Volcano plots in hydrogen electrocatalysis – uses and abuses

• Paola Quaino,
• Fernanda Juarez,
• Elizabeth Santos and
• Wolfgang Schmickler

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 846–854, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.96

• perfect oxides have shown, that often hydrogen is adsorbed as a proton, and is often incorporated into the film. WO3 is a good example for this effect [31]. (3) The experimental data are affected by the charge transport through the film, which is very difficult to correct for [32]. Therefore, for this

Biomolecule-assisted synthesis of carbon nitride and sulfur-doped carbon nitride heterojunction nanosheets: An efficient heterojunction photocatalyst for photoelectrochemical applications

• Hua Bing Tao,
• Hong Bin Yang,
• Jiazang Chen,
• Jianwei Miao and
• Bin Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 770–777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.89

• other counterparts including CN, CNS and physically mixed CN and CNS over the entire potential profile. It is worth noting that the dark current densities of the photoelectrodes follow the order of CN/CNS heterostructure > CNS > CN, indicating the best charge transport properties of CN/CNS

Fullerenes as adhesive layers for mechanical peeling of metallic, molecular and polymer thin films

• Maria B. Wieland,
• Anna G. Slater,
• Barry Mangham,
• Neil R. Champness and
• Peter H. Beton

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 394–401, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.46

• arrays in some cases continuously covering macroscopic areas of a sample surface [29]. The scientific investigations of such polymers have provided new insights into charge transport in molecular systems [19], but many properties of potential interest, particularly those related to optical and electronic

Charge and spin transport in mesoscopic superconductors

• M. J. Wolf,
• F. Hübler,
• S. Kolenda and
• D. Beckmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 180–185, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.18

• M. J. Wolf F. Hubler S. Kolenda D. Beckmann Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Institut für Nanotechnologie, P.O. Box 3640, D-72021 Karlsruhe, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.5.18 Abstract Background: Non-equilibrium charge transport in superconductors has been investigated intensely in the 1970s

• but no spin. The quasiparticle excitations, however, may carry both charge and spin. Non-equilibrium charge transport in superconductors has been investigated intensely in the 1970s and 1980s, mostly in the vicinity of the critical temperature [8][9][10] and more recently also in the low-temperature

• experiments on spin and charge transport in nanoscale superconductors at very low temperatures and high magnetic fields. We find that charge imbalance can be described surprisingly well with existing models, despite the fact that they were initially developed for experiments close to the critical temperature

In situ growth optimization in focused electron-beam induced deposition

• Paul M. Weirich,
• Marcel Winhold,
• Christian H. Schwalb and
• Michael Huth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 919–926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.103

• significant progress could be made in understanding the charge transport regimes in nanogranular metals [8][9][10]. In addition, by the controlled combination of two precursors it has become possible to prepare amorphous binary alloys [11][12], as well as nanogranular intermetallic compounds [13]. As the

Optimization of solution-processed oligothiophene:fullerene based organic solar cells by using solvent additives

• Gisela L. Schulz,
• Marta Urdanpilleta,
• Roland Fitzner,
• Eduard Brier,
• Elena Mena-Osteritz,
• Egon Reinold and
• Peter Bäuerle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 680–689, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.77

• equation [37][38]: the expected Voc can be calculated to be 1.2 V, which is 0.11 V higher than the measured value (1.09 V). Despite the very high Voc, a moderate PCE of 2.1% was obtained. The device made from CB displayed a relatively low fill factor (0.36), which is indicative of limited charge transport

• believed to be the increase in charge generation, which is reflected in the higher Jsc (6.5 vs 5.2 mA/cm2), and an improved charge transport and collection, as evidenced by the higher fill factor (0.41 vs 0.37) and lower saturation value (1.28 vs 1.33), respectively. The EQE spectra shown in Figure 5b

• , and improve charge transport to the electrodes. The better photocurrent saturation values for the vacuum-deposited cells, 1.17 versus 1.28 for the solution-processed devices, indicate reduced recombination, resulting in increased charge collection. The relatively modest difference in solar cell

Preparation of electrochemically active silicon nanotubes in highly ordered arrays

• Tobias Grünzel,
• Young Joo Lee,
• Karsten Kuepper and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 655–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.73

• based on porous silicon [7][9]. However, no study is available to date in which the geometric parameters of this system were varied systematically in order to pinpoint the critical length scales associated with mass transport, charge transport, and mechanical relaxation. We propose an experimental

Large-scale atomistic and quantum-mechanical simulations of a Nafion membrane: Morphology, proton solvation and charge transport

• Pavel V. Komarov,
• Pavel G. Khalatur and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 567–587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.65

• freedom. The target temperature for the equilibration was set to 400 K. The temperature was then reduced to 298 K and the simulation was continued for additional 110 ps. After that the productive QMD run was performed for 120 ps at 298 K. This time window is sufficient for studying the charge-transport

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

• without a coaxial layer of vanadium oxide (V2O5) as cathode and anode, respectively. Due to their unique properties (e.g., large surface area, electrical conductivity, regular pore structure, electrolyte accessibility, charge transport), they are candidates for replacing traditional electrodes. Instead of

