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

• sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), alcohols (e.g., ethanol) or acetone [24], ultraviolet (UV) [25] and ozone treatment [26], imaging of gratings [27][28], heating to evaporate contaminants [29][30], argon bombardment and even ultrasound, to much more aggressive methods, such as cleaning in piranha solution

Controlling surface morphology and sensitivity of granular and porous silver films for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, SERS

• Sherif Okeil and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2813–2831, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.263

• large-scale fabrication at low cost is an important issue in further enhancing the use of SERS for routine chemical analysis. Here, we systematically investigate the effect of different radio frequency (rf) plasmas (argon, hydrogen, nitrogen, air and oxygen plasma) as well as combinations of these

• temperature was set at 25 °C but heating occurred during the plasma treatment depending on the plasma treatment time. The gases used for plasma treatment were argon at a pressure of 1.5 mbar for a flow rate of 16.7 sccm, nitrogen at a pressure of 0.8 mbar for a flow rate of 12 sccm, hydrogen at a pressure of

• power has been synthesized using 12 sccm gas flow and a power of 200 W except for argon plasma where the standard gas flow used is 16.7 sccm. Samples obtained under other conditions will get a notation stating the gas flow and power used. Characterization of the as-prepared silver films The prepared

Comparative biological effects of spherical noble metal nanoparticles (Rh, Pd, Ag, Pt, Au) with 4–8 nm diameter

• Alexander Rostek,
• Marina Breisch,
• Kevin Pappert,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Marc Heggen,
• Manfred Köller,
• Christina Sengstock and
• Matthias Epple

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2763–2774, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.258

• (Millipore; molecular weight cut-off 3 kDa). The nanoparticles were purified by a final centrifugation step at 66,000 g for 30 min, followed by redispersion in ultrapure, degassed water. The dispersion was stored under argon at 4 °C to avoid oxidation. The yield was about 65 to 85% with respect to the metals

• dispersion was stored under argon at 4 °C to avoid oxidation. The yield was about 25% with respect to silver as determined by AAS. PVP-stabilized Au nanoparticles: In a 250 mL two-neck round-bottom flask, 600 mg trisodium citrate and 50 mg tannic acid were dissolved in 150 mL water under stirring and heated

• stirred for at least 12 h. Most of the water and the by-products were removed by centrifugation (4,000 rpm) in a spin filter tube. The nanoparticles were purified by a final centrifugation step at 66,000 g for 30 min and redispersed in ultrapure degassed water. The dispersion was stored under argon at 4

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

• with FcETGn [9]: COCl-SWCNTs (10 mg) were suspended in dry toluene (50 mL) under argon. Then, FcETGn (20–30 mg) and triethylamine (0.1 mL) were added. The mixture was heated to 100 °C and stirred for 24 h under argon. After cooling, the SWCNTs were washed under sonication three times with MeOH (10 mL

• ) and three times with THF (10 mL) in order to remove unreacted FcETGn. After filtration, the HIPCO-Ox-FcETGn (22–33 mg) were dried under vacuum and stored under argon at room temperature. Electrode preparation [11]: GCEs (3 mm in diameter) were polished with alumina slurry (1 μm and 0.05 µm particles

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

• mechanism of Cr and Na to the top layer, we first heated the Mo/Cr films on SLG to 550 °C for 30 min in argon atmosphere. This is the temperature that is normally used for sulfurization and selenization of CIGS and CZTS layers. Then XPS depth profiling was performed on the annealed Mo/Cr films to search for

• any Cr or Na signal in the Mo layer, by etching the film via argon gas cluster ions for 4 min before each XPS acquisition until the signal from the substrate was visible. The result is shown in Figure 7 for a Mo/Cr film deposited at 200 W and 3 mTorr (high-resolution spectra of Mo 3d and Cr 2p are

Size-selected Fe₃O₄–Au hybrid nanoparticles for improved magnetism-based theranostics

