Enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting performance using morphology-controlled BiVO₄ with W doping

• Xin Zhao and
• Zhong Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2640–2647, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.264

• the porous structure contributes a 13% increase to Jabs. The oxidation of water is known to have slow oxidation kinetics. To probe the photoelectrochemical properties, an effective hole scavenger, Na2SO3, was added to the electrolyte. The interfacial charge injection efficiency can be approximated to

• be 100% (ηinj = 1) due to the fast oxidation kinetics of Na2SO3 [21]. Under such an approximation, the photocurrent measured with Na2SO3 electrolyte can be determined by [21]: where JNa2SO3 is the oxidation photocurrent using Na2SO3. From Equation 1 and Equation 2, we obtain the charge separation

Localized growth of carbon nanotubes via lithographic fabrication of metallic deposits

• Fan Tu,
• Martin Drost,
• Imre Szenti,
• Janos Kiss,
• Zoltan Kónya and
• Hubertus Marbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2592–2605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.260

• Environmental Chemistry, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary, MTA-SZTE Reaction Kinetics and Surface Chemistry Research Group, University of Szeged, Rerrich ter 1, 6720 Szeged, Hungary 10.3762/bjnano.8.260 Abstract We report on the fabrication of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at predefined positions and controlled

• films were prepared via sputter coating on a SiOx/Si(100) surface. As depicted in Figure 11, catalytic CVD experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure in a horizontal quartz tube (MTA-SZTE Reaction Kinetics and Surface Chemistry Research Group, University of Szeged, Hungary). The tube was

Synthesis of metal-fluoride nanoparticles supported on thermally reduced graphite oxide

• Alexa Schmitz,
• Kai Schütte,
• Vesko Ilievski,
• Juri Barthel,
• Laura Burk,
• Rolf Mülhaupt,
• Junpei Yue,
• Bernd Smarsly and
• Christoph Janiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2474–2483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.247

• plateau, which is normally observed in pure FeF2 electrodes [88][89]. This feature corresponds to the conversion reaction of FeF2 to Fe0 and LiF. The plateau potential is around 1.3 V, far lower than the equilibrium potential of 2.6 V, which can be due to the restricted process kinetics. At the following

• discharging curves, the plateau potential increases to 1.8 V due to improved process kinetics caused by the reduced particle size during the cycling [88][89]. The region before the plateau is corresponding to the reduction reaction from Fe3+ to Fe2+, while the part following the plateau is probably caused by

• Fe0 to Fe2+ (at a potential lower than 3.5 V) and Fe2+ to Fe3+ (at a potential higher than 3.5 V) [88]. The large voltage hysteresis between discharging and charging process can be attributed to sluggish process kinetics, including, for example, phase evolution and the spatial distribution of

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

• propagation and absorption mechanisms, whose detailed description is yet to be performed. The similar behavior exhibited by the glass samples after irradiation by 266 nm nanosecond pulses hints at the same kinetics of nanoparticle formation. An estimate of the particle size, based on the plasmon band position

Surfactant-induced enhancement of droplet adhesion in superhydrophobic soybean (Glycine max L.) leaves

• Oliver Hagedorn,
• Ingo Fleute-Schlachter,
• Hans Georg Mainx,
• Viktoria Zeisler-Diehl and
• Kerstin Koch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2345–2356, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.234

• platelets show fissured edges and, according to Barthlott et al. [14], are therefore called nonentire platelets. The heights of the wax platelets on both leaf sides varied between 1 to 1.2 µm because of their unregularly shape. The wax isolation kinetics, tested by repeatedly dipping four leaves for

• becomes visible. The SEM figure shows (see the right bottom area of the droplet) imprints within the droplet surface caused by the epicuticular wax, indicating that the droplet in a Cassie–Baxter state on the epicuticular wax layer. Discussion Chemical analysis The isolation kinetics has been performed to

• magnification image of Figure 1C, which shows the epicuticular wax platelets arranged in rosettes. Extraction kinetics of soybean leaf wax by repetition of chloroform dipping. Absolute amounts [µg/cm²] extracted are plotted versus the total dipping times (1, 3, 10, 30, and 100 s) and extracted masses. Fraction

Changes of the absorption cross section of Si nanocrystals with temperature and distance

