Magnesium batteries: Current state of the art, issues and future perspectives

• Rana Mohtadi and
• Fuminori Mizuno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1291–1311, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.143

• fascinating advancements in Li-ion batteries have resulted in a state of the art battery which uses graphitized carbon as the anode, a transition metal oxide as the cathode, coupled such that 240 Wh kg−1, 640 Wh L−1 are provided for thousands of cycles [1]. The wide spread use of Li-ion battery, has been and

Characterization and photocatalytic study of tantalum oxide nanoparticles prepared by the hydrolysis of tantalum oxo-ethoxide Ta₈(μ₃-O)₂(μ-O)₈(μ-OEt)₆(OEt)₁₄

• Subia Ambreen,
• N D Pandey,
• Peter Mayer and
• Ashutosh Pandey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1082–1090, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.121

• is available concerning the progressive structural evolution in the transition metal oxide system in general. But sometimes new species, metal oxo-alkoxides [5][6][7][8][9], are obtained which have been known to be the direct molecular precursors for oxide phases in sol–gel technology. These oxo

• properties of metal oxo-alkoxides are decided by the degree of hydrolysis and the nature of the alkyl group. There is a tendency for lower volatility and solubility with higher degrees of hydrolysis and, therefore, oligomerization. Amongst the transition metal oxides, Ta2O5 has attracted growing interest due

Integration of ZnO and CuO nanowires into a thermoelectric module

• Dario Zappa,
• Simone Dalola,
• Guido Faglia,
• Elisabetta Comini,
• Matteo Ferroni,
• Caterina Soldano,
• Vittorio Ferrari and
• Giorgio Sberveglieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 927–936, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.106

• , respectively (being T the temperature). State-of-the-art bulk materials-based thermoelectric generators have been demonstrated to possibly reach energy conversion efficiency values of 5.2% and higher, with materials characterized by a ZT factor approaching a unitary value [3][4]. Transition metal oxides (TMOs

Nanostructure sensitization of transition metal oxides for visible-light photocatalysis

• Hongjun Chen and
• Lianzhou Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 696–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.82

• photocatalysts has recently attracted a lot of interest. The photosensitization of transition metal oxides is a promising approach for achieving effective visible-light photocatalysis. This review article primarily discusses the recent progress in the realm of a variety of nanostructured photosensitizers such as

• quantum dots, plasmonic metal nanostructures, and carbon nanostructures for coupling with wide-bandgap transition metal oxides to design better visible-light active photocatalysts. The underlying mechanisms of the composite photocatalysts, e.g., the light-induced charge separation and the subsequent

• dots; transition metal oxides; visible-light photocatalysis; Introduction In response to the decreasing supply of fossil fuels and the environmental problems caused by their exploitation, the search for a renewable and sustainable energy supply has been intensified in the past decades. Solar energy is

Towards precise defect control in layered oxide structures by using oxide molecular beam epitaxy

• Federico Baiutti,
• Georg Christiani and
• Gennady Logvenov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 596–602, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.70

• . The transition metal Nickel (Ni) can have several valence states, Ni1+, Ni2+ and Ni3+. Since La2NiO4 is one of the Ruddlesden–Popper phases An+1BnO3n+1 with n = 1, it is challenging to grow it as a single phase without the intergrowth of other phases. Here we report that, by using our ALL-oxide MBE

CoPc and CoPcF₁₆ on gold: Site-specific charge-transfer processes

• Fotini Petraki,
• Heiko Peisert,
• Johannes Uihlein,
• Umut Aygül and
• Thomas Chassé

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 524–531, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.61

• light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, solar cells, and spintronic devices have been in the focus of research [1][2][3][4]. For several transition metal phthalocyanine (TMPc) layers on noble metal surfaces (e.g., Au and Ag) a charge transfer toward the central metal atom has been reported

Thermal stability and reduction of iron oxide nanowires at moderate temperatures

• Annalisa Paolone,
• Marco Angelucci,
• Stefania Panero,
• Maria Grazia Betti and
• Carlo Mariani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 323–328, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.36

• energy-density is leading to the development of nanostructured metal oxides [2][3][4], because the nanostructuring allows a high specific capacity [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. These considerations brought the development of a new variety of transition metal oxide based systems [14][15][16][17][18][19

