Free-radical gases on two-dimensional transition-metal disulfides (XS₂, X = Mo/W): robust half-metallicity for efficient nitrogen oxide sensors

• Chunmei Zhang,
• Yalong Jiao,
• Fengxian Ma,
• Sri Kasi Matta,
• Steven Bottle and
• Aijun Du

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1641–1646, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.156

• results also suggest XS2 (X = Mo, W) nanosheets can act as promising nanoscale NO sensors. Keywords: free radical; half-metallicity; nitric oxide (NO); sensors; spin-polarized; Introduction Nitrogen oxide (NOx) gases, one of the most common groups of air pollutants, are known as one culprit of acid rain

Sheet-on-belt branched TiO₂(B)/rGO powders with enhanced photocatalytic activity

• Huan Xing,
• Wei Wen and
• Jin-Ming Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1550–1557, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.146

• common but still draws much attention. Many types of TiO2(B) nanostructures have been synthesized, such as nanowires [9][10], nanotubes [11], nanobelts [12][13][14], nanofibers [15] and nanosheets [16]. TiO2(B) is mostly used in lithium-ion batteries due to its relatively open crystal structure, superior

• in Figure 3a). Figure 3b shows more clearly the radially growing nanosheets along the nanobelt trunk. The average length of the nanosheet branches is ≈100 nm. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern collected from several “sheet-on-belt” nanostructures indicates diffraction rings

• heterogeneously on metallic Ti foils, such titanates decomposed to anatase TiO2 upon calcination in air at 400 °C for 1 h [32][33]. In the current investigation, hydrogen titanate nanosheets are supposed to nucleate heterogeneously on the TiO2(B) trunks via surface deficiencies or exposed ledges when immersing

Cr(VI) remediation from aqueous environment through modified-TiO₂-mediated photocatalytic reduction

• Rashmi Acharya,
• Brundabana Naik and
• Kulamani Parida

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1448–1470, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.137

• facilitation by a RGO nanosheets, as shown in Figure 8. Shaikh et al. synthesized TiO2–RGO nanocomposites with uniformly dispersed 4–9 nm diameter TiO2 nanoparticles by a one-step solvothermal technique and evaluated its photocatalytic activity towards reduction of Cr(VI). The use of 1 wt % of RGO at acidic pH

• photoreduction of Cr(VI) under sunlight illumination [143]. Its enhanced photoreduction capacity over TiO2 nanosheets, P25 and CD–P25 was attributed to the better charge transfer as well as higher light absorption properties of CDs. The in situ formation of H2O2 promotes the photoactivity to a great extent

Electrodeposition of reduced graphene oxide with chitosan based on the coordination deposition method

• Mingyang Liu,
• Yanjun Chen,
• Chaoran Qin,
• Zheng Zhang,
• Shuai Ma,
• Xiuru Cai,
• Xueqian Li and
• Yifeng Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1200–1210, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.111

• et al. reported that after electrodeposition in the graphene oxide/chitosan solution, graphene nanosheets could be electrodeposited onto the glassy carbon electrode through the electrochemical reduction of graphene oxide [24]. However, it has been reported that the electrochemically reduced graphene

Electrostatic force spectroscopy revealing the degree of reduction of individual graphene oxide sheets

• Yue Shen,
• Ying Wang,
• Yuan Zhou,
• Chunxi Hai,
• Jun Hu and
• Yi Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1146–1155, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.106

• increment in the visible region as well as the disappearance of the broad shoulder at 300 nm for samples 1–5 compared to sample 0 imply the removal of the oxygen-containing groups and the restoration of the π-conjugation network within the graphene nanosheets [11][12]. Nevertheless, except for the

Room-temperature single-photon emitters in titanium dioxide optical defects

• Kelvin Chung,
• Yu H. Leung,
• Chap H. To,
• Aleksandra B. Djurišić and
• Snjezana Tomljenovic-Hanic

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1085–1094, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.100

• ]. The defects are responsible for visible photoluminescence (PL) in TiO2 and have been observed in thin films [39][40][41], nanocrystals/nanoparticles [42][43][44][45][46][47], nanorods [48], nanotubes [49][50][51], nanosheets [52], nanoribbons [53] and fibres [54]. In material sciences, the PL spectrum

Review on nanoparticles and nanostructured materials: history, sources, toxicity and regulations

• Jaison Jeevanandam,
• Ahmed Barhoum,
• Yen S. Chan,
• Alain Dufresne and
• Michael K. Danquah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1050–1074, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.98

