Growth, structure and stability of sputter-deposited MoS₂ thin films

• Reinhard Kaindl,
• Bernhard C. Bayer,
• Roland Resel,
• Thomas Müller,
• Viera Skakalova,
• Gerlinde Habler,
• Rainer Abart,
• Alexey S. Cherevan,
• Dominik Eder,
• Maxime Blatter,
• Fabian Fischer,
• Jannik C. Meyer,
• Dmitry K. Polyushkin and
• Wolfgang Waldhauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.113

• density, whereas the in-plane ordering remains unaffected. Stability of MoS2 thin films deposited at RT and 400 °C In view of practical applications the stability of the sputter deposited MoS2 thin films is of importance. Possible degradation scenarios include exposure to visible light radiation or

• exposed to visible light radiation and local temperature increase. Electrical properties of MoS2 thin films In order to investigate the electrical properties of our PVD MoS2 films on the SiO2-covered Si substrates two types of FET devices with rectangular and circular source and drain contacts were

ZnO nanoparticles sensitized by CuInZn_xS_2+x quantum dots as highly efficient solar light driven photocatalysts

• Florian Donat,
• Serge Corbel,
• Halima Alem,
• Steve Pontvianne,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Ghouti Medjahdi and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1080–1093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.110

• bandgap (≈3.2–3.3 eV) restricts light activation to the UV range (which accounts for only ≈4% of the solar spectrum) for the generation of the charge carriers responsible for the surface redox reactions. To improve the efficient use of solar light, visible-light-responsive photocatalysts should be

• both under solar and visible light illumination (light intensity = 5 mW/cm2) of all the ZnO/ZCIS composites prepared, we selected Orange II dye as a model contaminant because this dye is not a photosensitizer (in contrast to Methylene Blue or Rhodamine which promote photocatalytic degradation). Prior

Synthesis of graphene–transition metal oxide hybrid nanoparticles and their application in various fields

• Arpita Jana,
• Elke Scheer and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 688–714, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.74

• excellent thermal (≈5000 W·m−1·K−1) [6] and electrical conductivity (up to 6000 S·cm−1) [7] and high theoretical specific surface area (2630 m2·g−1) [8]. Graphene is highly optically transparent (transmittance ≈97.7%) with absorption of <2.3% for visible light [9] and negligible reflectance (<0.1

Computing the T-matrix of a scattering object with multiple plane wave illuminations

• Martin Fruhnert,
• Ivan Fernandez-Corbaton,
• Vassilios Yannopapas and
• Carsten Rockstuhl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 614–626, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.66

• notable electric and magnetic dipole moment in the visible-light range. To calculate the T-matrix numerically we illuminate the sphere with the appropriate number of plane waves K. The wave vectors are chosen, such that they are evenly distributed in all directions. They can be considered as normal

Fabrication of black-gold coatings by glancing angle deposition with sputtering

• Alan Vitrey,
• Rafael Alvarez,
• Alberto Palmero,
• María Ujué González and
• José Miguel García-Martín

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 434–439, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.46

• obtained at high tilt angle. As a result, the nanostructured sample exhibits absorption above 60% over the whole visible-light range, slightly decreasing to 50% in the nIR region. Conclusion It has been shown that black-gold coatings in the visible range can be fabricated by means of sputtering using

Performance of natural-dye-sensitized solar cells by ZnO nanorod and nanowall enhanced photoelectrodes

• Saif Saadaoui,
• Mohamed Aziz Ben Youssef,
• Moufida Ben Karoui,
• Rached Gharbi,
• Emanuele Smecca,
• Vincenzina Strano,
• Salvo Mirabella,
• Alessandra Alberti and
• Rosaria A. Puglisi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 287–295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.31

• as a dye in the cosmetics industry. The most significant feature of the lawsone molecule is its ability to absorb visible light between 400 and 600 nm. The FTIR spectrum of henna extract, presented in Figure 4a, shows the existence of three valence bands associated with C=C aromatics at 1338 cm−1

