Review: Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based nanoelectromechanical switches – materials solutions and operational conditions

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Jelena Kosmaca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Jana Andzane and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 271–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.29

Bombyx mori silk/titania/gold hybrid materials for photocatalytic water splitting: combining renewable raw materials with clean fuels

• Stefanie Krüger,
• Michael Schwarze,
• Otto Baumann,
• Christina Günter,
• Michael Bruns,
• Christian Kübel,
• Dorothée Vinga Szabó,
• Rafael Meinusch,
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 187–204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.21

• entire UV–visible range when the TiO2 is composed of 75% of anatase and 25% of rutile with identical AuNPs [26]. In an interesting new approach, Zhang et al. found that Janus particles (rather than the core–shell or randomly organized materials described so far) based on large TiO2 particles with

• diameters of ca. 440 nm and AuNPs with diameters of ca. 60 nm could split water in the visible range, even at low Au fractions of only 1.8% [27]. Finally, Seh et al. showed that TiO2/Au Janus nanoparticles have a higher photocatalytic activity than the corresponding core–shell particles [28]. All materials

Comparative study of post-growth annealing of Cu(hfac)₂, Co₂(CO)₈ and Me₂Au(acac) metal precursors deposited by FEBID

• Marcos V. Puydinger dos Santos,
• Aleksandra Szkudlarek,
• Artur Rydosz,
• Carlos Guerra-Nuñez,
• Fanny Béron,
• Kleber R. Pirota,
• Stanislav Moshkalev,
• José Alexandre Diniz and
• Ivo Utke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 91–101, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.11

• ], ferromagnetic nanostructures for magnetic logic and memory [23][24][25], as well as functional core–shell ferromagnetic nanowires with improved magnetic properties [26] have already been realised through this technique. It is worth mentioning that the superior conductivity of Cu, compared to other non-noble

Gas-sensing behaviour of ZnO/diamond nanostructures

• Marina Davydova,
• Alexandr Laposa,
• Jiri Smarhak,
• Alexander Kromka,
• Neda Neykova,
• Josef Nahlik,
• Jiri Kroutil,
• Jan Drahokoupil and
• Jan Voves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 22–29, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.4

• core–shell nanowires) were investigated by Hwang and co-workers. The gas response of ZnO–SnO2 core–shell nanowires to 10 ppm NO2 at 200 °C and 300 °C were 66.3 and 12.4, respectively, which is ca. 33- and ca. 8.9-times higher than the respective values of 2.0 and 1.4 for ZnO nanowires [26]. Presently

CdSe nanorod/TiO₂ nanoparticle heterojunctions with enhanced solar- and visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Fakher Laatar,
• Hatem Moussa,
• Halima Alem,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Ghouti Medjahdi,
• Hatem Ezzaouia and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2741–2752, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.273

• to develop TiO2-based solar cells. Core/shell TiO2/CdSe NRs were also prepared by growing CdSe quantum dots onto TiO2 NRs at high temperature [42]. In this paper, we report an investigation on the synthesis of CdSe-NR-sensitized TiO2 nanoparticles and on the use of these materials for the degradation

Fabrication of CeO₂–MO_x (M = Cu, Co, Ni) composite yolk–shell nanospheres with enhanced catalytic properties for CO oxidation

• Ling Liu,
• Jingjing Shi,
• Hongxia Cao,
• Ruiyu Wang and
• Ziwu Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2425–2437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.241

• heat treatment, and the resultant sample exhibited enhanced catalytic activity in the oxidation of CO [25]. Otherwise, as a special composite structure, heterogeneous core@shell structures are believed to integrate the function of individual nanocrystals and induce the unique synergetic catalytic

• activities. For instance, ZnCo2O4@CeO2 core@shell spheres [14] and Co3O4@CeO2 core@shell cubes [26] with tunable CeO2 shell thickness were prepared by a facile self-assembly method and exhibited promising performance in the catalytic oxidation of CO. Consequently, a suitable choice of templates or cerium

Evaluating the toxicity of TiO₂-based nanoparticles to Chinese hamster ovary cells and Escherichia coli: a complementary experimental and computational approach

