Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

NASA experiments with self-assembly techniques on the International Space Station

The Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE) series of experiments on the International Space Station explored nanoparticles suspended in Magnetorheolocial (MR) fluids - a type of smart fluid that tends to self-assemble into shapes in the presence of a magnetic field.

Dec 10th, 2014

Nanotechnology and 3D printing create contact lens with embedded LED

As part of a project demonstrating new 3-D printing techniques, researchers have embedded tiny light-emitting diodes into a standard contact lens, allowing the device to project beams of colored light.

Dec 10th, 2014

Breakthrough simplifies design of gels for food, cosmetics and biomedicine

Until now, discovery of new gels relied largely on chance discoveries. Now, researchers developed a screening method to accurately predict how peptides could combine to form stable gels.

Dec 10th, 2014

Defects are perfect in laser-induced graphene (w/video)

Researchers have created flexible, patterned sheets of multilayer graphene from a cheap polymer by burning it with a computer-controlled laser. The process works in air at room temperature and eliminates the need for hot furnaces and controlled environments, and it makes graphene that may be suitable for electronics or energy storage.

Dec 10th, 2014

World's first time-controlled molecular self-organization

Development of new material capable of autonomous molecular organization in accordance with preprogramming.

Dec 10th, 2014

Catalysis at the sub-nanoscale - the gold standard

Precious elements such as platinum work well as catalysts in chemical reactions, but require large amounts of metal and can be expensive. However, computational modeling below the nanoscale level may allow researchers to design more efficient and affordable catalysts from gold.

Dec 9th, 2014

Germanium used for semiconductor milestone

A laboratory at Purdue University provided a critical part of the world's first transistor in 1947 - the purified germanium semiconductor -and now researchers here are on the forefront of a new germanium milestone.

Dec 9th, 2014

Nanoscale resistors for quantum devices

The electrical characteristics of new thin-film chromium oxide resistors can be tuned by controlling the oxygen content.

Dec 9th, 2014

Moving toward a cheaper, better catalyst for hydrogen production

Researchers have long viewed molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) as a promising, much cheaper alternative to platinum. The drawback is that MoS2's catalytic performance is far worse than platinum's. To get around that problem, researchers have been trying to find ways to improve MoS2's catalytic performance. And now they may be on to something.

Dec 9th, 2014

Nanoplasmonic technique could harvest more of the sun's energy

The photovoltaic cells now used to turn sunlight into electricity can only absorb and use a small fraction of that light, and that means a significant amount of solar energy goes untapped. A new technology represents a first step toward harnessing that lost energy.

Dec 9th, 2014

Turning biological cells to stone improves cancer and stem cell research

'Zombie' method also hardens biostructures for mass production.

Dec 9th, 2014

Nanocomposite materials can be designed in a supercomputer virtual lab

The 'virtual lab' developed using supercomputer simulations greatly improves scientists' understanding of how composite materials are built on a molecular level.

Dec 9th, 2014

How many atoms does it take to predict the thermal expansion of liquid metals?

The objective of this paper is to explore the relationship between atomic structure and thermal expansion, to study if the thermal expansion coefficient can be predicted in atomic scale and to find how many atoms are sufficient to perform this prediction.