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

• energy gain [1][15]. In some commercial cells, Si is already added in small amounts (≤5 wt %) to the graphite anode [5]. Yet, there are several major drawbacks that have to be overcome for a successful application of Si-based anodes, i.e., the low electronic conductivity, as well as the huge volume

• remaining weight is constant. Due to the fact that the pure Si-NPs show only an insignificant weight gain up to 650 °C of ≈1%, caused by the beginning oxidation of Si and the formation of silicon dioxide, the remaining weight of the plateau for the Si/C composites can be considered as the Si content of

Performance analysis of rigorous coupled-wave analysis and its integration in a coupled modeling approach for optical simulation of complete heterojunction silicon solar cells

• Ziga Lokar,
• Benjamin Lipovsek,
• Marko Topic and
• Janez Krc

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2315–2329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.216

• anisotropic etching), while the thickness of ITO and a-Si:H was kept constant. In Figure 7 the effects of PF variation on reflectance and on the corresponding JSC gain are shown. The front part of the solar cell was simulated by RCWA as in previous sections. In these simulations, ten modes and 300 sublayers

• were used. We optimized the PF with respect to decreased reflectance of the front part of the cell, giving the possibility to additionally increase JSC. The presented JSC gain shows the full potential of the improved antireflection effect, where all additionally in-coupled light would be absorbed and

• transferred into photocurrent. Thus, these are the maximal potential gains related to the given PF variation. As a reference (zero gain) the structure with PF 0.7 was taken. In Figure 7a the reflectance curves are shown for the case of normal incident light. As a reference, the reflectance curve corresponding

Metal–dielectric hybrid nanoantennas for efficient frequency conversion at the anapole mode

• Valerio F. Gili,
• Lavinia Ghirardini,
• Davide Rocco,
• Giuseppe Marino,
• Ivan Favero,
• Iännis Roland,
• Giovanni Pellegrini,
• Lamberto Duò,
• Marco Finazzi,
• Luca Carletti,
• Andrea Locatelli,
• Aristide Lemaître,
• Dragomir Neshev,
• Costantino De Angelis,
• Giuseppe Leo and
• Michele Celebrano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2306–2314, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.215

• surface integral of the Poynting vector normal to an imaginary sphere enclosing the entire structure, and the internal energy defined as the volume integral of the squared electric field inside the cylinder. To gain further insights into this behavior, in Figure 2d (2e) we show the contributions to the

Influence of the thickness of an antiferromagnetic IrMn layer on the static and dynamic magnetization of weakly coupled CoFeB/IrMn/CoFeB trilayers

• Deepika Jhajhria,
• Dinesh K. Pandya and
• Sujeet Chaudhary

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2198–2208, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.206

• tIrMn (compare Figure 3b and Figure 4c) further suggesting that the observed interdependence of Hk and 4πMeff has a common origin in the tIrMn-dependent interlayer exchange coupling. To gain insight into the various magnetic relaxation mechanisms in trilayers, the frequency dependence of ΔH is plotted

Spin-coated planar Sb₂S₃ hybrid solar cells approaching 5% efficiency

• Pascal Kaienburg,
• Benjamin Klingebiel and
• Thomas Kirchartz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2114–2124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.200

• subsequently crystallized at temperatures above the minimum crystallization temperature of 250 °C for antimony sulfide [47][48][49]. The typical crystallization temperature is 300 °C [2][6][29][31][37] while values of 330 °C [4][5][32][50] and up to 400 °C [51] are reported. To gain insights into the

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

• gain increasing importance in materials science and modern chemistry [1][2][3]. Special attention has been paid to nanoscaled rare-earth metal particles [4][5][6]. In addition to the oxido and nitrido compounds, the rare-earth fluorides have interesting photo physical and electrochemical properties. An

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

• set to 100 MHz and 100 MSPS, respectively. The design parameters of the digital filters were objectively determined using the following design guidelines to achieve fair comparison. The LPF and HPF were implemented as Butterworth filters. The gain at the stop band was restricted to less than −40 dB

• while the amplitude of the gain ripple at the pass band was held less than 0.1 dB. Taking into account the latency and resource, a second-order LPF, second-order HPF, fourth-order band-pass filter (BPF), and the 10th-order band-elimination filter (BEF) were used (see Figure 2(iii) below for the group

• bandwidth can be enhanced by increasing the LF gain. However, if the gain is too high, the phase feedback loop becomes unstable and starts to oscillate. In this experiment, we set the gain to the maximum value in the range in which the feedback loop was stable. Figure 6 depicts the waveforms of the phase

Direct AFM-based nanoscale mapping and tomography of open-circuit voltages for photovoltaics

• Katherine Atamanuk,
• Justin Luria and
• Bryan D. Huey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1802–1808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.171

• directly with the AFM probe simultaneous to the repeated property mapping. Specific settings include a load of ca. 1 µN, a line rate of 0.5 Hz, and a low-deflection feedback gain producing near “open loop” scanning and hence an essentially planar surface milling [8]. Approximately 15 nm in depth are

