Uniform powders produced at Sandia National Laboratories don’t just look nice, they outperform commercial varieties used to kick-start chemical reactions in solar cells and could be used to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel. Their key ingredient: detergent.
Nanoscientists at Northwestern University have developed a blueprint to fabricate new heterostructures from different types of 2-D materials, single atom layers that can be stacked together like “nano-interlocking building blocks.” Materials scientists and physicists are excited about the properties of 2-D materials and their potential applications. The researchers describe their blueprint for nanoheterostructures in the Journal of Applied Physics.
Researchers working at Berkeley Lab coupled graphene, a monolayer form of carbon, with thin layers of magnetic materials like cobalt and nickel to produce exotic behavior in electrons that could be useful for next-generation computing applications.
Carbon nanotubes are supermaterials that can be stronger than steel and more conductive than copper. They’re not in everything because these amazing properties only show up in the tiniest nanotubes, which formerly were extremely expensive.
A new experimental discovery, led by researchers at the University of Minnesota, demonstrates that the chemical element ruthenium (Ru) is the fourth single element to have unique magnetic properties at room temperature. The discovery could be used to improve sensors, devices in the computer memory and logic industry, or other devices using magnetic materials.
Chameleons are nature’s most talented masters of color. They use their unique color-changing abilities for all sorts of reasons. But how do they alter their hue? They wield a combination of pigments and specialized nano-scale crystals. In this video, Reactions explains how chameleons have mastered nanotech: https://youtu.be/OfxApSZ5bCM.
Columbia investigators have made a major breakthrough in nanophotonics research, with their invention of a novel “home-built” cryogenic near-field optical microscope that has enabled them to directly image, for the first time, the propagation and dynamics of graphene plasmons at variable temperatures down to negative 250 degrees Celsius. If researchers can harness this nanolight, they will be able to improve sensing, subwavelength waveguiding, and optical transmission of signals.
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have demonstrated, for the first time, a chip-based dual-comb spectrometer in the mid-infrared range, that requires no moving parts and can acquire spectra in less than 2 microseconds. The system, which consists of two mutually coherent, low-noise, microresonator-based frequency combs spanning 2600 nm to 4100 nm, could lead to the development of a spectroscopy lab-on-a-chip for real-time sensing on the nanosecond time scale.
Scientists added an imaging capability to Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials that could provide the optoelectronic information needed to improve the performance of devices for power generation, communications, data storage, and lighting.
Products are available to quickly seal surface wounds, but rapidly stopping fatal internal bleeding has proven more difficult. Now, biomedical engineers at Texas A&M University are developing an injectable hydrogel bandage that could save lives in emergencies such as penetrating shrapnel wounds on the battlefield.
Physical chemist Laura Fabris—an associate professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Rutgers University and principal investigator of the Fabris NanoBio Group—uses the transmission electron microscopes at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) to visualize nanoparticles and understand how to optimize their morphology to improve clinical diagnoses.
The latest in space and astronomy in the Space News Source
A French nanorobotics team has assembled a new microrobotics system that pushes forward the frontiers of optical nanotechnologies. Combining several existing technologies, the µRobotex nanofactory builds microstructures in a large vacuum chamber and fixes components onto optical fiber tips with nanometer accuracy. The microhouse construction, reported in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, demonstrates how researchers can advance optical sensing technologies when they manipulate ion guns, electron beams and finely controlled robotic piloting.
This vision of simplifying disease diagnosis using topically-applied nanotechnology could change the way skin diseases such as abnormal scars are diagnosed and managed.
In exploring the optical properties of the Madagascar comet moth’s cocoon fibers, Columbia Engineering team discovers the fibers’ exceptional capabilities to reflect sunlight and to transmit optical signals and images, and develops methods to spin artificial fibers mimicking the natural fibers’ nanostructures and optical properties
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory made the first observations of waves of atomic rearrangements, known as phasons, propagating supersonically through a vibrating crystal lattice—a discovery that may dramatically improve heat transport in insulators and enable new strategies for heat management in future electronics devices.
UC San Diego researchers have developed a test that can screen for pancreatic cancer in just a drop of blood. The test, which is at the proof-of-concept stage, provides results in under an hour. It's simple: apply a drop of blood on a small electronic chip, turn the current on, wait several minutes, add fluorescent labels and look at the results under a microscope. If a blood sample tests positive for pancreatic cancer, bright fluorescent circles will appear.
Argonne National Laboratory nanoscientist Anirudha Sumant has earned a TechConnect Innovation Award for the third year in a row. The award recognizes Sumant’s work on nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamonds for application as a portable electron source in field emission cathodes. The technology was developed in partnership with Euclid Techlabs to create a superior field emission electron source for use in linear accelerators.
By using an inexpensive, already mass produced, simple solvent called cresol, Northwestern University's Jiaxing Huang has discovered a way to make disperse carbon nanotubes at unprecedentedly high concentrations without the need for additives or harsh chemical reactions to modify the nanotubes.
A new strategy has been devised that enables scientists to precisely create bulk, multi-component nanomaterials with the desired structures of constituents.
Argonne researchers have created a self-generating, very-low-friction dry lubricant that lasts so long it could almost be confused with forever.
The Advanced Photon Source and Center for Nanoscale Materials will host the APS-CNM Users Meeting to be held at Argonne from May 7 to 10.
Breakdowns in electrical materials can lead to short circuits and blown fuses, robbing the power grid and even cell phones of reliability and efficiency. Iowa State's Xiaoli Tan is working to be the first to see and record how nanoscale defects in electrical insulators may evolve into material breakdowns.
