Bacteriorhodopsin–ZnO hybrid as a potential sensing element for low-temperature detection of ethanol vapour

• Saurav Kumar,
• Sudeshna Bagchi,
• Senthil Prasad,
• Anupma Sharma,
• Ritesh Kumar,
• Rishemjit Kaur,
• Jagvir Singh and
• Amol P. Bhondekar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 501–510, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.44

• , nanomaterial–biomolecule hybrid gas sensors. Keywords: amphipol; bacteriorhodopsin; bio-hybrid; gas sensing; ITO; ZnO nanostructure; Introduction Nanomaterial–biomolecule conjugates have emerged into one of the most rapidly developing and sought after areas in modern biomolecular device fabrication and

• bR. Results In this work, ZnO thin films (ZnO-TF) and ZnO nanorods (ZnO-NRs) were grown via the hydrothermal method on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates (25 × 25 mm) and both structures were used for the preparation of a sensitive film for gas testing. The precursor solution (zinc acetate dihydrate

• ZnO-TF and ZnO-NRs on an ITO substrate, confirming the presence of ZnO. The strong peaks are in good agreement with the characteristic peaks of ZnO (marked with asterisk). A sharp peak at 34.4° indicates the preferential growth of the ZnO-NRs along the c-axis, normal to the substrate corresponding to

Synthesis and applications of carbon nanomaterials for energy generation and storage

• Marco Notarianni,
• Jinzhang Liu,
• Kristy Vernon and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 149–196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.17

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of hybrid metallic–dielectric plasmonic nanoantennas

• Mario Hentschel,
• Bernd Metzger,
• Bastian Knabe,
• Karsten Buse and
• Harald Giessen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 111–120, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.13

• , depending on its microscopic nonlinearity. Results and Discussion One obvious idea drawn from these earlier experiments is thus to use standard nonlinear materials such as lithium niobate crystals (LiNbO3) or indium tin oxide (ITO) and selectively position them inside the gaps of nanoantennas, as shown in

Charge injection and transport properties of an organic light-emitting diode

• Peter Juhasz,
• Juraj Nevrela,
• Michal Micjan,
• Miroslav Novota,
• Jan Uhrik,
• Lubica Stuchlikova,
• Jan Jakabovic,
• Ladislav Harmatha and
• Martin Weis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 47–52, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.5

• correlation between obtained results of different characterization techniques is reliable only for the same device. This study demonstrates charge transport properties in OLED devices formed by indium tin oxide (ITO)/N,N'-di-1-naphthyl-N,N'-diphenyl-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine (α-NPD)/Alq3/Al system. The

• transport properties of OLED devices has been done on the organic double-layer sandwiched between two electrodes ITO/α-NPD/Alq3/Al. The devices were grown on glass slides precoated with ITO with sheet resistance lower than 10 Ω/sq. The substrates were cleaned sequentially in ultrasonic bath by isopropanol

• . All deposition processes have been done without braking of vacuum to avoid unintended defects. The OLED active area of 4 mm2 was formed by overlap of ITO and Al electrodes. All electrical characterizations have been done under vacuum in temperature range from 200 to 325 K. The steady-state current

Self-organization of gold nanoparticles on silanated surfaces

• Htet H. Kyaw,
• Salim H. Al-Harthi,
• Azzouz Sellai and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2345–2353, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.242

• various surfaces in which the stability of AuNPs, interface layer and the support surface are important for the self-organization. Han et al. have demonstrated the growth of a single layer AuNPs film deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate without using an adhesive layer by utilizing diblock

• copolymer micelle and spin casting technique [18], while Acik et al. reported in situ deposition of AuNPs on ITO and glass substrate by using spray pyrolysis (temperature range of 260–400 °C) [19]. Wu et al. proposed AuNPs deposition by centrifugation where the thickness depended on centrifugation time [20

Influence of wide band gap oxide substrates on the photoelectrochemical properties and structural disorder of CdS nanoparticles grown by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method

