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

• of platforms was investigated using XRD and XPS methods. Structural investigations confirmed, that nanostructures consist of metallic Au, growing along the [111] direction. The most homogeneous seems to be the platform obtained by solidification of a 2.8 nm Au film, annealed at 550 °C for 15 min

• the obtained nanostructures and valence states of Au was measured using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with an Omicron NanoTechnology spectrometer with 128-channel collector. XPS measurements were performed at room temperature under ultra-high vacuum conditions, below 1.1 × 10−8 mbar. The

• ). XPS spectra were analyzed with the Casa-XPS software using a Shirley background subtraction and Gaussian–Lorentzian curves for fitting. UV–vis spectra were recorded by a double-beam Thermo Fisher Scientific Evolution 220 spectrophotometer in reflectance mode. The spectra were recorded in a range of

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

• known that the presence of chloride ions in silver colloids promotes the formation of positively charged active sites on the surface of the silver nanoparticles [55][56], as experimental proved by XPS measurements, which show a significant amount of oxidized silver on the particle surface [57]. Finally

Nanotribology

• Enrico Gnecco,
• Susan Perkin,
• Andrea Vanossi and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2330–2331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.217

• techniques for materials characterization are those typical of surface science (e.g., X-ray diffraction, SEM, TEM, XPS and Raman spectroscopy), more specific to nanotribology are nanoindenters, nanotribometers, quartz force microbalance and especially atomic force microscopy (AFM), which, without a doubt

Hierarchical heterostructures of Bi₂MoO₆ microflowers decorated with Ag₂CO₃ nanoparticles for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic removal of toxic pollutants

• Shijie Li,
• Wei Jiang,
• Shiwei Hu,
• Yu Liu,
• Yanping Liu,
• Kaibing Xu and
• Jianshe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2297–2305, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.214

• structure was found after the photocatalytic reactions, as shown in the XRD pattern (Figure 8b). However, the XPS pattern of the used ACO/BMO-30 suggests that some Ag+ is reduced to Ag(0) after the reaction (Figure S5, Supporting Information File 1). It has been recognized that the formation of Ag/Ag2CO3

Phosphorus monolayer doping (MLD) of silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates

• Noel Kennedy,
• Ray Duffy,
• Luke Eaton,
• Dan O’Connell,
• Scott Monaghan,
• Shane Garvey,
• James Connolly,
• Chris Hatem,
• Justin D. Holmes and
• Brenda Long

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2106–2113, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.199

• the liquid phase enhances this re-oxidation. Therefore, precautions are taken to ensure a minimal re-oxidation, i.e., solvents are thoroughly degassed, and processing is carried out in a N2 environment using a Schlenk line. XPS analysis of samples immediately after functionalization indicated that

• under neutral conditions. Controlled-voltage etching was carried out with step widths of 2–5 nm. Secondary ion mass spectrometry data was acquired on a Phi Adept 1010 using a 0.5–1.0 keV Cs+ bombardment with negative ion detection. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS spectra were acquired on an Oxford

• Applied Research Escabase XPS system equipped with a CLASS VM 100 mm mean radius hemispherical electron energy analyser with a triple-channel detector arrangement in an analysis chamber with a base pressure of 5.0 × 10−10 mbar. Survey scans were acquired between 0 and 1400 eV with a step size of 0.7 eV, a

Localized photodeposition of catalysts using nanophotonic resonances in silicon photocathodes

• Evgenia Kontoleta,
• Sven H. C. Askes,
• Lai-Hung Lai and
• Erik C. Garnett

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2097–2105, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.198

• -electron spectroscopy (XPS) on a sample with a higher amount of photo-electrodeposited platinum (ca. 2 mC). The observed platinum 4f7/2 and 4f5/2 binding energy peaks corresponded very well to those of a metallic Pt reference material (Figure 3c). Overall, these results demonstrate that light can be used

• electrolyte. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) was performed in a custom-built ultrahigh-vacuum chamber, operating at a base pressure below 5 × 10−9 mbar. A XM1200 monochromatic X-ray source (Al Kα line, Scienta Omicron) was used for X-ray excitation of the sample

• technical assistance with the XPS measurements. This work is part of the research program of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), which is financially supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

