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

• intense peak at lower temperature is connected with the transition between two crystalline phases. For SP1 there is only one texture and one peak at 66.31 °C in the DSC curve on heating with the rate of 10 °C/min. Additionally, SP1 was measured during heating and cooling with increasing rates, because at

• temperatures of both imines addition of TiO2 to SP2 imine significantly changed the POM texture of imine values of the energy gap and HOMO–LUMO levels of both imines decreased with increasing addition of titanium dioxide TiO2 has an influence on the structural properties of SP1 and SP2 imines the imine:TiO2

Cyclodextrin-assisted synthesis of tailored mesoporous silica nanoparticles

• Fuat Topuz and
• Tamer Uyar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 693–703, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.64

• with a size of about 170 nm were produced. A further increase in the CTAC concentration led to smaller, connected nanoparticles in the range of 110–130 nm. A similar change in particle morphology was reported for the CD-free MSN samples synthesized at various CTAB contents, where the sample texture

Engineering of oriented carbon nanotubes in composite materials

• Razieh Beigmoradi,
• Abdolreza Samimi and
• Davod Mohebbi-Kalhori

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 415–435, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.41

• hard, solid or powder, biological, and organic or inorganic surfaces. This device can measure geometric morphology, adhesion distribution, friction, surface impurities, texture, elasticity, magnetism, chemical bonding forces, distribution of electric charges and electric polarization in different parts

Photocatalytic and adsorption properties of TiO₂-pillared montmorillonite obtained by hydrothermally activated intercalation of titanium polyhydroxo complexes

• Mikhail F. Butman,
• Nikolay L. Ovchinnikov,
• Nikita S. Karasev,
• Nataliya E. Kochkina,
• Alexander V. Agafonov and
• Alexandr V. Vinogradov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 364–378, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.36

• and temperature on structural, textural, and adsorption properties and UV photocatalytic activity of the produced TiO2-pillared MM samples is assessed. Results and Discussion Structure and texture of TiO2-pillared materials Figure 1 shows small-angle diffractograms for the initial MM sample and that

Periodic structures on liquid-phase smectic A, nematic and isotropic free surfaces

• Anna N. Bagdinova,
• Evgeny I. Demikhov,
• Nataliya G. Borisenko,
• Sergei M. Tolokonnikov,
• Gennadii V. Mishakov and
• Andrei V. Sharkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 342–352, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.34

• directly after the stripe formation. Generally, the stripe texture becomes smoother. Figure 8 shows the stripe formation on the free surface of the nematic phase at T = 38 °C. Directly after heating to 38 °С, the surface structure is homogeneous. Shortly after, a periodic striped structure perpendicular to

• . Figure 9 shows the stripe structure formation on the surface of the isotropic liquid, 8CB, at 46 °С. The contrast of this stripe texture is weaker than in the SmA phase. The stripe periodicity in the isotropic liquid is approximately the same as in the nematic phase. Discussion The comparison of optical

• , ISSA, SNOM, AFM. The applicability of surface-sensitive tools for liquid crystals was reviewed. We observed a periodic order of FCDs in one-dimensional chains. A periodic stripe texture is observed in SmA, nematic phases and isotropic liquid in 8CB. The periodic images of the probe depend on the

Design of polar self-assembling lactic acid derivatives possessing submicrometre helical pitch

• Alexej Bubnov,
• Cyril Vacek,
• Michał Czerwiński,
• Terezia Vojtylová,
• Wiktor Piecek and
• Věra Hamplová

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 333–341, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.33

• and the same length of non-chiral terminal chain. For all compounds the SmC* phase remains quite stable also at its supercooled state, i.e., below the melting point; the crystallisation does not occur even under an applied electric field. Moreover, the uniform alignment of the SmC* phase texture is

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

• manifested as the fingerprint texture between crossed polarizers. This texture originates from the helical structure of the director field in the cholesteric phase, where the distance required to rotate the director by an angle of 2π corresponds to the cholesteric pitch. In cross-sectional electron

• helices, at collagen concentrations above 100 mg/mL in 0.5 mM acetic acid, exhibit strong birefringence with a fingerprint texture in polarizing microscopy. In the coexistence regime of isotropic and nematic phases of collagen, spindle-shaped cholesteric tactoids appear in the isotropic medium. The

Nematic topological defects positionally controlled by geometry and external fields

• Pavlo Kurioz,
• Marko Kralj,
• Bryce S. Murray,
• Charles Rosenblatt and
• Samo Kralj

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 109–118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.13

• defect core displacement mechanism. Therefore, by manipulating the texture of TDs, one could control or reconfigure the positions of trapped NPs, which could be exploited in future nano-scale devices. Geometry of cells used in simulations. (a) In the “Cartesian” cells we enforce at the top “master” plate

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

• we propose a continuum theory of dilute CNT suspension in LCs that makes it possible to study orientational transitions induced by the magnetic field. Results and Discussion Basic equations We consider infinite plane layer of thickness L of a suspension of CNTs in NLC with planar texture and an