Facile synthesis of a ZnO–BiOI p–n nano-heterojunction with excellent visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Mengyuan Zhang,
• Jiaqian Qin,
• Pengfei Yu,
• Bing Zhang,
• Mingzhen Ma,
• Xinyu Zhang and
• Riping Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 789–800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.72

• . [36] reported ZnO-embedded BiOI hybrid nanoflakes fabricated by using Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6 ultrathin nanosheets for BiOI deposition followed by calcination. The obtained ZnO-embedded BiOI hybrid nanoflakes show good photocatalytic activity and recyclability. Jiang et al. [37] prepared the BiOI/ZnO

Valley-selective directional emission from a transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayer mediated by a plasmonic nanoantenna

• Haitao Chen,
• Mingkai Liu,
• Lei Xu and
• Dragomir N. Neshev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 780–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.71

• believe that with the development of material fabrication techniques, nanostructures of TMDCs [49][50][51] could also be readily fabricated, so one can control the position and size of the TMDCs nanosheets with respect to the antenna. Thus, a system consisting of a double-bar antenna and a TMDC nanosheet

Perovskite-structured CaTiO₃ coupled with g-C₃N₄ as a heterojunction photocatalyst for organic pollutant degradation

• Ashish Kumar,
• Christian Schuerings,
• Suneel Kumar,
• Ajay Kumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 671–685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.62

• )–CaTiO3 (CTCN) organic–inorganic heterojunction photocatalyst was synthesized by a facile mixing method, resulting in the deposition of CaTiO3 (CT) nanoflakes onto the surface of g-C3N4 nanosheets. The photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized heterojunction (along with the controls) was evaluated by

• specific surface area [24]. In this regard, various attempts have been made by researchers to eliminate these issues in recent times. Several strategies such as synthesis of mesoporous g-C3N4 [25], synthesis of 2D nanosheets [26], coupling with conductive materials [23], heterostructure formation with

• polyacrylamide gel route. Furthermore, we made a promising 2D–2D heterojunction of CT nanoflakes and g-C3N4 nanosheets by a facile mixing method. The photocatalytic performance of the as-prepared CT–g-C3N4 (CTCN) heterojunction photocatalyst and the controls was evaluated by monitoring the degradation of

Sensing behavior of flower-shaped MoS₂ nanoflakes: case study with methanol and xylene

• Maryam Barzegar,
• Masoud Berahman and
• Azam Iraji zad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 608–615, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.57

• methods have been applied to synthesize single or few-layered MoS2, including but not limited to mechanical cleavage, chemical exfoliation, hydrothermal synthesis and chemical vapor deposition [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. The hydrothermal process is a scalable method to synthesize MoS2 nanosheets and

• electro-activity of MoS2 nanosheets. Furthermore, sulfur vacancies contribute significantly to the electronic properties of MoS2 [36][37]. Hence, such sulfur vacancy is desirable for the gas sensing properties of MoS2. To study the application of the flower-shaped MoS2 for gas sensing, the Brunauer–Emmett

• addition, we studied the sensing ability of the flower-shaped MoS2 nanosheets toward xylene. Figure 5a,b represents the gas sensing response toward 200–400 ppm of xylene vapor at the temperature range from 100 to 200 °C. When the temperature was increased, the sensitivity was enhanced from about 0.25 to

Anchoring Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in a reduced graphene oxide aerogel matrix via polydopamine coating

• Błażej Scheibe,
• Radosław Mrówczyński,
• Natalia Michalak,
• Karol Załęski,
• Michał Matczak,
• Mateusz Kempiński,
• Zuzanna Pietralik,
• Mikołaj Lewandowski,
• Stefan Jurga and
• Feliks Stobiecki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 591–601, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.55

• second method involves the addition of already prepared nanoparticles to GO water dispersion before hydrogel formation [22]. As introduced MNPs physically adsorb at GO defects or unsaturated edges and become trapped in between GO nanosheets. The main advantage of this approach is the homogeneity in size

Sugarcane juice derived carbon dot–graphitic carbon nitride composites for bisphenol A degradation under sunlight irradiation

• Lan Ching Sim,
• Jing Lin Wong,
• Chen Hong Hak,
• Jun Yan Tai,
• Kah Hon Leong and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 353–363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.35

•  1) show a TEM image of CD/g-C3N4(0.5) and g-C3N4, respectively. The observation of CDs (small dark spots) shows that the CDs were well distributed onto the smooth, thin-layered g-C3N4 nanosheets. The inset of Figure 1e indicates that the particle size of the CDs falls in the range of 3−6.5 nm. The