Photocatalysis applications of some hybrid polymeric composites incorporating TiO₂ nanoparticles and their combinations with SiO₂/Fe₂O₃

• Andreea Laura Chibac,
• Tinca Buruiana,
• Violeta Melinte and
• Emil C. Buruiana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 272–286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.30

• phenol, hydroquinone and dopamine in aqueous solution under UV or visible-light irradiation. The best results were obtained for the films with TiO2/Fe2O3 or TiO2/SiO2/Fe2O3 NPs. The degradation of the mentioned model pollutants varied between 71% and 100% (after 250 min of irradiation) depending on the

• composition of the hybrid film tested and the light applied (UV–visible light). Also, it was established that such hybrid films can be reused at least for five cycles, without losing too much of the photocatalytic efficiency (ca. 7%). These findings could have implications in the development of new

• separation and recycling of photocatalyst particles from aqueous suspension can appear. In order to eliminate or at least diminish the limitations mentioned, many studies were directed on obtaining TiO2-based materials that are active under solar/visible light. It has been demonstrated that the increase of

Colorimetric gas detection by the varying thickness of a thin film of ultrasmall PTSA-coated TiO₂ nanoparticles on a Si substrate

• Urmas Joost,
• Andris Šutka,
• Meeri Visnapuu,
• Aile Tamm,
• Meeri Lembinen,
• Mikk Antsov,
• Kathriin Utt,
• Krisjanis Smits,
• Ergo Nõmmiste and
• Vambola Kisand

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 229–236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.25

• caused by the periodic variation of the refractive index [2]. Tuneable optical properties in opals are observed by the shift of the Bragg reflection peak of visible light, or by varying the refractive index contrast by liquid or gas infiltration in inverse opals [3][4][5]. The latter demonstrate an

Performance of colloidal CdS sensitized solar cells with ZnO nanorods/nanoparticles

• Anurag Roy,
• Partha Pratim Das,
• Mukta Tathavadekar,
• Sumita Das and
• Parukuttyamma Sujatha Devi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 210–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.23

• characteristics of the colloidal CdS-sensitized ZnO-P, ZnO-R and ZnO-R+P films measured within the bias voltage −10 V to +10 V in visible light is shown in Supporting Information File 1, Figure S3, exhibiting ohmic response. I–V characteristics also sustain higher current generation for 1D ZnO-R than ZnO-P

Optical and photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ nanoplumes

• Viviana Scuderi,
• Massimo Zimbone,
• Maria Miritello,
• Giuseppe Nicotra,
• Giuliana Impellizzeri and
• Vittorio Privitera

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 190–195, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.20

• synthesize black TiO2 with a large optical absorption in the visible and infrared region [15][16][17][18]. The amorphous shell on a crystalline nanoparticle core, causes the formation of intragap states [19], which are responsible for the high absorption of visible light (and consequently of the black color

• Ti films as an easy, rapid, and low-cost method to synthesize hydrogenated TiO2 nanoplumes with significant photocatalytic properties under UV and visible light irradiation. Here we report the optical properties of the TiO2 nanoplumes and their correlation with the efficiency of UV photodegradation

Influence of hydrofluoric acid treatment on electroless deposition of Au clusters

• Rachela G. Milazzo,
• Antonio M. Mio,
• Giuseppe D’Arrigo,
• Emanuele Smecca,
• Alessandra Alberti,
• Gabriele Fisichella,
• Filippo Giannazzo,
• Corrado Spinella and
• Emanuele Rimini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 183–189, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.19

• excellent at scattering and absorbing visible light [6][7][8]. For these reasons, they have found an interesting application in the field of metal–semiconductor hybrid structures for solar energy conversion [9][10]. Among the different adopted methods to deposit Au nanoclusters on a substrate, electroless

Effect of Anderson localization on light emission from gold nanoparticle aggregates

• Mohamed H. Abdellatif,
• Marco Salerno,
• Gaser N. Abdelrasoul,
• Ioannis Liakos,
• Alice Scarpellini,
• Sergio Marras and
• Alberto Diaspro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2013–2022, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.192

