Cryochemical synthesis of ultrasmall, highly crystalline, nanostructured metal oxides and salts

• Elena A. Trusova and
• Nikolai S. Trutnev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1755–1763, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.166

• (−196 °C) using a special jet injector with a cylindrical nozzle. The spray torch was sent to the liquid nitrogen container, where the formation of cryogranules occurred at a high cooling rate. The instantaneous freezing of the droplets produced by spraying led to the formation and crystallization of

• diameter of the resulting metal oxide powders was many times smaller (3–18) than for materials prepared without cryotreatment of the sols (Table 1). Apparently, the beginning of crystallization and the formation of the nanoparticle surface occurred even under the ice shell in the cryosols. According to the

Multimodal noncontact atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations of organolead tribromide perovskite single crystals

• Yann Almadori,
• David Moerman,
• Jaume Llacer Martinez,
• Philippe Leclère and
• Benjamin Grévin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1695–1704, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.161

• tribromide single crystals (millimeter- to centimeter-sized) were grown from N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution at constant temperature. In this process [12] CH3NH3Br and PbBr2 precursors are used that are soluble in DMF at room temperature, and the crystallization occurs between 90 °C and 100°C due to

Sulfur-, nitrogen- and platinum-doped titania thin films with high catalytic efficiency under visible-light illumination

• Boštjan Žener,
• Lev Matoh,
• Giorgio Carraro,
• Bojan Miljević and
• Romana Cerc Korošec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1629–1640, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.155

• (ammonium nitrate, urea), sulfur (thiourea) and platinum (chloroplatinic acid), coated onto glass substrates by dip-coating, and thermally treated in a muffle furnace to promote crystallization. The resulting thin films were then characterized by various techniques (i.e., TGA-DSC-MS, XRD, BET, XPS, SEM

• determine the crystallization temperature of different xerogel samples and the course of their thermal decomposition. The thermal decomposition of the amorphous xerogels, followed by the complementary techniques of thermal analysis of different samples are shown in Figure 1. The thermal decomposition of

• , carbon dioxide (m/z = 44) also evolved from the sample in the third step. Exothermic peaks in the DSC curve from ≈300 °C onward are due to the process of crystallization of the sample. Around 450 °C, the mass loss and exothermic processes are completed, meaning that the final oxide material is formed

Sheet-on-belt branched TiO₂(B)/rGO powders with enhanced photocatalytic activity

• Huan Xing,
• Wei Wen and
• Jin-Ming Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1550–1557, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.146

• the pristine TiO2(B) in the precursor solution at 60 °C, which then grow continuously during the prolonged duration. After the final calcination at 400 °C for 1 h in air, the titanate branches decomposed to TiO2(B) instead of anatase TiO2. It thus suggests that the decomposition and crystallization of

• hydrogen titanates depends on the substrates. The TiO2(B) trunk may guide the TiO2 crystallization. The chemical bonding states of the TGN-branch 4 h were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS). Elements of Ti, C and O have been detected in the XPS survey spectra (Figure 5a). The binding energy of

Induced smectic phase in binary mixtures of twist-bend nematogens

• Anamarija Knežević,
• Irena Dokli,
• Marin Sapunar,
• Suzana Šegota,
• Ute Baumeister and
• Andreja Lesac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1297–1307, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.122

• determination of the virtual nematic to NTB transition temperatures of the later [20]. For the crystallization points, two trends are detectable. Upon addition of 8 mol % of BB to CBI, the transition to the solid phase decreases to 3 °C, compared to 75 °C of the pure CBI. Increasing the concentration of BB

• further up to 50 mol % causes a rather steep temperature increase up to 60 °C. In the range of 56 < mol % BB < 88 crystallization temperatures remain approximately the same at about 68 °C. Considering the phase behaviour of the pure compounds, the expected Iso–N–NTB phase sequence was observed across the

