Metal oxide nanostructures: preparation, characterization and functional applications as chemical sensors

• Dario Zappa,
• Angela Bertuna,
• Elisabetta Comini,
• Navpreet Kaur,
• Nicola Poli,
• Veronica Sberveglieri and
• Giorgio Sberveglieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1205–1217, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.122

• beam with the specimens. Raman spectra were measured using a HORIBA monochromator iHR320, with a grating of 1800 grooves·mm−1 and coupled to a Peltier-cooled Synapse CCD (HORIBA). A helium–cadmium (He–Cd) blue laser (442 nm) was focused on the samples by a fiber-coupled confocal optical microscope

AgCl-doped CdSe quantum dots with near-IR photoluminescence

• Pavel A. Kotin,
• Sergey S. Bubenov,
• Natalia E. Mordvinova and
• Sergey G. Dorofeev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1156–1166, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.117

• ). Adding silver along with cadmium and selenium during synthesis obliges us to discuss the possibility of the formation of Ag2Se NPs. According to previous investigations, CdSe nanocrystals that were exposed to Ag cations in solution could be completely or partially converted to Ag2Se via cation exchange

• Ag and Ag2Se, which positively affects the QY of the QDs (from below 10% to ca. 40%) and has only minor effect on the form of the PL spectra. Experimental QDs with different Ag/Cd ratios were synthesized with an oleate method using in situ colloidal synthesis. We used cadmium oleate (prepared

• beforehand from cadmium acetate and oleic acid) dissolved in diphenyl ether (0.088 M solution) as the cadmium source. Trioctylphosphine selenide (TOPSe, 1 M solution in trioctylphosphine (TOP)) was used as selenium precursor (prepared by dissolving selenium powder in TOP). The Ag precursor was AgCl solution

ZnO nanoparticles sensitized by CuInZn_xS_2+x quantum dots as highly efficient solar light driven photocatalysts

• Florian Donat,
• Serge Corbel,
• Halima Alem,
• Steve Pontvianne,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Ghouti Medjahdi and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1080–1093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.110

• developed. This can be achieved by combining TiO2 or ZnO with narrow bandgap semiconductors such as quantum dots (QDs), where generally cadmium or lead chalcogenides are applied [9]. Due to the close interfacial contact between the semiconductors, the electronic structures of ZnO or TiO2 are strongly

Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs)

• Michelle Romero-Franco,
• Hilary A. Godwin,
• Muhammad Bilal and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 989–1014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.101

Triptycene-terminated thiolate and selenolate monolayers on Au(111)

• Jinxuan Liu,
• Martin Kind,
• Björn Schüpbach,
• Daniel Käfer,
• Stefanie Winkler,
• Wenhua Zhang,
• Andreas Terfort and
• Christof Wöll

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 892–905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.91

• recorded in grazing incidence reflection mode at an incidence angle of 80° relative to the surface normal using a liquid nitrogen cooled mercury cadmium telluride narrow band detector. Perdeuterated hexadecanethiolate-SAMs on gold-covered silicon wafer pieces were used for reference measurements. All

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

• crystals (quantum dots, Q-dots) are a good alternative to common fluorescent dyes in a variety of biomedical applications, mainly due to their high photostability and relatively large Stokes shift [1][2][3], but Q-dots typically contain heavy metals (lead, cadmium) and chalcogens (selenium, tellurium

Monolayer graphene/SiC Schottky barrier diodes with improved barrier height uniformity as a sensing platform for the detection of heavy metals

• Ivan Shtepliuk,
• Jens Eriksson,
• Volodymyr Khranovskyy,
• Tihomir Iakimov,
• Anita Lloyd Spetz and
• Rositsa Yakimova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1800–1814, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.173

• ) calculations we gain insight into the nature of the interaction of cadmium, mercury and lead with graphene as well as estimate the work function and the Schottky barrier height of the graphene/SiC structure before and after applying heavy metals to the sensing material. A shift of the I–V characteristics of

• cadmium and mercury. The dependence of the sensitivity parameters on the concentration of Cd, Hg and Pb is studied and discussed. Keywords: barrier height; graphene; heavy metals; Schottky diode; sensing platform; SiC; Introduction As a result of reckless and uncontrollable human activity many dangerous

