Synthesis and characterization of quaternary La(Sr)S–TaS₂ misfit-layered nanotubes

• Marco Serra,
• Erumpukuthickal Ashokkumar Anumol,
• Dalit Stolovas,
• Iddo Pinkas,
• Ernesto Joselevich,
• Reshef Tenne,
• Andrey Enyashin and
• Francis Leonard Deepak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1112–1124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.111

• and drying a drop of this dispersion onto a lacey-carbon-supported Cu/Ni grid. To minimize contamination during imaging, the TEM specimens were heated in a vacuum chamber at 60 °C overnight followed by 3 seconds of oxygen plasma exposure prior to the electron microscopy analysis. Raman spectroscopy

Serum type and concentration both affect the protein-corona composition of PLGA nanoparticles

• Katrin Partikel,
• Robin Korte,
• Dennis Mulac,
• Hans-Ulrich Humpf and
• Klaus Langer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1002–1015, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.101

• function in the body (Figure 6). A substantial part of the coronas consist of apolipoproteins. They are important components of lipoproteins that facilitate the transport of cholesterol, triglycerides, and phospholipids between plasma and cells [29]. Due to their lipid-binding domains, they are even more

Direct growth of few-layer graphene on AlN-based resonators for high-sensitivity gravimetric biosensors

• Jimena Olivares,
• Teona Mirea,
• Lorena Gordillo-Dagallier,
• Bruno Marco,
• José Miguel Escolano,
• Marta Clement and
• Enrique Iborra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 975–984, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.98

• graphene integration. Raman spectra reveal that the as-grown graphene is composed of less than five weakly coupled layers with a low density of defects. Two functionalization protocols of the graphene are proposed. The first one, based on a covalent binding approach, starts with a low-damage O2 plasma

• graphene appears to be more appropriate for the covalent functionalization scheme based on the generation of defects (COOH groups) through a plasma treatment. In this work, we demonstrate that few-layer graphene can be grown directly on top of SMR-type acoustic resonators without a noticeable degradation

• . Graphene functionalization Two functionalization procedures of the graphene surface were explored. The first one is based on the conventional 2-step EDC/NHS protocol [13] to bind streptavidin covalently to the previously oxygen-plasma-treated surface, with the subsequent binding of biotinylated IgG

Experimental study of an evanescent-field biosensor based on 1D photonic bandgap structures

• Jad Sabek,
• Francisco Javier Díaz-Fernández,
• Luis Torrijos-Morán,
• Zeneida Díaz-Betancor,
• Ángel Maquieira,
• María-José Bañuls,
• Elena Pinilla-Cienfuegos and
• Jaime García-Rupérez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 967–974, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.97

• silsesquioxane (HSQ) resist layer. Then, the layout was transferred to the top 220 nm thick silicon layer of the SOI chip by means of inductively coupled plasma etching. 70 nm deep shallow etch 1D grating couplers were created for accessing the photonic chip. Finally, the chip is covered with a 400 nm thick SiO2

• /H2O2 = 1:3) for 20 min and a subsequent activation of its surface with O2 plasma for 10 min. Then, the SOI chip was silanized by immersing it in 1% TEVS in Milli-Q water (pH adjusted to 8) for 1 h and finally curing it at 110 °C for an additional 1 h. The reduction process used to obtain the half

The systemic effect of PEG-nGO-induced oxidative stress in vivo in a rodent model

• Qura Tul Ain,
• Samina Hyder Haq,
• Abeer Alshammari,
• Moudhi Abdullah Al-Mutlaq and
• Muhammad Naeem Anjum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 901–911, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.91

• and found that treatment with GO can extract phospholipid and cholesterol from the plasma membrane of human alveolar epithelial A549 cells, producing surface pores [50][51]. This effect greatly reduced the cell viability and results in cellular damage and apoptosis, and long-term exposure could cause

Tungsten disulfide-based nanocomposites for photothermal therapy

• Tzuriel Levin,
• Hagit Sade,
• Rina Ben-Shabbat Binyamini,
• Maayan Pour,
• Iftach Nachman and
• Jean-Paul Lellouche

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 811–822, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.81

• contents were washed with three portions of ddH2O (10 mL each), and centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 10 min at 18 °C each time. The washed nanocomposite was dispersed in ddH2O (25 mL). The iron concentration in the dispersion was determined by the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) method to be 2.7 mg/mL

• ). Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) was used to determine the concentration of cerium and iron (Ultima-2 instrument, Horiba [Jobin-Yvon division], Kyoto, Japan). For cerium analysis, lyophilized nanocomposite sample (2–5 mg) was dissolved in concentrated hydrochloric acid (350 µL, DaeJung, Busan, Korea), diluted

