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

• oligomerisation of the 33-mer peptide gliadin [74]. The HIM data helped the authors to “show a plausible pathway of 33-mer peptide protofilaments formation” via the contact of square-like oligomers and the formation of protofilaments by “longitutinal association of matured rod-like oligomers.” Imaging animals and

Piezotronic effect in AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterojunction nanowires used as a flexible strain sensor

• Jianqi Dong,
• Liang Chen,
• Yuqing Yang and
• Xingfu Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1847–1853, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.166

• synthesize AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterojunction NWs with controllable size. A single NW is transferred to a flexible poly(ethylene terephthalate) substrate and fixed by indium tin oxide electrodes to form an ohmic contact for the strain sensor. An external mechanical stress is introduced to study the performance of

• (EC) wet etching, to prepare AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterojunction NWs with a controllable size. After the lift-off, a single NW is transferred to a flexible poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) substrate and is fixed by indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes to form an ohmic contact for the strain sensor. Under

• top-down two-step process, including ICP dry etching and selective EC wet etching. After the lift-off, a single NW was transferred to a flexible PET substrate and was fixed by ITO electrodes to form an ohmic contact for the strain sensor. We have introduced the piezotronic effect to adjust the carrier

Unravelling the interfacial interaction in mesoporous SiO₂@nickel phyllosilicate/TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for photocatalytic activity

• Bridget K. Mutuma,
• Xiluva Mathebula,
• Isaac Nongwe,
• Bonakele P. Mtolo,
• Boitumelo J. Matsoso,
• Rudolph Erasmus,
• Zikhona Tetana and
• Neil J. Coville

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1834–1846, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.165

• nanostructures are attractive candidates for photocatalysis owing to their tunable physicochemical properties, their interfacial contact effects, and their efficacy in charge-carrier separation. This study reports, for the first time, on the synthesis of mesoporous silica@nickel phyllosilicate/titania (mSiO2

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

• formed at the surface, which had intimate contact with the carbon material. Well-defined lattice fringes were also observed in the HR-TEM image (Figure 3c). The measured d-spacing of the lattice in the black particle was approx. 0.20 nm, and it was assigned to the (111) plane of Fe0.64Ni0.36. The black

• Figure 8c and Figure 8d, Rct of NiFe-PBA/PP-T after the first discharge was lower than that of the fresh sample, possibly due to an improvement in the contact between NiFe-PBA/PP-T and the electrolyte formed during the discharge process. Since the contact between the active material and the electrolyte

Nanomechanics of few-layer materials: do individual layers slide upon folding?

• Ronaldo J. C. Batista,
• Rafael F. Dias,
• Ana P. M. Barboza,
• Alan B. de Oliveira,
• Taise M. Manhabosco,
• Thiago R. Gomes-Silva,
• Matheus J. S. Matos,
• Andreij C. Gadelha,
• Cassiano Rabelo,
• Luiz G. L. Cançado,
• Ado Jorio,
• Hélio Chacham and
• Bernardo R. A. Neves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1801–1808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.162

• of the minimization of an energy functional that contains two terms, that is, the curvature energy Ec = ∫κ/(2R2)dS where R is the local curvature radius and κ is the bending stiffness. The adhesion energy Ea = αSa, where Sa is the contact area and α is the adhesion energy per unit area between the 2D

Molecular dynamics modeling of the influence forming process parameters on the structure and morphology of a superconducting spin valve

• Alexander Vakhrushev,
• Aleksey Fedotov,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Roman Morari and
• Anatolie Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1776–1788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.160

• system is not perfectly flat. The surface has noticeable irregularities that penetrate into adjacent layers. The figures also show that there is a mutual penetration of one contact layer into another. Therefore, the layer interface has a certain quantifiable thickness. It should be noted that the atomic

• in [21][22]). A detailed discussion of the boundary resistance issue of two metals in contact and experimental data analysis for a number of magnetic and nonmagnetic metals pairs is given in [23]. A number of previous studies suggest that a significant increase in the interdiffusion of niobium and

• different spatial orientations. The blurring of the contact area between the layers and a less even surface profile compared to niobium are noticeable. A quantitative characteristic of the material spatial structure can be obtained by calculating the coordination number. The coordination number in

