Hydrophilic silver nanoparticles with tunable optical properties: application for the detection of heavy metals in water

• Paolo Prosposito,
• Federico Mochi,
• Erica Ciotta,
• Mauro Casalboni,
• Fabio De Matteis,
• Iole Venditti,
• Laura Fontana,
• Giovanna Testa and
• Ilaria Fratoddi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1654–1661, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.157

• AgNPs show good response to nickel (II) and presented good sensibility properties for the detection of low amount of ions in water in the working range of 1.0–0.1 ppm. Keywords: heavy metal sensor; nickel (II); optical materials; optical sensors; silver nanoparticles; Introduction Nanomaterials have

• concentration of 1 ppm at room temperature. Our system showed sensibility mainly to nickel (II) ions. For this type of ion, we tested the sensitivity as a function of the ion concentration in the range 1.0–0.1 ppm and we estimated a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.3 ppm. Results and Discussion Silver nanoparticle

• performed absorption measurements as a function of concentration of nickel ions. Figure 7a shows the optical absorption spectrum of the AgNP-3MPS solution with nickel for different ion concentrations in the range 1.0–0.1 ppm. Figure 7b presents the maximum wavelength of the absorption peak as a function of

Scanning probe microscopy studies on the adsorption of selected molecular dyes on titania

• Jakub S. Prauzner-Bechcicki,
• Lukasz Zajac,
• Piotr Olszowski,
• Res Jöhr,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Bartosz Such,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Marek Szymonski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1642–1653, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.156

• adsorption of metal-free porphyrins on the TiO2(110)-(1 × 1) surface, Wang et al. [53] investigated the metalation process of 2H-TPP with nickel atoms. The authors showed that it is possible to synthesize in situ NiTPP molecules from vapour-deposited Ni atoms and 2H-TPP molecules. The reaction to form NiTPP

Development of adsorptive membranes by confinement of activated biochar into electrospun nanofibers

• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Mitra Naghdi,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• Emile Knystautas,
• Mausam Verma,
• Rao. Y. Surampalli and
• Jose. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1556–1563, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.149

• affinity towards metallic ions, such as copper and lead [13]. In a similar study, Aliabadi et al. used PEO/Chitosan for NFM fabrication to remove nickel, cadmium, lead and copper from aqueous solutions and reported no considerable change in the adsorption capacity after five cycles [14]. Also, there are

Voltammetric determination of polyphenolic content in pomegranate juice using a poly(gallic acid)/multiwalled carbon nanotube modified electrode

• Refat Abdel-Hamid and
• Emad F. Newair

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1104–1112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.103

• with thionine and nickel hexacyanoferrate [13]. A polyethyleneimine-functionalized graphene oxide modified glassy carbon electrode sensor was developed for sensitive detection of gallic acid [14]. A polyepinephrine modified glassy carbon electrode electrochemical sensor was developed for adsorptive

Customized MFM probes with high lateral resolution

• Óscar Iglesias-Freire,
• Miriam Jaafar,
• Eider Berganza and
• Agustina Asenjo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1068–1074, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.100

• influence exerted on an array of single-domain nickel nanowires embedded in an Al2O3 membrane was used to calibrate the stray field of the MFM tip– we can estimate the value of the stray field emerging from the custom-coated tips and compare it to the stray field of commercial tips. The axial field

Synthesis of cobalt nanowires in aqueous solution under an external magnetic field

• Xiaoyu Li,
• Lijuan Sun,
• Hu Wang,
• Kenan Xie,
• Qin Long,
• Xuefei Lai and
• Li Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 990–994, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.91

• preparing cobalt nanowires in aqueous solution up to now [13]. In our previous studies, we have successfully prepared nickel and nickel/copper nanowires [14][15][16], and cobalt nanowires were synthesized using NaBH4 as initiator without surfactant in ethylene glycol solution with an external magnetic field

Thickness dependence of the triplet spin-valve effect in superconductor–ferromagnet–ferromagnet heterostructures

• Daniel Lenk,
• Vladimir I. Zdravkov,
• Jan-Michael Kehrle,
• Günter Obermeier,
• Aladin Ullrich,
• Roman Morari,
• Hans-Albrecht Krug von Nidda,
• Claus Müller,
• Mikhail Yu. Kupriyanov,
• Anatolie S. Sidorenko,
• Siegfried Horn,
• Rafael G. Deminov,
• Lenar R. Tagirov and
• Reinhard Tidecks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 957–969, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.88

• layers according to Equation 1. The copper–nickel signal is enlarged by a factor of 5 to improve visibility. The pictograms indicate the different magnetic configurations of the system (PS: positive (H > 0) saturated; NS: negative (H < 0) saturated; APA: antiparallel alignment of the magnetic moments of

