Effect of ferroelectric BaTiO₃ particles on the threshold voltage of a smectic A liquid crystal

• Abbas R. Imamaliyev,
• Mahammadali A. Ramazanov and
• Shirkhan A. Humbatov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 824–828, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.76

• Teflon spacer. The internal surfaces of glasses were covered by a transparent and conductive ITO layer. Polyimide was used as a planar aligning material. The process of filling of the electro-optical cell was carried out by a capillary method in the isotropic state of the LC. The capacitance of the

Synthesis and characterization of two new TiO₂-containing benzothiazole-based imine composites for organic device applications

• Anna Różycka,
• Agnieszka Iwan,
• Krzysztof Artur Bogdanowicz,
• Michal Filapek,
• Natalia Górska,
• Damian Pociecha,
• Marek Malinowski,
• Patryk Fryń,
• Agnieszka Hreniak,
• Jakub Rysz,
• Paweł Dąbczyński and
• Monika Marzec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 721–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.67

• low current values on the order 10−7 mA. The reference device ITO/TiO2/P3HT/Au exhibited a higher value of current (≈0.02 mA). This behavior can be explained by inefficient light absorption of the active layer, a narrow range of maximum absorption bands (from 260 nm to 420 nm) and a high Eg (2.35 eV

• for SP1 and 3.07 eV for SP2) for both investigated imines. The turn-on voltage of the ITO/TiO2/SP1/Au device was observed at about 2.5 V at room temperature under illumination. The biggest increase of current at about 10 V was found for the device with SP1:PC71BM (1:1 w/w), where PC71BM: [6,6]-phenyl

• C71-butyric acid methyl ester. The ITO/TiO2/SP1:TiO2/Au and ITO/TiO2/SP1:P3HT/Au (P3HT:poly(3-hexylthiophene)) devices exhibited similar behavior – an increase of current at about 5 V. Our results showed that the investigated SP1 imine exhibited response under ≈88 mW/cm2 illumination. The effect on

Optimisation of purification techniques for the preparation of large-volume aqueous solar nanoparticle inks for organic photovoltaics

• Furqan Almyahi,
• Thomas R. Andersen,
• Nathan A. Cooling,
• Natalie P. Holmes,
• Matthew J. Griffith,
• Krishna Feron,
• Xiaojing Zhou,
• Warwick J. Belcher and
• Paul C. Dastoor

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 649–659, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.60

• with 112 rpm/s acceleration for 1 min. Device fabrication On pre-cleaned (water, acetone and isopropanol) patterned ITO glass substrates PEDOT:PSS (HTL Solar) films were spin-coated at 5000 rpm for 1 min and baked for 30 min at 140 °C (film thickness of 35 ± 5 nm). On top of the PEDOT:PSS layer, the

Electrical properties of a liquid crystal dispersed in an electrospun cellulose acetate network

• Doina Manaila Maximean,
• Octavian Danila,
• Pedro L. Almeida and
• Constantin Paul Ganea

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 155–163, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.18

• deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass, and two such fiber-coated glass plates form a sandwich type cell, where the nematic liquid crystal (NLC) is filled in by capillarity [21][22][28]. A schematic representation of the electrospun cellulose network with the dispersed liquid crystal as well as

• switching cycles. Conclusion CA electrospun nanofibers were deposited onto ITO-coated glass and an electro-optic cell was formed by two such glass plates with fibers in between. By filling in the nematic liquid crystal E7 a light scattering device with a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal was obtained

• Figure 12. After applying the electric potential between the metallic syringe tip and the plate, the fibers were deposited directly onto the ITO-coated glass, over the ITO surface. The fibers were then carefully dried in vacuum, at room temperature, for 72 h before further characterization and use. To

Study of the vertically aligned in-plane switching liquid crystal mode in microscale periodic electric fields

• Artur R. Geivandov,
• Mikhail I. Barnik,
• Irina V. Kasyanova and
• Serguei P. Palto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 11–19, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.2

• = 3, 6 and 10 μm, respectively. The electrodes were made either of transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) or opaque chromium coating prepared by vacuum sputtering. The LC cells were filled with Merck E7 and ZLI 1957/5 LC mixtures with positive dielectric anisotropy. E7 is almost twice as viscous as ZLI

• transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) or opaque chromium coating prepared by vacuum sputtering. Using the electrodes substrate and another glass substrate without electrode we assembled a number of LC cells with varying thickness d from 2 to 4 μm. The LC alignment was made using a chromolane alignment layer spin

• ; curve 2 – p = 6 μm, w/g = 0.5, d = 3.5 μm; curve 3 – p = 3 μm, w/g = 2.0, d = 4 μm. Polarized-light microscopy photographs of LC cells with electrode fingers at 45° with respect to the crossed polarizers axes at U = 10 V: a) w/g = 0.5, p = 6 μm, chromium, b) w/g = 0.66, p =10 μm, ITO. a) Top view

Electro-optical characteristics of a liquid crystal cell with graphene electrodes

• Nune H. Hakobyan,
• Hakob L. Margaryan,
• Valeri K. Abrahamyan,
• Vladimir M. Aroutiounian,
• Arpi S. Dilanchian Gharghani,
• Amalya B. Kostanyan,
• Timothy D. Wilkinson and
• Nelson Tabirian

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2802–2806, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.279

• Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, 9 J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0FA, UK BEAM Co., 1300 Lee Road, Orlando, FL, 32810, USA 10.3762/bjnano.8.279 Abstract In liquid crystal devices (LCDs) the indium tin oxide (ITO) films

• are traditionally used as transparent and conductive electrodes. However, today, due to the development of multichannel optical communication, the need for flexible LCDs and multilayer structures has grown. For this application ITO films cannot be used in principle. For this problem, graphene (an

• ultrathin material with unique properties, e.g., high optical transparency, chemical inertness, excellent conductivity) is an excellent candidate. In this work, the electro-optical and dynamic characteristics of a liquid crystal (LC) cell with graphene and ITO transparent conducting layers are investigated

Impact of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on purification and contamination of nematic liquid crystals

• Dmitrii Pavlovich Shcherbinin and
• Elena A. Konshina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2766–2770, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.275

• substrates covered by indium-tin oxide (ITO) electrodes and rubbed polyimide layers were used for measurements. The thickness of the LC cells was set by spacers and controlled by measurements of empty cell capacitance. The thickness of the cells was 15 ± 1 μm. We used commercial nematic LC (ZhK1282, NIOPIK

Alternating current magnetic susceptibility of a ferronematic

• Natália Tomašovičová,
• Jozef Kováč,
• Veronika Gdovinová,
• Nándor Éber,
• Tibor Tóth-Katona,
• Jan Jadżyn and
• Peter Kopčanský

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2515–2520, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.251

• particles are superparamagnetic. The temperature of the phase transition of the samples was detected by independent capacitance measurements in a capacitor made of ITO-coated glass electrodes (AWAT). The capacitor with an electrode area of approximately 5 mm × 5 mm was placed into a regulated thermostat

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• (ITO, electromechanical characterization) and glass slides (light spectroscopy). Silicon wafers (Ted Pella, Inc.) were sonicated in a sequence of isopropyl alcohol, ethanol, and DI-H2O; then heated with a butane torch (until bright orange glowing) for 30 s for cleaning. The sample thickness was

• measured with AFM by the scratch method (a sharp knife was used to remove the coating and expose the substrate). The ITO coated PET (Sigma-Aldrich 639281) with surface resistivity of 100 Ω/sq and the glass slides (micro cover glasses, 22 × 30 mm × 0.13–0.16 mm thick, Ted Pella, Inc.) were cleaned similarly

Growth and characterization of textured well-faceted ZnO on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates for solar cell applications

• Chin-Yi Tsai,
• Jyong-Di Lai,
• Shih-Wei Feng,
• Chien-Jung Huang,
• Chien-Hsun Chen,
• Fann-Wei Yang,
• Hsiang-Chen Wang and
• Li-Wei Tu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1939–1945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.194

• presented in this work have the potential to be a cost-effective alternative material for the substitution of the indium tin oxide (ITO) thin layer in heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cells [18]. Nevertheless, the optimization of the LPCVD growth conditions and parameters to increase the

