Self-standing heterostructured NiC_x-NiFe-NC/biochar as a highly efficient cathode for lithium–oxygen batteries

• Shengyu Jing,
• Xu Gong,
• Shan Ji,
• Linhui Jia,
• Bruno G. Pollet,
• Sheng Yan and
• Huagen Liang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1809–1821, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.163

• ORR and OER [29][30][31][32]. Many metal carbides encapsulated in N-doped graphitic carbons have been developed and have attracted much research interest due to the Pt-like electronic structure and high catalytic activity towards ORR and OER [33]. FeC, Co3C, WC, and Mo2C (MC) wrapped or supported by N

Electron beam-induced deposition of platinum from Pt(CO)₂Cl₂ and Pt(CO)₂Br₂

• Aya Mahgoub,
• Hang Lu,
• Rachel M. Thorman,
• Konstantin Preradovic,
• Titel Jurca,
• Lisa McElwee-White,
• Howard Fairbrother and
• Cornelis W. Hagen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1789–1800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.161

• platinum precursors, Pt(CO)2Cl2 and Pt(CO)2Br2, were designed for focused electron beam-induced deposition (FEBID) with the aim of producing platinum deposits of higher purity than those deposited from commercially available precursors. In this work, we present the first deposition experiments in a

• determined using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and compared to the composition of deposits from MeCpPtMe3, as well as deposits made in an ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) environment. A slight increase in metal content and a higher growth rate are achieved in the SEM for deposits from Pt(CO)2Cl2 compared

• to MeCpPtMe3. However, deposits made from Pt(CO)2Br2 show slightly less metal content and a lower growth rate compared to MeCpPtMe3. With both Pt(CO)2Cl2 and Pt(CO)2Br2, a marked difference in composition was found between deposits made in the SEM and deposits made in UHV. In addition to Pt, the UHV

The influence of an interfacial hBN layer on the fluorescence of an organic molecule

• Christine Brülke,
• Oliver Bauer and
• Moritz M. Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1663–1684, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.149

• al. [23] investigated the optical absorption properties of PTCDA on hBN/Rh(111) and hBN/Pt(111). Here, we report a direct comparison of FL spectra of PTCDA/hBN/Cu(111) and PTCDA/Cu(111), which allows for a relative determination of the efficiency of the hBN layer to decouple the excited states of

• values are given in Table 2. Note that only PTCDA/hBN/SiO2 was investigated by FL spectroscopy while for PTCDA/hBN/Pt(111) and PTCDA/hBN/Rh(111) absorption spectra were measured. We cannot explain the differences of the S0/S1 transition energies, yet. However, we observe a trend of higher transition

• energies from hBN/SiO2 to hBN/Cu(111) to hBN/Pt(111) to hBN/Rh(111). This is the direction of increasing interactions between the hBN layer and the supporting metal substrate, as indicated by the increasing amplitude of the buckling of the hBN layers [30][66]. We note that Forker et al. [23] could exclude

Fabrication of nano/microstructures for SERS substrates using an electrochemical method

• Jingran Zhang,
• Tianqi Jia,
• Xiaoping Li,
• Junjie Yang,
• Zhengkai Li,
• Guangfeng Shi,
• Xinming Zhang and
• Zuobin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1568–1576, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.139

• with controllable shape, size and density is urgently required for SERS substrates for molecular recognition. Some researchers have fabricated nanostructures as SERS substrates by using electrochemical oxidation–reduction cycle (ORC) methods [34][35][36][37][38][39]. Generally, sheets of Au and Pt, and

• a KCl-saturated Ag/AgCl rod are used as the working, counter, and reference electrodes, respectively. Using this approach, Au/TiO2 nanocomposites formed on Pt substrates yielded a SERS enhancement factor of 1.8 × 108 for R6G molecules [34]. Chang et al. [35] fabricated different Ag nanostructures on

• Pt substrates using a sonoelectrochemical ORC method with different ratios between the time periods of deposition and dissolution. The detection level of R6G molecules was 2 × 10−13 mol·L−1 and the highest enhancement factor achieved was 2.3 × 108. Yang et al. [36] used ORC treatments in KCl solution