• Mikalai V. Malashchonak,
• Alexander V. Mazanik,
• Olga V. Korolik,
• Еugene А. Streltsov and
• Anatoly I. Kulak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2252–2262, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.231

• corresponding to the maximal IPCE values should be at least several tens and depends essentially on the substrate used due to the above-mentioned revealed distinctions in properties of nano-heterostructures based on the different WBGOs. Experimental ZnO, In2O3 and TiO2 films were synthesized on FTO, ITO and

• (with average molecular mass of 12500 g/mol) in a ratio of 5 g of polymer per 50 mL of sol. ITO substrates were degreased and thoroughly washed in the boiling mixture of H2O2 and NH3 followed by spin coating with the obtained In(OH)3 sol at 3000 rpm for 30 s and heat treatment for 1 h at 400 °C in air

A single-source precursor route to anisotropic halogen-doped zinc oxide particles as a promising candidate for new transparent conducting oxide materials

• Daniela Lehr,
• Markus R. Wagner,
• Johanna Flock,
• Julian S. Reparaz,
• Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres,
• Alexander Klaiber,
• Thomas Dekorsy and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2161–2172, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.222

• transparency over the entire visible light range. A solid solution of indium oxide and substantial amounts of tin oxide for electronic doping (ITO) is currently the most prominent example for the class of so-called TCOs (transparent conducting oxides). Due to the limited, natural occurrence of indium and its

• semiconductor material, and substantial chemical doping leads to a sufficient amount of mobile charge carriers. The best-known example for TCOs is indium tin oxide (ITO) [4]. ITO can be characterized as a tin-doped indium oxide material with up to 90% content of In2O3. It is characterized by a low specific

• resistivity of the order ρ ≈ 1 × 102 μΩ·cm. ITO is highly conductive, transparent in the visible and reflective in the IR spectral region [14]. Because indium is a rare element (with an abundancy of (1.00 × 10−5)% in the earth crust) [15], and due to the steadily growing need and price, there is a large

Mapping bound plasmon propagation on a nanoscale stripe waveguide using quantum dots: influence of spacer layer thickness

• Chamanei S. Perera,
• Alison M. Funston,
• Han-Hao Cheng and
• Kristy C. Vernon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2046–2051, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.208

• beneficial in studying light matter interaction in nanoscale devices and all-optical circuitry. Theory COMSOL Multiphysics was used to run simulations on silver stripe waveguides supported on an indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) cladding. The width of the

• waveguide was chosen to be 750 nm to visualise easily under an optical microscope. Silver stripe waveguides were designed to be excited using a 633 nm laser. Permittivities of the materials used in modelling were, Silver as −16.4 + 1.13i [12], ITO as 3.42 + 0.22i from Sopra database, glass 2.3, and SiO2 as

• 2.4 [13]. The thickness of the ITO was 15 nm. Geometrical parameters of the stripe waveguide were theoretically determined to ensure the waveguide was single mode (). This required the thickness of the waveguide to be around 30 nm. The propagation length of this mode within a waveguide of these

Formation of substrate-based gold nanocage chains through dealloying with nitric acid

• Ziren Yan,
• Ying Wu and
• Junwei Di

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1362–1368, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.140

• their new properties and wide applications. Here, we report on the use of galvanic replacement reactions to synthesize substrate-supported Ag–Au nanocages from silver templates electrodeposited on transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) film coated glass. The residual Ag in the composition was dealloyed with

• , the Au NCs on indium tin oxide (ITO) film coated glass surface were mobilized to form chains in the treatment process with nitric acid. The discovery is used to prepare Au NC chains and advance the understanding of substrate-based dealloying reactions with nitric acid. Results and Discussion Synthesis

• of nanocages In our previous reports [23][24][25], we have electro-deposited template silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on ITO substrates and carried out the galvanic replacement reactions. Figure 1 shows top-view and tilted-view SEM images of unreacted AgNP templates and those exposed to aqueous 0.1 mM

Morphology control of zinc oxide films via polysaccharide-mediated, low temperature, chemical bath deposition

