Impact of air exposure and annealing on the chemical and electronic properties of the surface of SnO₂ nanolayers deposited by rheotaxial growth and vacuum oxidation

• Monika Kwoka and
• Maciej Krzywiecki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 514–521, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.55

• 2 h. In order to improve their stoichiometry, an additional in situ vacuum oxidation was performed at a chosen optimal partial pressure of 10−2 mbar for the next 2 h (108 L). The samples were then examined by using XPS. At the next step the samples were exposed to dry air with a relative humidity of

Biological and biomimetic materials and surfaces

• Stanislav Gorb and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 403–407, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.42

• smooth vertical surfaces and ceilings. The functioning of the pads depends on various environmental factors. Heepe et al. showed that the attachment performance of the beetle Coccinella septempunctata depends on the relative humidity. The authors demonstrated that both low (15%) and high (99

• %) environmental humidity leads to a decrease of attachment forces generated by beetles [18]. The paper by England et al. systematically investigated beetle attachment ability on eight different surfaces having different structural and physico-chemical properties. The results show that chemical surface properties

Nanocrystalline TiO₂/SnO₂ heterostructures for gas sensing

• Barbara Lyson-Sypien,
• Anna Kusior,
• Mieczylaw Rekas,
• Jan Zukrowski,
• Marta Gajewska,
• Katarzyna Michalow-Mauke,
• Thomas Graule,
• Marta Radecka and
• Katarzyna Zakrzewska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 108–122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.12

• were carried out in dry atmosphere. The synthetic air contained less than 1 ppm of water vapor while that of hydrogen + argon mixture had less than 10 ppm of contaminants. The relative humidity level was verified to be of about 0–1% RH at room temperature. Dynamic changes in the electrical resistance

Nanostructured SnO₂–ZnO composite gas sensors for selective detection of carbon monoxide

• Paul Chesler,
• Cristian Hornoiu,
• Susana Mihaiu,
• Cristina Vladut,
• Jose Maria Calderon Moreno,
• Mihai Anastasescu,
• Carmen Moldovan,
• Bogdan Firtat,
• Costin Brasoveanu,
• George Muscalu,
• Ion Stan and
• Mariuca Gartner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2045–2056, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.195

• materials, using XRD). The identification of these phases was not possible in the present case as the thin films were amorphous, but as mentioned before, the presence of the crystallites in an amorphous matrix was not ruled out. Sensor response to humidity In real life applications, environmental humidity

• is an important factor which influences sensor response. In Figure 12 different sensors were tested in an atmosphere containing 62% relative humidity. It can be observed that the sensor having the highest response to CO (S2) is only slightly influenced by humidity at its optimum working temperature

• . The response to water vapor is very low when compared to the S4 composite sensor which has a very high response to humidity even at room temperature. This sensor is being considered for the further development of a humidity sensor. Sensor cross-response measurements To avoid false positives, gas

“Sticky invasion” – the physical properties of Plantago lanceolata L. seed mucilage

• Agnieszka Kreitschitz,
• Alexander Kovalev and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1918–1927, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.183

• humidity were continuously recorded using a Tinytag TGP-4500 (Gemini Data Loggers Ltd, United Kingdom). The measured temperature was 22–23 °C, the relative humidity was 30–37%. Pull-off force measurements of the mucilage For the pull-off force measurements five sets of measurements were made on five

Low temperature co-fired ceramic packaging of CMOS capacitive sensor chip towards cell viability monitoring

• Niina Halonen,
• Joni Kilpijärvi,
• Maciej Sobocinski,
• Timir Datta-Chaudhuri,
• Antti Hassinen,
• Someshekar B. Prakash,
• Peter Möller,
• Pamela Abshire,
• Sakari Kellokumpu and
• Anita Lloyd Spetz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1871–1877, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.179

• world of biology meets the dry world of electronics, the technical challenge arises to build a package for the LoCMOS device that is able to withstand the hostile biological environment, which may include high temperature, humidity, and corrosive liquids (mammalian cells typically require 37 °C, >95

• % humidity, and a salt-containing medium for growth). Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology in combination with flip-chip bonding is one method of producing durable, biocompatible packaging for LoCMOS devices. The advantage of the LTCC technology is the possibility of fast and simple 3D

In situ formation of reduced graphene oxide structures in ceria by combined sol–gel and solvothermal processing

• Jingxia Yang,
• Johannes Ofner,
• Bernhard Lendl and
• Ulrich Schubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1815–1821, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.174