On the transformation of “zincone”-like into porous ZnO thin films from sub-saturated plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

• Alberto Perrotta,
• Julian Pilz,
• Stefan Pachmajer,
• Antonella Milella and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 746–759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.74

• /bjnano.10.74 Abstract The synthesis of nanoporous ZnO thin films is achieved through annealing of zinc-alkoxide (“zincone”-like) layers obtained by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD). The zincone-like layers are deposited through sub-saturated PE-ALD adopting diethylzinc and O2 plasma with

• , development of controlled porosity, and formation and growth of ZnO crystallites. The layers developed controlled nanoporosity in the range of 1–5%, with pore sizes between 0.27 and 2.00 nm as measured with ellipsometric porosimetry (EP), as a function of the plasma dose and post-annealing temperature

• fractions. The calcination of the hybrid layers was investigated in situ with spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Oxygen plasma was used as co-reactant together with diethylzinc (DEZ) in a room-temperature plasma-enhanced ALD process and, as a function of the plasma time exposure

Deposition of metal particles onto semiconductor nanorods using an ionic liquid

• Michael D. Ballentine,
• Elizabeth G. Embry,
• Marco A. Garcia and
• Lawrence J. Hill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 718–724, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.71

• similar morphologies as determined by analysis of TEM images. Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) analysis of the elemental ratios in the samples confirmed the similarity of these materials, and we compared photocatalytic performance of these two samples for degradation of

• cadmium molar ratios based on the size of the CdS and Pt particles obtained from TEM images assuming bulk density for the cadmium sulfide and platinum particles. The concentration of cadmium and platinum determined using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) analysis provided

Commercial polycarbonate track-etched membranes as substrates for low-cost optical sensors

• Paula Martínez-Pérez and
• Jaime García-Rupérez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 677–683, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.67

• firstly activated by oxygen plasma in a plasma asher (PVA TEPLA 200, PVA TePla AG, Wettenberg, Germany) for 1 min (50 W, 1.5 mbar). Immediately after, it was immersed in an aqueous solution of APTES at 80 °C for 20 min. Then, the membrane was removed from the solution and dried out on a cleanroom wipe

Hydrophilicity and carbon chain length effects on the gas sensing properties of chemoresistive, self-assembled monolayer carbon nanotube sensors

• Juan Casanova-Cháfer,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Eduard Llobet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 565–577, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.58

• Juan Casanova-Chafer Carla Bittencourt Eduard Llobet MINOS-EMaS, University Rovira i Virgili, Avda. Països Catalans, 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain Chimie des Interactions Plasma-Surface (ChIPS), Research Institute for Materials Science and Engineering, Université de Mons, Avenue Copernic 1, Mons

• , Belgium 10.3762/bjnano.10.58 Abstract Here we describe the development of chemoresistive sensors employing oxygen-plasma-treated, Au-decorated multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) functionalized with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of thiols. For the first time, the effects of the length of the carbon

• semiconducting character before being integrated in gas sensing devices. In view of developing sensitive, fast-responding, low power consumption and more selective sensors towards nitrogen dioxide or ethanol, in this paper, we combine oxygen plasma treated, Au-decorated MWCNTs with different thiols (see Figure

Widening of the electroactivity potential range by composite formation – capacitive properties of TiO₂/BiVO₄/PEDOT:PSS electrodes in contact with an aqueous electrolyte

• Konrad Trzciński,
• Mariusz Szkoda,
• Andrzej P. Nowak,
• Marcin Łapiński and
• Anna Lisowska-Oleksiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 483–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.49

• increase of capacitance to about 6 mF·cm−2 after few cycles for electrochemical high-temperature hydrogenation [72] and over 7 mF·cm−2 for titania nanotubes treated with hydrogen plasma [73]. A capacitance higher than 20 mF·cm−2 was obtained for electrochemically hydrogenated TiO2 nanotubes, but recorded

Nanocomposite–parylene C thin films with high dielectric constant and low losses for future organic electronic devices

• Marwa Mokni,
• Gianluigi Maggioni,
• Abdelkader Kahouli,
• Sara M. Carturan,
• Walter Raniero and
• Alain Sylvestre

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 428–441, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.42

• deposition and RF-magnetron sputtering for silver deposition. This method yields good dispersion of Ag-containing nanoparticles inside the parylene C polymer matrix. Film composition and structure were studied by using several techniques. It was found that the plasma generated by the RF-magnetron reactor

