Direct observation of oxygen-vacancy formation and structural changes in Bi₂WO₆ nanoflakes induced by electron irradiation

• Hong-long Shi,
• Bin Zou,
• Zi-an Li,
• Min-ting Luo and
• Wen-zhong Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1434–1442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.141

• = 5.4063(4) Å, b = 16.4186(0) Å, and c = 5.4319(7) Å. An extraordinary strong (200) reflection in the SAED pattern indicates the strong preferred orientation of the flake-like nanocrystallites. This effect is further enhanced in TEM experiments because the ultrasonic treatment in absolute ethyl alcohol

Multicomponent bionanocomposites based on clay nanoarchitectures for electrochemical devices

• Giulia Lo Dico,
• Bernd Wicklein,
• Lorenzo Lisuzzo,
• Giuseppe Lazzara,
• Pilar Aranda and
• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1303–1315, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.129

• , MWCNTs and poly(vinyl alcohol) [25], sepiolite, graphene nanoplatelets, and biopolymers (e.g., alginate, gelatine) [26] and cellulose or foams of microfibrillated cellulose and starch [47], which exhibit Young’s moduli in the range from 0.1 to 9 GPa. The high stiffness of these materials has been

• conductivity values, i.e., 2700 S·m−1 for alginate, 900 S·m−1 for gelatin, and 300 S·m−1 for poly(vinyl alcohol), and the chitosan matrix discussed here yielded conductivity of 2900 S·m−1 [26]. The increase of the conductivity in chitosan films can tentatively be ascribed to the presence of physically adsorbed

Alloyed Pt₃M (M = Co, Ni) nanoparticles supported on S- and N-doped carbon nanotubes for the oxygen reduction reaction

• Stéphane Louisia,
• Yohann R. J. Thomas,
• Pierre Lecante,
• Marie Heitzmann,
• M. Rosa Axet,
• Pierre-André Jacques and
• Philippe Serp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1251–1269, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.125

• alcohol) (80/19.5/0.5), and sonicated for 30 min. 30 µL of the prepared ink was deposited three times onto the polished glassy carbon disk electrode. A thin catalytic layer with a Pt loading of 100 µgPt/cm2 was obtained after evaporation of the solvent under air at room temperature. The electroactive

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

• , when exposed to UV light [117]. Other alternative approaches include the direct precipitation of the ZnO from Zn salts in presence of bentonite dispersed in ethanol [124] or the association of ZnO NPs with Laponite® using poly(vinyl alcohol) as binder agent [125]. In both cases, the resulting materials

Synthesis and characterization of quaternary La(Sr)S–TaS₂ misfit-layered nanotubes

• Marco Serra,
• Erumpukuthickal Ashokkumar Anumol,
• Dalit Stolovas,
• Iddo Pinkas,
• Ernesto Joselevich,
• Reshef Tenne,
• Andrey Enyashin and
• Francis Leonard Deepak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1112–1124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.111

• spectroscopy (EDX) was performed using a SuperX EDX detector attached to this microscope using Bruker Esprit software. The quantification was done using the Cliff–Lorimer method. The samples for electron microscopy were prepared by dispersing the synthesized powder in ethyl alcohol, followed by ultrasonication

Glucose-derived carbon materials with tailored properties as electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction

• Rafael Gomes Morais,
• Natalia Rey-Raap,
• José Luís Figueiredo and
• Manuel Fernando Ribeiro Pereira

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1089–1102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.109

• binding energy: i) carbon sp2 (C=C, peak I) at 284.6 ± 0.1 eV; ii) carbon in phenol, alcohol, ether bonds (C–O, peak II) at 285.8 ± 0.2 eV; iii) carbonyl or quinone groups (C=O, peak III) at 287.2 ± 0.2 eV; iv) carboxyl groups (COOH, peak IV) at 288.9 eV ± 0.3; and v) the shake-up satellite due to π–π

Correlation of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with the surface density of gold nanoparticles: evaluation of the critical number of SERS tags for a detectable signal

• Vincenzo Amendola

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1016–1023, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.102

• samples for TEM analysis were obtained by mixing the AuNT solution (0.2 mg/mL in Au) 1:5 with a 10 mg/mL aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, 200,000 Mw, on average, from Fluka) and depositing one drop on a copper grid coated with a holey carbon film, according to a well-established procedure which