• technology based on a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to detect toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury, arsenic, and lead in water and soil samples. The working principle of such detectors is based on the dependence of the frequency of a quartz crystal resonator on the concentration of the foreign

Role of RGO support and irradiation source on the photocatalytic activity of CdS–ZnO semiconductor nanostructures

• Suneel Kumar,
• Rahul Sharma,
• Vipul Sharma,
• Gurunarayanan Harith,
• Vaidyanathan Sivakumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1684–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.161

• permanganate (KMnO4) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) were purchased from Merck. Zinc chloride (ZnCl2), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), cadmium acetate dihydrate (Cd(OOCCH3)2·2H2O), sodium sulfide (Na2S), ammonia solution and methyl orange were also supplied by Merck. Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) used in synthesis was

• collected by centrifugation and washed several times with deionized water and ethanol and finally dried at 60 °C. Synthesis of CdS nanoparticles CdS nanoparticles were synthesized as per a previously reported method [38]. In a typical procedure, about 20 mL of cadmium acetate dihydrate (Cd(OOCCH3)2·2H2O

Development of adsorptive membranes by confinement of activated biochar into electrospun nanofibers

• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Mitra Naghdi,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• Emile Knystautas,
• Mausam Verma,
• Rao. Y. Surampalli and
• Jose. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1556–1563, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.149

• affinity towards metallic ions, such as copper and lead [13]. In a similar study, Aliabadi et al. used PEO/Chitosan for NFM fabrication to remove nickel, cadmium, lead and copper from aqueous solutions and reported no considerable change in the adsorption capacity after five cycles [14]. Also, there are

Multiwalled carbon nanotube hybrids as MRI contrast agents

• Nikodem Kuźnik and
• Mateusz M. Tomczyk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1086–1103, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.102

• CdTe-SPIO-oMWCNT#Chen, the main viability loss was found to come from cadmium [40]. In this regard, an important observation was made by Lamanna, i.e., that covalent bonding of nanoparticles on the oMWCNT is permanent even upon processing by the cells [37]. SPIO/oMWCNT#Wu and CoFe2O4/oMWCNT#Wu, within

Correlative infrared nanospectroscopic and nanomechanical imaging of block copolymer microdomains

• Benjamin Pollard and
• Markus B. Raschke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 605–612, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.53

• , mercury–cadmium–telluride (MCT) detector, moving reference arm mirror, and tip–sample interaction confined to the tip radius r. Sample feature size exaggerated for visual clarity. (a) Spatio-spectral s-SNOM phase image of PS-b-PMMA, with carbonyl mode resonant contrast between PMMA (blue) and PS (red

Chemical bath deposition of textured and compact zinc oxide thin films on vinyl-terminated polystyrene brushes

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Caroline G. Hofmeister,
• Peter Lindemann,
• Cheng Huang,
• Johannes Baier,
• Andreas Leineweber,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Christof Wöll,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 102–110, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.12

• fixed angle of incidence of 80°. The data were collected on a narrow band liquid nitrogen cooled mercury cadmium telluride (LN-NB-MCT) detector with a resolution of 2 cm−1. Perdeuterated hexadecanethiol-SAMs on Au/Ti/Si wafer were used for reference measurements and 1024 scans were taken. To enhance the

Surfactant-controlled composition and crystal structure of manganese(II) sulfide nanocrystals prepared by solvothermal synthesis

• Elena Capetti,
• Anna M. Ferretti,
• Vladimiro Dal Santo and
• Alessandro Ponti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2319–2329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.238

• mono- and dioleate precursors. It was previously shown that at 180 °C elemental sulfur, which is present as cyclo-, catena- and polymeric species [33], reacts with 1-octadecene to produce more reactive H2S (yield ≈2/3), which reacts with cadmium oleate to give CdS NCs [34]. It is reasonable to think

Silica-coated upconversion lanthanide nanoparticles: The effect of crystal design on morphology, structure and optical properties

• Uliana Kostiv,
• Miroslav Šlouf,
• Hana Macková,
• Alexander Zhigunov,
• Hana Engstová,
• Katarína Smolková,
• Petr Ježek and
• Daniel Horák

