A visible-light-driven composite photocatalyst of TiO₂ nanotube arrays and graphene quantum dots

• Donald K. L. Chan,
• Po Ling Cheung and
• Jimmy C. Yu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 689–695, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.81

• interfacial electron transfer from GQDs to TNAs is possible. Meanwhile, such a directional charge transfer promotes charge separation and reduces the probability of charge recombination, then further increases the activity of the photocatalyst. Conclusion In summary, a visible-light-driven photocatalyst was

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ag–ZnO hybrid plasmonic nanostructures prepared by a facile wet chemical method

• Sini Kuriakose,
• Vandana Choudhary,
• Biswarup Satpati and
• Satyabrata Mohapatra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 639–650, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.75

• –ZnO hybrid structure, electrons flow from ZnO nanostructures to Ag nanoparticles. This way Ag nanoparticles act as efficient sinks for the photogenerated electrons, preventing their recombination with holes. This process, known as the direct electron transfer from semiconductor to the plasmonic

Analytical development and optimization of a graphene–solution interface capacitance model

• Hediyeh Karimi,
• Rasoul Rahmani,
• Reza Mashayekhi,
• Leyla Ranjbari,
• Amir H. Shirdel,
• Niloofar Haghighian,
• Parisa Movahedi,
• Moein Hadiyan and
• Razali Ismail

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 603–609, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.71

• ]. Therefore, the electron transfer in graphene is expected to be 100 times faster than that in silicon. Other advantages of graphene, which make it a perfect semiconductor is its massless Dirac fermion structure with zero band gap (graphene is considered to be theoretically lossless) [19]. Compared to silicon

CoPc and CoPcF₁₆ on gold: Site-specific charge-transfer processes

• Fotini Petraki,
• Heiko Peisert,
• Johannes Uihlein,
• Umut Aygül and
• Thomas Chassé

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 524–531, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.61

• photoemission final state. Therefore, a change of the spectral shape can be attributed to (i) an electron transfer from the metal surface, leading to a reduction of the Co(II) ion to Co(I), (ii) by a redistribution of the d-electrons, or both (i) and (ii). Both the appearance of an interface component and the

• , implies that the phthalocyanine macrocycle is positively charged compared to molecules in the bulk. This means, while we observe an electron transfer to Co of CoPcF16, an opposite charge transfer is observed between the macrocycle of the molecule and the substrate, i.e., the charge transfer is

Dye-sensitized Pt@TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for the efficient photocatalytic generation of hydrogen

• Jun Fang,
• Lisha Yin,
• Shaowen Cao,
• Yusen Liao and
• Can Xue

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 360–364, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.41

• -efficient photocatalytic generation of hydrogen under visible-light irradiation. In this rational design of the ternary structure, the TiO2 particle acts as a bridge that allows for the effective electron transfer pathway of excited ErB→TiO2→Pt. Importantly, we found that when the TiO2 bridges are excited

• the excitation of ErB and TiO2, which plays an important role in the photocatalytic hydrogen generation. The observed synergic effect could be attributed to the electron transport in TiO2 particles. Since the dye-sensitization induces an electron transfer from the excited ErB to TiO2, these electrons

• the conductivity of TiO2. Thereby, the vectored electron transfer from ErB to the core Pt particle via TiO2 bridges becomes more effective, which leading to enhanced yield of H2. The principle is depicted in Figure 5, and the energy diagram is shown in Figure S3 (Supporting Information File 1). In

A catechol biosensor based on electrospun carbon nanofibers

• Dawei Li,
• Zengyuan Pang,
• Xiaodong Chen,
• Lei Luo,
• Yibing Cai and
• Qufu Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 346–354, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.39

• fast and effective methods to detect phenolic compounds. Laccase (benzendiol:oxygen oxidoreductases; EC 1.10.3.2), a multicopper oxidase widely distributed in plant and fungal species, can reduce oxygen directly to water through a four-electron transfer step, and this chemical reaction does not produce

