LED-light-activated photocatalytic performance of metal-free carbon-modified hexagonal boron nitride towards degradation of methylene blue and phenol

• Nirmalendu S. Mishra and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1380–1392, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.114

• -photoresponsive hexagonal boron nitride (HBN) into a visible-light-responsive material. The carbon modification was achieved through a solid-state reaction procedure inside a tube furnace under nitrogen atmosphere. In comparison to HBN (bandgap of 5.2 eV), the carbon-modified boron nitride could efficiently

• absorb LED light irradiation with a light harvesting efficiency of ≈90% and a direct bandgap of 2 eV. The introduction of carbon into the HBN lattice led to a significant change in the electronic environment through the formation of C–B and C–N bonds which resulted in improved visible light activity

• , lower charge transfer resistance, and improved charge carrier density (2.97 × 1019 cm−3). This subsequently enhanced the photocurrent density (three times) and decreased the photovoltage decay time (two times) in comparison to those of HBN. The electronic band structure (obtained through Mott–Schottky

Analytical and numerical design of a hybrid Fabry–Perot plano-concave microcavity for hexagonal boron nitride

• Felipe Ortiz-Huerta and
• Karina Garay-Palmett

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1030–1037, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.90

• -dimensional (2D) hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) while simultaneously limiting the NA of the emitter. Paraxial approximation and a transfer matrix model are used to find the spotsize of the fundamental Gaussian mode and the resonant modes of our microcavity, respectively. A Purcell enhancement of 6 is found for

• a SPE (i.e., in-plane dipole) hosted by a 2D hBN layer inside the hybrid plano-concave microcavity. Keywords: Fabry–Perot; hBN; microcavities; plano-concave; polymers; Introduction Pure and indistinguishable SPEs are key components needed for their application in upcoming quantum technologies [1

• ] (e.g., quantum computation [2] and quantum networks [3]). Color centers in 2D hBN and diamonds are among the most promising candidates for solid-state single-photon emission at room temperature [4][5]. Nonetheless, in contrast with bulk diamond, the 2D nature of hBN, hosting color centers (i.e., in

Molecular assemblies on surfaces: towards physical and electronic decoupling of organic molecules

• Sabine Maier and
• Meike Stöhr

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 950–956, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.71

• substrate and the organic building blocks. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials, including hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) [22][23], graphene [24][25][26][27], and MoS2 [28], have emerged as monatomically thin decoupling layers. Van der Waals 2D materials are generally well suited due to their chemical

• situated at the conduction band onset of MoS2. Despite this, the vibronic states of the transiently negatively charged TCNQ could be resolved by STS. hBN is an insulator and has therefore been widely used to decouple organic molecules from metal substrates. Three articles within this Thematic Issue

• successfully employed hBN to investigate the pristine properties of particular molecules. Schaal et al. [86] showed that hBN on Ni(111) electronically decoupled tetraphenyldibenzoperiflanthene such that the molecular vibronic progression was observable by in situ differential reflectance spectroscopy, which is

The role of convolutional neural networks in scanning probe microscopy: a review

• Ido Azuri,
• Irit Rosenhek-Goldian,
• Neta Regev-Rudzki,
• Georg Fantner and
• Sidney R. Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 878–901, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.66

• crystals (van der Waals heterostructures, graphene, hBN, MoS2, and WTe2) was demonstrated. The detection algorithm enables real-time detection of the 2D materials (running for 200 ms on a 1024 × 1024 optical image) and is insensitive to variations in microscopy conditions such as illumination and color

A review of defect engineering, ion implantation, and nanofabrication using the helium ion microscope

• Frances I. Allen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 633–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.52

• demonstrated, using localized helium ion irradiation followed by encapsulation in hBN in order to enhance the optical quality of the defect states [34]. Results from this study are shown in Figure 2g. A recent study of the effect of helium ion-induced disorder on the Raman modes and photoluminscence behavior

Extended iron phthalocyanine islands self-assembled on a Ge(001):H surface

• Rafal Zuzak,
• Marek Szymonski and
• Szymon Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 232–241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.19

• molecular wetting layers [15] and two-dimensional materials, such as graphene [16][17], hBN [11][18], or even organic layers [19]. Recently, it has been proposed that a monolayer of transition metal dichalcogenides, for example, MoS2, may play a similar role [4][20][21]. Similarly, it has been reported that

