Growth of lithium hydride thin films from solutions: Towards solution atomic layer deposition of lithiated films

• Ivan Kundrata,
• Karol Fröhlich,
• Lubomír Vančo,
• Matej Mičušík and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.142

• . Contamination was a major limiting factor in the deposition setup. Examples of difficulties due to contamination include the loss of BuLi precursor when small amounts of air got into the reaction flask, and the repeating failure of the QCM measurement due to clogging and subsequent seal failure. Therefore

• , contamination was avoided as much as reasonably possible. Measures for safe handling of n-butyllithium Due to the pyrophoric nature of n-butyllithium these safety procedures were followed. (i) The n-butyllithium solution was handled in an argon-filled glovebox, set up specifically for precursor handling. (ii

• -butyllithium and atmosphere would be insufficient to ignite the diethyl ether. This approach was tested and confirmed to work. Notably, the last step of this approach increases the sensitivity of the precursor to contamination, which was a major limiting factor, as mentioned before. However, safety was chosen

Gas sensing properties of individual SnO₂ nanowires and SnO₂ sol–gel nanocomposites

• Alexey V. Shaposhnik,
• Dmitry A. Shaposhnik,
• Sergey Yu. Turishchev,
• Olga A. Chuvenkova,
• Stanislav V. Ryabtsev,
• Alexey A. Vasiliev,
• Xavier Vilanova,
• Francisco Hernandez-Ramirez and
• Joan R. Morante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1380–1390, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.136

• contamination on the sample surfaces. Device manufacture Manufacture of the device based on a single nanowire Individual nanowires were electrically contacted by direct focused-ion beam (FIB) platinum deposition, using an FEI dual beam Strata 235 instrument combined with a metal–organic injector to deposit

• is confirmed by the absence of impurity element lines. The position and single-component structure of the C 1s line for the nanowire sample is typical of the usual hydrocarbon contamination of ambient-stored samples. On powder samples, the same line exhibits a more complex fine structure as different

Nanoscale spatial mapping of mechanical properties through dynamic atomic force microscopy

• Zahra Abooalizadeh,
• Leszek Josef Sudak and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1332–1347, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.132

• to surface characterization has resulted in very little water or other contamination of the exposed steps, thus allowing for the measurement of the intrinsic properties of the step edges themselves. The results contained within subsequent sections of this manuscript also showed the same trend in the

• topography, environmental contamination, the Schwoebel–Ehrlich barrier, energy dissipation through viscoelastic energy losses, applied normal force, tip shape, and modulation frequency (both for CR and FMM modes). Each examination will show that the elastic modulus measured in the previous section is

• , shows that the softening of the step is present in both scan directions. Additionally, the trend observed in the lateral forces, where both the forward and reverse scan directions showed a more negative value in the peak lateral force at the uncovered step edge, suggests an absence of contamination at

Fabrication of phase masks from amorphous carbon thin films for electron-beam shaping

• Lukas Grünewald,
• Dagmar Gerthsen and
• Simon Hettler

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1290–1302, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.128

• commonly used in other phase-related techniques in the form of phase plates, e.g., Zernike phase plates in phase-plate TEM [20]. In the latter application, effects such as contamination, beam damage and charging of aC phase plates due to intense electron-beam irradiation in the back focal plane of the

• less robust compared to SixNy. No qualitative degradation of beam shape quality was observed during PM application, which suggests that no charging or contamination was present. Bessel (BBs) and vortex beams (VBs) were successfully generated in transmission electron microscopes. For BBs, we observed

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

• and drying a drop of this dispersion onto a lacey-carbon-supported Cu/Ni grid. To minimize contamination during imaging, the TEM specimens were heated in a vacuum chamber at 60 °C overnight followed by 3 seconds of oxygen plasma exposure prior to the electron microscopy analysis. Raman spectroscopy

Concurrent nanoscale surface etching and SnO₂ loading of carbon fibers for vanadium ion redox enhancement

• Jun Maruyama,
• Shohei Maruyama,
• Tomoko Fukuhara,
• Toru Nagaoka and
• Kei Hanafusa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 985–992, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.99