Serum type and concentration both affect the protein-corona composition of PLGA nanoparticles

• Katrin Partikel,
• Robin Korte,
• Dennis Mulac,
• Hans-Ulrich Humpf and
• Klaus Langer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1002–1015, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.101

• protein corona as a function of increasing serum concentration. Therefore, we produced NPs composed of the biodegradable polymer PLGA stabilized with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and subsequently incubated them with increasing amounts of either fetal bovine serum (FBS) or human serum to induce the formation

• of the protein corona with increasing serum concentration Nanoparticles (NPs) of the present study are based on the biodegradable polymer PLGA stabilized with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and were prepared by an emulsion diffusion method [19]. Incorporation of Lumogen® Red led to fluorescent labeled NPs

• Reagents The biodegradable polymer poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA, Resomer® RG 502 H), which was used as NP matrix, was obtained from Evonik Industries (Darmstadt, Germany). The steric NP stabilizer poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA; Emprove® exp 8-88, molecular weight approx. 67,000 g/mol, degree of

In situ AFM visualization of Li–O₂ battery discharge products during redox cycling in an atmospherically controlled sample cell

• Kumar Virwani,
• Younes Ansari,
• Khanh Nguyen,
• Francisco José Alía Moreno-Ortiz,
• Jangwoo Kim,
• Maxwell J. Giammona,
• Ho-Cheol Kim and
• Young-Hye La

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 930–940, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.94

• 1 ppm [42]. Glassy carbon was laser cut into 12 mm diameter discs. The surface of the glassy carbon was polished [43] to an average root-mean-square roughness of less than 10 nm. Upon polishing, the glassy carbon was cleaned with isopropyl alcohol and deionized water and further dried in a vacuum

Novel reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic surfaces induced by charge injection and heating

• Xiangdong Ye,
• Junwen Hou and
• Dongbao Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 840–847, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.84

• Materials and instrumentation Alcohol (99.7%, AR) and hydrophobic silica (16–25 nm diameter) was provided by Evonik Degussa Co. Ltd. (Germany). The varnish (Voep-1) was from Shijiazhuang Paint Company. All reagents were used as received without further purification. A high-voltage power supply (Tianjin

• temperature, 5 µL of deionized water was absorbed by a 5 µL needle tube and dripped vertically on the surface of the sample. The final contact angle of the sample surface was the average value of five points on the sample. Coating preparation 0.2 g of SiO2 was slowly dispersed in 10 mL of alcohol and

• sonicated for 30 min. 1 mL varnish was added to a mixed solution of SiO2/alcohol and magnetically stirred for 30 min. The final coating solution was sprayed onto glass slides and cured at room temperature for 2 h (spraying distance 20 cm, spraying time 3 s). Experiment setup For studying the effect of the

An iridescent film of porous anodic aluminum oxide with alternatingly electrodeposited Cu and SiO₂ nanoparticles

• Menglei Chang,
• Huawen Hu,
• Haiyan Quan,
• Hongyang Wei,
• Zhangyi Xiong,
• Jiacong Lu,
• Pin Luo,
• Yaoheng Liang,
• Jianzhen Ou and
• Dongchu Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 735–745, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.73

• finally put into a sealed pocket for later use. The SiO2 deposition liquid was prepared by mechanically mixing potassium nitrate (10.11 g), DI water (500 mL), absolute ethyl alcohol (500 mL), adding tetraethoxysilane (50 mL) after the pH value was adjusted to 3. The flow chart for the stepwise galvanic

Gold nanoparticles embedded in a polymer as a 3D-printable dichroic nanocomposite material

• Lars Kool,
• Anton Bunschoten,
• Aldrik H. Velders and
• Vittorio Saggiomo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 442–447, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.43

• standard off-the-shelf fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer. We chose to use polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the nanoparticle carrier, because it is one of the most used 3D printing materials, it is water soluble, thus mixable with the AuNPs without the need to change solvents, and because it is known

Thermal control of the defunctionalization of supported Au₂₅(glutathione)₁₈ catalysts for benzyl alcohol oxidation

• Zahraa Shahin,
• Hyewon Ji,
• Rodica Chiriac,
• Nadine Essayem,
• Franck Rataboul and
• Aude Demessence