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

• exhibits a vacancy as neighbor. The different nitrogen configurations are easily distinguished by XPS according to the binding energy of the N 1s core level spectra. The pyridinic configuration is usually found at 398–399 eV, the pyrrolic configuration and other defective components at 399.5–400.5 eV, and

• determination is not possible by using only XPS and other techniques need to be used, e.g., infrared spectroscopy and electron microscopy. Content and configuration of nitrogen in graphene and carbon nanotubes can be tuned by thermal annealing or by the interaction with different substrates. Temperature

• role of the active sites was not addressed in detail, the electrode performance was remarkable. The N/C ratio was approximately 4 % but the energy resolution of the reported XPS data was too poor to correctly distinguish the different N species. The N 1s peak was deconvoluted into two components

Defect formation in multiwalled carbon nanotubes under low-energy He and Ne ion irradiation

• Santhana Eswara,
• Jean-Nicolas Audinot,
• Brahime El Adib,
• Maël Guennou,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1951–1963, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.186

• directly related to the number of defects in CNTs [30], or X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) which provides some information on the chemical environment of the carbon atoms [31]. In this context, it is to be noted that helium ion microscopy (HIM) has received increasing attention recently as a high

Synthesis of a MnO₂/Fe₃O₄/diatomite nanocomposite as an efficient heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst for methylene blue degradation

• Zishun Li,
• Xuekun Tang,
• Kun Liu,
• Jing Huang,
• Yueyang Xu,
• Qian Peng and
• Minlin Ao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1940–1950, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.185

• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) using a Nicolet Nexus 670 spectrometer. The morphology of samples was observed with a TESCAN MIRA3 LMU scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a JEOL JEM-1200EX transmission electron microscope (TEM). The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements

• field (inset). The decrease of the maximum saturation magnetizations after the treatment with KMnO4 is largely ascribed to the outer MnO2 shell, the saturation magnetization of which is much lower than the Fe3O4 nanoparticles. XPS measurements were carried out to determine the surface chemical

• surface chemical composition results obtained from the XPS analysis ensure the formation of Fe3O4 and MnO2, which further confirms the observation from the previous structural and morphological characterization. Figure 7 shows the N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms and corresponding pore-size

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

• IL [BMIm][BF4] for RE = Pr, Eu, Gd and Er. The crystalline phases and the absence of significant oxide impurities in RE-NPs and REF3-NPs were verified by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The size

• not done, because matching of the F Kα1 binding energy against the Lα1 or Lβ1 binding energies for Eu, Gd and Er is not very accurate. The measured oxidation state 3+ of the rare-earth metals in the fluorides was corroborated by high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HR-XPS) (Figure 4 and

• Figures S4c, S5c, S6d, Supporting Information File 1) through comparison to the reported binding energies of metal(III) fluorides/oxides, metal(0) and organic fluorine/oxygen (Table 2) [48][49]. The measured metal and fluorine XPS values are in good agreement with the values of metal(III) fluorides that

A visible-light-controlled platform for prolonged drug release based on Ag-doped TiO₂ nanotubes with a hydrophobic layer

• Caihong Liang,
• Jiang Wen and
• Xiaoming Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1793–1801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.170

• + and the NDM hydrophobic layer was verified by SEM and EDS; the results are shown in Figure 3. Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to analyze the chemical state of the coating layer of Ag-TNTs and Zn-Ag-TNTs shown in Figure 4. Figure 3a,b clearly demonstrates that some

• . The existence of S demonstrates that NDM has been successfully applied onto the TNTs. The main components of the Ag and Zn substances were measured through XPS (see Figure 4). Figure 4a presents the XPS full spectrum of Ag-TNTs where Ag, Ti and O elements are shown to exist, while Figure 4e is the

• full XPS spectrum of Zn-Ag-TNTs, in which Zn, Ti, Ag and O elements are detected. These spectra suggest the successful decoration of Ag as well as loading of Zn. The presence of C may be attributed to the incorporation from the electrolyte and the organic contamination adsorbed from environment. Figure

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

• functionalities, which in turn increases the layer separation and turns the material hydrophilic. The subsequent exfoliation step separates the layers, thereby significantly increasing its accessible surface area leading to the formation of single- or few-layered GO. In our previous work, by XPS analysis, we have