• . The mixture was stirred for 30 min, ultrasonically treated for at least 2 h and then deposited onto glass sheets (20 × 30 cm2), which had been cleaned with 10% KOH, isopropanol and acetone and dried at 100 °C. The deposited films were exposed to ambient humidity at room temperature for 24 h (for

Surface-enhanced infrared absorption studies towards a new optical biosensor

• Lothar Leidner,
• Julia Stäb,
• Jennifer T. Adam and
• Günter Gauglitz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1736–1742, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.166

• PBS, there is a further increase of the absorption band. Equilibrium is reached 15 min after PBS is introduced. The experiment was performed under ambient conditions (room temperature, optical path through humid air, relative humidity was not recorded). Air humidity is responsible for the sharp peaks

Nanostructured TiO₂-based gas sensors with enhanced sensitivity to reducing gases

• Wojciech Maziarz,
• Anna Kusior and
• Anita Trenczek-Zajac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1718–1726, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.164

• -made mass flow and humidity controllers. The sensors were exposed to the following gases: acetone (CO(CH3)2, up to 8 ppm), nitric oxides (NOx, up to 400 ppm), hydrogen (H2, up to 2000 ppm), ozone (O3, made by a custom UV generator, up to 500 ppb), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2, up to 100 ppm). Additionally

• sensors were preheated in pure air atmosphere for 3–6 h under the same conditions (humidity, gas flow ratio) as used during the experiment and their response was stabilized. The preheating temperature was the starting temperature of the measurement. An example of preheating conditions for sample T30 were

• an air flow ratio of 500 sccm, temperature of 146 °C, relative humidity of 55%, and a stabilization time of 3 h. The preheating temperature rate was ≈3.5 °C/min. Afterwards, two different types of tests were performed: (1) the measurement of sensor response at constant gas concentration under varying

Sb₂S₃ grown by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and its application in a hybrid solar cell

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

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1662–1673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.158

• glove box with controlled humidity (less than 14 ppm). The solution contained SbCl3 (with Sb3+ concentration of 15 mmol/L) and SC(NH2)2 precursors at a molar ratio of 1:x (x = 2, 3, 6, 9) in methanol as the solvent. SbCl3 was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (≥99.0%, p.a.) and SC(NH2)2 from Merck (≥99.0

Surface roughness rather than surface chemistry essentially affects insect adhesion

• Matt W. England,
• Tomoya Sato,
• Makoto Yagihashi,
• Atsushi Hozumi,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Elena V. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1471–1479, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.139

• glass plate (18 × 18 × 0.4 cm3) with a small aluminum-made vessel, or alternately placed in a Teflon container with a glass vessel, containing 0.2 mL of organosilane (ODS or FAS17), in a dry N2 atmosphere at less than 5 % relative humidity. Another heat-resistant glass plate was then placed on top of it

• was then spin-coated (500 rpm for 5 s and 1000 rpm for 10 s) onto UV–ozone-cleaned Si substrates (5 × 5 cm2) at room temperature, under a relative humidity of (40 ± 5)%. All samples were dried in air at room temperature for more than 24 h. Details of our preparation methods for the monolayers and

• different surface chemical and physical properties, (see above)) were measured. Obtained force–time curves were used to estimate the maximal traction force. Experiments were performed at 23 °C temperature and 26–29% relative humidity. We tested 10 male and 10 females and carried out 160 traction tests in

Effect of tetramethylammonium hydroxide/isopropyl alcohol wet etching on geometry and surface roughness of silicon nanowires fabricated by AFM lithography

• Siti Noorhaniah Yusoh and
• Khatijah Aisha Yaacob

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1461–1470, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.138

• parameters, such as applied voltage, writing speed and humidity, play important roles in the patterning of the oxide mask [27]. This study adopted parameters reported by Yusoh and Yaacob [27]. They found that use of a contact mode AFM tip coated with Au with 9 V of applied voltage and 0.3 µm/s writing speed

• at 55–65% relative humidity could produce a thin oxide mask layer with stable and continuous structure on SOI that functioned well as a mask in the subsequent wet chemical etching process. Figure 1 shows that a thin layer oxide mask was patterned into five lines with a width of 165–169 nm, height of

• using AFM lithography (SPI3800N/4000) at a temperature of 24–26 °C with relative humidity of 55–65%. The contact mode, Au cantilever tip (Budgetsensors, Au-coated, ContGB-G) was used at 9 V bias voltage with 0.3 µm/s writing speed. After the AFM lithography process, thin oxide nanowires were formed on