Interaction of iron phthalocyanine with the graphene/Ni(111) system

• Lorenzo Massimi,
• Simone Lisi,
• Daniela Pacilè,
• Carlo Mariani and
• Maria Grazia Betti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 308–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.34

• ; graphene; molecule–substrate interaction; Introduction The interest in the preparation of ordered layers of organic molecules is rapidly growing, because of the possibility to realize advanced electronic- and spin-based devices [1][2][3]. Transition-metal phthalocyanines (MPcs) are planar molecules that

Extracellular biosynthesis of gadolinium oxide (Gd₂O₃) nanoparticles, their biodistribution and bioconjugation with the chemically modified anticancer drug taxol

• Shadab Ali Khan,
• Sanjay Gambhir and
• Absar Ahmad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 249–257, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.27

• absorption peak at ca. 325 nm. This edge may be attributed to d–d and f–f transitions occurring in mixed valence transition metal compounds [24]. Figure 2A represents the transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image of the fungus–GdCl3 reaction mixture after 96 h of reaction. The particles are irregular in

Confinement dependence of electro-catalysts for hydrogen evolution from water splitting

• Mikaela Lindgren and
• Itai Panas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 195–201, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.21

• efficiencies of transition metals decorated with hydroxide interfaces in facilitating the electro-catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. A computational strategy is developed to select an electro-catalyst for hydrogen evolution (HE), where the choice of a transition metal catalyst is guided by the confining

• grain boundaries, see Figure 1a, These hydroxide ions subsequently react with transition metal decorated sites (see Figure 1a) and zirconium metal to produce ZrO2 in conjunction with transient transition metal associated hydride-proton (hydroxide) pairs (see Figure 1b) to restore the ZrO2 grain boundary

• 44% hydrogen pick-up fraction of pure zirconium (corresponding to the black horizontal dashed line at 1.5 eV/H2) and model calculations for the hydride-proton recombination energetics employing the inert Na+, Ca2+, and Sc3+ as "dummy" ions in the positions of the transition metal ions (see the three

3D-nanoarchitectured Pd/Ni catalysts prepared by atomic layer deposition for the electrooxidation of formic acid

• Loïc Assaud,
• Evans Monyoncho,
• Kristina Pitzschel,
• Anis Allagui,
• Matthieu Petit,
• Margrit Hanbücken,
• Elena A. Baranova and
• Lionel Santinacci

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 162–172, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.16

• response in H2SO4. The obtained results (overpotential for the oxidation of formic acid) are in a good agreement with the literature data reported for Pd/transition metal systems prepared by other techniques [10][13]. The mass activity of the Pd systems decreases to about one fourth from 40 to 145 ALD

• electrooxidation of formic acid, the activity is still not satisfactory enough for commercial applications and more importantly, Pd tends to dissolve and deactivate quickly by the impurities present in the electrolyte [9]. Additionally, reducing the noble metal loading by alloying Pd with a second cheap transition

• metal is essential for a viable development of DFAFCs. In recent studies, several metals such as Cu, Ni, Fe or Pt alloyed with Pd have been tested [10][11][12][13] for the electrooxidation reaction of HCOOH, and have shown a significant increase of the catalytic activity when compared to pure Pd

Quantum size effects in TiO₂ thin films grown by atomic layer deposition

• Massimo Tallarida,
• Chittaranjan Das and
• Dieter Schmeisser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 77–82, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.7

• characterization in an in situ ALD system, where the freshly deposited thin films were transported into the measurement chamber without breaking the vacuum [12][13]. The XAS of 3d transition metal (TM) oxides at the O-K and the TM-L2,3 edges is a very important tool to determine their electronic and structural

Design criteria for stable Pt/C fuel cell catalysts

• Josef C. Meier,
• Carolina Galeano,
• Ioannis Katsounaros,
• Jonathon Witte,
• Hans J. Bongard,
• Angel A. Topalov,
• Claudio Baldizzone,
• Stefano Mezzavilla,
• Ferdi Schüth and
• Karl J. J. Mayrhofer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 44–67, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.5

• , particle growth is present for the Pt/C 3 nm catalyst, and even stronger particle growth can be found for the Pt/LSA-C II and Pt/graph-C materials. Pt/LSA-C II is described as a catalyst with a transition-metal modified low surface area (LSA) carbon support, while Pt/graph-C is a catalyst with a