• could be a cost-effective alternative material for ITO. Experimental Synthesis of ZnO on silicon substrates by LPCVD Three different Si substrates, planar (100), planar (111), and textured (100), were prepared. These Si substrates were dipped in 5% HF solution to remove the native oxide layer and then

Light-induced magnetoresistance in solution-processed planar hybrid devices measured under ambient conditions

• Sreetama Banerjee,
• Daniel Bülz,
• Danny Reuter,
• Karla Hiller,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn and
• Georgeta Salvan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1502–1507, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.150

• Au with a 10 nm ITO adhesion layer. It should be noted that the gate electrode was kept at ground voltage for the magnetoresistance measurements and the devices were used as two-terminal devices for making the results comparable with the HED-TIE devices. For the HED-TIE devices, submicrometre

Ultrasmall magnetic field-effect and sign reversal in transistors based on donor/acceptor systems

• Thomas Reichert and
• Tobat P. I. Saragi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1104–1114, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.112

• nm thick SiO2 and the source and drain electrodes are 30 nm Au with 10 nm ITO as adhesion layer. For all experiments transistors were used with L = 2.5 µm and W = 10 mm which are measured in a glove box (O2, H2O < 0.1 ppm) at room temperature. Spiro-TTB and HAT-CN were synthesized and purified in our

• for improving low-current measurements. All measurements were performed at room temperature (≈298 K). (a) Device layout of a bottom-contact organic field-effect transistor, showing n-Si as gate electrode, HMDS-treated SiO2 as gate dielectric, gold with ITO as source and drain electrodes and organic

Synthesis of graphene–transition metal oxide hybrid nanoparticles and their application in various fields

• Arpita Jana,
• Elke Scheer and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 688–714, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.74

• by Kumar et al. for supercapacitor applications [206]. This hybrid can also be used as an electrochemical pseudocapacitor material for potential energy storage applications [207][208]. Copper oxide (Cu2O, CuO, CuO2, Cu2O3)–graphene hybrids Cu nanowire (NW) films and indium tin oxide (ITO) films have

Analysis and modification of defective surface aggregates on PCDTBT:PCBM solar cell blends using combined Kelvin probe, conductive and bimodal atomic force microscopy

• Hanaul Noh,
• Alfredo J. Diaz and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 579–589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.62

• investigated the electric properties of the surface aggregates by performing and correlating KPFM and C-AFM at the same positions on randomly chosen areas. Topography, potential, forward current (−5 V tip bias with respect to the ITO substrate) and reverse current (+5 V tip bias) were sequentially obtained for

• prepared. Device fabrication Clean ITO-coated glass substrates (Sigma-Aldrich, 703192) were prepared by sonication with isopropyl alcohol and deionized water for 10 min, sequentially. A conductive polymer layer using high-conductivity grade 1.0 wt % in H2O PEDOT:PSS as received (Sigma-Aldrich, 768642) was

• spin-cast onto cleaned ITO substrates at 8,000 rpm, resulting in a film thickness of ca. 30 nm, and immediately dried at 150 °C for 10 min. An active layer was spin-cast onto the dried conductive layer producing a film of 70–80 nm thickness with either chlorobenzene (1,000 rpm) or dichlorobenzene

Role of oxygen in wetting of copper nanoparticles on silicon surfaces at elevated temperature

• Tapas Ghosh and
• Biswarup Satpati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 425–433, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.45

• easily formed by thermal annealing on indium tin oxide (ITO) or glass [3]; but copper oxidation on a silicon surface may lead to copper silicidation [28]. Papadimitropoulos et al. have observed the formation of copper silicide at low annealing temperatures, and when the temperature is high, pure copper

Layered composites of PEDOT/PSS/nanoparticles and PEDOT/PSS/phthalocyanines as electron mediators for sensors and biosensors

• Celia García-Hernández,
• Cristina García-Cabezón,
• Fernando Martín-Pedrosa,
• José Antonio De Saja and
• María Luz Rodríguez-Méndez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1948–1959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.186