• Alicja Mikolajczyk,
• Natalia Sizochenko,
• Ewa Mulkiewicz,
• Anna Malankowska,
• Michal Nischk,
• Przemyslaw Jurczak,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Grzegorz Nowaczyk,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska,
• Jerzy Leszczynski,
• Agnieszka Gajewicz and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2171–2180, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.216

• Toxicity evaluation Three types of TiO2-based NPs were synthetized: (1) monometallic (Au, Pd) clusters, (2) core–shell particles and (3) alloy bimetallic clusters (Au/Pd). The cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity of TiO2 modified with palladium and/or gold NPs is presented in Table 1. Inhibition of

• NPs (Table 1). The correlation between the amount of metal precursor and the structure of nanoparticles is presented in Figure 1. For lower concentrations of Au precursor (Pd > Au), core–shell types of nanoparticles (Aucore/Pdshell) were formed more likely, whereas the increasing concentration of Au

• for all types of NPs, while third-order polynomials were overfitted (R2 > 0.9 for five data points) for alloys and core–shell NPs. With regard to the results obtained, we assumed that the best equations included in the final nano-QSAR model should be the third-order correlation for cytotoxicity and

Synthesis and characterization of noble metal–titania core–shell nanostructures with tunable shell thickness

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Dariusz Zasada and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2083–2093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.208

• , Kaliskiego 2 Str. 00-908 Warsaw, Poland 10.3762/bjnano.8.208 Abstract Core–shell nanostructures have found applications in many fields, including surface enhanced spectroscopy, catalysis and solar cells. Titania-coated noble metal nanoparticles, which combine the surface plasmon resonance properties of the

• characterization of metal–metal oxide core–shell nanostructures. Keywords: Ag@TiO2; Au@TiO2; core–shell nanostructures; titania coating; titanium dioxide; tunable resistive pulse sensing; Introduction In recent years, core–shell nanostructures (CSNs) have become one of the most widely studied hybrid structures

• observed formation of the multi-core@shell particles, which are also very interesting due to the combined plasmonic effect of metallic cores. In the case of AgNPs, the synthesized metal NPs were stabilized with citrate ions either during the synthesis or after, in order to prevent aggregation in the

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• approach is to dilute the “as prepared” core/shell dispersion. The amount of solids available per unit volume decreases, resulting in thinner films when the solution is casted. Four different dilutions (1:2, 1:4, 1:8 and 1:16) were used for casting samples in the present study, and the coating was

• 768642, abbreviated as PPSS), a high-conductivity grade polymer, in 1.0 wt % solution in water was used as received. The core/shell nanoplatelets were prepared by slowly adding the nanoclay dispersion to a stirred polymer solution with a 33:67 (clay/polymer) weight ratio, which was further stirred for

• . The core/shell nanoplatelet dispersions were mixed with DI-H2O in 1:2, 1:4, 1:8 and 1:16 dilutions and casted. This reduces the amount of core/shell nanoplatelets per casting and results in thinner films. Three different substrates were used: silicon wafers (thickness measurements), indium tin oxide

Advances and challenges in the field of plasma polymer nanoparticles

• Andrei Choukourov,
• Pavel Pleskunov,
• Daniil Nikitin,
• Valerii Titov,
• Artem Shelemin,
• Mykhailo Vaidulych,
• Anna Kuzminova,
• Pavel Solař,
• Jan Hanuš,
• Jaroslav Kousal,
• Ondřej Kylián,
• Danka Slavínská and
• Hynek Biederman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2002–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.200

• plasma polymerization of volatile monomers or via radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering of conventional polymers. The formation of hydrocarbon, fluorocarbon, silicon- and nitrogen-containing plasma polymer nanoparticles as well as core@shell nanoparticles based on plasma polymers is discussed with a

• , interaction with cells, and in other applications. Core@shell nanoparticles The versatility of GAS may be further extended if two different processes are combined in one experimental run. One can take advantage of magnetron sputtering of metals and plasma polymerization of organic precursors to create