• evaluation by N2 adsorption isotherm measurement and a detailed XPS analysis of their surface functionalities. Finally, the gas adsorption studies of all materials are presented and compared comprehensively. Raman spectroscopy is one of the few meaningful characterization techniques that are able to

• chemical composition as well. Due to their high absorption near the infrared region, IR spectroscopy is seldom used to characterize CNTs and CNHs. In contrast, XPS is a central characterization method that can be successfully applied to different types of carbon materials to obtain meaningful chemical

Uniform cobalt nanoparticles embedded in hexagonal mesoporous nanoplates as a magnetically separable, recyclable adsorbent

• Can Zhao,
• Yuexiao Song,
• Tianyu Xiang,
• Wenxiu Qu,
• Shuo Lou,
• Xiaohong Yin and
• Feng Xin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1770–1781, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.168

• adsorption spectra were recorded on a UV-2550 (Shimadzu, Japan) instrument. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was conducted on a PHA-5400 (SPECS, America) spectrometer. Raman spectra were performed on an In-Via Raman spectroscopy system (Renishaw, England) with excitation laser wavelengths of 532 nm

• [38]. XPS was used to investigate the surface composition of the sample NPLs-2.5-800 and the valence state of the elements. The elements Co, Al, C, O, and N can be clearly observed in the full survey XPS spectrum (Figure 6B). The two characteristic peaks located at 780.8 eV and 796.5 eV in the Co 2p

• spectrum are assigned to the 2p3/2 and 2p1/2 spin–orbit split peaks of Co (II) species, respectively (Figure 6C). Two small peaks at 786.4 eV and 803.5 eV are two satellite peaks of Co (II) species [39]. XPS is sensitive to atoms in the near-surface layer, hence only two weak peaks in Figure 6C ascribed to

Cryochemical synthesis of ultrasmall, highly crystalline, nanostructured metal oxides and salts

• Elena A. Trusova and
• Nikolai S. Trutnev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1755–1763, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.166

• atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-MS, Optima-5300). It was shown that the content of residual carbon and nitrogen in the powders did not exceed 0.08 and 0.07 wt %, respectively. The NiO nanopowder was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, PHI5500 Versa Probe II) with a monochromatic Al

• a cryosol (Figure 7) shows an highly dispersed crystalline state, which was confirmed by the TEM data (Figure 6a). The broadened reflexes confirm the high dispersity of the CeO2 crystallites. Figure 8 shows the collected XPS spectrum of the NiO nanopowder obtained by using the cryochemical method

• a better-dispersed nanopowder with smaller crystallite size. X-ray diffraction pattern for a CeO2 (JCPDS Card No. 43-1002) nanopowder obtained from a cryosol (XRD-6000 Shimadzu, Japan). Collected XPS spectrum of NiO nanopowders synthesized using the cryochemical method. XPS data for NiO nanopowders

Toward the use of CVD-grown MoS₂ nanosheets as field-emission source

• Geetanjali Deokar,
• Nitul S. Rajput,
• Junjie Li,
• Francis Leonard Deepak,
• Wei Ou-Yang,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jean-Francois Colomer and
• Mustapha Jouiad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1686–1694, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.160

• tip radius below 10 nm) with a resonant frequency of 312 kHz. To confirm the layer number of the NSs, micro-Raman spectroscopy was performed using a 473 nm laser at room temperature. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were performed using a Thermo Fisher Scientific K-alpha

• indicates the presence of more than three layers of MoS2 [23]. The chemical state of the as-grown samples was investigated by XPS. The Mo 3d, S 2p and O 1s high-resolution core-level spectrum fits are presented in Figure 2b,c. The corresponding data analysis results are given in Table S1 (Supporting

• stored in air for several days before performing the XPS measurements. Thus, the surface-sensitive characterization technique (XPS) shows the dominant presence of the MoS2 phase on the sample surface. Microstructural analysis of the MoS2 NSs In Figure 3, plane-view images of as-grown MoS2 NSs are

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

• a strong bonding capacity for S. This will reduce the S losses to the electrolyte, and thus improve the cycling performance of the Li/S battery. In fact, the S–Zn and S–O bonds were confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of the as-obtained S/ZnO@NCNT composite (Figure 5). In the S 2p