A composite structure based on reduced graphene oxide and metal oxide nanomaterials for chemical sensors

• Vardan Galstyan,
• Elisabetta Comini,
• Iskandar Kholmanov,
• Andrea Ponzoni,
• Veronica Sberveglieri,
• Nicola Poli,
• Guido Faglia and
• Giorgio Sberveglieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1421–1427, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.133

• structures every 30 s. Measurements were carried out by means of a flow-through technique at atmospheric pressure, using a constant synthetic airflow (0.3 L/min) as carrier gas for the analyte dispersion. During the experiments the relative humidity was 50%. Gas response (R) was defined as [R = (Gf − G0)/G0

• ethanol at a working temperature of 250 °C and in humid air (relative humidity RH = 50% @ 20 °C). Calibration curve for acetone at an operating temperature of 250 °C and in a humid air background (RH = 50% @ 20 °C). The results of the compositional analysis of as-prepared and annealed samples (at 100 and

Three-gradient regular solution model for simple liquids wetting complex surface topologies

• Sabine Akerboom,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Frans A. M. Leermakers

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1377–1396, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.129

• # = 0.2485. Again these values differ dramatically from our experimental system of water in air at 100% relative humidity. Finally, the interfacial tension in this system is given by γ = 0.03326 in units kBT/b2, which translates with b = 0.2 nm to 3.422 mN/m. This value is smaller than the known value for

Influence of ambient humidity on the attachment ability of ladybird beetles (Coccinella septempunctata)

• Lars Heepe,
• Jonas O. Wolff and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1322–1329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.123

• decrease of attachment ability. The significantly highest attachment forces were revealed at 60% humidity. This relationship was found both in female and male beetles, despite of a deviating structure of adhesive setae and a significant difference in forces between sexes. These findings demonstrate that

• not only dry adhesive setae are affected by ambient humidity, but also setae that stick due to the capillarity of an oily secretion. Keywords: adhesion; beetle; biomechanics; force measurement; friction; insect; locomotion; surface; Introduction Substrate attachment plays an important role in the

• attachment organ determines its function, but also environmental parameters, such as the surface roughness or/and chemistry of the substrate [1][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Also the ambient temperature and humidity may affect the attachment ability of adhesive organs, as it was shown in the dry adhesive pads of

Ammonia gas sensors based on In₂O₃/PANI hetero-nanofibers operating at room temperature

• Qingxin Nie,
• Zengyuan Pang,
• Hangyi Lu,
• Yibing Cai and
• Qufu Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1312–1321, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.122

• electrochemical workstation (CH Instruments, Shanghai, China) with a three-electrode system. The gas sensing performance of the prepared In2O3/PANI nanofibers was measured using a custom-built static state gas sensing test system at room temperature (25 ± 1 °C) with a relative humidity of 60 ± 1%. During the gas

High antiviral effect of TiO₂·PL–DNA nanocomposites targeted to conservative regions of (−)RNA and (+)RNA of influenza A virus in cell culture

• Asya S. Levina,
• Marina N. Repkova,
• Elena V. Bessudnova,
• Ekaterina I. Filippova,
• Natalia A. Mazurkova and
• Valentina F. Zarytova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1166–1173, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.108

• -well plates (100 μL/well) and incubated at 37 °С, 5% CO2, and 100% humidity. The cells at ≈80% confluence were initially infected with one of the IAV subtypes, which was added into each well in RPMI-1640 medium (100 μL) containing trypsin (2 μg/mL) at a multiple infection of 0.1 TCID50/cell. The

• trypsin (100 μL/well) at a concentration of 5 μg/mL were applied to the infected MDCK cells, followed by incubation for 4 h at 37 °С, 5% CO2, and 100% humidity. After incubation for 4 h at room temperature, the medium containing the sample was removed, the cells were rinsed with RPMI-1640 medium without

Development of highly faceted reduced graphene oxide-coated copper oxide and copper nanoparticles on a copper foil surface

• Rebeca Ortega-Amaya,
• Yasuhiro Matsumoto,
• Andrés M. Espinoza-Rivas,
• Manuel A. Pérez-Guzmán and
• Mauricio Ortega-López

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1010–1017, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.93

