Automated image segmentation-assisted flattening of atomic force microscopy images

• Yuliang Wang,
• Tongda Lu,
• Xiaolai Li and
• Huimin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 975–985, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.91

• spin coating a thin film of polystyrene (PS) on a silicon (100) substrate at a speed of 500 rpm. Prior to spin coating, the silicon substrate was sequentially cleaned in a sonic bath of piranha solution, acetone and water for 30 minutes. The PS solution was obtained by dissolving PS particles

Electro-optical interfacial effects on a graphene/π-conjugated organic semiconductor hybrid system

• Karolline A. S. Araujo,
• Luiz A. Cury,
• Matheus J. S. Matos,
• Thales F. D. Fernandes,
• Luiz G. Cançado and
• Bernardo R. A. Neves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 963–974, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.90

• produced ultrathin 2D-like RA films. Figure 1 summarizes the morphological characterization of retinoic acid self-assembled films on graphite microplates prepared via spin-coating (see Experimental section). Since the adsorbing species interaction with monolayer graphene can be largely influenced by the

• were obtained from Nacional de Grafite Ltd., Itapecerica – Brazil. Retinoic acid (RA) was purchased from Alfa Aesar and was used without further purification. The RA multilayer (bulk-like film) was produced by spread coating method [59][60][61]. Thin film samples were prepared by spin-coating (2200 rpm

Comparative study of antibacterial properties of polystyrene films with TiO_x and Cu nanoparticles fabricated using cluster beam technique

• Vladimir N. Popok,
• Cesarino M. Jeppesen,
• Peter Fojan,
• Anna Kuzminova,
• Jan Hanuš and
• Ondřej Kylián

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 861–869, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.80

• describes a novel approach for the formation of bactericidal polymer thin films (polystyrene in this case), produced by spin-coating, with Ti and Cu NPs deposited from cluster beams. Ti NPs are treated in three different ways in order to study different approaches for oxidation and, thus, efficiency in

• considered, namely a potential contamination with Cu ions. Hence, polymers with Cu NPs should be used carefully in the cases of food or drugs. Experimental Preparation of polymer films with metal clusters PS films are prepared by a standard spin-coating procedure from a solvent mixture of 2 wt % PS in

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

• properties [33]. In 2014, spin-coating was utilized to prepare ZnO nanowire arrays with tunable band gap, layered BiOBr–BiOI composites onto them. It showed that the BiOBr/BiOI composites played the role of sensitizer in the heterojunctions and were tunable by varying the BiOBr/BiOI ratio [34]. Kuang et al

Synthesis and characterization of two new TiO₂-containing benzothiazole-based imine composites for organic device applications

• Anna Różycka,
• Agnieszka Iwan,
• Krzysztof Artur Bogdanowicz,
• Michal Filapek,
• Natalia Górska,
• Damian Pociecha,
• Marek Malinowski,
• Patryk Fryń,
• Agnieszka Hreniak,
• Jakub Rysz,
• Paweł Dąbczyński and
• Monika Marzec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 721–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.67

• out to be too rough to be measured with AFM, these samples were prepared with the spin coating technique (1000 rpm, 40 s). As one can see in Figure 10a, the topography of pure SP2 imine and SP2:TiO2 composites in each case reveals quite large crystallites randomly distributed on the glass surface, and

Optimisation of purification techniques for the preparation of large-volume aqueous solar nanoparticle inks for organic photovoltaics

• Furqan Almyahi,
• Thomas R. Andersen,
• Nathan A. Cooling,
• Natalie P. Holmes,
• Matthew J. Griffith,
• Krishna Feron,
• Xiaojing Zhou,
• Warwick J. Belcher and
• Paul C. Dastoor

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 649–659, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.60

• changing wetting properties for each DF required the spin coating procedure for each device type to be optimized in order to achieve similar layer thicknesses of 105 ± 5 nm. The uniformity of active layer thicknesses was investigated by measuring the reflectance of the prepared devices (seen in Supporting

• -scale devices prepared by spin-coating to large area R2R prepared devices. We have chosen to utilize HTL Solar as our PEDOT:PSS for this study as it has a PEDOT to PSS ratio of 1:2.5 which is the same as PH1000 which are being used frequently for R2R prepared large area devices [16][25][26][27

