Deterministic placement of ultra-bright near-infrared color centers in arrays of silicon carbide micropillars

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Abdul Salam Al Atem,
• Faraz Ahmed Inam,
• Hans Jürgen von Bardeleben,
• Sophie Hameau,
• Ahmed Fahad Almutairi,
• Gérard Guillot,
• Shin-ichiro Sato,
• Alberto Boretti and
• Jean Marie Bluet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2383–2395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.229

• 4H-SiC. The intensity of the largest PL from a single defect at saturation is 10 kcts/s [8] without a solid immersion lens using an a-Si detector with 20–30% quantum efficiency and 40 kcts/s with a solid immersion lens [4]. The DWF is 40%, the ZFS is 70 MHz for V2 and 4 MHz for V1 at the ground state

• , one equipped with Si active quenching avalanche single-photon detectors for measuring the VSi emission and one equipped with InGaAs avalanche single-photon detectors (ID-Quantique 230 Peltier cooled to −90 °C, quantum efficiency maximum of 25% at 1300 nm and set at 10% efficiency during measurement

• to 1500 nm, with 62.5 μm core used as an aperture. The photons are then sent to a single-photon active quenching Si avalanche photodiode. The system is also equipped with a Timeharp260 correlator card from Picoquant to measure the optical lifetime of the emitters. The second confocal microscopy setup

Polyvinylpyrrolidone as additive for perovskite solar cells with water and isopropanol as solvents

• Chen Du,
• Shuo Wang,
• Xu Miao,
• Wenhai Sun,
• Yu Zhu,
• Chengyan Wang and
• Ruixin Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2374–2382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.228

• simulator (Newport Oriel Sol3A Class AAA, 64023A Simulator), which was calibrated using a NREL standard Si solar cell. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were conducted by using an electrochemical workstation (CHI660d) (1 MHz to 100 Hz) and for fitting the Zview software was used. The

Targeted therapeutic effect against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 with a CuFe₂O₄/silica/cisplatin nanocomposite formulation

• B. Rabindran Jermy,
• Vijaya Ravinayagam,
• Widyan A. Alamoudi,
• Dana Almohazey,
• Hatim Dafalla,
• Lina Hussain Allehaibi,
• Abdulhadi Baykal,
• Muhammet S. Toprak and
• Thirunavukkarasu Somanathan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2217–2228, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.214

• nanoparticles at the pores of HYPS. The FTIR technique was used to confirm the bonding and vibrational modes of copper ferrite with silica (Figure 3). The FTIR spectra of HYPS showed several peaks corresponding to Si–O–Si stretching and vibration, hydroxyl and Si–O bonding around 432 cm−1, 800 cm−1 and between

Liquid crystal tunable claddings for polymer integrated optical waveguides

• José M. Otón,
• Manuel Caño-García,
• Fernando Gordo,
• Eva Otón,
• Morten A. Geday and
• Xabier Quintana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2163–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.209

• integrating electronic and photonic components in the same circuit. The main drawback for silicon waveguides to become tunable devices is the big difference in refractive indices between the core (Si, n > 3.0) and the cladding (SiO2, n < 1.50). This difference confines the propagating wave inside the core

• constructed. The cell consists of a LC (Merck MDA-98-1602, no = 1.52, ne = 1.78) sandwiched between the substrate containing the waveguides and an ITO-coated glass plate to provide a conductive layer for applying electric signals (Figure 8). The substrate Si wafer was employed as counter electrode. Si was

• . The substrate is SiO2 on an Si wafer; the LC cladding is not deposited yet. Upper inset: MMI configured for a 100:0 coupling. Lower inset: outputs (about 95:5). An MMI with inorganic Si3N4 core and high-birefringence LC cladding does not show variations in characteristic length, unless the waveguide

The importance of design in nanoarchitectonics: multifractality in MACE silicon nanowires

• Stefania Carapezzi and
• Anna Cavallini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2094–2102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.204

• . Especially semiconductor NWs offer the unique promise to boost the performance of semiconductor devices by quantum effects. In this respect, silicon NWs [4][5][6][7] are key elements in the field of nanotechnology, given that they can be integrated in the microelectronic industry, which is mainly Si-based

• describe it by just one scaling law. In this latter case a shift to multifractal analysis is necessary. In the present work we show the results of multifractal analysis of nanoarchitectured surfaces of MACE Si NWs. The spontaneous arrangements of the NWs were investigated by using atomic force microscopy