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

• successful association of CdSe NRs with TiO2. All CdSe/TiO2 composites exhibit a non-rigid texture and the pores observed should be beneficial for the diffusion of molecules and thus for an enhanced photocatalytic activity. The morphology of the particles was further characterized by TEM. Commercial P25 TiO2

Au nanostructure fabrication by pulsed laser deposition in open air: Influence of the deposition geometry

• Rumen G. Nikov,
• Anna Og. Dikovska,
• Nikolay N. Nedyalkov,
• Georgi V. Avdeev and
• Petar A. Atanasov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2438–2445, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.242

• -1625). For face-centered cubic metals, like Au, the most common crystallographic texture appears in the [111] direction. We observed a weak texture in the same direction, which is presented in Figure 2, where the experimental diffraction pattern is compared with a calculated randomly oriented powder

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

• , thus, the facilitation of synergistic interaction between two components are necessary to optimize the catalytic performances. The unique structure and texture of CeO2-based catalysts is also associated with high activity and stability in the catalytic reaction. For instance, rod-like CeO2–CuO

• -containing precursors and the control of the various factors that govern the morphology, texture and physico-chemical properties, provide a promising approach to fabricate CeO2-based mixed oxide with various nanostructures. However, compared with pure CeO2, it remains a challenge to synthesize CeO2-based

Numerical investigation of the tribological performance of micro-dimple textured surfaces under hydrodynamic lubrication

• Kangmei Li,
• Dalei Jing,
• Jun Hu,
• Xiaohong Ding and
• Zhenqiang Yao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2324–2338, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.232

• , the main mechanism for the improvement in the tribological performance is the combined effects of wedging and recirculation. Within the range of parameters investigated in this study, the optimum texture density is 13%, while the optimum aspect ratio varies with the Reynolds number. For a given

• Reynolds number, there exists a combination of texture density and aspect ratio at which the optimum tribological performance could be obtained. Conclusions from this study could be helpful for the design of texture parameters in mechanical friction components and even in artificial joints. Keywords: CFD

• simulation; hydrodynamic lubrication; micro-dimple array; surface texture; tribological performance; Introduction The wear caused by friction is considered to be the main reason for the failure of mechanical systems and the major source of energy loss [1]. Various methods have been developed to reduce

A comparative study of the nanoscale and macroscale tribological attributes of alumina and stainless steel surfaces immersed in aqueous suspensions of positively or negatively charged nanodiamonds

• Colin K. Curtis,
• Antonin Marek,
• Alex I. Smirnov and
• Jacqueline Krim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2045–2059, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.205

• texture [30]. It is interesting to note that this is the only surface studied that exhibited a striking increase in friction upon an exposure to the NDs. QCM measurements Frequency f and mechanical resistance R values of QCM relative to their initial values in air, f_air and R_air, are summarized in

Growth and characterization of textured well-faceted ZnO on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates for solar cell applications

• Chin-Yi Tsai,
• Jyong-Di Lai,
• Shih-Wei Feng,
• Chien-Jung Huang,
• Chien-Hsun Chen,
• Fann-Wei Yang,
• Hsiang-Chen Wang and
• Li-Wei Tu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1939–1945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.194

• , and CL as well. The reflectance spectra of these three samples show that the antireflection function provided by theses samples mostly results from the nanometer-scaled texture of the ZnO films, while the micrometer-scaled texture of the Si substrate has a limited contribution. The results of this

• reflectance due to the additional texture provided by the micrometer-sized pyramid structure of the texture Si(100) substrate. Therefore, it could be concluded that the antireflection function provided by theses samples mostly results from the nanometer-sized texture of the ZnO films while the micrometer

• -sized texture of the Si substrate has a limited contribution. Discussion The main grain orientation, surface morphology, AFM surface roughness (Rq) from AFM, average grain size (D), strain (ε), and CL intensity of samples ZnOp(100), ZnOp(111), and ZnOt(100) are shown in Table 1. The results clearly

Optical techniques for cervical neoplasia detection

• Tatiana Novikova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1844–1862, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.186

• algorithm for the detection of cervical precancerous lesions identified first the regions of squamous and columnar epithelium [42]. Transformation zone and external os were delimited on the image taken before the application of acetic acid using color and texture information. Domain-specific anatomical

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

• desired morphology. Wetting properties The desired wetting properties of materials are one of the important aspects from the application point of view. This wetting property depends on combined effect of several extrinsic and intrinsic factors including morphology, topography, surface texture, chemical

Formation of ferromagnetic molecular thin films from blends by annealing

• Peter Robaschik,
• Ye Ma,
• Salahud Din and
• Sandrine Heutz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1469–1475, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.146

• correspond to the diffraction from the (001) and (20−1) planes of β-MnPc [17][18]. We note that the (20−1) plane is not usually observed in β-MnPc films obtained by annealing of the α-phase and its observation indicates a reduced texture. This is presumably due to the disordered nature of the starting film