• conductivity of the PEDOT/PSS/EM sensors ITO electrodes were modified by depositing a PEDOT/PSS layer by means of spin coating. Layered composite electrodes were prepared by depositing layers of a secondary electrocatalytic material (AuNPs, CoPc or LuPc2) on top of the PEDOT/PSS film to obtain PEDOT/PSS/AuNP

• response of ITO glass is not shown in the figure due to the low intensity, characterized by one cathodic peak at −0.4 V. At positive potentials, the oxidation of phenols could not be observed because it occurs at potentials higher than the working range. In the case of PEDOT/PSS modified electrodes

• larger current response (one order of magnitude) towards catechol than bare ITO glass. In addition, the presence of nanoparticles or phthalocyanines produced a shift of the cathodic wave to lower potentials (−0.4 V in unmodified ITO, −0.2 V in PEDOT/PSS and −0.01 V in PEDOT/PSS/EM). The electrocatalytic

Facile fabrication of luminescent organic dots by thermolysis of citric acid in urea melt, and their use for cell staining and polyelectrolyte microcapsule labelling

• Nadezhda M. Zholobak,
• Anton L. Popov,
• Alexander B. Shcherbakov,
• Nelly R. Popova,
• Mykhailo M. Guzyk,
• Valeriy P. Antonovich,
• Alla V. Yegorova,
• Yuliya V. Scrypynets,
• Inna I. Leonenko,
• Alexander Ye. Baranchikov and
• Vladimir K. Ivanov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1905–1917, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.182

• upon condensation in a polymer matrix was registered by Ito et al. for perylene [44], a dibenzoylmethane boron complex [45] and a cyanostilbene derivative [46]. The latter paper also reported that the quantum yield of monomer fluorescence was higher than that of the aggregates. A possible mechanism of

Morphology of SiO₂ films as a key factor in alignment of liquid crystals with negative dielectric anisotropy

• Volodymyr Tkachenko,
• Antigone Marino,
• Eva Otón,
• Noureddine Bennis and
• Josè Manuel Otón

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1743–1748, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.167

• measured parameters as a function of the deposition angle. Some of the results are compared with the experimental data and simulations from literature. Experimental SiO2 films and LC cells SiO2 thin films were deposited by electron-beam evaporation on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates

• deposition angle was in the y'–z' plane (φ ≈ 0°). In order to decrease the number of fitting parameters, the glass substrate and the ITO coating were characterized first. The optical properties of these materials were kept constant during the fit procedure for SiO2 films and LC cells, as usual for

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

• if an abundance of sulfur source is present in the precursor solution (SbCl3/SC(NH2)2 = 1:6) sprayed onto the substrate at 250 °C in air. Solar cells with glass-ITO-TiO2-Sb2S3-P3HT-Au structure and an active area of 1 cm2 had an open circuit voltage of 630 mV, short circuit current density of 5 mA

• sulfide layers The films obtained by CSP at 250 °C had differed in appearance and homogeneity depending on the molar ratio of the precursors in the solution. The visually homogeneous and dark layers grown from precursor solutions with Sb/S molar ratios of 1:6 and 1:9 on a glass/ITO/TiO2 substrate show

• the number of deposition cycles used when grown using spray of 1:6 solutions onto a glass/ITO/TiO2 stack (Figure 5). The bandgap of the Sb2S3 was calculated using the spectra of the absorption coefficient of the glass/ITO/TiO2/Sb2S3 layer stacks (Figure 4B). The bandgaps obtained are in accordance

Nanostructured germanium deposited on heated substrates with enhanced photoelectric properties

• Ionel Stavarache,
• Valentin Adrian Maraloiu,
• Petronela Prepelita and
• Gheorghe Iordache

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1492–1500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.142

• electron microscopy, electrical measurements in dark or under illumination and response time investigations. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of the procedure by the means of an Al/n-Si/Ge:SiO2/ITO photodetector test structure. The structures, investigated at room temperature, show superior

• , 400 and 500 °C, and no further thermal treatments were necessary after the deposition process. The paper also reports the influence of film structure on electrical and photoelectrical properties. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of the procedure by means of an Al/n-Si/Ge:SiO2/ITO photodetector

