Site-specific growth of oriented ZnO nanocrystal arrays

• Rekha Bai,
• Dinesh K. Pandya,
• Sujeet Chaudhary,
• Veer Dhaka,
• Vladislav Khayrudinov,
• Jori Lemettinen,
• Christoffer Kauppinen and
• Harri Lipsanen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 274–280, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.26

• ; and the cross-sectional view for (f) S600 (i) S200, respectively. X-ray diffraction spectra of ZnO NCs for SB (on bare ITO), S600 (on patterned ITO with pore size ≈600 nm), and S200 (on patterned ITO with pore size ≈200 nm). Microstructure characterization of hexagonal-shaped twinned ZnO NCs for the

Relation between thickness, crystallite size and magnetoresistance of nanostructured La_1−xSr_xMn_yO_3±δ films for magnetic field sensors

• Rasuole Lukose,
• Valentina Plausinaitiene,
• Milita Vagner,
• Nerija Zurauskiene,
• Skirmantas Kersulis,
• Virgaudas Kubilius,
• Karolis Motiejuitis,
• Birute Knasiene,
• Voitech Stankevic,
• Zita Saltyte,
• Martynas Skapas,
• Algirdas Selskis and
• Evaldas Naujalis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 256–261, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.24

• substrates in two different technological ways, resulting in different microstructure of the obtained nanostructured films. Such films have an advantage in comparison with the epitaxial films grown on monocrystalline substrates since they exhibit high magnetoresistance (MR) values over a broader temperature

• range [1]. In this study, we present the possibility to tune and to select the necessary properties of nanostructured LSMO films by changing the film thickness and microstructure in order to obtain higher sensitivity and lower anisotropy, important for magnetic field sensing. Results and Discussion Two

• of the microstructure and magnetoresistive properties of the films. It was demonstrated that the crystallite dimensions and magnetoresistance magnitude increase with the film thickness. Moreover, the usage of an additional solvent source decreases the growth rate of the films, leading to an increase

Scanning probe microscopy for energy-related materials

• Rüdiger Berger,
• Benjamin Grévin,
• Philippe Leclère and
• Yi Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 132–134, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.12

• relationship between Li-ion conductivity and the microstructure of the solid-state electrolyte lithium aluminum titanium phosphate films [10]. Furthermore, dielectric properties play a role for the storage of electrochemical energy. Ying Wang and co-workers report on a novel method for the characterization of

Pull-off and friction forces of micropatterned elastomers on soft substrates: the effects of pattern length scale and stiffness

• Peter van Assenbergh,
• Marike Fokker,
• Julian Langowski,
• Jan van Esch,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Dimitra Dodou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 79–94, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.8

• microstructure is not considerably lower than that of coarser microstructure [14]. Greiner et al. found that with increasing aspect ratio of micropattern features, their compliance increases, resulting in a better conformability to substrate roughness [20]. Hierarchical geometries, that is, architectures with

• -12 substrate. We assume that with large dimples indent deeply into the PVA substrates, generating mechanical interlocking and a relatively high contact area. The microstructure starts moving when this interlocking is lost due to deformation of the substrate. A low indentation depth, as it is expected

• measurements. It is possible that the same protrusion formation as described for pull-off force measurements also holds for friction measurements, with the substrate protruding into the sub-surface voids of the microstructure. Similar to pull-off experiments, suction forces cannot be ruled out either. Effect

Amorphous Ni_xCo_yP-supported TiO₂ nanotube arrays as an efficient hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalyst in acidic solution

• Yong Li,
• Peng Yang,
• Bin Wang and
• Zhongqing Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 62–70, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.6

• crystallographic texture, scanning electron microscopy (SEM, JSM-5900 LV, JEOV) for micro-morphology, transmission electron microscopy (TEM, Tecnai G2 F20 S-TWIN) for microstructure, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV2100) for photoabsorption properties, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, Escalab

Contact splitting in dry adhesion and friction: reducing the influence of roughness

• Jae-Kang Kim and
• Michael Varenberg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1–8, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.1

• attachment of the wall-shaped microstructure degrades, regardless of the surface waviness, when the surface roughness increases. Second, splitting the wall-shaped microstructure indeed helps to mitigate the negative effect of the increasing surface unevenness by allowing the split microstructure to adapt

• Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (−0.97 vs −0.95) than the root-mean-square roughness Rq. This correlation supports our analysis of the relationships between adhesion, roughness and waviness, and proves that the adhesive performance of the wall-shaped microstructure depends on the microscale roughness