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 228–237, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.21

• des Multimatériaux et Interfaces (LMI), Villeurbanne, France 10.3762/bjnano.10.21 Abstract Au25(SG)18 (SG – glutathione) clusters deposited on ZrO2 nanoparticles have been used as a catalyst for benzyl alcohol oxidation. Calcination was performed at different temperatures to study the ligand and

• particle size effect on the catalytic activity. In contrast to most gold nanoclusters which have to be completely defunctionalized for maximum catalytic activity, the partially defunctionalized Au25(SG)18@ZrO2 catalyst, thermally treated at 300 °C, exhibits full conversion of benzyl alcohol within 15 h

• under atmospheric pressure with 94% selectivity towards benzaldehyde. Keywords: benzyl alcohol oxidation; glutathione; gold nanoclusters; partial defunctionalization; supported catalyst; zirconium oxide nanoparticles; Introduction Since Haruta’s discovery of the catalytic activity of gold

Nanoporous water oxidation electrodes with a low loading of laser-deposited Ru/C exhibit enhanced corrosion stability

• Sandra Haschke,
• Dmitrii Pankin,
• Vladimir Mikhailovskii,
• Maïssa K. S. Barr,
• Adriana Both-Engel,
• Alina Manshina and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 157–167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.15

• nanoparticles [18][28]. A carbonaceous support has also been used, with the advantages of chemical durability and electrical conductivity, as demonstrated in the context of alcohol dehydrogenation [29][30]. Such a support, however, has not been applied to the water oxidation reaction so far. In this paper, we

Pull-off and friction forces of micropatterned elastomers on soft substrates: the effects of pattern length scale and stiffness

• Peter van Assenbergh,
• Marike Fokker,
• Julian Langowski,
• Jan van Esch,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Dimitra Dodou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 79–94, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.8

• degrees (Young’s moduli of 280 and 580 kPa) were fabricated from poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and tested on soft poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) substrates of two stiffness degrees (12 and 18 kPa), and on hard glass substrates as a reference. An out-of-the-cleanroom colloidal lithographic approach was

• order to also fabricate dimple arrays topped with a thin terminal layer. The pull-off and friction forces of these micropatterns were tested on soft substrates made of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with two stiffness degrees and compared with the corresponding performance on glass as reference. Results

• -polymer (base) and crosslinker (curing agent) were purchased from Dow Corning, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA, Selvol PVOH 165; hydrolysis rate: 99.65% ± 0.35%; degree of polymerization: about 2000, as reported by the manufacturer) was purchased from Sekisui Chemical Group. N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was

Near-infrared light harvesting of upconverting NaYF₄:Yb³⁺/Er³⁺-based amorphous silicon solar cells investigated by an optical filter

• Daiming Liu,
• Qingkang Wang and
• Qing Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2788–2793, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.260

• scattering. Our results explicitly demonstrated the feasibility of UC in NIR light harvesting for a-Si:H solar cells. Experimental The NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ was prepared via a hydrothermal method based on a alcohol/water/oleic acid system [21]. Lanthanide chloride hexahydrate (RECl3·6H2O, RE = Y, Yb and Er; 99.99

Accurate control of the covalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes for the electro-enzymatically controlled oxidation of biomolecules

• Naoual Allali,
• Veronika Urbanova,
• Mathieu Etienne,
• Xavier Devaux,
• Martine Mallet,
• Brigitte Vigolo,
• Jean-Joseph Adjizian,
• Chris P. Ewels,
• Sven Oberg,
• Alexander V. Soldatov,
• Edward McRae,
• Yves Fort,
• Manuel Dossot and
• Victor Mamane

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2750–2762, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.257

• . Once opened to air, the samples were analyzed by Raman spectroscopy. Functionalization by ferrocene derivatives Ferrocene derivatives were grafted onto CNT sidewalls by reacting the alcohol group of the ferrocene linkers to the COCl groups present after step 2 on the CNT sidewalls. We investigated

• CNT sidewalls. To solve this apparent contradiction, we can make the hypothesis that microwave irradiation in acidic media mainly converts already-existing sp3 defects in the raw CNTs into oxidized functions such as alcohol and carboxylic acid functions, but does not introduce many new defects as does

