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

• thickness and morphology of the devices [32][35]. Spin-coating is one of the most widely used techniques for active layer deposition that provides a small active area film with a low root-mean-squared roughness of about 1–3 nm [36]. It has been proved that, with the incorporation of a third component in the

• ) AFM images of the OPVs with different concentrations of FeS2 recorded in the noncontact mode. The roughness of the OPV surface is increased gradually as the FeS2 concentration increases (Table 1 and Figure 7), such that traps for the charge carriers could occur and the leakage current could increase

• active layer thickness was measured by AFM (Easyscan2 from Nanosurf) in contact mode employing cantilever tips with the aluminum reflective coating (ContAl-G) from BudgetSensors. The AFM roughness images were acquired in dynamic force mode (using PPP-NCLAu from NanoSensors), because it shows better

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

• water layers depends on many factors including the relative humidity, surface roughness, hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity, meniscus formation (as described later) and also air pressure and temperature [2]. In the case of freshly cleaved or dried surfaces the amount of adsorbed water also relates to the

Nanostructured and oriented metal–organic framework films enabling extreme surface wetting properties

• Andre Mähringer,
• Julian M. Rotter and
• Dana D. Medina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1994–2003, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.196

• activated MOF, roughness (RMS): 37 nm). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs reveal densely packed and randomly oriented MOF crystallites throughout the sample (see Figure S3.2, Supporting Information File 1). For the contact angle (CA) measurements at the solid/air interface we chose

• ). Superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic MOF-based surfaces Following Wenzels’ equation [70], an increased surface roughness results in a decreased WCA and in an enhanced OCA. To study the impact of roughness on the wetting properties of the M-CAT-1 films, we performed WCA and underwater OCA measurements

• , pressed pellet samples consisting of randomly distributed crystallites on the surface exhibit greater WCAs than oriented films, although the latter shows a slightly increased surface roughness (see Figures S5.2, S5.3, S3.4, S3.5, Supporting Information File 1). We attribute this difference to the

Porous silver-coated pNIPAM-co-AAc hydrogel nanocapsules

• William W. Bryan,
• Riddhiman Medhi,
• Maria D. Marquez,
• Supparesk Rittikulsittichai,
• Michael Tran and
• T. Randall Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1973–1982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.194

• . However, the surface morphology of the porous nanoshells is rough (see Figure 4b). Possible reasons for the roughness include destabilizing intercalation of the salt precursor into the polymer matrix and insufficient nucleation sites, leading to lengthy time periods needed for nanocapsule growth. To

• broadening of the spectra is likely the result of several contributing factors, such as polydispersity of the hydrogel core particles, capsule roughness, variable capsule thicknesses, and/or overlap of multipole surface plasmon resonances. The contribution from overlapping multipole surface plasmon

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

• 1 mm. The grazing incidence (GI)XRD scans were carried out with the incident beam at θ = 1°. Average thickness (dave), average surface roughness and mass density of the films were determined by low-angle X-ray reflectivity (XRR) measurements with an angular resolution of 0.005°, and the data was

• . 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

• ], which might be due to rather long distance between target and substrate (25 cm) in this experiment. In terms of surface roughness, the HiPIMS-deposited film shows 0.8 nm roughness while the dcMS-deposited film shows 1.9 nm for normal deposition. The surface roughness remains unchanged for deposition at

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

• perceived, represented by the vertical dashed lines. In addition, a decrease in the SiGe thickness (19.57 to 17.8 nm (±3% error)) and the interface roughness (3.56 to 3.28 nm) was observed with increased annealing temperature from room temperature (as-grown) to 900 °C. All parameters were determined by

Growth dynamics and light scattering of gold nanoparticles in situ synthesized at high concentration in thin polymer films

• Corentin Guyot,
• Philippe Vandestrick,
• Ingrid Marenne,
• Olivier Deparis and
• Michel Voué

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1768–1777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.172

• the roughness of the films using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results and Discussion Optical scattering measurements In preliminary experiments, Au-doped polymer films coated on glass were annealed in an oven at different temperatures (90–160 °C) over different periods of time (1–12 h). Different

• optical scattering of the laser beam strongly increased (Figure 2). This phenomenon can be related to the roughness parameter observed in AFM measurements as explained in the next subsection. The most general way to characterize optically a surface is to measure its bi-directional reflection distribution

• were imaged by AFM. A typical image of 5 μm × 5 μm size is presented in Figure 5a. It unambiguously shows the presence of the AuNPs. The topography of the samples was characterized by the average surface roughness parameter (Sa) and by the root-mean-square surface roughness parameter (Sq). For the

Stationary beam full-field transmission helium ion microscopy using sub-50 keV He⁺: Projected images and intensity patterns

• Michael Mousley,
• Santhana Eswara,
• Olivier De Castro,
• Olivier Bouton,
• Nico Klingner,
• Christoph T. Koch,
• Gregor Hlawacek and
• Tom Wirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1648–1657, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.160