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2290–2299, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.235

• liquid nitrogen-cooled mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) detector using a Golden Gate single reflection ATR cell (Specac; Slough, UK). Spectra (256 scans) were acquired at room temperature at a resolution of 4 cm−1. Water vapor (atmospheric spectrum) and background were subtracted from the spectra, and an

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

• of Eg evaluated from the (Yhν)2–hν dependence for CdS nanoparticles exceed the Eg value of 2.4 eV for bulk cadmium sulfide at N ≤ 10 for ZnO/СdS, at N ≤ 20 for In2O3/СdS, and at N ≤ 60 for TiO2/СdS, indicating an electron-quantum-confinement effect. At the same time, at large N the Eg values become

• ) are observed after realization of the SILAR process, independent of the WBGO nature. Since the band gap energies for In2O3, TiO2, and ZnO are much higher than the energy of the Raman spectra exciting quanta, the signals from the WBGOs have low intensities in comparison with the signal from cadmium

• to the formation of barely soluble cadmium hydroxide. ZnO and In2O3 can give a sub-monolayer of Zn(OH)2 and In(OH)3, respectively, upon contact with water. The solubility products of these compounds are 2.3·10−17 and 1.3·10−37, respectively [33]. Thus the estimated value of the OH− surface

Nonlinear optical properties of near-infrared region Ag₂S quantum dots pumped by nanosecond laser pulses

• Li-wei Liu,
• Si-yi Hu,
• Yin-ping Dou,
• Tian-hang Liu,
• Jing-quan Lin and
• Yue Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1781–1787, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.182

• -infrared region (NIR) emission, such as PbSe, PbS, and CuInS2 [7][8]. These are non-cadmium-based QDs, and the use of NIR light solves the autofluorescence problem through the reduction of the fluorescence background [9][10][11]. Previous research has demonstrated that Ag2S QDs may be good candidates for

Electrical properties of single CdTe nanowires

• Elena Matei,
• Camelia Florica,
• Andreea Costas,
• María Eugenia Toimil-Molares and
• Ionut Enculescu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 444–450, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.45

• excellent example of semiconductor electrodeposition for both film and nanostructure fabrication [14]. By employing a bath containing both cadmium and telluride, their controlled reduction at the working electrode leads to the formation of a high quality, stoichiometric, compound semiconductor. In this work

The effect of surface charge on nonspecific uptake and cytotoxicity of CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots

• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Anna Pietuch,
• Marco Tarantola,
• Thomas Basché and
• Andreas Janshoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 281–292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.26

• changes and vitality of MDCKII cells upon 48 h exposure to various cadmium acetate stock solutions are compared. Once again, ECIS was found to be much more sensitive in monitoring the cadmium cytotoxicity than the MTS test. The ECIS results showed a dramatic reduction of MDCKII impedance within the first

• 24 h of exposure to cadmium acetate with concentration corresponding to the Cd2+ content in 100 nM CdSe QD solutions (Figure 2a). After 48 h of interaction, both stock solutions of cadmium acetate caused a substantial impedance decrease and an almost complete reduction of MDCKII vitality, along with

• , while negatively-charged zwitterionic QDs reduced the mitochondrial activity of MDCKII cells by up to 5 and 25%, respectively, where the cellular impedance was assessed by ECIS. The mechanism of QD-induced damage was ascertained to be more complex, rather than strictly the release of cadmium ions from

Overview about the localization of nanoparticles in tissue and cellular context by different imaging techniques

• Anja Ostrowski,
• Daniel Nordmeyer,
• Alexander Boreham,
• Cornelia Holzhausen,
• Lars Mundhenk,
• Christina Graf,
• Martina C. Meinke,
• Annika Vogt,
• Sabrina Hadam,
• Jürgen Lademann,
• Eckart Rühl,
• Ulrike Alexiev and
• Achim D. Gruber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 263–280, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.25

• bioapplications are typically composed of a semiconductor core (e.g., cadmium sulfide), an outer shell of a higher band semiconducting material (e.g., zinc sulfide) and a surface functionalization which may consist of various hydrophilic organic molecules including biomolecules or polymers [86]. QD with their