• ]. Regarding the Zn 2p spectrum, the peaks located at 1022.2 and 1045.3 eV are the 2p3/2 and 2p1/2 states, respectively (Figure 5b) [25]. Since Zn–O and Zn–S have a similar XPS bonding energy in the two Zn states, they are not distinguishable in the Zn 2p spectrum. The performance of the as-prepared S/ZnO@NCNT

• such a good performance originates from a strong bonding capacity of the reactive ZnO planes in the composite. As confirmed by the XPS analysis, the exposed active surfaces on ZnO can “hold” a large amount of S species through Zn–S and O–S bonds and therefore contribute to the observed excellent

Sulfur-, nitrogen- and platinum-doped titania thin films with high catalytic efficiency under visible-light illumination

• Boštjan Žener,
• Lev Matoh,
• Giorgio Carraro,
• Bojan Miljević and
• Romana Cerc Korošec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1629–1640, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.155

• (ammonium nitrate, urea), sulfur (thiourea) and platinum (chloroplatinic acid), coated onto glass substrates by dip-coating, and thermally treated in a muffle furnace to promote crystallization. The resulting thin films were then characterized by various techniques (i.e., TGA-DSC-MS, XRD, BET, XPS, SEM

• dispersions [45]. The prepared samples were analyzed using thermogravimetric analysis–differential scanning calorimetry–mass spectrometry (TGA-DSC-MS), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), specific surface area measurements via Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method (BET), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS

• determined by XPS measurements. The platinum in sample S3_N0.5+0.015 M Pt was added as the final layer in the form of chloroplatinic acid by dip-coating. The last number describes molar concentrations of the deposited solution. Thermal analysis The purpose of thermal analysis measurements (TGA-DSC-MS) was to

Sheet-on-belt branched TiO₂(B)/rGO powders with enhanced photocatalytic activity

• Huan Xing,
• Wei Wen and
• Jin-Ming Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1550–1557, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.146

• hydrogen titanates depends on the substrates. The TiO2(B) trunk may guide the TiO2 crystallization. The chemical bonding states of the TGN-branch 4 h were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS). Elements of Ti, C and O have been detected in the XPS survey spectra (Figure 5a). The binding energy of

• 10 mW. The X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) characterization was tested on an ESCA spectrometer (S-Probe ESCA SSX-100S, Fisons Instrument) and monochromatized Al Kα X-ray irradiation. The binding energy was calibrated by using the containment carbon (C 1s = 284.6 eV). The UV–vis diffuse reflectance

• , b) TEM and (c) HRTEM image of sample TGN-branch 4 h. The inset in (b) shows the corresponding SAED pattern. Raman spectra of samples TGN and TGN-branch 4 h recorded over the range of (a) 100–1000 cm−1 and (b) 1000–2000 cm−1. (a) XPS survey spectrum and core level XPS spectra of (b) Ti 2p, (c) C 1s

Cr(VI) remediation from aqueous environment through modified-TiO₂-mediated photocatalytic reduction

• Rashmi Acharya,
• Brundabana Naik and
• Kulamani Parida

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1448–1470, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.137

Colorimetric detection of Cu²⁺ based on the formation of peptide–copper complexes on silver nanoparticle surfaces

• Gajanan Sampatrao Ghodake,
• Surendra Krishna Shinde,
• Rijuta Ganesh Saratale,
• Avinash Ashok Kadam,
• Ganesh Dattatraya Saratale,
• Asad Syed,
• Fuad Ameen and
• Dae-Young Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1414–1422, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.134

• characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), XPS, XRD, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The shape of the SPR peak determined the qualitative characterization of the AgNPs, and the size range of the particles in solution concurred with the HR-TEM images. As can

• sensitivity toward Cu2+ ions. The C 1s, O 1s, N 1s, and Ag 3d peaks originating from the AgNPs surface are shown in the XPS survey spectrum (Figure 2a). The presence of O1s and N1s peaks after centrifugation indicates that the capping with casein peptides through electrostatic interaction was stable and

• and NH2) while the higher binding energy (BE) peak at 402.0 eV corresponds to protonated amino groups [18]. The Ag 3d XPS spectrum (Figure 2b) shows two prominent spin–orbit pairs at 367.6 (Ag 3d5/2) and 373.5 (Ag 3d3/2) eV, separated by 5.9 eV, and a broadening at high BE values also occurred. The

