Oblique angle deposition of nickel thin films by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

• Hamidreza Hajihoseini,
• Movaffaq Kateb,
• Snorri Þorgeir Ingvarsson and
• Jon Tomas Gudmundsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1914–1921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.186

• was 25 cm. We used thermally oxidized Si(001) with an oxide thickness of 100 nm as substrates. However, for the scanning electron microscopy studies, Si(001) substrates with native oxide were used in order to eliminate the charging effect. All films were deposited at room temperature (25 °C) with a

Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• . Prior to deposition, the substrate was etched with 2 M hydrofluoric acid (HF) for 120 s to remove native oxide. For the SiGe films, co-sputtering was carried out from individual targets of (6N purity) Si and Ge. Deposition of Si was carried out via dcMS at 180 W, whereas Ge was sputtered via HiPIMS

Precise local control of liquid crystal pretilt on polymer layers by focused ion beam nanopatterning

• Maxim V. Gorkunov,
• Irina V. Kasyanova,
• Vladimir V. Artemov,
• Alena V. Mamonova and
• Serguei P. Palto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1691–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.164

• particular LC alignments are highly valuable. Thin polymer layers induce either vertical alignment of nematic LCs, with the director oriented orthogonally to the interface plane, or planar alignment, with the director aligned in parallel to this plane. It was empirically established half a century ago that

Development of a new hybrid approach combining AFM and SEM for the nanoparticle dimensional metrology

• Loïc Crouzier,
• Alexandra Delvallée,
• Sébastien Ducourtieux,
• Laurent Devoille,
• Guillaume Noircler,
• Christian Ulysse,
• Olivier Taché,
• Elodie Barruet,
• Christophe Tromas and
• Nicolas Feltin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1523–1536, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.150

• formed by four crosses with a letter (from A to Y) nearby (Figure 3) for an easy localization of NPs to be analyzed. The distance between two crosses is 15 µm to allow the AFM to scan a complete square on a single image. As detailed above, the production method is based on lithography using a direct

Growth of lithium hydride thin films from solutions: Towards solution atomic layer deposition of lithiated films

• Ivan Kundrata,
• Karol Fröhlich,
• Lubomír Vančo,
• Matej Mičušík and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.142

• line, and only afterwards was the chamber opened. Since the deposition took place on the entire chamber, the film deposited on the glass slide could be used for further analysis. The chamber had to be cleaned with nitric acid after every deposition. Substrates of Si with native oxide and Pt/Si were

Gas sensing properties of individual SnO₂ nanowires and SnO₂ sol–gel nanocomposites

• Alexey V. Shaposhnik,
• Dmitry A. Shaposhnik,
• Sergey Yu. Turishchev,
• Olga A. Chuvenkova,
• Stanislav V. Ryabtsev,
• Alexey A. Vasiliev,
• Xavier Vilanova,
• Francisco Hernandez-Ramirez and
• Joan R. Morante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1380–1390, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.136

• spherical nanoparticles. The first nanowires were synthesized in the 1960s, but their widespread application only started in the beginning of the 21st century, when advancements in technology required the development of a wide range of nanomaterials and new methods for their treatment. The basic method for

• structure density of states is typical of native SnO2-x oxide covering the surface of pure metallic tin foils [37][38] and was confirmed for SnO2 powder samples by the presence of noticeable amounts of oxygen vacancies (Figure 7). XANES oxygen lines near K-edge spectra are presented in Figure 8. The fine

Janus-micromotor-based on–off luminescence sensor for active TNT detection

• Ye Yuan,
• Changyong Gao,
• Daolin Wang,
• Chang Zhou,
• Baohua Zhu and
• Qiang He

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1324–1331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.131

• luminescence was measured using a HORIBA Jobin Yvon FluoroMax-4 spectrophotometer with a 980 nm diode laser at a power of 1 W cm−2 (Shanghai Laser & Optics Century Co. Ltd). (a) Schematic representation of the fabrication process of Janus UCNP-modified polyelectrolyte capsule motors. (b) TEM images, (c) FTIR

