Wearable, stable, highly sensitive hydrogel–graphene strain sensors

• Jian Lv,
• Chuncai Kong,
• Chao Yang,
• Lu Yin,
• Itthipon Jeerapan,
• Fangzhao Pu,
• Xiaojing Zhang,
• Sen Yang and
• Zhimao Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 475–480, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.47

• hydrogel strain sensor is considered to have great potential in the field of wearable sensors. Keywords: graphene; high sensitivity; hydrogel; strain sensor; wearable sensor; Introduction Wearable, flexible sensors to monitor human body pressure, temperature, strain, and chemicals hold great potential in

• soft robotics [3][4]. The current, state of the art strategy to fabricate flexible strain sensors involves the integration of a conductive film on an elastomeric polymer and the embedding of conductive materials into the polymer matrix [5][6]. However, the lack of seamless conformation to curvatures in

• hydrogel to fabricate soft, flexible strain sensors is rarely reported. Another issue to be solved is related to increasing the sensitivity of the hydrogel strain sensor as the ionically conductive hydrogel exhibits low resistance changes with applied strain [13]. In this study, a flexible, stable, high

Gold nanoparticles embedded in a polymer as a 3D-printable dichroic nanocomposite material

• Lars Kool,
• Anton Bunschoten,
• Aldrik H. Velders and
• Vittorio Saggiomo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 442–447, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.43

• cup for drinking water as it will dissolve after a few minutes. To overcome this problem, we coated the 3D-printed cup with a layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a flexible, nontoxic and food-safe transparent elastomer [22]. The cup was brushed with liquid PDMS and it was cured at 70 °C for a few

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

• devices as a gate dielectric, coating insulator film, or flexible substrate [3][4][5] due to its numerous advantageous properties. PPXC films are biocompatible and environmentally friendly [6][7][8][9]. Its deposition process makes it accessible as a coating for many semiconductor polymers [10] for

• organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) [11], organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) [12][13], and flexible organic electronic devices (FEDs) [14][15]. It presents an easy deposition process at low temperatures with a conformal and uniform layer [16]. Parylene C is a well-controlled material when used as

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

• provides a new idea for the synthesis of nanostructured Ni(OH)2 by a simple approach and ultra-low cost, which largely extends the prospect of commercial application in flexible or wearable devices. Keywords: dealloying; Ni nanofoam; Ni(OH)2 nanopetals; metallic glass; supercapacitor; Introduction

Magnetic-field sensor with self-reference characteristic based on a magnetic fluid and independent plasmonic dual resonances

• Kun Ren,
• Xiaobin Ren,
• Yumeng He and
• Qun Han

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 247–255, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.23

• influenced by the two stubs. This indicates that peak II is related to the stub 1 and stub 2. The simulated results confirm the theoretical prediction. Figure 4 shows that flexible modulations of the resonance wavelengths can be realized. Two resonance peaks can be easily tuned to certain wavelengths by

Raman study of flash-lamp annealed aqueous Cu₂ZnSnS₄ nanocrystals

• Yevhenii Havryliuk,
• Oleksandr Selyshchev,
• Mykhailo Valakh,
• Alexandra Raevskaya,
• Oleksandr Stroyuk,
• Constance Schmidt,
• Volodymyr Dzhagan and
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 222–227, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.20

• dependence of the formation on the film thickness are also investigated. Importantly, no inert atmosphere for the FLA treatment of the NCs is required, which makes this technology even more suitable for mass production, in particular for printed thin films on flexible substrates. Keywords: copper zinc tin

Bidirectional biomimetic flow sensing with antiparallel and curved artificial hair sensors

• Claudio Abels,
• Antonio Qualtieri,
• Toni Lober,
• Alessandro Mariotti,
• Lily D. Chambers,
• Massimo De Vittorio,
• William M. Megill and
• Francesco Rizzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 32–46, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.4

• . The electrical measurement procedure depends on two piezo-resistive strain gauges fixed to flexible cantilevers bent out-of-plane, which are deflected by the mechanical force of the moving fluid. Each micro strain gauge runs across the entire surface of the cantilever and accordingly changes its

• is minimal and aerodynamic forces are hardly exerted on the cantilever beam, the cantilevers oscillated around their resting position. Even under laminar conditions, the bent cantilever is a flexible bluff body that generates periodic turbulence, which causes oscillation around its resting position

• state, because it is less flexible in the compressed state. Discussion In this work, antiparallel artificial hair sensors, coupled as a flow sensor with bidirectional sensitivity, were fabricated and fully characterized. The novel sensor design and arrangement was calibrated and stimulated by air flow

A novel polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane-modified layered double hydroxide: preparation, characterization and properties

