Imaging of SARS-CoV-2 infected Vero E6 cells by helium ion microscopy

• Natalie Frese,
• Patrick Schmerer,
• Martin Wortmann,
• Matthias Schürmann,
• Matthias König,
• Michael Westphal,
• Friedemann Weber,
• Holger Sudhoff and
• Armin Gölzhäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 172–179, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.13

• of 0.2 to 0.4 pA. To avoid charging effects during secondary electron detection, an electron flood gun was used after each line scan, if not stated otherwise, with a flood energy of 540 eV, flood time of 10 µs and a focus of 107 V. It should be mentioned that the flood gun parameters have to be

Paper-based triboelectric nanogenerators and their applications: a review

• Jing Han,
• Nuo Xu,
• Yuchen Liang,
• Mei Ding,
• Junyi Zhai,
• Qijun Sun and
• Zhong Lin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 151–171, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.12

• et al. reported a cut-paper-based self-charging power unit (PC-SCPU) by combining TENGs and the SC mode, which is capable of simultaneously harvest and store energy from body movements [39]. Zhou et al. also proposed an all-in-one stretchable self-charging power unit based on folded carbon paper

Bio-imaging with the helium-ion microscope: A review

• Matthias Schmidt,
• James M. Byrne and
• Ilari J. Maasilta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1–23, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.1

• surface in order to avoid charging. Charge compensation can even be considered to be necessary for conductive metals, because the high surface sensitivity of the HIM would only reveal the metal layer and not the fine detail of the surface ultrastructure without the use of the flood gun. From a practical

• , followed by dehydration and then drying. For non-conductive samples, as is typical of biological materials, established protocols for SEM also involve methods to overcome charging effects, which are, however, not absolutely necessary for HIM owing to the charge compensation. Fixation Fixation is often

• polished at room temperature to expose the area of interest within the tooth enamel. As biological samples are electrical insulators, charging effects typically affect the imaging quality in conventional SEM. Various approaches are used to remove the charge, including coating with electrically conductive

Free and partially encapsulated manganese ferrite nanoparticles in multiwall carbon nanotubes

• Saja Al-Khabouri,
• Salim Al-Harthi,
• Toru Maekawa,
• Mohamed E. Elzain,
• Ashraf Al-Hinai,
• Ahmed D. Al-Rawas,
• Abbsher M. Gismelseed,
• Ali A. Yousif and
• Myo Tay Zar Myint

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1891–1904, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.170

• values was estimated to be equal to ±0.1 eV. Due to the charging effect of the oxides, electron flooding was carried out for charge compensation. A helium lamp with 21.2 eV (He I) excitation energy was used for ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS, Omicron Nanotechnology). A −5 V sample bias was

Kondo effects in small-bandgap carbon nanotube quantum dots

• Patryk Florków,
• Damian Krychowski and
• Stanisław Lipiński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1873–1890, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.169

• charging energy. For very weak dot–lead coupling and strong Coulomb interaction, the electrons enter the dot one by one and Coulomb-blockade oscillations of conductance are observed. For stronger coupling to electrodes, higher-order tunneling processes (i.e., cotunneling) begin to play a decisive role

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

• discharge product was Li2O2 (JCPDF 09-0355). It is noteworthy that LiOH was also detected. This can be associated with the reaction between Li2O2 and H2O when the discharged/recharged electrode was exposed to air during XRD testing. After charging to 4.5 V, trace amounts of LiOH were detected, due to the

• NiFeC nanoparticles formed on the surface of N-doped carbon. These structures efficiently improved the electron and ion transfer between the cathode and electrolyte during charging and discharging processes. Finally, NiFeC nanoparticles supported on N-doped carbon significantly impeded particle

Out-of-plane surface patterning by subsurface processing of polymer substrates with focused ion beams

• Serguei Chiriaev,
• Luciana Tavares,
• Vadzim Adashkevich,
• Arkadiusz J. Goszczak and
• Horst-Günter Rubahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1693–1703, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.151

