Comparison of fresh and aged lithium iron phosphate cathodes using a tailored electrochemical strain microscopy technique

• Matthias Simolka,
• Hanno Kaess and
• Kaspar Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 583–596, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.46

• they attributed to a reduced electrochemical activity [42]. Yang et al. report similar findings; they used ESM to study thin film Li1.2Co0.13Ni0.13Mn0.54O2 cathodes and observed decreasing ESM amplitude after a few ESM scans. They attributed this, similar to Zhu et al., to the reduction of the

• electrochemical activity, electrochemical fatigue and degradation of the material [43]. Jesse et al. conducted ESM on thin film silicon anodes and aged them by high frequency cycling [33]. Contrary to Yang et al. and Zhu et al., they found an increase of the ESM amplitude over cycling time, which they linked to

• (positive pulse) of the Li-ions. The distributions do not show any significant change from the fresh to the aged cathode, indicating an unaffected diffusivity in the material providing the signal. Using to describe the diffusion in a thin film [40] with a time constant τ = 2 ms and a depth of the probed

Evolution of Ag nanostructures created from thin films: UV–vis absorption and its theoretical predictions

• Robert Kozioł,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Damian Koszelow,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 494–507, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.40

• annealing. In Figure 3a–g selected SEM images of nanostructures formed after annealing of Ag films with a thickness from 2 to 7 nm are presented. The films were annealed at 250 °C for 15 min. In the image corresponding to the 1 nm thin film (Figure 3a) only some voids are present. There are no islands

High dynamic resistance elements based on a Josephson junction array

• Konstantin Yu. Arutyunov and
• Janne S. Lehtinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 417–420, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.32

• followed by ultrahigh vacuum deposition of materials was used for the fabrication of the nanostructures. Hybrid QPSJ samples were made of Ti, Al and aluminum oxide [12]. The high-impedance JJs studied in this paper, similar to those from [12], were fabricated from superconducting thin film Al oxidized in

• test sample fabricated from superconducting thin film aluminum oxidized in situ to form tunnel barriers. Left panel: overview of the structure. Right panel: details of the JJ element. (a) Experimental I–V characteristics of 50 pairs of Al–AlOx junctions connected in series. Inset shows a schematic of

DFT calculations of the structure and stability of copper clusters on MoS₂

• Cara-Lena Nies and
• Michael Nolan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 391–406, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.30

• transition metals, as well as Ag and Au. However, most studies have examined single-atom adsorption or adsorbed nanoparticles of noble metals. This means there is a knowledge gap in terms of thin film nucleation on 2D materials. To begin addressing this issue, we present in this paper a first-principles

• character of Cu nanoclusters is preserved. Keywords: copper (Cu); density functional theory (DFT); 2D materials; molybdenum disulfide (MoS2); thin film nucleation; Introduction Since the successful exfoliation of monolayers of graphene by Novoselov et al., 2D materials have gained a large interest in a

• enable the use of 2D materials in technology applications, processes have been developed to grow 2D materials via chemical vapour deposition (CVD) [16][17] and atomic layer deposition (ALD) [18][19]. The films prepared via thin film deposition were comparable in performance to materials obtained via

Poly(1-vinylimidazole) polyplexes as novel therapeutic gene carriers for lung cancer therapy

• Gayathri Kandasamy,
• Elena N. Danilovtseva,
• Vadim V. Annenkov and
• Uma Maheswari Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 354–369, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.26

• . Characterization of the polyplex Electron microscopy: A small drop of the polyplex sample was placed on a conducting carbon tape and air-dried. The sample was then sputter-coated with a thin film of gold. The sample was placed in the sample chamber and imaged at an accelerating voltage of 3 kV using a cold field

Implementation of data-cube pump–probe KPFM on organic solar cells

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Olivier Bardagot and
• Renaud Demadrille

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 323–337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.24

• ); organic photovoltaics; photocarrier dynamics; pump–probe configuration; time-resolved measurements; Introduction Many emerging photovoltaic technologies rely on the use of thin film materials displaying structural and/or chemical heterogeneities at the μm or nm scale. This is the case for solution

