Scientists create surfaces with differently shaped nanoscale textures that may yield improved materials for applications in transportation, energy, and diagnostics.
Scientists have developed a general approach for combining different types of nanoparticles to produce large-scale composite materials. The technique opens many opportunities for mixing and matching particles with different magnetic, optical, or chemical properties to form new, multifunctional materials or materials with enhanced performance for a wide range of potential applications.
For years scientists have been working to fundamentally understand how nanoparticles move throughout the human body. One big unanswered question is how the shape of nanoparticles affects their entry into cells. Now researchers have discovered that under typical culture conditions, mammalian cells prefer disc-shaped nanoparticles over those shaped like rods.
In a recent study published in Science Translational Medicine, the Irvine lab showed how formulation of protein or peptide vaccines in lipid nanocapsules makes them much more durable inside the body and protects the vaccine content long enough to generate a strong immune response at mucosal surfaces. The nanoparticle packaging enhances the efficacy of vaccines designed to block respiratory infection in the lungs or infection at other mucosal sites such as the gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts. In addition, the particles show promise for the delivery of therapeutic cancer vaccines, which stimulate the body’s own immune system to destroy tumors.
New research led by an electrical engineer at the University of California, San Diego is aimed at improving lithium-ion batteries through possible new electrode architectures with precise nano-scale designs. The researchers created nanowires that block diffusion of lithium (Li) across their silicon surface and promote layer-by-layer axial lithiation of the nanowire’s germanium core.
Researchers have developed a new kind of “x-ray vision”—a way to peer inside real-world devices such as batteries and catalysts to map the internal nanostructures and properties of the various components, and even monitor how properties evolve as the devices operate.
A new study has found that “waviness” in forests of carbon nanotubes dramatically reduces their stiffness. Instead of being a detriment, the waviness may make the nanotube arrays more useful as thermal interface material for conducting heat away from integrated circuits.
A team led by the University of Washington has developed a programming language for chemistry that it hopes will streamline efforts to design a network that can guide the behavior of chemical-reaction mixtures in the same way that embedded electronic controllers guide cars, robots and other devices. The findings were published online Sept. 29 in Nature Nanotechnology.
More than dentures or bridges, implants mimic the look and feel of natural teeth. Still, they are costly, and a small percentage either fall out or must be removed. Tolou Shokuhfar wants to lower that failure rate to zero.
Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new drape made from graphene—the thinnest material known to science—which can enhance the water-resistant properties of materials with rough surfaces. These “nanodrapes” are less than a nanometer thick, chemically inert, and provide a layer of protection without changing the properties of the underlying material.
University of Adelaide researchers have developed a process for turning waste plastic bags into a high-tech nanomaterial.
Researchers have tested a number of oxide materials for their promise in resistive switching memories, and now a team of researchers in Singapore have demonstrated how conductive nano-filaments in amorphous titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films could be utilized for resistive switching device applications.
Carbon nanotubes’ outstanding mechanical, electrical and thermal properties make them an alluring material to electronics manufacturers. However, until recently scientists believed that growing the high density of tiny graphene cylinders needed for many microelectronics applications would be difficult. Now a team from Cambridge University in England has devised a simple technique to increase the density of nanotube forests grown on conductive supports about five times over previous methods.
Brookhaven Lab scientists use simple, ‘green’ process to create novel core-shell catalyst that tolerates carbon monoxide in fuel cells and opens new, inexpensive pathways for zero-emission vehicles
A multi-institutional team of engineers has developed a new approach to the fabrication of nanostructures for the semiconductor and magnetic storage industries. This approach combines advanced ink-jet printing technology with self-assembling block copolymers.
Eden Steven, a physicist at Florida State University’s MagLab facility, discovered that simple methods can result in surprising and environmentally friendly high-tech outcomes during his experiments with spider silk and carbon nanotubes.
Researchers have developed a new technique to produce thin films of germanium crystals -- key components for next-generation electronic devices such as advanced large-scale integrated circuits and flexible electronics, which are required for gadgets that move or bend.
A Kansas State University chemical engineering team has discovered that a new member of the ultrathin materials family has great potential to improve electronic and thermal devices. The researchers studied molybdenum disulfide and found that manipulating it with gold atoms improves its electrical characteristics.
An international team of engineers, led by scientists from Drexel University's College of Engineering, have developed a way to measure electron band offset in nanodevices using laser spectroscopy.
Nanoscale “cages” made from strands of DNA can encapsulate small-molecule drugs and release them in response to a specific stimulus, McGill University researchers report in a new study.
Researchers have made a breakthrough discovery in identifying the world’s most sensitive nanoparticle and measuring it from a distance using light.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to apply a powerful new DNA-editing technology more broadly than ever before. “This is one of the hottest tools in biology, and we’ve now found a way to target it to any DNA sequence,” said Carlos F. Barbas III, the Janet and Keith Kellogg II Chair in Molecular Biology and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at TSRI.
Scientists successfully crystallized a short RNA sequence, poly (rA)11, and used data collected at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron to confirm the hypothesis of a poly (rA) double-helix.
Georgia Tech researchers want to put your signature up in lights. Using thousands of nanometer-scale wires, the researchers have developed a sensor device that converts mechanical pressure – from a signature or a fingerprint – directly into light signals that can be captured and processed optically.
