Boron nitride nanotubes are primed to become effective building blocks for next-generation composite and polymer materials based on a new discovery at Rice University – and a previous one. Scientists at known-for-nano Rice have found a way to enhance a unique class of nanotubes using a chemical process pioneered at the university. The Rice lab…
Theory for One Type of Superconductor Solves Puzzle in Another
A 2017 theory proposed by Rice University physicists to explain the contradictory behavior of an iron-based high-temperature superconductor is helping solve a puzzle in a different type of unconventional superconductor, the “heavy fermion” compound known as CeCu2Si2. An international team from the U.S., China, Germany and Canada reported the findings this week in the Proceedings…
Researchers Create New 2D Material, Possible Game-Changer for Solar Fuel Generation
Study Predicts 2018 Flu Vaccine Will Have 20% Efficacy
Quantum Shift Shows itself in Coupled Light and Matter
A team led by Rice University scientists used a unique combination of techniques to observe, for the first time, a condensed matter phenomenon about which others have only speculated. The research could aid in the development of quantum computers. The researchers, led by Rice physicist Junichiro Kono and graduate student Xinwei Li, observed and measured…
Light ‘Relaxes’ Crystal to Boost Solar Cell Efficiency
Some materials are like people. Let them relax in the sun for a little while and they perform a lot better. A collaboration led by Rice University and Los Alamos National Laboratory found that to be the case with a perovskite compound touted as an efficient material to collect sunlight and convert it into energy.…
Hydrogel May Help Heal Diabetic Ulcers
A hydrogel invented at Rice University that is adept at helping the body heal may also be particularly good at treating wounds related to diabetes. The Rice lab of chemist and bioengineer Jeffrey Hartgerink reported this week that tests on diabetic animal models showed the injectable hydrogel significantly accelerated wound healing compared with another hydrogel…
Plasmons Triggered in Nanotube Quantum Wells
A novel quantum effect observed in a carbon nanotube film could lead to the development of unique lasers and other optoelectronic devices, according to scientists at Rice University and Tokyo Metropolitan University. The Rice-Tokyo team reported an advance in the ability to manipulate light at the quantum scale by using single-walled carbon nanotubes as plasmonic…
Ash From Dinosaur-Era Volcanoes Linked with Shale Oil, Gas
Nutrient-rich ash from an enormous flare-up of volcanic eruptions toward the end of the dinosaurs’ reign kicked off a chain of events that led to the formation of shale gas and oil fields from Texas to Montana. That’s the conclusion of a new study by Rice University geologists that appears this week in Nature Publishing’s…
Flat Gallium Joins Roster of New 2D Materials
Scientists at Rice University and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, have discovered a method to make atomically flat gallium that shows promise for nanoscale electronics. The Rice lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan and colleagues in India created two-dimensional gallenene, a thin film of conductive material that is to gallium what graphene is to…
Team Designs Lens-Free Fluorescent Microscope
Lenses are no longer necessary for some microscopes, according to Rice University engineers developing FlatScope, a thin fluorescent microscope whose abilities promise to surpass those of old-school devices. A paper in Science Advances by Rice engineers Ashok Veeraraghavan, Jacob Robinson, Richard Baraniuk and their labs describes a wide-field microscope thinner than a credit card, small enough to sit on…
Fast-Spinning Spheres Show Nanoscale Systems’ Secrets
Spin a merry-go-round fast enough and the riders fly off in all directions. But the spinning particles in a Rice University lab do just the opposite. Experiments in the Rice lab of chemical engineer Sibani Lisa Biswal show micron-sized spheres coming together under the influence of a rapidly spinning magnetic field. That’s no surprise because…
Two-Stage Gas Sensor Reports on Soil Dynamics
A gene “genie” developed by Rice University scientists grants researchers valuable data about microbes through puffs of gas from the soil. The latest version is a robust two-stage microbial sensor that will help bioengineers, geobiologists and other researchers observe gene expression and the bioavailability of nutrients in laboratory facsimiles of environments like soil and sediments…
Researchers Find First Evidence of Sub-Saharan Africa Glassmaking
Scholars from Rice University, University College London and the Field Museum have found the first direct evidence that glass was produced in sub-Saharan Africa centuries before the arrival of Europeans, a finding that the researchers said represents a “new chapter in the history of glass technology.” The discovery is discussed in “Chemical Analysis of Glass…
White Graphene Makes Ceramics Multifunctional
A little hBN in ceramics could give them outstanding properties, according to a Rice University scientist. Rouzbeh Shahsavari, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, suggested the incorporation of ultrathin hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) sheets between layers of calcium-silicates would make an interesting bilayer crystal with multifunctional properties. These could be suitable for construction…
Can Carbon Nanotube Devices be TOO Nano?
Carbon nanotubes bound for electronics not only need to be as clean as possible to maximize their utility in next-generation nanoscale devices, but contact effects may limit how small a nano device can be, according to researchers at the Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI) at Swansea University in collaboration with researchers at Rice University. ESRI…
Physicists Discover New Type of Quantum Material
U.S. and European physicists searching for an explanation for high-temperature superconductivity were surprised when their theoretical model pointed to the existence of a never-before-seen material in a different realm of physics: topological quantum materials. In a new study due this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Rice…
Wheat Gets Boost from Purified Nanotubes
Researchers Advance Technique to Detect Ovarian Cancer
Borophene Shines Alone as 2D Plasmonic Material
An atom-thick film of boron could be the first pure two-dimensional material able to emit visible and near-infrared light by activating its plasmons, according to Rice University scientists. That would make the material known as borophene a candidate for plasmonic and photonic devices like biomolecule sensors, waveguides, nanoscale light harvesters and nanoantennas. Plasmons are collective…
Heavy Nitrogen Molecules Reveal Planetary-Scale Tug-of-War
Nature whispers its stories in a faint molecular language, and Rice University scientist Laurence Yeung and colleagues can finally tell one of those stories this week, thanks to a one-of-a-kind instrument that allowed them to hear what the atmosphere is saying with rare nitrogen molecules. Yeung and colleagues at Rice, UCLA, Michigan State University and…
Math Gets Real in Strong, Lightweight Structures
Rice University engineers are using 3-D printers to turn structures that have until now existed primarily in theory into strong, light and durable materials with complex, repeating patterns. The porous structures called schwarzites are designed with computer algorithms, but Rice researchers found they could send data from the programs to printers and make macroscale, polymer models for…
Novel Technology Could Cut MRI Scan Times
Patients who have to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging scan may be spared the ordeal of having to lie still in the scanner for up to 45 minutes, thanks to new technology patented by Rice University, also known as “compressed sensing” technology. The technology was recently licensed by Siemens Healthineers. MRI scanners equipped with the…
Wrinkles Give Heat a Jolt in Pillared Graphene
Pillared graphene would transfer heat better if the theoretical material had a few asymmetric junctions that caused wrinkles, according to Rice University engineers. Rice materials scientist Rouzbeh Shahsavari and alumnus Navid Sakhavand first built atom-level computer models of pillared graphene — sheets of graphene connected by covalently bonded carbon nanotubes — to discover their strength…
Wrinkles Give Heat a Jolt in Pillared Graphene
Pillared graphene would transfer heat better if the theoretical material had a few asymmetric junctions that caused wrinkles, according to Rice University engineers. Rice materials scientist Rouzbeh Shahsavari and alumnus Navid Sakhavand first built atom-level computer models of pillared graphene — sheets of graphene connected by covalently bonded carbon nanotubes — to discover their strength…