• surface morphology of the laccase–Nafion–ECNFs/GCE. It can be clearly seen that most of the short fibers were embedded into the laccase. Here, the short fibers may play a role of connecting the active center of laccase and the surface of GCE, which may be favorable for the electron transfer. Structure and

• 0.05 to 0.3 V·s−1. It can be clearly seen that a pair of stable and well-defined quasi-reversible anodic and cathodic peaks occur, which can be attributed to the direct electron transfer between the laccase and the GCE. Besides, the anodic peak currents were larger than the peak cathodic currents

Atomic layer deposition, a unique method for the preparation of energy conversion devices

• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 245–248, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.26

• interface. This electron transfer, the most fundamental energy-converting single event, occurs at the interface between two phases, which can have various identities depending on the type of device. In most solar cells these two phases are two solid semiconductors, in batteries and fuel cells they are

Change of the work function of platinum electrodes induced by halide adsorption

• Florian Gossenberger,
• Tanglaw Roman,
• Katrin Forster-Tonigold and
• Axel Groß

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 152–161, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.15

• the halogen adlayer, the contribution of the electron transfer to the surface dipole moment can be quantified, where is the average distance of the halogen adatoms from the metal surface. We combine all other parts contributing to the total dipole moment in the term Δμpol, because it involves

• function change on platinum is large because of the high work function of clean platinum, which favors only a small electron transfer to the halogen adatoms compared with other metals. Therefore, polarization effects that reverse the dipole moment attributed to charge transfer are more pronounced than on

The role of oxygen and water on molybdenum nanoclusters for electro catalytic ammonia production

• Jakob G. Howalt and
• Tejs Vegge

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 111–120, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.11

• dissociation barriers (1.8 eV) of N2 not taking place at the surface. For the purposes of analyzing the reduction of oxygen, a two-step electron-transfer process was assumed and simulated using the Heyrovsky-type [19] reaction. In an acidic environment, the reaction comprises of these elementary reaction steps

Study of mesoporous CdS-quantum-dot-sensitized TiO₂ films by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and AFM

• Mohamed N. Ghazzal,
• Robert Wojcieszak,
• Gijo Raj and
• Eric M. Gaigneaux

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 68–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.6

• photosensitized solar cells with high quantum yields [1][2][3][4] and the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants [5][6]. CdS, currently used as an efficient visible-light sensitizer, is a semiconductor that possesses a small band gap (2.4 eV) and suitable potential energies. The electron transfer between QDs

Some reflections on the understanding of the oxygen reduction reaction at Pt(111)

• Ana M. Gómez-Marín,
• Ruben Rizo and
• Juan M. Feliu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 956–967, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.108

• place at high overpotentials and the activation region is quite limited to the onset of the wave. Thus, the transport-controlled region appears very soon, which limits the potential range, in which the electron transfer mechanism can really be studied. Therefore other approaches are needed that include

• clear. In this media, H2O2 has been identified under some conditions as a stable ORR intermediate product [26][27][28][29][30][31], thus indicating an incomplete electron transfer. Nevertheless, the production of hydroxyl radicals, OH•, during the reaction has also been reported [32], and the reduction

• upon adsorption and would only break after electron transfer (Scheme 4) [33]. The desorption of PtOOH to H2O2, which would react further at another surface site, instead of Equation 10 has also been proposed [34]. In this case, the associative mechanism can also be termed as “peroxo” mechanism [33]. In

Preparation of NiS/ZnIn₂S₄ as a superior photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation

• Liang Wei,
• Yongjuan Chen,
• Jialin Zhao and
• Zhaohui Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 949–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.107

• interaction between ZnIn2S4 and NiS. It is believed that when ZnIn2S4 are connected to NiS, the electron transfer from ZnIn2S4 to the more electronegative NiS may result in a decrease of the electron density of Zn2+ and In3+. Therefore the binding energy of Zn 2p and In 3d shift to a high binding energy in

• electron transfer from the conduction band of ZnIn2S4 to NiS in which the hydrogen evolution occurs is crucial for the enhanced hydrogen evolution over the NiS/ZnIn2S4 nanocomposites since controlled experiments performed over a mixture of NiS and ZnIn2S4 shows a much lower photocatalytic activity under