• ) = (q − 1)D(q). Thus, an alternative way to determine the multifractal spectrum is to calculate D(q) from the above equation and to substitute it in Equation 7. Results and Discussion Elastocapillary self-assembly in MACE Si NWs Figure 2 shows typical AFM images of the MACE Si NWs investigated in the

Synthesis of highly active ETS-10-based titanosilicate for heterogeneously catalyzed transesterification of triglycerides

• Muhammad A. Zaheer,
• David Poppitz,
• Khavar Feyzullayeva,
• Marianne Wenzel,
• Jörg Matysik,
• Radomir Ljupkovic,
• Aleksandra Zarubica,
• Alexander A. Karavaev,
• Andreas Pöppl,
• Roger Gläser and
• Muslim Dvoyashkin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2039–2061, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.200

• and above 600 K. The desorption in the low-temperature range is presumably due to Na+ or K+ cations and weakly basic surface hydroxyl groups [46][47], i.e., the H-bridged Ti–OH–Si (see also Figure 3 of [31]). As a result of the post-synthetic treatment by H2O2, a decrease of the desorption peak in

• (DRIFT) study in [31]. After calcination, the peak below 600 K slightly increases and becomes broad. The high-temperature range for all three titanosilicates is characterized by notable desorption from the strong Brønsted basic sites. For Na,K-ETS-10, these are the oxygen atoms shared between Si and Ti

• ), −96.8 ppm (A3) and at −103.8 ppm (A4) with calculated relative peak areas after deconvolution of 40, 40 and 20%, respectively (see Table 3). This is consistent with the structural data provided for ETS-10 in [23]. The two resonances at −95.1 ppm and −96.8 ppm are assigned to the Si bonded via O atoms to

Optimization and performance of nitrogen-doped carbon dots as a color conversion layer for white-LED applications

• Tugrul Guner,
• Hurriyet Yuce,
• Didem Tascioglu,
• Eren Simsek,
• Umut Savaci,
• Aziz Genc,
• Servet Turan and
• Mustafa M. Demir

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2004–2013, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.197

• coordinates of (0.35, 0.37), a CRI of 88 and a CCT of 4802 K. Furthermore, Xie et al. fabricated WLEDs using polymerizable silane‒prefunctionalized carbon dots (Si-CDots) [48]. These green low-cost polymerizable Si-CDots produced by a one-pot electrochemical synthesis have emission peaks located around 541

• –549 nm. These Si-CDots were used as the color conversion and encapsulation layers of a commercially available GaN blue LED chip. The authors report that the luminous efficacy of radiation (LER) of the resulting Si-CDot WLED is 70.93 lm/W, the CIE coordinates are (0.28, 0.35), and the CRI is 69. In

Gold-coated plant virus as computed tomography imaging contrast agent

• Alaa A. A. Aljabali,
• Mazhar S. Al Zoubi,
• Khalid M. Al-Batanyeh,
• Ali Al-Radaideh,
• Mohammad A. Obeid,
• Abeer Al Sharabi,
• Walhan Alshaer,
• Bayan AbuFares,
• Tasnim Al-Zanati,
• Murtaza M. Tambuwala,
• Naveed Akbar and
• David J. Evans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1983–1993, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.195

• ). The spectrum shows a red-shift of 4 nm, while preserving the overall shape and intensity of the spectrum, confirming successful coupling of the antibody to the Au-CPMV surface. (B) EDX analysis confirms the presence of gold (white arrows) and sulfur (red arrow), Si and Cr signals are from the sample

Oblique angle deposition of nickel thin films by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

• Hamidreza Hajihoseini,
• Movaffaq Kateb,
• Snorri Þorgeir Ingvarsson and
• Jon Tomas Gudmundsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1914–1921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.186

• was 25 cm. We used thermally oxidized Si(001) with an oxide thickness of 100 nm as substrates. However, for the scanning electron microscopy studies, Si(001) substrates with native oxide were used in order to eliminate the charging effect. All films were deposited at room temperature (25 °C) with a

Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• , 050094 Bucharest, Romania 10.3762/bjnano.10.182 Abstract Multilayer structures comprising of SiO2/SiGe/SiO2 and containing SiGe nanoparticles were obtained by depositing SiO2 layers using reactive direct current magnetron sputtering (dcMS), whereas, Si and Ge were co-sputtered using dcMS and high-power

• Currently, there is considerable interest in the growth of self-assembled quantum dots their application in optoelectronics and nanosized structures. For instance, semiconducting Si, Ge and SiGe nanocrystals (NCs/NPs) embedded in a dielectric oxide matrix have been found to exhibit strong quantum

