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

• displays [3]. A device fabrication process demands an effective control of size, shape and density of Si NCs. All those requirements can be met via the superlattice approach in combination [4] with the phase-separation of sub-stoichiometric oxides (SiOx) where the NC spacing in all three dimensions can be

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

• prove advantageous, especially if more reactive metals are considered. For example, titanium is known to form strong TiC bonds when sputtered in organic plasma [74]. Carbidization of titanium atoms may hinder metal–polymer phase separation and it may even change the properties of titanium inclusions

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

• , condensable species into the gas feed mixture ensures phase separation simultaneously with the polymerization and crosslinking reactions. The porogen is removed in a post-deposition process using vacuum or solvent treatment. Gupta and co-workers demonstrated that in the iCVD process the monomer itself can act

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

• -sized fine particles. The black and grey particles are dispersed randomly and densely in the amorphous matrix. The high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) results were used to observe phase separation in the studied glass after heat treatment. The image collected in HAADF mode allows randomly distributed

• al. [34] used the HAADF technique to indicate a local compositional fluctuation caused by nanoscale phase separation in Zr–Cu–Ni–Al–Ti bulk metallic glasses. They achieved bright contrast regions with size above 2 nm. The authors also stated that the identified contrasts are in good agreement with

• high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) observation was used to observe phase separation. The HAADF mode allowed randomly distributed, dark contrasts regions with size from 4 to 6 nm to be observed. The value of the first coordination shell radius was found to be similar to the interplanar spacings

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

• -CO2 to form a homogeneous solution; (ii) pore nucleation and phase separation induced by a thermodynamic instability, which is usually caused by a temperature increase or a pressure decrease, and (iii) pore growth due to diffusion of SC-CO2 from the polymer matrix to the pores [20]. When the polymer

Analysis and modification of defective surface aggregates on PCDTBT:PCBM solar cell blends using combined Kelvin probe, conductive and bimodal atomic force microscopy

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

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 579–589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.62

• the majority of modern PSCs consist of nanoscale bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structures [7], changes in the internal structures, such as local crystallization of polymers or phase separation of donor and acceptor mixtures, greatly affect the device performance [8][9]. Extensive research has been

In situ formation of reduced graphene oxide structures in ceria by combined sol–gel and solvothermal processing

• Jingxia Yang,
• Johannes Ofner,
• Bernhard Lendl and
• Ulrich Schubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1815–1821, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.174

• 0.05 and 0.02 g, the Raman mapping showed no obvious phase separation, indicating that rGO and CeO2 were homogeneously dispersed. However, when the GO proportion was 0.2 g, phase separation (agglomeration of rGO) was observed by partial disappearance of the CeO2 signal and the enhancement of the rGO

Nano- and microstructured materials for in vitro studies of the physiology of vascular cells

• Alexandra M. Greiner,
• Adria Sales,
• Hao Chen,
• Sarah A. Biela,
• Dieter Kaufmann and
• Ralf Kemkemer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1620–1641, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.155

• order to give an overview of different microfabrication techniques, relevant examples for different approaches such as optical (photolithography [49]), mechanical (hot embossing [50] and surface cracking [51][52]) or chemical (replica molding [53][54], phase separation micromolding [55][56][57], gas

• nanostructures of few tens of nanometers, for example (Figure 4B) [53] After further modifications, the elastomer substrate can be used for cell experiments. Phase separation micromolding is an alternative, less common microfabrication technique for structured substrates. This technique consists of separating a

Reconstitution of the membrane protein OmpF into biomimetic block copolymer–phospholipid hybrid membranes

• Matthias Bieligmeyer,
• Franjo Artukovic,
• Stephan Nussberger,
• Thomas Hirth,
• Thomas Schiestel and
• Michaela Müller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 881–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.80

