Dynamic behavior of nematic liquid crystal mixtures with quantum dots in electric fields

• Emil Petrescu,
• Cristina Cirtoaje and
• Octavian Danila

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 399–406, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.39

• well as science and engineering, requires improved technologies and new materials. Materials science provides great opportunities to these technologies by synthesizing new nanoparticles that can be mixed with liquid crystals: carbon nanotubes [1][2][3], graphene, magnetic nanoparticles [4][5], gold

Nanoparticle delivery to metastatic breast cancer cells by nanoengineered mesenchymal stem cells

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

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 321–332, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.32

• transfer occurred in a trans-well 2D system lacking cell contact [25]. The direct intercellular transfer of mortalin–QD655 between MSCs and breast cancer cells occurred through the formation of nanotubes or cell–cell fusion [26][27][28]. Similarly, it has been previously reported that QDs are actively

• transported between cardiac myocytes using membrane nanotubes [29]. In our study, we demonstrate that MSCs efficiently uptake QDs in serum-free conditions and then excrete the QDs, which then accumulate in MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 breast cancer cell lines in the 3D co-culture (Figure 3C,D). Noteworthy is that the

Review: Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based nanoelectromechanical switches – materials solutions and operational conditions

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Jelena Kosmaca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Jana Andzane and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 271–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.29

• nanostructures (e.g., thin films [5][6][7], nanobundles [8], nanowires [9][10][11][12][13][14], nanotubes [15][16]) fabricated from different materials (e.g., metals [17][18][19], semiconductors [9][10][20][21][22][23], carbon allotropes, including graphene [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and carbon nanotubes

• nanostructures (nanowires, nanotubes, nanorods, graphene) with a good uniformity and desired properties. The microfabrication routine may be supplemented with some bottom-up approaches. Dielectrophoresis [33], controlled nanomaterial growth [34], and nanomanipulation [9] have been demonstrated as useful methods

• change of the chemical composition of the contacting materials. Electrical-current-induced thermal effects have been studied in various one-dimensional nanostructures such as Si [92], Ge [10][54], carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [93][94][95], GaN [96][97] and ZnTe [98]. The evolution of a nanocontact between a

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

• ], multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) [4] and hollow carbon microspheres [5]) and electrically conductive polymeric materials (e.g., polyaniline [6], polypyrrole [7] and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) [8]) have been considerably used to encapsulate sulfur or polysulfide. Recently, polar metal oxide/sulfide

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

• only improve the colloidal stability of Ag NPs but also improve their antibacterial characteristics. A wide range of materials, such as graphene oxide [30][31], carbon nanotubes [32], SiO2 [33], Fe3O4 [34], ZnO [35], CuO [36], TiO2 [37] and others, have been tested as the supports for Ag NPs. Compared

Dynamic behavior of a nematic liquid crystal with added carbon nanotubes in an electric field

• Emil Petrescu and
• Cristina Cirtoaje

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 233–241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.25

• Emil Petrescu Cristina Cirtoaje University Politehnica of Bucharest, Department of Physics, Splaiul Independenţei 313, 060042, Bucharest, Romania 10.3762/bjnano.9.25 Abstract The dynamic behavior of a nematic liquid crystal with added carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in an electric field was analyzed. A

• theoretical model based on elastic continuum theory was developed and the relaxation times of nematic liquid crystals with CNTs were evaluated. Experiments made with single-walled carbon nanotubes dispersed in nematic 4-cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) indicated a significant difference of the relaxation time

• : Fréedericksz transition, nanotubes; Introduction The increased interest for nanomaterials in different domains such as chemistry, medicine or engineering, makes their characterization quite necessary. This might be the reason why there are so many research papers presenting new materials and new experiments

Liquid-crystalline nanoarchitectures for tissue engineering

• Baeckkyoung Sung and
• Min-Ho Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 205–215, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.22

• electronics during the last decades. Technological breakthroughs can be achieved by introducing stimuli-responsivity or intelligence into the conventional LC biomaterials [114]. Hybridization with functional nanomaterials (e.g., stimuli-sensitive polymers, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and graphene

Dielectric properties of a bisimidazolium salt with dodecyl sulfate anion doped with carbon nanotubes