• smaller gap difference is observed between the curves corresponding to structures obtained at 400 and 500 °C. This suggests that the optimum substrate temperature is around 500 °C. For all the investigated test structures voltages between −1 V to 1 V with 20 mV steps were applied on the ITO contact while

Electric field induced structural colour tuning of a silver/titanium dioxide nanoparticle one-dimensional photonic crystal

• Eduardo Aluicio-Sarduy,
• Simone Callegari,
• Diana Gisell Figueroa del Valle,
• Andrea Desii,
• Ilka Kriegel and
• Francesco Scotognella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1404–1410, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.131

• nanoparticles and titanium dioxide nanoparticles deposited on top of an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. A scheme of the photonic crystal is shown in Figure 1. The silver nanoparticles have a diameter of about 50 nm, while the TiO2 nanoparticles are smaller than 15 nm. The surface topography and phase atomic

• force microscopy (AFM) images of a Ag layer, a TiO2 layer and the top surface of a five bilayer Ag/TiO2 photonic crystal, all deposited on glass/ITO substrates, are presented in the Supporting Information File 1 (Figure S1) and show that the silver nanoparticle layer has the highest surface roughness

• is still obtained with a blurred interface. For the electro-optical characterization, we placed another ITO substrate on the other side of the photonic crystal and applied an external voltage to provide an electric field to the photonic crystal device. The electro-optical measurement is shown in

Voltammetric determination of polyphenolic content in pomegranate juice using a poly(gallic acid)/multiwalled carbon nanotube modified electrode

• Refat Abdel-Hamid and
• Emad F. Newair

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1104–1112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.103

• rectangular indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass slide (resistivity of 8–12 Ω/□) was examined using SEM (Figure 1). The film is deposited on the ITO with the same experimental conditions as for the GCE. As shown, the nanocomposite has a short, tubular topology with a smooth surface. The nanocomposites are

Reorientation of single-wall carbon nanotubes in negative anisotropy liquid crystals by an electric field

• Amanda García-García,
• Ricardo Vergaz,
• José F. Algorri,
• Gianluigi Zito,
• Teresa Cacace,
• Antigone Marino,
• José M. Otón and
• Morten A. Geday

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 825–833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.74

• speed up relaxation, since the CNT will switch oppositely to the LC and provide a pseudo volume stabilization of the vertical alignment negative (VAN) structure. Experimental The samples used for the impedance measurements were formed by two 0.7 mm thick ITO-coated glass plates (Glasstone) with

High-resolution noncontact AFM and Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations of self-assembled photovoltaic donor–acceptor dyads

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Pierre-Olivier Schwartz,
• Laure Biniek,
• Martin Brinkmann,
• Nicolas Leclerc,
• Elena Zaborova and
• Stéphane Méry

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 799–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.71

• ± 5 nm thick, determined from intermittent-contact AFM measurements, not shown) were deposited from toluene solutions (10 mg/mL) via spin-coating on indium–tin–oxide (ITO) functionalized with PEDOT:PSS (thickness 40 ± 5 nm). In this study, PEDOT:PSS was primarily used to reduce the roughness of the

• , respectively. The SPV matches the open circuit voltage and is negative when the anode is grounded. Here, the situation is more complicated. The ITO substrate is also grounded, but in the absence of a top metallic cathode, both donor and acceptor units can contribute to the local SPV measured at the surface of

• the film surface. Geometry of the experimental setup for KPFM. The sample is illuminated in backside geometry. The modulation and compensation bias are applied to the tip, while the ITO substrate is grounded. (a) nc-AFM topographic image (500 × 500 nm) of the AD1 film on ITO/PEDOT:PSS (Δf = −55 Hz

Highly compact refractive index sensor based on stripe waveguides for lab-on-a-chip sensing applications

• Chamanei Perera,
• Kristy Vernon,
• Elliot Cheng,
• Juna Sathian,
• Esa Jaatinen and
• Timothy Davis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 751–757, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.66

• the electric field distribution of the eigenmodes 1, 2 and 3. (b), (d) and (f): The y-component of the electric field for eigenmodes 1, 2 and 3. Stripes are made from silver, 750 nm wide, 30 nm thick, and separated by 200 nm on ITO coated glass substrate with PMMA cladding for an excitation wavelength