• giant vesicles (Figure 2A). Nile red was used as a general hydrophobic dye to visualize the membranes; TopFluorPC was used to assess possible phase separation between lipids and polymers. The molecular weight of PIPEO appeared to have no observable effect on the formation of vesicles despite the

• hydrophobic mismatch between lipid and polymer. This finding indicated that the selected PIPEO and DPhPC were highly miscible. The absence of phase separation towards micrometer-scale lipid- and polymer-rich domains was in line with other lipopolymer mixtures at a similar lipid-to-polymer ratio [39][42][45

• ] and similar membrane curvature [39][40][41][43][44][45][54][55]. Lipopolymer vesicles formed from mixtures containing more than 50 mol % DPhPC, however, revealed a heterogeneous distribution of TopFluorPC and a clear phase separation between polymer and lipid (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S2

Correlative infrared nanospectroscopic and nanomechanical imaging of block copolymer microdomains

• Benjamin Pollard and
• Markus B. Raschke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 605–612, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.53

• Benjamin Pollard Markus B. Raschke Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry, and JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA 10.3762/bjnano.7.53 Abstract Intermolecular interactions and nanoscale phase separation govern the properties of many molecular soft-matter systems

Nanoscale rippling on polymer surfaces induced by AFM manipulation

• Mario D’Acunto,
• Franco Dinelli and
• Pasqualantonio Pingue

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2278–2289, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.234

• -b-PEO, the melting enthalpy of PEO, and the Helmholtz free energy for unfolding (and melting) of PEO. Composite films: Another class of samples showing a peculiar pattern formation are polymer blends. They can be miscible or immiscible, presenting clear phase separation or a similar morphology to

• studies carried out on heteropolymer films can be also found in the literature. Buenviaje et al. have studied blends made of two immiscible components with different Tg values [49]. In samples exhibiting phase separation, regions corresponding to different materials would present nanoripples with

A single-source precursor route to anisotropic halogen-doped zinc oxide particles as a promising candidate for new transparent conducting oxide materials

• Daniela Lehr,
• Markus R. Wagner,
• Johanna Flock,
• Julian S. Reparaz,
• Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres,
• Alexander Klaiber,
• Thomas Dekorsy and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2161–2172, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.222

• steadily increasing price, it is highly desired to identify materials alternatives containing highly abundant chemical elements. The doping of other metal oxides (e.g., zinc oxide, ZnO) is a promising approach, but two problems can be identified. Phase separation might occur at the required high

• is still very high, a potential phase separation into ZnO and ZnCl2 could be a problem. Therefore, the material prepared at T = 350 °C was investigated using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis shown in Figure 3a. As a reference pure ZnO materials were prepared under analogous conditions, but

In situ SU-8 silver nanocomposites

• Søren V. Fischer,
• Basil Uthuppu and
• Mogens H. Jakobsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1661–1665, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.168

• ]. Furthermore, it is difficult to obtain stable suspensions of preformed NPs in SU-8 without aggregation and phase separation. In situ synthesis methods where the particles are formed directly within the polymeric matrix from a precursor can circumvent this problem. Here, we report a fast and simple method for

Nano-contact microscopy of supracrystals

• Adam Sweetman,
• Nicolas Goubet,
• Ioannis Lekkas,
• Marie Paule Pileni and
• Philip Moriarty

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1229–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.126

• and sample structure. Nonetheless, our results clearly show that there is significant potential for qPlus DFM imaging to provide high resolution images of the surfaces of nanoparticles and, for example, to lay to rest the controversy regarding molecular self-assembly and phase separation in the ligand

Polymer blend lithography for metal films: large-area patterning with over 1 billion holes/inch²

• Cheng Huang,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1205–1211, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.123

• , Germany 10.3762/bjnano.6.123 Abstract Polymer blend lithography (PBL) is a spin-coating-based technique that makes use of the purely lateral phase separation between two immiscible polymers to fabricate large area nanoscale patterns. In our earlier work (Huang et al. 2012), PBL was demonstrated for the

