Unravelling the interfacial interaction in mesoporous SiO₂@nickel phyllosilicate/TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for photocatalytic activity

• Bridget K. Mutuma,
• Xiluva Mathebula,
• Isaac Nongwe,
• Bonakele P. Mtolo,
• Boitumelo J. Matsoso,
• Rudolph Erasmus,
• Zikhona Tetana and
• Neil J. Coville

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1834–1846, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.165

• metal oxides, such as ZrO2 [16] and SiO2 [17], influence the morphology and surface features of the resulting binary metal oxide semiconductors. Moreover, these binary metal oxide semiconductors act as charge-transfer catalysts and significantly reduce the electron–hole recombination [18][19]. Another

• that facilitates easy adsorption of organic molecules and their transfer onto the active sites of TiO2 [22][23]. Additionally, the interaction between SiO2 and TiO2 could result in the creation of oxygen vacancies that promote charge-transfer processes and, hence, enhance the photocatalytic activity

• the bandgap energy value of TiO2 (3.2 eV) to approx. 2.7 eV for Ni2+-doped TiO2 was reported by Devi and co-workers [51]. They associated the shift in light absorption to the charge transfer between the interacting ions. Although there are only a few studies on nickel phyllosilicates, a prior

Self-standing heterostructured NiC_x-NiFe-NC/biochar as a highly efficient cathode for lithium–oxygen batteries

• Shengyu Jing,
• Xu Gong,
• Shan Ji,
• Linhui Jia,
• Bruno G. Pollet,
• Sheng Yan and
• Huagen Liang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1809–1821, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.163

• . The structure of NiCx-NiFe-NC efficiently improved the electron and ion transfer between the cathode and the electrolyte during the electrochemical processes, resulting in superior electrocatalytic properties in lithium–oxygen batteries. This study indicates that nickel carbide supported on N-doped

• seems to facilitate the process of adsorption/desorption of intermediate species and the charge transfer ability during hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)/OER. In addition, the interfaces between Ni3C and N-doped C probably strongly reshuffle the electronic density, resulting in enhanced catalytic

• . The ohmic resistance (RΩ) and charge-transfer resistance (Rct) values of the fresh sample and of the sample after the first charge and first discharge were obtained by analyzing the EIS curves (Table 2). The value of RΩ of NiFe-PBA/PP-T after the first discharge was higher than that of the fresh

Molecular dynamics modeling of the influence forming process parameters on the structure and morphology of a superconducting spin valve

• Alexander Vakhrushev,
• Aleksey Fedotov,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Roman Morari and
• Anatolie Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1776–1788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.160

• nanostructures are a new type of quantum electronics elements based on electron spin transport. Unlike conventional electronics, spintronics uses not only charge transfer, but also the electron spin in solids, solving the problem of transport and recording of information [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Based on the basic

The influence of an interfacial hBN layer on the fluorescence of an organic molecule

• Christine Brülke,
• Oliver Bauer and
• Moritz M. Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1663–1684, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.149

• a 2DM layer grown on a metal characterizes the degree of electronic coupling of the molecular and metallic states. For completeness, we note that quenching of an electronic excitation of a molecule in the first layers on a metal surface can be the result of interfacial charge transfer (CT) [5] or of

• energy transfer [6]. Here, CT is in our focus since energy transfer, although additionally present, varies less abruptly on the scale of single layers [7]. A simple energy diagram of the CT process of a fluorescent molecule across interfaces is depicted in Figure 1. As an example, we use the sample

• LUMO of PTCDA was found on Ag(111), but not on Au(111) [33]. Thus, the quenching on Ag(111) is directly understood by the static charge transfer seen in UPS. The quenching on Au(111), not as evident from UPS, demonstrates the sensitivity of FL spectroscopy to an overlap of wave functions of excited

Selective detection of complex gas mixtures using point contacts: concept, method and tools

• Alexander P. Pospelov,
• Victor I. Belan,
• Dmytro O. Harbuz,
• Volodymyr L. Vakula,
• Lyudmila V. Kamarchuk,
• Yuliya V. Volkova and
• Gennadii V. Kamarchuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1631–1643, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.146

• conductance result only from scattering processes of electrons in a nonequilibrium state [30]. In addition, the voltage sweep in the contact ranges widely and so does the excess energy of nonequilibrium electrons, which they can transfer as a result of the interaction. This allows us to effectively influence

• of the conduction electrons in a nonequilibrium state on adsorbed atoms, the transfer of the excess energy of electrons to the adsorbed atoms followed by their desorption, and the relaxation of the nonequilibrium distribution function of electrons in the contact, which results in a change in the

• energy state. This, in turn, happens due to the peculiarities of the electron transfer through the conduction channel of the point contact viewed as the elementary unit of the gas-sensitive array. This allows us to propose a method for detecting individual components of a complex gaseous medium by

