Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Nanotechnology at University of Warsaw gets rare dimensional nanostructure-generating equipment

State-of-the-art equipment for generating composite semiconductor structures has been launched at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw. First micropillars, micrometer-sized columns made up of many carefully selected layers of thickness of the order of nanometres, have been generated in the laboratory in Warsaw. They will be used, among others, to build efficient yellow light lasers. The new equipment also opens up unique educational possibilities for students in the field of nanotechnology engineering.

June 20, 2011 Read more

Self-assembling electronic nano-components for spintronic devices

Together with experts from Grenoble and Strasbourg, researchers of KIT's Institute of Nanotechnology (INT) have developed a nano-component based on a mechanism observed in nature.

June 20, 2011 Read more

Mimicking nature at the nanoscale: selective transport across a biomimetic nanopore

Researchers at Delft University of Technology and the University of Basel have established a biomimetic nanopore that provides a unique test and measurement platform for the way that proteins move into a cell's nucleus.

June 20, 2011 Read more

Supercapacitors: Smart to the core

Metal oxide materials can hold and release energy more efficiently thanks to a novel nanosheet core-shell electrode.

June 20, 2011 Read more

Measuring the forces of interactions between quantum dots and living cells

Quantum dots are particularly promising for biological imaging, having size-tunable light emission and excellent photostability. The development of such clinical applications, however, hinges on understanding how such nanoparticles interact with and penetrate living cells. A research team led by Hongda Wang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has now developed a method to measure these interaction forces using atomic force microscopy.

June 20, 2011 Read more

Boron nitride nanotubes could form the basis for fluorescent cell sensors

Hollow nanotubes with walls just a few atoms thick are increasingly being used to monitor biological processes in individual cells. Such nanotubes can be loaded with fluorescent molecules that respond to certain biochemicals or a change in temperature or pH with a measurable change in fluorescence. Most of the biological probes developed so far rely on carbon nanotubes. Now, a research team from Japan has now produced a probe using nanotubes made of boron and nitrogen atoms.

June 20, 2011 Read more

Killing cancer cells - nanoparticles working in harmony

MIT-designed nanoparticles communicate with each other inside the body to target tumors more efficiently.

June 20, 2011 Read more

New insights on an old material will enable design of better polymer batteries, water purification

Two Virginia Tech research groups have combined forces to devise a way to measure Nafion's internal structure and, in the process, have discovered how to manipulate this structure to enhance the material's applications.

June 19, 2011 Read more

Study evaluates engineered nanoparticles in wastewater

Have you ever wondered what happens to sunscreen after it swirls down the drain with your soap? Probably not, but it is a question that makes Prof. Chin-Pao Huang curious. Sunscreen contains titanium dioxide, an engineered nanoparticle (ENP) that improves the product's performance, reducing your sunburn risk while outdoors.

June 19, 2011 Read more

DOE offers $150 million conditional loan guarantee to support breakthrough solar manufacturing process

Transformational technology could cut production costs of silicon wafers in half.

June 17, 2011 Read more

Fraktion Die Linke fordert Gesetzentwurf zur Regulierung von Nanomaterialien

Die Fraktion Die Linke fordert in einem Antrag von der Bundesregierung, einen Gesetzentwurf zur Erfassung und Regulierung von Nanostoffen zum Schutz der Verbraucher vorzulegen.

June 17, 2011 Read more

Television for the nose

Progress toward smell television: targeted release of various scents from individually addressable chambers.

June 17, 2011 Read more

EU-funded project develops rechargeable batteries for cars of the future

A team of EU-funded researchers is leading the development of a unique type of sustainable zinc-based rechargeable battery for electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid EVs (HEVs).

June 17, 2011 Read more

Packing the ions - discovery boosts supercapacitor energy storage

Drexel University's Yury Gogotsi and colleagues recently needed an atom's-eye view of a promising supercapacitor material to sort out experimental results that were exciting but appeared illogical. The team discovered you can increase the energy stored in a carbon supercapacitor dramatically by shrinking pores in the material to a seemingly impossible size - seemingly impossible because the pores were smaller than the solvent-covered electric charge-carriers that were supposed to fit within them.

June 17, 2011 Read more

Graphene may gain an 'on-off switch', adding semiconductor to its capabilities

A team of researchers has proposed a way to turn the material graphene into a semiconductor, enabling it to control the flow of electrons with a laser "on-off switch".

June 17, 2011 Read more

Team reports scalable fabrication of self-aligned graphene transistors, circuits

UCLA researchers report that they have developed a scalable approach to fabricating these high-speed graphene transistors.

June 17, 2011 Read more