• deposited onto the surface of the polymer substrates to study the patterning of these films by in-bulk processes. An important argument for using metal films is that these films prevent surface charging. The use of charge compensation by irradiation with electron beams can generate additional radiation

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

• of such decoupling layers may effectively change the electron donating properties of the substrate, for example, by lowering its work function and thus enhancing the charging of the molecular adsorbate layer through electron tunneling. Here, an experimental study of the charging of para-sexiphenyl

• physical coupling to the substrate induced by the charge transfer. Finally, the charging effect on the thermal dynamics and the stability of the 6P monolayer are considered. Results and Discussion Ambivalent behavior of 6P on regularly prepared MgO(100)/Ag(100) thin films Figure 2 shows STM images of four

• are other molecules with 6 lobes, but in a linear arrangement (Figure 2a). A possible explanation for this observation is the charging-induced planarization of 6P. For comparison, on the pristine Ag(100) substrate, planar 6P molecules are observed in the submonolayer regime despite the lack of any

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

• . Furthermore, the agreement between the gas-phase calculations and STM data indicated that no charging occurred upon pyrene adsorption on hBN/Cu(111) [37]. To complement the on-surface investigations, we measured the optical gap by means of UV–vis spectroscopic characterization in solution (toluene) of the

• the trans-like species. Such a rigid shift can be caused by charges in the molecular layer (biasing nearby molecules) and by local modifications of the work function affecting the interfacial level alignment [9][35][82][83]. As the STM/STS experiments provided no indication of charging, we ruled out a

Triboelectric nanogenerator based on Teflon/vitamin B1 powder for self-powered humidity sensing

• Liangyi Zhang,
• Huan Li,
• Yiyuan Xie,
• Jing Guo and
• Zhiyuan Zhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1394–1401, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.123

• (at a 100 MΩ load) is approximated to be equal to the open circuit voltage. Similarly, for a load of 100 kΩ, the corresponding output current can be considered to be equal to the short circuit current. In addition, as shown in Figure 3e, the charging capacity of the prepared TVB-TENG was investigated

• changing the load resistance. (d) The behavior of the output power density upon changing the load resistance. (e) TVB-TENG with a full-wave bridge rectifier for charging a 1 nF capacitor. In one cycle, 87 nC of charge is transferred. (f) The reliability of TVB-TENG was studied over 500 working cycles. The

Structure and electrochemical performance of electrospun-ordered porous carbon/graphene composite nanofibers

• Yi Wang,
• Yanhua Song,
• Chengwei Ye and
• Lan Xu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1280–1290, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.112

• devices [1][2], are one of the most needed energy storage devices. Their main characteristics include high energy density, high power density, and fast charging speed [3][4][5]. These instruments have electrodes that are composed of either carbonaceous materials (carbon nanotubes, graphene, carbon

• extensive induced current and the largest box-like shaped curve, demonstrating that the OPCGCNF electrode had the largest capacitance among the three CGCNF electrodes analyzed and had a very rapid charging/discharging reaction [45]. The high capacitance of the OPCGCNF electrode could be attributed to its

An atomic force microscope integrated with a helium ion microscope for correlative nanoscale characterization

• Santiago H. Andany,
• Gregor Hlawacek,
• Stefan Hummel,
• Charlène Brillard,
• Mustafa Kangül and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1272–1279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.111

• . For AFM and HIM, this is particularly advantageous since both can image non-conductive samples at very high resolution without charging. This is essential for correlative mechanical property and HIM surface imaging, and it is a clear advantage of AFM–HIM compared to AFM–SEM, where a conductive coating

Gas sorption porosimetry for the evaluation of hard carbons as anodes for Li- and Na-ion batteries

• Yuko Matsukawa,
• Fabian Linsenmann,
• Maximilian A. Plass,
• George Hasegawa,
• Katsuro Hayashi and
• Tim-Patrick Fellinger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1217–1229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.106