• processes were attained in the full cell with the TGP-CSnPc-550Air electrodes compared to that with the TGP electrodes. A stable coulomb efficiency is demonstrated by the cycling performance, indicating no influence of a potential Sn2+ contamination on the cycling performance. The finely etched surface and

Fabrication of silver nanoisland films by pulsed laser deposition for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

• Bogusław Budner,
• Mariusz Kuźma,
• Barbara Nasiłowska,
• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Malwina Liszewska and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 882–893, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.89

• physical methods include fabrication of nanostructured silver films by electron-beam evaporation [16], gas aggregation [17] and radio-frequency sputtering [18]. The advantages of certain physical methods over chemical methods include that there is no reagent contamination and that the monodispersity of

Periodic Co/Nb pseudo spin valve for cryogenic memory

• Nikolay Klenov,
• Yury Khaydukov,
• Sergey Bakurskiy,
• Roman Morari,
• Igor Soloviev,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Thomas Keller,
• Mikhail Kupriyanov,
• Anatoli Sidorenko and
• Bernhard Keimer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 833–839, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.83

• sapphire (Al2O3) substrate. Before the deposition the substrates were etched by an argon ion beam inside the chamber. The targets Nb(99.99%) and Co(99.99%) were presputtered to remove metallic oxides and contamination absorbed on the surfaces. Additionally, immediately before deposition of the next layer

Outstanding chain-extension effect and high UV resistance of polybutylene succinate containing amino-acid-modified layered double hydroxides

• Adam A. Marek,
• Vincent Verney,
• Christine Taviot-Gueho,
• Grazia Totaro,
• Laura Sisti,
• Annamaria Celli and
• Fabrice Leroux

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 684–695, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.68

• NaOH solution. When the addition of salts was finished, the reaction mixture was aged for 3.5 h at room temperature. Both the reaction and ageing processes were performed under nitrogen atmosphere to avoid contamination by carbonate. The final products were centrifuged, washed several times with

Topochemical engineering of composite hybrid fibers using layered double hydroxides and abietic acid

• Liji Sobhana,
• Lokesh Kesavan,
• Jan Gustafsson and
• Pedro Fardim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 589–605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.60

• , causing contamination or reactions with cellulosic –OH groups. AA was only connected to the HF fibers through freely available brucite layers (cations on the top plane) of LDH through hydrogen bonding between –OH groups of LDH and –COOH groups of AA. The –OH groups present in the bottom plane of LDH

Ultraviolet patterns of flowers revealed in polymer replica – caused by surface architecture

• Anna J. Schulte,
• Matthias Mail,
• Lisa A. Hahn and
• Wilhelm Barthlott

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 459–466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.45

• also be considered that the cuticle will interact with many different environmental influences, for example, wetting, contamination, and electromagnetic radiation [3][4] as well. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the wavelength range 280–380 nm is particularly crucial for plants, for example, when

Effects of post-lithography cleaning on the yield and performance of CVD graphene-based devices

• Eduardo Nery Duarte de Araujo,
• Thiago Alonso Stephan Lacerda de Sousa,
• Luciano de Moura Guimarães and
• Flavio Plentz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 349–355, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.34

• chemical contamination of graphene in lithography processes [11]. Because of this, in the present work we investigate by Raman spectroscopy and electrical transport measurements the effects of different post-photolithography cleaning methods on the yield and performance of CVD-based graphene devices

• increase of the device production using procedure P2 is accompanied by a significant contamination with PMGI during lift-off. To remove residual PMGI from the graphene devices produced by procedure P2, we attempted three different cleaning methods. The first method (C1) consisted of cleaning the devices in

A Ni(OH)₂ nanopetals network for high-performance supercapacitors synthesized by immersing Ni nanofoam in water

• Donghui Zheng,
• Man Li,
• Yongyan Li,
• Chunling Qin,
• Yichao Wang and
• Zhifeng Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 281–293, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.27

• Nowadays, environmental contamination and energy crisis require new energy storage devices. This leads to a considerable interest in the research of supercapacitors because of their higher power density, longer cycling stability and faster charge/discharge periods compared to batteries [1][2][3][4

Interaction of Te and Se interlayers with Ag or Au nanofilms in sandwich structures

