Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Researchers time plasmon-generated electrons moving from nanorods to graphene

Plasmonic nanoparticles developed at Rice University are becoming known for their ability to turn light into heat, but how to use them to generate electricity is not nearly as well understood. Scientists at Rice are working on that, too. They suggest that the extraction of electrons generated by surface plasmons in metal nanoparticles may be optimized.

Jan 30th, 2014

Faster X-ray technology paves the way for better catalysts

Researchers observe a catalyst surface at work with atomic resolution.

Jan 30th, 2014

Integration brings quantum computer a step closer

An international research group led by the University of Bristol has made an important advance towards a quantum computer by shrinking down key components and integrating them onto a silicon microchip.

Jan 30th, 2014

Self-aligning DNA wires for application in nanoelectronics

Researchers have come up with a simple strategy which combines DNA origami with self-organized pattern formation.

Jan 30th, 2014

Nanotechnology in a nutshell: From simple to complex systems

A new high-level book for professionals providing an overview of nanotechnologies now and their applications in a broad variety of fields, including information and communication technologies, environmental sciences and engineering, societal life, and medicine, with provision of customized treatments.

Jan 30th, 2014

A disk brake for molecules

Using centrifugal force to decelerate particles creates new opportunities for chemistry and quantum information processing.

Jan 30th, 2014

Scientists discover long-awaited synthetic particle

Researchers at Aalto University and Amherst College have now created and photographed synthetic magnetic monopoles under laboratory conditions. These observations lay the foundation for the underlying structure of the natural magnetic monopole - the detection of which would be a revolutionary event comparable to the discovery of the electron.

Jan 30th, 2014

Photon recoil provides new insight into matter

New method of precision spectroscopy allows unprecedented accuracy.

Jan 30th, 2014

Making color - When two red photons make a blue photon

Here's a question: Can scientists generate any color of light? The answer is not really, but the invention of the laser in 1960 opened new doors for this endeavor.

Jan 30th, 2014

Graphene composite leads to breakthrough in rechargeable battery applications

Researchers demonstrate that a composite paper - made of interleaved molybdenum disulfide and graphene nanosheets - can be both an active material to efficiently store sodium atoms and a flexible current collector. The newly developed composite paper can be used as a negative electrode in sodium-ion batteries.

Jan 29th, 2014

Self-cleaning solar panel coating optimizes energy collection, reduces costs

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is developing a low-cost, transparent, anti-soiling (or self-cleaning) coating for solar reflectors to optimize energy efficiency while lowering operating and maintenance costs and avoiding negative environmental impacts.

Jan 29th, 2014

Cell membrane model studied as future diagnostic tool

Researchers have used a NIST-developed laboratory model of a simplified cell membrane to accurately detect and measure a protein associated with a serious gynecological disease, bacterial vaginosis, at extraordinarily low concentrations. The work illustrates how the artificial membrane could be used to improve disease diagnosis.

Jan 29th, 2014

Learning more about piezoelectric

Though piezoelectrics are a widely used technology, there are major gaps in our understanding of how they work. Now researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Canada's Simon Fraser University believe they've learned why one of the main classes of these materials, known as relaxors, behaves in distinctly different ways from the rest and exhibit the largest piezoelectric effect.