Nanoporous silicon nitride-based membranes of controlled pore size, shape and areal density: Fabrication as well as electrophoretic and molecular filtering characterization

• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Stefan Beirle,
• Fabian Enderle,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Othmar Marti and
• Alfred Plettl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1390–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.131

• , COMSOL simulations, approximation for the resistance of a membrane with conical nanopores, serial repair mechanism, real-time fluorescence microscopy, and XPS analysis of CHF3/CF4-etched sample surfaces before and after thermal annealing. Supporting Information File 86: Additional experimental data

• from a miniemulsion technique on commercial SiN membranes, O. Rettich, and C. Pfahler for studying RIE processes. We thank T. Diemant for the XPS measurements, G. Neusser for operating the FIB, K. Altintoprak, H. Gliemann, C. Wege, and S. Nussberger for fruitful discussions, and the latter one also for

Understanding the performance and mechanism of Mg-containing oxides as support catalysts in the thermal dry reforming of methane

• Nor Fazila Khairudin,
• Mohd Farid Fahmi Sukri,
• Mehrnoush Khavarian and
• Abdul Rahman Mohamed

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1162–1183, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.108

• /MgO–ZrO2 catalyst. The effect of the presence of MgO in maintaining the stability of the catalyst was clearly exhibited in the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results, as shown in Figure 5. Based on a study by Fan et al. [52], Figure 5 shows a high binding energy of 531.5 eV. This indicates the

Electrostatic force spectroscopy revealing the degree of reduction of individual graphene oxide sheets

• Yue Shen,
• Ying Wang,
• Yuan Zhou,
• Chunxi Hai,
• Jun Hu and
• Yi Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1146–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.106

• methods, such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) [8][9], Raman spectroscopy [10], and UV–vis absorption spectra [11][12], reflect the average information of rGO materials. However, they cannot characterize an isolated rGO sheet at the nanoscale. Optical observation [13] and transmission electron

• reduced GO sheets for examples, we aim to evaluate the degree of reduction of individual rGO sheets at the nanoscale using EFS. Results and Discussion The thermal or chemical reduction of GO sheets was verified with XPS, UV–vis absorption spectra, and SPFM, as shown in Figure 1. The sample labels and the

• XPS peak magnitudes for carbon atoms bonded to oxygen have decreased, indicating that most of the oxygen groups have been removed [8][9][20]. From the XPS data, we observed an increase in the ratio of the carbon atoms in aromatic rings (C=C/C–C) to those bonded to oxygen after the chemical reduction

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

• to C–C/C–H, C–O–C/C–O and C–OH bonds [28], as expected for the chemical composition of β-CD. The latter two components are different from what is typically observed as adventitious carbon in XPS measurements after transfer through ambient air. Therefore, the resulting signal does not originate mainly

• shift for all energy regions [35], as opposed to what is observed. Since the XPS was not sensitive for the region of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of β-CD, this region was analyzed by UPS. Figure 3f presents the magnification of the low-energy onset of the UP spectra, which allows for

• assumption of a common EF of sample and electron energy analyzer, the photoemission data were used to construct the diagram showing the depth-dependent changes in the electronic structure of the sample (Figure 4). Two main probing depths were distinguished, the XPS sensitivity area at medium TOA, and the He

Nanoscale mapping of dielectric properties based on surface adhesion force measurements

• Ying Wang,
• Yue Shen,
• Xingya Wang,
• Zhiwei Shen,
• Bin Li,
• Jun Hu and
• Yi Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 900–906, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.84

• a higher lateral resolution comparable to the conventional AFM modes. The dependence of the adhesion force under a biased AFM tip on the reduction degree of GO was also studied through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiments. Figure 4a shows the average adhesion forces of the three

• to 10 V are 13.4 nN and 13.3 nN, respectively, which are very similar and almost five times larger than that of GO. Figure 4b–d shows XPS spectra of single-layered GO, CRGO, and TRGO, respectively, which reveal that the C/O ratios of GO increased from 1:1 to 3.3:1 and 3.2:1 after being chemically and

• samples were processed using the software Nanoscope Analysis v1.7. For each image, a first-order flatten correction was applied to remove sample inclination. The reduction extent of the GO was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, AXIS Ultra DLD, Kratos). Schematic representation of the