Energy transfer in complexes of water-soluble quantum dots and chlorin e6 molecules in different environments

• Irina V. Martynenko,
• Anna O. Orlova,
• Vladimir G. Maslov,
• Alexander V. Baranov,
• Anatoly V. Fedorov and
• Mikhail Artemyev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 895–902, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.101

• example, the photoinduced reversible electron transfer between QD and molecule, and the formation of QD photoluminescence deactivation centers at the place where the molecule is attached to the QD. Chlorin e6 (Ce6) is one of the tetrapyrrole compounds widely used as a photosensitizer. Photophysical

• dissipation occurs in all types of QD–Ce6 complexes and their contribution to the intracomplex energy transfer varies from 70% in covalently bonded complexes to ≈90% in complexes formed by electrostatic interactions and may be responsible for QD and Ce6 PL quenching. Electron transfer is the other possible

• complexes with CdSe/ZnS quantum dots a photoinduced electron transfer from Ce6 to the QDs conduction band is possible. The electron transfer is a more short-range process than FRET because its efficiency drops exponentially with the D–A distance. In the case of the studied covalently linked complexes the D

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

• efficient electron transfer at the donor–acceptor interface in the photoactive blend layer [36][37]. Moreover, the deep HOMO level, which is typically observed for acceptor-substituted oligothiophenes [32], implied that the Voc of the solar cell device should be quite high. Using the following empirical

Kelvin probe force microscopy of nanocrystalline TiO₂ photoelectrodes

• Alex Henning,
• Gino Günzburger,
• Res Jöhr,
• Yossi Rosenwaks,
• Biljana Bozic-Weber,
• Catherine E. Housecroft,
• Edwin C. Constable,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 418–428, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.49

• external illumination. (a) I–V curves for a bare TiO2 solar cell and DSCs sensitized with Cu(I) dye and N719. (b) A schematic band diagram for a DSC under light excitation of the dye. The desired forward reaction (blue arrow), i.e., electron transfer from ELUMO into the conduction band, Ecb of TiO2, is

Near-field effects and energy transfer in hybrid metal-oxide nanostructures

• Ulrich Herr,
• Balati Kuerbanjiang,
• Cahit Benel,
• Giorgos Papageorgiou,
• Manuel Goncalves,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Peter Marek and
• Horst Hahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 306–317, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.34

• area between the organic dye molecules and the semiconductor to make the process efficient. The Grätzel cell thus mimics the natural process of photosynthesis, where light harvesting, energy transfer to a reaction center, and conversion to chemical energy by an electron-transfer reaction, take place at

Electrospinning preparation and electrical and biological properties of ferrocene/poly(vinylpyrrolidone) composite nanofibers

• Ji-Hong Chai and
• Qing-Sheng Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 189–197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.19

• pair of redox peaks of Fc with relatively good peak shape was observed (Figure 7b), which suggested the Fc/PVP/GCE acts as an electron-transfer mediator from the electrochemical characteristics [36]. Due to the small amounts of loaded ferrocene in the PVP nanofibers, the peak current is not high

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

Horizontal versus vertical charge and energy transfer in hybrid assemblies of semiconductor nanoparticles

• Gilad Gotesman,
• Rahamim Guliamov and
• Ron Naaman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 629–636, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.72

• result, surprising distance-dependent transfer rates from the donors to the acceptors were observed, in which the transfer rate increases with the donor–acceptor distance. The electron-transfer process in such hybrid organic–inorganic devices depends of course on the NPs, but also on the linker molecules

A facile approach to nanoarchitectured three-dimensional graphene-based Li–Mn–O composite as high-power cathodes for Li-ion batteries

• Wenyu Zhang,
• Yi Zeng,
• Chen Xu,
• Ni Xiao,
• Yiben Gao,
• Lain-Jong Li,
• Xiaodong Chen,
• Huey Hoon Hng and
• Qingyu Yan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 513–523, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.59

