Capillary and van der Waals interactions on CaF₂ crystals from amplitude modulation AFM force reconstruction profiles under ambient conditions

• Annalisa Calò,
• Oriol Vidal Robles,
• Sergio Santos and
• Albert Verdaguer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 809–819, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.84

• approach when relative humidity is allowed to spontaneously reach the ambient value of about 40% and homogeneous micrometer-sized water patches stabilize on top of the crystals surface. The dissipation induced by the capillary bridge formation is unambiguously identified in experimental Ediss and ΔΦ curves

• no extended water patches were present on the surface. When dry samples were needed, the crystals were kept at 120 °C for 30 min under nitrogen flow before calibrating the cantilevers. In general, repeatedly scanning and/or collecting curves at ambient relative humidity RH ≈ 40% results in the

Conformal SiO₂ coating of sub-100 nm diameter channels of polycarbonate etched ion-track channels by atomic layer deposition

• Nicolas Sobel,
• Christian Hess,
• Manuela Lukas,
• Anne Spende,
• Bernd Stühn,
• M. E. Toimil-Molares and
• Christina Trautmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 472–479, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.48

• were measured on a OCA35 apparatus from Dataphysics Instruments GmbH. Distilled water with a volume of 2 µL was dropped onto the membrane surface at 21 °C and 50% relative humidity of air. Besides ALD coating, the samples were not treated otherwise prior to measurements. Results and Discussion

A scanning probe microscope for magnetoresistive cantilevers utilizing a nested scanner design for large-area scans

• Tobias Meier,
• Alexander Förste,
• Ali Tavassolizadeh,
• Karsten Rott,
• Dirk Meyners,
• Roland Gröger,
• Günter Reiss,
• Eckhard Quandt,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 451–461, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.46

• ]. If exposed to ambient conditions with a relative humidity of around 40%, the topographic contrast on those two materials disappears in amplitude modulation imaging. The height difference, however, can be observed if the sample is scanned in a liquid [63]. Therefore, we conclude that the vanishing

Boosting the local anodic oxidation of silicon through carbon nanofiber atomic force microscopy probes

• Gemma Rius,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Soichiro Matsui,
• Masaki Tanemura and
• Francesc Perez-Murano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 215–222, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.20

• captured and subtracted. All tests are performed at room conditions, with a temperature of 25 °C and under a controlled relative humidity ranging from 20 to 40%. The Si substrates consist of chips cut from Si(100) wafers. Organic contamination on the chips was removed by oxygen plasma etching before the

• voltage is 20 V, relative humidity (RH) is 36%. Results of LAO-AFM on Si with CNF (a) and Si (b) probes as a function of the bias voltage (in V). Writing speed is 1 μm/s, RH is 36%. Monitoring chemical and mechanical stability of CNF probes for LAO-AFM. SEM images before (a) and after (c) the definition

Functionalization of α-synuclein fibrils

• Simona Povilonienė,
• Vida Časaitė,
• Virginijus Bukauskas,
• Arūnas Šetkus,
• Juozas Staniulis and
• Rolandas Meškys

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 124–133, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.12

• immobilization was allowed to proceed for 5 to 20 min, at 23 °C at a relative humidity of about 45%. The density of fibrillar structures on mica was increased or decreased by the immobilization time or the dilution rate. After adsorption, the surfaces were rinsed with distilled water, dried and visualized using

Synthesis of boron nitride nanotubes and their applications

• Saban Kalay,
• Zehra Yilmaz,
• Ozlem Sen,
• Melis Emanet,
• Emine Kazanc and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 84–102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.9

• humidity sensor system. The adsorption–desorption tests showed that the AgNP–BNNT material had a potentially fast response/recovery time of 100/15 s for the detection of relative humidity at room temperature [90]. The use of Ni-encapsulated BNNTs in optomagnetic-based sensors with respect to their magnetic

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

• phosphoric acid. The proton conductivity of the fully doped PBI membrane at 200 °C (0.07 S·cm−1) [23] is almost as high as that of fully hydrated perfluorinated membranes and far less dependent on the relative humidity, thus allowing its use in HT-PEMFCs without humidifying the gas reactants. A HT-PEMFC

• by an activation mechanism that obeys the Arrhenius law [29]. In contrast, the proton conductivity of Nafion is attributed to the vehicle mechanism, which has a weaker temperature dependence. Moreover, the conductivity of acid-doped PBI is less dependent on the relative humidity, although there is a

The capillary adhesion technique: a versatile method for determining the liquid adhesion force and sample stiffness

• Daniel Gandyra,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Stanislav Gorb,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 11–18, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.2

• in Table 1. For each type of hair coating (natural, PDMS- or Teflon-coated ends), the Young’s modulus was the same within the accuracy of the measurement. Its average value was E = (3.04 ± 0.11 ± 0.22) × 105 N/cm2, with the statistical and systematic errors follow the data, respectively. The relative

