First-principles study of the structure of water layers on flat and stepped Pb electrodes

• Xiaohang Lin,
• Ferdinand Evers and
• Axel Groß

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 533–543, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.47

• -structuring of water [44][45]. Furthermore, PBE does not yield the correct wetting behavior of water on metals [32]. Taking into account dispersion effects in the water–water and water–metal interactions remedies these deficiencies [32][33][46][47]. Still it has been found that the relative stability

Nanostructured surfaces by supramolecular self-assembly of linear oligosilsesquioxanes with biocompatible side groups

• Maria Nowacka,
• Anna Kowalewska and
• Tomasz Makowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2377–2387, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.244

• wt % solutions in THF; P2: 0.045 wt % solution in MeOH; immersion time ti = 5 s. Surface free energy of LPSQ-COOH/X coated on native mica determined by wetting angle measurements. ATR-FTIR spectra (1900–1150 cm−1 region) of TG, NAC and CA before (dotted lines) and after their adsorption on muscovite

• and P4 adsorbed on mica-NAC, as determined by wetting angle measurements. Synthesis of LPSQ-COOH/X. Functionalization of native mica by adsorption of N-acetylcysteine (NAC), citric acid (CA) and thioglycolic acid (TG). Composition of the prepared LPSQ-COOH/X. Supporting Information The supporting

Self-organization of gold nanoparticles on silanated surfaces

• Htet H. Kyaw,
• Salim H. Al-Harthi,
• Azzouz Sellai and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2345–2353, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.242

• . To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report and intensive analysis of self-organisation of AuNPs depending on different orientations of self-assembled APTES molecules on glass substrates. This was studied by observing coverage of AuNPs on glass substrate, difference in surface wetting and

• important role to change the surface wetting properties of the glass substrates leading to strong or weak bonding between APTES and metal nanoparticles like Au or Ag [25][26]. Wetting behavior of APTES-functionalized glass substrates Water contact angle (WCA) measurements were performed to study the surface

• wetting behavior of APTES-functionalized glass substrates. The corresponding WCAs are shown in Figure 3. Four different types of surface wetting properties were observed on the same APTES-functionalized substrate surfaces: hydrophilic surface with WCA of ca. 41° (Figure 3, type IV) was obtained due to the

Nanostructured superhydrophobic films synthesized by electrodeposition of fluorinated polyindoles

• Gabriela Ramos Chagas,
• Thierry Darmanin and
• Frédéric Guittard

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2078–2087, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.212

• wettability for any probe liquid, however, the highest normalized charge (100 mC·cm−2) presented the best results for wettability and roughness in almost all polyindoles. In order to explain the effects of the surface structures on the wetting properties, it is first necessary to prepare smooth substrates

• C6F13 fluorinated chains have also the highest oleophobicity even if the oil contact angles are relatively low. Indeed, two equations (the Wenzel and the Cassie–Baxter equation) [36][37] depending on θY are very often used to explain the effect of the surface roughness on the wetting properties. In the

• were obtained for C4F9 and C6F13 showing several differences mainly with the substituent position, affecting the surface morphology and the wetting properties. The best results were obtained with PIndole-6-F6 for which a superhydrophobic state with a self-cleaning condition and highly oleophobic

Two-phase equilibrium states in individual Cu–Ni nanoparticles: size, depletion and hysteresis effects

• Aram S. Shirinyan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1811–1820, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.185

• beginning (say, for solid Cu–Ni nanoparticle shown further there exists the wetting condition when the liquid layer covers the solid core or creates the liquid cap at the surface already at low temperatures). Let us call it the transition criterion. If one plots that composition X0 at T–X diagram then it

The Kirkendall effect and nanoscience: hollow nanospheres and nanotubes

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Ryusuke Nakamura and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1348–1361, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.139

• that the nanodroplet tends to split into multiple tiny dewetting metal bismuth nanodroplets. The droplets then migrate and aggregate on the curved inner surface of the oxide shell before the bismuth wets the surface again (between 410.4 and 413.6 s). They attributed this reversible wetting transition

• to the interplay between the surface tension of the metal bismuth present in a liquid phase and the curved inner surface of the oxide shell. It is also believed that the wetting behavior of bismuth on the inner surface of the oxide shell can be influenced by other parameters such as the vapor

Can molecular projected density of states (PDOS) be systematically used in electronic conductance analysis?