Researchers have created a fleet of molecular “robots” that can home in on specific human cells and mark them for drug therapy or destruction. The nanorobots—a collection of DNA molecules, some attached to antibodies —were designed to seek a specific set of human blood cells and attach a fluorescent tag to the cell surfaces. Details of the system were published July 28, 2013, in the online edition of Nature Nanotechnology.
More efficient catalytic converters on autos, improved batteries and more sensitive gas sensors are some of the potential benefits of a new system that can directly measure the manner in which nanocrystals adsorb and release hydrogen and other gases.
A flexible nano-scaffold could help make rechargeable lithium ion batteries last longer. Applications range from improved cell phone batteries to electric cars that can travel farther on a charge.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have “painted” the Mona Lisa on a substrate surface approximately 30 microns in width – or one-third the width of a human hair. The team’s creation, the “Mini Lisa,” demonstrates a technique that could potentially be used to achieve nanomanufacturing of devices because the team was able to vary the surface concentration of molecules on such short-length scales.
When it comes to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the soil, recent research at Texas Tech University shows that the new materials do not affect the sorption of the toxic part of oil called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Tiny silicon crystals caused no health problems in monkeys three months after large doses were injected, marking a step forward in the quest to bring such materials into clinics as biomedical imaging agents, according to a new study.
Could a substance that resembles baby powder curb global carbon emissions? Wake Forest University researchers believe so, and a new Department of Energy (DOE) grant worth more than $1 million will enable them and collaborators at the University of Texas at Dallas to design a novel material that could help revolutionize green engineering.
Researchers at McGill University have discovered a new way to join materials together using ultrasound. Ultrasound – sound so high it cannot be heard – is normally used to smash particles apart in water. In a recent study, the team of researchers, led by McGill professor Jake Barralet, from the faculties of Dentistry and Medicine, found that if particles were coated with phosphate, they could instead bond together into strong agglomerates, about the size of grains of sand. Their results are published in the journal Advanced Materials.
Many drugs such as agents for cancer or autoimmune diseases have nasty side effects because while they kill disease-causing cells, they also affect healthy cells. Now a new study has demonstrated a technique for developing more targeted drugs, by using molecular “robots” to hone in on more specific populations of cells.
Using nanoparticles of gold, researchers at the National University of Singapore have found a way to boost the performance of mineral molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), which is found in light-sensing photodetectors used in a wide range of technologies, such as environmental sensing, process control in factories, and optical communication devices. They describe this improvement in the journal Applied Physics Letters, which is produced by AIP Publishing.
Michigan Tech scientist Jaroslaw Drelich has found a new way to stop dangerous bacteria like E.coli before they attack. He embeds copper nanoparticles into vermiculite, an inexpensive, inert compound. Copper has been known for centuries for its antibiotic properties.
Highly controlled process can identify active catalyst sites -- may be a new paradigm for fine-tuning catalysts used in everything from making new materials to environmental remediation.
Networks of spherical nanoparticles embedded in elastic materials may make the best stretchy conductors yet, engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered.
Scientists have found a way to sneak nanoparticles carrying tumor-fighting drugs past the immune system.
University of Adelaide researchers have developed a new nanomaterial that could help reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power stations.
A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and Ohio University has developed a new, simpler way to discern molecular handedness, known as chirality, which could improve drug development, optical sensors and more.
A new nanoscale transistor made by Michigan Technological University scientists could represent the next frontier in electronics.
Researchers at the University of Washington have created a material they say would make LED bulbs cheaper and greener to manufacture, driving down the price. Their silicon-based nanoparticles soften the blue light emitted by LEDs, creating white light that more closely resembles sunlight.
Brookhaven Lab scientists create promising gold-indium oxide nanoparticles through room-temperature oxidation
Using star-shaped block co-polymer structures as tiny reaction vessels, researchers have developed an improved technique for producing nanocrystals with consistent sizes, compositions and architectures – including metallic, ferroelectric, magnetic, semiconductor and luminescent nanocrystals.
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have confirmed the particle-by-particle mechanism by which lithium ions move in and out of electrodes made of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, or LFP), findings that could lead to better performance in lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, medical equipment and aircraft. The research is reported in the journal Nano Letters, 2013, 13 (3), pp 866-872.
A collaboration of scientists at Sanford-Burnham and the University of California, Santa Barbara, finds that rod-shaped particles, rather than spherical particles, appear more effective at adhering to cells where they’re needed.
A team of researchers including members of the University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering highlight the power of emerging quantum technologies in two recent papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Columbia Engineering researchers demonstrate that graphene, even if stitched together from many small crystalline grains, is almost as strong as graphene in its perfect crystalline form. This resolves a contradiction between theoretical simulations, which predicted grain boundaries can be strong, and earlier experiments, which indicated they were much weaker than the perfect lattice.
Bed bugs now need to watch their step. Researchers at Stony Brook University have developed a safe, non-chemical resource that literally stops bed bugs in their tracks. This innovative new technology acts as a man-made web consisting of microfibers 50 times thinner than a human hair which entangle and trap bed bugs and other insects. This patent-pending technology is being commercialized by Fibertrap, a private company that employs non-toxic pest control methods.
Columbia Engineering researchers have used miniaturized electronics to measure the activity of individual ion-channel proteins with temporal resolution as fine as one microsecond, producing the fastest recordings of single ion channels ever performed.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right