Current–voltage characteristics of single-molecule diarylethene junctions measured with adjustable gold electrodes in solution

• Bernd M. Briechle,
• Youngsang Kim,
• Philipp Ehrenreich,
• Artur Erbe,
• Dmytro Sysoiev,
• Thomas Huhn,
• Ulrich Groth and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 798–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.89

• , Germany Chemistry Department, University of Konstanz, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.3.89 Abstract We report on an experimental analysis of the charge transport through sulfur-free photochromic molecular junctions. The conductance of individual molecules contacted with gold electrodes and the

• : diarylethene; mechanically controllable break-junction; molecular electronics; photoswitching; single-molecule junctions; Introduction Charge transport in single-molecule devices is actively investigated with the aim to realize functional electronic circuits [1][2][3][4], such as switches [5], transistors [4

• small geometrical change, which makes diarylethene molecules promising building blocks for optoelectronic applications [19][20]. Since electrical measurements of diarylethene molecules started, measurements of the charge-transport properties of molecular ensembles by using large-area samples [21

The memory effect of nanoscale memristors investigated by conducting scanning probe microscopy methods

• César Moreno,
• Carmen Munuera,
• Xavier Obradors and
• Carmen Ocal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 722–730, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.82

• bipolar switching behaviour, such as that shown in Figure 3a. The clearly asymmetric curve indicates that diverse microscopic processes govern charge transport under each polarity; the different branches are capable of being described by I–Vs of electrical circuits in which both resistors and rectifiers

Revealing thermal effects in the electronic transport through irradiated atomic metal point contacts

• Bastian Kopp,
• Zhiwei Yi,
• Daniel Benner,
• Fang-Qing Xie,
• Christian Obermair,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 703–711, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.80

• mechanism. Yet, in general several additional effects are conceivable in experiments with illuminated electrical contacts, which may affect the characteristics of the contact. Although partly trivial, they can mask the intrinsic mechanisms of charge transport through the contact. For an unequivocal analysis

• and interpretation of the charge transport it is therefore essential to take these phenomena into account. As an obvious example, incident photons can give rise to a local increase in temperature, resulting in thermal expansion, thermovoltage, and resistance change in the leads. The effect of thermal

• electrochemical (Helmholtz) double layer between the Au electrodes and the surrounding electrolyte [24]. This is corroborated by the fact that signals like in Figure 2a can also be obtained when there is no direct ohmic contact between the two electrodes, meaning that any charge transport between the working

Focused electron beam induced deposition: A perspective

• Michael Huth,
• Fabrizio Porrati,
• Christian Schwalb,
• Marcel Winhold,
• Roland Sachser,
• Maja Dukic,
• Jonathan Adams and
• Georg Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 597–619, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.70

• that highlight this development in the areas of charge-transport regimes in nanogranular metals close to an insulator-to-metal transition, the use of these materials for strain- and magnetic-field sensing, and the prospect of extending FEBID to multicomponent systems, such as binary alloys and

• independently controlled, is analyzed within a continuum model of FEBID that employs rate equations. Predictions are made for the tunability of the composition of the Co–Pt system by simply changing the dwell time of the electron beam during the writing process. The charge-transport regimes of nanogranular

• capacitance of the grain. EC is equal to the change in electrostatic energy of the grain when one electron is added or removed. For insulating samples charge transport is suppressed at low temperatures due to this charging energy. The average level spacing δ can become larger than the charging energy only for

Reduced electron recombination of dye-sensitized solar cells based on TiO₂ spheres consisting of ultrathin nanosheets with [001] facet exposed

• Hongxia Wang,
• Meinan Liu,
• Cheng Yan and
• John Bell

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 378–387, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.44

• -transfer and charge-transport process in DSCs can be measured by small-perturbation-based transient methods, such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) or intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS) and intensity modulated photovoltage spectroscopy (IMVS) [13][15]. Compared to IMPS and

X-ray spectroscopy characterization of self-assembled monolayers of nitrile-substituted oligo(phenylene ethynylene)s with variable chain length

• Hicham Hamoudi,
• Ping Kao,
• Alexei Nefedov,
• David L. Allara and
• Michael Zharnikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 12–24, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.2

• functional molecular unit, which in the simplest case is represented by a conducting oligomeric molecular chain, often termed a “molecular wire”. The charge transport properties of this chain are an essential factor affecting the performance of the entire molecular device. In this context, transport

• study provide important data that are relevant to the use of these types of “molecular wires” for applications in molecular-electronics devices, particularly with regard to studies of the dynamics of charge-transport behaviour. Experimental The NC-OPEn compounds were synthesized according to previous

Self-assembled monolayers and titanium dioxide: From surface patterning to potential applications

• Yaron Paz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 845–861, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.94

• studied quite thoroughly for both organothiolated SAMs on metals and organosilanes on silicon. The appearance of dye-sensitized solar cells [85], based on (disordered) dye molecules attached to the surface of nanoparticulate titanium dioxide, provoked interest also in the charge transport from SAMs to