• illustrate possible artefacts, these mechanisms can offer potential applications as well. For instance, they can be useful in the characterization of micrometer-scale objects, when assessing the local surface roughness and structure. In the reports by Kiser et al. [34][35] an algorithm was used to find the

Development of a new hybrid approach combining AFM and SEM for the nanoparticle dimensional metrology

• Loïc Crouzier,
• Alexandra Delvallée,
• Sébastien Ducourtieux,
• Laurent Devoille,
• Guillaume Noircler,
• Christian Ulysse,
• Olivier Taché,
• Elodie Barruet,
• Christophe Tromas and
• Nicolas Feltin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1523–1536, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.150

• -coordinate measured by AFM from the position of the mean roughness plane as considered in [1]. The measuring principle is schematized in Figure 1. The roughness of the substrate surface impacts the uncertainty associated with the height measurement [1]. A silicon wafer has been chosen as substrate for NP

• deposition because its roughness is relatively low (Sq = 0.3 nm), its surface physicochemical features are particularly suitable for an optimized NP dispersion and its electrical properties are compatible with SEM measurements [11]. In the Figure 1 is also shown the principle implemented for measuring the

• , binarizing the image to discriminate objects from the substrate, identifying each imaged nano-object, evaluating roughness and building the size distribution histogram by only counting isolated nanoparticles. NP agglomeration may induce errors in the measurements and should be avoided [1][11]. The program is

Kelvin probe force microscopy of the nanoscale electrical surface potential barrier of metal/semiconductor interfaces in ambient atmosphere

• Petr Knotek,
• Tomáš Plecháček,
• Jan Smolík,
• Petr Kutálek,
• Filip Dvořák,
• Milan Vlček,
• Jiří Navrátil and
• Čestmír Drašar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1401–1411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.138

• material because of its well-defined layered structure with sub-nanometer roughness similar to mica or highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). The electrical conductivity and mechanical stiffness of Bi2Se3 allow for the measurement with high-intensity electrical fields (10 V/30 nm) without damaging the

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

• comparable to previous studies where the contact stiffness on an atomic terrace was found to be 0.12 N/m [25]. A reduction of contact stiffness over the uncovered step edges is evident in Figure 6c. The contact stiffness depends on the surface topography or local roughness, which can in turn change the

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

• power density was obtained as a surface power density (μW·cm−2) with the roughness factor (ECSA) calculated from the CV measurements, and as a volumetric power density (μW·mL−1) considering a specific volume (0.02 cm3), calculated from the specific density (1.9 g·mL−1 ) [29]. Schematic representation of

Playing with covalent triazine framework tiles for improved CO₂ adsorption properties and catalytic performance

• Giulia Tuci,
• Andree Iemhoff,
• Housseinou Ba,
• Lapo Luconi,
• Andrea Rossin,
• Vasiliki Papaefthimiou,
• Regina Palkovits,
• Jens Artz,
• Cuong Pham-Huu and
• Giuliano Giambastiani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1217–1227, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.121

• calculated via Micro-Active (version 1.01) using the density functional theory (DFT) N2 model for slit geometry at optimal goodness of fit vs regularization (0.01) values for both RMS error of fit and roughness of distribution. The cumulative pore volume at the pore width of 2 nm was used to determine the

Influence of dielectric layer thickness and roughness on topographic effects in magnetic force microscopy

• Alexander Krivcov,
• Jasmin Ehrler,
• Marc Fuhrmann,
• Tanja Junkers and
• Hildegard Möbius

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1056–1064, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.106

• roughness of dielectric films with increasing film thickness. Keywords: capacitive coupling; electrostatic effects; magnetic force microscopy; nanoparticles; superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (SPION); Introduction MFM has become an important tool for studying magnetic properties of surface

• . The theoretical model described in this paper also predicts decreasing topographic effects in MFM signals due to surface roughness of dielectric films with increasing film thickness. Theory Capacitive coupling effects in MFM on nanoparticles In our previous work we proposed a theory of a capacitive

• . Capacitive coupling effects in MFM on rough surfaces The considerations about capacitive coupling effects on nanoparticles can be generalized assuming rough surfaces depicted in Figure 4a. The distance changes between tip and substrate in the interleave mode due to the surface roughness (measured in the

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

• spectra. The large carbon surface oxidation current observed for TGP-CSnPc-650Air implied the development of high surface roughness. Redox reactions of vanadium ions The CVs in the potential ranges corresponding to the positive and negative electrode reactions in an acidic electrolyte containing vanadium

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

Rapid, ultraviolet-induced, reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic surfaces

• Yunlu Pan,
• Wenting Kong,
• Bharat Bhushan and
• Xuezeng Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 866–873, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.87

• MERLIN Compact SEM, operated at a 20 kV acceleration voltage, Carl Zeiss Jena, Germany), and the surface roughness was measured with a laser confocal microscope (LCM, OLS5000, Olympus, Japan). The chemical modification and the end group changes on the surfaces was studied by Fourier transform infrared

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

• Figure 2a and Figure 2b, respectively. It is obvious that after spraying, the glass-slide surface became rough with a large number of particles that formed irregular micro- and nanoscale composite structures, which increased the roughness of the coating surface and changed the wettability of the coating

