An MIT research team that has already conquered the problem of getting ketchup out of its bottle has now tackled a new category of consumer and manufacturing woe: how to get much thicker materials to slide without sticking or deforming. The slippery coatings the team has developed, called liquid-impregnated surfaces, could have numerous advantages, including…
Research Team Discovers Perfectly Imperfect Twist on Nanowire Growth
For years, researchers have been trying to find ways to grow an optimal nanowire, using crystals with perfectly aligned layers all along the wire. A team of Nebraska Engineering researchers—Peter Sutter, Eli Sutter and Shawn Wimer—sees an advantage to natural imperfection. Through their research, highlighted in a letter published in the April 22 edition of…
Unknown Behavior of Gold Nanoparticles Explored with Neutrons
Nanoparticles of less than 100 nanometers in size are used to engineer new materials and nanotechnologies across a variety of sectors. Their small size means these particles have a very high surface area to volume ratio and their properties depend strongly on their size, shape and bound molecules. This offers engineers greater flexibility when designing…
Atomically Quasi ‘1D’ Wires Created Using Carbon Nanotube Template
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used carbon nanotube templates to produce nanowires of transition metal monochalcogenide (TMM), which are only three atoms wide in diameter. These are 50 times longer than previous attempts and can be studied in isolation, preserving the properties of atomically quasi “1D” objects. The team saw that single wires twist…
Nanoparticle Shapes Printed for Medical Applications
Personal drug delivery or nano-robotic systems could be a key concept for future medical applications. In this context, scientists around David Ng (Department of Professor Tanja Weil) of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) have recently developed a technology to customize the shapes of polymers and polymeric nanoparticles using DNA. In both 2D and…
Innovative New Device Creates Electricity from Snowfall
UCLA researchers and colleagues have designed a new device that creates electricity from falling snow. The first of its kind, this device is inexpensive, small, thin and flexible like a sheet of plastic. “The device can work in remote areas because it provides its own power and does not need batteries,” said senior author Richard…
A Closer Look at 2D Borophene
Graphene can come from graphite. But borophene? There’s no such thing as borite. Unlike its carbon cousin, two-dimensional borophene can’t be reduced from a larger natural form. Bulk boron is usually only found in combination with other elements, and is certainly not layered, so borophene has to be made from the atoms up. Even then,…
Tunable Nanomaterials Possible Via Newly Invented Flexible Process
Physicists at the University of Bath have developed a flexible process allowing the synthesis in a single flow of a wide range of novel nanomaterials with various morphologies, with potential applications in areas including optics and sensors. The nanomaterials are formed from Tungsten Disulphide—a Transition Metal Dichalcogenide (TMD)—and can be grown on insulating planar substrates…
Scientists Create First-ever Individual 2D Phosphorene Nanoribbons
Isotopic Composition Carries Unforeseen Effects on Light Emission
Compared to bulk materials, atomically thin materials like transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer size and tunability advantages over traditional materials in developing miniature electronic and optical devices. The 2-dimensional TMDs are of particular interest because they have potential applications in energy conversion, electronics and quantum computing. The properties of these materials can be tuned by…
Nanotech Tracks Records of Earth’s Oldest Life Forms
Innovative Biologically Derived Metal-organic Framework Mimics DNA
The field of materials science has become abuzz with “metal-organic frameworks” (MOFs), versatile compounds made up of metal ions connected to organic ligands, thus forming one-, two-, or three-dimensional structures. There is now an ever-growing list of applications for MOF, including separating petrochemicals, detoxing water from heavy metals and fluoride anions, and getting hydrogen or…
Laser Focus Reveals Two Sources of Nanoparticle Formation
Although previous research shows that metal nanoparticles have properties useful for various biomedical applications, many mysteries remain regarding how these tiny materials form, including the processes that generate size variations. To crack this case, a team of scientists turned to computational sleuthing tactics. Led by Leonid Zhigilei of the University of Virginia (UVA), the team…
High-tech Material Protected in a Salt Crust
MAX phases are viewed as promising materials for the future, for example for turbines in power plants and aircraft, space applications, or medical implants. A new method developed by scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich now makes it possible to produce this desirable material class on an industrial scale for the first time: a crust of salt…
Advancing Ultrafast Cluster Electronics
Hokkaido University researchers have developed a computational method that can predict how clusters of molecules behave and interact over time, providing critical insight for future electronics. Their findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, could lead to the creation of a new field of science called cluster molecular electronics. Single molecule electronics is a relatively…
Smart Liquid Goes Dark in Rising Temperatures
A smart liquid that darkens dramatically in response to rising temperature has been developed by researchers at A*STAR. The nanowire-based thermochromic liquid’s tunable color-changing behavior was retained even after hundreds of heat-cool cycles. This liquid could have applications ranging from smart windows to paper-based temperature sensors, the researchers say. Previous thermochromic liquids have usually been…
Researchers Develop Smallest-ever Molecular Rubik’s Cube
Tiny Optical Elements Could Potentially Replace Traditional Refractive Lenses
A Northwestern University research team has developed tiny optical elements from metal nanoparticles and a polymer that one day could replace traditional refractive lenses to realize portable imaging systems and optoelectronic devices. The flat and versatile lens, a type of metalens, has a thickness 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair. “This…
Researchers Develop Basic Building Block for Electrospun Nanofibers
Biomedical engineers cut post-processing steps to make electrospun nanofibers for wound healing and improve 3D-matrices for biological tissues. They speed up prototyping using identical materials. Electrospinning uses electric fields to manipulate nanoscale and microscale fibers. The technique is well-developed but time-intensive and costly. A team from Michigan Technological University came up with a new way…
“Biological Bandage” Accelerates Wound Healing
Scientists at the University of Bremen have now developed a three-dimensional protein structure that could help to heal wounds. It is conceivable that one day this structure could be produced as “biological bandage” from the blood of the person who will use it. Humans are vulnerable: one cut and they bleed. Fortunately, nature has its…
Nanovaccine Heightens Immunity in Sufferers of Metabolic Syndrome
A new class of biomaterial developed by Cornell researchers for an infectious disease nanovaccine effectively boosted immunity in mice with metabolic disorders linked to gut bacteria—a population that shows resistance to traditional flu and polio vaccines. The study is the first to explore the interrelationship among nanomaterials, immune responses and the microbiome, an increasingly important…
Physicists Discover Method to Create Star Wars-style Holograms
The image of Princess Leia, imploring, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope,” holds an iconic status in the history of motion pictures. The entire visual experience is evocative of watching an old fuzzy TV, but at the same time, it was—and still is—futuristic. In the decades since, 3D holograms became the hallmark of…
Fish-Inspired Material Changes Color Using Nanocolumns
Inspired by the flashing colors of the neon tetra fish, researchers have developed a technique for changing the color of a material by manipulating the orientation of nanostructured columns in the material. “Neon tetras can control their brightly colored stripes by changing the angle of tiny platelets in their skin,” says Chih-Hao Chang, an associate…
Light Allows Objects to Levitate
Researchers at Caltech have designed a way to levitate and propel objects using only light, by creating specific nanoscale patterning on the objects’ surfaces. Though still theoretical, the work is a step toward developing a spacecraft that could reach the nearest planet outside of our solar system in 20 years, powered and accelerated only by…
Long-distance Quantum Information Exchange Achieves Nanoscale Success
At the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, researchers have realized the swap of electron spins between distant quantum dots. The discovery brings us a step closer to future applications of quantum information, as the tiny dots have to leave enough room on the microchip for delicate control electrodes. The distance between the dots has…