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Marek Trzcinski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Wojciech Pacuski and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 238–246, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.22

• chamber molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system delivered by SVT Associates. The substrates were kept at room temperature. The background pressure was below 5 × 10−10 Torr. The purity of sublimated ingots for both Te and Se was 7N. To avoid cross-contamination during the deposition of Te or Se only one

Study of silica-based intrinsically emitting nanoparticles produced by an excimer laser

• Imène Reghioua,
• Mattia Fanetti,
• Sylvain Girard,
• Diego Di Francesca,
• Simonpietro Agnello,
• Layla Martin-Samos,
• Marco Cannas,
• Matjaz Valant,
• Melanie Raine,
• Marc Gaillardin,
• Nicolas Richard,
• Philippe Paillet,
• Aziz Boukenter,
• Youcef Ouerdane and
• Antonino Alessi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 211–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.19

• details of a part (framed in blue in panel a) of such image. Such a detailed image allows us to illustrate the presence of nanoparticles of hundreds of nanometers in diameter and some with a diameter of under 100 nm. The EDX signals of such a sample revealed the presence of iron. This contamination

Wet chemistry route for the decoration of carbon nanotubes with iron oxide nanoparticles for gas sensing

• Hussam M. Elnabawy,
• Juan Casanova-Chafer,
• Badawi Anis,
• Mostafa Fedawy,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Ahmed S. G. Khalil,
• Eduard Llobet and
• Xavier Vilanova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 105–118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.10

• respectively, which is probably due to some contamination during the fabrication process that we assume will not affect sensor performance. Figure 5a shows the typical Fe 2p XPS spectrum recorded on the studied samples. The spectrum is composed of two main structures centered at 712 and 725 eV corresponding to

Zn/F-doped tin oxide nanoparticles synthesized by laser pyrolysis: structural and optical properties

• Florian Dumitrache,
• Iuliana P. Morjan,
• Elena Dutu,
• Ion Morjan,
• Claudiu Teodor Fleaca,
• Monica Scarisoreanu,
• Alina Ilie,
• Marius Dumitru,
• Cristian Mihailescu,
• Adriana Smarandache and
• Gabriel Prodan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 9–21, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.2

• possible traces of Zn in the only fluorine-doped sample, probably due to powder collector contamination from previous experiments. The F1s spectrum (Figure 2c) consists of three peaks originating from: ZnF2 at 684.1 eV, SnF2 at 684.9 and partially fluorinated carbons (contamination from the interaction of

• the reaction chamber. This technique is mainly employed for its advantages: (a) the well-defined interaction volume where no interactions with the reactor chamber walls occur, and hence, no contamination; (b) the production of very fine particles (usually less than 50 nm); (c) the small distribution

Contact splitting in dry adhesion and friction: reducing the influence of roughness

• Jae-Kang Kim and
• Michael Varenberg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1–8, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.1

• adhesion; surfaces; tribology; Introduction Biological attachment systems based on thin-film adhesion have drawn significant interest during the last two decades because of their ability to operate on nearly any surface, their efficient control of detachment and their high resistance to contamination [1

In situ characterization of nanoscale contaminations adsorbed in air using atomic force microscopy

• Jesús S. Lacasa,
• Lisa Almonte and
• Jaime Colchero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2925–2935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.271

• model system for investigating a variety of nanoscale phenomena. In the present work we use atomic force microscopy to directly image nanoscale contamination on surfaces, and to characterize this contamination by using multidimensional spectroscopy techniques. By acquisition of spectroscopy data as a

• function of tip–sample voltage and tip–sample distance, we are able to determine the contact potential, the Hamaker constant and the effective thickness of the dielectric layer within the tip–sample system. All these properties depend strongly on the contamination within the tip–sample system. We propose

• to access the state of contamination of real surfaces under ambient conditions using advanced atomic force microscopy techniques. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; cantilever; contact potential; electrostatic forces; force spectroscopy; Hamaker constant; Kelvin probe microscopy; surface