• confinement. These NCs present unique and interesting size-dependent physical properties for a wide range of application including lighting, non-volatile memories, and electronic and photovoltaic applications [1][2][3]. SiGe nanostructures exhibit a stronger quantum confinement effect than Si NCs [4] and have

Growth dynamics and light scattering of gold nanoparticles in situ synthesized at high concentration in thin polymer films

• Corentin Guyot,
• Philippe Vandestrick,
• Ingrid Marenne,
• Olivier Deparis and
• Michel Voué

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1768–1777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.172

• + cations was spin-coated using a Laurell WS-650-23B coater on RCA-cleaned Si(100) wafers fragments (2000 rpm, 90 s). Based on an average volume mass for PVA of 1.26 g/cm3, the 2% gold-to-PVA mass ratio corresponds to a volume fraction of fAu = 0.13% in the dry film. Optical scattering measurements Optical

Remarkable electronic and optical anisotropy of layered 1T’-WTe₂ 2D materials

• Qiankun Zhang,
• Rongjie Zhang,
• Jiancui Chen,
• Wanfu Shen,
• Chunhua An,
• Xiaodong Hu,
• Mingli Dong,
• Jing Liu and
• Lianqing Zhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1745–1753, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.170

• following way: where R2 and R1 are the reflectance coefficients associated with the natural orthorhombic crystal. To characterize the optical anisotropy, a few layered 1T’-WTe2 flake was mechanically exfoliated and transferred onto a pre-cleaned Si/SiO2 wafer, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to

• ’-WTe2 flake. In detail, first we mechanically exfoliated a few-layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) flake onto a cleaned Si/SiO2 (400 μm/285 nm) substrate with pre-fabricated metal pads (20 nm Gr/180nm Au), then the same process was conducted to transfer a 1T’-WTe2 flake onto a h-BN film under an

• novel device concepts by utilizing its angle-resolved and wavelength-dependent properties. Methods Exfoliation and characterization of 1T’-WTe2 flakes The 1T’-WTe2 single crystals were purchased from XianFeng Nano Corporation. A blue film was used to exfoliate 1T’-WTe2 onto the N++-doped Si substrate

Layered double hydroxide/sepiolite hybrid nanoarchitectures for the controlled release of herbicides

• Ediana Paula Rebitski,
• Margarita Darder and
• Pilar Aranda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1679–1690, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.163

• bands of the Si–OH and Mg–OH groups was analyzed in detail. These bands appear at approximately 3720 and 3680 cm−1, respectively, in the IR spectrum of pure sepiolite [43]. The band attributed to the OH vibration of the Mg–OH groups is observed in the hybrid nanoarchitectures with apparently the same

• intensity. In contrast, the intensity of the band at 3720 cm−1 associated with vibrations of Si–OH groups is attenuated in the hybrid nanoarchitectures, indicating that part of those silanol groups are in interaction with other species as observed in other modifications of sepiolite [44][45][46][47]. This

• Q3 signal, is observed at −96.6 ppm, which could be associated with a new type of Si environment coming from the condensation of the silanol –OH groups on the surface of the sepiolite fibers with the hydroxy groups of the co-precipitated LDH particles, as previously reported for neat LDH/sepiolite

Stationary beam full-field transmission helium ion microscopy using sub-50 keV He⁺: Projected images and intensity patterns

• Michael Mousley,
• Santhana Eswara,
• Olivier De Castro,
• Olivier Bouton,
• Nico Klingner,
• Christoph T. Koch,
• Gregor Hlawacek and
• Tom Wirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1648–1657, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.160

• ] and can open new imaging modalities using transmitted He+ ions. To understand the different processes contributing to the deflected intensity of transmitted He+ ions, we investigated BN, MgO, NaCl and Si samples using an in-house built transmission helium ion microscope (THIM). In this instrument the

Subsurface imaging of flexible circuits via contact resonance atomic force microscopy

• Wenting Wang,
• Chengfu Ma,
• Yuhang Chen,
• Lei Zheng,
• Huarong Liu and
• Jiaru Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1636–1647, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.159

• on the tip and the bottom of the Si substrate was fixed. Because the contact stiffness is the derivative of loading force to elastic deformation, we used the following approximation [43], Here, ΔFi is the difference of the applied forces between load steps i + 1 and i, and Δdi is the difference of