• same features as the raw data however at a slightly lower noise level. Organic BHJ thin films processing, solar cell fabrication and characterization The PTB7:PC71BM BHJ thin film was deposited on an indium thin oxide (ITO) substrate coated with PEDOT:PSS (a hole-conducting polymer) following the

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

• vector and provided efficient sensing of changes in the intracellular acidic pH value. In recent years, DNA thin film-based biosensors received significant interest for the detection of biologically relevant analytes, such has forensic samples [61][62]. The design of active electrochemical DNA sensors

Nanosecond resistive switching in Ag/AgI/PtIr nanojunctions

• Botond Sánta,
• Dániel Molnár,
• Patrick Haiber,
• Agnes Gubicza,
• Edit Szilágyi,
• Zsolt Zolnai,
• András Halbritter and
• Miklós Csontos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 92–100, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.9

• microscope (STM) to the AgI-coated thin film structure schematically illustrated in the lower inset of Figure 1a. The photosensitive AgI layers were formed promptly before electrical characterization by exposing a 100 nm thick Ag layer to iodine vapor at 40°C and ambient pressure for 30 s in the dark

• following the method of Kumar and co-workers [36]. The Ag films were evaporated on standard Si/SiO2 wafers using a 12 nm thick Ti sticking layer. The structural characterization of the thin film samples was carried out by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) using an ion beam of 3500 keV 4He

• structure (top to bottom) of 200 nm AgI, 22.5 nm Ag3I and 43 nm Ag after iodine exposure on the Ti/SiO2/Si substrate. Nanometer-scale Ag/AgI/PtIr nanojunctions were created by bringing the PtIr tip into direct contact with the thin-film surface while a constant bias voltage of 100 mV was applied on the

Influence of the epitaxial composition on N-face GaN KOH etch kinetics determined by ICP-OES

• Markus Tautz,
• Maren T. Kuchenbrod,
• Joachim Hertkorn,
• Robert Weinberger,
• Martin Welzel,
• Arno Pfitzner and
• David Díaz Díaz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 41–50, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.4

• diffraction (XRD). Thin-film processing including laser lift off (LLO) was applied. The influence of epitaxial changes on the N-face etch kinetics was determined in aqueous KOH solution at elevated temperature. Inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) was used to measure the etch

• epitaxy stack. Thin-film technology is a common approach in industry to improve device performance. Thereby, a substrate with higher thermal conductivity, e.g., silicon or nickel, is bonded to the top p-contact of the LED structure [8]. The sapphire substrate is removed by laser lift off (LLO). This

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

• resolution of 5 cm−1 (50 µm slit-like pinhole) with an exposure time of 5 s (10 accumulations). Electrode preparation and electrochemical measurements The catalyst thin-film electrode (catalyst loading of 0.285 mg·cm−2 for Pt-free catalyst, 140 μg·cm−2 loading (Pt loading: 28 μg·cm−2) for the 20 wt % Pt/C E

• creating additional diffusion limitations [51]. The geometric area of the electrochemically accessible part of the electrode is 0.28 cm2. For the electrochemical experiments, we used a rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) setup (Pine Instruments Analytical Rotator, AFASRE), with the thin-film electrode on

Bombesin receptor-targeted liposomes for enhanced delivery to lung cancer cells

• Mohammad J. Akbar,
• Pâmela C. Lukasewicz Ferreira,
• Melania Giorgetti,
• Leanne Stokes and
• Christopher J. Morris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2553–2562, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.246

• formulations were prepared using the thin-film technique to yield small and monodisperse vesicles as judged by dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis (Table 1). The colloidal properties of both liposomal formulations were highly similar in terms of size, polydispersity and zeta potential and consistent with

• the molar extinction coefficient for the peptide tryptophan residue (5560 AU/mmol/mL). A thin film was produced by slow evaporation of the solvent under vacuum followed by one hour under high vacuum to remove solvent traces. The film was hydrated with PBS to a final lipid concentration of 10 mg/mL

Semitransparent Sb₂S₃ thin film solar cells by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis for use in solar windows

• Jako S. Eensalu,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Erki Kärber,
• Lothar Weinhardt,
• Monika Blum,
• Clemens Heske,
• Wanli Yang,
• Ilona Oja Acik and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2396–2409, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.230