PTCDA adsorption on CaF₂ thin films

• Philipp Rahe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1615–1622, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.144

• , coupling to defects within the CaF1 layer, or charge transfer into the LUMO. Imaging at a positive sample bias of +1.5 V was performed in constant-height mode as the reduced sample conductivity at positive bias impeded operation in constant-current mode. Still, conductivity through PTCDA molecules is also

Detecting stable adsorbates of (1S)-camphor on Cu(111) with Bayesian optimization

• Jari Järvi,
• Patrick Rinke and
• Milica Todorović

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1577–1589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.140

• fast to compute, but they cannot accurately model hybrid materials, in which atomic interactions often feature a mixture of covalent and dispersive bonding, with charge transfer and polarization effects. Instead, we must employ quantum mechanical methods, such as density-functional theory (DFT) [12][13

• adsorption on the electronic structure. The Mulliken analysis of partial charges in the relaxed structures (Figure 7a and Table 2), in comparison to the charge distribution of an isolated camphor molecule, shows electron transfer from the adsorbed camphor molecule to the Cu substrate. The electron transfer

• molecule centers there, and the methyl groups point sideways. The DOS of class Ox structures feature hybridization of the electronic states and the electron transfer from the molecule to the substrate is significantly larger than in class Hy structures, with the largest contribution per atom from O. This

Fabrication of nano/microstructures for SERS substrates using an electrochemical method

• Jingran Zhang,
• Tianqi Jia,
• Xiaoping Li,
• Junjie Yang,
• Zhengkai Li,
• Guangfeng Shi,
• Xinming Zhang and
• Zuobin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1568–1576, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.139

• Raman signal by several orders of magnitude. The functionality of SERS is due to a combination of surface electron movement in the substrate and charge transfer between substrate and the analyte molecules, in contrast to the typical signal intensity elicited during spontaneous Raman spectroscopy, which

Adsorption and self-assembly of porphyrins on ultrathin CoO films on Ir(100)

• Feifei Xiang,
• Tobias Schmitt,
• Marco Raschmann and
• M. Alexander Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1516–1524, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.134

• in the calculations, the true PDOS will deviate and conclusions have to be drawn with care. However, the work function of CoO is, with 5.85 eV (1BL) and 6.01 eV (2BL) [47], significantly higher than that of most metals. Following the arguments of Yang et al. [48], a charge transfer into unoccupied

Controlling the electronic and physical coupling on dielectric thin films

• Philipp Hurdax,
• Michael Hollerer,
• Larissa Egger,
• Georg Koller,
• Xiaosheng Yang,
• Anja Haags,
• Serguei Soubatch,
• Frank Stefan Tautz,
• Mathias Richter,
• Alexander Gottwald,
• Peter Puschnig,
• Martin Sterrer and
• Michael G. Ramsey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1492–1503, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.132

• (6P) on ultrathin MgO(100) films supported on Ag(100) is reported. By deliberately changing the work function of the MgO(100)/Ag(100) system, it is shown that the charge transfer (electronic coupling) into the 6P molecules can be controlled, and 6P monolayers with uncharged molecules (Schottky–Mott

• regime) and charged and uncharged molecules (Fermi level pinning regime) can be obtained. Furthermore, it was found that charge transfer and temperature strongly influence the orientation, conformation, and wetting behavior (physical coupling) of the 6P layers on the MgO(100) thin films. Keywords

• : decoupling; integer charge transfer; organic films; para-sexiphenyl; thin dielectric film; Introduction Since the first scanning tunneling microscope (STM) imaging of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of pentacene (5A) on NaCl/Cu(111) was

Self-assembly and spectroscopic fingerprints of photoactive pyrenyl tectons on hBN/Cu(111)

• Domenik M. Zimmermann,
• Knud Seufert,
• Luka Ðorđević,
• Tobias Hoh,
• Sushobhan Joshi,
• Tomas Marangoni,
• Davide Bonifazi and
• Willi Auwärter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1470–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.130

• ][33], decouple perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) aggregates [34], study interfacial charge transfer in binary phthalocyanine arrays [35], probe vibronic conductance in oligophenylenes [36], and control the charge state of F16CoPc [37]. Studies focusing on the preparation of coordination

• molecular adsorption (Figure S11, Supporting Information File 1), open-porous structures would feature a smaller work function shift compared to densely packed molecular films. In the absence of charge transfer, the work function was assumed to decrease upon the adsorption of pyrenes on hBN/Cu(111) [84

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

• Matías Guerrero Correa,
• Fernanda B. Martínez,
• Cristian Patiño Vidal,
• Camilo Streitt,
• Juan Escrig and
• Carol Lopez de Dicastillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1450–1469, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.129

