CTE of the polymer template to

• verify that the CTE of the PDMS/SiO2 composite template was reasonable, we compared the CTE with that calculated from a model employing the governing Equation 2 [22]. This equation can be applied to polymer composites filled with one type of nanoparticles: Here, αc is the CTE model value of the PDMS/SiO2

Exfoliation in a low boiling point solvent and electrochemical applications of MoO₃

• Matangi Sricharan,
• Bikesh Gupta,
• Sreejesh Moolayadukkam and
• H. S. S. Ramakrishna Matte

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 662–670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.52

• , the MoO3 dispersion in 2-butanone retains its intrinsic nature even after exposure to sunlight for 24 h. The composites of MoO3 nanosheets were used as an electrode material for supercapacitors and showed a high specific capacitance of 201 F·g−1 in a three-electrode configuration at a scan rate of 50

• (SCE) as reference electrode were used for the electrochemical testing of the exfoliated MoO3 dispersions and its composites. In brief, the GCE was cleaned with a polishing cloth using fine alumina abrasive powders and washed thoroughly in deionized water. The required amount of the dispersion of known

• poor intrinsic electronic conductivity of the MoO3 [24]. In order to enhance the electrochemical properties, composites of exfoliated MoO3 nanosheets and conducting carbon black (CB) were prepared. As shown in Figure 3a, well-defined oxidation and reduction peaks are observed after the addition of 2 wt

Silver-decorated gel-shell nanobeads: physicochemical characterization and evaluation of antibacterial properties

• Marta Bartel,
• Katarzyna Markowska,
• Marcin Strawski,
• Krystyna Wolska and
• Maciej Mazur

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 620–630, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.49

• [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The resulting composites exhibit a double function, they support the metal nanoparticles and prevent their aggregation. For example, polystyrene microspheres have been decorated with silver nanoparticles and were used as catalysts, Raman-enhancing materials

Synthesis and enhanced photocatalytic performance of 0D/2D CuO/tourmaline composite photocatalysts

• Changqiang Yu,
• Min Wen,
• Zhen Tong,
• Shuhua Li,
• Yanhong Yin,
• Xianbin Liu,
• Yesheng Li,
• Tongxiang Liang,
• Ziping Wu and
• Dionysios D. Dionysiou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 407–416, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.31

• product was named CuO/tourmaline-1:1 (1:1 in mass ratio of the CuO/tourmaline). By controlling the dosage of Cu(CH3COO)2·H2O and NaOH in proportion the CuO/tourmaline composites in different mass ratios of the CuO/tourmaline were acquired. Characterization X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were obtained

• are exhibited in Figure 6b. The k value of the CuO/tourmaline-4:1 composite was larger than that of the other composites and was three times higher than that of CuO (Figure 6c), which proved that the CuO/tourmaline composite was successfully prepared and showed higher photocatalytic organic oxidation

High-performance asymmetric supercapacitor made of NiMoO₄ nanorods@Co₃O₄ on a cellulose-based carbon aerogel

• Meixia Wang,
• Jing Zhang,
• Xibin Yi,
• Benxue Liu,
• Xinfu Zhao and
• Xiaochan Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 240–251, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.18

• aerogel precursor, which was produced from microcrystalline cellulose (MC). Second, the produced CA was used as the backbone for the growth of NiMoO4 nanorods employing a hydrothermal method followed by heat treatment. By this approach, NiMoO4/CA composites were obtained, in which the NiMoO4 nanorods

Size effects of graphene nanoplatelets on the properties of high-density polyethylene nanocomposites: morphological, thermal, electrical, and mechanical characterization

• Tuba Evgin,
• Alpaslan Turgut,
• Georges Hamaoui,
• Zdenko Spitalsky,
• Nicolas Horny,
• Matej Micusik,
• Mihai Chirtoc,
• Mehmet Sarikanat and
• Maria Omastova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 167–179, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.14

• composites (PMCs); thermal properties; Introduction In recent years, electrically and thermally conductive polymer nanocomposites have attracted considerable attention because of their potential use in many industrial applications, such as aerospace, electronics, packaging, automotives, sensors, batteries

• molding. The size effects of the GnPs on the morphological, thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties of the composites was studied. The small differences in the GnPs’ surfaces’ chemical composition were detected by XPS, and the highest amount of oxygen that was found was 2.6 atom % for G1. FTIR and

Fabrication of Ag-modified hollow titania spheres via controlled silver diffusion in Ag–TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Bogusław Budner,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Krzysztof Kopczyński and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 141–146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.12

• result, to a red-shift of the plasmon resonance [20]. As can be seen from curve A in Figure 4, Ag@TiO2 CSNs have a broad absorption in the UV–vis range. This is the characteristic absorption of these composites, which does not change remarkably with a change of the shell thickness. The annealing of Ag

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

• fibers [7][8][9][10], N-doped 3D ordered (meso)porous carbon materials [11], N-doped carbon composites (e.g., carbon nanotubes/graphene) [12], and N-doped carbon spheres [13][14] to graphitic-C3N4 carbon nitride composites [15]. In the present work we report results of a systematic study on the synthesis

• characteristics, but somewhat lower current densities. However, for these composites the differences in porosity/surface area between the oxynitride covered spheres and the pure nitrided carbon spheres are even more pronounced, with substantially lower surface areas for the TaON@NCS catalysts. Hence, in these

• shell. Also when comparing the H2O2 yields of the TaON@NCS composites [33], we find no advantage of the composite catalysts since the hydrogen peroxide yields are around 40% for all catalysts, which is higher than the values obtained for the pure nitrided carbon spheres (mostly around 20%). Overall, the