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

• conversion efficiencies exceeding 20% and several kinds of optoelectronic devices, including efficient light-emitting diodes [3], laser devices [4] and high-gain photodetectors [5]. Recently, Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) has been used to investigate the impact of grain boundaries (GBs) on the

Correlative electrochemical strain and scanning electron microscopy for local characterization of the solid state electrolyte Li_1.3Al_0.3Ti_1.7(PO₄)₃

• Nino Schön,
• Deniz Cihan Gunduz,
• Shicheng Yu,
• Hermann Tempel,
• Roland Schierholz and
• Florian Hausen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1564–1572, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.148

• work, we employ multiple microscopy techniques to gain local chemical and structural information paired with local insights into the Li-ion conductivity based on electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) have been applied

• discussed. We demonstrate that correlative microscopy is an adjuvant tool to gain local insights into interfacial properties of energy materials. Keywords: correlative microscopy; electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM); Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3 (LATP); scanning electron microscopy (SEM); solid state

• reported to gain adequate EIS resolution by coupling with AFM [16]. The authors reported experiments on silver-ion conducting glasses and found good agreement between the mean value of local conductivities and the macroscopic conductivity. It has been found that the electrochemical characteristics of LATP

Robust topological phase in proximitized core–shell nanowires coupled to multiple superconductors

• Tudor D. Stanescu,
• Anna Sitek and
• Andrei Manolescu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1512–1526, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.142

• gain further insight into the low-energy physics of the hybrid structure, we continue now with the case of wires of finite length. For concreteness, we consider a triangular wire of length L = 2.25 μm in the parameter regimes corresponding to the panels labeled by “I” and “II” in Figure 3, Figure 4

• phases. This indicates no particular gain by creating an asymmetry in this way, compared to using the superconductors with the large gap and creating the asymmetry via the relative phase θ. Finally, in Figure 16 we show the phase diagrams obtained with the geometric model for the square shell profile

Cathodoluminescence as a probe of the optical properties of resonant apertures in a metallic film

• Kalpana Singh,
• Evgeniy Panchenko,
• Babak Nasr,
• Amelia Liu,
• Lukas Wesemann,
• Timothy J. Davis and
• Ann Roberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1491–1500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.140

• wavelength peak, however, is more strongly dependent on the geometry and is red-shifted for the larger structure. Simulations The finite element method implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics (v 5.3) was used to gain insight into the experimentally obtained CL results shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3. In the model

• radiated power to position confined to the central region defined by the slots. We can gain further insight by examining the electric field produced inside the cavities on resonance when excited by a centred dipole and the accompanying surface charge on the dielectric–metal or air–dielectric boundary

Electronic conduction during the formation stages of a single-molecule junction

• Atindra Nath Pal,
• Tal Klein,
• Ayelet Vilan and
• Oren Tal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1471–1477, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.138

• of the step height and direction support a secondary conductance contribution via a conducting molecular junction and a dominant conductance contribution given by a neighboring single-atom junction. Using shot noise measurements, we can gain more reliable information about the distribution of

Electrostatically actuated encased cantilevers

• Benoit X. E. Desbiolles,
• Gabriela Furlan,
• Adam M. Schwartzberg,
• Paul D. Ashby and
• Dominik Ziegler

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1381–1389, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.130

• contrast to static deflection, resonant excitation benefits from the mechanical gain resulting in an amplification by the quality factor (Q). We use the modeled capacitance gradient C′ = −105 pF·m−1, and the measured dynamic stiffness (kdyn = 18.0 N·m−1) and Q = 50 found by the thermal method (see Figure

Chemistry for electron-induced nanofabrication

• Petra Swiderek,
• Hubertus Marbach and
• Cornelis W. Hagen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1317–1320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.124

• deposits. Modeling by different types of simulations is also an important approach to gain a deeper understanding and hopefully better control over FEBID processes. The quality of a deposit depends not only on the chemical properties and processes mentioned so far but also on precursor adsorption states

Atomistic modeling of tribological properties of Pd and Al nanoparticles on a graphene surface

• Alexei Khomenko,
• Miroslav Zakharov,
• Denis Boyko and
• Bo N. J. Persson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1239–1246, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.115

• Alexei Khomenko Miroslav Zakharov Denis Boyko Bo N. J. Persson Sumy State University, 40007 Sumy, Ukraine Peter Grünberg Institut-1, Forschungszentrum-Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.9.115 Abstract Background: The frictional properties of nanoparticles have been studied to gain

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

• (synthetic gas) production and co-utilization of methane and carbon dioxide, which are the main greenhouse gases. Magnesium is commonly applied in a Ni-based catalyst in DRM to improve catalyst performance and inhibit carbon deposition. The aim of this review is to gain better insight into recent

A simple extension of the commonly used fitting equation for oscillatory structural forces in case of silica nanoparticle suspensions

• Sebastian Schön and
• Regine von Klitzing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1095–1107, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.101