• split microstructure exceeds that measured with the original microstructure by an amount that is greater than would be expected by chance. This key finding is demonstrated best in Figure 2c,d, where the roughness increase leads to a less pronounced reduction of the pull-off force if the microstructured

A new bioinspired method for pressure and flow sensing based on the underwater air-retaining surface of the backswimmer Notonecta

• Matthias Mail,
• Adrian Klein,
• Horst Bleckmann,
• Anke Schmitz,
• Torsten Scherer,
• Peter T. Rühr,
• Goran Lovric,
• Robin Fröhlingsdorf,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Wilhelm Barthlott

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3039–3047, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.282

• –water interface allowing a three dimensional reconstruction of that interface (see [18]). The samples were placed in a custom pressure cell allowing defined pressure changes while imaging the air–water interface (Figure 6). Microstructure of the setal bases Different methods were used to analyze the

• microstructure of the setal bases. The hemelytra were cut into several pieces. The pieces were fixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde and 1.5% osmium tetroxide in cacodylate buffer (380 mOsmol, pH 7.1). After dehydrating in ethanol, the pieces were embedded in Epon 812 via epoxy propane as an intermedium. The clavus and

• trapezium-shaped precut (16 nA/30 kV) was performed and 50 nm thick tomography slices (1 nA/30 kV) covering the area of interest were cut subsequently (see Supporting Information File 1). The resulting stack of images shows the microstructure of the setal bases. One advantage of the FIB slicing technique is

Graphene-enhanced metal oxide gas sensors at room temperature: a review

• Dongjin Sun,
• Yifan Luo,
• Marc Debliquy and
• Chao Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2832–2844, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.264

• , or made “bridges” at the interface between two nanoparticles. Due to the “bridges” existing between TiO2 nanoparticles, the initial resistance of TiO2–rGO sensor was greatly reduced, indicating that the sensor was able to work at room temperature. The partly “wrapping” microstructure enhanced the

Biomimetic surface structures in steel fabricated with femtosecond laser pulses: influence of laser rescanning on morphology and wettability

• Camilo Florian Baron,
• Alexandros Mimidis,
• Daniel Puerto,
• Evangelos Skoulas,
• Emmanuel Stratakis,
• Javier Solis and
• Jan Siegel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2802–2812, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.262

• well defined. In terms of biomimetics, these structures resemble the tiles found on the skin of the Python regius snake, whose microstructure makes it very resistant to damage from wear by reducing friction (c.f. Figure 2E). Laser-based surface texturing has been used to mimic this structure in steel

Optimization of Mo/Cr bilayer back contacts for thin-film solar cells

• Nima Khoshsirat,
• Fawad Ali,
• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• Mojtaba Amjadipour,
• Hongxia Wang,
• Mahnaz Shafiei and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2700–2707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.252

• chromium (Cr) adhesion layer is used as the back contact for a copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) thin-film solar cell on a SLG substrate. DC magnetron sputtering is used for deposition of Mo and Cr films. The conductivity of Mo/Cr bilayer films, their microstructure and surface morphology are studied at

• in the range of 0.9 to 1.2 μm [14][15][16], which is 1.5-times the value of our samples. The decreasing of the film resistivity with increasing sputtering power could be attributed to the effect of power on the microstructure of the film. Higher power leads to bigger grain sizes, as higher kinetic

Size-selected Fe₃O₄–Au hybrid nanoparticles for improved magnetism-based theranostics

• Maria V. Efremova,
• Yulia A. Nalench,
• Eirini Myrovali,
• Anastasiia S. Garanina,
• Ivan S. Grebennikov,
• Polina K. Gifer,
• Maxim A. Abakumov,
• Marina Spasova,
• Makis Angelakeris,
• Alexander G. Savchenko,
• Michael Farle,
• Natalia L. Klyachko,
• Alexander G. Majouga and
• Ulf Wiedwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2684–2699, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.251

• close to that of cell cytoplasm [6][67] thus mimicking the viscosity and microstructure of tissues [68][69]. We measure an increase of the r2-relaxivity from 159 to 495 mM−1·s−1 in water (Figure 5A) and from 118 to 612 mM−1·s−1 in agarose (Figure 5B) for the sample series of MNP-6, MNP-15 and MNP-25

Characterization of the microscopic tribological properties of sandfish (Scincus scincus) scales by atomic force microscopy

