Multi-frequency tapping-mode atomic force microscopy beyond three eigenmodes in ambient air

• Santiago D. Solares,
• Sangmin An and
• Christian J. Long

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1637–1648, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.175

• interpretation of the additional contrast channels in terms of material properties, as there still remain important open questions even for the bimodal and trimodal methods [20][21][22][23]. Overall, our findings are promising and open the door to increasing sophistication and greater versatility in multi

• in turn lead to non-steady-state tip oscillations. These unsettled oscillations are problematic in the development of generalized theories that relate the measurement observables (amplitudes, phases, frequency shifts, etc.) to material properties because the transients depend on the particular sample

Organic and inorganic–organic thin film structures by molecular layer deposition: A review

• Pia Sundberg and
• Maarit Karppinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1104–1136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.123

• inorganic and organic monolayers (Figure 2). The hybrid thin films may not only possess properties combined from those of the two parent materials, but may also have completely new material properties, making them excellent candidates for a wide range of applications. Possible uses for the hybrid ALD/MLD

• ][16]. Further tuning of material properties may be achieved by combining different inorganic, organic and hybrid layers into various thin-film mixtures, superstructures and nanolaminates. For example, precise control of the refractive index is extremely important in optical applications [17], while

Dry friction of microstructured polymer surfaces inspired by snake skin

• Martina J. Baum,
• Lars Heepe,
• Elena Fadeeva and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1091–1103, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.122

• scale [11]. These properties must be kept up over a longer period of time until new skin is moulted. Frictional properties of snake skin in contact with a solid partner depend on (i) the surface energy, (ii) material properties, and (iii) surface topography of the tribo-pair [12][13]. The surface energy

• to which the real contact area is influence by the load force depends strongly on material properties [41][46][47][48]. These properties are also affected by the surface geometry [49]. There are numerous experimental studies on the roughness effect on friction of technical surfaces. Etsion [50] and

Insect attachment on crystalline bioinspired wax surfaces formed by alkanes of varying chain lengths

• Elena Gorb,
• Sandro Böhm,
• Nadine Jacky,
• Louis-Philippe Maier,
• Kirstin Dening,
• Sasha Pechook,
• Boaz Pokroy and
• Stanislav Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1031–1041, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.116

• on wax samples when compared to insect attachment forces measured on these surfaces. We explain these results by the differences in material properties between polydimethylsiloxane probes and tenent setae of C. septempunctata beetles. Among wax surfaces, force experiments showed stronger insect

• on wax samples compared to insect attachment forces measured on these surfaces. These force values were either close or equal to those measured on glass. We explain these results by differences in the material properties between PDMS and tenent setae of C. septempunctata beetles. The PDMS probes

Fibrillar adhesion with no clusterisation: Functional significance of material gradient along adhesive setae of insects

• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Alexander E. Filippov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 837–845, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.95

• fibers with longer soft tips on the stiff bases and fibers with stiff tips on the soft bases. This study not only manifests the crucial role of gradients in material properties along the setae in beetle fibrillar adhesive system, but predicts that similar gradients must have been convergently evolved in

• stability [9]: insect setae made of too soft material can buckle and collapse resulting in so called clusterisation/condensation [10][11]. Due to such clusterisation, functional advantage from multiple adhesive contacts may strongly decrease. That is why, material properties of insect adhesive setae

• gradient along the setae contribute to the proper contact formation? Which particular gradient reduces clusterisation of setae? Results and Discussion Structure and material properties of biological system Previous CLSM analysis of the setal tips has clearly demonstrated the presence of the rubber-like

Calibration of quartz tuning fork spring constants for non-contact atomic force microscopy: direct mechanical measurements and simulations

• Jens Falter,
• Marvin Stiefermann,
• Gernot Langewisch,
• Philipp Schurig,
• Hendrik Hölscher,
• Harald Fuchs and
• André Schirmeisen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 507–516, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.59

• rim and behind the tuning fork (1) fixing it to the Macor carrier (2). The sophisticated geometry is meshed with a tetrahedral elements (cf. inset) to better account for the transition between the individual geometry elements. The material properties were taken from literature, as for the Young’s

Friction behavior of a microstructured polymer surface inspired by snake skin

• Martina J. Baum,
• Lars Heepe and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 83–97, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.8

• the skin scales, so called microornamentation [1][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], and specific adaptations of the material architecture of the skin, like highly ordered embedded fibers [14], which can potentially influence material properties [15][16], might contribute to the frictional anisotropy

• strongly depend on material properties of the sliding partners, the optimal stick-slip reducing dimension of microstructures must be engineered for every single technical application. Nevertheless, it could be a very effective way to reduce frictional energy loss and friction-induced wear. In the present

Design criteria for stable Pt/C fuel cell catalysts

• Josef C. Meier,
• Carolina Galeano,
• Ioannis Katsounaros,
• Jonathon Witte,
• Hans J. Bongard,
• Angel A. Topalov,
• Claudio Baldizzone,
• Stefano Mezzavilla,
• Ferdi Schüth and
• Karl J. J. Mayrhofer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 44–67, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.5