• (inset in Figure 1b). In our previous work we assumed that they developed following a mechanism similar to that proposed by Glover and co-workers [21]. They demonstrated that Cu nanoparticles (CuNPs) can be formed on the surface of copper objects exposed to ambient humidity for a few minutes. We believe

Magnetic switching of nanoscale antidot lattices

• Ulf Wiedwald,
• Joachim Gräfe,
• Kristof M. Lebecki,
• Maxim Skripnik,
• Felix Haering,
• Gisela Schütz,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Eberhard Goering and
• Ulrich Nowak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 733–750, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.65

Comparative kinematical analyses of Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) snap traps

• Simon Poppinga,
• Tim Kampowski,
• Amélie Metzger,
• Olga Speck and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 664–674, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.59

• ). Comparison of snapping durations in air and under water and characterization of snapping modes Traps were recorded in air (temperature in our lab ca. 20–25 °C, relative air humidity ca. 34.5–43.5%) and under water. For each trial we used 30 different traps from 30 different plants so that, in total, 60 traps

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

• cylindrical pores with elliptical cross-section on an ordered pore lattice. The film is deposited on silicon-based commercial atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers using dip coating. This bilayer cantilever is mounted in a humidity controlled AFM, and its deflection is measured as a function of relative

• 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

• , humidity-induced bending of bilayer structures is frequently used for actuation purposes. Prominent examples are the opening of tree cones [5], or the complex movement of the dispersal units of wild wheat [6] and ice plants [7]. In all these systems the movement is caused by the bending of bilayer

Correlative infrared nanospectroscopic and nanomechanical imaging of block copolymer microdomains

• Benjamin Pollard and
• Markus B. Raschke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 605–612, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.53

• ]. However, the tapping phase is also affected by the intermittent formation of a capillary water neck between tip and sample as the cantilever oscillates, which can lead to either net attractive or net repulsive regimes depending on tapping amplitude, relative humidity, and local curvature of the tip and

• relative humidity during the measurement (13%) indicate that we are operating near the threshold between attractive and repulsive regimes [30]. The delicate balance between repulsive capillary forces and overall van der Waals interaction could result in the finer variations across the PMMA microdomain. We

Nanoscale effects in the characterization of viscoelastic materials with atomic force microscopy: coupling of a quasi-three-dimensional standard linear solid model with in-plane surface interactions

• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 554–571, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.49

• effects are expected for surfaces that are more cross-linked than the bulk material or surfaces that react with the environment, and also surfaces that absorb or adsorb moisture, which also depends on the environmental temperature and humidity. It is therefore expected that the surface will play an

Contact-free experimental determination of the static flexural spring constant of cantilever sensors using a microfluidic force tool

• John D. Parkin and
• Georg Hähner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 492–500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.43

• hysteresis at all while others showed more pronounced hysteresis, in particular Tap525. A change in the alignment of the cantilever relative to the channel had no effect on the observed phenomenon. The hysteresis could be related to changes in the humidity surrounding the cantilever as the fluid flow of dry

• nitrogen from the microchannel acts to decrease humidity with increasing fluid speed [8]. The metal coating on some of the cantilevers might also delaminate or let water enter, inducing some stress and causing additional bending, which is removed when nitrogen from the channel decreases the surrounding

• humidity. Checking the quality factors Q and the resonance frequencies of the resonance peaks for very low flow speeds at the beginning of the measurements and at the end did not reveal significant differences. If there is some stress induced, it is certainly small and not revealed by the Q-factor or the

Length-extension resonator as a force sensor for high-resolution frequency-modulation atomic force microscopy in air

• Hannes Beyer,
• Tino Wagner and
• Andreas Stemmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 432–438, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.38

• in air or liquid have been reported so far, for example on mica [13][15], Si(111) [16], on a grating [17], HOPG, and DNA origami [18]. Froning et al. [18] also discussed the influence of the environmental conditions on the sensor properties. Temperature and humidity changes lead to variations in

• temperature and humidity sensor (SHT71, Sensirion AG [22]). Basic image processing (e.g., levelling) is done with the Gwyddion software [23]. To determine the sensitivity S of the LER a thermal noise spectrum was acquired around the resonance frequency (Figure 1c). Integration over the noise power spectral

• +0.15 Hz. The air flow to the AFM housing is controlled via a hose and a reservoir. The air supplied to the reservoir was changed from low humidity air to normal room air after eight minutes. Figure 3a shows dew point , frequency shift Δf, and frequency shift offset Δfoffset applied by the slow feedback