• plasmonic resonance; metal islands; metal nanostructures; metal polymer blend lithography (metal PBL); nano-patterned template; nanoscale discs; optical transmission; perforated metal film; polymer phase separation; poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA); polystyrene (PS); self-assembly; spin-coating; surface

• polystyrene (PS)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blend film from a blend solution ends with a purely lateral phase separation between the two immiscible polymers under controlled spin-coating parameters (see Figure 1a). As reported in our earlier publication, the ambient atmosphere (humidity), the molar mass

Electronic interaction in composites of a conjugated polymer and carbon nanotubes: first-principles calculation and photophysical approaches

• Florian Massuyeau,
• Jany Wéry,
• Jean-Luc Duvail,
• Serge Lefrant,
• Abu Yaya,
• Chris Ewels and
• Eric Faulques

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1138–1144, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.115

• photoexcitation. The efficiency of this approach is strongly dependent on the internal junctions between the polymer and the electron acceptor or donor. However, many fundamental questions remain regarding the underlying energy transfer processes involved. Phase separation within domains should not in principle

Observing the morphology of single-layered embedded silicon nanocrystals by using temperature-stable TEM membranes

• Sebastian Gutsch,
• Daniel Hiller,
• Jan Laube,
• Margit Zacharias and
• Christian Kübel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 964–970, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.99

• these membranes that also withstand the high temperature annealing that is needed to induce phase separation and crystallization of the Si NC layers. In contrast to the above mentioned ion implantation, deposition processes allow for sharp interfaces between two confining silicon oxide (SiO2) layers

• is expected, which is limited by the possibility of atomic rearrangement. Since the phase separation is completed within a few seconds due to diffusion of oxygen [43], the nanoparticle growth and shaping can only be achieved through the diffusion of Si within SiO2, which is extremely low at the used

Intake of silica nanoparticles by giant lipid vesicles: influence of particle size and thermodynamic membrane state

• Florian G. Strobl,
• Florian Seitz,
• Christoph Westerhausen,
• Armin Reller,
• Adriano A. Torrano,
• Christoph Bräuchle,
• Achim Wixforth and
• Matthias F. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2468–2478, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.256

• that phase separation and phase transitions play an important role in the function of cell membranes in general [31] and for membrane traffic in particular [32]. These effects are usually discussed in terms of the role of phase separations for cell signaling and protein recruiting. However, lipid

• -induced phase separation in the mixed lipid membranes used. As shown earlier, phase separation can trigger budding and fission processes [43][44]. Finally, one should be aware of the fact that very small particles tend to cluster before an uptake into vesicles [27][28]. Thus, the effective radius being

• particle uptake. We assume the distinct mechanical and thermodynamic properties of lipid bilayers to play a major role here. Further studies should investigate the influence of local particle-induced phase separation on this process, which earlier findings indicate [30][35][44]. This is particulary

Inorganic Janus particles for biomedical applications

• Isabel Schick,
• Steffen Lorenz,
• Dominik Gehrig,
• Stefan Tenzer,
• Wiebke Storck,
• Karl Fischer,
• Dennis Strand,
• Frédéric Laquai and
• Wolfgang Tremel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2346–2362, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.244

• no need to pay attention to achieve phase-separation when synthesizing Au@Fe3O4 heterodimers, but the morphology control remains a challenge. Wei and co-workers demonstrated the formation of dumbbell to flowerlike Au@Fe3O4 heterodimer nanoparticles by increasing the ratio of multiply twinned Au seeds

Electrostatic interplay: The interaction triangle of polyamines, silicic acid, and phosphate studied through turbidity measurements, silicomolybdic acid test, and ²⁹Si NMR spectroscopy

• Anne Jantschke,
• Katrin Spinde and
• Eike Brunner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2026–2035, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.211