• heterogeneous NPs in which metallic inclusions are enveloped by layers of plasma polymer (core@shell NPs). For example, the process can be performed in the GAS by RF magnetron sputtering of metal in argon with the addition of an organic precursor (Figure 12a) or metal NPs can be pre-formed in the GAS by DC

Fabrication of carbon nanospheres by the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile–poly(methyl methacrylate) core–shell composite nanoparticles

• Dafu Wei,
• Youwei Zhang and
• Jinping Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1897–1908, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.190

• , College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China 10.3762/bjnano.8.190 Abstract Carbon nanospheres with a high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area were fabricated via the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile–poly(methyl methacrylate) (PAN–PMMA) core–shell

• . In this study, PAN-based carbon nanopsheres were fabricated from the PAN–PMMA core–shell nanoparticles precursor. Specifically, PAN–PMMA core–shell latexes at high concentration and low surfactant content were first synthesized via a two-stage AIBN-initiated semicontinuous emulsion polymerization

• 0.8 are displayed as a core–shell structure composed of dark inner cores with irregular contours and light outer layers with smooth contours (Figure 4b). The presence of smooth outer contours indicates the successful growth of the outer PMMA layer on the surface of PAN seed particles. The distinct

Synthesis and functionalization of NaGdF₄:Yb,Er@NaGdF₄ core–shell nanoparticles for possible application as multimodal contrast agents

• Dovile Baziulyte-Paulaviciene,
• Vitalijus Karabanovas,
• Marius Stasys,
• Greta Jarockyte,
• Vilius Poderys,
• Simas Sakirzanovas and
• Ricardas Rotomskis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1815–1824, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.183

• ultrasmall core and core–shell UCNPs were synthesized via a thermal decomposition method. Furthermore, it was shown that the epitaxial growth of a NaGdF4 optical inert layer covering the NaGdF4:Yb,Er core effectively minimizes surface quenching due to the spatial isolation of the core from the surroundings

• . The mean diameter of the synthesized core and core–shell nanoparticles was ≈8 and ≈16 nm, respectively. Hydrophobic UCNPs were converted into hydrophilic ones using a nonionic surfactant Tween 80. The successful coating of the UCNPs by Tween 80 has been confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR

• ) spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) spectra and magnetic resonance (MR) T1 relaxation measurements were used to characterize the size, crystal structure, optical and magnetic properties of the core and core–shell nanoparticles. Moreover

Near-infrared-responsive, superparamagnetic Au@Co nanochains

• Varadee Vittur,
• Arati G. Kolhatkar,
• Shreya Shah,
• Irene Rusakova,
• Dmitri Litvinov and
• T. Randall Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1680–1687, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.168

• magnetic properties and their greater stability toward oxidation compared to Ni- and Fe-based magnetic nanoparticles [23]. Notably, there have been a handful of studies on magneto-optical nanostructures consisting of cobalt coated with gold. Bao and co-workers synthesized magnetic Co–Au core–shell

Two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalytic energy generation and environmental remediation applications

• Suneel Kumar,
• Ashish Kumar,
• Ashish Bahuguna,
• Vipul Sharma and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1571–1600, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.159

Calcium fluoride based multifunctional nanoparticles for multimodal imaging

• Marion Straßer,
• Joachim H. X. Schrauth,
• Sofia Dembski,
• Daniel Haddad,
• Bernd Ahrens,
• Stefan Schweizer,
• Bastian Christ,
• Alevtina Cubukova,
• Marco Metzger,
• Heike Walles,
• Peter M. Jakob and
• Gerhard Sextl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1484–1493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.148

• imaging and diagnosis [2]. One possibility is the synthesis of core/shell-structured NPs. Core and shell materials can be matched individually to specific detection methods. For example, the coating of a magnetic core with silicates or polymer shells doped with organic fluorophores or quantum dots (QDs

• ) allows for the detection of NPs by MRI and PL [4]. Several successive shells can be designed of different inorganic materials. In this context, the following particle systems may be mentioned Gd2O(CO3)2·H2O/SiO2/Au, Fe3O4/C/Ag and Fe3O4/SiO2/Y2O3:(Yb3+,Er3+) core/shell NPs [5][6][7]. Another possibility

