Nanotechnology Spotlight – Latest Articles

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Ingenuity the key to a promising new oral influenza vaccine

vaccineMore serious than the common cold, influenza viral infection has been responsible for major epidemics and pandemic respiratory disease in communities around the world. These epidemics come with substantial morbidity and mortality, accounting for 250,000 to 500,000 worldwide deaths each year and are particularly dangerous for vulnerable and elderly populations with statistics showing that 90% of those who succumb to the severe illness are 65 years and older. The flu is also associated with high health care costs. In the U.S., more than $80 billion dollars is spent annually as a result of influenza epidemics.

Mar 3rd, 2014

Conductive nanomaterials for printed electronics applications

printed_electronicsThe term printed electronics refers to the application of printing technologies for the fabrication of electronic circuits and devices, increasingly on flexible plastic or paper substrates. Traditionally, electronic devices are mainly manufactured by photolithography, vacuum deposition, and electroless plating processes. In contrast to these multistaged, expensive, and wasteful methods, inkjet printing offers a rapid and cheap way of printing electrical circuits with commodity inkjet printers and off-the-shelf materials.

Feb 27th, 2014

Origami foldable solar cells (w/video)

foldable_solar_cellsInspired by a particular folding technique called rigid origami, researchers have demonstrated foldable silicon solar cells. The fabrication process utilizes mainstream high-temperature processes to fabricate high-performance stretchable electronics. In this approach, high-performance functional devices are fabricated on rigid surfaces and do not experience large strain during deformation, and these rigid surfaces are joined by serpentine-shaped interconnects that allow for a full-degree folding and unfolding, which enables deformability.

Feb 26th, 2014

Top 10 developments in nanodermatology in 2013

nanomedicineNanotechnology has made great strides in biology and medicine in the past year. Here is a list of the top 10 developments in Nanodermatology in 2013, as compiled by the Nanodermatology Society. These topics will be the subject of multiple talks and two sessions at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting on March 21-25, 2014 in Denver. This, however, is just a sampling of the topics to be covered and world class speakers in medical nanotechnology.

Feb 24th, 2014

Ferroelectric nanoparticle-doped liquid crystal - a nonvolatile multi-stable memory function

ferromagneticBi-stability is widely used in digital electronics devices to store binary data. It is the essential characteristic of the flip-flop, a circuit widely used in latches and some types of semiconductor memory. However, it is possible to store more data at the nanoscale with multi-stable memory functions. Researchers have now developed a multi-stable nonvolatile soft memory function by doping ferroelectric nanoparticles into liquid crystal matrices.

Feb 19th, 2014

Nanoparticles with tunable density derived from an atomic metal-dispersed precursor

nanoparticlesNew work by an international team of researchers provides not only new insights into the chemical evolution of monodisperse nanoparticles from an atomic metal-dispersed precursor, but also a general route to obtain tunable nanoparticles as heterogeneous catalysts for chemical and material production. The team used an atomic metal-dispersed precursor of layered double hydroxides to synthesize high density, monodisperse metal nanoparticles. They then selected carbon nanotube growth as the probe reaction to evaluate the catalytic performance of the monodisperse metal nanoparticles catalysts.

Feb 18th, 2014

Nanotechnology needle arrays for drug delivery

silicon_microneedlesBiological barriers - the skin, mucosal membranes, the blood-brain barrier and cell/nuclear membranes - seriously limit the delivery of drugs into the desired sites within the body, resulting in a low delivery efficacy, poor therapeutic efficacy, and high cost. Nanomedicine researchers have developed numerous biological, chemical, and physical strategies to overcome these barriers. This article highlights recent advanced physical approaches for transdermal and intracellular delivery.

Feb 13th, 2014

Flexible and semitransparent silicon electronics (w/video)

flexible_electronicsResearchers have developed a low-cost generic batch process using a state-of-the-art CMOS process to transform conventional silicon electronics into flexible and transparent electronics while retaining its high-performance, ultra-large-scale-integration density and cost. This process relies on standard and cheap silicon (100) wafer and microfabrication techniques, which allows to fabricate high performing devices. Furthermore, it allows the recyclability of the wafer to produce several substrates with devices, making it economically attractive.

Feb 11th, 2014