• in microorganism-catalyzing metabolic reactions and are a fundamental part of cellular structures. Proteomic analysis has revealed deregulation in proteins involved in nitrogen metabolism, electron transfer, and substance transport in the presence of CuO NPs [164]. Silver ions released from Ag NPs

Triboelectric nanogenerator based on Teflon/vitamin B1 powder for self-powered humidity sensing

• Liangyi Zhang,
• Huan Li,
• Yiyuan Xie,
• Jing Guo and
• Zhiyuan Zhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1394–1401, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.123

• the Teflon membrane is separated in the absence of an external force. There is a positive charge transfer from the conductive copper foil tape at the bottom of the TVB-TENG, to the conductive copper foil tape at the top, leading to an electric field equilibrium due to electrostatic induction. As a

• result, a potential difference between the electrodes is generated. Subsequently, when the TVB-TENG is pressed again, an opposite potential difference is produced due to the triboelectrification principle. As such, there is a positive charge transfer from the top of the conductive copper foil tape of the

Transient coating of γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles with glutamate for its delivery to and removal from brain nerve terminals

• Konstantin Paliienko,
• Artem Pastukhov,
• Michal Babič,
• Daniel Horák,
• Olga Vasylchenko and
• Tatiana Borisova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1381–1393, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.122

• significant difference. Laser correlation spectroscopy diagrams. Distribution of γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (0.5 mg/mL) by intensity in (a) blood plasma and (b) after preliminary incubation with blood plasma followed by transfer into the standard salt solution. Each measurement was carried for a period of 1 min

Impact of fluorination on interface energetics and growth of pentacene on Ag(111)

• Qi Wang,
• Meng-Ting Chen,
• Antoni Franco-Cañellas,
• Bin Shen,
• Thomas Geiger,
• Holger F. Bettinger,
• Frank Schreiber,
• Ingo Salzmann,
• Alexander Gerlach and
• Steffen Duhm

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1361–1370, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.120

• charge transfer from the substrate [9][28]. This can be explained by the repulsive interaction of the fluorine atoms with the substrate, which leads to much larger vertical adsorption heights of PFP compared to PEN in monolayers on Cu(111) [9]. Ag(111) represents an intermediate case [55] with weak

• fluorinated PEN, namely 2,3,9,10-tetrafluoropentacene (F4PEN) [46][60][61]. F4PEN physisorbs on Au(111) [62] and chemisorbs on Cu(111), involving interfacial charge transfer and strong molecular distortions [63]. Here, we investigated the coupling with Ag(111) as we expected this to be an interesting

• contrast to the monolayers of PEN and PFP on graphite, with a likewise lying-down orientation and large differences in the HOMO positions [11][25][26]. In general, for a strong interfacial coupling and charge transfer, the resonance structure of the adsorbate in the monolayer can be notably different from

Controlling the proximity effect in a Co/Nb multilayer: the properties of electronic transport

• Sergey Bakurskiy,
• Mikhail Kupriyanov,
• Nikolay V. Klenov,
• Igor Soloviev,
• Andrey Schegolev,
• Roman Morari,
• Yury Khaydukov and
• Anatoli S. Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1336–1345, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.118

• previously [20]). The synapse modulates the “weight” of an arriving signal, which corresponds to the input current. The transfer function of this current transformer can be described as follows: where iin and iout stand for the normalized input/output current, respectively, Δl = l1 − l2 and Σl = l1 + l2; l1

• theoretical studies in the present article showed that it is possible to magnetically change the kinetic inductance of superconducting layers, and even transfer thin layers to a normal state at a fixed temperature. The experimental results showed that the transition of thin s-layers to the normal state in the

Effect of localized helium ion irradiation on the performance of synthetic monolayer MoS₂ field-effect transistors

• Jakub Jadwiszczak,
• Pierce Maguire,
• Conor P. Cullen,
• Georg S. Duesberg and
• Hongzhou Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1329–1335, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.117

• in MoS2 [11], as well as enhanced out-of-plane charge transfer in 2D graphene/WSe2 heterostructures [12]. Energetic light ions are known to preferentially sputter chalcogen atoms from TMDs while retaining an adequate micrometer-scale structural integrity for irradiation doses up to approx. 1016 ions

• monolayer MoS2 device. The output current (Ids) increases approx. fivefold for the same drain–source bias (Vds) when compared with the non-irradiated device. After the helium ion beam exposure, the transfer characteristics, Figure 1d, reveal a clearly reduced electrostatic response to the applied gate field

• recorded output and transfer characteristics in Figure 2a,b. The data are organized into three groups, marked blue, green, and red, corresponding to small (2–18%), medium (28–41%) and large (48–76%) IR values, respectively. The Ids–Vds curves, taken at Vg = 0 V, demonstrate an increase in the channel

Structural and electronic properties of SnO₂ doped with non-metal elements

• Jianyuan Yu,
• Yingeng Wang,
• Yan Huang,
• Xiuwen Wang,
• Jing Guo,
• Jingkai Yang and
• Hongli Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1321–1328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.116