• technique would also be changed from spin-coating to slot-die coating which might also have an impact on film quality. Conclusion Herein we have demonstrated ASNP purification through two different ultrafiltration processes (centrifuge and crossflow-based techniques). It is clearly demonstrated that the

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

• , dispersed flower-shaped MoS2 nanoflakes in ethanol were first deposited on a 1 × 1 cm2 alumina wafer by spin coating. Then the gold microelectrodes were deposited on selective areas of the prepared, uniform, thin film through a comb-shaped shadow mask by sputtering. The mask was then lifted off and the

• nanoflakes. It was found that the nanoflakes form a flower-shaped structure with a large surface-to-volume ratio. The sensor device was successfully fabricated by spin coating of MoS2 flakes on an alumina substrate, on the back side of which a Pt heater circuit for thermal annealing was deposited. Our

Temperature-tunable lasing from dye-doped chiral microdroplets encapsulated in a thin polymeric film

• Gia Petriashvili,
• Mauro Daniel Luigi Bruno,
• Maria Penelope De Santo and
• Riccardo Barberi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 379–383, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.37

• deposited by spin-coating a solution containing 0.5 wt % of the polymer in water. An optical fiber, coupled to a spectrometer (AVASPEC-2048, Avantes) with 1 nm resolution, is used to collect the light emitted from the sample. To detect the transmission spectra as a function of temperature, the cell is

The role of ligands in coinage-metal nanoparticles for electronics

• Ioannis Kanelidis and
• Tobias Kraus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2625–2639, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.263

• thiophene ring is shown to form a bond with the silver NPs and resulted in a uniform distribution of the nanoparticles in the composite. Films of the composite prepared by spin coating exhibited a 1.5-times higher electrical conductivity (176 S/cm) compared to films prepared only from the PEDOT:PSS mixture

Robust nanobubble and nanodroplet segmentation in atomic force microscope images using the spherical Hough transform

• Yuliang Wang,
• Tongda Lu,
• Xiaolai Li,
• Shuai Ren and
• Shusheng Bi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2572–2582, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.257

• surface, which was spin-coated as a thin film on a silicon (100) substrate at a speed of 500 rpm. The silicon substrate was cleaned in a sonic bath of piranha, acetone and then water for 30 mins before spin coating. PS particles (molecular weight 350,000, Sigma-Aldrich) were dissolved in toluene

• (Mallinckrodt Chemical) to obtain the solution for spin coating. Upon the immersion of the PS film in deionized (DI) water, NBs are spontaneously generated on the PS surface. NDs were obtained on a freshly cleaved HOPG surface. To form the NDs, 10 µL of poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) solution was dissolved in

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

• template relies on using water to lower the adhesion between the film and the template. The key advantage of our method is that any polymer with hydrophobicity and/or low surface energy can be patterned with the DNA nanostructure master template. Furthermore, because the method uses spin-coating instead of

• and/or the intrinsic limitation of the resolution of the pattern transfer [46]. In the latter case, the large PLLA molecule may not be able to completely fill the nanometer-sized holes in the DNA origami triangles during the spin-coating process. A decrease in the feature size of the DNA nanostructure

• (h). Locations 1, 2, and 3 correspond to 1, 2, and 3 in the cross-section of the AFM image (a). Scale bars represent 500 nm. Note: The DNA master template was contaminated before the 5th spin coating of PLLA in dichloromethane solution. The AFM images (a) and (b) are also shown in Figure 2. The

The interplay between spin densities and magnetic superexchange interactions: case studies of mono- and trinuclear bis(oxamato)-type complexes

• Azar Aliabadi,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Vladislav Kataev and
• Tobias Rüffer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2245–2256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.224

• of spintronic devices in detail, we focused on the synthesis of type-III complexes as models of SMMs with the aim to deposit them as thin films on surfaces. Already in 2006, we reported on the deposition of thin films of a type-III complex by spin coating [27], although the surface roughness of the

A systematic study of the controlled generation of crystalline iron oxide nanoparticles on graphene using a chemical etching process

• Peter Krauß,
• Jörg Engstler and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2017–2025, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.202

• spin coating from solution [23][25]. The main disadvantage of applying these supporting polymer layers to graphene is their removal during the final steps of the transfer procedure. Dissolving the polymer, for example by using hot acetone, typically leaves residue on the graphene monolayer [22][32][33

Identifying the nature of surface chemical modification for directed self-assembly of block copolymers

