Fast diffusion of silver in TiO₂ nanotube arrays

• Wanggang Zhang,
• Yiming Liu,
• Diaoyu Zhou,
• Hui Wang,
• Wei Liang and
• Fuqian Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1129–1140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.105

• structures, including nanotubes, nanoparticles, nanorods, mesoporous spheres, nanosheets, nanowires have been synthesized via anodic oxidation, template, and hydrothermal processing to increase the ratio of surface area to volume for the maximization of effective surface area [17]. Among the low-dimensional

Cantilever bending based on humidity-actuated mesoporous silica/silicon bilayers

• Christian Ganser,
• Gerhard Fritz-Popovski,
• Roland Morak,
• Parvin Sharifi,
• Benedetta Marmiroli,
• Barbara Sartori,
• Heinz Amenitsch,
• Thomas Griesser,
• Christian Teichert and
• Oskar Paris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 637–644, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.56

• Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Graz University of Technology, Austria Chair of Chemistry of Polymeric Materials, Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria 10.3762/bjnano.7.56 Abstract We use a soft templating approach in combination with evaporation induced self-assembly to prepare mesoporous films containing

• humidity. We also investigate a similar film on bulk silicon substrate using grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS), in order to determine nanostructural parameters of the film as well as the water-sorption-induced deformation of the ordered mesopore lattice. The strain of the mesoporous

• bending; grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS); mesoporous film; sorption-induced deformation; Introduction Because the bending of a microcantilever can be measured with extremely high accuracy, sensors utilizing this principle are in focus of recent research. Such sensors are able, for

Influence of wide band gap oxide substrates on the photoelectrochemical properties and structural disorder of CdS nanoparticles grown by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method

• Mikalai V. Malashchonak,
• Alexander V. Mazanik,
• Olga V. Korolik,
• Еugene А. Streltsov and
• Anatoly I. Kulak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2252–2262, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.231

• titanium, respectively. Mesoporous In2O3 films were prepared by spin coating of an indium hydroxide colloidal solution with subsequent heat treatment [36]. A stable indium hydroxide sol was prepared by hydrolysis of a 0.25 mol/L In(NO3)3 solution with aqueous ammonia (12%) under vigorous stirring at 0 °C

• water, air-dried and heat-treated at 450 °C for 1 h in air. Mesoporous zinc oxide films were prepared by the electrochemical cathodic deposition from water–ethanol (1:1 by volume) electrolyte containing 0.1 mol/L Zn(NO3)2, 0.1 mol/L KCl and 4 g/L poly(vinylpyrrolidone) at 50 °C [18][38]. Deposition was

• detected using a thermostated CCD matrix with a signal acquisition time typically equal to 120 s. Calibration was performed by means of a built-in gas discharge lamp to an accuracy of ≈1 cm−1. SEM images of In2O3 mesoporous films (a,d), ZnO platelet crystallites (b,e) and anodic TiO2 nanotubes (c,f

Selective porous gates made from colloidal silica nanoparticles

• Roberto Nisticò,
• Paola Avetta,
• Paola Calza,
• Debora Fabbri,
• Giuliana Magnacca and
• Dominique Scalarone

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2105–2112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.215

• hexagonally ordered pores were also employed as substrate for MCM-48 silica films, giving promising results [4][23][24]. The sol–gel polymerization process is a key procedure for the bottom-up synthesis of nano- and mesoporous silica films and in the literature there are several reviews focusing on this field

• [25][26]. Conventional procedures for the synthesis of mesoporous silica involve the use of amphiphilic templates [27][28][29][30]. Either low molecular weight surfactants or polymers have been used as structure-directing agents in the preparation of organic–inorganic hybrid solutions and they have

• dye methylene blue (MB, molecular weight (MW) = 320 Da) and the cationic protein ribonuclease A (RNAse, MW = 13700 Da). Results and Discussion Synthesis, preparation and physicochemical characterization of the colloidal silica nanoparticles and mesoporous coatings Amphiphilic block copolymers in

Peptide-equipped tobacco mosaic virus templates for selective and controllable biomineral deposition

• Klara Altintoprak,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alexander Welle,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Nina Stitz,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Joachim Bill,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Holger Jeske,
• Dirk Rothenstein,
• Fania Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1399–1412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.145