Synthesis and characterization of electrospun molybdenum dioxide–carbon nanofibers as sulfur matrix additives for rechargeable lithium–sulfur battery applications

• Ruiyuan Zhuang,
• Shanshan Yao,
• Maoxiang Jing,
• Xiangqian Shen,
• Jun Xiang,
• Tianbao Li,
• Kesong Xiao and
• Shibiao Qin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 262–270, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.28

• conductivity of Ti4O7 nanoparticles [16][17] and Co9S8 [18] nanosheets have been used in new concepts for sulfur matrices with both a polar nature and good conductivity. Therefore, the exploration of novel conductive composites is another direction leading to the practical application of Li–S batteries

BN/Ag hybrid nanomaterials with petal-like surfaces as catalysts and antibacterial agents

• Konstantin L. Firestein,
• Denis V. Leybo,
• Alexander E. Steinman,
• Andrey M. Kovalskii,
• Andrei T. Matveev,
• Anton M. Manakhov,
• Irina V. Sukhorukova,
• Pavel V. Slukin,
• Nadezda K. Fursova,
• Sergey G. Ignatov,
• Dmitri V. Golberg and
• Dmitry V. Shtansky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 250–261, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.27

• bactericidal properties of h-BN nanosheets can be significantly improved after the growth of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on their surfaces. In our previous work [16] we have produced BN/Ag HNMs by Ag ion implantation into the BN NPs with petal-like surfaces. However, this technique does not allow for the production

• solid particles consisting of numerous BN nanosheets, 30–50 nm in length and 10–25 nm in width, with a characteristic interplanar spacing of 0.33 nm (Figure 1c). The formation of Ag NPs on the BN NP surfaces during the syntheses did not lead to a significant modification of the initial BN NP structures

• to 35 nm, were also detected (Figure 1h). The HRTEM images of individual BN/Ag HNMs obtained via CVD and UV decomposition methods are illustrated in Figure 1f and 1i. The outer BN NP surface is formed by BN nanosheets consisting of several h-BN atomic layers and Ag NPs located between the petals

Material discrimination and mixture ratio estimation in nanocomposites via harmonic atomic force microscopy

• Weijie Zhang,
• Yuhang Chen,
• Xicheng Xia and
• Jiaru Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2771–2780, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.276

• ]. Nanocomposites are usually composed of a bulk matrix and some nanofillers. The fillers can be nanoparticles (NPs), nanotubes, nanorods, nanosheets and so on. The physical and chemical properties of nanocomposites will often differ from their component materials and show remarkable added functionalities [2]. The

Ab initio study of adsorption and diffusion of lithium on transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers

• Xiaoli Sun and
• Zhiguo Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2711–2718, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.270

• strategies have been developed to improve the electrochemical properties of MoS2 as an anode for LIBs. Three-dimensional hierarchical structures constructed by assembling two-dimensional MoS2 nanosheets can deliver a capacity of 1009 mAh/g at 500 mA/g after 500 cycles [20]. The formation of composites of

L-Lysine-grafted graphene oxide as an effective adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue and metal ions

• Yan Yan,
• Jie Li,
• Fangbei Kong,
• Kuankuan Jia,
• Shiyu He and
• Baorong Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2680–2688, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.268

• . Finally, the morphology of as-prepared graphene materials was characterized by SEM (Figure 3). GO exhibits a structure of the ultra-thin layers with little wrinkles in (Figure 3b). More wrinkled and folded nanosheets of Lys-GO can be clearly seen in Figure 3a. These results showed that the as-prepared Lys

Optical contrast and refractive index of natural van der Waals heterostructure nanosheets of franckeite

• Patricia Gant,
• Foad Ghasemi,
• David Maeso,
• Carmen Munuera,
• Elena López-Elvira,
• Riccardo Frisenda,
• David Pérez De Lara,
• Gabino Rubio-Bollinger,
• Mar Garcia-Hernandez and
• Andres Castellanos-Gomez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2357–2362, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.235

• -CSIC), E-28049, Madrid, Spain Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, E-28049, Madrid, Spain 10.3762/bjnano.8.235 Abstract We study mechanically exfoliated nanosheets of franckeite by quantitative optical microscopy. The analysis of transmission-mode and epi

• nanosheets by optical microscopy. Franckeite is one of the latest novel layered materials added to the 2D materials family and up to now very little is known about this material [15][16][17][18]. One of the special characteristics that triggered the interest of the community on franckeite is the fact that it

