Growth evolution and phase transition from chalcocite to digenite in nanocrystalline copper sulfide: Morphological, optical and electrical properties

• Priscilla Vasthi Quintana-Ramirez,
• Ma. Concepción Arenas-Arrocena,
• José Santos-Cruz,
• Marina Vega-González,
• Omar Martínez-Alvarez,
• Víctor Manuel Castaño-Meneses,
• Laura Susana Acosta-Torres and
• Javier de la Fuente-Hernández

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1542–1552, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.166

• cadmium, such as cadmium telluride, CdTe, or cadmium sulfide, CdS, have been widely investigated regarding their application in the optoelectronic field, mainly in photovoltaic devices due to the semiconducting, electronic and optical properties [1][2][3][4][5]. Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal, which

Enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution by combining water soluble graphene with cobalt salts

• Jing Wang,
• Ke Feng,
• Hui-Hui Zhang,
• Bin Chen,
• Zhi-Jun Li,
• Qing-Yuan Meng,
• Li-Ping Zhang,
• Chen-Ho Tung and
• Li-Zhu Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1167–1174, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.128

• complexes [18][19], oxime complexes [20], have been proven to be efficient in the photocatalytic production of hydrogen, and the turnover number (TON) has become higher upon introducing more appropriate ligands. Besides, cobalt-based heterogeneous structures are also of interest [21][22]. A hybrid Coh–CdTe

• artificial catalyst for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution [23], for example, was simply constructed in situ from earth-abundant cobalt salts and CdTe quantum dots. As a new carbon material with large surface area and excellent electrical properties, graphene has raised much attention since 2004 [24][25][26

Optimizing the synthesis of CdS/ZnS core/shell semiconductor nanocrystals for bioimaging applications

• Li-wei Liu,
• Si-yi Hu,
• Ying Pan,
• Jia-qi Zhang,
• Yue-shu Feng and
• Xi-he Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 919–926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.105

• bandgap (Eg) of 2.42 eV. By tailoring its composition and size, or surface functionality, it is possible to enhance luminescence emission and quantum yield of these QDs. The use of a coating agent can make CdS more stable. ZnS QDs are less cytotoxic than CdTe and CdSe QDs of the same size and surface

Optical and structural characterization of oleic acid-stabilized CdTe nanocrystals for solution thin film processing

• Claudio Davet Gutiérrez-Lazos,
• Mauricio Ortega-López,
• Manuel A. Pérez-Guzmán,
• A. Mauricio Espinoza-Rivas,
• Francisco Solís-Pomar,
• Rebeca Ortega-Amaya,
• L. Gerardo Silva-Vidaurri,
• Virginia C. Castro-Peña and
• Eduardo Pérez-Tijerina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 881–886, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.100

• 10.3762/bjnano.5.100 Abstract This work presents results of the optical and structural characterization of oleic acid-stabilized cadmium telluride nanocrystals (CdTe-NC) synthesized by an organometallic route. After being cleaned, the CdTe-NC were dispersed in toluene to obtain an ink-like dispersion

• , which was drop-cast on glass substrate to deposit a thin film. The CdTe-NC colloidal dispersion as well as the CdTe drop-cast thin films were characterized with regard to the optical and structural properties. TEM analysis indicates that the CdTe-NC have a nearly spherical shape (3.5 nm as mean size

• ). Electron diffraction and XRD diffraction analyses indicated the bulk-CdTe face-centered cubic structure for CdTe-NC. An additional diffraction line corresponding to the octahedral Cd3P2 was also detected as a secondary phase, which probably originates by reacting free cadmium ions with trioctylphosphine

Nanostructure sensitization of transition metal oxides for visible-light photocatalysis

• Hongjun Chen and
• Lianzhou Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 696–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.82

• the photosensitizer Quantum dots are fluorescent nanoparticles with sizes of several nm, which contain a core of hundreds to thousands of atoms of group II and VI elements (e.g., CdS, CdSe and CdTe) or group III and V elements (e.g., InAs and InP). Due to the quantum confinement effect of the charge

• CdSe to TiO2 via oxygen vacancy states mediated by N-doping [39][40]. There are also a large number of heterostructures in literature consisting of quantum dots and transition metal oxides, for instance, CdS/CdSe co-sensitized TiO2 [41], CdTe or CdTe/CdSe quantum dots on TiO2 nanotube arrays [42][43

• ][44], CdTe quantum dot monolayer sensitized ZnO nanowire [45], CdS nanoparticle/ZnO nanowire array [46][47], CdS/ TiO2 nanofibers heteroarchitectures [48], ZnO/CdS core/shell nanowire [49], CdS nanowires decorated with TiO2 nanoparticles [50], and their potential applications for photoelectrochemical

Injection of ligand-free gold and silver nanoparticles into murine embryos does not impact pre-implantation development

• Ulrike Taylor,
• Wiebke Garrels,
• Annette Barchanski,
• Svea Peterson,
• Laszlo Sajti,
• Andrea Lucas-Hahn,
• Lisa Gamrad,
• Ulrich Baulain,
• Sabine Klein,
• Wilfried A. Kues,
• Stephan Barcikowski and
• Detlef Rath

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 677–688, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.80

• , nanoparticles were found to be stopped by the placental barrier [4][5][6]. The majority of authors, however, observed placental crossing. This encompasses studies of nanoparticles composed of gold [7][8], titanium dioxide [9][10], CdTe/CdS quantum dots [11], and polystyrene [12]. Thus, transplacental crossing