• Maria V. Efremova,
• Yulia A. Nalench,
• Eirini Myrovali,
• Anastasiia S. Garanina,
• Ivan S. Grebennikov,
• Polina K. Gifer,
• Maxim A. Abakumov,
• Marina Spasova,
• Makis Angelakeris,
• Alexander G. Savchenko,
• Michael Farle,
• Natalia L. Klyachko,
• Alexander G. Majouga and
• Ulf Wiedwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2684–2699, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.251

• mL oleic acid was heated up to 120 °C under argon atmosphere and kept at this temperature for 30 min. Then, 0.28 mL of Fe(CO)5 was added. Three minutes later, a mixture of HAuCl4∙3H2O (45 mg), 5 mL solvent and 0.5 mL oleylamine was added, and the final solution was slowly (3 °C/min) heated up to

• ) were grown by thermal decomposition of Fe(CO)5 in the presence of Au NPs following a modified protocol [84][99]. A mixture of 1 mL oleic acid and 20 mL solvent (phenyl ether for sample MNP-25 or benzyl ether for sample MNP-44) was heated up to 120 °C under argon atmosphere and kept at this temperature

Au–Si plasmonic platforms: synthesis, structure and FDTD simulations

• Anna Gapska,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2599–2608, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.241

• ) under pure Ar plasma conditions (Argon, Air Products 99.999%). The Au target had 99.99% purity, the rate of Au layer deposition was about 0.4 nm·s−1 and the incident power was 32 W. The thickness of the films was measured in situ by a quartz crystal microbalance. The films were subsequently annealed at

SERS active Ag–SiO₂ nanoparticles obtained by laser ablation of silver in colloidal silica

• Cristina Gellini,
• Francesco Muniz-Miranda,
• Alfonso Pedone and
• Maurizio Muniz-Miranda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2396–2404, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.224

• in the 200–800 nm region by using a Cary 5 Varian spectrophotometer. SERS spectra were recorded using the 514.5 nm line of a Coherent Argon ion laser (power: 50 mW) and a Jobin-Yvon HG2S monochromator equipped with a cooled RCA-C31034A photomultiplier. Power density measurements were performed with a

Hydrothermal-derived carbon as a stabilizing matrix for improved cycling performance of silicon-based anodes for lithium-ion full cells

• Mirco Ruttert,
• Florian Holtstiege,
• Jessica Hüsker,
• Markus Börner,
• Martin Winter and
• Tobias Placke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2381–2395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.223

• acetone and dried at 60 °C in ambient atmosphere. Afterwards, the dried products were carbonized at a temperature of 900 °C for six hours in an argon atmosphere, applying a heating ramp of 300 °C h−1, in order to remove heteroatoms and increase the electronic conductivity of the materials. Electrode

• thickness of 100 µm was applied, leading to an average mass loading of ≈2.0 mg cm−2. After drying for one hour at 50 °C, circular electrodes with a diameter of 12 mm were punched out and dried under reduced pressure (<0.05 mbar) at 170 °C for at least 24 h and stored in a glove box with argon atmosphere

• . Cell assembly and electrochemical investigations Electrochemical investigations were carried out in a three electrode configuration using Swagelok-type T-cells that were assembled in a glove box (UNIlab, MBraun) with argon atmosphere and H2O and O2-values below 0.1 ppm. The composite electrodes

High-throughput micro-nanostructuring by microdroplet inkjet printing

• Hendrikje R. Neumann and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2372–2380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.222

• using a mixture of hydrogen and argon gas (10% hydrogen, 90% argon) in a plasma etcher (TePla 100 plasma system, PVA, Germany) at 0.4 mbar and 300 W for 1 h. Inkjet printing A piezoelectric, laboratory scale inkjet printer (Dimatix Materials Printer DMP-2850) was used to generate micropatterns of the

Nanoconjugates of a calixresorcinarene derivative with methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) fragments for drug encapsulation