• Doina Manaila Maximean,
• Viorel Cîrcu and
• Constantin Paul Ganea

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 164–174, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.19

• nanotubes (CNT) were recorded over a wide frequency and temperature range of 10−1 to 107 Hz and 293–338 K, respectively. The values of the activation energy were found in the range of 0.46–0.61 eV; the characteristic time was obtained by fitting the spectra of the dielectric loss with the Havriliak–Negami

• low frequencies confirm the presence of EP. Keywords: activation energy; carbon nanotubes; dielectric spectroscopy; ionic liquid crystal; relaxation time; Introduction Ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) represent a very appealing class of materials that has found various recent applications in dye

• melting and clearing points. Hence, there is the interest to design such materials for further electro-optical applications [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanoparticles were also dispersed in LCs [33][34][35][36]. It is well-known that the order of the LCs can be

Dopant-stimulated growth of GaN nanotube-like nanostructures on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy

• Alexey D. Bolshakov,
• Alexey M. Mozharov,
• Georgiy A. Sapunov,
• Igor V. Shtrom,
• Nickolay V. Sibirev,
• Vladimir V. Fedorov,
• Evgeniy V. Ubyivovk,
• Maria Tchernycheva,
• George E. Cirlin and
• Ivan S. Mukhin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 146–154, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.17

• concentration in the nanostructures exceeds 5∙1019 cm−3. Keywords: A3B5 on Si; epitaxy; GaN; MBE; nanowires; nanotubes; nanotube-like nanostructures; Si; Introduction Gallium nitride quasi-one-dimensional nanostructures such as nanowires (NWs) and nanotubes (NTs) synthesized by means of plasma-assisted

• synthesized nanotubes. The scale bar is 100 nm. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the synthesized GaN nanostructures. a) Nanotube growth schematics and b) model nanotube cross-section. Parameters of the samples analyzed with photoluminescence. The 2D doping level is the doping level for planar GaAs grown with

Atomic layer deposition and properties of ZrO₂/Fe₂O₃ thin films

• Kristjan Kalam,
• Helina Seemen,
• Peeter Ritslaid,
• Mihkel Rähn,
• Aile Tamm,
• Kaupo Kukli,
• Aarne Kasikov,
• Joosep Link,
• Raivo Stern,
• Salvador Dueñas,
• Helena Castán and
• Héctor García

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 119–128, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.14

• ][16] has been studied as well. Phase stabilization of ZrO2 by Fe doping was investigated by using ALD [17]. Ferromagnetism in ALD-grown Fe3O4/ZrO2/Fe3O4 multilayer nanotubes has been demonstrated [18], while the precursors for distinct solid oxide layers constituting these samples were ferrocene/ozone

Advances in nanocarbon composite materials

• Sharali Malik,
• Arkady V. Krasheninnikov and
• Silvia Marchesan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 20–21, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.3

• energy, and generally, to improve the quality of our lives. Since the discovery of fullerenes over thirty years ago, there has been increasing research in the area of nanocarbon materials. Research in this field was boosted first by the discovery of carbon nanotubes and then by the advent of graphene and

• , Moldova, Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. This Thematic Series highlights virtually all subfields of advanced nanocarbon materials research, from the longer established fields of carbon nanofibers, graphene oxide (GO) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in composite materials, to the

A robust AFM-based method for locally measuring the elasticity of samples

• Alexandre Bubendorf,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.1

• ]. In physics, the band gap size of nanocrystals and the presence of planar defects on nanotubes are a function of the Young’s modulus [2][3]. Probing local elasticity requires an instrumentation capable of operating with high resolution and under different conditions, such as variable temperature

Magnetic field induced orientational transitions in liquid crystals doped with carbon nanotubes

• Danil A. Petrov,
• Pavel K. Skokov and
• Alexander N. Zakhlevnykh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2807–2817, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.280

• suspension of carbon nanotubes in a nematic liquid crystal. It is shown that in a magnetic field a non-uniform and two different uniform phases are possible in the suspension. The uniform phases of the suspension differ by the type of orientational coupling of nanotubes with the liquid crystal matrix (the