• Xianwei Zhang,
• Zhongzhu Ma,
• Hong Fan,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jintao Wan and
• Philippe Dubois

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3053–3068, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.284

• –Al LDH in this work. Herein, OCPS was chosen as the candidate POSS intercalator because of the following advantages: (i) The long alkyl chains anchoring on the rigid POSS cage are flexible, reducing the resistance against the formation of layered structure. (ii) The OCPS molecule is rich in

• as ca. 1.30 nm, larger than the resulting intergallery spacing of OLDH, suggesting that OCPS anions in OLDH interlayers are probably in a restricted state. One possible explanation for this could be that the linear linkages present in the POSS structure are relatively flexible compared to the rigid

• together compactly and the char after degradation in air consists of dense blocks. It is proposed here that the flexible nature of polysiloxane and its weak intermolecular forces give rise to low surface energy and a high spreading coefficient. When heated, the siloxane moiety migrates to the surface and

The effect of flexible joint-like elements on the adhesive performance of nature-inspired bent mushroom-like fibers

• Elliot Geikowsky,
• Serdar Gorumlu and
• Burak Aksak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2893–2905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.268

• particular, for male ladybird beetles, research has shown that the adhesive setae feature a material gradient such that the elastic modulus of the material at the junction between the stalk and the divergent distal end is close to minimum. This soft material acts like a flexible joint, improving the bending

• , termed as a joint-like element, is evidenced by the difference in color of this joint from the stalk or the tip (see Figure 1a). The joint-like element is believed to be more flexible and equips the fibers with the necessary articulation to better adapt to the target surface [32]. This joint can consist

• of either a more flexible material than the stalk or a local geometrical constriction, which can provide robust adhesion independent of the direction of the applied load [32][33]. It can reduce the normal stress and alleviate peeling at the interface because the joint flexibility leads to a smaller

Site-controlled formation of single Si nanocrystals in a buried SiO₂ matrix using ion beam mixing

• Xiaomo Xu,
• Thomas Prüfer,
• Daniel Wolf,
• Hans-Jürgen Engelmann,
• Lothar Bischoff,
• René Hübner,
• Karl-Heinz Heinig,
• Wolfhard Möller,
• Stefan Facsko,
• Johannes von Borany and
• Gregor Hlawacek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2883–2892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.267

• , this limit can only be achieved if the beam diameter becomes smaller than the lateral straggling in the collision cascade. One particularly flexible way of doing this is to use a focused ion beam. We employed a focused Ne+ beam from a helium ion microscope [32]. Such equipment allows focusing a 30 keV

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

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

• adhesion of Mo to the substrates [22][23][24]. The Mo/Cr back contact has been already proposed in flexible thin-film solar cells on metallic foils and stainless steel [25][26][27][28]. However, in these reports Cr was used as a barrier layer to reduce/prevent impurity out-diffusion from the metallic

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

• as to analyze the experimental data. The flexible interface allowed for a quite convenient modeling of the studied system. Here, in order to obtain the actual arrangement and size of nanoislands, a supporting software has been written that reads the SEM image, finds contours of nanoislands and

Friction reduction through biologically inspired scale-like laser surface textures

• Johannes Schneider,
• Vergil Djamiykov and
• Christian Greiner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2561–2572, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.238

• techniques [22], the laser-based texturing applied here is expected to be more flexible for generating different surface morphologies as well as allowing for significantly faster processing times, especially for larger contacting bodies. This will be a crucial factor for applying scale-like surface

Cytotoxicity of doxorubicin-conjugated poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide]-modified γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles towards human tumor cells

• Zdeněk Plichta,
• Yulia Kozak,
• Rostyslav Panchuk,
• Viktoria Sokolova,
• Matthias Epple,
• Lesya Kobylinska,
• Pavla Jendelová and
• Daniel Horák

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2533–2545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.236

• subsequent chemical conjugation with a specific drug. Dox-conjugated PHPMA was attached via hydrogen bonding between hydroxy groups on the superparamagnetic γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticle surface (citrate stabilization) and the C=O groups of the polymer. Due to the highly hydrophilic and flexible nature of PHPMA

Nanocellulose: Recent advances and its prospects in environmental remediation

• Katrina Pui Yee Shak,
• Yean Ling Pang and
• Shee Keat Mah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2479–2498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.232

• for its high-purity in CNF form as well as high water-retaining capacity and crystallinity (80–90%) among the various types of CNFs [11]. Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) CNC goes by a few other terms: nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) and cellulose nanowhisker (CNW). In contrast to CNF, CNC is less flexible