• force may compensate to some extent for the lack of chemical bonding between the quantum dots and the terminating groups of the monolayer, thus, enabling the high photocurrent response measured for this system. Another study on charge transport between SAMs and TiO2 was based on a mixed-monolayer

• charge transfer. Although many of the studies in this area are phenomenological they provide the necessary background required for the development of a variety of microelectronic devices such as solar cells, transistors and capacitors. It is noteworthy that in many publications discussing charge

STM study on the self-assembly of oligothiophene-based organic semiconductors

• Elena Mena-Osteritz,
• Marta Urdanpilleta,
• Erwaa El-Hosseiny,
• Berndt Koslowski,
• Paul Ziemann and
• Peter Bäuerle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 802–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.88

• be a key factor, which determines the efficiency of the charge transport through the material and ultimately the performance in organic-electronic devices. In recent years, various approaches have been followed to elucidate the ordering principles of conjugated polymers, by X-ray diffraction and

Towards quantitative accuracy in first-principles transport calculations: The GW method applied to alkane/gold junctions

• Mikkel Strange and
• Kristian S. Thygesen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 746–754, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.82

• -standing problem in the field of charge transport. Here we demonstrate excellent agreement with experiments for the transport properties of the gold/alkanediamine benchmark system when electron–electron interactions are described by the many-body GW approximation. The conductance follows an exponential

• approximation to study the role of exchange–correlation effects for the energy-level alignment and electron transport in short alkane chains coupled to gold electrodes through amine linker groups. The gold/alkane junction is a benchmark system for molecular charge transport and has been exhaustively

Charge transport in a zinc–porphyrin single-molecule junction

• Mickael L. Perrin,
• Christian A. Martin,
• Ferry Prins,
• Ahson J. Shaikh,
• Rienk Eelkema,
• Jan H. van Esch,
• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek,
• Herre S. J. van der Zant and
• Diana Dulić

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 714–719, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.77

• University of Technology, Julianalaan 136, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands 10.3762/bjnano.2.77 Abstract We have investigated charge transport in ZnTPPdT–Pyr (TPPdT: 5,15-di(p-thiolphenyl)-10,20-di(p-tolyl

• interpreted with care, and that the combination with I(V) spectroscopy represents an essential tool for a more detailed characterization of the charge transport in a single molecule. Keywords: mechanically controllable break junction; molecular conformation; molecular electronics; porphyrin; single-molecule

• -resonance transport. As such, spectroscopic information about molecular energy levels involved in the charge transport is lacking. Here, we investigate charge transport through a zinc(II) porphyrin [zinc(II) 5,15-di(p-thiolphenyl)-10,20-di(p-tolyl)porphyrin] with an axial pyridine ligand in both the low

An MCBJ case study: The influence of π-conjugation on the single-molecule conductance at a solid/liquid interface

• Wenjing Hong,
• Hennie Valkenier,
• Gábor Mészáros,
• David Zsolt Manrique,
• Artem Mishchenko,
• Alexander Putz,
• Pavel Moreno García,
• Colin J. Lambert,
• Jan C. Hummelen and
• Thomas Wandlowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 699–713, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.76

• , Department of Physics, Lancaster LA1 4YB, England Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems IBN 3 and Center of Nanoelectronic Systems for Informational Technology, Research Center Juelich, D-52425 Juelich, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.2.76 Abstract π-Conjugation plays an important role in charge transport through single

• tremendously during the past ten years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. A comprehensive understanding of charge transport through single molecules and tailored nanojunctions is a fundamental requirement for further electronic-circuit and device design. For instance, the role of length [14][15] and

• molecular conformation [13][16] and as well as of the anchoring group and of the contacting leads [17][18] was studied to develop correlations between charge-transport characteristics and molecular structure. Furthermore, π-conjugation plays an essential role in charge transport through single molecular

Transport through molecular junctions

• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 691–692, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.74

• research, where molecule-specific properties can be engineered and studied. The most prominent property that distinguishes organic molecules from inorganic quantum dots and nanowires is that they are floppy nano-objects with a strong coupling between charge transport and vibrational degrees of freedom

Self-organizing bioinspired oligothiophene–oligopeptide hybrids

• Alexey K. Shaytan,
• Eva-Kathrin Schillinger,
• Elena Mena-Osteritz,
• Sylvia Schmid,
• Pavel G. Khalatur,
• Peter Bäuerle and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 525–544, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.57

• fundamental understanding of their structural and charge transport properties. Various morphological organization examples of fibrillar aggregates that can be formed by polymer bioconjugates: (a) Wide planar tapes [18]; (b) helical superstructure [19]; (c) tapes with a dumb-bell shaped cross section [20]; (d

Structure, morphology, and magnetic properties of Fe nanoparticles deposited onto single-crystalline surfaces

• Armin Kleibert,
• Wolfgang Rosellen,
• Mathias Getzlaff and
• Joachim Bansmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 47–56, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.6

• ]. Such data are not only relevant for magnetism, but also for charge transport phenomena and catalytic activities of supported nanoparticles in heterogeneous catalysis. Our findings are also relevant for chemically produced particles which are subsequently dispersed on a surface. In such a case, the