Investigating organic multilayers by spectroscopic ellipsometry: specific and non-specific interactions of polyhistidine with NTA self-assembled monolayers

• Ilaria Solano,
• Pietro Parisse,
• Ornella Cavalleri,
• Federico Gramazio,
• Loredana Casalis and
• Maurizio Canepa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 544–553, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.48

• (NTA) group, after loading with nickel ions (Ni(II)), provide platforms able to specifically bind his-tag proteins [13][14][15][16][17][18] and enzymes that retain their activity upon immobilization [19][20][21]. The affinity between the adsorbent surface and the protein can be modulated, e.g., by

Case studies on the formation of chalcogenide self-assembled monolayers on surfaces and dissociative processes

• Yongfeng Tong,
• Tingming Jiang,
• Azzedine Bendounan,
• Makri Nimbegondi Kotresh Harish,
• Angelo Giglia,
• Stefan Kubsky,
• Fausto Sirotti,
• Luca Pasquali,
• Srinivasan Sampath and
• Vladimir A. Esaulov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 263–277, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.24

• . We discuss some recent studies based on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy that shed light on these aspects for a series of such organic molecules. Keywords: copper; nickel; palladium; reactivity; selenol; selenophene; self-assembly; thiol; thiophene; Introduction In recent years research related to

• chalcogenide self-assembled monolayers on surfaces and dissociative processes. Selenide synthesis; XPS spectra for selenium on nickel and tables of Se 3d peak positions; LEED images for Se on Ni(111); X-ray damage verification for selenophene. Acknowledgements T. Jiang and Y. Tong thank the Chinese

Synthesis and applications of carbon nanomaterials for energy generation and storage

• Marco Notarianni,
• Jinzhang Liu,
• Kristy Vernon and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 149–196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.17

• graphite sample containing 1% nickel and cobalt catalyst particles [51]. In the resulting vapor, the metal aggregates into carbon-saturated catalyst nanoparticles, which instigate the growth of CNTs [48]. These catalyst particles are necessary to produce SWNTs rather than MWNTs [52]. The relative amount of

• types, as well as the operating temperature [54]. The production of MWNTs typically involves ethylene or acetylene feedstock with an iron, nickel or cobalt catalyst and operating temperatures of 550–750 °C. SWNTs are produced by using methane or ethane feedstock, similar catalysts, and operating

Kelvin probe force microscopy for local characterisation of active nanoelectronic devices

• Tino Wagner,
• Hannes Beyer,
• Patrick Reissner,
• Philipp Mensch,
• Heike Riel,
• Bernd Gotsmann and
• Andreas Stemmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2193–2206, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.225

• dopant profiling [26]. In Figure 4, we show experimental data of modulation indices and , calculated from the ωm and 2ωm sidebands, respectively, as a function of Udc for different electrostatic modulation amplitudes, Uac. During this experiment, the tip was positioned above a nickel electrode with

• nickel (Ni) contacts (height ≈ 120 nm), obtained at a bias current of 1.4 μA under ambient conditions using a commercial AFM (Cypher, Asylum Research). The steep edges at the electrodes necessitated AM topography feedback. Oftentimes the contact resistances between nanowire and metal contacts are uneven

Self-assembly mechanism of Ni nanowires prepared with an external magnetic field

• Xiaoyu Li,
• Hu Wang,
• Kenan Xie,
• Qin Long,
• Xuefei Lai and
• Li Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2123–2128, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.217

• Xiaoyu Li Hu Wang Kenan Xie Qin Long Xuefei Lai Li Liao School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China 10.3762/bjnano.6.217 Abstract Nickel nanowires with a mean diameter of about 95 nm and lengths of up to 26 μm were prepared by a chemical reduction method in

• between the nickel particles. The self-assembly phenomenon occurs only when nickel particles grow to a size of about 60 nm in the reaction system. This critical size, which is proposed for the first time, is very important to comprehend the self-assembly mechanism of Ni nanowires prepared with an external

• as preparing and removing the templates are required for this method. Recently, a self-assembly method employing a magnetic field to prepare ferromagnetic nanowires has been extensively studied because of its simplicity and effectiveness. For example, Wang et al. [13][14] synthesized nickel and

Metal hydrides: an innovative and challenging conversion reaction anode for lithium-ion batteries

• Luc Aymard,
• Yassine Oumellal and
• Jean-Pierre Bonnet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1821–1839, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.186

• patent [44][45]. A charge–discharge efficiency of 93.9% for the conversion reaction with MgH2 is reported by the grinding addition of 3 atom % of a nickel catalyst (particle size 20 nm) in the hydride MCMB carbon mixture. In this last case the irreversible loss can be drastically reduced to 7% for a