• thickness. Such a behaviour is due to the influence of the Si substrate. When the bottom layer becomes thicker, the substrate effect is less significant. For the middle layer thickness, there is an inflection point at approximately 300 nm. The contact stiffness contrast first drastically increases with

Upcycling of polyurethane waste by mechanochemistry: synthesis of N-doped porous carbon materials for supercapacitor applications

• Christina Schneidermann,
• Pascal Otto,
• Desirée Leistenschneider,
• Sven Grätz,
• Claudia Eßbach and
• Lars Borchardt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1618–1627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.157

• . Characterization Nitrogen physisorption measurements were performed with a Quadrasorb EVO/SI from Quantachrome Instruments at −196 °C. The samples were degassed before all measurements under vacuum at 150 °C for at least 24 h. The multi-point BET method was used to calculate the specific surface areas of the

Kelvin probe force microscopy work function characterization of transition metal oxide crystals under ongoing reduction and oxidation

• Dominik Wrana,
• Karol Cieślik,
• Wojciech Belza,
• Christian Rodenbücher,
• Krzysztof Szot and
• Franciszek Krok

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1596–1607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.155

• pressure (ELOP) method of perovskite decomposition was adapted (for more information see [12][26]). The SrTiO3(100) single crystal (10 × 3 × 0.5 mm3) sample was mounted on an n-doped Si(111) single crystal, which acted as an oxygen getter, allowing extremely low effective oxygen partial pressures to be

Materials nanoarchitectonics at two-dimensional liquid interfaces

• Katsuhiko Ariga,
• Michio Matsumoto,
• Taizo Mori and
• Lok Kumar Shrestha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1559–1587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.153

• [216]. The diameters of the used nanowires are less than 2 nm and their aspect ratios exceed 100. The synthesized nanowires are dispersible in organic solvents and can be fabricated in large-area aligned arrays at the air–water interface. The films were transferred onto Si/SiO2 substrates patterned

• -dimethylformamide (DMF) solution of COF precursors consisting of benzothiophene and triphenylamine moieties [224]. The interfacially grown film was transferred onto Si substrates in order to fabricate FET devices. The COF-film FET device also exhibited p-type behaviour, an average mobility of 3.0 10−6 cm2·V−1·s−1

High-temperature resistive gas sensors based on ZnO/SiC nanocomposites

• Vadim B. Platonov,
• Marina N. Rumyantseva,
• Alexander S. Frolov,
• Alexey D. Yapryntsev and
• Alexander M. Gaskov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1537–1547, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.151

• −1 and 1067 cm−1, corresponding to the stretching vibrations of the Si–C and Si–O bonds, respectively [23]. This indicates the formation of an amorphous SiO2 shell on the surface of SiC nanoparticles, which does not appear on the diffraction patterns of the samples. In addition to these absorption

• photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Figure 5 and Figure 6 show the XPS spectra of ZnO, SiC and the ZnO/SiC_15 nanocomposite in the Zn 2p, O 1s, Si 2p, and C 1s binding energy regions. The survey spectra are provided in Supporting Information File 1 (Figure S1). For the SiC sample, it was found that the Si 2p

• region contains three components at 100.6 (Si1), 103.0 (Si2), and 106.3 (Si3) eV (Figure 5a). The first one corresponds to silicon carbide, while the second one refers to silicon oxide [24]. A weak third component may be associated with Si–O2 bonds [19]. The formation of silicon oxide is also observed in

Development of a new hybrid approach combining AFM and SEM for the nanoparticle dimensional metrology

• Loïc Crouzier,
• Alexandra Delvallée,
• Sébastien Ducourtieux,
• Laurent Devoille,
• Guillaume Noircler,
• Christian Ulysse,
• Olivier Taché,
• Elodie Barruet,
• Christophe Tromas and
• Nicolas Feltin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1523–1536, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.150

• NP dimensional measurement and the meter definition in the international system (SI) of units [1]. The involved measurand is then a geometrical size. Unlike microscopy-based techniques, all other NP sizing techniques, for instance, dynamic light scattering, centrifugal liquid sedimentation, and

• grating is used for the comparison of the measurements performed by AFM and SEM and these measurements are traceable to SI units with the calibration of this standard through the implementation of the metrological AFM (mAFM) of LNE [12]. Secondly, we have to be capable of measuring exactly the same set of

• the metrological AFM of LNE [12]. This device is a reference instrument specifically designed to establish the traceability route dimensional measurements at the nanoscale making a direct link between the SI meter definition and AFM and SEM measurements. On this instrument, the tip/sample relative

Hierarchically structured 3D carbon nanotube electrodes for electrocatalytic applications