• Laura Evangelio,
• Federico Gramazio,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Michaela Gorgoi,
• Francisco Miguel Espinosa,
• Ricardo García,
• Francesc Pérez-Murano and
• Jordi Fraxedas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1972–1981, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.198

• becomes evident that when the brush cooling is performed in nitrogen rather than in air, the polymer has the proper surface free energy to induce the alignment of the BCP after the lithography and BCP spin-coating. In order to understand the origin of the influence of the DSA process, we have performed

• (PS–OH, Mn = 4.5 kg/mol and PDI = 1.09, purchased from Polymer Source), was deposited by spin-coating and annealed on the silicon substrate. Two different annealing conditions were used: (i) 260 °C in nitrogen atmosphere for 5 min and cooling in air and (ii) 230 °C in nitrogen atmosphere for 5 min and

• air. The obtained films exhibit a thickness of about 36 nm with the used conditions (2750 rpm for 60 s). In addition, and in order to characterize the interface between the oxygen modified and unmodified substrates with PMMA domains, ≈20 nm thick PMMA (Mn = 30 kg/mol) layers were deposited by spin

Laser processing of thin-film multilayer structures: comparison between a 3D thermal model and experimental results

• Babak B. Naghshine and
• Amirkianoosh Kiani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1749–1759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.176

• , where it is processed by a UV laser beam. Since a-Si has a very high absorption at UV spectrum, it can be recrystallized into poly-Si by the laser beam without causing any considerable temperature change in the substrate [5][6][7]. There are also various laser doping techniques such as spin coating the

Micro- and nano-surface structures based on vapor-deposited polymers

• Hsien-Yeh Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1366–1374, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.138

• alternative approach combining vapor deposition of polymers on curved substrates (instead of spin-coating) and a flexible mask to generate polytricosadiynoic acid and poly(4-vinylpyridine) patterns on curvatures has been shown with a conventional lithographic technique [33]. The creation of patterned

Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization and thermogravimetric analysis of two series of substituted (metallo)tetraphenylporphyrins

• Rasha K. Al-Shewiki,
• Carola Mende,
• Roy Buschbeck,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Oliver G. Schmidt,
• Tobias Rüffer and
• Heinrich Lang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1191–1204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.121

• possible and we are recently fabricating thin layers of these compounds by spin-coating [31]. Conclusion Two series of metalloporphyrins MTPP(C(O)NR2)4 (M = CoII, NiII, CuII, ZnII) derived out of their free-base species H2TPP(C(O)NR2)4 (R = Me (2/2a–d), iPr (3/3a–d)) were synthesized and characterized by

Optical response of heterogeneous polymer layers containing silver nanostructures

• Miriam Carlberg,
• Florent Pourcin,
• Olivier Margeat,
• Judikaël Le Rouzo,
• Gérard Berginc,
• Rose-Marie Sauvage,
• Jörg Ackermann and
• Ludovic Escoubas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1065–1072, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.108

• the thin film layers was performed by spin coating. The spin coating speed was set to 500–1000 rpm, in order to obtain layers of a few hundred micrometers thickness. The deposition technique yields homogeneous thin film layers in the center of the sample where the optical measurements are performed

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

• alkaline etch. A thin layer of positive photoresist AZ 1505 (MicroChemicals) was deposited by spin-coating on the silicon wafer at 500 rpm for 10 s then 5000 rpm for 30 s, following by baking at 100 °C for 30 s. Then the wafer was patterned by direct-write lithography (DWL 66FS, Heidelberg Instruments Gmbh

Performance of natural-dye-sensitized solar cells by ZnO nanorod and nanowall enhanced photoelectrodes

• Saif Saadaoui,
• Mohamed Aziz Ben Youssef,
• Moufida Ben Karoui,
• Rached Gharbi,
• Emanuele Smecca,
• Vincenzina Strano,
• Salvo Mirabella,
• Alessandra Alberti and
• Rosaria A. Puglisi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 287–295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.31

• physical properties of the photoanode. Experimental Both ZnO NRs and NWs were grown on FTO substrates (1.5 × 1.5 cm2) by CBD [8][22]. Before the ZnO NR preparation, a seed layer of ZnO crystallites was deposited by spin coating (1000 rpm, 60 s) using a solution of 5 mM zinc acetate dihydrate in ethanol

Colorimetric gas detection by the varying thickness of a thin film of ultrasmall PTSA-coated TiO₂ nanoparticles on a Si substrate