• independent of the starting point of the fit and of each other. Finally, these values equal the values obtained for A, ξ and λ obtained with the common equation at large separations. This demonstrates clearly that B and ξ2 can be kept constant to gain the positive effects on A, ξ1 and λ, as observed in Figure

• for the fitting. The trend for the gain in precision is not linear but seems to be strongest for λ, followed by A and ξ1, with the highest concentrated nanoparticle suspension showing the largest increase in precision. Generally, for suspensions with low concentrations, the precision of the fit

Bioinspired self-healing materials: lessons from nature

• Joseph C. Cremaldi and
• Bharat Bhushan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 907–935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.85

• plants undergo secondary (widening) growth, the process is mainly associated with woody plants. Secondary growth refers to cell division to gain girth across a plant, for example, a tree getting larger each year. In trees, this growth mainly refers to the cork cambium tissue in the epidermis and the

Perfusion double-channel micropipette probes for oxygen flux mapping with single-cell resolution

• Yang Gao,
• Bin Li,
• Riju Singhal,
• Adam Fontecchio,
• Ben Pelleg,
• Zulfiya Orynbayeva,
• Yury Gogotsi and
• Gary Friedman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 850–860, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.79

• , resulting in a linear gain of sensitivity with distance for a sensor whose sensitivity is proportional to its area. Effects of perfusion on oxygen consumption signaling One may expect that losing less molecules to the diffusion away from the sensor should increase the probe sensitivity. As shown in Figure 4

• that amplification occurs mostly below the Peclet number of 0.1, one finds that no significant signal gain should occur beyond the velocity vmax ≈ Pe·D/dd = (0.1 × 2000)/10 = 20 μm/s. This is in quantitative agreement with the velocity of maximal signal calculated by the FEM and shown in Figure 4. As

Dynamics and fragmentation mechanism of (C₅H₄CH₃)Pt(CH₃)₃ on SiO₂ surfaces

• Kaliappan Muthukumar,
• Harald O. Jeschke and
• Roser Valentí

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 711–720, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.66

• factors in dictating the dissociation of precursors and the growth mechanism of deposits. Dynamics of the (C5H4CH3)Pt(CH3)3 precursor on SiO2 substrates To gain further insight on the growth process of Pt deposits, dynamics of (C5H4CH3)Pt(CH3)3 on both fully and partially hydroxylated surfaces were

Perovskite-structured CaTiO₃ coupled with g-C₃N₄ as a heterojunction photocatalyst for organic pollutant degradation

• Ashish Kumar,
• Christian Schuerings,
• Suneel Kumar,
• Ajay Kumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 671–685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.62

• area. Moreover, these results also show that the CTCN heterojunction is not simply a physical mixture of separate CT and g-C3N4 entities [49]. Optical properties study The band gap energy of a material is directly related to its light harvesting capability. To gain insight into the band structure of

• the photodegradation of the pollutant. The entire photocatalytic reaction mechanism under sunlight irradiation can be summarized as follows: To validate the proposed mechanism and to gain insight into the role played by active species, radical trapping experiments were performed for RhB degradation

Tuning adhesion forces between functionalized gold colloidal nanoparticles and silicon AFM tips: role of ligands and capillary forces

• Sven Oras,
• Sergei Vlassov,
• Marta Berholts,
• Rünno Lõhmus and
• Karine Mougin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 660–670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.61

• used tips were calibrated according to Bruker’s recommendations. During imaging, the setpoint value was set at 10 ± 2 nN, the gain was kept constant between 20 and 25, and the Peakforce amplitude was set at 150. The results were analysed by both Nanoscope analysis software provide by Bruker and

Lyapunov estimation for high-speed demodulation in multifrequency atomic force microscopy

• David M. Harcombe,
• Michael G. Ruppert,
• Michael R. P. Ragazzon and
• Andrew J. Fleming

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 490–498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.47

• particular frequency is recovered by Filter description The Lyapunov filter [28] is implemented as a linear observer as shown in Figure 2. A key property of the filter is exponential convergence of the estimated states [29], with the tunable loop gain constant γ governing the speed of convergence. The filter

• -frequency system. The Kalman filter equations [24] can be shown to have a complexity of , while that of the Lyapunov filter is for n modeled frequencies. This stark difference in complexity arises from the computations required for the Kalman gain and covariance matrix update. Experimental setup A LIA

Kinetics of solvent supported tubule formation of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) wax on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) investigated by atomic force microscopy

• Sujit Kumar Dora,
• Kerstin Koch,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Klaus Wandelt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 468–481, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.45

• . We demonstrate how these different factors affect the tubule growth, in order to gain greater insight into those factors that can affect the tubule growth and which can subsequently be used to manipulate these wax structures on HOPG, e.g., in order to model specific superhydrophobic surfaces

• follows a similar pattern to that observed for the lower concentrations described above and the average time period of tubule "completion" is again ≈4 h. In turn, in order to gain insight whether a minimum amount of wax is needed for tubule formation we made also one test using a wax concentration of only