• Pei Wang,
• Katarzyna Kulp and
• Michael Bron

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1475–1487, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.146

• that the density and diameter of CNTs synthesized on carbon cloth with ethylene as the carbon precursor over a nickel catalyst at 700 °C decrease with decreasing ratio of H2 to N2 [62], while CNTs grown on an Fe-decorated Si wafer at 825 °C using toluene increased in density and diameter with

Growth of lithium hydride thin films from solutions: Towards solution atomic layer deposition of lithiated films

• Ivan Kundrata,
• Karol Fröhlich,
• Lubomír Vančo,
• Matej Mičušík and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.142

• line, and only afterwards was the chamber opened. Since the deposition took place on the entire chamber, the film deposited on the glass slide could be used for further analysis. The chamber had to be cleaned with nitric acid after every deposition. Substrates of Si with native oxide and Pt/Si were

• minima correspond to the timing of the sALD process. The inset shows the formation of small plateaus before the next peak. “A” corresponds to the BuLi flow, “B” corresponds to the water flow, and “P” corresponds to the purging. SEM of the Si/Pt sample surface after deposition and exposure to atmosphere

• . The large crystal seen is attributed to CVD growth in bubbles. The rough film is visible around the crystal. SEM of a Si sample cleaved after deposition. The film thickness was estimated to be roughly 45 nm. Growth curve obtained from spectroscopic ellipsometry. The thickness is relative to the SEM

BiOCl/TiO₂/diatomite composites with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B

• Minlin Ao,
• Kun Liu,
• Xuekun Tang,
• Zishun Li,
• Qian Peng and
• Jing Huang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1412–1422, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.139

• spectrum (Figure 3a) clearly shows the signals of Ti, O, Cl, Bi and Si. The two peaks corresponding to 159.35 and 164.65 eV belong to Bi 4f7/2 and Bi 4f5/2 respectively in the Bi 4f spectrum [34] (Figure 3b), indicating that Bi3+ is the main chemical state of Bi in the composites. In the Si 2p spectrum

• at 530.05, 530.35, 532.36 and 533.14 eV, corresponding to [Bi2O2]2−, Ti–O–Ti, surface OH and Si–O–Si [29], respectively. This confirms that BiOCl, TiO2 and SiO2 exist on the surface of BTD. In addition, the two peaks at 458.25 and 464 eV in the Ti 2p spectrum (Figure 3f) belong to Ti 2p3/2 and Ti 2p1

• /2, respectively [36]. In addition, no other chemical contact points have been found for the time being, which is similar to other reports on BiOCl/TiO2 [29][37]. The XPS results of recovered BTD (Figure S1, Supporting Information File 1) show that the signals of Ti, O, Cl, Bi and Si can still be

Kelvin probe force microscopy of the nanoscale electrical surface potential barrier of metal/semiconductor interfaces in ambient atmosphere

• Petr Knotek,
• Tomáš Plecháček,
• Jan Smolík,
• Petr Kutálek,
• Filip Dvořák,
• Milan Vlček,
• Jiří Navrátil and
• Čestmír Drašar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1401–1411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.138

• than 10 nm were detected in the map of the surface contact potential. A higher lift height led to a vanishing of the contrast and a lower value resulted in a decrease in reproducibility (data not shown). The results are in a good agreement with the KPFM contrast of nanodiamonds on a Si substrate, where

• been observed for Si [51][52], Ti, Ni or Al [53][54][55], carbon [56] and organic–inorganic compounds [57]. We suggest, in our case, that OH− or O−/O2− ions diffuse through our polycrystalline Au layer with many defects (grain boundaries, dislocations) forced by the strong electric field (8 V/53 nm of

• nanometers for SiO2 on Si [51][52]). In our case it is increased by the electric field and good oxygen mobility in BiOx due to the formation of charged Bi vacancies [59][60]. This assumption is in good agreement with the observed increase of the cut-in potential barrier upon thinning of the Au layer (see

Janus-micromotor-based on–off luminescence sensor for active TNT detection

• Ye Yuan,
• Changyong Gao,
• Daolin Wang,
• Chang Zhou,
• Baohua Zhu and
• Qiang He

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1324–1331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.131

• groups on the surface of the UCNPs were illustrated by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Figure 1c shows the FTIR spectra of the UCNPs and APTES-UCNPs. Compared with the FTIR spectrum of unmodified UCNPs, a notable transmission band peak at 1128 cm−1 (blue circle), attributable to the Si–O