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

• to a more flexible, porous and stable matrix. However, further systematic investigations are necessary to identify the influence of different reaction parameters on the structure and morphology of the formed carbon matrix in order to optimize the electrochemical performance of hydrothermal-derived Si

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

• also proteins [23][24][25][26][27]. In this way, even flexible materials can easily be patterned [28]. Therefore, with this method, we have the combined benefits of BCML with the advantages of inkjet printing to achieve nanoparticle structures in defined microarrays. Such micro-nanostructures have been

A scanning probe microscopy study of nanostructured TiO₂/poly(3-hexylthiophene) hybrid heterojunctions for photovoltaic applications

• Laurie Letertre,
• Roland Roche,
• Olivier Douhéret,
• Hailu G. Kassa,
• Denis Mariolle,
• Nicolas Chevalier,
• Łukasz Borowik,
• Philippe Dumas,
• Benjamin Grévin,
• Roberto Lazzaroni and
• Philippe Leclère

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2087–2096, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.197

• Office of the Belgian Federal Government (BELSPO-PAI VII/5), and the FRS-FNRS PDR Project ’Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Nanomaterials for Energy COnversion and STOrage Devices on FLEXible and Stretchable Substrates’ (ECOSTOFLEX). L.L. is grateful to FRIA and FRS-FNRS for a doctoral fellowship and a travel

The structural and chemical basis of temporary adhesion in the sea star Asterina gibbosa

• Birgit Lengerer,
• Marie Bonneel,
• Mathilde Lefevre,
• Elise Hennebert,
• Philippe Leclère,
• Emmanuel Gosselin,
• Peter Ladurner and
• Patrick Flammang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2071–2086, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.196

• flexible stem and an enlarged, flattened disc [11]. At the level of the disc, the epidermis is specialized into a sensory-secretory epithelium, enabling perception and adhesion [11][12]. For several echinoderm species, the adhesive strength was estimated by measuring the tenacity of single tube feet [13

• of A. gibbosa was slightly broader than the flexible stem and full of collagenous fibres (Figure 2B). The collagen fibres were arranged in thick bundles and alternated with clusters of secretory gland cells (Figure 2B and Figure 3A). In asteroids, three tube foot morphotypes have been described – i.e

Fabrication of photothermally active poly(vinyl alcohol) films with gold nanostars for antibacterial applications

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Maria Moros,
• Claudia Tortiglione,
• Serena Bertoldi,
• Nicola Contessi,
• Silvia Faré,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Agnese D’Agostino,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2040–2048, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.193

• decoration) have received particular attention [6][7]. Previously, it was shown that these GNSs are highly photothermally active under NIR irradiation in aqueous solution in the form of monolayers grafted on dry glass surfaces and when inkjet-printed on flexible substrates, demonstrating the ability to reach

The inhibition effect of water on the purification of natural gas with nanoporous graphene membranes

• Krzysztof Nieszporek,
• Tomasz Pańczyk and
• Jolanta Nieszporek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1906–1916, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.182

• was maintained at 300 K using velocity rescaling with a stochastic term [19] and a time constant of 0.1 ps. In order to enable possible deformations, the graphene sheets were flexible; to avoid vertical dislocation due to collisions with separated gases, the carbon atoms in each graphene corner were

Quantitative comparison of wideband low-latency phase-locked loop circuit designs for high-speed frequency modulation atomic force microscopy

• Kazuki Miyata and
• Takeshi Fukuma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1844–1855, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.176

• subnanometer-scale imaging of biomolecules [15][16][17]. Moreover, three-dimensional (3D) imaging techniques have been developed based on FM-AFM and used to visualize 3D distributions of hydration structures as well as flexible surface structures at solid–liquid interfaces [18][19][20][21][22]. Although FM-AFM

Tunable fractional Fourier transform implementation of electronic wave functions in atomically thin materials

• Daniela Dragoman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1828–1833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.174

• geometries have been fabricated on flexible substrates for the purpose of acting as brain–computer interfaces [21], while single nanoscale nonplanar electrodes with complex topographies have been obtained using advanced stencil lithography [22]. Because γ > 0, the configuration illustrated in Figure 1a

Multimodal noncontact atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations of organolead tribromide perovskite single crystals

• Yann Almadori,
• David Moerman,
• Jaume Llacer Martinez,
• Philippe Leclère and
• Benjamin Grévin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1695–1704, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.161

• (BELSPO-PAI VII/5), the FRS-FNRS PDR Project “Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Nanomaterials for Energy COnversion and STOrage Devices on FLEXible and Stretchable Substrates (ECOSTOFLEX)”, and MP 1307 COST Action “Stable Next-Generation Photovoltaics: Unraveling Degradation Mechanisms of Organic and Perovskite