Nanotechnology Spotlight – Latest Articles

Showing Spotlights 1689 - 1696 of 3579 in category All (newest first):

Enhanced kinetics on conductive polar electrocatalysts for lithium-sulfur batteries

Researchers have explored the role of intrinsic bulk electrical conductivity and surface polarity in the electrocatalysis of polysulfide redox reactions. They synthesized highly porous and conductive titanium carbide (TiC)-based composite cathode materials and to assemble lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries with high sulfur loading. Li-S cells employing the as-synthesized TiC-based cathode exhibited reduced internal resistance, enhanced energy efficiency, and prolonged service life.

October 10, 2016

Insights into the microwave non-thermal effect for tumor therapy

Microwave hyperthermia is one of the most important clinical thermotherapy techniques due to the instinctive advantages of non-intrusive heating model, fair depth of penetration in tissues and ideal potential of killing tumor cells without surgical risks or toxicity of chemotherapy. Scientists have now developed a novel multifunctional nanoplatform to combine the non-thermal and thermal effects of microwave to achieve enhanced thermal/chemo cancer therapy under mild microwave irradiation.

October 7, 2016

3D printing highly conductive nanocomposites

Carbon nanotube enabled nanocomposites have received much attention as a highly attractive alternative to conventional composite materials due to their mechanical, electrical, thermal, barrier and chemical properties such as electrical conductivity, increased tensile strength, improved heat deflection temperature, or flame retardancy. In new work, researchers report the fabrication of highly conductive carbon nanotube/polylactic acid nanocomposites used as 3D printable conductive inks for fabrication of conductive scaffold structures applicable as liquid sensors.

October 6, 2016

Nanotube chip captures and analyzes circulating tumor cells in blood

Researchers demonstrate a completely new micro-array design that is looking at capture and detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from an entirely new perspective. As an alternative to invasive biopsies, capturing CTCs is of great interest for evaluating cancer dissemination, predicting patient prognosis, and also for the evaluation of therapeutic treatments, representing a reliable potential alternative to invasive biopsies and subsequent proteomic and functional genetic analysis. The new approach is based on a static isolation in the form of micro-arrays of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

October 5, 2016

New study shows that iron oxide nanoparticles inhibit tumour growth

The intravenous iron-replacement product ferumoxytol and other iron oxide nanoparticles are being used for treating iron deficiency, as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging, and as drug carriers. In a new study, researchers have shown an intrinsic therapeutic effect of ferumoxytol on the growth of early mammary cancers and lung cancer metastases in liver and lungs. They showed that ferumoxytol can activate the immune system to attack cancer cells. This is the first description of an intrinsic therapeutic effect of iron oxide nanoparticles against cancer.

October 4, 2016

A nanobiotechnology tool for site-specific delivery in the gastrointestinal tract (w/video)

Researchers have developed an enteric micromotor consisting of a magnesium-based motor body with an enteric polymer coating. These motors, aimed controlling and enhancing site-specific delivery in the gastrointestinal tract, consist of water-powered magnesium-based tubular micromotors coated with an enteric polymer layer. The microscale robot can deliver payload to particular location via dissolution of their enteric polymeric coating to activate their propulsion at the target site towards localized tissue penetration and retention.

September 27, 2016

Plasmon-enhanced thermophoresis for the reversible assembly of plasmonic nanoparticles

The optical manipulation of plasmonic nanoparticles has advantages for applications such as nanofabrication, drug delivery and biosensing. To that end, researchers have been developing techniques for the reversible assembly of plasmonic nanoparticles that can be used to modulate their structural, electrical and optical properties. The latest such technique is a low-power assembly that is enabled by thermophoretic migration of nanoparticles due to the plasmon-enhanced photothermal effect and the associated enhanced local electric field over a plasmonic substrate.

September 21, 2016

A novel approach for nanotoxicity evaluation in human cells using SERS

Currently available toxicity screening methods are not fully compatible with nanotoxicity studies. Due to the unique physicochemical characteristics of nanomaterials, conventional cytotoxicity assays have been shown to create complications in nanotoxicity evaluation. In a new study, researchers used surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to evaluate the cytotoxicity of nanomaterials. They show that SERS can be used as an alternative nanotoxicity evaluation method especially for the nanomaterials that have been shown to create complications in conventional cytotoxicity assays.

September 20, 2016