• Michael Greben,
• Petro Khoroshyy,
• Sebastian Gutsch,
• Daniel Hiller,
• Margit Zacharias and
• Jan Valenta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2315–2323, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.231

• and multilayer structures with variable thickness of oxide barriers is determined via a photoluminescence (PL) modulation technique that is based on the analysis of excitation intensity-dependent PL kinetics under modulated pumping. We clearly demonstrate that roughly doubling the barrier thickness

• we demonstrated that special attention needs to be paid to the excitation pulse length [24]. Here we show how to utilize the knowledge of the average ON lifetime. According to Equation 8 the PL onset kinetics for the two fitting models are described as: The average PL decay time of photons can be

• reader about possible approximate calculations of average lifetimes for such complex decay kinetics [10][21]. PL modulation technique Spectrally resolved PL traces were measured at different temperatures while the excitation power was varied over four orders of magnitude (Figure 1). The power dependence

Photobleaching of YOYO-1 in super-resolution single DNA fluorescence imaging

• Joseph R. Pyle and
• Jixin Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2296–2306, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.229

• be obtained from the fluorescent intensity decay of the molecules in the video (Figure 5). From the bulk experiments, YOYO-1 photobleaching kinetics can be fitted with a double-exponential decay function to represent the photobleaching of two differently bound YOYO-1 molecules: intercalated and non

Dissociative electron attachment to coordination complexes of chromium: chromium(0) hexacarbonyl and benzene-chromium(0) tricarbonyl

• Janina Kopyra,
• Paulina Maciejewska and
• Jelena Maljković

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2257–2263, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.225

• ]), bidentate (e.g., hexafluoroacetylacetone [17]), and mixed ligands (e.g., nitrosyl and carbonyl [9][10], methyl and methylcyclopentadienyl [18], π-allyl, carbonyl, bromide [19]). These studies cover both the fragmentation patterns and kinetics of electron attachment processes. It appears that for carbonyl

Systematic control of α-Fe₂O₃ crystal growth direction for improved electrochemical performance of lithium-ion battery anodes

• Nan Shen,
• Miriam Keppeler,
• Barbara Stiaszny,
• Holger Hain,
• Filippo Maglia and
• Madhavi Srinivasan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2032–2044, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.204

• charge capacities of 746, 770 and 740 mAh g−1 at a charge current density of 3 C. This exhibits the superior electrode kinetics over nanoparticles (590 mAh g−1) and longer rods with ≈320 nm (696 mAh g−1) and ≈390 nm (655 mAh g−1) lengths. The sample α-Fe2O3-B1.5, synthesized using 2,3-diaminobutane

Advances and challenges in the field of plasma polymer nanoparticles

• Andrei Choukourov,
• Pavel Pleskunov,
• Daniil Nikitin,
• Valerii Titov,
• Artem Shelemin,
• Mykhailo Vaidulych,
• Anna Kuzminova,
• Pavel Solař,
• Jan Hanuš,
• Jaroslav Kousal,
• Ondřej Kylián,
• Danka Slavínská and
• Hynek Biederman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2002–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.200

• discharge power for nylon- [54] and PTFE-sputtered [67] NPs as well as for plasma polymerization of HMDSO in Ar [53]. For nylon and HMDSO, an increase is observed of the NP diameter with the residence time (under constant power) which simply reflects the kinetics of the NP growth when they travel along the

Stick–slip boundary friction mode as a second-order phase transition with an inhomogeneous distribution of elastic stress in the contact area

• Iakov A. Lyashenko,
• Vadym N. Borysiuk and
• Valentin L. Popov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1889–1896, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.189

• parameters α, a and b and values of τmax and can be estimated from Equation 5 in the following form [18]: To study the kinetics of the lubricant we employed the Ginzburg–Landau–Khalatnikov evolutionary equation for the order parameter in the form: where γ is the kinetic parameter that defines the inertial

• -dimensional and three-dimensional interpretations): The aim of the present work is to take into account the elastic properties of the contacting materials in simulation of the kinetics of the boundary friction in the system shown in Figure 1. Let us introduce the brief algorithm of the simulation scheme

Structural model of silicene-like nanoribbons on a Pb-reconstructed Si(111) surface

• Agnieszka Stępniak-Dybala and
• Mariusz Krawiec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1836–1843, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.185