• Urmas Joost,
• Andris Šutka,
• Meeri Visnapuu,
• Aile Tamm,
• Meeri Lembinen,
• Mikk Antsov,
• Kathriin Utt,
• Krisjanis Smits,
• Ergo Nõmmiste and
• Vambola Kisand

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 229–236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.25

• % after washing. Thin films based on TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared from the NP colloidal solution (5.9% by mass in ethanol) by spin coating on Si(100) substrates in ambient atmosphere. The substrates were cleaned prior to coating with ethanol to remove small dust particles. The rotation frequency

• during spin coating was 3000 rpm and coating time was 0.5 min. The obtained NP-based precursor films were aged at room temperature under ambient conditions for four days. The purpose of this ageing was to allow the remaining solvent to evaporate slowly, in order to prevent the cracking of the films

Flexible photonic crystal membranes with nanoparticle high refractive index layers

• Torben Karrock,
• Moritz Paulsen and
• Martina Gerken

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 203–209, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.22

• replication of a 400 nm period linear grating nanostructure into a ≈60 µm thick polydimethylsiloxane membrane and subsequent spin coating of a high refractive index titanium dioxide nanoparticle layer. Samples are prepared with different nanoparticle concentrations. Guided-mode resonances with a quality

• highly flexible photonic crystal slabs by utilizing nanoreplication of a linear grating nanostructure with a period of 400 nm into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane and subsequent spin coating of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. Investigations with 300 nm and 500 nm gratings lead to similar

• subsequent spin coating of a TiO2 nanoparticle waveguide layer. Using a 400 nm period linear grating nanostructure, a single resonance peak in the visible spectrum is obtained. The influence of the particle concentration on the resonance peak position was examined and the optical characteristics for

Layered composites of PEDOT/PSS/nanoparticles and PEDOT/PSS/phthalocyanines as electron mediators for sensors and biosensors

• Celia García-Hernández,
• Cristina García-Cabezón,
• Fernando Martín-Pedrosa,
• José Antonio De Saja and
• María Luz Rodríguez-Méndez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1948–1959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.186

• LuPc2 on the top of the PEDOT/PSS film by means of spin coating to obtain PEDOT/PSS/AuNP, PEDOT/PSS/CuPc and PEDOT/PSS/LuPc2 sensors, respectively. The electrodes were used as the working electrodes in cyclic voltammetry. The sensing properties and any synergistic effects in the layered composite

• conductivity of the PEDOT/PSS/EM sensors ITO electrodes were modified by depositing a PEDOT/PSS layer by means of spin coating. Layered composite electrodes were prepared by depositing layers of a secondary electrocatalytic material (AuNPs, CoPc or LuPc2) on top of the PEDOT/PSS film to obtain PEDOT/PSS/AuNP

• the solution was dropped onto the ITO glass and spin-coated at 2000 rpm for 120 s (slope of 120 s). The PEDOT/PSS films obtained were annealed at 150 °C for 15 min. PEDOT/PSS/EM layered sensors were prepared on the surface of PEDOT/PSS films by spin coating 200 μL of CuPc and AuNPs, or 100 μL of LuPc2

Sb₂S₃ grown by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and its application in a hybrid solar cell

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere,
• Valdek Mikli and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1662–1673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.158

• . Another solution-based method, besides CBD, is spin coating, which has been used to obtain Sb2S3 absorber layers by multiple steps of a coating–annealing procedure [12], or a single-step coating–annealing procedure developed by Choi and Seok in 2015 [20]. The resulting solar cells showed conversion

• efficiencies of up to 2.3% when based on planar TiO2 [12] and 6.4% [20] when based on mesoporous TiO2. Spin coating is a simple technique and seems attractive for the deposition of oxide-free Sb2S3 absorber. However, an annealing stage at 300 °C in inert gas atmosphere is involved. Chemical spray pyrolysis

• CBD or spin coating, for growing Sb2S3. Properties of the TiO2/Sb2S3 nanoparticle/P3HT solar cell The highest efficiencies of each cell were observed after being exposed to AM1.5 illumination for up to 45 min, varying from sample to sample. The general trends in the evolution of the current–voltage

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

• masks for subsequent etching or sputtering processes. It is a low-cost technique that does not require complex equipment since the pattern can be obtained by spin-coating the surface or by dipping it in the colloidal solution. Moreover, this technique allows for large surface patterning. The size of the