• Tonatiuh Rangel,
• Gian-Marco Rignanese and
• Valerio Olevano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1247–1259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.128

• molecular junctions in laboratories, such as electromigration methods, mechanical strain and scanning tunneling microscopy to open small gaps between gold leads that can host (with a small but non-negligible probability) single molecules from a wetting solution [1][2][3]. The complete characterization of

Pt- and Pd-decorated MWCNTs for vapour and gas detection at room temperature

• Hamdi Baccar,
• Atef Thamri,
• Pierrick Clément,
• Eduard Llobet and
• Adnane Abdelghani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 919–927, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.95

• temperature ensures the complete evaporation of the solvent in which carbon nanotubes are dispersed upon reaching the heated substrate. A lower temperature would result in solvent wetting of the substrate during the deposition, and a higher temperature would result in the solvent being totally evaporated

Capillary and van der Waals interactions on CaF₂ crystals from amplitude modulation AFM force reconstruction profiles under ambient conditions

• Annalisa Calò,
• Oriol Vidal Robles,
• Sergio Santos and
• Albert Verdaguer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 809–819, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.84

• interactions; CaF2 wetting; force reconstruction; Introduction The study of the forces and energies released when a nanometric tip and a surface are progressively brought into contact has driven much of the recent investigation in atomic force microscopy (AFM) and has allowed for the mapping of materials

Applications of three-dimensional carbon nanotube networks

• Manuela Scarselli,
• Paola Castrucci,
• Francesco De Nicola,
• Ilaria Cacciotti,
• Francesca Nanni,
• Emanuela Gatto,
• Mariano Venanzi and
• Maurizio De Crescenzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 792–798, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.82

• exerts on the liquid. The water drop can be viewed as sitting on a composite surface consisting of solid and air. Therefore, one can describe the wetting properties of the sponge surface in the super-hydrophobic regime using the Cassie-Baxter equation [20]: where and are the fractions of solid and air

Fundamental edge broadening effects during focused electron beam induced nanosynthesis

• Roland Schmied,
• Jason D. Fowlkes,
• Robert Winkler,
• Phillip D. Rack and
• Harald Plank

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 462–471, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.47

• latter experiments have been carried out at voltages between −12 and +12 V depending on the individual purpose. All AFM-based experiments have been performed in a glove box under inert nitrogen atmosphere, which reduces the H2O wetting layer on the surface, particularly beneficial for high-resolution KFM

In situ scanning tunneling microscopy study of Ca-modified rutile TiO₂(110) in bulk water

• Giulia Serrano,
• Beatrice Bonanni,
• Tomasz Kosmala,
• Marco Di Giovannantonio,
• Ulrike Diebold,
• Klaus Wandelt and
• Claudio Goletti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 438–443, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.44

• understanding of the system, leading to the optimization of many related applications. As an example, it was recently demonstrated that a low surface calcium coverage may increase the wetting energy and therefore the surface hydrophilicity of TiO2 surfaces [17]. This has very interesting implications for the

Exploiting the hierarchical morphology of single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotube films for highly hydrophobic coatings

• Francesco De Nicola,
• Paola Castrucci,
• Manuela Scarselli,
• Francesca Nanni,
• Ilaria Cacciotti and
• Maurizio De Crescenzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 353–360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.34

• Istituto di Struttura della Materia, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ISM-CNR), Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00100 Roma, Italy 10.3762/bjnano.6.34 Abstract Self-assembled hierarchical solid surfaces are very interesting for wetting phenomena, as observed in a variety of natural and artificial

• (contact angles of up to 137°) than bare SWCNT (110°) and MWCNT (97°) coatings, thereby confirming the enhancement produced by the surface hierarchical morphology. Keywords: hierarchical structures; hydrophobic surfaces; multi-walled carbon nanotube; single-walled carbon nanotube; wetting transitions