Synthesis and electrochemical performance of Li₂Co_1−xM_xPO₄F (M = Fe, Mn) cathode materials

• Nellie R. Khasanova,
• Oleg A. Drozhzhin,
• Stanislav S. Fedotov,
• Darya A. Storozhilova,
• Rodion V. Panin and
• Evgeny V. Antipov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 860–867, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.97

• materials that operate at high voltages, and/or by increasing the specific capacity with materials that could cycle more than one Li atom per active transition metal atom. In this respect, fluorophosphates of the general formula A2MPO4F seem to be very attractive since they are expected to exhibit a high

• solution. This finding might be explained by differences in the sizes of transition metal ions: Apparently, the structure framework becomes unstable upon higher substitution of Co2+ (0.735 Å) by larger Fe2+ (0.780 Å) and Mn2+ (0.820 Å) [15]. Indeed, while Li2MPO4F (M = Co, Ni) can be obtained by direct

• question about a possible fine tuning of the operating voltage of this fluorophosphate family through substitutions on the transition metal site. Conclusion New fluorophosphates, Li2Co1−xMnxPO4F and Li2Co1−xFexPO4F, were successfully synthesized and investigated. Both systems exhibited narrow ranges of

Spin relaxation in antiferromagnetic Fe–Fe dimers slowed down by anisotropic Dy^III ions

• Valeriu Mereacre,
• Frederik Klöwer,
• Yanhua Lan,
• Rodolphe Clérac,
• Juliusz A. Wolny,
• Volker Schünemann,
• Christopher E. Anson and
• Annie K. Powell

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 807–814, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.92

• huge Ising-type magnetic anisotropy of many lanthanide ions, which can be controlled by designing the ligand field, can slow down the relaxation of magnetisation and can be an effective source for the modulation of properties of transition metal molecular magnets [1]. The anisotropy of the lanthanide

Influence of particle size and fluorination ratio of CF_x precursor compounds on the electrochemical performance of C–FeF₂ nanocomposites for reversible lithium storage

• Ben Breitung,
• M. Anji Reddy,
• Venkata Sai Kiran Chakravadhanula,
• Michael Engel,
• Christian Kübel,
• Annie K. Powell,
• Horst Hahn and
• Maximilian Fichtner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 705–713, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.80

• demonstrated by Poizot et al. who used transition-metal oxides as anode materials [9]. Metal fluorides are also prominent examples as they reversibly react with lithium at relatively high voltages so that they can be used as cathode materials [5][8][12][13][14][15][16]. Fluorine is the lightest and smallest

• the electrochemical performance of the metal fluoride conversion systems [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Recently, conversion systems with excellent cyclic stabilities were synthesized through the pyrolysis of metallocenes with LiF, in which agglomerates of LiF and transition

• metal nanoparticles encapsulated in layers of graphitic carbon were formed. The agglomerates are interlinked by multiwall carbon nanotubes which are formed in situ [34][35][36]. Although these systems enhanced the cycling stability of the conversion reaction greatly because of the tight embedding of

Ultramicrosensors based on transition metal hexacyanoferrates for scanning electrochemical microscopy

• Maria A. Komkova,
• Angelika Holzinger,
• Andreas Hartmann,
• Alexei R. Khokhlov,
• Christine Kranz,
• Arkady A. Karyakin and
• Oleg G. Voronin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 649–654, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.72

Characterization of electroforming-free titanium dioxide memristors

• John Paul Strachan,
• J. Joshua Yang,
• L. A. Montoro,
• C. A. Ospina,
• A. J. Ramirez,
• A. L. D. Kilcoyne,
• Gilberto Medeiros-Ribeiro and
• R. Stanley Williams

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 467–473, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.55

• dramatically reduced microphysical changes after electrical operation. Keywords: electron microscopy; memristor; resistance switching; transition-metal oxide; X-ray spectroscopy; Introduction A memristor is a passive electronic element that displays a pinched hysteresis loop in its current–voltage

Structural and thermoelectric properties of TMGa₃ (TM = Fe, Co) thin films

• Sebastian Schnurr,
• Ulf Wiedwald,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Valeriy Y. Verchenko and
• Andrei V. Shevelkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 461–466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.54