• phenomenon characterizing aggregates of metallic nanostructures. The electromagnetic energy of visible light can be localized inside nanostructures below the diffraction limit by converting the optical modes into nonradiative surface plasmon resonances. The energy of the confined photons is correlated to the

Role of RGO support and irradiation source on the photocatalytic activity of CdS–ZnO semiconductor nanostructures

• Suneel Kumar,
• Rahul Sharma,
• Vipul Sharma,
• Gurunarayanan Harith,
• Vaidyanathan Sivakumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1684–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.161

• characterized using different spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by studying the degradation of a model dye (methyl orange, MO) under visible light (only) irradiation and under natural sunlight. The results reveal that the RGO-supported CdS–ZnO photocatalyst

• performs considerably better than the unsupported CdS–ZnO nanostructures. In addition, both the catalysts perform significantly better under natural sunlight than under visible light (only) irradiation. In essence, this work paves way for tailoring the photocatalytic activity of semiconductor

• radiation [17]. Due to this high band gap value, ZnO can only absorb ultraviolet (UV) light and this limits its practical applications [18]. Thus, in order to design more efficient photocatalysts, which are active in visible light, many research groups have devoted their studies towards dye sensitization

High performance Ce-doped ZnO nanorods for sunlight-driven photocatalysis

• Bilel Chouchene,
• Tahar Ben Chaabane,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Kevin Mozet,
• Ghouti Medjahdi and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1338–1349, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.125

• been developed and their ability to degrade cyanide anions [28] or organic dyes [29][30][31][32][33] like methylene blue or methyl-orange has been demonstrated. The preparation of Ce–Cu, Ce–Pd or Ce–Ag co-doped photocatalysts to enhance the solar or the visible light catalytic response was also

• , electronic and photocatalytic properties have been investigated. Our results demonstrate that Ce-doping improves the optical absorption ability toward visible light wavelengths and thus the photocatalytic performances. ZnO:Ce rods allow the complete degradation of the Orange II dye in ca. 80 min under solar

• compared to ZnO (Figure 4), we also evaluated the photodegradation of Orange II under visible light (intensity = 5 mW/cm2) (Figure S4 in the Supporting Information File 1). Results obtained demonstrate that 78% of the dye was decomposed after 400 min and that the photodegradation required a longer time

Tunable longitudinal modes in extended silver nanoparticle assemblies

• Serene S. Bayram,
• Klas Lindfors and
• Amy Szuchmacher Blum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1219–1228, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.113

• of photonic structures is essential to increase the sensitivity and speed of photonic devices [35][36]. Common dielectric waveguides are restricted by the diffraction limit of light, which, for visible light, is several hundreds of nanometres. For nanodevices, much smaller photonic elements are

Manufacturing and investigation of physical properties of polyacrylonitrile nanofibre composites with SiO₂, TiO₂ and Bi₂O₃ nanoparticles

• Tomasz Tański,
• Wiktor Matysiak and
• Barbara Hajduk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1141–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.106

• , obtained for composite PAN nanofibres reinforced with nanoparticles of SiO2, is due to the relatively low refractive index of SiO2, which is about 1.45 for visible light. The used polymer and the SiO2 particles have a similar n. This means the mechanism of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with

Phenalenyl-based mononuclear dysprosium complexes

• Yanhua Lan,
• Andrea Magri,
• Olaf Fuhr and
• Mario Ruben

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 995–1009, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.92

• interesting magnetic properties. In this regard, the 9-hydroxy-1H-phenalen-1-one (HPLN) ligand has previously been utilized for the preparation of mononuclear lanthanide complexes [23][24] to study the near-infrared luminescence upon excitation with visible light. However, this work, carried out by our group

Selective photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to methanol in CuO-loaded NaTaO₃ nanocubes in isopropanol

• Tianyu Xiang,
• Feng Xin,
• Jingshuai Chen,
• Yuwen Wang,
• Xiaohong Yin and
• Xiao Shao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 776–783, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.69