Mapping of integrated PIN diodes with a 3D architecture by scanning microwave impedance microscopy and dynamic spectroscopy

• Rosine Coq Germanicus,
• Peter De Wolf,
• Florent Lallemand,
• Catherine Bunel,
• Serge Bardy,
• Hugues Murray and
• Ulrike Lüders

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1764–1775, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.159

• modes provide sub-10 nm two-dimensional maps of the electrical properties of doped semiconductor layers [1][6][7][8] when a fixed bias is applied to the nanoscale contact. In SSRM, a DC voltage is applied to the sample and the resulting current, flowing from the conductive tip through the sample to the

• back contact, is recorded using a logarithmic amplifier with a wide dynamic range [9][10]. Based on the measured current, the overall equivalent resistance, including the conductive tip resistance, the spreading resistance of the semiconductor under the contact, the bulk resistance of the sample, and

• the back-contact resistance [11], is experimentally determined. Therefore, at a fixed applied bias, the SSRM measurements map the variation in concentration of mobile majority carriers in doped semiconductors. A high load on the tip is required to obtain the spreading resistance. In fact, for silicon

Absorption and photoconductivity spectra of amorphous multilayer structures

• Oxana Iaseniuc and
• Mihail Iovu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1757–1763, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.158

• absorption depending on the nature and the thickness of each amorphous layer, on the wavelength, and on contact phenomena at the interfaces between different layers and between the amorphous layers and the metal electrodes with different work functions. Keywords: amorphous multilayer structures

• applied voltage. When a positive voltage is applied to the illuminated Al electrode, the maximum is shifted toward the region of higher energies of the spectrum. As was mentioned in [8], this behavior can be associated with contact phenomena at the interfaces between metallic electrode and amorphous

• applied field becomes higher than the internal electrical field. For amorphous semiconductors the barrier height of an Al–semiconductor contact, with a work function of φm = 4.18 eV, is φb = 0.40–0.75 eV [14][17]. This is very important from a practical point of view, because there is the possibility to

Application of contact-resonance AFM methods to polymer samples

• Sebastian Friedrich and
• Brunero Cappella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1714–1727, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.154

• Sebastian Friedrich Brunero Cappella Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing (BAM), Unter den Eichen 87, 12205 Berlin, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.11.154 Abstract Contact-resonance AFM (CR-AFM) has been used in recent years for the measurement of mechanical properties of rather stiff

• underlying physical phenomena and of factors influencing the measurements. A commonly used method to analyze CR data requires the determination of the relative position of the tip, the calculation of the normalized contact stiffness, and the use of a calibration sample for the calculation of the elastic

• modes including scanning under continuous contact wear and damage the sample and/or alter the surface roughness, the results of point CR measurements on bulk and thin films are presented. Though Young’s moduli of bulk polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) could be determined through the presented

Seebeck coefficient of silicon nanowire forests doped by thermal diffusion

• Shaimaa Elyamny,
• Elisabetta Dimaggio and
• Giovanni Pennelli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1707–1713, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.153

• during the HNO3 etching. The chips have then been placed in a tubular quartz furnace together with the solid source. As a solid source, we used ceramic wafers provided by Techneglass (PhosPlus TP-250). The face of the chips with the nanowires has been placed in contact with the ceramic wafer. The sealed

• maintained for the chosen doping time (ten minutes, typically). Then, the chips have been allowed to cool maintaining the nitrogen flux. After doping by thermal diffusion, a contact has been provided on top of the silicon nanowire forest exploiting the copper electrodeposition method described in a previous

• , performed at a constant current of 800 A/m2 for 2 min. At the end of the process, we obtained a SiNW forest placed between a top copper contact and the silicon substrate, contacted through the bottom metal layer. The doping of the SiNW forest depends on the diffusion process (temperature and time), while

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

Piezoelectric sensor based on graphene-doped PVDF nanofibers for sign language translation

• Shuai Yang,
• Xiaojing Cui,
• Rui Guo,
• Zhiyi Zhang,
• Shengbo Sang and
• Hulin Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1655–1662, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.148