• Weibin Wu,
• Christian Lutz,
• Simon Mersch,
• Richard Thelen,
• Christian Greiner,
• Guillaume Gomard and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2618–2627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.243

• Weibin Wu Christian Lutz Simon Mersch Richard Thelen Christian Greiner Guillaume Gomard Hendrik Holscher Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), H.-v.-Helmholtz Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany Institute for Applied Materials (IAM

• microstructure. Pieces of skin from the dorsal side have some darker areas while the ventral side is completely opaque. Furthermore, the dorsal scales feature comb-like microsteps while the ventral scales a nearly planar as described by Baumgartner and co-workers [10]. All results presented here were measured

Friction reduction through biologically inspired scale-like laser surface textures

• Johannes Schneider,
• Vergil Djamiykov and
• Christian Greiner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2561–2572, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.238

• effects) have a significant influence on the occurrence of stick–slip motion in biological systems and manufactured structures [21]. Baum et al. additionally focused on investigating the microstructure within the scales and aspects of mechanical interlocking between them. The same group of authors

• microstructure evolution. Another way to understand why these textures demonstrate a non-typical Stribeck curve behaviour for the lubricated experiments might be found in the fact that, compared to classical surface textures, the debris formed during laser texturing was not removed. In fact the scale-like

• ratio of the shear strength to the yield pressure of the softer metal [51]. Consequently, the tribological properties of the surface are strongly influenced by the subsurface material and the subsurface microstructure is strongly influenced by the plasticity and the nature of the corresponding

High-temperature magnetism and microstructure of a semiconducting ferromagnetic (GaSb)_1−x(MnSb)_x alloy

• Leonid N. Oveshnikov,
• Elena I. Nekhaeva,
• Alexey V. Kochura,
• Alexander B. Davydov,
• Mikhail A. Shakhov,
• Sergey F. Marenkin,
• Oleg A. Novodvorskii,
• Alexander P. Kuzmenko,
• Alexander L. Vasiliev,
• Boris A. Aronzon and
• Erkki Lahderanta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2457–2465, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.230

• variations. Contrast changes in the lateral direction are due to diffraction contrast arising from the columnar film microstructure, which was distinctly observed in bright-field TEM (Figure 4a) and in high-resolution bright-field TEM (HRTEM) images (Figure 4b), and even affects the HAADF TEM image (not

• transition of the hexagonal GaSb matrix to a cubic matrix. The electron microscopy data unambiguously shows that the columnar microstructure of the film persists up to almost the surface layers. It should be noted, that no signs of second-phase precipitates in the film volume was observed. In particular

Evidence of friction reduction in laterally graded materials

• Roberto Guarino,
• Gianluca Costagliola,
• Federico Bosia and
• Nicola Maria Pugno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2443–2456, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.229

• nature, or in the local frictional properties, e.g., by controlling the roughness or the microstructure, for the design of advanced sliding interfaces. A reduction in the static friction up to almost 30%, with respect to the corresponding non-graded material, can thus be achieved. Schematic of the

Adhesive contact of rough brushes

• Qiang Li and
• Valentin L. Popov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2405–2412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.225

• be optimized by controlling the size and shape of the fiber cap [2][3]; this mushroom-shaped microstructure can provide a stronger adhesive performance than the flat punch [4][5]. The compliant fiber is known to increase the strength of adhesion [6][7]. Almost all works in this field are based on the

High-throughput micro-nanostructuring by microdroplet inkjet printing

• Hendrikje R. Neumann and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2372–2380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.222

• be to combine the benefits of BCML, i.e., the highly controllable generation of regular nanoparticle patterns, with methods that generate an overlay microstructure. In recent years, several methods have been proposed to fabricate such structures, but all of them require several complicated process

Directional light beams by design from electrically driven elliptical slit antennas

• Shuiyan Cao,
• Eric Le Moal,
• Quanbo Jiang,
• Aurélien Drezet,
• Serge Huant,
• Jean-Paul Hugonin,
• Gérald Dujardin and
• Elizabeth Boer-Duchemin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2361–2371, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.221

• emission direction of the beam is determined by the microstructure eccentricity. A very simple, broadband, optical antenna design is used, which consists of a single elliptical slit etched into a gold film. The light beam source is driven by an electrical nanosource of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) that