Cytotoxicity of doxorubicin-conjugated poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide]-modified γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles towards human tumor cells

• Zdeněk Plichta,
• Yulia Kozak,
• Rostyslav Panchuk,
• Viktoria Sokolova,
• Matthias Epple,
• Lesya Kobylinska,
• Pavla Jendelová and
• Daniel Horák

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2533–2545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.236

• high molecular weight, such as silica, chitosan, poly(amino acids), poly(acrylic acid), hyaluronic acid, alginic acid, poly(vinyl alcohol), polyethylenimine, dextran, or poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) [10][11][12]. The latter one is known to escape recognition by reticuloendothelial system prolonging thus

Nanocellulose: Recent advances and its prospects in environmental remediation

• Katrina Pui Yee Shak,
• Yean Ling Pang and
• Shee Keat Mah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2479–2498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.232

• organisms through enzymatic polymerization of organic substrates such as sugar and glycerol [11][31]. The main difference between BC and other plant-derived CNFs is the absence of certain functional groups (except alcohol) and polymers (lignin, hemicellulose, and pectin) in BC [32]. Therefore, BC is known

• from other polymers and functional groups except alcohol [32][44]. According to Gatenholm and Klemm [45], a typical BC production process can take up to two weeks to produce cellulose. Furthermore, nanocellulose produced from BC possesses higher crystallinity than plant-derived nanocellulose [46]. Over

Effect of electrospinning process variables on the size of polymer fibers and bead-on-string structures established with a 2³ factorial design

• Paulina Korycka,
• Adam Mirek,
• Katarzyna Kramek-Romanowska,
• Marcin Grzeczkowicz and
• Dorota Lewińska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2466–2478, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.231

• beads). There are only a few research articles showing the application of this method. Coles et al. examined the influence of various process parameters on polylactic acid and poly(vinyl alcohol) electrospun fibers [26]. Nottelet et al. used factorial design to optimize the manufacture of small diameter

Thickness-dependent photoelectrochemical properties of a semitransparent Co₃O₄ photocathode

• Malkeshkumar Patel and
• Joondong Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2432–2442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.228

• -Aldrich, sheet resistance of 7 Ω/sq) and a glass microscope slide were used as substrates. These were cleaned using a sequence of isopropyl alcohol, acetone and distilled water using ultrasonication. Then, various thicknesses of Co films were deposited using a dc magnetron sputtering system (dc power ca

Block copolymers for designing nanostructured porous coatings

• Roberto Nisticò

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2332–2344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.218

• alkoxides or metal chlorides) that evolves forming a colloidal solution (sol) and subsequently a stable network (gel) of polymerized particles. The byproducts of these polycondensation reactions are water and alcohol, depending on the precursor selected. Even if the principles behind the sol–gel reaction

Lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics

• Oleksandr Stroyuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2209–2235, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.207

• ) in alcohol solutions of alkali metal or alkyl ammonium halides [136]. The method is perfect for the direct formation of Sn-based HPs with tailored morphology and composition avoiding the use of unstable Sn2+/Sn4+ precursors and toxic solvents. Moreover, it was argued in [136] that the method allows

Electrospun one-dimensional nanostructures: a new horizon for gas sensing materials

• Muhammad Imran,
• Nunzio Motta and
• Mahnaz Shafiei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2128–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.202

Fabrication of photothermally active poly(vinyl alcohol) films with gold nanostars for antibacterial applications

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Maria Moros,
• Claudia Tortiglione,
• Serena Bertoldi,
• Nicola Contessi,
• Silvia Faré,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Agnese D’Agostino,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2040–2048, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.193

• biocompatible poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) films can lead to novel hybrid polymeric materials with tunable photothermal properties and a wide range of applications. In this study, thin PVA films containing highly photothermally efficient gold nanostars (GNSs) were fabricated and their properties were studied. The

• antibacterial films and coatings. Keywords: antibacterial properties; gold nanostars; photothermal effect; poly(vinyl alcohol) films; Introduction The photothermal properties of non-spherical gold nanoparticles possessing localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) located in NIR range has already been

• higher temperatures (ΔT > 40 °C) in the latter case [3][8][9][10]. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer is also an attractive material for GNS-based film fabrication, as it displays a range of useful properties, namely, low toxicity, biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, chemical stability, and excellent film