• substrates. Simply, Pb atoms must make room for growing NRs directly on the substrate. If the diffusion was too slow, Si would grow on top of Pb, not necessarily in a 1D or 2D fashion. Thus both, thermodynamics and kinetics, play a significant role in the formation of Si NRs. We believe that a mechanism

Process-specific mechanisms of vertically oriented graphene growth in plasmas

• Subrata Ghosh,
• Shyamal R. Polaki,
• Niranjan Kumar,
• Sankarakumar Amirthapandian,
• Mohamed Kamruddin and
• Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1658–1670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.166

• other devices [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Efficient utilization of VGNs depends on their effective surface area, which is determined by two major factors: (a) vertical sheet density and (b) intersheet spacing. Enhancing these two factors improves the electron transfer kinetics and hence electrochemical

• dissociates under plasma and forms reactive radicals/ions. Transport mechanism of these plasma species and growth kinetics of carbon nanomaterials in PECVD has been extensively explained by Munoz and co-workers [26]. The density and energy of these plasma species depend on the plasma power, position of the

• substrate in the plasma plume and feedstock gas composition. The substrate defines the surface reaction kinetics, thus the nature of the substrate and its temperature play major role in the growth [24]. Therefore, these key factors affect the final morphology and structural quality. Several research groups

Two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalytic energy generation and environmental remediation applications

• Suneel Kumar,
• Ashish Kumar,
• Ashish Bahuguna,
• Vipul Sharma and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1571–1600, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.159

• . Recently, the coupling of g-C3N4 with various metal oxides/sulfides, composite oxides, BiOX halides (X = Cl, Br, I), AgX, noble metals and graphene has attracted great attention for the formation of heterojunctions with excellent light absorption and charge transfer kinetics, which is discussed in the

Luminescent supramolecular hydrogels from a tripeptide and nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots

• Maria C. Cringoli,
• Slavko Kralj,
• Marina Kurbasic,
• Massimo Urban and
• Silvia Marchesan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1553–1562, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.157

• ) did not slow down gelation kinetics. Both the elastic (G’) and viscous (G’’) moduli were significantly reduced, yielding softer hydrogels (G’ of 3 kPa within 1 h). Instead, when the NCNDs were added to the peptide during the pH trigger, gelation kinetics were slowed down. However, over 1 h, the

• the applied frequency (see Supporting Information File 1). Overall, from a rheological point of view, the addition of NCNDs increased the peptide hydrogel stability to applied stress and offered the opportunity to fine-tune stiffness or gelation kinetics, depending on the protocol used to prepare the

• diameters in all samples, with and without NCNDs (see Supporting Information File 1). These observations are not surprising since it is well known that the nanostructure outcome of self-assembly is greatly influenced by experimental conditions and gelation kinetics [39][40]. Thermal stability of NCND

Parylene C as a versatile dielectric material for organic field-effect transistors

• Tomasz Marszalek,
• Maciej Gazicki-Lipman and
• Jacek Ulanski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1532–1545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.155

• reaction is concerned, there is none as long as the growing macromolecules remain under vacuum. The polymerization reaction exhibits a step-growth mechanism with second order kinetics with respect to the active radical sites [26]. Upon exposure to the atmosphere, these radical active centers (sometimes

Spin-chemistry concepts for spintronics scientists

• Konstantin L. Ivanov,
• Alexander Wagenpfahl,
• Carsten Deibel and
• Jörg Matysik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1427–1445, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.143

Miniemulsion copolymerization of (meth)acrylates in the presence of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes for reinforced coating applications

• Bertha T. Pérez-Martínez,
• Lorena Farías-Cepeda,
• Víctor M. Ovando-Medina,
• José M. Asua,
• Lucero Rosales-Marines and
• Radmila Tomovska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1328–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.134

• with modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were synthesized by in situ miniemulsion polymerization. The MWCNTs were pretreated by an air sonication process and stabilized by polyvinylpyrrolidone. The presence of the MWCNTs had no significant effect on the polymerization kinetics, but strongly

• surfactant on the kinetics of miniemulsion polymerization of butyl acrylate (BA) in the presence of CNTs. Waterborne polymer dispersions are mainly used for coatings and adhesives, which involve the formation of films directly cast from the dispersion, usually at ambient temperature [22][24]. This limits the