Patent-pending method could lead to a reliable, economical and sustainable way to create and store energy from sunlight.
Brookhaven Lab recently started an online course to teach graduate students about the advanced material characterization techniques available at the National Synchrotron Light Source II.
The precision of measuring nanoscopic structures could be substantially improved, thanks to research involving the University of Warwick and QuantIC researchers at the University of Glasgow and Heriot Watt University into optical sensing.
Matthew Sfeir--a chemical physicist at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials--is being recognized for his research to develop enabling technologies for next-generation electronic devices, particularly in the areas of thin-film optics and solar cells.
A study published today in Nature Communications describes how an updated version of the microscope slide can enable scientists to see tiny objects while also measuring their temperature. The advancement, made possible by a new transparent, has the potential to streamline and enhance scientific research worldwide, from clandestine government biology labs to high school chemistry classes. It may also have implications in computers, electronics and other industries.
U of A chemists find new methods of calculating the internal pressure and surface tension of tiny drops of liquid.
The search for a more energy efficient and environmentally friendly method of ammonia production for fertilizer has led to the discovery of a new type of catalytic reaction.
When people sweat, they unknowingly release a wide range of chemicals that can noninvasively inform clinicians on anything from stress hormone levels to glucose. An international team of researchers recently developed a new membrane that mitigates both issues that arise from direct dermal contact and sweat dilution for sweat biosensors. As discussed in Biomicrofluidics, the membrane performs hundreds of times better than other methods and holds up to repeated use.
Researchers from the Technion have completed an interdisciplinary study that reveals the optimal configuration for nanoscale robots that can travel within the human body to perform a variety of tasks. The model improves previous nature-inspired models.
A new study reveals the geometric underpinnings of T-cell triggering through the precise engineering of T-cell receptor geometry in all three dimensions. The researchers used nanofabrication to create a biomimetic surface that simulates the key features of the APC, presenting T-cell receptor ligands in different geometric arrangements, with different inter-ligand spacings arranged in clusters of varying size. The results could have a significant impact on adoptive immunotherapy and the design of CAR T cells.
A long-standing collaboration between Sandia National Laboratories and Imagion Biosystems produced precise magnetic nanoparticles for a breast cancer clinical trial later this year. The nanoparticles stick to breast cancer cells, allowing the detection and removal of even small metastases.
A group of undergraduate students from the department of physics and electronics at the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao will attend the CNEU-hosted Nanotechnology Summer School at the Penn State University Park campus to continue their nanotechnology education in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Sandia National Laboratories won the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer’s national 2018 Technology Focus Award for the first wind turbine blades made from a 3-D printed mold. The labs also won FLC’s Excellence in Technology Transfer Award for advanced nanomaterial window films.
A team from Northwestern University and the University of Florida has developed a new type of electron microscope that takes dynamic, multi-frame videos of nanoparticles as they form, allowing researchers to view how specimens change in space and time.
A precise chemical-free method for etching nanoscale features on silicon wafers has been developed by a team from Penn State and Southwest Jiaotong University and Tsinghua University in China.
From energy materials to disease diagnostics, new microscopy techniques can provide more nuanced insight. Researchers first need to understand the effects of radiation on samples, which is possible with a new device that holds tightly sealed liquid cell samples for transmission electron microscopy.
An international team, led by Berkeley Lab scientists, has demonstrated a breakthrough in the design and function of nanoparticles that could make solar panels more efficient by converting light usually missed by solar cells into usable energy.
Cancer immune cell therapy has made headlines with astounding successes like saving former U.S. President Jimmy Carter from brain cancer. But immunotherapy has also had many tragic flops. Georgia Tech researchers working to optimize the innovative treatment have implanted a genetic switch that activates T-cells when they are inside of tumors. Remote-control light waves resembling those used in a TV remote combine with gold nanorods to flip the switch.
Argonne announces second cohort of Chain Reaction Innovations.
Engineers discovered that tiny crystal lattices called “self-assembling molecular nanosheets” expand when exposed to light. The advancement could form the backbone of new light-powered actuators, oscillators and other microscopic electronic components useful in the development of artificial muscles and other soft robotic systems.
Researchers solve a decades-old question: Is particle ordering responsible for the thickening of some industrial products when stirred rapidly? The answer brings us one step closer to solving complex industrial production problems.
Advances in nanotechnology have made it possible to control the size, shape, composition, elasticity and chemical properties of laboratory-made nanomaterials. Yet many of these materials do not to function as expected in the body. In a recent issue of Biointerphases, the team homes in on biomembranes -- the gatekeeping bilipid-layers and proteins surrounding cells. They explore the barriers a synthetic nanomaterial must breach to enter a cell and achieve its intended purpose.
Nanomaterials expert Ganpati Ramanath, the John Tod Horton ’52 Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named a fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS) “for developing creative approaches to realize new nanomaterials via chemically directed nanostructure synthesis and assembly and for tailoring interfaces in electronics and energy applications using molecular nanolayers.”
Electronics miniaturization has put high-powered computing capability into the hands of ordinary people, but the ongoing downsizing of integrated circuits is challenging engineers to come up with new ways to thwart component overheating.
Novel engineered polymers assemble buckyballs into columns using a conventional coating process.
Non-small cell lung cancer Nanoparticles pass the next stage of development in preclinical tests.
An international team of researchers is laying the foundation for more widespread use of lithium metal batteries. They developed a method to mitigate the formation of dendrites - crystal-like masses - that damage the batteries' performance.
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