• humidity during the measurements was roughly RH = 50% and the temperature was 22 °C. Literature values citing Young’s modulus of human head hair are scarce. For example, in [27] a value of 3.89 × 105 N/cm2 (RH = 60%) was indicated. In [28], a range between 1.5 and 4.6 × 105 N/cm2 (RH = 65%) was indicated

Silica nanoparticles are less toxic to human lung cells when deposited at the air–liquid interface compared to conventional submerged exposure

• Alicja Panas,
• Andreas Comouth,
• Harald Saathoff,
• Thomas Leisner,
• Marco Al-Rawi,
• Michael Simon,
• Gunnar Seemann,
• Olaf Dössel,
• Sonja Mülhopt,
• Hanns-Rudolf Paur,
• Susanne Fritsch-Decker,
• Carsten Weiss and
• Silvia Diabaté

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1590–1602, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.171

• ALIDA exposure system described in detail by Comouth et al. [18]. For cell exposure the aerosol was humidified to 80–90% relative humidity at 37.5 °C. The humidified aerosol was then carried with identical flows of 100 mL·min−1 (sccm) through six tubes of equal dimensions to the inlets of six exposure

Liquid fuel cells

• Grigorii L. Soloveichik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1399–1418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.153

Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii

• Sören B. Gutekunst,
• Carsten Grabosch,
• Alexander Kovalev,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1393–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.152

• . For all substrates, elastic moduli were determined from the unloading part of the curve to consider only the elastic behavior and not the plastic deformation of the sample. The measurements were performed under ambient conditions (25–26 °C temperature and 40–50% relative humidity). Analysis of the

Surface topography and contact mechanics of dry and wet human skin

• Alexander E. Kovalev,
• Kirstin Dening,
• Bo N. J. Persson and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1341–1348, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.147

• order of ΔV/LD ≈ 90 μm, where L ≈ 8 cm is the stroke length and D ≈ 0.8 cm the width of the (nominal) Hertzian contact region. A uniform water film of thickness Δd = 90 μm evaporates in about 500 s at room temperature, 50% relative humidity, and an evaporation rate of ≈ 1.7 × 10−7 m/s (see below). This

• ) temperature, pa is the water vapor pressure in the air (which is the product of the relative humidity and the saturation water pressure at the air temperature and air pressure), and v the velocity of the air (some distance from the water surface) over the water surface. Y is the latent heat of evaporation

• relative humidity of 50% giving pa = 0.5 × 2.3 kPa = 1.15 kPa. Hence, since v << 1 m/s, we get ≈ 1.7 × 10−7 m/s. Thus it takes Δt = Δd/ ≈ 60 s for the water film thickness to decrease by Δd ≈ 10 μm, which according to the theory is the film thickness range over which the capillary attraction between the

Effects of palladium on the optical and hydrogen sensing characteristics of Pd-doped ZnO nanoparticles

• Anh-Thu Thi Do,
• Hong Thai Giang,
• Thu Thi Do,
• Ngan Quang Pham and
• Giang Truong Ho

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1261–1267, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.140

• relative humidity of 65% RH. To keep the operating temperature of the sensor in the range of 200–300 °C, an applied voltage Vapplied of 1.7 V and a current of about 120 mA are required. The obtained linear curve implied that it is possible to control the operating temperature by turning the applied voltage

• the Pd/ZnO sample. The values of the output voltage maximum, Vout, were 17 and 37 mV for ZnO and Pd/ZnO samples, respectively. An operating temperature of 250 °C was selected to investigate the gas-sensitive characteristics of the Pd/ZnO sensor. With a flow speed of 100 mL/min and a relative humidity

Nanoporous composites prepared by a combination of SBA-15 with Mg–Al mixed oxides. Water vapor sorption properties

• Amaury Pérez-Verdejo,
• Alvaro Sampieri,
• Heriberto Pfeiffer,
• Mayra Ruiz-Reyes,
• Juana-Deisy Santamaría and
• Geolar Fetter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1226–1234, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.136

• are homogeneously dispersed. Vapor sorption behavior The water vapor adsorption–desorption isotherms of all samples were acquired at 60 °C with a rate of 0.5%·min−1 of relative humidity (RH) until to achieve 80% of RH (Figure 5). The calcined hydrotalcite (HT) adsorbs up to 5.0 mmol H2O/gHT and the

• /SBA(NC) and (Mg/Al)/SBA composites (Figure 6). The HT/SBA(NC) composite shows adsorption curves consistent with a Langmuir-like behavior. As expected, the amount of water vapor adsorbed increased with the RH, until equilibrium temperature is reached. Still, if the relative humidity is increased, the

• carried out on a temperature-controlled thermobalance Q5000SA from TA Instruments, equipped with a humidity-controlled chamber. The experimental variables were temperature and relative humidity (RH). Such experiments were carried out by using N2 from Praxair (grade 4.0) as a carrier gas and distilled

Trade-offs in sensitivity and sampling depth in bimodal atomic force microscopy and comparison to the trimodal case