• constant strain velocity of 2 mm·s−1 at two different temperatures, 25 °C and 60 °C. Results and Discussion Miniemulsion polymerization kinetics and properties of the hybrid latexes In situ miniemulsion polymerization at 20 wt % solid content was performed in the presence of various amounts of air

Oxidative chemical vapor deposition of polyaniline thin films

• Yuriy Y. Smolin,
• Masoud Soroush and
• Kenneth K. S. Lau

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1266–1276, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.128

• constant (5 min), the deposited film thickness and therefore the deposition kinetics did not change with pressure. Typically, lower reactor pressures would lead to slower kinetics. However, this does not seem to be the case for the oCVD parameter space studied here. Therefore, our conjecture is that the

• reducing the amount of oxidant, which may be the result of more favorable adsorption of short chain oligomers at lower temperatures or slower kinetics at the surface. Further, for the LT-F1 condition, which is now at the low temperature of 25 °C as well as a lower oxidant flow of 0.3 sccm, the film loses

Nanotopographical control of surfaces using chemical vapor deposition processes

• Meike Koenig and
• Joerg Lahann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1250–1256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.126

• applied in order to successfully predict the growth morphology of the polymer structures, taking into account the chain growth kinetics. The morphology can be further varied by manipulating the substrate rotation, resulting in more complex architectures, such as helices or chevron structures (Figure 5

Nano-engineered skin mesenchymal stem cells: potential vehicles for tumour-targeted quantum-dot delivery

• Liga Saulite,
• Dominyka Dapkute,
• Karlis Pleiko,
• Ineta Popena,
• Simona Steponkiene,
• Ricardas Rotomskis and
• Una Riekstina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1218–1230, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.123

• QD uptake kinetics was calculated based on changes in fluorescence intensity. The plateau phase was reached after 24 h of incubation, consistent with observations in other cell lines [23]. The optimal incubation time for QD uptake was 6 h, after which up to 95% of the cells had incorporated QDs. Thus

Metal oxide nanostructures: preparation, characterization and functional applications as chemical sensors

• Dario Zappa,
• Angela Bertuna,
• Elisabetta Comini,
• Navpreet Kaur,
• Nicola Poli,
• Veronica Sberveglieri and
• Giorgio Sberveglieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1205–1217, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.122

• sensitivity, selectivity, response kinetics and reliability [4]. The design of active materials is essential and it must be the starting point for the control of the functional parameters of the final device. Nonetheless, great attention must be paid to the integration of the active material onto the

Enhanced catalytic activity without the use of an external light source using microwave-synthesized CuO nanopetals

• Govinda Lakhotiya,
• Sonal Bajaj,
• Arpan Kumar Nayak,
• Debabrata Pradhan,
• Pradip Tekade and
• Abhimanyu Rana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1167–1173, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.118

• nanopetals. Figure 3d represents the kinetics of the MB degradation with 0.5 mL H2O2 and 10 mg CuO nanopetals. The apparent rate constant of this degradation was calculated from the slope of ln(C/C0) vs time (Figure 3e) and found to be 0.087 min−1. In order to examine the stability of the catalyst used for

• of 0.5 mL H2O2 and 10 mg CuO nanopetals. (e) Kinetics of degradation with 0.5 mL H2O2 and 10 mg CuO nanopetals. (f) The % degradation vs cycle number for MB degradation with 0.5 mL H2O2 and 10 mg CuO nanopetals. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 168: Additional figures

Assembly of metallic nanoparticle arrays on glass via nanoimprinting and thin-film dewetting

• Sun-Kyu Lee,
• Sori Hwang,
• Yoon-Kee Kim and
• Yong-Jun Oh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1049–1055, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.106

• can increase with increasing annealing temperature. This is attributable to the faster dewetting kinetics at higher temperatures, which induces rapid breakage of the film along the mesa with high surface curvature and fast retraction of the film edges, preventing both film thinning at GB triple

Structural properties and thermal stability of cobalt- and chromium-doped α-MnO₂ nanorods

• Romana Cerc Korošec,
• Polona Umek,
• Alexandre Gloter,
• Jana Padežnik Gomilšek and
• Peter Bukovec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1032–1042, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.104

• improved the electrical conductivity, while nanoflakes and the secondary structure increase the specific surface area, leading to improved electrode kinetics by facilitating mass transport [24]. However, there is a lack of detailed structural studies of these materials in order to understand why cobalt as