The distribution and degradation of radiolabeled superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and quantum dots in mice

• Denise Bargheer,
• Artur Giemsa,
• Barbara Freund,
• Markus Heine,
• Christian Waurisch,
• Gordon M. Stachowski,
• Stephen G. Hickey,
• Alexander Eychmüller,
• Jörg Heeren and
• Peter Nielsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 111–123, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.11

• makes them a highly promising tool for various applications in nanobioscience and nanomedicine [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Since many Qdots contain cadmium or other toxic elements, the release of potential toxic metals is a major concern with respect to biosafety. Many studies have demonstrated the toxicity of

• include the absorption of intact micelles into enterocytes [31]. 65Zn-labeling of quantum dots For intrinsic labeling, a variety of radionuclides can be incorporated into quantum dots consisting of cadmium, copper, indium, zinc, selenium, and tellurium. Although cadmium is the most relevant, it has no

• for either zinc influx or efflux in mammalian cells [35]. Detailed compartment models of zinc kinetics in humans and mice are available [36][37]. As cadmium and zinc both belong to the group IIB of the periodic table, they form tetrahedral complexes and compete for the same binding sites and/or ligands

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

The cell-type specific uptake of polymer-coated or micelle-embedded QDs and SPIOs does not provoke an acute pro-inflammatory response in the liver

• Markus Heine,
• Alexander Bartelt,
• Oliver T. Bruns,
• Denise Bargheer,
• Artur Giemsa,
• Barbara Freund,
• Ludger Scheja,
• Christian Waurisch,
• Alexander Eychmüller,
• Rudolph Reimer,
• Horst Weller,
• Peter Nielsen and
• Joerg Heeren

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1432–1440, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.155

• sophisticated in vivo imaging in biomedical diagnosis [1]. QDs have been used for fluorescence-based imaging by several investigators, however, the chemical composition of their inorganic crystal core, e.g., cadmium, raised concerns about their biocompatibility [2]. Thus, it is not surprising that studies

• QDs in mice. They found that QDs persist in lymph nodes over a period of two years. These nanocrystals retain fluorescence but with a blue shifted emission, which is suggestive for a release of some cadmium ions from the inorganic core [9]. Interestingly, even after two years no obvious signs of

• cadmium-induced toxicity were observed. Other studies focus on the quantification of cadmium as tracer for injected nanocrystals. The laboratory of Lin investigated the biodistribution of QDs in mice over four months [10]. In this study, a slow redistribution of the chemical components from peripheral

Magnesium batteries: Current state of the art, issues and future perspectives

• Rana Mohtadi and
• Fuminori Mizuno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1291–1311, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.143

• cm−3 for Li metal), their specific energy densities were proven to be more competitive than that of other rechargeable batteries, such as nickel (Ni)–metal hydride, Ni-cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb)–acid (about 2.5 times). They also provide higher specific power and have had long durability [1]. The

Surface processes during purification of InP quantum dots

• Natalia Mordvinova,
• Pavel Emelin,
• Alexander Vinokurov,
• Sergey Dorofeev,
• Artem Abakumov and
• Tatiana Kuznetsova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1220–1225, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.135

• method of purification, electrophoresis, is investigated and described in particular. Keywords: cadmium-free material; electrophoresis; luminescence; precipitation; purification; quantum dots; semiconductors; Introduction Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) have been studied extensively for the

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

• functionalization, which demonstrates that the toxicity of cadmium QDs can be reduced by encapsulating them. Furthermore, it is possible to fabricate CdS/ZnS QDs that emit from the visible to the near-infrared (NIR) regions, and hence are suitable for bioimaging [22][23]. Several reports in the literature

• generation of multifunction agents for clinic diagnosis and treatment. Experimental Materials Cadmium oxide (CdO, 99.9+%), oleic acid (OA, 99%), sulfur (S, 99%), zinc chloride anhydrous (ZnCl2, 98+%), sodium diethyldithiocarbamate trihydrate (Na(DDTC), 98%), were purchased from Alfa Aesar. 1-Octadecene (ODE