Charged particle single nanometre manufacturing

• Philip D. Prewett,
• Cornelis W. Hagen,
• Claudia Lenk,
• Steve Lenk,
• Marcus Kaestner,
• Tzvetan Ivanov,
• Ahmad Ahmad,
• Ivo W. Rangelow,
• Xiaoqing Shi,
• Stuart A. Boden,
• Alex P. G. Robinson,
• Dongxu Yang,
• Sangeetha Hari,
• Marijke Scotuzzi and
• Ejaz Huq

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2855–2882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.266

• ] who patterned EBID lines from hydrocarbon contamination in the SEM chamber, using it as a mask to etch 8 nm wide metallic gold palladium lines into a carbon film. Silvis-Cividjian et al. [56] and van Dorp et al. [57] achieved still smaller lines (<5 nm) by EBID on a thin membrane. The development of

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

• defects introduced by tuning the irradiation time. A few milligrams of the corresponding oxidized SWCNTs were analyzed in each case before proceeding to step 2. At this stage, the samples were protected under argon gas to avoid any moisture contamination and directly analyzed by HRTEM, XPS and TGA-MS

Disorder in H⁺-irradiated HOPG: effect of impinging energy and dose on Raman D-band splitting and surface topography

• Lisandro Venosta,
• Noelia Bajales,
• Sergio Suárez and
• Paula G. Bercoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2708–2717, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.253

• them as a reference (pristine). Prior to any characterization, these pieces were carefully washed with acetone, to remove any possible contamination introduced during the cutting and handling [24]. According to the manufacturer, SPI-2 is very similar to ZYB. This grade exhibits a mosaic angle as small

• oriented to identify a possibly significant Fe contamination. Instead, we observed the presence of some other contaminants attributed to Al, coming from the collision chamber; Si, probably from the substrate where the HOPG sample was mounted and some traces of Ca, of unknown origin. Irradiation experiments

• from the irradiation chamber to the SQUID holder by using a portable vacuum chamber in order to avoid contamination during manipulation. After Raman and SQUID characterizations, atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements were performed at room temperature using a Di-Innova Microscope (Bruker, USA) in

Optimization of Mo/Cr bilayer back contacts for thin-film solar cells

• Nima Khoshsirat,
• Fawad Ali,
• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• Mojtaba Amjadipour,
• Hongxia Wang,
• Mahnaz Shafiei and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2700–2707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.252

• with Argon in order to remove any oxide layer or contamination. During the deposition, the substrates were continuously rotating with a speed of 20 rpm to ensure a homogeneous coverage all over the substrate surface. The sputtering time was determined from the deposition rate under different working

ZnO-nanostructure-based electrochemical sensor: Effect of nanostructure morphology on the sensing of heavy metal ions

• Marina Krasovska,
• Vjaceslavs Gerbreders,
• Irena Mihailova,
• Andrejs Ogurcovs,
• Eriks Sledevskis,
• Andrejs Gerbreders and
• Pavels Sarajevs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2421–2431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.227

• nanostructures are promising candidates for use in sensors, especially in electrochemical sensors and biosensors, due to their unique physical and chemical properties, as well as sensitivity and selectivity to several types of contamination, including heavy metal ions. In this work, using the hydrothermal method

• lead, mercury, cadmium and cobalt, are becoming more and more topical. Many metals form stable organic compounds that dissolve well in water and result in the migration of heavy metal ions in aquatic and terrestrial systems, thereby resulting in high levels of contamination [1][2]. Lead is one of the

• the presence of lead and other heavy ions, even in small quantities, is an important and topical task. ZnO nanostructures are promising candidates for use in such sensors. They are sensitive to various types of contamination, including almost all heavy metal ions and organic pollutants, and show very

Metal-free catalysis based on nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials: a photoelectron spectroscopy point of view

• Mattia Scardamaglia and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2015–2031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.191

• contamination with undesired elements, these methods require an UHV environment and typical surface preparation techniques should be considered. Controlled doping using plasma results in a change of the electronic properties without affecting the morphology. In particular, in the case of nitrogen doping

• site is not available for O adsorption. This mechanism was recently observed by Scardamaglia et al. with high-resolution synchrotron measurements in a fully in situ experiment [84] in which contamination was avoided. The authors functionalized single-layer graphene grown by CVD on iridium(111) using