• Florian Waltz,
• Hans-Christoph Schwarz,
• Andreas M. Schneider,
• Stefanie Eiden and
• Peter Behrens

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 799–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.83

• transparency [3], catalytic activity [4][5], and chemical sensing [6][7][8]. It is also one of the most promising candidates for the replacement of indium tin oxide (ITO) in transparent conductive oxide (TCO) applications [9][10]. Hence, ZnO films are a key research area in industry as well as in academia with

Electrical response of liquid crystal cells doped with multi-walled carbon nanotubes

• Amanda García-García,
• Ricardo Vergaz,
• José F. Algorri,
• Xabier Quintana and
• José M. Otón

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 396–403, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.39

• of free charges, dipolar displacement and MWCNT conductivity. Cr represents the device capacitance associated to the dielectric response. The resulting impedance Z(ω) of the EEC can be expressed as follows: where ω = 2πf. By using low resistance indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes (100 Ω/□, ohms per

• unbiased cells. According to the EEC model, R1 is external to the cell, and should be assigned to the contacts and the ITO layer that makes the electric contacts within the cell. Therefore, it should be constant along the sequence in all cells. The adjusted value, 270–290 Ω, fits well with the geometry of

• the cell and the specific resistance of ITO. The result obtained for the fresh unbiased cells, on the contrary, is not acceptable. This deviation is attributed to the large span scanned by these particular cells. These samples have a large capacitor component, their ohmic resistance being in the

Tunable light filtering by a Bragg mirror/heavily doped semiconducting nanocrystal composite

• Ilka Kriegel and
• Francesco Scotognella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 193–200, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.18

• near infrared (vis–NIR) spectral region when employing varying carrier densities. As the tunable component, we implemented a dispersion of copper selenide (Cu2−xSe) NCs and a film of indium tin oxide (ITO) NCs, which are known to show optical tunablility with chemical or electrochemical treatments. We

• utilized the Mie theory to describe the carrier-dependent plasmonic properties of the Cu2−x Se NC dispersion and the effective medium theory to describe the optical characteristics of the ITO film. The transmission properties of the Bragg mirror have been modelled with the transfer matrix method. We

• voltage to conducting films of metal oxide NCs [33]. In a recent study, the modulation of transmittance was electrochemically achieved in layers of transparent conducting NCs, such as ITO [34][35][36]. Moreover, plasmonic effects have been exploited for electrochromic applications for the direct

Intake of silica nanoparticles by giant lipid vesicles: influence of particle size and thermodynamic membrane state

• Florian G. Strobl,
• Florian Seitz,
• Christoph Westerhausen,
• Armin Reller,
• Adriano A. Torrano,
• Christoph Bräuchle,
• Achim Wixforth and
• Matthias F. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2468–2478, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.256

• Angelova et al. [55]. In short, lipids in the desired ratio and 0.05 mol % of the fluorescent marker DiOC14 were mixed in chloroform and spread onto indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass slides. The solvent is thoroughly removed through vacuum evaporation. For the swelling procedure, a chamber was assembled

Low-cost plasmonic solar cells prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis

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

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2398–2402, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.249

• order to increase the photocurrent in the sprayed solar cell. Experimental Using commercially available, ITO-covered glass as a substrate, Au-NPs were deposited onto the ITO layer (ITO/Au-NP/ZnO/In2S3/CuInS2) or on top of the absorber layer (ITO/ZnO/In2S3/CuInS2/Au-NP). Details regarding the ITO/ZnO

• Discussion A sketch of the solar cell is presented in Figure 1A for the design where the Au-NP layer follows the ITO layer and in Figure 1B for the configuration where the Au-NP layer follows the CuInS2 layer. The corresponding external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectra of the solar cells are presented in

• Figure 2 and Figure 3, respectively. In Figure 2, it can be observed that the EQE of the solar cell with the ITO/Au-NP/ZnO/In2S3/CuInS2 configuration suffers losses in the region of 550–700 nm when compared to the reference solar cell without the Au-NP layer. The loss of EQE is attributed to the