• example, as a structural modifier or filler in rubber [1], food [2][3] or healthcare products [4], bioceramics for medical purposes [5], mesoporous nanoparticulate or tubular drug delivery systems as reviewed in [6], sensor surfaces [7], or biocatalytic formulations as reviewed in [8]. An important focus

Self-assembly of nanostructures and nanomaterials

• Isabelle Berbezier and
• Maurizio De Crescenzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1397–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.144

• , quantum properties and applications of nanoscale assemblies to advanced devices. The main topics of interest involve 2D nanomaterials such as nanomembranes, graphene, silicene and ordered mesoporous oxides, 1D nanomaterials such as nanowires and nanotubes, and 0D nanomaterials such as quantum dots

Heterometal nanoparticles from Ru-based molecular clusters covalently anchored onto functionalized carbon nanotubes and nanofibers

• Deborah Vidick,
• Xiaoxing Ke,
• Michel Devillers,
• Claude Poleunis,
• Arnaud Delcorte,
• Pietro Moggi,
• Gustaaf Van Tendeloo and
• Sophie Hermans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1287–1297, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.133

• the presence of additives, binders, etc. Results and Discussion Cluster anchoring Phosphine-functionalized carbon nanofibers and nanotubes were prepared in several steps, as previously reported [38] and shown in Figure 1. We have also successfully applied this methodology to ordered mesoporous carbon

• described in the Experimental section and are identified by their infrared νCO bands (Table S1 in Supporting Information File 1). In our previous related publications [38][51], these clusters were reacted with the functionalized ordered mesoporous carbon but not nanotubes and nanofibers. In order to prove

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

Experimental determination of the light-trapping-induced absorption enhancement factor in DSSC photoanodes

• Serena Gagliardi and
• Mauro Falconieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 886–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.91

• produced by the concurrent phenomena of light absorption by dye molecules and light trapping in the mesoporous, titania photoanode structure. The decoupling of these two phenomena is important for device characterization and the design of novel photoelectrode geometries with increased optical performance

• photoanode with the light absorbed by the dye without the mesoporous titania structure. In order to gain more insight from this result, the fraction of light absorbed in the photoanode (on the basis of the dye loading capacity of the titania nanospheres) was also calculated by an optical model for the two

• point to determine one of the key photovoltaic parameters of a device. In DSSCs, light harvesting occurs at the photoanode, which is comprised of a monolayer of dye adsorbed onto a mesoporous titania film deposited onto a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer. The absorption spectrum of the dye

Silica micro/nanospheres for theranostics: from bimodal MRI and fluorescent imaging probes to cancer therapy

• Shanka Walia and
• Amitabha Acharya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 546–558, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.57

• of dopant ions in a nanoparticle environment. Thus these new classes of materials can be used as potential fluorescent probes for biomedical imaging. Singh et al. [16] reported the synthesis of luminescent YVO4:Eu3+ NPs incorporated inside mesoporous silica NPs through a sol–gel process. The

• synthesis was enhanced by using Y(NO3)3·6H2O and Eu2O3 as reactants, CTAB as surfactant and TEOS as alkyl silicate. Finally, the anticancer drug doxyrubicin (DOX) was loaded into the prepared NPs. Characterization of mesoporous silica NPs (MSN), YVO4:Eu3+ NPs and YVO4-MSNs were done by XRD, FTIR, TEM and

• fluorescence spectroscopy, XRD, FTIR and SQUID magnetometry. The in vitro studies on bone-marrow-derived polymorphonuclear neutrophils (BM-PMNs) suggested that these nanoparticles exert toxic effects only at high concentrations. In a similar way, Chen et al. [25] synthesized FITC-conjugated mesoporous

Palladium nanoparticles anchored to anatase TiO₂ for enhanced surface plasmon resonance-stimulated, visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

• Kah Hon Leong,
• Hong Ye Chu,
• Shaliza Ibrahim and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 428–437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.43

• Figure 5 and Figure S2 (Supporting Information File 1). As can be seen, all the samples possess a stepwise adsorption and desorption hysteresis, represented by type-IV isotherms, with the characteristics of a mesoporous material [53]. The variations in BET surface area, average pore size and pore volume

Comparative evaluation of the impact on endothelial cells induced by different nanoparticle structures and functionalization