Scalable, high performance, enzymatic cathodes based on nanoimprint lithography

• Dmitry Pankratov,
• Richard Sundberg,
• Javier Sotres,
• Dmitry B. Suyatin,
• Ivan Maximov,
• Sergey Shleev and
• Lars Montelius

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1377–1384, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.142

• characterisation Fabrication of imprinted substrates The nanostructured electrodes were fabricated by a thermal NIL process using a nickel stamp purchased from NIL Technologies ApS (Kongens Lyngby, Denmark). The NIL stamp, produced by nickel electroplating, had an array of 100 nm features defined by UV

• thermoplastic polymer suitable for thermal imprint with nickel stamps, but its exact composition has not been revealed by the manufacturer. In the current work, the polymer sheet was used to make the nanostructured electrodes with the active Au surface, thus the composition of the nanostructured polymer film

The Kirkendall effect and nanoscience: hollow nanospheres and nanotubes

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Ryusuke Nakamura and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1348–1361, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.139

• hollowing process previously described were found to vary according to the selected metal and the reactive atmosphere [25][27][28][43]. For example, when oxidizing nickel nanospheres under ambient atmosphere, Nakamura et al. found that the shape of the resulting nickel oxide hollow nanoparticles was

• their early report, Nakamura et al. concluded that the formation of an off-centered, single void during oxidation of nickel is related to the intrinsic properties of nickel itself [32]. They came to such a conclusion by comparing the ratio between the diffusion coefficient of Ni in NiO and the self

• formation of a hollow Cu2O nanoparticle with a uniform shell thickness. The asymmetrical conversion mechanism identified when oxidizing spherical nickel nanoparticles was recently encountered by Railsback et al. who have shown that such an effect becomes more or less pronounced according to the size of the

Preparation of Ni/Cu composite nanowires

• Hu Wang,
• Xiaoyu Li,
• Ming Li,
• Kenan Xie and
• Li Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1268–1271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.130

• nickel nanowires were prepared through chemical reduction in solution under a magnetic field. Secondly, copper was reduced on the surface of the nickel nanowires, during which Ni/Cu composite nanowires with an average length of 80 µm and diameter of about 200 nm were synthesized. The products were

• characterized by XRD, SEM and TEM. The method has notable advantages: It is template-free, inexpensive, easy-to-operate, and it only needs a short reaction time, which makes it suitable for large-scale preparation. Keywords: copper nanoparticles; nickel nanowires; Ni/Cu composite nanowires; Introduction In

• recent years, the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to light hydrocarbons has been recognized as one of the most effective and economical ways to fix and utilize a large amount of anthropogenic CO2 [1][2][3]. Nickel and copper, which are extensively applied in industry, are efficient hydrogenation catalysts

High sensitivity and high resolution element 3D analysis by a combined SIMS–SPM instrument

• Yves Fleming and
• Tom Wirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1091–1099, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.110

• spectrometry (SIMS) data was combined with topographical data from the scanning probe microscopy (SPM) module for five test structures in order to obtain accurate chemical 3D maps: a polystyrene/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PS/PVP) polymer blend, a nickel-based super-alloy, a titanium carbonitride-based cermet, a

• intensity is slightly increased at the position where a dip is present on the PVP dome, which is most likely due to variations of the sputtering yield with the local angle of incidence. Nickel-based super-alloy Differential sputtering can also be observed when analysing nickel-based super-alloys, which are

• reconstruction. Artefacts related to inhomogeneous secondary ion extraction efficiencies due to local field distortions caused by topography with high aspect ratios are also revealed by the combined SIMS–AFM approach. This is nicely illustrated from the analysis of a nickel-based super-alloy. Thus, a fraction of

From lithium to sodium: cell chemistry of room temperature sodium–air and sodium–sulfur batteries

• Philipp Adelhelm,
• Pascal Hartmann,
• Conrad L. Bender,
• Martin Busche,
• Christine Eufinger and
• Juergen Janek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1016–1055, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.105

Mapping of elasticity and damping in an α + β titanium alloy through atomic force acoustic microscopy

• M. Kalyan Phani,
• Anish Kumar,
• T. Jayakumar,
• Walter Arnold and
• Konrad Samwer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 767–776, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.79

• micrometer resolution. An improved UAFM technique was used for mapping the resonance frequency and the quality factor, Q, in carbon reinforced plastics composites [7]. In recent years, AFAM has been extensively used to determine elastic stiffness or damping properties in nano-crystalline nickel [2], PMMA