Characterization of 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid Langmuir–Blodgett monolayers and their use in metal–insulator–metal tunnel devices

• Saumya Sharma,
• Mohamad Khawaja,
• Manoj K. Ram,
• D. Yogi Goswami and
• Elias Stefanakos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2240–2247, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.233

• MIM structures with polyemeraldine LB films sandwiched between silver and ITO glass plates, which resulted in devices which showed non-linear rectification [9]. In this research, LB films of various fatty acids (with amide or alkyl groups) were used for the fabrication of MIM structures. Initially, a

• , indium tin oxide (ITO) glass, quartz and nickel substrates for optical spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and electrical measurements [12][13][14][15]. The optical and electrochemical properties of the films were investigated using FTIR and cyclic voltammetric studies, respectively. The electrochemical

• analysis of PDA has proved useful in understanding the chemical activity, such as the oxidation–reduction reactions, as well as their reversibility. Cyclic voltammetry was performed on PDA films deposited onto ITO-coated glass substrates in order to gain qualitative information about the electrochemical

Hybrid spin-crossover nanostructures

• Carlos M. Quintero,
• Gautier Félix,
• Iurii Suleimanov,
• José Sánchez Costa,
• Gábor Molnár,
• Lionel Salmon,
• William Nicolazzi and
• Azzedine Bousseksou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2230–2239, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.232

• light emitting thin film composed of chlorophyll a (Chl a) mixed with the SCO complex [Fe(dpp)2](BF)4 (dpp = 2,6-di(pyrazol-1-yl)pyridine) spin-coated on an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate (anode) and then covered by a 30 nm thick Al cathode (see Figure 6a) [28]. With this configuration, the

Biopolymer colloids for controlling and templating inorganic synthesis

• Laura C. Preiss,
• Katharina Landfester and
• Rafael Muñoz-Espí

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2129–2138, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.222

• templates for the growth of conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles [67]. C2. Biopolymers as “scaffolds”: As mentioned above, gelling biopolymers are very common templates in inorganic syntheses [3][68]. Since the precipitation/crystallization of the inorganic nanoparticles takes place within the

Properties of plasmonic arrays produced by pulsed-laser nanostructuring of thin Au films

• Katarzyna Grochowska,
• Katarzyna Siuzdak,
• Peter A. Atanasov,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Anna Dikovska,
• Nikolay N. Nedyalkov and
• Gerard Śliwiński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2102–2112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.219

• theory with the temperature gradients both lateral and normal to the film surface taken into account [8][9][10]. The gold nanoparticles produced from thin Au films on Si and indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates using a 532 nm laser operated in a single-pulse regime were studied in detail by Ruffino et al

• full pulsewidth) operated at 266 nm and at a laser fluence not exceeding 412 mJ/cm2. The properties of the NP arrays produced by the nanosecond laser pulses from the Au thin films on SiO2 and ITO substrates can be inferred from SEM images (EVO-40 microscope, Zeiss) shown in Figure 1. In the process of

• nanostructuring, the grainy, thin metal film sputtered onto the substrate (e.g., glass, ITO, or Si) is melted and fragmented by irradiation with laser pulses under defined conditions. The film fragmentation starts at the grain boundaries. The poor wetting of the substrate by the liquid metal, in this case Au, and

Photodetectors based on carbon nanotubes deposited by using a spray technique on semi-insulating gallium arsenide

• Domenico Melisi,
• Maria Angela Nitti,
• Marco Valentini,
• Antonio Valentini,
• Teresa Ligonzo,
• Giuseppe De Pascali and
• Marianna Ambrico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1999–2006, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.208

• gallium arsenide. After the spray process, in the SFS device configuration, an interdigitated 50 nm thick indium tin oxide (ITO) film was deposited from an ITO target on CNTs by means of IBS. An ITO/GaAs/Ti/Au device was also prepared as control sample. Transmission electron microscopy (FEI Tecnai G2