Development of polycationic amphiphilic cyclodextrin nanoparticles for anticancer drug delivery

• Gamze Varan,
• Juan M. Benito,
• Carmen Ortiz Mellet and
• Erem Bilensoy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1457–1468, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.145

• agents for gene delivery in the form of nanoplexes. In this study, the potential of polycationic, amphiphilic cyclodextrin nanoparticles were evaluated in comparison to non-ionic amphiphilic cyclodextrins and core–shell type cyclodextrin nanoparticles for paclitaxel delivery to breast tumors. Pre

• compare the potential of polycationic amphiphilic CD nanoparticles as delivery systems for effective and safe delivery of PCX in comparison to its non-ionic or core–shell analogues. For this reason, two different cyclodextrin derivatives were used in this context, namely the non-ionic 6OCaproβCD (MW: 1813

• nanoparticles, and acetone > methanol > ethanol for PC βCDC6 nanoparticles. It is worth noting that ethanol also gave the most monodisperse particles with an acceptable polydispersity index (<0.2) (Table 1). As expected, the core–shell nanoparticles CS-6OCaproβCD had the largest size due to the chitosan coating

Cationic PEGylated polycaprolactone nanoparticles carrying post-operation docetaxel for glioma treatment

• Cem Varan and
• Erem Bilensoy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1446–1456, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.144

• treat brain tumors and prevent tumor recurrence. The aim of this study was to develop core–shell polymeric nanoparticles with positive charge by employing a chitosan coating. Additionally, an implantable formulation for the chemotherapeutic nanoparticles was developed as a bioadhesive film to be applied

• than 100 nm and a net positive surface charge to facilitate cellular internalization of drug-loaded nanoparticles. Hydroxypropyl cellulose films were prepared to incorporate these nanoparticle dispersions to complete the implantable drug delivery system. Results: The diameter of core–shell

• suggested to result in a more effective brain tumor treatment when compared to chemotherapeutics administered as an intravenous bolus infusion. Keywords: bioadhesive film; cationic nanoparticle; core–shell nanoparticle; docetaxel; glioma; Introduction A brain tumor is known as an abnormal growth of

Synthesis of [Fe(L_eq)(L_ax)]_n coordination polymer nanoparticles using blockcopolymer micelles

• Christoph Göbel,
• Ottokar Klimm,
• Florian Puchtler,
• Sabine Rosenfeldt,
• Stephan Förster and
• Birgit Weber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1318–1327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.133

• (bpey)]n@BCP, five cycles) is given as typical representative of all samples. A detailed characterisation of all samples with TEM is given in Supporting Information File 1, Table S3. The TEM picture of 3e in Figure 2a clearly reveals the formation of spherical nanoparticles with a core–shell nature. The

• with a Mythen 1K detector. Magnetic susceptibility data for the coordination polymers [FeLeq(bpea)]n (1) and [FeLeq(bpey)]n (3), which undergo spin crossover. Characterisation of CP–BCP composite micelles. a) TEM picture of 3e ([FeLeq(bpey)]n@BCP, five cycles) illustrating the core–shell nature of the

Fabrication of hierarchically porous TiO₂ nanofibers by microemulsion electrospinning and their application as anode material for lithium-ion batteries

• Jin Zhang,
• Yibing Cai,
• Xuebin Hou,
• Xiaofei Song,
• Pengfei Lv,
• Huimin Zhou and
• Qufu Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1297–1306, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.131

• widely used in fabricating various nanostructures. The structure of nanofibers can be conveniently adjusted by changing the experimental parameters, the composition of the precursor solution and the structure of the spinneret [23][24][25]. Core–shell nanofibers are normally prepared by coaxial

• electrospinning. However, coaxial electrospinning limits the further development of core–shell nanofibers because of its complicated spinneret, the limited number of suitable fluids and the unstable structure of the fibers. Recently the method of ME-ES has been developed to fabricate hierarchical nanofibers

Bright fluorescent silica-nanoparticle probes for high-resolution STED and confocal microscopy