• of water [9]. In particular, hierarchical surface morphologies are a recent concept introduced to explain the wetting properties of surfaces such as plant leaves [2][3], bird feathers [10], and insect legs [11]. These surfaces are made of a hierarchical micro- and nanomorphology which improves their

Mechanical properties of MDCK II cells exposed to gold nanorods

• Anna Pietuch,
• Bastian Rouven Brückner,
• David Schneider,
• Marco Tarantola,
• Christina Rosman,
• Carsten Sönnichsen and
• Andreas Janshoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 223–231, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.21

• to shapes that can best be described as capped spheres with initial contact (wetting) angles around 0 = 60°. Quartz Crystal Microbalance Quartz crystal microbalance in dissipation mode (D-QCM) measurements were carried out as described before [14]. In brief, changes in resonance frequency and

Boosting the local anodic oxidation of silicon through carbon nanofiber atomic force microscopy probes

• Gemma Rius,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Soichiro Matsui,
• Masaki Tanemura and
• Francesc Perez-Murano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 215–222, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.20

• positively biased [9]. Typical anodic currents are of the order of nanoamperes [10] and their efficiency depends on various conditions, which concern the tip, (e.g., conductance and shape) the tip–sample interplay, (e.g., distance and wetting), and other factors such as sample surface texture or wetting. All

Kelvin probe force microscopy in liquid using electrochemical force microscopy

• Liam Collins,
• Stephen Jesse,
• Jason I. Kilpatrick,
• Alexander Tselev,
• M. Baris Okatan,
• Sergei V. Kalinin and
• Brian J. Rodriguez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 201–214, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.19

• properties at the solid–liquid interface. Keywords: diffuse charge dynamics; double layer charging; electrochemical force microscopy; electrochemistry; Kelvin probe force microscopy; Introduction Many important physical, chemical and biological processes including wetting, adsorption, electronic transfer

Size-dependent density of zirconia nanoparticles

• Agnieszka Opalinska,
• Iwona Malka,
• Wojciech Dzwolak,
• Tadeusz Chudoba,
• Adam Presz and
• Witold Lojkowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 27–35, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.4

• films depends on the number of surface –OH groups. Moreover, the –OH groups on the nanomaterial surface can influence the surface reactivity and wetting [26]. Since hydroxy groups greatly affect the properties of zirconia nanoparticles, detecting their surface concentration and optimizing the synthesis

Exploring plasmonic coupling in hole-cap arrays

• Thomas M. Schmidt,
• Maj Frederiksen,
• Vladimir Bochenkov and
• Duncan S. Sutherland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.1

• heating the particles to temperatures close to and above the glass transition of polystyrene to allow reshaping of the colloid giving increased wetting of the silica surface and thereby reducing the vertical distance between the caps and holes. Any coupling between caps and hole arrays should be strongly

Si/Ge intermixing during Ge Stranski–Krastanov growth

• Alain Portavoce,
• Khalid Hoummada,
• Antoine Ronda,
• Dominique Mangelinck and
• Isabelle Berbezier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2374–2382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.246

• concentration of about 15 atom %. The Ge distribution in the islands follows a cylindrical symmetry and Ge segregation is observed only in the {113} facets of the islands. The Ge composition of the wetting layer is not homogeneous, varying from 5 to 30 atom %. Keywords: atom probe tomography; germanium islands

• ][2][3][4][5][6][35], the composition and the thickness of the wetting layer (WL) are still under discussion due to Si/Ge intermixing during growth [10][11][25]. In the present work, pulsed laser atom probe tomography (APT) has been used to quantitatively study (at the atomic scale and in the 3D space

• ) and perpendicular to a {113} facet (solid line). In both profiles, the surface wetting layer, with a Ge composition of about 10 atom %, can be observed. In the case of the {111} facet, the Ge concentration in the island is almost constant, at approximately 14 atom %. The {113} facet also exhibits a

Inorganic Janus particles for biomedical applications

• Isabel Schick,
• Steffen Lorenz,
• Dominik Gehrig,
• Stefan Tenzer,
• Wiebke Storck,
• Karl Fischer,
• Dennis Strand,
• Frédéric Laquai and
• Wolfgang Tremel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2346–2362, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.244