• Road, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA 10.3762/bjnano.10.230 Abstract The integration of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy in zero-energy buildings requires durable and efficient solar windows composed of lightweight and semitransparent thin film solar cells. Inorganic materials with a high optical

• building electricity demand can be produced on site [1]. Solar windows can be split into two groups: perforated grids of opaque solar cells, such as silicon, or one continuous semitransparent thin film solar cell (dye-sensitized, perovskite, quantum dot, etc.) [1]. Perforated solar windows, comprised of

• fragments of crystalline Si (c-Si) solar cells, have shown a tendency to overheat and underperform in efficiency (PCE) [2][3]. C-Si grids are also considered visually unappealing for solar windows [4]. Accordingly, thin film solar cells, even with lower PCE, are considered more promising for applications in

Integration of sharp silicon nitride tips into high-speed SU8 cantilevers in a batch fabrication process

• Nahid Hosseini,
• Matthias Neuenschwander,
• Oliver Peric,
• Santiago H. Andany,
• Jonathan D. Adams and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2357–2363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.226

• (LSNT). Pyramidal tips are made based on an indirect tip fabrication process [28] by etching a mould into a 380 µm thick single-side polished silicon (100) wafer. Figure 1a shows the summarized process flow, outlining the important steps. (i) A 20 nm LSNT thin film is layered onto a silicon (100) wafer

Design of a nanostructured mucoadhesive system containing curcumin for buccal application: from physicochemical to biological aspects

• Sabrina Barbosa de Souza Ferreira,
• Gustavo Braga,
• Évelin Lemos Oliveira,
• Jéssica Bassi da Silva,
• Hélen Cássia Rosseto,
• Lidiane Vizioli de Castro Hoshino,
• Mauro Luciano Baesso,
• Wilker Caetano,
• Craig Murdoch,
• Helen Elizabeth Colley and
• Marcos Luciano Bruschi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2304–2328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.222

Nontoxic pyrite iron sulfide nanocrystals as second electron acceptor in PTB7:PC₇₁BM-based organic photovoltaic cells

• Olivia Amargós-Reyes,
• José-Luis Maldonado,
• Omar Martínez-Alvarez,
• María-Elena Nicho,
• José Santos-Cruz,
• Juan Nicasio-Collazo,
• Irving Caballero-Quintana and
• Concepción Arenas-Arrocena

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2238–2250, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.216

• electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) [9][12][13], as electron acceptors or donors in inorganic or hybrid solar cells [10][14][15][16][17] and as second electron acceptors in organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) [18]. An iron pyrite thin film used as a counter electrode showed a conversion efficiency

• (8%) similar to that of a Pt counter electrode in DSSC [9], which could be due to the high catalytic activity of pyrite. When the film is doped with ethanedithiol (EDT), the conversion efficiency is increased by about 20% as compared to the pure pyrite thin film [12]. Also, FeS2 NPs of 30 nm size

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond for nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging applications

• Alberto Boretti,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Jonathan Blackledge and
• Stefania Castelletto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2128–2151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.207

The importance of design in nanoarchitectonics: multifractality in MACE silicon nanowires

• Stefania Carapezzi and
• Anna Cavallini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2094–2102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.204

• anisotropic wet etching technique where the sculpting of the nanostructures is catalyzed by a discontinuous thin film of noble metal deposited on a substrate. The metal works as a local cathode where the reduction of oxidants occurs. The underneath semiconductor is the local anode where a charge-mediated

• Si substrate by electron beam evaporation. The conditions during the growth of the gold thin film were similar to the ones during the growth of the samples SiNW1 and SiNW2. The black regions correspond to the uncovered silicon areas, while the white region represents the deposited Au. It is evident

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

• . Typically, air is composed of different gases, a small fraction of aerosols and water vapor. The relative humidity (RH) usually ranges from about 25% to 70%, depending on weather and season. A thin film of water molecules adsorbs on every surface exposed to humid gases [1][2][3]. The thickness of these