• Alina M. Ermakova,
• Julia E. Morozova,
• Yana V. Shalaeva,
• Victor V. Syakaev,
• Aidar T. Gubaidullin,
• Alexandra D. Voloshina,
• Vladimir V. Zobov,
• Irek R. Nizameev,
• Olga B. Bazanova,
• Igor S. Antipin and
• Alexander I. Konovalov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2057–2070, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.195

• was synthesized according to a previously reported procedure [38]. Synthesis of tetraundecylcalixresorcinarene–mPEG conjugate 3 1 g of tetraundecylcalixresorcinarene 1 (7.2 mmol of OH group) in 100 mL of dry DMFA and 1.34 g of K2CO3 (9.72 mmol) were mixed at room temperature for 30 min under argon

• atmosphere. Then 8 g of 2 in 50 mL of dry DMFA was added and the reaction was carried out at 90 °С for 70 h under argon atmosphere. The solvent was evaporated under reduced pressure and the mixture was poured into a large amount of acetone to remove the inorganic salt. Then the evaporated mixture was

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

• the ion mass, the aforementioned probability is lower for nitrogen than for argon. The energy required to displace a C atom from the hexagonal network was reported to be about 22 eV [87]. This allows for the creation of carbon vacancies that are subsequently filled by N atoms. It was shown that at

• contained a significant amount of oxygen due to the used synthesis conditions, leading to a relatively high concentration of nitrogen oxide groups. Annealing the samples in argon atmosphere at temperatures ranging from 500 to 1000 °C, the authors observed changes induced in the amount and the surface

Synthesis of carbon nanowalls from a single-source metal-organic precursor

• André Giese,
• Sebastian Schipporeit,
• Volker Buck and
• Nicolas Wöhrl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1895–1905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.181

• CNW deposition in literature gaseous precursors have been used as carbon source. Gases used are typically methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2) and hexafluoroethane (C2F6) mixed with argon or hydrogen as carrier gas. The synthesis from the solid metal-organic precursor Al(acac)3 was up to now only reported

• inductively coupled plasma antenna allowing for high plasma densities even at low particle energies [26]. The Al(acac)3 precursor in powder form was sublimated in a fluidized bed evaporator at a constant temperature of 127 °C and then transported into the reaction chamber by using argon as carrier gas

• . According to the vapor-pressure curve taken from Siddiqi et al. and a publication from Nielsen et al. [27][28] the precursor flow can be estimated to be about 1.66 sccm. The precursor flow and the flow of the Argon carrier gas (40 sccm) were kept constant for all experiments. Depositions were performed at a

Synthesis of rare-earth metal and rare-earth metal-fluoride nanoparticles in ionic liquids and propylene carbonate

• Marvin Siebels,
• Lukas Mai,
• Laura Schmolke,
• Kai Schütte,
• Juri Barthel,
• Junpei Yue,
• Jörg Thomas,
• Bernd M. Smarsly,
• Anjana Devi,
• Roland A. Fischer and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1881–1894, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.180

• , Supporting Information File 1). The rare-earth metal amidinates and Eu(dpm)3 were suspended under an argon atmosphere in dried IL or in PC. The compounds were decomposed by microwave irradiation for 20 min at a power of 50 W at a temperature of 230 °C (Scheme 1). The size distributions of the obtained

• study the catalytic properties of the obtained intermetallic M/RE-NPs in extension of our previous work on Ni/Ga nanophases derived from organometallic precursors by co-thermolysis in ILs and PC [59]. Experimental All synthesis experiments were carried out with Schlenk techniques under nitrogen or argon

Synthesis of hafnium nanoparticles and hafnium nanoparticle films by gas condensation and energetic deposition

• Irini Michelakaki,
• Nikos Boukos,
• Dimitrios A. Dragatogiannis,
• Spyros Stathopoulos,
• Costas A. Charitidis and
• Dimitris Tsoukalas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1868–1880, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.179

• , the argon (Ar) flow rate was in all cases kept at 60 sccm and the sputtering power at 32 W. During deposition in the soft-landing regime, no substrate bias voltage was applied (Vs = 0 kV). Thus, the kinetic energy of the nanoparticles was mainly defined by the pressure difference between the