Imaging the surface potential at the steps on the rutile TiO₂(110) surface by Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Masato Miyazaki,
• Huan Fei Wen,
• Quanzhen Zhang,
• Yuuki Adachi,
• Jan Brndiar,
• Ivan Štich,
• Yan Jun Li and
• Yasuhiro Sugawara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1228–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.122

• (1 keV, 6.7 × 10−7 mbar, 5 min) and annealing (600 K, less than 2.7 × 10−10 mbar, 20 min) to remove the native oxide layer and other contaminants. A clean rutile TiO2(110) crystal (provided by Furuuchi Chemical Corporation) was prepared by dozens of cycles of Ar+ sputtering (1 keV, 1.3 × 10−6 mbar

CuInSe₂ quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy on amorphous SiO₂ surfaces

• Henrique Limborço,
• Pedro M.P. Salomé,
• Rodrigo Ribeiro-Andrade,
• Jennifer P. Teixeira,
• Nicoleta Nicoara,
• Kamal Abderrafi,
• Joaquim P. Leitão,
• Juan C. Gonzalez and
• Sascha Sadewasser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1103–1111, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.110

• preparation The samples presented in this work were grown in a molecular beam epitaxy system (Omicron EVO 50) by evaporating high-purity solid precursors. Nanodots were grown on Si(100) with an approximately 1.6 nm thick layer of native SiO2. The substrates were outgassed at 600 °C for 10 min before the

• typically produces films with a thickness of 50–70 nm. Results and Discussion We prepared three samples grown on Si(100) substrates with a ca. 1.6 nm layer of native SiO2 using exactly the same evaporation fluxes but at different substrate growth temperatures (TG) of 490, 530, and 580 °C. Figure 1 shows

Enhanced inhibition of influenza virus infection by peptide–noble-metal nanoparticle conjugates

• Zaid K. Alghrair,
• David G. Fernig and
• Bahram Ebrahimi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1038–1047, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.104

• together, these data indicate that the potency of FluPep ligand on the nanoparticles is greater than that of free FluPep ligand and of the native FluPep peptide (inset of Figure 3 and Table 1). Stability of FluPep functionalised silver nanoparticles Silver has well-established antimicrobial properties [33

Magnetic field-assisted assembly of iron oxide mesocrystals: a matter of nanoparticle shape and magnetic anisotropy

• Julian J. Brunner,
• Marina Krumova,
• Helmut Cölfen and
• Elena V. Sturm (née Rosseeva)

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 894–900, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.90

• Julian J. Brunner Marina Krumova Helmut Colfen Elena V. Sturm (nee Rosseeva) University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.10.90 Abstract This letter describes the formation and detailed characterization of iron oxide mesocrystals produced by the directed assembly of superparamagnetic

On the transformation of “zincone”-like into porous ZnO thin films from sub-saturated plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

• Alberto Perrotta,
• Julian Pilz,
• Stefan Pachmajer,
• Antonella Milella and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 746–759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.74

• the software CompleteEASE®. The thickness was determined by applying a three-layer model consisting of a silicon substrate, a native silicon-oxide layer with a fixed thickness of 1.5–2.0 nm, and a Cauchy layer, as follows in which n is the wavelength-dependent refractive index, λ is the wavelength and

Mechanical and thermodynamic properties of Aβ₄₂, Aβ₄₀, and α-synuclein fibrils: a coarse-grained method to complement experimental studies

• Adolfo B. Poma,
• Horacio V. Guzman,
• Mai Suan Li and
• Panagiotis E. Theodorakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 500–513, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.51

• kcal/mol/rad2 and = 5.0 kcal/mol/rad2. The choice of equilibrium values r0, θ0, and are based on two, three, and four α-C atoms, respectively, and are meant to favour the native geometry. The fourth term on the right-hand side of Equation 1 takes into account the non-bonded contact interactions