• when the PES is slightly shaken under increasing bending angles. (i) Schematic diagram of the PES contacting a heat source. (j) Output voltage during contact with the heat source for different doping concentrations. (k) Waveforms during contact with the heat source at different concentrations. (l

Amorphized length and variability in phase-change memory line cells

• Nafisa Noor,
• Sadid Muneer,
• Raihan Sayeed Khan,
• Anna Gorbenko and
• Helena Silva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1644–1654, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.147

• -switching process and not to the permanent and detrimental electrical breakdown failure that occurs in any dielectric material. Experimental The patterned GST-225 line cells used for this study were deposited on silicon dioxide (SiO2), had bottom metal contact pads (tungsten with Ti/TiN liner), and were

Selective detection of complex gas mixtures using point contacts: concept, method and tools

• Alexander P. Pospelov,
• Victor I. Belan,
• Dmytro O. Harbuz,
• Volodymyr L. Vakula,
• Lyudmila V. Kamarchuk,
• Yuliya V. Volkova and
• Gennadii V. Kamarchuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1631–1643, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.146

• 10.3762/bjnano.11.146 Abstract Of all modern nanosensors using the principle of measuring variations in electric conductance, point-contact sensors stand out in having a number of original sensor properties not manifested by their analogues. The nontrivial nature of point-contact sensors is based on the

• potential of quantum point-contact sensors to selectively detect components of a gas mixture in real time. To demonstrate the high efficiency of the proposed approach, we analyze the human breath, which is the most complex of the currently known natural gas mixtures with extremely low concentrations of its

• components. Point-contact sensors allow us to obtain a spectroscopic profile of the mixture. This profile contains information about the complete set of energy interactions occurring in the point contact/breath system when the breath constituents adsorb to and desorb from the surface of the point-contact

Walking energy harvesting and self-powered tracking system based on triboelectric nanogenerators

• Mingliang Yao,
• Guangzhong Xie,
• Qichen Gong and
• Yuanjie Su

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1590–1595, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.141

• . Recently, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have been invented, which offer an innovative combination between electrostatic induction and contact electrification. These devices are able to harvest mechanical energy from a vast array of sources, such as body motion [16][17][18][19], vibration [20][21][22

• affinity [52], copper and PTFE were selected as the contact materials. The electrons flow between the undulated electrode and the planar electrode since the external mechanical impact repeatedly compresses the elastic corrugated electrode, shortening the distance between the PTFE film the undulated

• electrode. Through deep reactive ion etching, polymer nanowires (average diameter of ≈150 nm and length values ranging from 410 to 680 nm) were created to vertically align on the surface of the PTFE film, as shown in Figure 1b. This modification on the PTFE surface not only enhances the effective contact

Detecting stable adsorbates of (1S)-camphor on Cu(111) with Bayesian optimization

• Jari Järvi,
• Patrick Rinke and
• Milica Todorović

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1577–1589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.140

• , 0, 5) Å to avoid close contact between the molecule and the surface. Molecular placement at the top site (above a Cu atom) here allows us to curtail the γ range to [−60, 60]°. The resulting PES (Figure 4b) converged in 115 evaluations and contains many features associated with different reactive

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

• three-dimensional topographies of the nanopores. Imaging was performed in contact mode and an elastic constant of 0.2 N/m was selected for the silicon cantilever. The scanning area was 50 × 50 μm2. In addition, a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) system (Zeiss, Germany) was employed to characterize the

Design of V-shaped cantilevers for enhanced multifrequency AFM measurements

• Mehrnoosh Damircheli and
• Babak Eslami

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1525–1541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.135

• rectangular cantilevers. There are two major applications of AFM that currently use V-shaped cantilevers. First, in static-mode AFM, that is, contact-mode AFM, V-shaped cantilevers are used in the modification of surfaces and the movement of nanoparticles to manufacture nanostructures [14][15]. In order to

• ) and moment balance (ΣM), respectively: Since the cantilever is not parallel to the surface, there are horizontal and vertical conjugates of tip–sample force interactions. Therefore, the tip interactions are represented via both normal and tangential forces. Hence, the contact is described by normal