• films [8], NiMnGa films [9], Arabidopsis plant [10], polystyrene–propylene blends [11], nickel base alloys [12][13], ferritic steels [13], and metallic glasses [14]. Besides contact-resonance based methods, multi-frequency AFM techniques have also been used for measurement of elastic and damping

Filling of carbon nanotubes and nanofibres

• Reece D. Gately and
• Marc in het Panhuis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 508–516, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.53

• gold electrodes [72]. This was shown to not only decorate the external surface, but also to fill some MWCNTs with a gold nanowire. Ordered, open MWCNTs produced from the AAO template method have also undergone an electrochemical filling process with nickel–iron alloys [73]. It was shown that this

• technique could be used to control the nickel/iron ratio and the amount of filling. Electrochemical methods have also been used to fill TCNSs with water [74] and can take advantage of the presence of oxygen within TCNSs applied as an electrode for Li–O2 rechargeable batteries [75]. Filling through

• within the core of a filled MWCNT. This was achieved by first filling a MWCNT with iron, cobalt, nickel, or an iron–cobalt alloy using capillary action. Following this step, the sample was placed inside a transmission electron microscope (with the sample stage temperature set at 600 °C) and subjected to

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of graphitic carbon nanomaterials doped with heteroatoms

• Toma Susi,
• Thomas Pichler and
• Paola Ayala

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 177–192, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.17

• C 1s spectra of N-graphene freshly prepared on nickel, intercalated by gold, and treated by post-annealing. Note the large shifts caused by interaction with the substrate in the non-intercalated spectrum. The N 1s spectra shown in (b) have been background-subtracted. In the post-annealed sample, a

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

• . To reduce the noble-metal loading of a fuel cell, platinum alloy catalysts such as PtNi and PtCo may be used. However, the stability of these Pt alloy catalysts is questionable partially because, under fuel cell operating conditions, transition metals such as nickel and cobalt are expected to form

Interaction of dermatologically relevant nanoparticles with skin cells and skin

• Annika Vogt,
• Fiorenza Rancan,
• Sebastian Ahlberg,
• Berouz Nazemi,
• Chun Sik Choe,
• Maxim E. Darvin,
• Sabrina Hadam,
• Ulrike Blume-Peytavi,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Matthias Epple,
• Christina Graf,
• Eckart Rühl,
• Martina C. Meinke and
• Jürgen Lademann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2363–2373, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.245

• DNA damage and apoptosis were detected in human skin epidermal cells after exposure to nickel nanoparticles [42]. Phototoxicity of zinc oxide nanoparticles induced the generation of oxidative DNA damage during UVA and visible light irradiation in keratinocytes [43]. Oxidative stress and skin cell

Characterization of 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid Langmuir–Blodgett monolayers and their use in metal–insulator–metal tunnel devices

• Saumya Sharma,
• Mohamad Khawaja,
• Manoj K. Ram,
• D. Yogi Goswami and
• Elias Stefanakos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2240–2247, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.233

• , horizontal deposition) techniques were used to deposit the PDA film on various substrates (glass, quartz, silicon, and nickel-coated film on glass). The electrochemical, electrical and optical properties of the LB and LS PDA films were studied using cyclic voltammetry, current–voltage characteristics (I–V

• ), and UV–vis and FTIR spectroscopies. Atomic force microscopy measurements were performed in order to analyze the surface morphology and roughness of the films. A MIM tunnel diode was fabricated using a PDA monolayer assembly as the insulating barrier, which was sandwiched between two nickel layers. The

• , indium tin oxide (ITO) glass, quartz and nickel substrates for optical spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and electrical measurements [12][13][14][15]. The optical and electrochemical properties of the films were investigated using FTIR and cyclic voltammetric studies, respectively. The electrochemical

Carbon nano-onions (multi-layer fullerenes): chemistry and applications

• Juergen Bartelmess and
• Silvia Giordani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1980–1998, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.207

• , the same group decorated the surface of CNO with Ni(OH)2 or NiO as pseudocapacitive redox material and showed that these composites can be promising materials for the development of supercapacitors [61]. In order to achieve this, the CNO surface was modified with nickel particles, which were

• synthesized in situ from nickel nitrate hexahydrate and ammoniumhydroxide in ethanol in the presence of (4-dimethylamino)pyridine (4-DMAP) as modifier in a one-pot multi-step reaction. Calcination of the CNO/4-DMAP/Ni(OH)2 composite led to the CNO/4-DMAP/NiO composite material. The electrochemical properties

• group of H. Y. Yang [62]. The composite was prepared from KMnO4 and CNOs in different weight ratios in deionized water by heating in an autoclave. The formed CNO–MnO2 composite was then implemented in an asymmetric pseudocapacitor with the CNO–MnO2 composite as working electrode and nickel foam as