• easily be transferred to Janus particles: Independently, which metal oxide was grown on gold seeds, the metal oxide domain could be encapsulated selectively by SiO2 using a reverse microemulsion technique (Scheme 1) [38][39]. Due to the different chemical wetting behavior of gold and the metal oxide

Liquid-phase exfoliated graphene: functionalization, characterization, and applications

• Mildred Quintana,
• Jesús Iván Tapia and
• Maurizio Prato

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2328–2338, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.242

• graphene sheets. For example, graphene can be produced by supercritical solvent exfoliation of graphite. In this procedure, solvents reach or exceed their critical point, presenting outstanding wetting properties, low interfacial tension, low viscosity, and high diffusion coefficients. Under these

UHV deposition and characterization of a mononuclear iron(III) β-diketonate complex on Au(111)

• Irene Cimatti,
• Silviya Ninova,
• Valeria Lanzilotto,
• Luigi Malavolti,
• Luca Rigamonti,
• Brunetto Cortigiani,
• Matteo Mannini,
• Elena Magnano,
• Federica Bondino,
• Federico Totti,
• Andrea Cornia and
• Roberta Sessoli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2139–2148, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.223

• same units (see Figure S1 in Supporting Information File 1). The situation is different for STM images corresponding to the saturation coverage, that is, t6 and t7 (see Figure 6). Both samples are characterized by a wetting layer whose dendritic morphology is reminiscent of the second layer disordered

• coverages on top of a wetting layer. The comparison of the experimental topography with DFT-simulated STM images of the pristine Fe(dpm)3 complex, as well as those of two possible fragments, suggests that the observed tetra-lobed features are compatible with the formation of Fe(dpm)2 species on the surface

Properties of plasmonic arrays produced by pulsed-laser nanostructuring of thin Au films

• Katarzyna Grochowska,
• Katarzyna Siuzdak,
• Peter A. Atanasov,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Anna Dikovska,
• Nikolay N. Nedyalkov and
• Gerard Śliwiński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2102–2112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.219

• nanostructuring, the grainy, thin metal film sputtered onto the substrate (e.g., glass, ITO, or Si) is melted and fragmented by irradiation with laser pulses under defined conditions. The film fragmentation starts at the grain boundaries. The poor wetting of the substrate by the liquid metal, in this case Au, and

• postulated how the NP shapes depend on the equilibrium of the surface tension forces [34]. The partially spherical/spheroidal shapes correspond to the case of partial wetting of the substrate by the molten metal and are characterized by a contact angle value of less than 90°. This angle approaches 180° in

• the case of weak wetting, that is, with a decrease in the metal–substrate interface. While a variety of NP shapes can be easily considered by means of numerical methods (see, e.g., the results discussed in [35][36]), analytical approaches based on Mie theory with a Drude model of the metallic sphere

Nanomanipulation and environmental nanotechnology

• Enrico Gnecco,
• Andre Schirmeisen,
• Carlos M. Pina and
• Udo Becker

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2079–2080, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.216

• processes. For example, the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants can be interpreted using density functional theory. On a different scale, AFM measurements in liquid environments can be supported by advanced contact mechanics models including the squeeze-out of wetting fluids. Adhesion of fluorite

Cathode lens spectromicroscopy: methodology and applications

• T. O. Menteş,
• G. Zamborlini,
• A. Sala and
• A. Locatelli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1873–1886, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.198

• micrometer-sized Fe3O4 islands on a FeO wetting layer. The combination of spatially-resolved XPS and XAS spectra, along with μ-LEED patterns, allowed the unequivocal identification of the specific iron-oxide phases. From the screening of substrate core-level photoelectrons, the thickness of the micrometer

• . In the above example of FeOx growth on Ru(0001), further oxidation by using NO2 as atomic oxygen source resulted in the transformation of the FeO wetting layer to hematite (α-Fe2O3) and the triangular Fe3O4 islands to maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) [71]. In an independent study, the real-time observation of

• islands and the FeO wetting layer on Ru(0001). Top panels show the island and magnetization distribution within a region of 30 μm diameter, illuminated homogeneously by vertically scanning the photon beam during acquisition. Bottom panels