• planar type when the nanotubes are oriented along the matrix director, and the homeotropic type when the nanotubes are perpendicular to the director). The possibility of a redistribution of the nanotube concentration (segregation effect) is shown. The fields of orientational transitions between uniform

• and non-uniform phases of the suspension are found analytically. It is shown that, when the nanotubes are weakly coupled to the matrix, the magnetic field induces reentrant transitions (uniform planar phase–non-uniform phase–uniform homeotropic phase–non-uniform phase). These transitions can be of

Thermo- and electro-optical properties of photonic liquid crystal fibers doped with gold nanoparticles

• Agata Siarkowska,
• Miłosz Chychłowski,
• Daniel Budaszewski,
• Bartłomiej Jankiewicz,
• Bartosz Bartosewicz and
• Tomasz R. Woliński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2790–2801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.278

• still could be (and for some applications need to be) improved. To accomplish this, LCs are being either stabilized by polymers [3] or doped with special materials such as nanotubes [4] and quantum dots [5]. Over the last few years nanoparticles (NPs) have been used to improve the electro-optics

• this effect with an increase of electric field intensity. This could not be attributed to ionization of the LC (due to the use of an AC field) since Au NPs are considered as ion-capturing nanomaterials (along with carbon nanotubes, isolating and ferroelectric NPs [35]). In addition, the effect alone

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

The rational design of a Au(I) precursor for focused electron beam induced deposition

• Ali Marashdeh,
• Thiadrik Tiesma,
• Niels J. C. van Velzen,
• Sjoerd Harder,
• Remco W. A. Havenith,
• Jeff T. M. De Hosson and
• Willem F. van Dorp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2753–2765, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.274

• . High-purity Au deposits are of interest for many applications, such as the directed self-assembly of functional organic molecules [45], seeds for the growth of nanorods or nanotubes [46] and for plasmonics [47]. Two Au(I) compounds have been used for the deposition of pure gold. Utke et al

CdSe nanorod/TiO₂ nanoparticle heterojunctions with enhanced solar- and visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Fakher Laatar,
• Hatem Moussa,
• Halima Alem,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Ghouti Medjahdi,
• Hatem Ezzaouia and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2741–2752, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.273

• photodegradation. Finally, although the operating conditions and the structure of the pollutant were different from those used in this study, the CdSe NR/TiO2 nanoparticle photocatalyst favorably compares with catalysts engineered from CdSe quantum dots and TiO2 nanoparticles or nanotubes [9][11][12][22][26][31

Dry adhesives from carbon nanofibers grown in an open ethanol flame

• Christian Lutz,
• Julia Syurik,
• C. N. Shyam Kumar,
• Christian Kübel,
• Michael Bruns and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2719–2728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.271

• force microscopy; carbon nanofibers; Introduction One-dimensional carbon nanostructures (1D-CNs), such as carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) consisting of cylindrical graphitic sheets, are very promising materials for nanotechnology [1]. They are well known for their outstanding

• open flame, which serves as the carbon source and provides the necessary temperature. Li and Hsieh demonstrated the growth of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MW-CNTs) from the flame of a paraffin wax candle [7] and a Bunsen burner [8]. Pan and co-workers grew CNTs and CNFs with an ethanol flame [5] and

• demonstrated possible alignment during growth with an external electric [6] or magnetic field [9]. Surprisingly, these alternative growth methods for 1D-CNs did not receive much attention so far. One among many promising applications of carbon nanotubes are dense arrays that feature interesting adhesion

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

• excellent cycling stability and superior rate performance. The composites exhibited a high discharge capacity of 1546 mAh/g after 300 cycles. The MoS2 composites grown on TiO2 nanotubes show better rate capability with a reversible capacity of 461 mAh/g at 1000 mA/g, compared with the capacity of pure MoS2

One-step chemical vapor deposition synthesis and supercapacitor performance of nitrogen-doped porous carbon–carbon nanotube hybrids

• Egor V. Lobiak,
• Lyubov G. Bulusheva,
• Ekaterina O. Fedorovskaya,
• Yury V. Shubin,
• Pavel E. Plyusnin,
• Pierre Lonchambon,
• Boris V. Senkovskiy,
• Zinfer R. Ismagilov,
• Emmanuel Flahaut and
• Alexander V. Okotrub