• Lisa Landgraf,
• Ines Müller,
• Peter Ernst,
• Miriam Schäfer,
• Christina Rosman,
• Isabel Schick,
• Oskar Köhler,
• Hartmut Oehring,
• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Thomas Basché,
• Carsten Sönnichsen,
• Wolfgang Tremel and
• Ingrid Hilger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 300–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.28

• probably led to a higher uptake rate. Interestingly, Chen et al. observed a charge-dependent localization of mesoporous silica nanoparticles with positively charged particles in the cytosol and negatively charged ones in acidic endosomes [54]. Not only the surface coating but also the nanoparticle material

Tunable light filtering by a Bragg mirror/heavily doped semiconducting nanocrystal composite

• Ilka Kriegel and
• Francesco Scotognella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 193–200, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.18

• , the use of tunable filters would be a great advantage. A very efficient class of filters are Bragg mirrors, also called one-dimensional photonic crystals [4][5][6]. Bragg mirrors can be made of dense materials [7], but also with mesoporous materials or nanoparticles [8][9][10]. Their use has been

Caveolin-1 and CDC42 mediated endocytosis of silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticles in HeLa cells

• Nils Bohmer and
• Andreas Jordan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 167–176, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.16

• [37] and mesoporous silica particles [40] exclusively through Clathrin mediated endocytosis and/or macropinocytosis. This discrepancy can be explained by the different physicochemical properties of the particles used. Especially in the field of iron-oxide nanoparticles more studies concerning the

Synthesis of boron nitride nanotubes and their applications

• Saban Kalay,
• Zehra Yilmaz,
• Ozlem Sen,
• Melis Emanet,
• Emine Kazanc and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 84–102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.9

• ]. The BNNT–mesoporous silica (BNNT–MS) hybrids were reported for their use in drug delivery [85]. In this study, a negatively and positively charged BNNT–mesoporous silica, BNNT–MS and BNNT–MS–NH2, respectively, were produced. These structures were loaded with dox. The loading efficiency was found to be

Manganese oxide phases and morphologies: A study on calcination temperature and atmospheric dependence

• Matthias Augustin,
• Daniela Fenske,
• Ingo Bardenhagen,
• Anne Westphal,
• Martin Knipper,
• Thorsten Plaggenborg,
• Joanna Kolny-Olesiak and
• Jürgen Parisi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 47–59, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.6

• such as particle size, surface area and Mnx+ oxidation state is required. Here, Mn3O4 and Mn5O8 nanoparticles as well as mesoporous α-Mn2O3 particles were synthesized by calcination of Mn(II) glycolate nanoparticles obtained through an economical route based on a polyol synthesis. The preparation of

• performance for the mesoporous α-Mn2O3 species. Keywords: electrocatalytic activity; in situ X-ray diffraction; manganese glycolate; manganese oxide nanoparticles; mesoporous α-Mn2O3; Introduction Manganese oxides are a class of inexpensive compounds with a high potential for nanostructuring, which makes

• oxides can be enhanced by nanostructuring of the different species, which was recently shown by Zhang et al. [17]. In their report, better cyclability of Li-ion cells was obtained with anodes consisting of mesoporous Mn2O3 particles compared to Mn2O3 bulk powder electrodes [17]. Several nanoscale

Low-cost plasmonic solar cells prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Valdek Mikli,
• Arvo Mere,
• Ilmo Sildos and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2398–2402, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.249

• the smaller absorbing volume. The use of mesoporous TiO2 or ZnO nanorods provides increased surface area of the absorber, while the introduction of metal nanoparticles allows photons to be captured via plasmonic effects [1][2][3][4]. This work attempts to utilize the advantages of the plasmon effect

The surface properties of nanoparticles determine the agglomeration state and the size of the particles under physiological conditions

• Christoph Bantz,
• Olga Koshkina,
• Thomas Lang,
• Hans-Joachim Galla,
• C. James Kirkpatrick,
• Roland H. Stauber and
• Michael Maskos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1774–1786, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.188

• -labelled particles, or of particles with defined surface functionalities [61][62][63][64]. Furthermore, the reaction principle of the Stöber synthesis is also applied for the preparation of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) [65]. With respect to particle size distributions, silica sols and Stöber

Nanoporous composites prepared by a combination of SBA-15 with Mg–Al mixed oxides. Water vapor sorption properties

• Amaury Pérez-Verdejo,
• Alvaro Sampieri,
• Heriberto Pfeiffer,
• Mayra Ruiz-Reyes,
• Juana-Deisy Santamaría and
• Geolar Fetter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1226–1234, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.136