Synthesis and acetone sensing properties of ZnFe₂O₄/rGO gas sensors

• Kaidi Wu,
• Yifan Luo,
• Ying Li and
• Chao Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2516–2526, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.242

• Kaidi Wu Yifan Luo Ying Li Chao Zhang College of Mechanical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225127, P.R. China College of Hydraulic Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, P.R. China 10.3762/bjnano.10.242 Abstract Hollow spheres of pure ZnFe2O4 and of composites

• ; composites; gas sensor; reduced graphene oxide (rGO); ZnFe2O4 hollow spheres; Introduction As a synthetic raw material in industrial production, acetone is chemically active and extremely flammable. It is toxic if its concentration exceeds 173 ppm, and long-term exposure to acetone poses a serious threat to

• morphology [16]. Some researchers also found that Ag-activated hollow spheres of ZnFe2O4 exhibited an excellent acetone gas-sensing performance at 175 °C [17]. Moreover, ZnFe2O4/ZnO composites showed an excellent response and recovery performance, which was attributed to their nanostructure and synergistic

Design and facile synthesis of defect-rich C-MoS₂/rGO nanosheets for enhanced lithium–sulfur battery performance

• Chengxiang Tian,
• Juwei Wu,
• Zheng Ma,
• Bo Li,
• Pengcheng Li,
• Xiaotao Zu and
• Xia Xiang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2251–2260, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.217

• specific capacity of 572 mAh·g−1 at 0.2C after 550 cycles, and 551 mAh·g−1 even at 2C, much better than that of MoS2-S nanosheets (249 mAh·g−1 and 149 mAh·g−1) and C-MoS2/rGO-S composites (334 mAh·g−1 and 382 mAh·g−1). Our intended electrode design protocol and annealing process may pave the way for the

• composites at different temperatures has also been investigated. The annealing can improve crystallinity and increase the binding energy, and also improve the stability while maintaining high specific capacity. The defect-rich C-MoS2/rGO prepared in this work can not only kinetically accelerate the sulfur

• 60 °C in vacuum. For comparison, the pristine MoS2 were synthesized using an identical process without GO or glucose. After that, the obtained composites were annealed at 400, 600 and 800 °C for 6 h in 10% H2/Ar atmosphere to improve the crystallinity. After thermal annealing, the samples were

Improved adsorption and degradation performance by S-doping of (001)-TiO₂

• Xiao-Yu Sun,
• Xian Zhang,
• Xiao Sun,
• Ni-Xian Qian,
• Min Wang and
• Yong-Qing Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2116–2127, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.206

• performance. Li et al. synthesized composites of mesoporous (001)-TiO2 and C applying a one-pot hydrothermal strategy in the presence of glucose and hydrofluoric acid (HF). The composites an exhibited excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance [14]. Chen et al. synthesized a composite of g-C3N4

• and B-doped (001)-TiO2 via a solvothermal method in order to improve the visible-light photocatalytic activity [15]. Cao et al. used first-principles simulations to study the electronic and optical properties of (001)-TiO2 and MoS2 composites. Their results suggested that the effective

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

• , require consideration of bending and deformation according to typical human motions. Someya and co-workers developed transparent bending-insensitive pressure sensors [96]. They nanoengineered pressure sensor materials from composites of carbon nanotubes and graphene with a fluorinated copolymer

Optimization and performance of nitrogen-doped carbon dots as a color conversion layer for white-LED applications

• Tugrul Guner,
• Hurriyet Yuce,
• Didem Tascioglu,
• Eren Simsek,
• Umut Savaci,
• Aziz Genc,
• Servet Turan and
• Mustafa M. Demir

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2004–2013, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.197

• determined the amount of N-CDots that yielded adequate white-light properties. Finally, we showed that white light with excellent properties could be generated by employing both of the fabricated N-CDot composites either as drop-cast films or composite fibers. Hence, N-CDots provide a promising alternative

• properties of the N-CDots in PVP The PVP/N-CDot composites were prepared and drop-cast on glass slides using a fixed PVP content but varying amounts of N-CDots ranging from 15 to 50 µL. To investigate the effect of the N-CDot concentration on the resulting white-light properties, these composites were

• employed as color conversion layers over a blue LED chip (driving current of 0.25 mA). Figure 3a presents the PL spectra of the drop-cast green PVP/N-CDot composites on the glass slides. There are two different signals: the first one, at 450 nm, originates from the blue LED source, and the other one, at

Porous silver-coated pNIPAM-co-AAc hydrogel nanocapsules

• William W. Bryan,
• Riddhiman Medhi,
• Maria D. Marquez,
• Supparesk Rittikulsittichai,
• Michael Tran and
• T. Randall Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1973–1982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.194

• advantages over bulk materials in terms of reactive surface area, mobility, carrier capacity, bioavailability, and absorption/scattering across a broad range of wavelengths, even into the near-infrared (NIR) [7][8][9][10]. Nanostructured composites have been reported in a variety of shapes, sizes, and

• compositions [11][12][13][14][15]. Core–shell nanostructured composites have been the focus of recent work due to their structural simplicity and ability to introduce multifunctional properties into their structure [16][17][18][19][20]. One typical structure is that of an exogenous spherical capsule containing

• increase in size to 866 ± 97 nm, as judged by the SEM images in Figure 1. Notably, the slight distortions in the images of the bare hydrogel composites (i.e., blurring and stretching apparent in Figure 1a and 1b) arise from surface charge build up from the SEM beam. Conversely, the conductive surfaces of