Plasmonics-based detection of H₂ and CO: discrimination between reducing gases facilitated by material control

• Gnanaprakash Dharmalingam,
• Nicholas A. Joy,
• Benjamin Grisafe and
• Michael A. Carpenter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 712–721, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.81

• films to the gases at temperatures of 500 °C in a background of dry air. Characterization of the samples by XRD and SEM enabled the correlation of material properties with the differences in the CO- and H2-induced LSPR peak shifts, including the relative desensitization towards NO2. Sensing

• has been performed for the first time. The resulting material properties of these films have produced a unique sensing dependence, which has enabled an enhanced detection of H2 by a factor of 4 in comparison to CO. Such a strong difference in the detection of these two reducing gases is significant

• selective detection of CO and H2 for many types of metal-oxide-based sensing applications is problematic since they both react readily with the oxygen anion species and produce a similar response on the transducer of interest [1]. The results from this current study show that by tuning the material

Assessing the plasmonics of gold nano-triangles with higher order laser modes

• Laura E. Hennemann,
• Andreas Kolloch,
• Andreas Kern,
• Josip Mihaljevic,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer,
• Alfred J. Meixner and
• Dai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 674–683, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.77

• dielectric materials such as the glass and silicon is inevitably missing. 2) The foci at the air/silicon and air/glass interfaces are different due to the different material properties. 3) This simple convolution approach accurately describes the scattering at single nanostructures but completely neglects

Wavelet cross-correlation and phase analysis of a free cantilever subjected to band excitation

• Francesco Banfi and
• Gabriele Ferrini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 294–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.33

• ; Introduction Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has made important progresses towards the characterization of material properties at the nanoscale (elastic constants, force interactions, friction, molecular interactions, to name only a few) by means of dynamic techniques that extended the microscope capabilities

• spectral distribution upon impact, captured with wavelet amplitude and phase analysis, is thus a fingerprint of the material properties. This information can be used, at the very least, to determine compositional contrast. A final remark is due concerning the effect of noise (thermal and environmental

• characterization of material properties on the nanoscale. The wavelet correlation technique allows one to measure the phase relationship between driver force and cantilever response in complex excitation schemes. The complete time–frequency picture of the phase evolution can be exploited as an important tool to

Simultaneous current, force and dissipation measurements on the Si(111) 7×7 surface with an optimized qPlus AFM/STM technique

• Zsolt Majzik,
• Martin Setvín,
• Andreas Bettac,
• Albrecht Feltz,
• Vladimír Cháb and
• Pavel Jelínek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 249–259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.28

• physical, chemical and material properties of surfaces and nanostructures at the atomic scale. STM is based on the detection of the tunneling current between a probe and a sample, and it turned quickly into a standard technique widely used to characterize conductive surfaces and to modify objects at the

Theoretical study of the frequency shift in bimodal FM-AFM by fractional calculus

• Elena T. Herruzo and
• Ricardo Garcia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 198–206, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.22

• method enables the simultaneous recording of several material properties and, at the same time, it also increases the sensitivity of the microscope. Here we apply fractional calculus to express the frequency shift of the second eigenmode in terms of the fractional derivative of the interaction force. We

• or integration is dictated by the difference between the amplitude of oscillation and the length scale of the interaction. Successful approaches to reconstruct material properties in a quantitative way came along with the development of novel AFM techniques, such as scanning probe accelerometer

Moisture harvesting and water transport through specialized micro-structures on the integument of lizards

• Philipp Comanns,
• Christian Effertz,
• Florian Hischen,
• Konrad Staudt,
• Wolfgang Böhme and
• Werner Baumgartner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 204–214, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.24

• and any macroscopic geometric parameter of the scales in the three investigated species (data not shown). Thus, either material properties or the micro ornamentation of the scales induce the high wettability. Contact angle and microscopic morphology To quantify the wetting properties we attempted to

Infrared receptors in pyrophilous (“fire loving”) insects as model for new un-cooled infrared sensors

• David Klocke,
• Anke Schmitz,
• Helmut Soltner,
• Herbert Bousack and
• Helmut Schmitz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 186–197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.22

• beetles and bugs Structure and material properties of photomechanic IR receptors Structure and function of photomechanic insect IR sensillae have been most studied in Melanophila beetles. As a special behavioural feature, beetles of both sexes approach forest fires because their brood depends on burnt

• coefficient, water is not an optimal liquid. Hydrocarbons such as n-pentane and toluene, as well as methanol, which are also used as fluids in thermometers, are more appropriate. Table 1 shows the material properties of different hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide in comparison to water. The thermal expansion

• Golay sensors yields different results due to the different material properties, in particular density ρ, heat capacity cp and the coefficients β, κ, α in Equation 7. For a better comparison with the water-filled cavity, it is also assumed that a thin zone due to a thin absorbing film on the inner glass

Switching adhesion forces by crossing the metal–insulator transition in Magnéli-type vanadium oxide crystals

• Bert Stegemann,
• Matthias Klemm,
• Siegfried Horn and
• Mathias Woydt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 59–65, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.8

• integrity, allows for relating frictional and electronic material properties at the nano scale. This behavior makes the vanadium Magnéli phases interesting candidates for technology, e.g., as intelligent devices or coatings where switching of adhesion or friction is desired. Keywords: adhesion force

• Johnson–Kendall–Roberts (JKR) model [19]. These two models improved the Hertzian theory [18] by including the effect of adhesion and present the limiting cases of more general contact theories by Maugis [32]. Both models have in common that the pull-off-force is independent of the elastic material

• properties but is essentially a linear function not only of the sphere radius but also of the surface energy of the sample. At the MIT the crystal structure of the Magnéli phases is distorted resulting in a slightly higher density in the metallic phase [33] and an increase of the atomic density at the

Magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical NMR-based diagnostics

• Huilin Shao,
• Tae-Jong Yoon,
• Monty Liong,
• Ralph Weissleder and
• Hakho Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 142–154, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.17

• [20]. The upper limit for a single domain [~(A/2K)1/2] is determined by the material properties: the exchange stiffness (A) and the anisotropy constant (K). For most magnetic materials (e.g., ferrite and iron), MNPs with a diameter <20 nm will have a single domain with magnetic moments aligned in a

Review and outlook: from single nanoparticles to self-assembled monolayers and granular GMR sensors

• Alexander Weddemann,
• Inga Ennen,
• Anna Regtmeier,
• Camelia Albon,
• Annalena Wolff,
• Katrin Eckstädt,
• Nadine Mill,
• Michael K.-H. Peter,
• Jochen Mattay,
• Carolin Plattner,
• Norbert Sewald and
• Andreas Hütten

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 75–93, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.10

• , interface effects gain importance until below a critical diameter dc, the formation of domains is energetically less favorable. For spherical particles, this critical diameter dc depends on various material properties such as the exchange constant A, the effective anisotropy constant Keff and the saturation