• nanostructured mesoporous composites by interconnecting and combining SBA-15 with mixed oxides derived from a calcined Mg–Al hydrotalcite. Two different Mg–Al hydrotalcite addition procedures were implemented, either after or during the SBA-15 synthesis (in situ method). The first procedure, i.e., the post

• porous composite, which displays a cauliflower morphology. This is an important microporosity contribution and micro and mesoporous surfaces coexist in almost the same proportion. Furthermore, the nanostructured mesoporous composites present an extraordinary water vapor sorption capacity. Such composites

• distributions. Still, it is necessary to improve the preparation methods to obtain micro and mesoporous nanostructured composites more easily, with short preparation times, lower overall costs, better textural properties, and highly dispersed active metals. Anionic clays, or simply hydrotalcites, are good

Template-directed synthesis and characterization of microstructured ceramic Ce/ZrO₂@SiO₂ composite tubes

• Jörg J. Schneider and
• Meike Naumann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1152–1159, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.126

• well as redox properties [5][6][7][8]. The transformation into ordered crystalline mesoporous structures of composition CexZr1−xO2 (x = 0.4–0.8) has also been shown [9]. In these solid solutions ultrafine zirconia allows for a better mechanical behavior, which facilitates enhanced fracture toughness

Photocatalysis

• Rong Xu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1071–1072, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.119

• bismuth vanadium oxide cluster exemplifies these characteristics. Besides solar fuel production, photocatalysis has a long history in water treatment. In this Thematic Series, there is also a report on the latest development in the utilization of mesoporous cerium oxide for visible light-driven dye

Functionalized nanostructures for enhanced photocatalytic performance under solar light

• Liejin Guo,
• Dengwei Jing,
• Maochang Liu,
• Yubin Chen,
• Shaohua Shen,
• Jinwen Shi and
• Kai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 994–1004, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.113

• first reports on mesoporous silica MCM-41 [9], inorganic oxides with controlled porosity have been extensively investigated. It is known that mesoporous photocatalysts usually exhibit high specific surface areas that can provide more surface reactive sites. The nanoscale channel walls of mesoporous

• semiconductor nanocrystals are dispersed in the mesoporous substrate, greatly enhanced photocatalytic properties can also be achieved. For example, dispersing TiO2 nanoclusters in MCM-41 [13] and MCM-48 [14] resulted in much higher photocatalytic activities than that of bulk TiO2 under UV light irradiation. Our

• work was carried out on Ni modified mesoporous TiO2 photocatalysts [15]. It was found that Ni ions were highly dispersed in the framework of mesoporous TiO2 resulting in enhanced hydrogen production in methanol aqueous solution compared to Ni-doped particulate TiO2. The photocatalytic activity was

Optical modeling-assisted characterization of dye-sensitized solar cells using TiO₂ nanotube arrays as photoanodes

• Jung-Ho Yun,
• Il Ku Kim,
• Yun Hau Ng,
• Lianzhou Wang and
• Rose Amal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 895–902, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.102

• structures and morphologies such as mesoporous TiO2, nanorods, nanotubes, nanosheets and hollow spheres have, therefore, been investigated to improve the performance of DSSCs by using various synthetic and modification methods [4][5][6][10][11]. Compared to the conventional DSSCs, which employ mesoporous

Nanostructure sensitization of transition metal oxides for visible-light photocatalysis

• Hongjun Chen and
• Lianzhou Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 696–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.82

• water splitting in order to produce hydrogen [35][38][39][41][45] and the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 were reported [51]. In addition to the applications in photocatalysis, quantum dots are often used as photosensitizer to sensitize the mesoporous TiO2 photoelectrode as the photoanode in quantum

Artificial sunlight and ultraviolet light induced photo-epoxidation of propylene over V-Ti/MCM-41 photocatalyst

• Van-Huy Nguyen,
• Shawn D. Lin,
• Jeffrey Chi-Sheng Wu and
• Hsunling Bai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 566–576, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.67

• photocatalyst. The XRD pattern indicates a mesoporous hexagonal lattice with a clear feature of (100). The (110) and (200) peaks are not well-separated, maybe due to the high calcination temperature of 823 K [33]. The HRTEM image of V-Ti/MCM-41 in Figure 3 reveals a uniform hexagonal structure, which is a