Growth and characterization of textured well-faceted ZnO on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates for solar cell applications

• Chin-Yi Tsai,
• Jyong-Di Lai,
• Shih-Wei Feng,
• Chien-Jung Huang,
• Chien-Hsun Chen,
• Fann-Wei Yang,
• Hsiang-Chen Wang and
• Li-Wei Tu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1939–1945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.194

• , leading to a variety of structural morphologies [12]. The relationship between microstructure and crystal growth orientation of ZnO grown on silicon substrates is schematically illustrated in Figure 2 [12]. Here, the ZnO grains reveal a polygon structure for the c-axis parallel to the substrate, ridge

• ZnO(002) grains show pyramid-like structures on the surface. For the ZnOt(100) sample, the dominant ZnO(101) grains show pyramidal tips without the hexagonal cylinder on the surface. The microstructure and crystal growth orientation of ZnO grown on different silicon substrates can be explained by the

• and cathode luminescence results were acquired by the use of a Gatan monoCL3 spectrometer in a JEOL JSM 7000F SEM system. (a) XRD and (b) grain percentages obtained from integration of the intensity of the XRD peaks of the samples ZnOp(100), ZnOp(111), and ZnOt(100). Microstructure and crystal growth

Fabrication of carbon nanospheres by the pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile–poly(methyl methacrylate) core–shell composite nanoparticles

• Dafu Wei,
• Youwei Zhang and
• Jinping Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1897–1908, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.190

• , although PAN-based carbon nanospheres and microspheres were reported to be fabricated by pyrolysis of various precursors [23][31][33][34][35], their detailed microstructure, including the elemental composition, crystalline structure, structure ordering and porous configuration, have not yet been reported

• diameter (120 ± 13 nm) larger than that of the original untreated ones (105 ± 20 nm). SEM images SEM was also used to observe the microstructure of various nanoparticles. As shown in Figure 5a, the original PAN nanoparticles look like “preserved plums” with shriveled surfaces. In contrast, the surfaces of

Optical techniques for cervical neoplasia detection

• Tatiana Novikova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1844–1862, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.186

• the OCT image as unstructured homogeneous highly backscattering region with a complete loss of layered tissue architecture (Figure 12c). The basement membrane is broken and the microstructure of the tissue is no longer preserved. Studies on using OCT for the detection of CIN and invasive carcinomas

Nanotribological behavior of deep cryogenically treated martensitic stainless steel

• Germán Prieto,
• Konstantinos D. Bakoglidis,
• Walter R. Tuckart and
• Esteban Broitman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1760–1768, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.177

• characterization SEM micrographs of the specimens after the heat treatments are shown in Figure 3. It can be seen that in both cases the microstructure consisted of a martensitic matrix with precipitated globular carbides. The application of the cryogenic treatment generated a strong reduction in the size of

Effect of the fluorination technique on the surface-fluorination patterning of double-walled carbon nanotubes

• Lyubov G. Bulusheva,
• Yuliya V. Fedoseeva,
• Emmanuel Flahaut,
• Jérémy Rio,
• Christopher P. Ewels,
• Victor O. Koroteev,
• Gregory Van Lier,
• Denis V. Vyalikh and
• Alexander V. Okotrub

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1688–1698, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.169

• -fluorinated inner shells of DWCNTs. TEM analysis of the pristine and fluorinated DWCNTs revealed a different effect of the used treatments on the sample microstructure (Figure 2). The CCVD synthesis produces DWCNTs gathering into ropes with an average size of ca. 20 nm. After treatment with BrF3 or F2, this

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

• -emission scanning electron microscopy (Supra 55, Carl Zeiss, Germany). High-resolution transmission electron spectroscopy (Libra 200 FE, Carl Zeiss, Germany) was used to investigate the microstructure of the films. A micro-Raman spectrometer (Renishaw inVia, UK) was used to evaluate the structural

Oxidative stabilization of polyacrylonitrile nanofibers and carbon nanofibers containing graphene oxide (GO): a spectroscopic and electrochemical study

• İlknur Gergin,
• Ezgi Ismar and
• A. Sezai Sarac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1616–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.161

• reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) (Perkin Elmer, Spectrum One, with a Universal ATR attachment with a diamond and ZnSe crystal). The microstructure of the carbonized nanofiber webs was investigated by Raman spectroscopy (DXR Raman spectrometer, Thermo Scientific, at 532 nm). The

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

• ]. It is noteworthy to mention here that by using different precursor materials, some of the properties, such as microstructure, adsorption affinity and isoelectric point of g-C3N4 can be tuned [91]. It is known that catalysis is a surface phenomenon, which is affected by the surface structure and

• precursor, exhibited different microstructure and isoelectric points [91]. The g-C3N4 prepared by the thermal condensation method generally exhibit low surface area, which can limit its practical applications, as high specific surface area of catalyst is highly desirable for enhanced photocatalytic activity

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

• and the corrugated surface can significantly alter the microstructure of semiconducting films and bring about a decrease of the device performance [18]. The effect of surface energy on charge-carrier mobility was discussed above using an example of transistors made of tetrathiafulvalene (TTF