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

• layered materials as it determines the interlayer slip, which is the dominant mechanism to relieve stress at van der Waals interfaces, leading to phenomena such as the change from plate-like to membrane-like shapes in graphene, hBN, and MoS2 bubbles [12] or the circumferential faceting of multi-walled

• insights about the interlayer interaction in the growing field of heterolayered 2D materials, probing the mechanical properties of typical interfaces such as graphene/hBN, graphene/TMDs, hBN/TMDs, or any other technologically relevant two-dimensional heterostructure. (a) AFM image of a folded edge of a

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

• Christine Brulke Oliver Bauer Moritz M. Sokolowski Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstr. 12, 53115 Bonn 10.3762/bjnano.11.149 Abstract We investigated the ability of a single layer of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) to decouple the excited state of the

• 18,150 and 18,450 cm−1 can be detected, already from the first monolayer onward. In contrast, FL from PTCDA on a bare Cu(111) surface is present only from the second PTCDA layer onward. Hence, a single layer of hBN decouples PTCDA from the metal substrate to an extent that a weak radiative FL decay of

• to which extent decoupling of the organic molecules from a metal electrode is achieved when a 2DM layer in the limit of a single interfacial layer, for example, a monolayer of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), is used. Such a decoupling is achieved when the wave functions of the metal are spatially

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

• . Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) measurements of the pyrene derivatives adsorbed on a Cu(111)-supported hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) decoupling layer provided access to spatially and energetically resolved molecular electronic states. We demonstrate that the pyrene electronic gap

• -like-disubstituted derivatives governed the self-assembly of the pyrenyl core on the nanostructured hBN support, affording dense-packed arrays and intricate porous networks featuring a kagome lattice. Keywords: electronic structure; hexagonal boron nitride; optical properties; pyrene; self-assembly

• properties in organic layers relied on bulk insulator supports [14][15][16]. As a promising alternative to bulk insulators, ultrathin dielectric films can act as decoupling layers but maintain the possibility to perform STM and STS measurements [17]. Atomically-thin hBN sheets attracted considerable interest

Nonadiabatic superconductivity in a Li-intercalated hexagonal boron nitride bilayer

• Kamila A. Szewczyk,
• Izabela A. Domagalska,
• Artur P. Durajski and
• Radosław Szczęśniak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1178–1189, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.102

• Zielona Góra, Prof. Z. Szafrana 4a, 65-516 Zielona Góra, Poland Division of Physics, Częstochowa University of Technology, Ave. Armii Krajowej 19, 42-200 Częstochowa, Poland 10.3762/bjnano.11.102 Abstract When considering a Li-intercalated hexagonal boron nitride bilayer (Li-hBN), the vertex corrections

• in Li-hBN is characterized by much lower values of the critical temperature (TLOVCC ∈ {19.1, 15.5, 11.8} K, for μ* ∈ {0.1, 0.14, 0.2}, respectively) than would result from calculations not taking this effect into account (TMEC∈ {31.9, 26.9, 21} K). From the technological point of view, the low value

• of TC limits the possible applications of Li-hBN. The calculations were carried out under the classic Migdal–Eliashberg formalism (ME) and the Eliashberg theory with lowest-order vertex corrections (LOVC). We show that the vertex corrections of higher order (λ3) lower the value of TLOVCC by a few

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

• to integrate hBN SPSs with large-scale, on-chip quantum photonic devices that work under ambient conditions or elevated temperatures. Resonant excitation of SPEs in h-BN is also used to control their quantum properties such as spectral broadening and Rabi oscillation. Using resonance excitation with

Effect of substitutional defects on resonant tunneling diodes based on armchair graphene and boron nitride nanoribbons lateral heterojunctions

• Majid Sanaeepur

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 688–694, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.56

• electronic devices have been realized by heterostructures based on vertical stacking or lateral stitching of 2D materials with different electronic properties [6]. Lateral graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (Gr/hBN) heterostructures, due to very low lattice mismatch between graphene and hBN, are most suitable

• as platforms for fully two-dimensional nanoelectronic devices [7][8][9][10][11]. Resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) are among various electronic devices realized on the platform of 2D Gr/hBN heterostructures [12][13][14][15][16]. RTDs exhibit negative differential resistance (NDR) and have a wide range