• Isabella Tavernaro,
• Christian Cavelius,
• Henrike Peuschel and
• Annette Kraegeloh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1283–1296, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.130

• fluorescence silica nanoparticles [36][37][38]. One of the most outstanding methods was developed by Wiesner et al., who designed new small fluorescent core–shell silica nanoparticles [39][40][41]. These so called “Cornell dots” (C-dots) have recently been approved as an "investigational new drug" (IND) by the

• nanoparticles (FD25_Atto647N): The synthesis of 25 nm large Atto647N dyed silica particles was realised analogous to the procedure described above. Only the temperature of the heating process was changed to 60 °C. Synthesis of fluorescent silica core–shell particles using multiple regrowth steps (FD45; FD60 and

Characterization of ferrite nanoparticles for preparation of biocomposites

• Urszula Klekotka,
• Magdalena Rogowska,
• Dariusz Satuła and
• Beata Kalska-Szostko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1257–1265, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.127

• papers, where core–shell ferrite nanoparticles were tested in similar manner [15][16]. Results and Discussion Characterization of ferrite nanoparticles Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) Each type of ferrite nanoparticle studied was imaged by TEM. The resulting pictures are collected in Figure 1. The

Evaluation of quantum dot conjugated antibodies for immunofluorescent labelling of cellular targets

• Jennifer E. Francis,
• David Mason and
• Raphaël Lévy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1238–1249, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.125

• equipment. We would also like to thank Dr Sumaira Ashraf for acquiring the TEM images of core/shell Qdot 625, Dr Mark Wilkinson for performing SEC-HPLC of Qdot 625-Ab, and Dr James Boyd for advice on FCS measurements of Qdot 625-Ab; all from University of Liverpool. The epifluorescence microscope used in

Synthesis of graphene–transition metal oxide hybrid nanoparticles and their application in various fields

• Arpita Jana,
• Elke Scheer and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 688–714, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.74

• @Fe2O3 core–shell NP–graphene hybrids which show good reversible lithium storage [160]. Another core–shell hollow nanomaterial, a γ-Fe2O3@graphene hybrid, was prepared through the Kirkendall process by Hu et al. and showed high performance as an anode material for LIBs [161]. The improved performance of

• the oxygen functional group of GO, leading to the formation of Zn–O–C bonds. During the reaction, sections of graphene detach from the GO through a layer-by-layer chemical peel-off process (chemical exfoliation) and partially encircle the ZnO NPs. The quasi-core–shell structure of the hybrid was

Gas sensing properties of MWCNT layers electrochemically decorated with Au and Pd nanoparticles

• Elena Dilonardo,
• Michele Penza,
• Marco Alvisi,
• Riccardo Rossi,
• Gennaro Cassano,
• Cinzia Di Franco,
• Francesco Palmisano,
• Luisa Torsi and
• Nicola Cioffi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 592–603, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.64

• detection in environmental monitoring. TEM images of electrochemically synthesized core–shell A) Au NPs and B) Pd NPs. Schematic view of the two-pole chemiresistor based on a MWCNT network functionalized with metal NPs. XPS core level spectrum of A) Au 4f and B) Pd 3d on functionalized MWCNTs. SEM images of

Modeling of the growth of GaAs–AlGaAs core–shell nanowires

• Qian Zhang,
• Peter W. Voorhees and
• Stephen H. Davis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 506–513, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.54

• 60208-3030, USA 10.3762/bjnano.8.54 Abstract Heterostructured GaAs–AlGaAs core–shell nanowires with have attracted much attention because of their significant advantages and great potential for creating high performance nanophotonics and nanoelectronics. The spontaneous formation of Al-rich stripes

• along certain crystallographic directions and quantum dots near the apexes of the shell are observed in AlGaAs shells. Controlling the formation of these core–shell heterostructures remains challenging. A two-dimensional model valid on the wire cross section, that accounts for capillarity in the faceted

• the attachment rate of Al atoms is smaller there. Keywords: core–shell nanowires; heterostructures; mechanisms; quantum dots; Findings Core–shell nanowires with heterostructures hold great promise in photonic and electronic applications because of their high sensitivity to electronic and magnetic