Calcium fluoride based multifunctional nanoparticles for multimodal imaging

• Marion Straßer,
• Joachim H. X. Schrauth,
• Sofia Dembski,
• Daniel Haddad,
• Bernd Ahrens,
• Stefan Schweizer,
• Bastian Christ,
• Alevtina Cubukova,
• Marco Metzger,
• Heike Walles,
• Peter M. Jakob and
• Gerhard Sextl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1484–1493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.148

• , Germany Fraunhofer Application Center for Inorganic Phosphors, Branch Lab of Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, Luebecker Ring 2, 59494 Soest, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.8.148 Abstract New multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs) that can be used as contrast agents (CA) in

Atomic structure of Mg-based metallic glass investigated with neutron diffraction, reverse Monte Carlo modeling and electron microscopy

• Rafał Babilas,
• Dariusz Łukowiec and
• Laszlo Temleitner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1174–1182, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.119

• , especially due to the broad halo patterns. The nanocrystalline behavior of the studied glass after annealing was also studied by conventional TEM in bright (Figure 8a) and dark (Figure 8b) field. The alloy in the as-annealed state exhibits a microstructure consisting of homogeneously dispersed nanometer

Hierarchically structured nanoporous carbon tubes for high pressure carbon dioxide adsorption

• Julia Patzsch,
• Deepu J. Babu and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1135–1144, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.115

• their micro- and mesopores. The micropore regime of the carbon tubes is composed of turbostratic graphitic areas observed in the microstructure. The employed templating process was also used for the synthesis of silicon carbide tubes. The characterization of all porous materials was performed by

Growth, structure and stability of sputter-deposited MoS₂ thin films

• Reinhard Kaindl,
• Bernhard C. Bayer,
• Roland Resel,
• Thomas Müller,
• Viera Skakalova,
• Gerlinde Habler,
• Rainer Abart,
• Alexey S. Cherevan,
• Dominik Eder,
• Maxime Blatter,
• Fabian Fischer,
• Jannik C. Meyer,
• Dmitry K. Polyushkin and
• Wolfgang Waldhauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.113

• spacing and textured microstructure. Importantly both RT and 400 °C deposited films appear to have a metallic-like conduction character, which is unexpected for MoS2 films that are usually semiconducting. It is likely that a combination of Mo/S stoichiometry, add-atom contamination and local structural

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

• °C (Figure 2d). The same behavior was seen in the series of the chromium-doped and the undoped α-MnO2 samples. A more detailed inspection of the microstructure shells of the Co-90 sample (Figure 2b) shows that they are constructed from thicker and thinner nanorods. Thicker nanorods are found on the

• samples doped with cobalt synthesized at 90 °C (Co-90), 130 °C (Co-130) and 170 °C (Co-170). FE-SEM images of the cobalt-doped α-MnO2 samples synthesized at 90 °C (a), 130 °C (c) and 170 °C (d), and image of a hollow microstructure of the Co-90 sample (b). Images a, c, and d were taken at the same

Bio-inspired micro-to-nanoporous polymers with tunable stiffness

• Julia Syurik,
• Ruth Schwaiger,
• Prerna Sudera,
• Stephan Weyand,
• Siegbert Johnsen,
• Gabriele Wiegand and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 906–914, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.92

• Julia Syurik Ruth Schwaiger Prerna Sudera Stephan Weyand Siegbert Johnsen Gabriele Wiegand Hendrik Holscher Institute for Microstructure Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany Institute for Applied Materials

• plastification effect of SC-CO2 Tg is greatly suppressed down to room temperature during the saturation process [20] allowing for pressure-induced foaming. The resulting microstructure of the foam depends on the local concentration of SC-CO2. The penetration of SC-CO2 into the polymer is a diffusive process and

• method was successfully used to characterize the influence of the microstructure of a new type of polyurethanes on their mechanical properties [26] and is, therefore, promising to characterize the graded porous materials. SEM images of the porous surface before and after nanoindentation are shown in

3D Nanoprinting via laser-assisted electron beam induced deposition: growth kinetics, enhanced purity, and electrical resistivity

• Brett B. Lewis,
• Robert Winkler,
• Xiahan Sang,
• Pushpa R. Pudasaini,
• Michael G. Stanford,
• Harald Plank,
• Raymond R. Unocic,
• Jason D. Fowlkes and
• Philip D. Rack

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 801–812, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.83

• conditions. For reference, bulk platinum has a resistivity on the order of 11 µΩ·cm. As shown in Figure 3a deposits grown using the MeCpPt(IV)Me3 precursor have a microstructure that consists of nanocrystalline platinum grains embedded in an amorphous carbon matrix which is consistent with many previous

• higher purity and the lower SE yield corresponds to microstructure more closely related to as-deposited morphology. The variation in composition is caused by changes in the temperature profile within the segment as segment length increases: thermal transport to the substrate is limited by the pseudo 1D

Vapor deposition routes to conformal polymer thin films

• Priya Moni,
• Ahmed Al-Obeidi and
• Karen K. Gleason

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 723–735, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.76