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

• Matías Guerrero Correa,
• Fernanda B. Martínez,
• Cristian Patiño Vidal,
• Camilo Streitt,
• Juan Escrig and
• Carol Lopez de Dicastillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1450–1469, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.129

• this technique, the experimental conditions must be carefully controlled in order to achieve reproducible results [147]. This technique is usually combined with the dynamic contact methodology (ASTM E2149-10 directive) in which different NP concentrations are put into contact for a given time period

Protruding hydrogen atoms as markers for the molecular orientation of a metallocene

• Linda Laflör,
• Michael Reichling and
• Philipp Rahe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1432–1438, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.127

• acid (FDCA) molecules on bulk and thin film CaF2(111) surfaces with non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM). We use NC-AFM image calculations with the probe particle model to interpret this distinct shape by repulsive interactions between the NC-AFM tip and the top hydrogen atoms of the

• of the ferrocene moiety, herein on CaF2(111) surfaces, by using the protruding hydrogen atoms as markers. Keywords: calcium fluoride (CaF2); ferrocene; functionalised tips; high-resolution imaging; non-contact atomic force microscopy; Introduction It is still a challenge to determine the precise

• employed for the investigation of both ordered and unordered molecular systems as well as of individual and isolated species [4][5][6]. For example, two different non-planar isomers of dibenzo[a,h]thianthrene molecules could be identified by high-resolution non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) [7

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

• particle size but also the morphology of the entire Pt/CNW structure plays a significant role – the highest ECSA and utilization are obtained for the Pt/CNW layer with the most dense structure (shorter CNWs), most likely resulting from improved contact between the Pt particles and the liquid electrolyte

• methods, the simultaneous deposition of the Pt-NPs and the carbon matrix (CNWs) by using this novel approach yields Pt-NPs that are embedded in the C matrix and therefore show improved long-term stability compared to a commercial catalyst. Even though parts of the embedded Pt-NPs may not be in contact

On the frequency dependence of viscoelastic material characterization with intermittent-contact dynamic atomic force microscopy: avoiding mischaracterization across large frequency ranges

• Enrique A. López-Guerra and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1409–1418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.125

• characterization frequency regardless of the materials properties. In this paper we present a linear viscoelastic analysis of intermittent-contact, nearly resonant dynamic AFM characterization of such materials, considering the possibility of multiple characteristic times. We describe some of the intricacies

• response of the cantilever with respect to the excitation, within amplitude-modulation AFM (AM-AFM)), which generally yields high-contrast images for dissipative materials [22]. Dynamic contact-mode techniques such as contact-resonance AFM [11][12][13][28], dual-amplitude resonance tracking AFM (DART [10

• dampers of the model are initially left unspecified. Property inversion is then performed through a nonlinear regression procedure that yields the constants of the springs and dampers [14][33]. Note that for this analysis one considers only the repulsive-contact region. This approach has been applied to

Superconductor–insulator transition in capacitively coupled superconducting nanowires

• Alex Latyshev,
• Andrew G. Semenov and
• Andrei D. Zaikin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1402–1408, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.124

• ]. Below we will also refer to this QPT as a superconductor–insulator transition (SIT). In this work we will show that this SIT can be substantially modified in a system of capacitively coupled superconducting nanowires even without any direct electrical contact between them. In our previous work [18] we

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

• in Figure 2, the working mechanism of TVB-TENG is based on contact triboelectrification and electrostatic induction. First, when the device is externally compressed, electrons are transferred from the B1 vitamin membrane to the Teflon membrane. The contact surface between the vitamin B1 membrane and

Transient coating of γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles with glutamate for its delivery to and removal from brain nerve terminals

• Konstantin Paliienko,
• Artem Pastukhov,
• Michal Babič,
• Daniel Horák,
• Olga Vasylchenko and
• Tatiana Borisova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1381–1393, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.122

• penetrate the blood–brain barrier than uncoated ones. Glutamate adsorbed on γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles in water is expected to be partially released from the nanoparticle surface after contact with biological fluids. Application of magnetic fields can make this a targeted process. Vice versa, γ-Fe2O3