• crystals effectively. In order to obtain information about charge transfer after doping, the secondary differential charge distribution of the elements was calculated and the results are shown in Figure 3. Compared with O, the ability of the doping atoms to accumulate charge is reduced. This provides more

Magnetohydrodynamic stagnation point on a Casson nanofluid flow over a radially stretching sheet

• Ganji Narender,
• Kamatam Govardhan and
• Gobburu Sreedhar Sarma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1303–1315, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.114

• FORTRAN. Nanoparticles have unique thermal and electrical properties which can improve heat transfer in nanofluids. The effects of pertinent flow parameters on the nondimensional velocity, temperature and concentration profiles are presented. Overall, the results show that the heat transfer rate increases

• for higher values of the radiation parameter in a Casson nanofluid. Keywords: Casson nanofluid; magnetohydrodynamics (MHD); stagnation point; thermal radiation; viscous dissipation; Introduction The heat transfer mechanism has been known for its significant importance in many fields of engineering

• colloidal mixture of nanoparticles and a base fluid. Evidence has shown that metallic particles transfer more heat energy as compared to nonmetallic particles. A Casson fluid is a non-Newtonian fluid in nature and therefore, behaves similarly to an elastic solid. When the stress rate is zero, the Casson

Structure and electrochemical performance of electrospun-ordered porous carbon/graphene composite nanofibers

• Yi Wang,
• Yanhua Song,
• Chengwei Ye and
• Lan Xu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1280–1290, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.112

• surface area of CGCNFs, thereby significantly increasing their specific capacitance. In addition, the ordering of CGCNFs within the electrode improved the electron transfer efficiency, resulting in a higher specific capacitance. Keywords: carbon/graphene composite nanofibers; carbonization

• after carbonization due to the combined effect of thermal drafting and chemical reaction. Given that there is an uneven heat transfer and diffusion during the carbonization process, the chemical structure of the CNFs is distributed along a radial gradient, resulting in a thermal drafting effect. As the

• adsorption and desorption nitrogen branches. In addition, the hysteresis loops in the P/P0 0.5–1.0 range demonstrated that the material had a significant mesoporous structure [38]. These porous structures are able to provide lower resistance channels and shorter transfer paths for ions in the electrolyte

Proximity effect in [Nb(1.5 nm)/Fe(x)]₁₀/Nb(50 nm) superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures

• Yury Khaydukov,
• Sabine Pütter,
• Laura Guasco,
• Roman Morari,
• Gideok Kim,
• Thomas Keller,
• Anatolie Sidorenko and
• Bernhard Keimer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1254–1263, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.109

• , respectively. Reflectometry data analysis To study the quality of layers and interfaces in a layered structure reflectometry techniques (X-ray or neutron) can be used. Using these methods, a reflectivity curve R(Q) is measured as a function of momentum transfer Q = 4πsin(θ)/λ. In the kinematical approximation

Hybridization vs decoupling: influence of an h-BN interlayer on the physical properties of a lander-type molecule on Ni(111)

• Maximilian Schaal,
• Takumi Aihara,
• Marco Gruenewald,
• Felix Otto,
• Jari Domke,
• Roman Forker,
• Hiroyuki Yoshida and
• Torsten Fritz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1168–1177, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.101

• charge transfer [1][2]. Some applications, however, require to preserve the intrinsic properties of the molecules such as the typically rather narrow optical absorption and/or emission bands. To achieve this, one needs to electronically decouple the molecules from the substrate, which can be achieved

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• experiments presented here, the LUMO experiences changes in its energy while the HOMO is essentially pinned, which at first sight contradicts the alignment of the orbitals with the vacuum level. However, C42H28 is an electron donor and has the propensity to transfer negative charge to the substrate, which

Photothermally active nanoparticles as a promising tool for eliminating bacteria and biofilms

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Laura D’Alfonso,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1134–1146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.98

• blue nanoparticles for bacteria and biofilm photothermal ablation has recently become a new research topic. Those nanoparticles strongly absorb in the range of 700–750 nm due to the metal-to-metal charge transfer between FeII and FeIII through the cyanide bridge [37]. The photothermally induced death

• NIR-photothermal ablation (>99.99%) of S. aureus both in biofilms and in infected tissues [98]. Molybdenum oxide nanoparticles display a strong absorption in the NIR region, originating from the intervalence charge-transfer transition between the Mo5+ and Mo6+ states [99]. Ag nanocubes supported on

Applications of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in drug and therapeutic delivery, and biotechnological advancements

• Maria Suciu,
• Corina M. Ionescu,
• Alexandra Ciorita,
• Septimiu C. Tripon,
• Dragos Nica,
• Hani Al-Salami and
• Lucian Barbu-Tudoran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1092–1109, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.94