• . The voltage supply was connected to the top ITO contact whereas the sample was grounded at the rear through the aluminium support. For the calculation of QE, a typical configuration for spectral photocurrent measurements with a light source, wavelength selector and reference diode has been used

• Detectors, serial no. 97-527) was used for the QE calculation. An Agilent source/monitor unit was used to record the current–voltage characteristics. To obtain more detailed information of the photodetector in the range of vis–NIR, photocurrent spectra of the SFS and of the ITO/GaAs/Ti/Au control sample

Carbon-based smart nanomaterials in biomedicine and neuroengineering

• Antonina M. Monaco and
• Michele Giugliano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1849–1863, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.196

• grown on smooth and electrically conducting indium tin oxide substrates (ito) nor on electrically-insulating RADA16 peptide thin-films (b), characterised by a similar nanoscale roughness s CNTs (c). The culture substrates do not alter the electrical passive properties of neuronal membranes (d

Donor–acceptor graphene-based hybrid materials facilitating photo-induced electron-transfer reactions

• Anastasios Stergiou,
• Georgia Pagona and
• Nikos Tagmatarchis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1580–1589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.170

• about the electronic communication between the chromophore moiety and rGO, which lead to the fabrication of photoelectrochemical cells. The photo-induced electron-transfer properties of ZnP–rGO and RuP–rGO were evaluated by examining the photocurrent responses in thin films on indium tin oxide (ITO). In

Model systems for studying cell adhesion and biomimetic actin networks

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johannes P. Frohnmayer and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1193–1202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.131

• bilayers, which are only 4 nm thick [46]. For the preparation of GUVs several methods exist, amongst which are electroformation on platinum wires or indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes as well as spontaneous swelling. The specifics of GUVs, their detailed preparation methods and wide ranging applications are

• partially dried; the subsequent electroformation process on ITO yielded protein-GUVs with diameters between 5 and 100 μm. Both membrane proteins were homogeneously incorporated in the membranes and biologically active as demonstrated by Ca2+ or H+ pumping. Functionally active aquaporins have also been

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

• photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation [38]. As shown in Figure 4, the scheme shows that the quantum dots of CdS and CdSe on both sides of ITO can be excited and transfer electrons to the ZnO nanowire array. The CB edges of CdS and CdSe are higher than that of ZnO (Figure 4b). Due to this unique configuration and

Photovoltaic properties of ZnO nanorods/p-type Si heterojunction structures

• Rafal Pietruszka,
• Bartlomiej S. Witkowski,
• Grzegorz Luka,
• Lukasz Wachnicki,
• Sylwia Gieraltowska,
• Krzysztof Kopalko,
• Eunika Zielony,
• Piotr Bieganski,
• Ewa Placzek-Popko and
• Marek Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 173–179, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.17

• used to store data for a long period of time [21]. In PV structures, ZnO can replace the commonly used indium tin oxide (ITO) as a transparent electrode. Thin films of ZnO doped with aluminum (ZnO:Al, AZO) or gallium (ZnO:Ga, GZO) obtained by various deposition methods, show a resistivity of the order

• of 10−4 Ω·cm and a high transparency [22][23]. Due to these properties and the low costs of ZnO and deposition methods, ZnO:Al films may be used in PV structures as a replacement for expensive ITO layers [24][25][26]. One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures such as nanorods attracted a lot of attention

Ellipsometry and XPS comparative studies of thermal and plasma enhanced atomic layer deposited Al₂O₃-films

• Jörg Haeberle,
• Karsten Henkel,
• Hassan Gargouri,
• Franziska Naumann,
• Bernd Gruska,
• Michael Arens,
• Massimo Tallarida and
• Dieter Schmeißer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 732–742, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.83

• effects like surface bend bending or other experimental uncertainties. The influence of the substrate is important in these considerations. Bayer et al. report on Al2O3 films prepared by T-ALD on ITO and found Al2p IS energies between 74.5 eV and 75.5 eV [30]. On ruthenium and ruthenium oxide we found