Features and advantages of flexible silicon nanowires for SERS applications

• Hrvoje Gebavi,
• Vlatko Gašparić,
• Dubravko Risović,
• Nikola Baran,
• Paweł Henryk Albrycht and
• Mile Ivanda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 725–734, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.72

• are predominantly the characteristic surface roughness and the chemical affinity. Generally, the hydrophilic substrate surface is desirable for hydrophilic molecules such as for example dextrose and albumin [41]. SERS sensing of 4-MPBA In order to determine the optimal Ag-sputtering time, we measured

Ultrathin hydrophobic films based on the metal organic framework UiO-66-COOH(Zr)

• Miguel A. Andrés,
• Clemence Sicard,
• Christian Serre,
• Olivier Roubeau and
• Ignacio Gascón

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 654–665, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.65

• position and cover MOF particles. Moreover, the presence of MOF particles significantly enhances the surface roughness and allows ultrathin, hydrophobic coverage to be obtained. Finally, it has been shown that the crystallinity and the porosity of the MOF remains almost unaltered in MOF/ODP films

• structure of the pure ODP films seems to be preserved in mixed MOF/ODP films and, in addition, MOF sMPs can be also observed. The presence of MOF particles significantly increases the roughness of the film (pure ODP LB film RMS values are close to 6 nm, while mixed films present RMS values between 40 and 60

• an almost vertical position, and MOF sMPs, covered by ODP molecules, distributed over the whole surface, providing an elevated roughness to the mixed films that significantly contributes to increase the value of the water contact angle. Moreover, the crystallinity of the MOF particles is preserved in

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

• increase the surface roughness of the fibers and yield good adhesion properties. Bleached and unbleached fibers, refined and unrefined, were used as starting materials to synthesize direct composites (AA + fiber), hybrid fibers (LDH + fiber) and composite hybrid fibers (AA + LDH + fiber). We expect that

Biomimetic synthesis of Ag-coated glasswing butterfly arrays as ultra-sensitive SERS substrates for efficient trace detection of pesticides

• Guochao Shi,
• Mingli Wang,
• Yanying Zhu,
• Yuhong Wang,
• Xiaoya Yan,
• Xin Sun,
• Haijun Xu and
• Wanli Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 578–588, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.59

• successfully fabricated by magnetron sputtering. The thickness of the Ag nanofilms can be well controlled by adjusting the sputtering time. The Ag-G.b.-20 substrate with large-scale “hot spots” and an increased roughness shows the highest enhancement efficiency for CV molecules. The EF for Ag-G.b.-20 arrays is

Nanocomposite–parylene C thin films with high dielectric constant and low losses for future organic electronic devices

• Marwa Mokni,
• Gianluigi Maggioni,
• Abdelkader Kahouli,
• Sara M. Carturan,
• Walter Raniero and
• Alain Sylvestre

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 428–441, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.42

• modifies the film density as well as the degree of crystallinity and the size of parylene C crystallites. Moreover, silver is incorporated in the parylene matrix as an oxide phase. The average size of the Ag oxide nanoparticles is lower than 20 nm and influences the roughness of the NCPC films. Samples

• work [64]. The roughness of different NCPC samples was measured by AFM and displayed in Table 2. In the case of pure parylene films (samples K and O), the surface is relatively smooth and the roughness is around 10 nm. It has to be noted that the plasma-induced increase of the deposition rate does not

• change the film roughness. When Ag is incorporated in the parylene matrix, the films become increasingly rough with increasing Ag amount, the roughness increasing from 20–25 nm for samples A, B and D to more than 50 nm for samples C, E and F. Even if it has been previously shown that an increase in

Advanced scanning probe lithography using anatase-to-rutile transition to create localized TiO₂ nanorods

• Julian Kalb,
• Vanessa Knittel and
• Lukas Schmidt-Mende

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 412–418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.40

• contrast, local light scattering, high-resolution surface roughness gradients or microchannels. This set of extensions for rutile TiO2 nanorod applications is a valuable toolkit for lab-on-a-chip devices [33][34][35]. Recently, we investigated the influence of rutile seed layers on the growth and shape of

• surface roughness of the anatase TiO2 film causes a dithering movement of the tip that broadens the line width. This effect disconnects the line width from the shape of the tip partly. The density of nanorods is controlled slightly with the number of repetitions. In Figure 4C, the density was increased

Biocompatible organic–inorganic hybrid materials based on nucleobases and titanium developed by molecular layer deposition

• Leva Momtazi,
• Henrik H. Sønsteby and
• Ola Nilsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 399–411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.39

• for 15 minutes was measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) (Figure 8). All as-deposited films exhibit high surface roughness; however, the roughness of the Ti-adenine film is caused by small islands appearing on an otherwise almost flat surface. After water treatment, the surface roughness decreases

• drastically for all three systems and leaves an almost flat surface, except for the Ti-uracil system, where holes with a distinct pattern were observed. This system was also studied more closely with SEM after water treatment (Figure 9a). This SEM image also shows a low surface roughness; however, there is no