Controlling the electronic and physical coupling on dielectric thin films

• Philipp Hurdax,
• Michael Hollerer,
• Larissa Egger,
• Georg Koller,
• Xiaosheng Yang,
• Anja Haags,
• Serguei Soubatch,
• Frank Stefan Tautz,
• Mathias Richter,
• Alexander Gottwald,
• Peter Puschnig,
• Martin Sterrer and
• Michael G. Ramsey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1492–1503, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.132

• photoemission tomography (PT) have enabled the quantification of both the charge on individual molecules and the number of charged molecules in the 5A monolayer (ML) [14]. For 5A MLs on regularly grown epitaxial MgO(100) films, all molecules appear to be charged. Orbital-resolved STM reveals the LUMO both above

• and below the Fermi level, with a large gap between a singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) and a singly unoccupied molecular orbital (SUMO). In addition, PT confirms an integer charge transfer, which would be expected to result from tunneling [15]. However, using the ability to tune the MgO(100

• molecules on the surface. The images of orbitals of molecules adsorbed on surfaces can also be obtained from the angular intensity distribution in valence band photoemission experiments via PT [27]. When the photoelectron emission angle is converted to momentum, the resulting momentum maps approximately

Self-assembly and spectroscopic fingerprints of photoactive pyrenyl tectons on hBN/Cu(111)

• Domenik M. Zimmermann,
• Knud Seufert,
• Luka Ðorđević,
• Tobias Hoh,
• Sushobhan Joshi,
• Tomas Marangoni,
• Davide Bonifazi and
• Willi Auwärter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1470–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.130

• coverages of PTCDA and MnPc on the strongly corrugated hBN/Rh(111) support [21][22][80], with computational modeling showing PTCDA rings positioned above the N sites of a hBN flake [14]. In contrast, no preferred orientations have been identified for a hydrocarbon lander molecule (i.e., DBP) on hBN/Pt(111

Wafer-level integration of self-aligned high aspect ratio silicon 3D structures using the MACE method with Au, Pd, Pt, Cu, and Ir

• Mathias Franz,
• Romy Junghans,
• Paul Schmitt,
• Adriana Szeghalmi and
• Stefan E. Schulz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1439–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.128

• metals (Au, Pt, Pd, Cu, and Ir) were investigated to derive a set of technologies as platform for specific applications. Especially, the shape of the 3D structures and the resulting reflectance have been investigated. The Si nanostructures fabricated using Au nanoparticles show a perfect light absorption

• also investigated palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), and to a lesser extent even copper (Cu) [20][21][22]. However, there is no study analysing iridium (Ir) as catalytic metal. According to its standard reduction potential of 1.16 V, it is comparable to Pt (1.18 V) and Pd (0.95 V) and should work

• broad particle size distribution. The surface is covered by more than 44%, which means 876 particles/μm2. The Pt particles mainly have a diameter below 10 nm with 495 particles/μm2. The total surface coverage did not exceed 1.0%. This result implies that the Pt film was significantly thinner than the

One-step synthesis of carbon-supported electrocatalysts

• Sebastian Tigges,
• Nicolas Wöhrl,
• Ivan Radev,
• Ulrich Hagemann,
• Markus Heidelmann,
• Thai Binh Nguyen,
• Stanislav Gorelkov,
• Stephan Schulz and
• Axel Lorke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1419–1431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.126

• Abstract Cost-efficiency, durability, and reliability of catalysts, as well as their operational lifetime, are the main challenges in chemical energy conversion. Here, we present a novel, one-step approach for the synthesis of Pt/C hybrid material by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD). The

• platinum loading, degree of oxidation, and the very narrow particle size distribution are precisely adjusted in the Pt/C hybrid material due to the simultaneous deposition of platinum and carbon during the process. The as-synthesized Pt/C hybrid materials are promising electrocatalysts for use in fuel cell

• process at a substrate temperature as low as 350 °C using platinum acetylacetonate as a single-source precursor was established for the deposition of a Pt/C electrocatalyst. Platinum in the form of NPs is homogeneously distributed in a carbon support structure due to the simultaneous deposition of both

Cryogenic low-noise amplifiers for measurements with superconducting detectors

• Ilya L. Novikov,
• Boris I. Ivanov,
• Dmitri V. Ponomarev and
• Aleksey G. Vostretsov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1316–1320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.115