• polymers on nylon membranes to be used in membrane distillation [2]. Conformal film coverage of the membrane microstructure is essential to prevent the wetting of liquid water, a critical property for this application. As seen in Figure 7a and Figure 7b, the overall structure of a nylon membrane before and

• ) on a commercial sponge using iCVD [46]. Figure 9b shows the iCVD coating conformally covering the sponge’s microstructure. Previously, Lau et al. demonstrated conformal coverage of iCVD grown fluoropolymers on vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) forests to prevent capillary densification as seen

Silicon microgrooves for contact guidance of human aortic endothelial cells

• Sara Fernández-Castillejo,
• Pilar Formentín,
• Úrsula Catalán,
• Josep Pallarès,
• Lluís F. Marsal and
• Rosa Solà

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 675–681, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.72

• not observed and the cell spreading seems lower than after 2 days of incubation (data not shown). Taking all these data together, it seems safe to assure that the presence of microstructure affects cell morphology, irrespective of the patterned employed. Cell proliferation The effect of surface

• microstructure on the proliferation of HAECs was studied on day 2 and day 7. As shown in Figure 7, the number of cells cultured on flat substrates for 7 days increased by 65% compared to day 2, and this proliferation rate was statistically different to those observed in cells cultured on patterned substrates (p

Liquid permeation and chemical stability of anodic alumina membranes

• Dmitrii I. Petukhov,
• Dmitrii A. Buldakov,
• Alexey A. Tishkin,
• Alexey V. Lukashin and
• Andrei A. Eliseev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 561–570, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.60

• , resulting in a substantial decrease of the solvent flux through the membrane with time [15]. Therefore, in the present study, we focused on the chemical stability of the membrane and the stability of the membrane performance towards water and organic solvents, as well as analysis of the AAO microstructure

• carbon coating and Raman spectrum of the obtained carbon coating. Supporting Information File 28: Thermal analysis and membrane modification via CVD process. Acknowledgements The work is partially supported by the Russian Science Foundation Grant No. 17-13-01271 in part of membranes microstructure

Diffusion and surface alloying of gradient nanostructured metals

• Zhenbo Wang and
• Ke Lu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 547–560, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.59

• information on these aspects – particularly on the C-type diffusion regime as laid out in [8] – because of an insufficient number of interfaces in CG materials. A graded variation of interface types may accompany the graded distribution of grain sizes in a GNS layer. Such a microstructure provides a unique

• engineering metallic materials. GNSs have been generated on various metals by methods with controlled surface plastic deformation [9][10][11]. In this paper, recent progress in the diffusion studies in GNS metals will be clarified to understand diffusion fundamentals and relationships between microstructure

• -angle GBs (HAGBs), low-angle GBs (LAGBs) and dislocation walls with an increasing depth. These microstructures characteristics provided unique opportunities to study the relationship between the diffusion property and microstructure into the nanometer scale. The diffusion studies in these materials will

Copper atomic-scale transistors

• Fangqing Xie,
• Maryna N. Kavalenka,
• Moritz Röger,
• Daniel Albrecht,
• Hendrik Hölscher,
• Jürgen Leuthold and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 530–538, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.57

• Fangqing Xie Maryna N. Kavalenka Moritz Roger Daniel Albrecht Hendrik Holscher Jurgen Leuthold Thomas Schimmel Institute of Applied Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus South, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany Institute of Microstructure Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus

Impact of air exposure and annealing on the chemical and electronic properties of the surface of SnO₂ nanolayers deposited by rheotaxial growth and vacuum oxidation

• Monika Kwoka and
• Maciej Krzywiecki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 514–521, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.55

• abovementioned properties of the SnO2 thin films strongly depend on their deviation from stoichiometry, the amount of dopants/impurities and the microstructure of the films. All these properties can be affected by the deposition method, and by post-deposition processing. Lately, the mainstream of worldwide

Formation and shape-control of hierarchical cobalt nanostructures using quaternary ammonium salts in aqueous media

• Ruchi Deshmukh,
• Anurag Mehra and
• Rochish Thaokar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 494–505, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.53

• , in terms of shape, size and color has been observed over 15–20 days for the all samples with controlled exposure to ambient conditions. Magnetic characterization To investigate the effect of microstructure and shape on the magnetic properties, magnetization measurements of various cobalt hierarchical

• properties of the nanostructures depend on microstructure and shape. The method significantly advances the existing repository of nanoparticle synthesis by its easy handling parameters, synthesis in aqueous medium, and effective control of morphology. The study opens several roads for understanding the

The longstanding challenge of the nanocrystallization of 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX)

• Florent Pessina and
• Denis Spitzer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 452–466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.49

• microstructure of sheets, with micrometer-sized particles potentially formed by primary nanoparticles. The lack of desensitization in the loose powder may be explained by the sensitization by the sheet-like shape counteracted by the presence of the gel coating each nanoparticle. Li et al. [29] used a better

Biological and biomimetic materials and surfaces

• Stanislav Gorb and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 403–407, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.42

• study of tongue surfaces in nine frog species [17]. All examined species bear microscopical papillae, but different species have microstructure of different shape. The specific microstructure might presumably contribute to the particular adhesive performance of different frog species and may correlate