• Babak Eslami,
• Daniel Ebeling and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1144–1151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.125

• container. During the experiments reported in this paper, the air in the AFM chamber was monitored to be at 23 °C and 17% relative humidity. Computational For the numerical simulations the first three eigenmodes of the AFM cantilever were modeled by using individual equations of motion for each, coupled

Organic and inorganic–organic thin film structures by molecular layer deposition: A review

• Pia Sundberg and
• Maarit Karppinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1104–1136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.123

Dry friction of microstructured polymer surfaces inspired by snake skin

• Martina J. Baum,
• Lars Heepe,
• Elena Fadeeva and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1091–1103, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.122

• . Scans were carried out at a 1 Hz scan rate and a resolution of 1024 × 1024 pixels with an intermittent contact mode cantilever (c = 50 N·m−1, NST-NCHF, Nascatec GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany), at ambient conditions (room temperature 24° C, relative humidity 41%). NanoWizard® SPM software 3.3.23 (JPK

Gas sensing with gold-decorated vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Prasantha R. Mudimela,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Oriol González-León,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Rony Snyders,
• Eduard Llobet,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 910–918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.104

• that the sensing response to nitrogen dioxide depends on the nanotube length. The optimum was found to be 300 µm for getting the higher response. When the background humidity level was changed from dry to 50% relative humidity, an increase in the response to NO2 was observed for all the sensors

Scale effects of nanomechanical properties and deformation behavior of Au nanoparticle and thin film using depth sensing nanoindentation

• Dave Maharaj and
• Bharat Bhushan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 822–836, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.94

• nanoparticle from slipping under the indenter during more rapid and unstable loading. Topography images were also taken before and after indentation with the same tip used for indentation. All experiments were performed at room temperature (23 °C) and 50–55% relative humidity. Compression For compression

• were performed at room temperature (23 °C) and 50–55% relative humidity. Macromechanical characterization For comparison to the macroscale, data from polycrystalline bulk Au was used from experiments presented by Lozinskii [39]. The Vickers hardness was obtained by using a four sided diamond tip under

Energy dissipation in multifrequency atomic force microscopy

• Valentina Pukhova,
• Francesco Banfi and
• Gabriele Ferrini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 494–500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.57

• pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) without any external excitation. The experiment is conducted in air, at room temperature (296 K) an a relative humidity of 55%. The temporal trace has been recorded with a digitizing oscilloscope with a vertical resolution of 8-bit, an analog bandwidth of 250 MHz, and a maximum

The softening of human bladder cancer cells happens at an early stage of the malignancy process

• Jorge R. Ramos,
• Joanna Pabijan,
• Ricardo Garcia and
• Malgorzata Lekka

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 447–457, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.52

• Standards). The cells were cultured on glass coverslips placed inside plastic Petri dishes at 37 °C in a 95% air/5% CO2 atmosphere. The relative humidity was kept above 98%. The cells were measured 3 to 4 days after seeding. The cells treated with cytochalasin D (Sigma) were first rinsed with RPMI-1640

Friction behavior of a microstructured polymer surface inspired by snake skin

• Martina J. Baum,
• Lars Heepe and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 83–97, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.8

• intermittent contact mode cantilever (c = 50 Nm−1, NST-NCHF, Nascatec GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany), at ambient conditions (room temperature 24 °C, relative humidity 41%). NanoWizard® SPM software 3.3.23 (JPK Instruments) was used to obtain AFM images and NanoWizard® image processing software 3.3.25 was applied to

Study of mesoporous CdS-quantum-dot-sensitized TiO₂ films by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and AFM

• Mohamed N. Ghazzal,
• Robert Wojcieszak,
• Gijo Raj and
• Eric M. Gaigneaux

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 68–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.6

• nominal curvature radius of 8 nm were used for imaging under ambient conditions (23 °C and 56% relative humidity). Samples were glued onto a magnetic stainless steel disc by using double-face adhesive tape and mounted on the "J" type piezoelectric scanner. The tapping engage set point was set to 1 in

Porous polymer coatings as substrates for the formation of high-fidelity micropatterns by quill-like pens

• Michael Hirtz,
• Marcus Lyon,
• Wenqian Feng,
• Andrea E. Holmes,
• Harald Fuchs and
• Pavel A. Levkin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 377–384, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.44

• took place at a relative humidity of 60% and with the sample stage tilted by 8° with respect to the SPT tip to minimize the chance of contact between the dye solution in the reservoir and sample. For all patterns, except for the pattern used for spot size versus dwell time analysis, a dwell time of 0.5

Selective surface modification of lithographic silicon oxide nanostructures by organofunctional silanes

• Thomas Baumgärtel,
• Christian von Borczyskowski and
• Harald Graaf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 218–226, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.22

• electrically contacted to a voltage source by conductive ink. The oxide structures were generated in contact mode operation with a voltage in the range of −8 to −11 V applied between tip and substrate at a relative humidity (RH) of around 65% and a writing velocity of about 1 µm/s. To control the humidity of