• -temperature measurements at 48 K were made on the uppermost cooling stage of He-7 refrigerator with a Cryomech pulse tube cryocooler PT-405. Flexible shielded coaxial cables with SMA connectors were used for circuit biasing and for the input and output. We used an additional 40 dB attenuator at the SR780

Growth of a self-assembled monolayer decoupled from the substrate: nucleation on-command using buffer layers

• Robby Reynaerts,
• Kunal S. Mali and
• Steven De Feyter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1291–1302, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.113

• mechanically cutting a Pt/Ir wire (80%/20%, diameter 0.2 mm). Prior to imaging, a drop of solution was placed onto a freshly cleaved surface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG, grade ZYB, Advanced Ceramics Inc., Cleveland, USA). For experiments involving the n-C50 buffer layer, both sequential

Proximity effect in [Nb(1.5 nm)/Fe(x)]₁₀/Nb(50 nm) superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures

• Yury Khaydukov,
• Sabine Pütter,
• Laura Guasco,
• Roman Morari,
• Gideok Kim,
• Thomas Keller,
• Anatolie Sidorenko and
• Bernhard Keimer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1254–1263, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.109

• techniques Samples of the nominal structure Pt(3 nm)/[Nb(1.5 nm)/Fe(x)]10/Nb(50 nm) were prepared on Al2O3() substrates using a DCA M600 MBE system with a base pressure of 10−10 mbar. Before deposition, the substrates were cleaned from organic contaminations with ethanol and isopropanol ex situ and heated at

• periodic structure [Nb(1.5 nm)/Fe(x)]10 was deposited starting with the iron layer. The growth rates for both elements in the periodic structure were about 0.1 Å/s. On top, a 3 nm Pt cap layer was grown at about 0.3 Å/s at room temperature to protect the sample against oxidation. Fe was deposited by

• thermal evaporation from an effusion cell while Nb and Pt were grown by electron beam evaporation. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) was measured in situ during deposition to trace the structure of the atomic layer being deposited. For the RHEED experiment, an electron beam of 15 keV

3D superconducting hollow nanowires with tailored diameters grown by focused He⁺ beam direct writing

• Rosa Córdoba,
• Alfonso Ibarra,
• Dominique Mailly,
• Isabel Guillamón,
• Hermann Suderow and
• José María De Teresa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1198–1206, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.104

• transport study using the typical four-point-probe configuration has been performed. Following the procedure described in [17], first 3D NWs were placed flat on the SiO2 layer of a Si/SiO2 substrate by means of a nano-manipulator. Then, four Pt FIBID contacts were grown to connect the NWs to pre-patterned

Nonadiabatic superconductivity in a Li-intercalated hexagonal boron nitride bilayer

• Kamila A. Szewczyk,
• Izabela A. Domagalska,
• Artur P. Durajski and
• Radosław Szczęśniak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1178–1189, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.102

• ][17][18][19], Ru [20][21], Pt [22][23], SiC [24][25][26], and SiO2 [27][28][29]. Unfortunately, the obtained experimental data showed that the incompatible crystalline structure of the above materials leads to significant suppression of the carrier mobility of graphene [13][30]. It is now assumed that

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• Karl Rothe Alexander Mehler Nicolas Neel Jorg Kroger Institut für Physik, Technische Universität Ilmenau, D-98693 Ilmenau, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.11.100 Abstract Rubrene (C42H28) was adsorbed with submonolayer coverage on Pt(111), Au(111), and graphene-covered Pt(111). Adsorption phases and

• vibronic properties of C42H28 consistently reflect the progressive reduction of the molecule–substrate hybridization. Separate C42H28 clusters are observed on Pt(111) as well as broad molecular resonances. On Au(111) and graphene-covered Pt(111) compact molecular islands with similar unit cells of the

• vibrations. In the work presented here, 5,6,11,12-tetraphenyltetracene (rubrene, C42H28, Figure 1) was adsorbed on different surfaces, namely Pt(111), Au(111), and graphene on Pt(111), in order to demonstrate a gradual reduction of the C42H28–surface hybridization. The choice of the molecule and substrate

Revealing the local crystallinity of single silicon core–shell nanowires using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