• features that can be related to a nanometer-scale pitch. Up to 40 mol % of BB large suppression of crystallization resulted in a wide temperature range of the NTB phase. This enabled direct comparison of the surface morphology and periodicity modulations between several mixtures of different concentration

Formation and development of nanometer-sized cybotactic clusters in bent-core nematic liquid crystalline compounds

• Yuri P. Panarin,
• Sithara P. Sreenilayam,
• Jagdish K. Vij,
• Anne Lehmann and
• Carsten Tschierske

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1288–1296, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.121

• clusters) [38]. The results from the dielectric studies are shown in Figure 3. The dielectric strength of the relaxation process P1 (Δε1) increases upon cooling from ≈0.11 (101 °C) to ≈1.85 at 65 °C (close to the transition to the smectic phase or to its crystallization), whereas the Δε2 of the process P2

P3HT:PCBM blend films phase diagram on the base of variable-temperature spectroscopic ellipsometry

• Barbara Hajduk,
• Henryk Bednarski,
• Bożena Jarząbek,
• Henryk Janeczek and
• Paweł Nitschke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1108–1115, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.102

• transitions and to determine the glass transition temperatures and melting crystallization points of the P3HT:PCBM blend films. By analyzing the influence of the temperature T on the raw ellipsometric data, we have identified a high sensitivity of the ellipsometric angle Δ at a wavelength of 280 nm to

• is a very sensitive optical technique to investigate the phase transitions and to determine the glass temperatures and melting crystallization points for the P3HT:PCBM blend films. By analyzing the influence of the temperature on the raw ellipsometric data, we have identified the high sensitivity of

• for PCBM show Tg at 124.03 °C and two peaks of exothermic crystallization processes with maxima at 191.08 °C and at 265.44 °C. Also, the subsequent melting endotherm with a sharp minimum at 284.53 °C is visible. Having determined phase transitions from the DSC measurements, we return to our

A simple extension of the commonly used fitting equation for oscillatory structural forces in case of silica nanoparticle suspensions

• Sebastian Schön and
• Regine von Klitzing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1095–1107, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.101

• nature of this phenomenon it has implications for a broad range of applications in microfluidic devices, for the stability of colloidal suspensions, or in a biological context, e.g., transport processes between biological surfaces or crystallization of proteins. Confined molecules or particles

Effect of annealing treatments on CeO₂ grown on TiN and Si substrates by atomic layer deposition

• Silvia Vangelista,
• Rossella Piagge,
• Satu Ek and
• Alessio Lamperti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 890–899, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.83

• crystallization. When ceria is deposited on TiN, the temperature has to be limited to 600 °C due to the thermal instability of the underlying TiN substrate with a broadening of the interface, while there are no changes detected inside the CeO2 films. As-deposited CeO2 films show a cubic fluorite polycrystalline

• atmosphere with the aim to passivate the film defects, namely the oxygen vacancies. A second set of samples has been annealed at high temperatures (600–900 °C) to induce full crystallization in CeO2 films and follow the corresponding structural and chemical changes induced by the annealing process

• appear well ordered, as only in small regions of the film is possible to clearly recognize ordered planes, suggesting an incomplete crystallization. XPS analysis of the samples annealed at high temperature gives us insights on the off-stoichiometry of the oxide layers induced by the thermal treatment

Facile synthesis of a ZnO–BiOI p–n nano-heterojunction with excellent visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Mengyuan Zhang,
• Jiaqian Qin,
• Pengfei Yu,
• Bing Zhang,
• Mingzhen Ma,
• Xinyu Zhang and
• Riping Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 789–800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.72

• -5). To give more details on ZnO’s impact on the crystallization of BiOI, the (102) diffraction peak is chosen to roughly estimate the average BiOI crystal size of samples B-2 through B-5 by the Scherrer equation (Table S2, Supporting Information File 1). The estimates show that the average crystal

• size of BiOI decreases with increasing ZnO, which indicates that the existence of ZnO may impede the crystallization and lead to the exfoliation of BiOI [33]. Y. Tong [36] also reported the broadening and shifting of the (102) diffraction peak of ZnO/BiOI composite samples, which is never mentioned in