SO₂ gas adsorption on carbon nanomaterials: a comparative study

• Deepu J. Babu,
• Divya Puthusseri,
• Frank G. Kühl,
• Sherif Okeil,
• Michael Bruns,
• Manfred Hampe and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1782–1792, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.169

• carried out at 900 °C by passing ethene (200 sccm), hydrogen (800 sccm), argon (1200 sccm) and ppm-scale quantities of water vapor together for 15 min. Characterization techniques Raman measurements were performed using a Horiba Jobin Yvon, model HR 800 LabRAM high-resolution microscope using a He–Ne

• , monochromated Al Kα X-ray source (30–400 µm spot size). The K-Alpha charge compensation system was employed during analysis, using electrons of 8 eV energy and low-energy argon ions to prevent any localized charge build-up. The spectra were fitted with one or more Voigt profiles (binding energy uncertainty

Magnetic properties of Fe₃O₄ antidot arrays synthesized by AFIR: atomic layer deposition, focused ion beam and thermal reduction

• Juan L. Palma,
• Alejandro Pereira,
• Raquel Álvaro,
• José Miguel García-Martín and
• Juan Escrig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1728–1734, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.164

• has a controlled atmosphere of hydrogen (4%) balanced with argon (96%) at an overpressure of 400 mbar with a set temperature of 430 °C, for 4 h [32][33]. This process allows for the conversion of Fe2O3 to Fe3O4, which exhibits a strong magnetic signal. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements have

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles as sulfur encapsulator for high-performance lithium/sulfur batteries

• Yan Zhao,
• Zhengjun Liu,
• Liancheng Sun,
• Yongguang Zhang,
• Yuting Feng,
• Xin Wang,
• Indira Kurmanbayeva and
• Zhumabay Bakenov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1677–1685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.159

• :3 by ball-milling at 350 min−1 for 3 h to obtain the sulfur composite precursor. The S/ZnO@NCNT composite was obtained by heating the precursor at 155 °C for 10 h, in argon flow with a heating rate of 5 °C·min−1. The sulfur-doping method was described in our previous study [33]. Materials

• a separator. The electrolyte was 1 M lithium bistrifluoromethanesulfonamide (LiTFSI) in tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether as a solvent. The CR2025 coin cells assembly was carried out in an argon-filled glovebox (Mikrouna, Shanghai). The charge/discharge cycling performances was investigated using

Closed polymer containers based on phenylboronic esters of resorcinarenes

• Tatiana Yu. Sergeeva,
• Rezeda K. Mukhitova,
• Irek R. Nizameev,
• Marsil K. Kadirov,
• Polina D. Klypina,
• Albina Y. Ziganshina and
• Alexander I. Konovalov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1594–1601, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.151

• Netzsch STA 449C Jupiter instrument in argon in the temperature range from 30 to 200 °С. The heating rate was 10 °C·min−1. The samples were placed in aluminum crucibles (non-sealed for the free removal of evolved products and a decrease of the influence of an excessive pressure). UV–vis spectra were

• ) was added to 2 mL of an aqueous solution containing SRA (2.5 mM), BA (5 mM) and K2CO3 (0.3 mM) with pH 10.2. The mixture was bubbled with argon for 30 min then sonicated in argon atmosphere for 30 min and finally again bubbled with argon for 30 min. The reaction mixture was heated at 100 °C for 12 h

• μL) was added to the mixture. The mixture was bubbled with argon for 30 min and then sonicated in argon atmosphere for approximately 60 min. The suspension was again bubbled with argon for 30 min. The reaction mixture was heated at 100 °C for 12 h. The resulting mixture was purified from the non

Preparation and morphology-dependent wettability of porous alumina membranes

• Dmitry L. Shimanovich,
• Alla I. Vorobjova,
• Daria I. Tishkevich,
• Alex V. Trukhanov,
• Maxim V. Zdorovets and
• Artem L. Kozlovskiy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1423–1436, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.135