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2669–2679, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.267

• , 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia, Institute of Coal Chemistry and Materials Science FRC CCC SB RAS, Kemerovo 650000, Russia 10.3762/bjnano.8.267 Abstract Novel nitrogen-doped carbon hybrid materials consisting of multiwalled nanotubes and porous graphitic layers have been produced by chemical vapor deposition

• over magnesium-oxide-supported metal catalysts. CNx nanotubes were grown on Co/Mo, Ni/Mo, or Fe/Mo alloy nanoparticles, and MgO grains served as a template for the porous carbon. The simultaneous formation of morphologically different carbon structures was due to the slow activation of catalysts for

• reduces the resistance at the carbon surface/electrolyte interface and the nanotubes permeating the porous carbon provide fast charge transport in the cell. Keywords: bimetallic catalyst; electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; N-doped carbon; porous carbon–carbon nanotube hybrid; supercapacitor

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

• morphology, for example, as individual nanotubes or as CNT forests. Electron beam induced deposition (EBID) with subsequent autocatalytic growth (AG) was applied to lithographically produce catalytically active seeds for the localized growth of CNTs via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). With the precursor Fe

• though the metal content (Co) of the latter is reduced in comparison to the Fe deposits, effective CNT growth was observed for the Co-containing deposits at lower CVD temperatures than for the corresponding Fe deposits. Keywords: autocatalytic growth; carbon nanotubes; cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl

Ferrocholesteric–ferronematic transitions induced by shear flow and magnetic field

• Dmitriy V. Makarov,
• Alexander A. Novikov and
• Alexander N. Zakhlevnykh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2552–2561, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.255

• ; helix unwinding; liquid crystals; magnetic field; shear flow; Introduction The dispersing of nanoparticles of different nature (e.g., carbon nanotubes, ferromagnetic or ferroelectric particles, quantum dots, silica particles) into liquid crystals (LCs) leads to a change in the properties of the

Dynamic behavior of a nematic liquid crystal mixed with CoFe₂O₄ ferromagnetic nanoparticles in a magnetic field

• Emil Petrescu,
• Cristina Cirtoaje and
• Cristina Stan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2467–2473, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.246

• , carbon nanotubes and quantum dots [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], yielding modified optical properties [23][24][25]. The main advantages of nanoparticles are given by their small dimensions and unique physical properties that strongly affect the local nematic order [26]. This leads to significant

Fabrication of CeO₂–MO_x (M = Cu, Co, Ni) composite yolk–shell nanospheres with enhanced catalytic properties for CO oxidation

• Ling Liu,
• Jingjing Shi,
• Hongxia Cao,
• Ruiyu Wang and
• Ziwu Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2425–2437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.241

• interfacial oxidation–reduction under mild conditions. For example, Mn3O4/CeO2 hybrid nanotubes were created by a template-based process involving a redox reaction between the cryptomelane-type manganese oxide nanowire template and Ce(NO3)3 [20]. Ce–Mn nanotubes were also fabricated by treating Ce(OH)CO3

Increasing the stability of DNA nanostructure templates by atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃ and its application in imprinting lithography

• Hyojeong Kim,
• Kristin Arbutina,
• Anqin Xu and
• Haitao Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2363–2375, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.236

• conformal coating with a nanometer-thin protective inorganic oxide layer created using atomic layer deposition (ALD). DNA nanotubes and origami triangles were coated with ca. 2 nm to ca. 20 nm of Al2O3. Nanoscale features of the DNA nanostructures were preserved after the ALD coating and the patterns are

• range of materials, such as proteins [16][17][18][19], carbon nanotubes [20][21][22][23] and metal nanoparticles through the direct assembly of these materials onto the DNA nanostructures [16][18][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The metallized DNA nanostructures have been used to pattern graphene [30]. DNA

• nanostructures have also been used as masks. The patterns of 1D DNA nanotubes and 2D DNA arrays were replicated to metal films by metal evaporation onto the DNA nanostructures and subsequent lift-off of the metal films [31]. Aligned DNA molecular bundles became shadow masks for angled metal vapor deposition and