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

• ; nanoarchitectonics; sensor; thin film; Review Introduction Detection systems for various chemical, physical, environmental, and biological targets, so-called sensors, have been continuously explored [1][2][3][4]. Although their usefulness was recognized even in the early stages of modern science and technology, the

Synthesis and potent cytotoxic activity of a novel diosgenin derivative and its phytosomes against lung cancer cells

• Liang Xu,
• Dekang Xu,
• Ziying Li,
• Yu Gao and
• Haijun Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1933–1942, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.189

• , Di phytosomes (DiP) and P2 phytosomes (P2P) were prepared by a thin-film rehydration method (Figure 3A). Blank lipid nanoparticles without drugs (P) were also prepared with the same process. Particle size and zeta potential of the phytosomes were measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS). The

• size distribution of phytosomes seems a little broad. We used the thin-film hydration method followed by sonication to prepare the phytosomes in this study. The mean size and size distribution are significantly influenced by the sonication conditions. Further optimization of the formulation and the

• activities than Di against human non-small-cell lung cancer A549 and PC9 cells. To further improve the water solubility of Di and P2, DiP and P2P were prepared with a thin-film rehydration method. DiP and P2P exhibited particle sizes less than 100 nm with oval shape and negative charges. Compared with free

Oblique angle deposition of nickel thin films by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

• Hamidreza Hajihoseini,
• Movaffaq Kateb,
• Snorri Þorgeir Ingvarsson and
• Jon Tomas Gudmundsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1914–1921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.186

• . Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) was performed on 10 × 10 mm2 sized samples at 300 K. Variable magnetic fields up to ±1 T were used for magnetic measurements. Results and Discussion Thin film structure Figure 1 shows the film density, deposition rate and surface roughness of Ni films deposited by HiPIMS

• tilt angle. We believe that the smaller grain size of HiPIMS-deposited films (shown in Figure 4) is the main reason for soft magnetism of the films. Poolcharuansin et al. [64] have shown that Ni thin film deposition using an inverted gapped-target sputter magnetron results in smaller grain size and

Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• annealing. A rather recent variation of the magnetron sputtering technique, the so-called high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS), provides an alternative approach. It is an ionized physical vapor deposition method and has shown great promise in thin-film processing [25][26]. During HiPIMS the

Remarkable electronic and optical anisotropy of layered 1T’-WTe₂ 2D materials

• Qiankun Zhang,
• Rongjie Zhang,
• Jiancui Chen,
• Wanfu Shen,
• Chunhua An,
• Xiaodong Hu,
• Mingli Dong,
• Jing Liu and
• Lianqing Zhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1745–1753, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.170

• photoelectric property in detail, showing a 300-fold improvement in the photosensitivity. Moreover, due to its attractive properties, mono- or few-layer 1T’-WTe2 was shown to be a promising, novel and fascinating material for high-performance magnetoresistance applications in thin-film electromagnetics [33][34

• (Figure 1a) in polar coordinates. c) Azimuth-dependent RDM images. Angle-resolved DC conductivity of a 1T’-WTe2 thin film. a) Optical image of s WTe2 flake with 12 electrodes spaced 30° apart. b) and c) are the transfer characteristic curves and the output characteristic curves, respectively. d) Angle

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

• –300 particles with the software “Lince” (TU Damstadt, Germany) [83]. Raman spectra were measured employing a Renishaw InVia spectrometer with 532 nm excitation wavelength from a Cobolt CW DPSS laser. Due to the considerably thin film of the CNT layers, and thus the low amount of Pt, XRD did not yield

Superconducting switching due to a triplet component in the Pb/Cu/Ni/Cu/Co₂Cr_1−xFe_xAl_y spin-valve structure

• Andrey Andreevich Kamashev,
• Nadir Nurgayazovich Garif’yanov,
• Aidar Azatovich Validov,
• Joachim Schumann,
• Vladislav Kataev,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Yakov Victorovich Fominov and
• Ilgiz Abdulsamatovich Garifullin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1458–1463, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.144

• , 5, 021019, in achieving large values of the switching effect. Keywords: ferromagnet; proximity effect; superconductor; Introduction For decades, metallic thin-film heterostructures have been in the in the focus of fundamental research in condensed matter physics and materials science. They show