• capsids [35] and β-amyloids [36]. The strength of the repulsive non-native term, ε’, is set equal to ε. Our CG model takes into account native distances as in the case of a Gō-like model [37]. Hence, the native contacts are determined by the overlap criterion [48]. In practice, each heavy atom is assigned

• to a van der Waals radius, as proposed by Tsai and co-workers [49]. A sphere with the radius enlarged by a factor of 1.24 is built around the atom. If two amino acids have heavy atoms with overlapping spheres, then we consider a native contact between those two Cα atoms. In Figure 2, we show the CG

Gold nanoparticles embedded in a polymer as a 3D-printable dichroic nanocomposite material

• Lars Kool,
• Anton Bunschoten,
• Aldrik H. Velders and
• Vittorio Saggiomo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 442–447, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.43

• , nanoparticles received the lion’s share, conferring shiny colors to pottery and glass in different eras. Copper nanoparticles, for example, have been found in red glass from the late Bronze Age, 1200–1000 BCE [2]. The use of nanoparticles as a colorant boomed around the 4th century CE within the Roman empire

• 4th century puzzled scientists for long time: The Lycurgus cup [7]. This cup has a very peculiar dichroic filter property [8], as its color is dependent on the illumination angle, changing from clear red (transmittance) to opaque green (reflectance). It was later found that this optical property was

• modifying 3D-printable plastics with, for example, catalysts [11] or TiO2 nanoparticles [12] to obtain new improved materials with special characteristics. In this paper, we show how to fabricate a 3D-printable dichroic material using gold nanoparticles, jumping from the 4th century Roman glassmiths

Nanocomposite–parylene C thin films with high dielectric constant and low losses for future organic electronic devices

• Marwa Mokni,
• Gianluigi Maggioni,
• Abdelkader Kahouli,
• Sara M. Carturan,
• Walter Raniero and
• Alain Sylvestre

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 428–441, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.42

• final result, a gain in the gate insulation capacitance is expected for OFETs with the addition of conductive particles inside the native parylene C insulating gate. Results and Discussion Silver-PPXC co-deposition: film composition and structure Table 1 gives the experimental parameters of deposited

Advanced scanning probe lithography using anatase-to-rutile transition to create localized TiO₂ nanorods

• Julian Kalb,
• Vanessa Knittel and
• Lukas Schmidt-Mende

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 412–418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.40

• deposition on a polished (100) silicon wafer with a native thin SiOx layer. Sputter deposition was performed at room temperature with a Gamma 1000C sputter system (Surrey NanoSystems Ltd) and a TiO2 sputter target (99.99% purity, Testbourne Ltd). The deposition rate was set to 0.2 Å/s and the process was

• and might charge the film locally. The charges are likely trapped in defect states generated by the scratching process. Furthermore, the native silicon oxide layer prevents a quick charge transport into the conductive boron-doped silicon substrate. A charged film might attract the precursor more

Geometrical optimisation of core–shell nanowire arrays for enhanced absorption in thin crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Robin Vismara,
• Olindo Isabella,
• Andrea Ingenito,
• Fai Tong Si and
• Miro Zeman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 322–331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.31

• 20 keV. Oxidation and annealing were carried out in dry ambient at 850 °C for 90 min, resulting in a sheet resistance RSH of 60 Ω/square. Before depositing the coating layers, the silicon wafer with nanowires on top was treated with diluted hydrofluoric acid, to remove the thin native oxide layer

Interaction of Te and Se interlayers with Ag or Au nanofilms in sandwich structures

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Marek Trzcinski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Wojciech Pacuski and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 238–246, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.22

• spectrum allowed us to determine that both Se and Te migrate into the metal structure much slower than Ge. Experimental The experimental details are similar to our previous works [12][28][36]. For most measurements, 2 in Si (111) substrates with a native SiO2 film were covered with an additional 100 nm