• semiconductors, at least as bulk samples. The formation of the band gap in the isostructural compounds FeGa3, RuGa3 and RuIn3 originates from the hybridization of the narrow d-bands of the transition metal (TM) with rather broad p-bands of the group-III elements. In particular, such a hybridization also produces

Synthesis and thermoelectric properties of Re₃As_6.6In_0.4 with Ir₃Ge₇ crystal structure

• Valeriy Y. Verchenko,
• Anton S. Vasiliev,
• Alexander A. Tsirlin,
• Vladimir A. Kulbachinskii,
• Vladimir G. Kytin and
• Andrei V. Shevelkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 446–452, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.52

• shown promising ZT values. All members of the Ir3Ge7 family crystallize in the cubic space group Im−3m and feature the M–M dumbbells inside the Archimedean antiprism of the non-transition-element atoms. The strong hybridization of the transition-metal d-orbitals with the p-orbitals of a non-transition

Magnetic anisotropy of graphene quantum dots decorated with a ruthenium adatom

• Igor Beljakov,
• Velimir Meded,
• Franz Symalla,
• Karin Fink,
• Sam Shallcross and
• Wolfgang Wenzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 441–445, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.51

• decoration of a graphene sheet by magnetic transition-metal adatoms, utilizing the high in-plane versus out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE), has recently been proposed. This concept is extended in our density-functional-based modeling study by incorporating the influence of the graphene edge on the

• close to the edge, while the opposite is true for the zigzag edge. Additionally, in-plane pinning of the magnetization direction perpendicular to the edge itself is observed for the first time. Keywords: adsorbate; grapheme; graphene quantum dot; magnetic anisotropy; transition metal; Introduction

• experimentally [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. High magnetic anisotropies were predicted for graphene decorated with transition-metal (TM) adatoms and dimers [12][13]. Inspired by its application potential in the fields of spintronics and magnetic storage as well as fundamental science, a number of works were

Kelvin probe force microscopy of nanocrystalline TiO₂ photoelectrodes

• Alex Henning,
• Gino Günzburger,
• Res Jöhr,
• Yossi Rosenwaks,
• Biljana Bozic-Weber,
• Catherine E. Housecroft,
• Edwin C. Constable,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 418–428, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.49

• electrons diffuse toward the SnO2:F substrate and establish the photovoltage. The most frequently used dye complexes contain less-abundant transition metal elements such as ruthenium. Complexes of earth-abundant metals such as zinc and copper are candidates to replace the more expensive ruthenium dyes [9

Ferromagnetic behaviour of Fe-doped ZnO nanograined films

• Boris B. Straumal,
• Svetlana G. Protasova,
• Andrei A. Mazilkin,
• Thomas Tietze,
• Eberhard Goering,
• Gisela Schütz,
• Petr B. Straumal and
• Brigitte Baretzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 361–369, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.42

• (especially ZnO) with “magnetic” atoms such as Co, Mn, or Fe. Such transition-metal (TM) ions induce FM ordering into a magnetically polarized oxide lattice modified by doping. After publication of their paper [1] a lot of theoretical and experimental works were carried out in order to find the “promised” FM

A facile approach to nanoarchitectured three-dimensional graphene-based Li–Mn–O composite as high-power cathodes for Li-ion batteries

• Wenyu Zhang,
• Yi Zeng,
• Chen Xu,
• Ni Xiao,
• Yiben Gao,
• Lain-Jong Li,
• Xiaodong Chen,
• Huey Hoon Hng and
• Qingyu Yan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 513–523, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.59

• . As a material with high electrical conductivity and large surface area [19][20][21][22], graphene has attracted much attention for battery electrode applications. The hybrids of transition-metal-oxide nanocrystals attached onto graphene sheets have shown much improvement of LIB anode performance [23

Generation and agglomeration behaviour of size-selected sub-nm iron clusters as catalysts for the growth of carbon nanotubes

• Ravi Joshi,
• Benjamin Waldschmidt,
• Jörg Engstler,
• Rolf Schäfer and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 734–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.80

• crucially their physical and electronic properties. High quality single-walled and double-walled CNTs are currently prepared on a large scale with the aid of nm-sized transition metal catalysts, by using high-temperature chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques above 750 °C, despite the fact that several