One-step synthesis of high quality kesterite Cu₂ZnSnS₄ nanocrystals – a hydrothermal approach

• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• John Bell and
• Hongxia Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 438–446, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.51

• to overcome the key issues in the current PV technologies: the high production cost of silicon wafer used in the first generation solar cells and the limited availability of raw materials such as tellurium and indium used in CdTe and Cu(Ga, In)Se2 (CIGS) based thin film solar cells, which has raised

Photoelectrochemical and Raman characterization of In₂O₃ mesoporous films sensitized by CdS nanoparticles

• Mikalai V. Malashchonak,
• Sergey K. Poznyak,
• Eugene A. Streltsov,
• Anatoly I. Kulak,
• Olga V. Korolik and
• Alexander V. Mazanik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 255–261, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.27

• . Keywords: cadmium sulfide (CdS); indium oxide (In2O3); nanoparticles; successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR); Introduction In third-generation solar cells molecular dyes (in the Grätzel cells [1]) as well as nanoparticles of semiconducting metal chalcogenides (CdS, CdSe, CdTe, PbS, PbSe

Nanostructure-directed chemical sensing: The IHSAB principle and the dynamics of acid/base-interface interaction

• James L. Gole and
• William Laminack

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 20–31, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.3

• nanoporous coating (green in Figure 1). A hybrid etch procedure is used to create this desired interfacial support structure. It is possible to replace the porous silicon (PS) structure that has been etched into a silicon wafer with any alternate extrinsic III–V (GaP or InP) or II–VI semiconductor (CdTe or

Characterization and properties of micro- and nanowires of controlled size, composition, and geometry fabricated by electrodeposition and ion-track technology

• Maria Eugenia Toimil-Molares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 860–883, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.97

• containing Zn(NO3), Co(NO3), nitric acid, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as an additive, 300 nm diameter Zn1−xCoxO nanowires with x ranging from 0.01 to 0.05 were grown [94]. The synthesis and properties of semiconducting CdTe and CdS nanowires are being investigated for their potential in photodetector and

• photovoltaic applications. CdTe and CdS rods are mostly synthesized by chemical vapour deposition, and sol–gel processes. Electrodeposition of stoichiometric CdTe nanowires with diameters between 80 nm and 1 μm was reported by Enculescu et al. [95]. In addition to SEM, TEM, EDX, and XRD characterization, they

• also determined the band gap of nanowire arrays by reflection spectroscopy measurements [96]. Kum et al. reported the synthesis of ≈50 nm diameter CdTe wires and studied the influence of electrolyte, temperature, potential, and pH value on the composition and crystallinity of the nanowires [97]. They

Horizontal versus vertical charge and energy transfer in hybrid assemblies of semiconductor nanoparticles

• Gilad Gotesman,
• Rahamim Guliamov and
• Ron Naaman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 629–636, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.72

• type of transfer process. Wu et al. studied charge separation in type-II heterojunction assemblies of CdSe–CdTe NPs as a function of linker length [23]. They found that for longer linkers, the charge transfer efficiency is smaller. In another study, photogenerated exciton dissociation in PbS NP thin

Junction formation of Cu₃BiS₃ investigated by Kelvin probe force microscopy and surface photovoltage measurements

• Fredy Mesa,
• William Chamorro,
• William Vallejo,
• Robert Baier,
• Thomas Dittrich,
• Alexander Grimm,
• Martha C. Lux-Steiner and
• Sascha Sadewasser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 277–284, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.31

• charge-selective contact has to be increased. Keywords: buffer layer; Cu3BiS3; Kelvin probe force microscopy; solar cells; Introduction Thin-film solar cells based on absorbers made from Cu(In,Ga)Se2 [1] or CdTe [2] reach the highest efficiencies currently available. Both semiconductors are interesting

• , such as chemical bath deposition, atomic layer deposition, ion layer gas reaction (ILGAR) deposition, evaporation, and spray deposition [9]. One interesting aspect of the above mentioned solar cell materials CdTe and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 is their high efficiency despite the abundance of grain boundaries (GBs

Distance dependence of near-field fluorescence enhancement and quenching of single quantum dots

• Volker Walhorn,
• Jan Paskarbeit,
• Heinrich Gotthard Frey,
• Alexander Harder and
• Dario Anselmetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 645–652, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.68

• . Further retracting led to a recovery of the fluorescence emission until the impact of the tip became negligible. Our experimental findings are well supported by the ensemble data of Govorov et al. [18] who studied the coupling between colloidal gold nanoparticles and CdTe quantum dots coupled by polymer

Simple theoretical analysis of the photoemission from quantum confined effective mass superlattices of optoelectronic materials

• Debashis De,
• Sitangshu Bhattacharya,
• S. M. Adhikari,
• A. Kumar,
• P. K. Bose and
• K. P. Ghatak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 339–362, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.40

• ], IV–VI [12] and HgTe/CdTe [13] SLs have also been experimentally realized. The IV–VI SLs shows new physical properties in comparison with the III–V SL owing to the peculiar band structure of the constituent materials [14]. The II–VI SLs are being used for optoelectronic operation in the blue [14

• ]. HgTe/CdTe SLs also find applications for long wavelength infrared detectors and other electro-optical applications [15]. These features arise from the direct band gap compound CdTe whose conduction electrons obey the three band model of Kane and gap-less material HgTe [16]. In this context, it may be