Growth, structure and stability of sputter-deposited MoS₂ thin films

• Reinhard Kaindl,
• Bernhard C. Bayer,
• Roland Resel,
• Thomas Müller,
• Viera Skakalova,
• Gerlinde Habler,
• Rainer Abart,
• Alexey S. Cherevan,
• Dominik Eder,
• Maxime Blatter,
• Fabian Fischer,
• Jannik C. Meyer,
• Dmitry K. Polyushkin and
• Wolfgang Waldhauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.113

• certain degree of texture at elevated substrate temperatures (here, 400 °C) is in good agreement with previous reports on MoS2 PVD [31]. The reasons for the structural differences of our MoS2 thin films compared to bulk MoS2 reference crystals could be related to the sputter deposition process and the

Near-field surface plasmon field enhancement induced by rippled surfaces

• Mario D’Acunto,
• Francesco Fuso,
• Ruggero Micheletto,
• Makoto Naruse,
• Francesco Tantussi and
• Maria Allegrini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 956–967, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.97

• accurate knowledge of the spatial distribution of large field enhancements requires an accurate knowledge of the nanostructure morphology. This is particularly true for the spatial distribution of a random pattern composed of a texture of hills and valleys. Rippled surfaces represent a special case of

• mean surface is kept constant regardless of the angle of incidence (W/cosθ0 = L/4, and θ0 = 45°) [38]. This intercept illuminates a sufficiently large region of the surface in terms of the incident wavelength range, nominally varying from 400 to 900 nm. The surface texture of the rippled surfaces

• usefully employed for the characterization of the optical properties of surface plasmons of random surfaces, given that their tuning is also intrinsically connected to the ripple texture. Conclusion Resonances on surface metallic nanostructures are often found experimentally by probing the structures under

Surface improvement of organic photoresists using a near-field-dependent etching method

• Felix J. Brandenburg,
• Tomohiro Okamoto,
• Hiroshi Saito,
• Benjamin Leuschel,
• Olivier Soppera and
• Takashi Yatsui

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 784–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.81

•  1c and Figure 1d does not change its structural shape noticeably; however, the surface texture of the photoresist appears to become smoother after near-field etching when looking at the detailed images in Figure 1e and Figure 1f. For a more detailed view, Figure 2a illustrates the cross-sectional

Investigation of the photocatalytic efficiency of tantalum alkoxy carboxylate-derived Ta₂O₅ nanoparticles in rhodamine B removal

• Subia Ambreen,
• Mohammad Danish,
• Narendra D. Pandey and
• Ashutosh Pandey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 604–613, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.65

• products with larger particle sizes [20]. TEM and SEM analysis To study the morphology and texture of the synthesized Ta2O5 nanoparticles TEM and SEM were carried out. A TEM image of Ta(OEt)4(OOCCH2Cl)-derived Ta2O5 nanoparticles shows that the particles are spherical with an average diameter of 40 nm

Fiber optic sensors based on hybrid phenyl-silica xerogel films to detect n-hexane: determination of the isosteric enthalpy of adsorption

• Jesús C. Echeverría,
• Ignacio Calleja,
• Paula Moriones and
• Julián J. Garrido

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 475–484, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.51

• , controlled porous texture that includes a specific surface area and average pore size distribution, and tunable surface chemistry. In the case of fiber optic reflectance sensors (FORSs), these sensitive films vary their optical properties upon interaction with the analyte, thereby resulting in a change in

• the porous texture and the interaction or adsorption energy. Molecules cover the external surface, fill the narrow micropores, and condense on meso- and macropores, depending on the relative pressure of the analyte. However, diffusion should also be taken into consideration. The ability of porous

• silica and organically modified porous silica films to detect the presence of VOCs under different measurement conditions has been investigated [10][11][12][13][14]. The porous texture and the surface chemistry determine the response. Silanol groups on the surface of the xerogel, which act as weak acids

Study of the surface properties of ZnO nanocolumns used for thin-film solar cells

• Neda Neykova,
• Jiri Stuchlik,
• Karel Hruska,
• Ales Poruba,
• Zdenek Remes and
• Ognen Pop-Georgievski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 446–451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.48

• distance, given by the thickness of the Si layers on the walls of the NCs, is generally substantially thinner than that applied for state-of-the-art a-Si:H solar cells; the lateral carrier transport provided by this type of texture should thus ensure an optimal current collection. Therefore, it is

Template-controlled piezoactivity of ZnO thin films grown via a bioinspired approach

• Nina J. Blumenstein,
• Fabian Streb,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Zaklina Burghard and
• Joachim Bill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 296–303, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.32

• polyelectrolyte leads to texturing of the ZnO film. This texture enables a piezoelectric performance of the material which was measured by piezoresponse force microscopy. This study shows that it is possible to tune the piezoelectric properties of ZnO by applying templates with different functionalities

• the coupling of the materials response in the z-direction to an electric field applied in the same direction [7]. For piezoactive, polycrystalline ZnO thin films it is therefore essential that most of the crystallites are oriented in the same way. This means a (002) texture is formed resulting in a

• along the crystallographic (002) direction (Figure 3b). In analogy to the results of Shyue et al., the sulfonate groups should be more negatively charged compared to the carboxylate groups [40]. This can explain the observed texture formation on the PEL. The electrostatic interaction between the ZnO