• to improve the power density and cyclability of LIBs [17][18]. Basically, such a strategy is based on the design of a nanostructured, metal current collector, by using Cu or Al nanorods to form a 3D conducting scaffold, to improve the kinetics of Li diffusion and electron transfer in the electrode

• the conducting scaffold of graphene sheets improves the kinetics of Li ion diffusion and electron transfer. The voltage profiles of the LMO/G (ILMO:G = 1.22) electrode under various discharge currents are presented in Figure 6c, which shows that the discharge voltages are maintained at >3.3 V even at

P-wave Cooper pair splitting

• Henning Soller and
• Andreas Komnik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 493–500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.56

• positive cross correlation remains. This is exactly the position where we assume SCAR to be dominant since V1 ≈ V2 means that single-electron transfer between the ferromagnets does not occur. The effect is, of course, still observable for P < 1 but the polarization should be rather strong. Spin-active

Glassy carbon electrodes modified with multiwalled carbon nanotubes for the determination of ascorbic acid by square-wave voltammetry

• Sushil Kumar and
• Victoria Vicente-Beckett

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 388–396, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.45

• ) generally occurs at a relatively high oxidation potential (e.g., 400 mV versus Ag/AgCl electrode), indicating a slow electron-transfer rate at the GCE [9]. Such sluggish electrode kinetics may also be due to electrode fouling caused by the deposition of oxidation product(s) of AA on the electrode surface

• the presence of MWCNTs. The sensitivity of the modified GC electrode increased by a factor of 2.8 and is attributed to the increased surface area provided by the MWCNT coating on the GCE, and to enhanced electrochemical activity from edge-plane defects at the MWCNTs facilitating the electron transfer

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

• [001] and [101] facets of TiO2 are expected to have a profound effect on the chemicophysical processes in DSCs as well. Fan et al. reported that the [001] surface can absorb more dye molecules compared to the [101] surface [10]. However, the influence of the TiO2 [001] facet on the kinetics of electron

• transfer and back reaction has not been reported. A deep understanding of the role of the TiO2 [001] facet in these key processes of electron transport and recombination of DSCs is of great importance for both practical applications and basic research. In this work, anatase TiO2 spheres with a hierarchical

• of a DSC is shown in Figure 3b for the Nyquist plot and Figure 3c for the Bode plot. The corresponding fitting results (green line) using the equivalent circuit are also shown in Figure 3b and Figure 3c. The distorted semicircle in the high frequency range (above 10 Hz) is ascribed to the electron

Parallel- and serial-contact electrochemical metallization of monolayer nanopatterns: A versatile synthetic tool en route to bottom-up assembly of electric nanocircuits

• Jonathan Berson,
• Assaf Zeira,
• Rivka Maoz and
• Jacob Sagiv

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 134–143, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.14

• –solution interface by ion migration to the electrode rather than by electron transfer to hydrated ions in solution. Keywords: AFM (SFM); bipolar electrochemistry; electrochemical metal deposition; monolayer patterning; nanolithography; self-assembled organosilane monolayers; Introduction The quest for a

• their ionic state (by electron transfer to surrounding water molecules [54][55]) or redeposit on preexisting stamp-metal grains, before aggregation into stable metal clusters residing on the OTS surface can occur. Conclusion The high selectivity achieved in the contact electrochemical deposition of

• arguments raised against the usually adopted model of electron transfer from the electrode to a metal ion in solution as the mechanism of charge transfer across the electrode–solution interface in electrochemical metal deposition [54][55]. Indeed, the exclusive deposition of silver on the Ag+ binding (OTSeo

Electron-beam patterned self-assembled monolayers as templates for Cu electrodeposition and lift-off

• Zhe She,
• Andrea DiFalco,
• Georg Hähner and
• Manfred Buck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 101–113, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.11

• nucleation probability is not known, a nonlinear behaviour can be expected due to the exponential dependence of the electron transfer on the distance between the ion and the metal surface. Reducing the size of defects by cross-linking should strongly decrease the nucleation probability and, thus, result in a