• carbon depends on the type of carbon. Both lithium and sodium are suggested to have two consecutive but very different charging mechanisms [17][19]. Characteristic charge–discharge curves of both SIBs and LIBs feature two regions, first, a sloping region having a hysteresis between charge and discharge

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

• the hole or electron to the vibrational quantum with energy hν. The Huang–Rhys factor can be expressed as where εν denotes the relaxation energy of the vibration when charging the molecule [10][41]. Comparing the peak height of the orbital signature (I0) with the first vibronic subband (Iν,1) enables

Monolayers of MoS₂ on Ag(111) as decoupling layers for organic molecules: resolution of electronic and vibronic states of TCNQ

• Asieh Yousofnejad,
• Gaël Reecht,
• Nils Krane,
• Christian Lotze and
• Katharina J. Franke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1062–1071, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.91

• vibronic sidebands, which occur due to the simultaneous excitation of a vibrational mode upon charging [22][25][57][58][59][60][61]. The sidepeaks should thus obey the same symmetry as the parent orbital state [62][63][64]. In the simplest case, these excitations can be described within the Franck–Condon

• *. Upon charging, the molecule undergoes a geometric distortion, captured by the shift of the potential energy curve of the excited state. Vertical transitions allow for probing many vibronic states, with the intensities given by a Poisson distribution, with Sk being the Huang–Rhys factor of the

• vibrational mode k and n its harmonics. The Huang–Rhys factor is determined by the relaxation energy εk of a vibrational mode when charging the molecule as From the DFT calculations of the TCNQ molecule, we determine all vibrational eigenmodes in the negatively charged state and also derive the Huang–Rhys

Hexagonal boron nitride: a review of the emerging material platform for single-photon sources and the spin–photon interface

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Faraz A. Inam,
• Shin-ichiro Sato and
• Alberto Boretti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 740–769, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.61

• and thus further investigations are necessary to explore SPEs in h-BN. The ZPL spectral fluctuation (diffusion) is often found due to ionization and the charging of neighboring defects leading to the Stark shift. SPEs in h-BN flakes exposed to blue (405 nm) laser light show pronounced fluorescence

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

• different scan rates (Figure 3b). The change in specific capacitance as a function of the scan rate is shown in Figure 3c. Even at a high scan rate of 50 mV·s−1 the electrode retained a capacitance value of 200 F·g−1 suggesting that it is a suitable material for fast-charging applications. This property

Comparison of fresh and aged lithium iron phosphate cathodes using a tailored electrochemical strain microscopy technique

• Matthias Simolka,
• Hanno Kaess and
• Kaspar Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 583–596, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.46

• for both cathodes. Looking at the first charging step, the aged cathode exhibits a smaller charge capacity compared to the fresh cathode. This indicates a smaller amount of lithium stored or available for the electrochemical process or a reduced amount of electrochemically active cathode material. The

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

• charging of wall components and affect the wall structure, thereby affecting the capsule wall integrity. In spite of the versatility, in addition to the inexpensive and easy fabrication of electrostatic assemblies, the response over a wide pH range becomes a limitation as it is biologically irrelevant

High dynamic resistance elements based on a Josephson junction array

• Konstantin Yu. Arutyunov and
• Janne S. Lehtinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 417–420, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.32

• connected in series, each being a Al–AlOx–Al junction with a gap of about 400 µV. The charging energy, Ec = e2/2C, of each SIS contact (considering it to be a plate capacitor with dielectric constant ε ≈ 10, area 100 × 100 nm and distance between plates ≈2 nm) is about two orders of magnitude higher than

• the Josephson energy, EJ = Ic/2e. As EJ << Ec the physics of the system is dominated solely by charging phenomena. At zero magnetic field and small current bias, the dynamic resistance Rdyn ≡ dV/dI of the JJ chain can reach ≈1011 Ω (Figure 2b), while at a higher bias, Rdyn (I >> 0) approaches 100 kΩ