• Marius van den Berg,
• Ardeshir Moeinian,
• Arne Kobald,
• Yu-Ting Chen,
• Anke Horneber,
• Steffen Strehle,
• Alfred J. Meixner and
• Dai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1147–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.99

• polarizations of Raman scattering and the photoluminescence from the tip–sample nanogap. Results and Discussion Silicon nanowire core–shell morphology In accordance with the VLS synthesis method (see Experimental section), the utilized Pt catalyst, or finally PtxSiy, remains at the tip of the nanowire during

• growth. However, it is worth mentioning that other mechanisms of Pt-catalyzed growth of nanowires were also previously observed [29]. The overall morphology of the SiNWs was investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The high-resolution TEM investigation of the core area indicates that the

• results, which supports the idea that TERS can be used as a micro/nano-structure characterization technique. Experimental Core–shell SiNWs were synthesized in two steps. At first, SiNWs were grown by utilizing the VLS growth mechanism [13] using dewetted Pt thin films as the growth catalyst [29] at a

Gas-sensing features of nanostructured tellurium thin films

• Dumitru Tsiulyanu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1010–1018, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.85

• both the heating and the annealing of the samples, the test cell was mounted inside a furnace. A platinum temperature detector (PT-100, Cliptec Kabeltechnik, Germany) was placed close to the film and was used to assist with the temperature control. The data was processed using a PC equipped with a data

Electrochemical nanostructuring of (111) oriented GaAs crystals: from porous structures to nanowires

• Elena I. Monaico,
• Eduard V. Monaico,
• Veaceslav V. Ursaki,
• Shashank Honnali,
• Vitalie Postolache,
• Karin Leistner,
• Kornelius Nielsch and
• Ion M. Tiginyanu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 966–975, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.81

• in a Teflon cell with the 0.2 cm2 area exposed to the electrolyte. The electrolytes used in this study were 1.75 M NaCl and 1 M HNO3. The experiments were performed in a three-electrode configuration, with a Pt mesh with a surface area of 6 cm2 acting as counter electrode, a saturated Ag/AgCl

Atomic layer deposition for efficient oxygen evolution reaction at Pt/Ir catalyst layers

• Stefanie Schlicht,
• Korcan Percin,
• Stefanie Kriescher,
• André Hofer,
• Claudia Weidlich,
• Matthias Wessling and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 952–959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.79

• , Universitetskii pr. 26, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia 10.3762/bjnano.11.79 Abstract We provide a direct comparison of two distinct methods of Ti felt surface treatment and Pt/Ir electrocatalyst deposition for the positive electrode of regenerative fuel cells and vanadium–air redox flow batteries. Each method is

• of some RFBs (such as the vanadium–air RFB). The positive electrode of these devices has to perform the challenging OER and ORR on one material system. A bimetallic Pt/Ir electrocatalyst is used most commonly as it provides minimal overpotentials under strongly acidic conditions [3][8][9][10]. The

• different types are not possible. The goal of the present paper is to provide such a direct comparison between two very distinct preparation methods of bimetallic Pt/Ir electrocatalysts. For both catalyst types, we will consider one electrode substrate (titanium felt) [15], one electrolyte (0.5 M H2SO4 at

Adsorption behavior of tin phthalocyanine onto the (110) face of rutile TiO₂

• Lukasz Bodek,
• Mads Engelund,
• Aleksandra Cebrat and
• Bartosz Such

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 821–828, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.67

• UHV system. Electrochemically etched Pt–Ir tips were used as probes. Stable empty-state STM images were collected in a constant-current mode (tunneling current It < 15 pA; bias voltage Utip < 2 V). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was carried out by using a VG Scientific X-ray source Mark II (Mg

A set of empirical equations describing the observed colours of metal–anodic aluminium oxide–Al nanostructures

• Cristina V. Manzano,
• Jakob J. Schwiedrzik,
• Gerhard Bürki,
• Laszlo Pethö,
• Johann Michler and
• Laetitia Philippe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 798–806, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.64

• changed by changing the used metal (Pt/Pd, Al, Cr, Ag, or Au) [9][10], by using carbon [5], or by changing the thickness of the metal film [9][11][12]. There are two published studies in which wavelength values were generated by using a model that could predict colours by taking into account the

Nickel nanoparticles supported on a covalent triazine framework as electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reactions