• adsorbates between the layers. Very recently Molina-Mendoza et al. demonstrated mechanical and liquid-phase exfoliation of franckeite down to 3–4 unit cells and they fabricated field-effect devices, near infrared photodetectors and PN junctions [15]. Also, Velický et al. isolated single unit cell nanosheets

Hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO quantum dot/KNb₃O₈ nanosheet photocatalysts for reducing carbon dioxide to methanol

• Xiao Shao,
• Weiyue Xin and
• Xiaohong Yin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2264–2270, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.226

• , East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China 10.3762/bjnano.8.226 Abstract ZnO quantum dots and KNb3O8 nanosheets were synthesized by a two-step hydrothermal method for the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol where isopropanol is simultaneously oxidized to acetone

• materials was evaluated by formation rate of methanol under UV light irradiation at ambient temperature and pressure. The methanol formation rate of pure KNb3O8 nanosheets was found to be 1257.21 μmol/g/h, and after deposition of 2 wt % ZnO quantum dots on the surface of KNb3O8 nanosheets, the methanol

• production rate was found to increase to 1539.77 μmol/g/h. Thus, the ZnO quantum dots obviously prompted separation of charge carriers, which was explained by a proposed mechanism for this photocatalytic reaction. Keywords: CO2 reduction; KNb3O8 nanosheets; methanol production; photocatalysis; ZnO quantum

Evaluating the toxicity of TiO₂-based nanoparticles to Chinese hamster ovary cells and Escherichia coli: a complementary experimental and computational approach

• Alicja Mikolajczyk,
• Natalia Sizochenko,
• Ewa Mulkiewicz,
• Anna Malankowska,
• Michal Nischk,
• Przemyslaw Jurczak,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Grzegorz Nowaczyk,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska,
• Jerzy Leszczynski,
• Agnieszka Gajewicz and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2171–2180, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.216

• (Fe/N-co-doped) TiO2 nanocomposite particles were detectably cytotoxic [22]. More complex nanostructures of TiO2 bilayer nanosheets doped with bismuth tungstate (Bi2WO6) nanoclusters demonstrated enhanced antimicrobial activity towards E. coli: the bacteria population continuously decreased with the

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• to produce artificial nacre is usually based on a self-assembly process involving clay nanosheets (nanoclays) and polymers. In general, the dispersed polymer-coated nanoclays naturally organize by liquid removal, leading to an organic-inorganic multi-layered assembly, the so-called brick-and-mortar

Freestanding graphene/MnO₂ cathodes for Li-ion batteries

• Şeyma Özcan,
• Aslıhan Güler,
• Tugrul Cetinkaya,
• Mehmet O. Guler and
• Hatem Akbulut

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1932–1938, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.193

• microwave hydrothermal synthesis, and graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were prepared by oxidation of graphite using a modified Hummers’ method. Freestanding graphene/MnO2 cathodes were manufactured through a vacuum filtration process. The structure of the graphene/MnO2 nanocomposites was characterized using X

• nanorods were homogenously dispersed not only at the surface, but also in the interlayer space of grapheme layers. Moreover, urchin-like γ-MnO2 microspheres were found wrapped by graphene nanosheets. The electrochemical cycling results demonstrated that the graphene/α-MnO2 cathode showed the best

Enhancement of mechanical and electrical properties of continuous-fiber-reinforced epoxy composites with stacked graphene

• Naum Naveh,
• Olga Shepelev and
• Samuel Kenig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1909–1918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.191

• of about 80–100 times by a thermal shock at 600 °C [8]. Sonication in an acetone bath allowed for further exfoliation and separation of the loosely connected graphite nanosheets. Further size reduction of these large (several micrometers long) structures produces fine particles consisting of a few

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

• Devices Laboratory, Lindfield NSW 2070, Australia 10.3762/bjnano.8.166 Abstract Applications of plasma-produced vertically oriented graphene nanosheets (VGNs) rely on their unique structure and morphology, which can be tuned by the process parameters to understand the growth mechanism. Here, we report on

• , catalysis and energy storage. Keywords: activation energy; plasmas; residual stress; vertical graphene nanosheets; wettability; Introduction Vertical graphene nanosheets (VGNs) consist of interconnected 3D porous networks of vertically oriented graphitic sheets, which are aligned perpendicularly to the

• substrates, containing 3–12 graphene layers [1]. The dimensions of the nanosheets are typically up to a few micrometers. The interconnected vertical 3D network is anchored onto a nanometer-thick graphitic base layer grown on the VGNs–substrate interface. Their unique properties such as large surface area