Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Spin waves out of waste heat

Principles of the conversion from heat currents to magnonic spin currents discovered / Study of complex magnetic materials.

Feb 10th, 2016

Flow phenomena on solid surfaces: key role played by boundary layer velocity

Physicists have shown how liquids on solid surfaces can be made to slide over the surface a bit like a bobsleigh on ice. The key is to apply a coating at the boundary between the liquid and the surface that induces the liquid to slip.

Feb 10th, 2016

Chemical nano-cages advance synthetic biology

In a new study, researchers present a clever means of localizing and confining enzymes and the substrate molecules they bind with, speeding up reactions essential for life processes.

Feb 10th, 2016

New thin-film transistor may lead to flexible devices

Researchers improved performance of TFTs by designing a new transistor architecture that takes advantage of a bipolar action.

Feb 9th, 2016

Absorbing acoustics with a super-thin acoustic metasurface

Researchers have recently developed a design for a coiled-up acoustic metasurface which can achieve total acoustic absorption in very low-frequency ranges.

Feb 9th, 2016

Light-induced superconductivity in fullerenes

Indications of light-induced lossless electricity transmission in fullerenes contribute to the search for superconducting materials for practical applications.

Feb 9th, 2016

Tiny diatoms boast enormous strength

Scientists have recently found that the hard shells of diatoms have the highest specific strength - the strength at which a structure breaks with respect to its density - of any known biological material, including bone, antlers, and teeth.

Feb 9th, 2016

Twisted X-rays unravel the complexity of helical structures

Researchers show that the key to obtaining diffraction data from non-crystalline but symmetric structures, such as helices, lies in matching the symmetry of the incoming radiation to the symmetry of the structure to be studied.

Feb 9th, 2016

Structure of 'smart' nanogels at air/water interface revealed

Scientists used NIPAM-based nanogels synthesised with different percentages of MBA (N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide) as a cross-linker in the range 10-30%, and characterised them at human physiological temperature. Detailed structural studies of these systems on a molecular length scale have not been attempted before now.

Feb 9th, 2016

An interaction between perovskites and quantum dots could improve LED and solar technologies

Researchers have studied the interaction of two materials, halide perovskite and quantum dots, revealing enormous potential for the development of advanced LEDs and more efficient solar cells.

Feb 9th, 2016

Laser pulses push spintronics and magnonics to the limit

An approach to data storage which relies on the magnetic moment of electrons (i.e. the spin) rather than the charge, has recently turned into major research fields, called spintronics and magnonics.

Feb 9th, 2016

Body temperature triggers newly-developed polymer to change shape

The material is a type of shape-memory polymer, which can be programmed to retain a temporary shape until it is triggered - typically by heat - to return to its original shape.

Feb 9th, 2016

Making sense of metallic glass

Researchers are trying to figure out the rules that govern metallic glass's creation. They are doing this by looking at metallic glasses under extreme pressures. High-pressure research can be used to probe structure on an atomic level and understand a material's state of order or disorder.