• processes give rise to the formation of a microemulsion finally leading to macroscopic phase separation. It was concluded that the phosphate-driven self-assembly processes are accelerating the silica-precipitation processes. However, the self-assembly processes going on in LCPA/silicic acid/phosphate

An insight into the mechanism of charge-transfer of hybrid polymer:ternary/quaternary chalcopyrite colloidal nanocrystals

• Parul Chawla,
• Son Singh and
• Shailesh Narain Sharma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1235–1244, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.137

• displays similar structure and optical properties to CISe. In order to achieve an efficient hybrid solar cell performance, it is imperative to control the morphology of both organic and inorganic components without any phase separation at macroscopic scale. The implementation of such a control of the

• heterojunctions. The primary requirement in inorganic/organic hybrid solar cells is to blend a high concentration of inorganic nanoparticles into the polymer matrix to form a percolated network where a phase separation on the macroscopic scale should be avoided. When a photon is absorbed by the donor, i.e., the

Nanoscale particles in technological processes of beneficiation

• Sergey I. Popel,
• Vitaly V. Adushkin and
• Anatoly P. Golub'

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 458–465, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.53

• opens up, the pressure decreases, resulting in phase separation of the fluid, which stratifies into an essentially liquid phase and a gas phase existing in the form of gas bubbles. When the fluid goes into the narrowing of the canal cavity, the pressure is reestablished and the bubbles collapse. The

Optimization of solution-processed oligothiophene:fullerene based organic solar cells by using solvent additives

• Gisela L. Schulz,
• Marta Urdanpilleta,
• Roland Fitzner,
• Eduard Brier,
• Elena Mena-Osteritz,
• Egon Reinold and
• Peter Bäuerle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 680–689, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.77

• image shown in Figure 6a displays a relatively fine phase separation with domain sizes between 10–30 nm and a topography roughness averaged to be 0.4 ± 0.1 nm. Additionally, the film shown in Figure 6b, which was made with CN as solvent additive, displays similar domain sizes (10–30 nm) with a slightly

•  6c shows large domains of PC71BM up to 100 nm in size (darker regions) and a topography roughness averaged to be 0.4 ± 0.1 nm. Thus, implementation of PC71BM led to large phase separation and consequently limited charge generation resulting in a reduction in short-circuit current densities (6.5 vs

• 5.7 mA/cm2) and PCEs (3.0 vs 2.5%) in the solar cell device. The non-ideal phase separation of DCV5T-Bu4 and PC71BM spin-coated from ODCB can also be rationalized by using the relative maximum solublities of the donor and acceptor in the casting solvent. The oligothiophene donor displays a maximum

Large-scale atomistic and quantum-mechanical simulations of a Nafion membrane: Morphology, proton solvation and charge transport

• Pavel V. Komarov,
• Pavel G. Khalatur and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 567–587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.65

• which local density fields are employed as collective variables for simulating the structural evolution of phase-separation morphologies [11][48][49][50][51][52][53]. Several different quantum mechanics approaches have been used in attempts to understand electronic structure and proton conduction in

Nanoglasses: a new kind of noncrystalline materials

• Herbert Gleiter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 517–533, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.61

• nanoglass catalyst. This conclusion was suggested by the results of leaching measurements. Multiphase nanoglasses Production of multiphase nanoglasses So far multiphase nanoglasses have been produced by inert-gas condensation (IGC) [6] and by phase separation on a nanometer scale [76][77]. The first

• that are immiscible in the crystalline state. Multiphase glasses structured on a nanometer scale have been produced by phase separation and have been studied in several alloy systems, e.g., in Ag–Ni [79][80], Cu–Nb [81], Ag–Cu [82][83][84], Ag–Fe [56], Ag–Gd [57], Cu–Ta and Cu–W [58]. The

• nanostructured glasses produced by phase separation differ from the ones prepared by the IGC method primarily by the structure of the interfaces between adjacent regions of different chemical compositions and by the limitations in selecting the chemical compositions of the regions A and B (Figure 3h). In the