• shown in Figure 6. With a large energy gap, it can be found that pure NaTaO3 had low light absorbance in the visible region. After CuO was loaded, the absorbance of the CuO–NaTaO3 catalysts in the visible light region (λ > 400 nm) became much stronger with the increase of CuO loading. The increase in

• visible light absorbance correlates with the formation rate and increase in electrons and holes on the photocatalyst surface [35]. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were carried out to confirm that CuO was loaded onto the surface of NaTaO3 nanocubes

Microwave solvothermal synthesis and characterization of manganese-doped ZnO nanoparticles

• Jacek Wojnarowicz,
• Roman Mukhovskyi,
• Elzbieta Pietrzykowska,
• Sylwia Kusnieruk,
• Jan Mizeracki and
• Witold Lojkowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 721–732, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.64

• composition analysis The chemical composition analysis was carried out by using visible-light spectrophotometry (DR 3900, Hach Lange, Germany). The analysis of the content of Zn2+ ions was carried out by using the Zincon method No. 8009 (Hach Lange). The analysis of the content of Mn2+ ions was carried out by

Rigid multipodal platforms for metal surfaces

• Michal Valášek,
• Marcin Lindner and
• Marcel Mayor

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 374–405, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.34

Green and energy-efficient methods for the production of metallic nanoparticles

• Mitra Naghdi,
• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• M. Verma,
• R. Y. Surampalli and
• J. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2354–2376, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.243

Silica-coated upconversion lanthanide nanoparticles: The effect of crystal design on morphology, structure and optical properties

• Uliana Kostiv,
• Miroslav Šlouf,
• Hana Macková,
• Alexander Zhigunov,
• Hana Engstová,
• Katarína Smolková,
• Petr Ježek and
• Daniel Horák

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2290–2299, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.235

• tracking [8], bioimaging [9] and photodynamic therapy [10]. Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles emit visible light upon excitation by near-IR light (NIR). Compared with organic dyes and semiconductor quantum dots, upconversion nanoparticles have attractive chemical and optical properties, as well

• . Consequently, three different Er3+ transitions were induced by NIR photons leading to the visible light emission [37]. Hence, the NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ nanocrystals exhibited three bands of green (520 and 545 nm) and red (660 nm) upconversion emissions corresponding to 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 → 4I15/2 and 4F9/2 → 4I15/2

Au nanoparticle-based sensor for apomorphine detection in plasma

• Chiara Zanchi,
• Andrea Lucotti,
• Matteo Tommasini,
• Sebastiano Trusso,
• Ugo de Grazia,
• Emilio Ciusani and
• Paolo M. Ossi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2224–2232, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.228

•  1A show typical average sizes of such inter-island channels. SERS hinges on the strong interaction between noble metal NPs and visible light through the resonant collective excitation of NP conduction electrons. The resulting surface plasmon resonance peak [28] displays a maximum at about 780 nm

A single-source precursor route to anisotropic halogen-doped zinc oxide particles as a promising candidate for new transparent conducting oxide materials

• Daniela Lehr,
• Markus R. Wagner,
• Johanna Flock,
• Julian S. Reparaz,
• Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres,
• Alexander Klaiber,
• Thomas Dekorsy and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2161–2172, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.222

• transparency over the entire visible light range. A solid solution of indium oxide and substantial amounts of tin oxide for electronic doping (ITO) is currently the most prominent example for the class of so-called TCOs (transparent conducting oxides). Due to the limited, natural occurrence of indium and its

Mapping bound plasmon propagation on a nanoscale stripe waveguide using quantum dots: influence of spacer layer thickness

• Chamanei S. Perera,
• Alison M. Funston,
• Han-Hao Cheng and
• Kristy C. Vernon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2046–2051, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.208

• ). LRSPPs have been shown to have large propagation lengths in the visible light range, greater than 10 µm [6]. When quantum dots (QDs) are placed in the vicinity of propagating plasmons, QDs can be locally excited by the plasmon if the plasmon frequency lies within the absorption spectral range of the QDs