• material properties. The specific activity values as a function of the ECSA in 0.1 M HClO4 are plotted in Figure 2C (for the according plot in 0.1 M H2SO4 see Figure S2 in Supporting Information File 1). The unsupported Pt-poly and Pt-black catalysts clearly present a higher specific activity than all

• microstructural analysis, as presented in the next section is, therefore, necessary to support this hypothesis. Stability investigation on the nanoscale The above described tests focused on the macroscopic differences in loss of ECSA for catalysts with different material properties. To gain insight into the

• from catalysts from other IL-TEM studies, to evaluate the effect of material properties on the activity and degradation behavior of Pt/C catalysts. Effect of inter-particle distance Particles can agglomerate due to migration on or shrinkage of the carbon support. When particles establish contact or are

Static analysis of rectangular nanoplates using trigonometric shear deformation theory based on nonlocal elasticity theory

• Mohammad Rahim Nami and
• Maziar Janghorban

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 968–973, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.109

• for functionally graded plates. Similar to the most of studies on FG structures, the material properties were assumed to vary in the thickness direction according to the power law distribution. Mantari et al. [5] modeled a new type of trigonometric shear deformation theory (TSDT) for studying plates

• with different material properties such as sandwich plates. It is assumed that this new type of displacement field depends on a parameter which is calculated according to the results of three dimensional elasticity theory. Kharde et al. [6] published an exponential shear deformation theory for the free

Dynamic nanoindentation by instrumented nanoindentation and force microscopy: a comparative review

• Sidney R. Cohen and
• Estelle Kalfon-Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 815–833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.93

• viscoelastic/plastic deformation, as well as capillary and adhesive forces. The analysis of AFM force–distance curves of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) showed a strong influence of the measurement conditions such as the loading–unloading rate and the dwell time, as well as intrinsic material properties like the

Preparation of electrochemically active silicon nanotubes in highly ordered arrays

• Tobias Grünzel,
• Young Joo Lee,
• Karsten Kuepper and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 655–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.73

• gray line, the second cycle in blue and red, and the third charge in black. The red color highlights the main reduction (charge) and oxidation (discharge) events of the material. Properties of the metals M = Mg and M = Li of relevance to the thermal reduction of SiO2: standard Gibbs free energies of

k-space imaging of the eigenmodes of sharp gold tapers for scanning near-field optical microscopy

• Martin Esmann,
• Simon F. Becker,
• Bernard B. da Cunha,
• Jens H. Brauer,
• Ralf Vogelgesang,
• Petra Groß and
• Christoph Lienau

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 603–610, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.67

• ]. It yields the propagation constant kz along the tapered wire as a function of the dielectric material properties, the wire radius, and the frequency of the SPP mode. Based on this approach we have numerically calculated the propagation constant for a gradually decreasing wire radius, R. The results

Molecular dynamics simulations of mechanical failure in polymorphic arrangements of amyloid fibrils containing structural defects

• Hlengisizwe Ndlovu,
• Alison E. Ashcroft,
• Sheena E. Radford and
• Sarah A. Harris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 429–440, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.50

• fibrils [9]. Before we can design fibrils with bespoke material properties, however, we first need to understand how the arrangement of the individual β-sheets modulates their mechanical behaviour. Amyloid fibrils, like many crystalline materials, exhibit polymorphism. The predominant polymorph obtained

• develop an understanding of how the polymorphic form influences the mechanical properties of fibrils. A wealth of information on the material properties of amyloid is already available from extensive pathological and biological studies that focus on the diseases aspect of amyloid, as summarised in a

• able to characterise how the nature and presence of such defects influences their mechanical response. However, this precludes the investigation of effects such as crack propagation on the material properties of the model fibrils, because these occur over longer length scales. Our simulations suggest a

Kelvin probe force microscopy of nanocrystalline TiO₂ photoelectrodes

• Alex Henning,
• Gino Günzburger,
• Res Jöhr,
• Yossi Rosenwaks,
• Biljana Bozic-Weber,
• Catherine E. Housecroft,
• Edwin C. Constable,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 418–428, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.49

• variations may be due to varying material properties in general. In any case, such variations, which are clearly detectable by KPFM, may obstruct the optimal attachment of dye molecules and thus reduce the solar cell performance [25]. Microscopic surface photovoltage By combining a tunable illumination

In situ monitoring magnetism and resistance of nanophase platinum upon electrochemical oxidation

• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Stefan Topolovec,
• Stephan Landgraf,
• Heinz Krenn and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 394–399, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.46

• Institute of Physics, University of Graz, Universitätsplatz 5, 8010 Graz, Austria 10.3762/bjnano.4.46 Abstract Controlled tuning of material properties by external stimuli represents one of the major topics of current research in the field of functional materials. Electrochemically induced property tuning