• with a minor linear contribution (along the major axis) that increases with eccentricity. Future improvements of these optical antennas include the integration of the electrical SPP nanosource in the design of the microstructure (e.g., as an integrated metal-oxide–metal tunnel junction) and the

Hierarchical heterostructures of Bi₂MoO₆ microflowers decorated with Ag₂CO₃ nanoparticles for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic removal of toxic pollutants

• Shijie Li,
• Wei Jiang,
• Shiwei Hu,
• Yu Liu,
• Yanping Liu,
• Kaibing Xu and
• Jianshe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2297–2305, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.214

• [32]. To visually study the microstructure and morphology of Ag2CO3/Bi2MoO6, SEM images of the as-prepared catalysts were taken. Bare Bi2MoO6 presents a hierarchical microsphere structure (diameter: 1.6–3.5 μm, Figure 2a,b). After Ag2CO3 was loaded onto Bi2MoO6, the resulting Ag2CO3/Bi2MoO6 retained

• , and ACO/BMO-50, respectively. For comparison, pure Ag2CO3 was prepared by the same method without the addition of Bi2MoO6. A mixture of Ag2CO3 and Bi2MoO6, symbolized as mixture, was prepared by simple physical mixing. Characterization The microstructure of the samples was observed with a Hitachi S

Nanoscale characterization of the temporary adhesive of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

• Ana S. Viana and
• Romana Santos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2277–2286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.212

• around 20 nm could clearly be distinguished (Figure 4a,c). These results are consistent with previous reports, describing the sea urchin footprint microstructure, observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as a dense meshwork with smaller mesh-like areas (<1 μm) delimited by very fine fibrils (about

Electrospun one-dimensional nanostructures: a new horizon for gas sensing materials

• Muhammad Imran,
• Nunzio Motta and
• Mahnaz Shafiei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2128–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.202

• 1 µm) [133]. The gas sensing response is also improved without tuning the microstructure of nanofibers just by the introduction of UV irradiation [105][144][145]. The response of TiO2 nanofibers is enhanced from 1.8/25 ppm to 18/25 ppm of hydrogen, whereas the response/recovery time reduced from

Spin-coated planar Sb₂S₃ hybrid solar cells approaching 5% efficiency

• Pascal Kaienburg,
• Benjamin Klingebiel and
• Thomas Kirchartz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2114–2124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.200

• the chemical composition and microstructure of the Sb2S3 layer. With a focus on the two different hole transport materials P3HT and KP115 shown in Figure 4a, the J–V curves and solar cell performance of the best devices for the two process routes are compared in Figure 4b and Table 1. The Sb-BDC

Direct AFM-based nanoscale mapping and tomography of open-circuit voltages for photovoltaics

• Katherine Atamanuk,
• Justin Luria and
• Bryan D. Huey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1802–1808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.171

• , microstructure, and performance is necessary as a function of device design, processing, and in-service conditions. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been a valuable tool for such characterization, especially of materials properties and device performance at the nanoscale. In the case of thin-film solar cells

• in the microstructure of the thin film. When viewed in 3D, however, the directly acquired photovoltaic properties seem clearly correlated with 3D microstructure. Specifically, the CdTe thin film exhibits profound (orders of magnitude) heterogeneities in local photovoltaic performance within tens of

• statistical and correlative analyses with microstructure and/or other properties. These can only be best revealed by directly measuring VOC*, or for even more sophisticated materials property maps by extension of the straightforward approach presented herein. For instance, with appropriate circuitry that

A visible-light-controlled platform for prolonged drug release based on Ag-doped TiO₂ nanotubes with a hydrophobic layer

• Caihong Liang,
• Jiang Wen and
• Xiaoming Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1793–1801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.170

• (LED) lamp without ultraviolet light (<450 nm), while the other half of tubes with NDM were kept in the dark. Materials characterization The surface morphology and microstructure of the fabricated samples were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, Hitachi S4800, Japan) and X-ray

Toward the use of CVD-grown MoS₂ nanosheets as field-emission source

• Geetanjali Deokar,
• Nitul S. Rajput,
• Junjie Li,
• Francis Leonard Deepak,
• Wei Ou-Yang,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jean-Francois Colomer and
• Mustapha Jouiad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1686–1694, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.160

• candidates. The FE properties depend on the microstructure of the materials, such as morphology, orientation, size and internal or intrinsic features [1]. Among the different morphologies of 1D and 2D materials, vertically aligned nanostructures are considered as good candidates for field emission. Due to