Implementation of data-cube pump–probe KPFM on organic solar cells

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Olivier Bardagot and
• Renaud Demadrille

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 323–337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.24

• the development of new time-resolved extensions of electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). Time-resolved EFM (trEFM) has been used to map photoinduced charging rates (i.e., the time needed to reach an electrostatic equilibrium after illumination) in organic donor

Nanosecond resistive switching in Ag/AgI/PtIr nanojunctions

• Botond Sánta,
• Dániel Molnár,
• Patrick Haiber,
• Agnes Gubicza,
• Edit Szilágyi,
• Zsolt Zolnai,
• András Halbritter and
• Miklós Csontos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 92–100, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.9

• implemented on identical, impedance-matched printed co-planar waveguide circuit boards, is shown in Figure 4b. The operation of G1 and G2 relies on the recurring charging and avalanche break-down of the 2N2369-type npn transistor. Charging occurs through the 1 MΩ resistor and the 2 pF capacitor located at the

Synthesis of amorphous and graphitized porous nitrogen-doped carbon spheres as oxygen reduction reaction catalysts

• Maximilian Wassner,
• Markus Eckardt,
• Andreas Reyer,
• Thomas Diemant,
• Michael S. Elsaesser,
• R. Jürgen Behm and
• Nicola Hüsing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1–15, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.1

• support to the C 1s signal of the carbon-containing catalyst film. The spectra showed minor charging effects, which were compensated by a neutralizer (low-energy electron flood gun). The C 1s peak was set to 284.8 eV for binding energy calibration [50]. Evaluation and deconvolution of the measured signals

• electrolyte were subtracted from the measured ORR currents in order to remove double-layer charging currents. For each catalyst the cyclic voltammograms are presented, thus the ORR measurements of each catalyst consist of a cathodic (down-going scan, lower trace) and an anodic (up-going scan, upper trace

Adsorption and desorption of self-assembled L-cysteine monolayers on nanoporous gold monitored by in situ resistometry

• Elisabeth Hengge,
• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Rupert Bachler,
• Alexander Dennig,
• Bernd Nidetzky and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2275–2279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.219

• demonstrates good reproducibility of the desorption peak at −820 mV. During desorption, the resistance (Figure 3b) strongly decreases by about 7.2%. In subsequent cycles it varies in a range of 4%, matching our earlier results for double-layer charging of npAu [19]. A slight drift during repeated cycling is

• most likely caused by sample degradation. The charge transfer of 0.15 C during desorption is a superposition of actual cysteine desorption and double-layer charging (with an increasing contribution as cysteine is desorbed). When we assume the double-layer capacitance to increase roughly proportionally

• to the total charge transfer, this yields contributions of 0.06 C for the double layer and 0.09 C for the cysteine desorption. This charge transfer can be associated with a resistance variation of 2.4% (estimated from the variations upon double-layer charging in following cycles) and 4.8

A novel all-fiber-based LiFePO₄/Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ battery with self-standing nanofiber membrane electrodes

• Li-li Chen,
• Hua Yang,
• Mao-xiang Jing,
• Chong Han,
• Fei Chen,
• Xin-yu Hu,
• Wei-yong Yuan,
• Shan-shan Yao and
• Xiang-qian Shen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2229–2237, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.215

• active substances and electrolyte. The resistance of Li+ during charging and discharging of the battery decreases, and the internal structure of the material cannot collapse of deform easily. Thus, the structure of the material remains unchanged even after many cycles [40][41]. TEM images of the LiFePO4

• , which are consistent with the CV curves, corresponding to the processes of Li+ removal from and intercalation in LiFePO4 and Li4Ti5O12, respectively. It is noteworthy that two smaller plateaus for charging and discharging of TiO2 are also found on the charge-discharge curves of Li4Ti5O12, which is in