• –electrolyte interface of nanophase materials, the physical material properties may also be changed by electrochemical surface reactions, as for instance documented for nanoporous Au [6]. Based on tunability studies of the electrical resistance of porous nanocrystalline Pt [5] or nanoporous Pt [7] and of the

Multiple regimes of operation in bimodal AFM: understanding the energy of cantilever eigenmodes

• Daniel Kiracofe,
• Arvind Raman and
• Dalia Yablon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 385–393, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.45

• property contrast with high resolution. Bimodal AFM, where two eigenmodes are simultaneously excited, confers significant advantages over conventional single-frequency tapping mode AFM due to its ability to provide contrast between regions with different material properties under gentle imaging conditions

• ) image and the so-called “phase” image. The latter is related to material properties and is frequently used to distinguish different domains or different blend components from one another. While phase imaging often provides good contrast between different materials, it is difficult to determine the exact

Polynomial force approximations and multifrequency atomic force microscopy

• Daniel Platz,
• Daniel Forchheimer,
• Erik A. Tholén and
• David B. Haviland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 352–360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.41

• account for adhesive forces in the contact regime, which we try to circumvent by using tips with small radii. While the DMT model provides sufficient insight into material properties, the extracted numerical values of the DMT parameters should not be expected to agree with values for the bulk material. In

Grating-assisted coupling to nanophotonic circuits in microcrystalline diamond thin films

• Patrik Rath,
• Svetlana Khasminskaya,
• Christoph Nebel,
• Christoph Wild and
• Wolfram H.P. Pernice

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 300–305, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.33

• diamond has found a wealth of applications for the fabrication of windows that permit transmission in the long-IR or microwave regions [14]. In addition, diamond provides attractive material properties, such as biocompatibility, chemical inertness, high thermal conductivity, and mechanical hardness [15

High-resolution nanomechanical analysis of suspended electrospun silk fibers with the torsional harmonic atomic force microscope

• Mark Cronin-Golomb and
• Ozgur Sahin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 243–248, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.25

• force–distance curves to parameters representing the material properties. Although contact-mechanics models can be used for a wide variety of polymer composites, block-copolymers, and biomaterials [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], these models are not applicable to materials with complex geometries. For

Bimodal atomic force microscopy driving the higher eigenmode in frequency-modulation mode: Implementation, advantages, disadvantages and comparison to the open-loop case

• Daniel Ebeling and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 198–207, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.20

• of the second phase contrast to material properties in the small-amplitude regime. This method, which was later implemented experimentally [3] and studied further theoretically and computationally [4][5], gave birth to a new host of multifrequency AFM techniques, which nowadays include a wide variety

Plasticity of Cu nanoparticles: Dislocation-dendrite-induced strain hardening and a limit for displacive plasticity

• Antti Tolvanen and
• Karsten Albe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 173–179, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.17

• threshold pressure, depending on the material properties, is reached. In their pioneering work, Sun et al. [7] studied the extrusion of Ag nanoparticles experimentally and attributed the plastic flow to dislocation activity, based on a combination of simulation results on Pt showing traces of dislocation

Towards 4-dimensional atomic force spectroscopy using the spectral inversion method

• Jeffrey C. Williams and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 87–93, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.10

• a single 2-dimensional (2D) surface scan. Although signal-to-noise ratio limitations can currently prevent the accurate experimental implementation of the 4D method, and the extraction of rate-dependent material properties from the force maps is a formidable challenge, the spectral inversion method

Thermal noise limit for ultra-high vacuum noncontact atomic force microscopy

• Jannis Lübbe,
• Matthias Temmen,
• Sebastian Rode,
• Philipp Rahe,
• Angelika Kühnle and
• Michael Reichling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 32–44, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.4

• first and second harmonic mode are determined by measuring resonance curves and fitting the amplitude response function to the data as described in [9]. This procedure also yields quality factors Qn, while the stiffness kdim is calculated from cantilever dimensions and material properties [10] and used

Growth behaviour and mechanical properties of PLL/HA multilayer films studied by AFM

• Cagri Üzüm,
• Johannes Hellwig,
• Narayanan Madaboosi,
• Dmitry Volodkin and
• Regine von Klitzing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 778–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.87

• [21][37][38][40]. Another source of error in mechanical measurements of thin films is the substrate effect [37]. Although film stiffening due to the hard substrate is a real effect, it should be eliminated in the calculations since it does not reflect the material properties of the coating and may not

Controlled positioning of nanoparticles on a micrometer scale

• Fabian Enderle,
• Oliver Dubbers,
• Alfred Plettl and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 773–777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.86

• ; Introduction Nanoparticles (NPs) still play a major role in nanoscience from both an application and a fundamental point of view. Common to both aspects is the interest in possible new properties when reducing the sample size of a material down to the nanoscale. Quite generally, all material properties display