• pure parylene C and NCPCs. Apart from sample O, which was produced by keeping the sputtering source off, all the samples were deposited with the plasma switched on but with different numbers of rotations with the shutter open (i.e., changing the amount of Ag atoms incorporated inside the film

• film thickness measured in monomeric units·cm−2 (by RBS) of the samples O, K and from A to F as a function of the number of rotations. The first important feature to be noted is the effect of plasma on the deposition rate of parylene. When the plasma is switched on (sample K), we observe an increase of

Effects of post-lithography cleaning on the yield and performance of CVD graphene-based devices

• Eduardo Nery Duarte de Araujo,
• Thiago Alonso Stephan Lacerda de Sousa,
• Luciano de Moura Guimarães and
• Flavio Plentz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 349–355, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.34

• (Figure 1b), followed by the development of the exposed photoresist in AZ 351B (1:4) developer (MicroChemicals.com, Figure 1c). After this development, the excess of graphene was removed with O2 plasma (Figure 1d). Finally, we removed the photoresist layer (Figure 1e) using different protocols, as we

• of graphene in O2 plasma; e) photoresist removal. Second photolithography step for electrode fabrication: f) LOR/photoresist coating onto graphene; g) exposure of photoresist using direct laser writing; h) development of exposed areas; i) thermal evaporation of Cr/Au; j) lift-off process. Procedures

Geometrical optimisation of core–shell nanowire arrays for enhanced absorption in thin crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Robin Vismara,
• Olindo Isabella,
• Andrea Ingenito,
• Fai Tong Si and
• Miro Zeman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 322–331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.31

• characterisation The nanowire array was manufactured on a p-type mono-crystalline silicon wafer by reactive ion etching (RIE) using a gaseous mixture of SF6 and O2, followed by standard cleaning, rinsing in de-ionised water and drying of the substrate. In particular, the SF6/O2 plasma provides a continuous flow of

• from the surface. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) was used for growing thin-film silicon and silicon alloys layers, to implement surface passivation and front surface field. Intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si(i):H), with a thickness equivalent to 30 nm on a flat substrate

• , was first coated onto the front surface of the wafer on which the nanowires were distributed. Following a hydrogen-plasma treatment, highly transparent boron-doped hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon oxide (nc-SiOx(p):H) with 30 nm equivalent thickness was deposited on a-Si:H. For the front electrode

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

• grow ZnO nanocrystals on both bare and on an array of pores patterned on the polymer-coated indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) conducting substrates. The patterning process for the polymer, poly(Disperse Red 1 acrylate), involves laser interference lithography and oxygen plasma etching and has been reported

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

• SU70). The structural analysis was performed in cross section geometry by TEM (FEI Tecnai G2 F20 X-TWIN). The elemental composition analysis was performed by inductively coupled plasma high-resolution mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) - Thermo Scientific Element2, where the films were totally dissolved in 2

Magnetic-field sensor with self-reference characteristic based on a magnetic fluid and independent plasmonic dual resonances

• Kun Ren,
• Xiaobin Ren,
• Yumeng He and
• Qun Han

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 247–255, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.23

• magnetic fluid. The background metal in the grey part is silver, the complex permittivity of which is characterized by the well-known Drude model: , where ε∞ = 3.7 is the permittivity at infinite angular frequency, the bulk plasma frequency is ωp = 1.38 × 1016 Hz, the damping frequency of the oscillations

Interaction of Te and Se interlayers with Ag or Au nanofilms in sandwich structures

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Marek Trzcinski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Wojciech Pacuski and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 238–246, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.22

• medium approximation [36]. The peak at 326 nm in the electron energy loss function essentially detects the plasma frequency of the sample. As such, its relative value allows to compare the number of detected atoms which contribute to the plasma frequency [26]. If so, then the lower the value of the

• confirmed by changes in the lattice constant of the metals films (see Table 1). We do not observe segregation-induced bands in the permittivity of the investigated gold layers, since Te does not segregate and the optical constant values of Se are very low [36]. The plasma frequency peak in the electron

• wavelengths in the vicinity of the metal plasma frequency. For comparison, the curves for layers deposited directly on glass substrates (black curves) as well as Ge-wetted layers (orange curves) are also provided [26][28]. Left – Comparison of imaginary parts of the permittivity for 35 nm-thick Ag layers

Study of silica-based intrinsically emitting nanoparticles produced by an excimer laser

• Imène Reghioua,
• Mattia Fanetti,
• Sylvain Girard,
• Diego Di Francesca,
• Simonpietro Agnello,
• Layla Martin-Samos,
• Marco Cannas,
• Matjaz Valant,
• Melanie Raine,
• Marc Gaillardin,
• Nicolas Richard,
• Philippe Paillet,
• Aziz Boukenter,
• Youcef Ouerdane and
• Antonino Alessi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 211–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.19