• Secil Öztürk,
• Yu-Xuan Xiao,
• Dennis Dietrich,
• Beatriz Giesen,
• Juri Barthel,
• Jie Ying,
• Xiao-Yu Yang and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 770–781, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.62

• same conditions. Ni/CTF-1-600 displays an OER catalytic activity comparable with many nickel-based electrocatalysts and is a potential candidate for OER. The same Ni/CTF-1-600 material shows a half-wave potential of 0.775 V for ORR, which is slightly lower than that of commercial Pt/C (0.890 V

• developed. Noble metals (Ir, Ru) and their oxides are the current commercial electrocatalysts for the OER, whereas Pt metal is the benchmark catalyst for the ORR [4][5]. Yet, all these catalysts have drawbacks such as scarcity and high cost, which are disadvantageous for their large-scale production and

• group of Prof. Fan, Co3O4/CTF1-700-1:1 has been studied as ORR catalyst and showed a half-wave potential of 0.84 V vs a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) [20]. Kamiya et. al. synthesized a Pt-atom-modified CTF hybridized with conductive carbon nanoparticles and used it as an ORR catalyst [36]. The

Effect of Ag loading position on the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂ nanocolumn arrays

• Jinghan Xu,
• Yanqi Liu and
• Yan Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 717–728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.59

• surface active sites [11][12]. In addition, TiO2 combined with noble metal (e.g., Au, Ag, Pt), nanostructured to form a metal–oxide structure, has been shown to greatly improve the catalytic efficiency of the material [13]. When excited by light, noble metal nanoparticles can exhibit surface plasmon

Exfoliation in a low boiling point solvent and electrochemical applications of MoO₃

• Matangi Sricharan,
• Bikesh Gupta,
• Sreejesh Moolayadukkam and
• H. S. S. Ramakrishna Matte

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 662–670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.52

• Zetasizer NanoZS. All electrochemical measurements were carried out using Autolab PGSTAT302N. Electrode preparation and electrochemical testing Three-electrode system: A glassy carbon electrode (GCE, 0.3 cm diameter) as the working electrode, Pt wire as counter electrode and a saturated calomel electrode

Atomic-resolution imaging of rutile TiO₂(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface by non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Daiki Katsube,
• Shoki Ojima,
• Eiichi Inami and
• Masayuki Abe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 443–449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.35

• performed using Pt-coated Si cantilevers (Budget Sensors, ElectriTAP190G). All cantilevers were cleaned by Ar+ sputtering (0.6 keV, Ar partial pressure of 1.0 × 10−5 Pa, ion current of 0.05 µA, 5 min) before scanning. STM imaging was performed in constant-current mode without cantilever oscillation. NC-AFM

• 10 pA, respectively. (a) STM and (b) NC-AFM images of a rutile TiO2(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface. (c, d) Height profiles along black (STM) and blue (NC-AFM) lines in the images. The STM and NC-AFM images were obtained using a Pt-coated Si cantilever with a resonance frequency of f0 = 154.1 kHz

• rectangles in (a) and (b) indicate the same structure at the same position. (a) High-resolution NC-AFM image of a rutile TiO2(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface. The height profiles in (b) and (c) correspond to the black and blue lines in (a), respectively. The NC-AFM image was obtained using a Pt-coated

Electrochemically derived functionalized graphene for bulk production of hydrogen peroxide

• Munaiah Yeddala,
• Pallavi Thakur,
• Anugraha A and
• Tharangattu N. Narayanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 432–442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.34

• graphitic structures is found to be an engineering pathway for altering the inert catalytic activity of planar honeycomb lattices of graphene and its derivatives [34][35]. It has been found that certain heteroatoms doped into graphene can even outperform the benchmark catalysts such as platinum (Pt/C) in

• their long-run alkaline ORR process where the extended stability in electrochemical processes is one of the crucial issues with Pt/C [36]. In all of these doped systems, carbon atoms near to the defect centers are found as catalytically active centers [37]. Recently, an ultra-small amount of selenium

• experiments (at 0.358 V vs RHE) are shown in Table 1. As shown in the Figure 4, the current density and onset potential of the reaction vary with the degree of (oxygen) functionalization. A benchmark Pt/C catalyst performance is also shown for comparison. The onset potential of ORR is found to become more