Mechanism of silica–lysozyme composite formation unravelled by in situ fast SAXS

• Tomasz M. Stawski,
• Daniela B. van den Heuvel,
• Rogier Besselink,
• Dominique J. Tobler and
• Liane G. Benning

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 182–197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.17

• , through the internal densification of the aggregates, the molecules gradually return to their native dimensions. This result is in agreement with findings concerning the activity of lysozyme within composites with silica, showing that smaller silica NPs (as those used for our experiments) promote higher

• enzymatic activity of lysozyme, and that this, in turn, depends on the preservation of the native shape of the molecule upon composite formation [22]. Furthermore, the formation of the silica–LZM composite is dominated, from the very moment of mixing for the initial 20 s, by a rapid, 4.5-fold increase of

• of the protein molecules are considerably smaller than the native dimensions of lysozyme in any possible orientation. Hence, this suggests that initially the binding of silica NPs by lysozyme involves a severe deformation/unfolding of the protein molecules, followed in time by a relaxation and

Nanostructured liquid crystal systems and applications

• Alexei R. Khokhlov and
• Alexander V. Emelyanenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2644–2645, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.245

• that generates over ten billion dollars per year. In the 21st century, the topic of energy consumption has become a topic of critical concern for the future survival of the next generations. The new energy-saving liquid crystal devices are therefore of prime importance in industry. This in turn

Au–Si plasmonic platforms: synthesis, structure and FDTD simulations

• Anna Gapska,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2599–2608, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.241

• eV, is close to SiO2. The second peak can be explained by presence of very thin film of native SiO2 formed on Si substrates in air. During the heating of Au films on Si at temperatures above the eutectic temperature, an intermetallic thin layer of Au–Si is formed on the contact interface. However, it

Pattern generation for direct-write three-dimensional nanoscale structures via focused electron beam induced deposition

• Lukas Keller and
• Michael Huth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2581–2598, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.240

Nanocellulose: Recent advances and its prospects in environmental remediation

• Katrina Pui Yee Shak,
• Yean Ling Pang and
• Shee Keat Mah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2479–2498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.232

• Cladophora cellulose suggests higher inertness of its cellulose which reduces its susceptibility to chemical treatments compared to most native cellulose derived from conventional land plants. The filters fabricated from Cladophora algae cellulose have been tested and proven for trapping swine influenza

Effect of electrospinning process variables on the size of polymer fibers and bead-on-string structures established with a 2³ factorial design

• Paulina Korycka,
• Adam Mirek,
• Katarzyna Kramek-Romanowska,
• Marcin Grzeczkowicz and
• Dorota Lewińska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2466–2478, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.231

• to be obtained with expected features. Keywords: bead-on-string structure; electrospinning; factorial design; polymer fiber; Introduction Since the beginning of the 21st century, the interest in electrospinning processes has been growing constantly. The reason for this is the wide range of

• by the qualitative description of the obtained fibrous mat structures [14] and thus in a subjective way. The mathematical description of the factorial design allows the problem to be solved in a more objective manner. The factorial design, a tool used in this work, can be useful for designing the

Nanoscale characterization of the temporary adhesive of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

• Ana S. Viana and
• Romana Santos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2277–2286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.212

• , the first nanoscale characterization of sea urchin temporary adhesives was performed using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results: The adhesive topography was similar under dry and native (seawater) conditions, which was comprised of a honeycomb-like meshwork of aggregated globular nanostructures. In

• terms of adhesion forces, higher values were obtained in dry conditions, reaching up to 50 nN. Under native conditions, lower adhesive forces were obtained (up to 500 pN) but the adhesive seemed to behave like a functional amyloid, as evidenced by the recorded characteristic sawtooth force–extension

• curves and positive thioflavin-T labelling. Conclusion: Our results confirm that like other temporary adhesives, the sea urchin adhesive footprint nanostructure consists of a meshwork of entangled globular nanostructures. Under native conditions, the adhesive footprints of the sea urchin behaved like a