• . The first one is doped with 20 wt % Ge, produced by plasma-activated chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) [23][30]. The second one is a pure silica synthetic commercial sample containing high OH content [31], similar to the one irradiated with a 500 fs 248 nm laser in [15]. The nanoparticle synthesis was

Nanoporous water oxidation electrodes with a low loading of laser-deposited Ru/C exhibit enhanced corrosion stability

• Sandra Haschke,
• Dmitrii Pankin,
• Vladimir Mikhailovskii,
• Maïssa K. S. Barr,
• Adriana Both-Engel,
• Alina Manshina and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 157–167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.15

• the planar substrate with the ITO side facing the solution. Bubble formation in the solution was prevented via axial sliding of the substrate on the cuvette. An unfocused beam (ca. 2 mm in diameter) of a Plasma He-Cd laser (continuous wave (CW), λ = 325 nm, P = 10 mW) was directed to the substrate

Sputtering of silicon nanopowders by an argon cluster ion beam

• Xiaomei Zeng,
• Vasiliy Pelenovich,
• Zhenguo Wang,
• Wenbin Zuo,
• Sergey Belykh,
• Alexander Tolstogouzov,
• Dejun Fu and
• Xiangheng Xiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 135–143, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.13

• by plasma arc techniques). The Si nanopowder was pressed into pellets with a diameter of 17 mm and thickness of 160–290 µm at different loads during 10 min by a mechanical press. Then, the pellets were cut into 5 × 5 mm2 samples and mounted on a steel substrate holder of the same size. Since in the

Wet chemistry route for the decoration of carbon nanotubes with iron oxide nanoparticles for gas sensing

• Hussam M. Elnabawy,
• Juan Casanova-Chafer,
• Badawi Anis,
• Mostafa Fedawy,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Ahmed S. G. Khalil,
• Eduard Llobet and
• Xavier Vilanova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 105–118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.10

• MINOS-EMaS, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avda. Països Catalans, 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain Spectroscopy Department, Physics Division, National Research Centre, 33 El Bohouth st. (former El Tahrir st.), P.O. 12622 Dokki, Giza, Egypt Chemistry of Interaction Plasma Surface (ChIPS), University of Mons

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

• , medium-sized) was filled with demineralized water, and the microscopic glass slide was partially immersed for 20 mm in the bath in vertical direction. A plasma-treated glass cover slip was placed in the filled trough against one of the barriers in a diagonal orientation. The particle dispersion was added

• paragraph. Then, the samples were covalently attached to a glass slide by plasma-treating both the glass and the sample surfaces, and bringing the treated surfaces together. After applying some load, the sample-on-glass was placed in an oven for 20 min at 68 °C to form covalent bonds between the two. After

A comparison of tarsal morphology and traction force in the two burying beetles Nicrophorus nepalensis and Nicrophorus vespilloides (Coleoptera, Silphidae)

• Liesa Schnee,
• Benjamin Sampalla,
• Josef K. Müller and
• Oliver Betz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 47–61, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.5

• ., being either hydrophilic (treated with plasma) or hydrophobic (treated with antispread). The data were compared between and within the species. The within-species comparisons were conducted between the different surface properties such as roughness and wettability. Results Tarsus morphology At its

• texture, the calculated surface free energies of 33.3 mN·m−1 (micro-rough surface) and 42.2 mN·m−1 (rough surface) (Table 2 in [19]), respectively, should not be considered as absolute values, which can only be determined for ideal, perfectly smooth surfaces [20]. The plasma-treated Al2O3 grinding disc

• , respectively. Generally, the tests were conducted on hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces of each roughness. For hydrophilization, the epoxy casts were treated for 5 min with plasma at 30 mA and 0.2 mbar (SCD 030; Balzers Union FL-9496 Balzers, Liechtenstein). For hydrophobization, the casts were placed for 10

Bidirectional biomimetic flow sensing with antiparallel and curved artificial hair sensors

• Claudio Abels,
• Antonio Qualtieri,
• Toni Lober,
• Alessandro Mariotti,
• Lily D. Chambers,
• Massimo De Vittorio,
• William M. Megill and
• Francesco Rizzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 32–46, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.4

• ) piezoresistors, which are 100 nm thick and distributed along the full length of the cantilever beam. In a subsequent deposition step, four 150 nm thick gold (Au) contact pads are deposited. Defining the cantilever U-shapes: A trifluoromethane (CHF3) based inductively coupled plasma (ICP) dry etching step at the