• between graphene and hBN [3]. However, inevitable interfacial defects located at the interface of Gr/hBN heterojunctions, including point defects (single vacancies and substitutional defects) and topological defects can alter the electronic properties of Gr/hBN heterostructures and, consequently, the

Light–Matter interactions on the nanoscale

• Mohsen Rahmani and
• Chennupati Jagadish

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2125–2127, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.201

• , such as transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) or hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) [10] have also emerged as interesting platforms for nanophotonics. TMDCs, with their intrinsically broken inversion symmetry in crystal structure, have shown many advanced optical properties with potential applications

• such as in valleytronics. On the other hand, hBN has promising hyperbolic properties as well as the ability to host a range of single photon emitters (SPEs) for quantum photonic applications. In summary, the field of photonics is ever growing and the life of people will be greatly influenced by the

Recent highlights in nanoscale and mesoscale friction

• Andrea Vanossi,
• Dirk Dietzel,
• Andre Schirmeisen,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Marcin Kisiel,
• Shigeki Kawai and
• Nicola Manini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1995–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.190

• , nitrogen, and air [78]. In addition, the shear strength and the interface adhesion energy for graphene on Si/SiO2 was proven to always exceed those of the graphene/Ni(111) interface [78]. The weakly lattice-mismatched graphite/hBN interface is also predicted to be promising for ultra-low-friction

Design of photonic microcavities in hexagonal boron nitride

• Sejeong Kim,
• Milos Toth and
• Igor Aharonovich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 102–108, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.12

• Sejeong Kim Milos Toth Igor Aharonovich School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia 10.3762/bjnano.9.12 Abstract We propose and design photonic crystal cavities (PCCs) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) for diverse photonic and quantum

• applications. Two dimensional (2D) hBN flakes contain quantum emitters which are ultra-bright and photostable at room temperature. To achieve optimal coupling of these emitters to optical resonators, fabrication of cavities from hBN is therefore required to maximize the overlap between cavity optical modes and

• the emitters. Here, we design 2D and 1D PCCs using anisotropic indices of hBN. The influence of underlying substrates and material absorption are investigated, and spontaneous emission rate enhancements are calculated. Our results are promising for future quantum photonic experiments with hBN

Adsorption and diffusion characteristics of lithium on hydrogenated α- and β-silicene

• Fadil Iyikanat,
• Ali Kandemir,
• Cihan Bacaksiz and
• Hasan Sahin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1742–1748, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.175

• attention [1][2]. This family consists of a large variety of materials such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) [3][4], silicene [5][6][7], germanene [8], transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) [9][10][11][12][13][14], transition-metal trichalcogenides (TMTs) [15][16], phosphorene [17] and gallium

Adsorption and electronic properties of pentacene on thin dielectric decoupling layers

• Sebastian Koslowski,
• Daniel Rosenblatt,
• Alexander Kabakchiev,
• Klaus Kuhnke,
• Klaus Kern and
• Uta Schlickum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1388–1395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.140

• 2.8 Å using calculations for the h-BN/Rh(111) system based on the local distance of the h-BN layer from the metal substrate at the position of the pentacene molecule [12]. Thereby no electric field caused by an in-plane dipole moment of the rim induced by the hBN moiré pattern was considered. A value

• can be observed in the relation between orbital energies and work function, which reveals the physical properties of the molecule and the substrates that are relevant to adsorption. In addition, a deviation from this trend for hBN/Rh(111) helps rationalize its enhanced trapping capacity and its

Fringe structures and tunable bandgap width of 2D boron nitride nanosheets

• Peter Feng,
• Muhammad Sajjad,
• Eric Yiming Li,
• Hongxin Zhang,
• Jin Chu,
• Ali Aldalbahi and
• Gerardo Morell

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1186–1192, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.130

• ]. Similar to the method used to produce graphene, BNNSs can be exfoliated from bulk BN crystals by simple mechanical cleavage techniques [3][4][5]. The problem is that the obtained hBN nanosheets are usually limited by too small size. Therefore, recently most work on synthesis of large BNNSs is based on

• without the treatment, respectively. A peak recorded at about 1429 cm−1 is associated with the in-plane E1u B–N bond stretching vibration of sp2-bonded hBN phase [24][25]. It shifts to low wave number down to 1369 cm−1 after the treatment, indicating the width of the band gap changes down to 4.3%. This