• II the barrier layer was not etched. For samples 4 and 5, the back side was first treated in argon plasma for 40 min and then in 4% H3PO4 at 35 ± 2 °C for 15 and 10 minutes, respectively. The morphology of the experimental samples (pore diameter, d, interpore distance, D, and thickness, H), was

• . At a membrane thickness of greater than 30 µm, it is desirable to first carry out the opening of the barrier layer on the back side using argon ions and then followed by the usual bilateral acid pickling. To compare the topological features of PAMs produced with different etching technologies of the

• bilateral etching (using the usual method (1, 2)) are compared to the method including the pretreatment in argon media (3). The choice of an etching procedure in which both surfaces will be etched identically is practically very difficult as the reliefs of these surfaces are different from one another. From

Heterostuctures of 4-(chloromethyl)phenyltrichlorosilane and 5,10,15,20-tetra(4-pyridyl)-21H,23H-porphine prepared on Si(111) using particle lithography: Nanoscale characterization of the main steps of nanopatterning

• Phillip C. Chambers and
• Jayne C. Garno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1211–1219, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.112

• successive sonication in ethanol, ultrapure water, and chloroform. A rinsing and sonication step was used to fully remove the spheres from the surface. The samples were then dried under argon and characterized with AFM. Preparation of CMPS nanostructures The samples with nanoholes within OTS were immersed in

Field-controlled ultrafast magnetization dynamics in two-dimensional nanoscale ferromagnetic antidot arrays

• Anulekha De,
• Sucheta Mondal,
• Sourav Sahoo,
• Saswati Barman,
• Yoshichika Otani,
• Rajib Kumar Mitra and
• Anjan Barman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1123–1134, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.104

• irradiation of laser light. A PMMA/MMA bilayer resist was used for electron-beam lithography to prepare the resist pattern on the Py thin film followed by argon ion milling at a base pressure of 1 × 10−4 Torr with a beam current of 60 mA for 6 min for etching out the Py film from everywhere except the

Single-crystalline FeCo nanoparticle-filled carbon nanotubes: synthesis, structural characterization and magnetic properties

• Rasha Ghunaim,
• Maik Scholz,
• Christine Damm,
• Bernd Rellinghaus,
• Rüdiger Klingeler,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Michael Mertig and
• Silke Hampel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1024–1034, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.95

• -filtered and washed with about 20 mL of washing agent (acetone and distilled water of a volumetric ratio of 1:1). The solid residue was then dried for 24 h at a temperature of 108 °C and reduced under hydrogen and argon atmosphere (50 vol % Ar + 50 vol % H2) at a temperature of 500 °C for 4 h to convert

Enzymatically promoted release of organic molecules linked to magnetic nanoparticles

• Chiara Lambruschini,
• Silvia Villa,
• Luca Banfi,
• Fabio Canepa,
• Fabio Morana,
• Annalisa Relini,
• Paola Riani,
• Renata Riva and
• Fulvio Silvetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 986–999, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.92

• proteases such as plasmin in many tumour cells might allow a substantial increase in the therapeutic index. Experimental General remarks: All non-aqueous reactions were performed under an inert atmosphere of argon or nitrogen. Analytical thin layer chromatography was performed using F254 0.25 mm thin layer

Cyclodextrin inhibits zinc corrosion by destabilizing point defect formation in the oxide layer

• Abdulrahman Altin,
• Maciej Krzywiecki,
• Adnan Sarfraz,
• Cigdem Toparli,
• Claudius Laska,
• Philipp Kerger,
• Aleksandar Zeradjanin,
• Karl J. J. Mayrhofer,
• Michael Rohwerder and
• Andreas Erbe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 936–944, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.86

• absence of 5.3 mM β-CD, under open-circuit conditions. The electrolyte was externally purged with argon, and pumped through the cell with a rate of 2 mL·min−1 using a peristaltic pump (Ismatec IDEX Health and Science). During the measurement, the pump rate was reduced to 10.6 μL·min−1. In this work, the