Heavy-metal detectors based on modified ferrite nanoparticles

• Urszula Klekotka,
• Ewelina Wińska,
• Elżbieta Zambrzycka-Szelewa,
• Dariusz Satuła and
• Beata Kalska-Szostko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 762–770, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.69

• nanoparticles estimated from TEM images are collected. The obtained average particle sizes are close to those calculated for pure magnetite nanoparticles, which implies that proposed ions do not disturb the crystallization process and used synthesis constituents fulfill the same growth regimes [23]. X-ray

Synthesis and characterization of two new TiO₂-containing benzothiazole-based imine composites for organic device applications

• Anna Różycka,
• Agnieszka Iwan,
• Krzysztof Artur Bogdanowicz,
• Michal Filapek,
• Natalia Górska,
• Damian Pociecha,
• Marek Malinowski,
• Patryk Fryń,
• Agnieszka Hreniak,
• Jakub Rysz,
• Paweł Dąbczyński and
• Monika Marzec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 721–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.67

• . This may be because the thickness of this substance is too high or due to the very slow crystallization from isotropic liquid. Furthermore, both the imines (SP1 and SP2) aggregate into small islands after evaporation of solvent (not shown here). After 3 months of being kept in air atmosphere, both SP2

Fabrication and photoactivity of ionic liquid–TiO₂ structures for efficient visible-light-induced photocatalytic decomposition of organic pollutants in aqueous phase

• Anna Gołąbiewska,
• Marta Paszkiewicz-Gawron,
• Aleksandra Sadzińska,
• Wojciech Lisowski,
• Ewelina Grabowska,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska and
• Justyna Łuczak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 580–590, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.54

• to control the crystallization process and formation of the final particle structure (structuring agent). In this regard, various interesting structures were obtained and their properties are described in the literature. However, the more advanced works presented examples of the practical usage of

Electron interactions with the heteronuclear carbonyl precursor H₂FeRu₃(CO)₁₃ and comparison with HFeCo₃(CO)₁₂: from fundamental gas phase and surface science studies to focused electron beam induced deposition

• Ragesh Kumar T P,
• Paul Weirich,
• Lukas Hrachowina,
• Marc Hanefeld,
• Ragnar Bjornsson,
• Helgi Rafn Hrodmarsson,
• Sven Barth,
• D. Howard Fairbrother,
• Michael Huth and
• Oddur Ingólfsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 555–579, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.53

• metal content (>80 atom %) [66]. High purity of deposits and high resolution writing are essential to engineer geometries that are not accessible by crystallization or other template-based approaches. One field of interest in respect to such metallic deposits is the investigation of physical phenomena

Kinetics of solvent supported tubule formation of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) wax on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) investigated by atomic force microscopy

• Sujit Kumar Dora,
• Kerstin Koch,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Klaus Wandelt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 468–481, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.45

• ; crystallization; epicuticular wax; Lotus; Nelumbo nucifera; nonacosanol tubules; self-assembly; superhydrophobic; Introduction The plant cuticle, a cutin matrix embedded and covered by waxes provides a multitasking interface between plant and environment [1]. These waxes are either reside within the cutin layer

• the continuous incorporation of wax molecules. The crystallization process was observed up to 4 hours before the increasing height of the tubules led to experimental artifacts. In addition, they also observed an increase in hydrophobicity of the wax structures, demonstrated by an increase in contact

• found. As shown in Figure 1a, wax aggregates in the form of rodlets were formed in the first 20 min of crystallization. The term rodlets is used here as previous investigations by Koch et al. [21] demonstrated that for these structures the aspect ratio (height to thickness) was much smaller than for

Influence of the preparation method on the photocatalytic activity of Nd-modified TiO₂

• Patrycja Parnicka,
• Paweł Mazierski,
• Tomasz Grzyb,
• Wojciech Lisowski,
• Ewa Kowalska,
• Bunsho Ohtani,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska and
• Joanna Nadolna

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 447–459, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.43

• packaged energy levels, which limits the possible efficiency of up-conversion processes [20]. To obtain up-conversion of Nd3+ ions, good crystallization of the host material, revealing also low phonon energy is required [20]. The presence of Nd3+ ions in the Nd2O3 phase or in an environment that is highly

• samples obtained from both methods were separated by centrifugation, washed three times with deionised water and ethanol, and dried at 35 °C for 16 h and ground. Crystallization of titania was performed at a temperature of 450 °C for 2 h in a muffle furnace under air atmosphere with a heating rate of 2 °C

Photocatalytic and adsorption properties of TiO₂-pillared montmorillonite obtained by hydrothermally activated intercalation of titanium polyhydroxo complexes

• Mikhail F. Butman,
• Nikolay L. Ovchinnikov,
• Nikita S. Karasev,
• Nataliya E. Kochkina,
• Alexander V. Agafonov and
• Alexandr V. Vinogradov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 364–378, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.36

• stems from imparting higher acid resistance to the pillared MM, which is important when it is used for photocatalysis in highly acidic media. In particular, hydrothermal treatment accelerates crystallization and formation of clusters which grow and produce amorphous TiO2 nanoparticles in the interlayer

Synthesis and characterization of electrospun molybdenum dioxide–carbon nanofibers as sulfur matrix additives for rechargeable lithium–sulfur battery applications

• Ruiyuan Zhuang,
• Shanshan Yao,
• Maoxiang Jing,
• Xiangqian Shen,
• Jun Xiang,
• Tianbao Li,
• Kesong Xiao and
• Shibiao Qin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 262–270, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.28

• the crystallization of MoO2. Five main peaks at 2θ of 25.8°, 36.8°, 53.4°, 60.4° and 66.7° were assigned to the crystallographic planes of (011), (200), (220), (310) and (202), respectively. These corresponded to pure phase MoO2 with monoclinic symmetry, which agreed well with the JCPDS card of MoO2

• 500–850 cm−1 were attributed to Mo–O–Mo, indicating the occurrence of crystallization [28]. Both the Raman spectra and XRD results suggested that MoO2–CNFs were formed through a subsequent annealing process. The broad band at 3400 cm−1 was attributed to the O–H stretching vibration due to absorbed H2O

• crystallization. After calcination at 650 °C and 750 °C, MoO2–CNFs showed discrete lengths with average diameters of 506 nm and 575 nm, respectively. Also, the diameter of MoO2–CNF increased as the calcination temperature was increased, which can be explained by the gradual increase in grain size of MoO2 with

Liquid-crystalline nanoarchitectures for tissue engineering

• Baeckkyoung Sung and
• Min-Ho Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 205–215, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.22

• local alignments, which resulted in directed and oriented growth of human mesenchymal stem cells and their osteogenic differentiation [105]. Additionally, biomineralization-mimicking hybrid materials, using chitin nanowhisker gel matrices in a nematic phase as templates for CaCO3 crystallization, have

Dielectric properties of a bisimidazolium salt with dodecyl sulfate anion doped with carbon nanotubes

• Doina Manaila Maximean,
• Viorel Cîrcu and
• Constantin Paul Ganea

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 164–174, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.19

• ′ phase is not thermodynamically stable at room temperature and it transitions to the first crystalline phase at 287.15 K during the subsequent heating run (in fact, it is a melting transition followed by the cold crystallization to the Cr phase). The following heating–cooling cycles are perfectly

• reproducible with the two transitions Cr–SmA and SmA–Iso well separated during the heating runs (Figure 3b). Importantly, POM observations show that on cooling from the isotropic state, the SmA phase is stable down to room temperature over time with a slow crystallization occurring over the course of hours

Dopant-stimulated growth of GaN nanotube-like nanostructures on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy

• Alexey D. Bolshakov,
• Alexey M. Mozharov,
• Georgiy A. Sapunov,
• Igor V. Shtrom,
• Nickolay V. Sibirev,
• Vladimir V. Fedorov,
• Evgeniy V. Ubyivovk,
• Maria Tchernycheva,
• George E. Cirlin and
• Ivan S. Mukhin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 146–154, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.17

• by 10 °C leads to a 97% decrease of the material consumption. The observed phenomenon is intuitively understandable: a temperature increase leads to the reduction of the adatom mean free path limited by desorption that results in slower crystallization. We have also carried out a growth experiment

• approaches, axial growth of GaN NWs at high growth temperature can be explained by the near zero nucleation barrier on the top polar facet of this wurtzite structure, in comparison to its nonpolar sidewalls [27][41]. Crystallization on the NW top facet starts earlier and reduces the Ga adatom concentration

Atomic layer deposition and properties of ZrO₂/Fe₂O₃ thin films

• Kristjan Kalam,
• Helina Seemen,
• Peeter Ritslaid,
• Mihkel Rähn,
• Aile Tamm,
• Kaupo Kukli,
• Aarne Kasikov,
• Joosep Link,
• Raivo Stern,
• Salvador Dueñas,
• Helena Castán and
• Héctor García

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 119–128, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.14

• crystallization of the tetragonal/cubic phase of ZrO2 (Figure 3). This was also observed in the case of Zr/Fe = 10 (not shown). A similar result was also obtained by Štefanić et al. [13] who also showed that lightly Fe-doped ZrO2 crystallized in tetragonal/cubic zirconia phase after annealing. In the case of Zr

• /Fe = 0.34 and a cycle ratio of 10:5, the film was almost amorphous in the as-deposited state, but the crystallization of tetragonal/cubic ZrO2 and cubic Fe2O3 (PDF Card 04-0755) was observed upon annealing at 1000 °C in air for 10 min (Figure 3). Since the ultimate goal of any materials synthesis

• behavior in Fe-doped ZrO2 was observed. One can note that, for example, in the work by Okabayashi et al. [10], annealing was presumably required in order to initiate crystallization in sol–gel-synthesized (and therefore initially amorphous) films. Magnetization-field hysteresis loops were recorded in the

Laser-assisted fabrication of gold nanoparticle-composed structures embedded in borosilicate glass

• Nikolay Nedyalkov,
• Mihaela Koleva,
• Nadya Stankova,
• Rosen Nikov,
• Mitsuhiro Terakawa,
• Yasutaka Nakajima,
• Lyubomir Aleksandrov and
• Reni Iordanova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2454–2463, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.244

• related to absorption by gold nanoparticles capable of surface plasmon resonance. The TEM image also shows crystal phases that are not recognized as gold (the dark areas surrounding the black circle). One can speculate that local crystallization of the glass takes place after the treatment; further

The interplay between spin densities and magnetic superexchange interactions: case studies of mono- and trinuclear bis(oxamato)-type complexes

• Azar Aliabadi,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Vladislav Kataev and
• Tobias Rüffer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2245–2256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.224

• individually in form of very large single crystals [43]. Additionally we noticed with surprise [44], that the crystallization of a mixture of the complexes 1–4 resulted in the formation of 2@1 together with 4@3 as a remarkable example for the supramolecular recognition of isostructural complexes (Figure 2

• -crystallization of a mixture of two different Cu(II) (2, 4) and two different Ni(II) containing complexes (1, 3). Middle: Single crystals of diamagnetically diluted 4@3 (left) and 2@1 (right). Reproduced with permission from [44], copyright 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Bottom: Cut-off of the crystal

Au₅₅, a stable glassy cluster: results of ab initio calculations

• Dieter Vollath,
• David Holec and
• Franz Dieter Fischer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2221–2229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.222

• with a diameter of 1.4 nm but not in an infinite space. Obviously, the formation of the glassy cluster in the second regime is a process similar to crystallization as it is connected to a release of energy. This is insofar astonishing as in bulk materials glass formation is not connected to any energy