Titanium dioxide nanoparticles doped with elements such as strontium and chrome were used in the production of the coating.
It can be expressed that the increase in the efficiency of the cells in comparison with the cells produced on the base of usual coatings containing titanium dioxide is due to the increase in the current density in their short circuits.
The coating of nanoparticles contains titanium dioxide and other spherical nanoparticles in average size of 60 nm.
This phase, characterized by an unusual ordering of electrons, offers possibilities for new electronic device functionalities and could hold the solution to a longstanding mystery in condensed matter physics having to do with high-temperature superconductivity--the ability
Photonics has the same goals as electronics does, but uses photons--the quanta of light--instead of electrons.
The typical scale of eletronic transistors--the basis of contemporary electronic devices--is less than 100 nanometers
wheres the typical scale of photonic transistors stays on the scale of several micrometers. Nanostructures that are able to compete with the electronic structures--for example,
Our work represents an important step towards novel and efficient active photonic devices--transistors, logic units, and others.
In the nearest future, we are going to test such nanoparticles in integrated circuits
#Magnetic Nanosorbents Eliminate Fluoride from Water Researchers from Tehran University of Medical sciences used low-cost and available raw materials for the laboratorial production of nanosorbents with high efficiency in elimination of fluoride from contaminated water.
This way they generate an interference pattern at the detector from which an atomic 3d-structure of the examined substance is reconstructed.
#Silk could be new'green'material for next-generation batteries Lithium-ion batteries have enabled many of today electronics, from portable gadgets to electric cars.
Now scientists report in the journal ACS Nano("Hierarchical Porous Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanosheets Derived from Silk for Ultrahigh-Capacity Battery Anodes and Supercapacitors")the development of a new,
Chuanbao Cao and colleagues note that carbon is a key component in commercial Li-ion energy storage devices including batteries and supercapacitors.
and supercapacitors in a one-step method that could easily be scaled up, the researchers note h
Now Accion has developed a commercial electrospray propulsion system their first is about the size of a pack of gum made of tiny chips that provide thrust for small satellites.
a module comprising eight chips each about 1 square centimeter, and 2 millimeters thick that can be applied anywhere on a satellite.
Above the reservoir are the chips, which each have a porous substrate with about 500 pointed tips and, above that, an extractor grid with small holes.
and a simple design, Accion can batch-manufacture modules much like computer chips in quantities of around 200 at once.
and sensors that can detect otherwise imperceptible defects in buildings, bridges, and aircraft.""This is the first time anybody has made a flexible chameleon-like skin that can change color simply by flexing it,
The Berkeley researchers were able to overcome both these hurdles by forming their grating bars using a semiconductor layer of silicon approximately 120 nanometers thick.
The semiconductor material also allowed the team to create a skin that was incredibly thin, perfectly flat,
More day-to-day applications could include sensors that would change color to indicate that structural fatigue was stressing critical components on bridges, buildings,
A wide-range of technologies, including LEDS, diagnostic tools, and solar cells also rely on small molecules. mall molecules have had already a big impact on the world,
#Nanotechnology may double radio frequency data capacity A team of Columbia Engineering researchers has invented a technology--full-duplex radio integrated circuits (ICS)--that can be implemented in nanoscale CMOS to enable simultaneous transmission and reception
transmitters and receivers either work at different times or at the same time but at different frequencies. The Columbia team, led by Electrical engineering Associate professor Harish Krishnaswamy,
Cosmic (Columbia High-speed and Mm-wave IC) Lab full-duplex transceiver IC that can be implemented in nanoscale CMOS to enable simultaneous transmission and reception at the same frequency in a wireless radio.
So the ability to have a transmitter and receiver reuse the same frequency has the potential to immediately double the data capacity of today's networks.
Krishnaswamy notes that other research groups and startup companies have demonstrated the theoretical feasibility of simultaneous transmission and reception at the same frequency,
"The biggest challenge the team faced with full duplex was canceling the transmitter's echo.
"Transmitter echo or'self-interference'cancellation has been a fundamental challenge, especially when performed in a tiny nanoscale IC,
#Silicon photonics takes the next step toward a high-bandwidth future The computing and telecommunications industries have ambitious plans for the future:
avoiding the need for transceiver assemblies. The new technique, which will be presented 25 march at this year's OFC Conference and Exposition in Los angeles, California,
The optical chip needs to be as close to the electrical chip as possible to minimize the distance of electrical connection between them.
"In addition to the silicon technology advancements at the chip-level, novel system-level integration concepts are required also to fully profit from the new capabilities silicon photonics will bring,
Optical interconnect technology is incorporated currently into data centers by attaching discrete transceivers or active optical cables,
The prepackaged transceivers are large and expensive, limiting their large-scale use, Offrein said. Furthermore, such transceivers are mounted at the edge of the board,
resulting in a large distance between the processor chip and the optical components. Offrein and his IBM colleagues from Europe
the United states and Japan instead proposed an integration scheme in which the silicon photonic chips are treated similarly to ordinary silicon processor chips
and are attached directly to the processor package without preassembling them into standard transceiver housings. This improves the performance
and power efficiency of the optical interconnects while reducing the cost of assembly. Challenges arise because alignment tolerances in photonics are critical (sub-micron range)
The team demonstrated efficient optical coupling of an array of silicon waveguides to a substrate containing an array of polymer waveguides.
The significant size difference between the silicon waveguides and the polymer waveguides originally presented a major challenge.
The researchers overcame this obstacle by gradually tapering the silicon waveguide, leading to an efficient transfer of the optical signal to the polymer waveguide.
In addition, it will enable novel architectures requiring high communication bandwidth, as for example in disaggregated systems,"Offrein said d
to be published Monday, March 16, in the journal Current Biology, showcases the potential of wireless sensors in biological research.
"This is a demonstration of how tiny electronics can answer interesting, fundamental questions for the larger scientific community,"said Michel Maharbiz, an associate professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Electrical engineering and Computer sciences and the study's principal investigator."
The beetle backpack is made up of a tiny, off-the-shelf microcontroller and a built-in wireless receiver and transmitter.
Six electrodes are connected to the beetle's optic lobes and flight muscles. The entire device is powered by a 3. 9-volt micro lithium battery
"We could easily add a small microphone and thermal sensors for applications in search -and-rescue missions.
With this technology, we could safely explore areas not accessible before, such as the small nooks and crevices in a collapsed building."
Once successfully implemented, the technology could allow for highly accurate motion sensors that could detect the slightest tremor,
wearable electronics are gaining traction among consumers, but these gadgets'versatility is held still back by the stiff,
or supercapacitors without an external power source and make new commercial and medical applications possible.
and use it to light up a small LCD display. American Chemical Society) Sang-Woo Kim
and colleagues point out that the potential of wearable electronics extends far beyond the flashy and convenient.
such electronics need an ultra-flexible, long-lasting energy source that is seamlessly incorporated into the device's design.
which was used to power light-emitting diodes, a liquid crystal display and a vehicle's keyless entry remote. The cloth worked for more than 12,000 cycles.
or inhibit optical nonlinearities in a chip-scale device has been developed by scientists, led by the University of Sydney.
The researchers from the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems,(CUDOS) based at the University of Sydney published their results in Nature Communications today("Enhancing
and sound on chip scale devices. The effect we looked at (known as stimulated Brillouin scattering) occurs
To address this, the researchers introduced a grating structure on to the chip. The grating,
which comprises a small modulation in the optical material properties, forms a bandgap for light,
which strongly effects the propagation of light, in the same way that semiconductors control the flow of electrons.
When the laser wavelength is tuned close to the edge of the bandgap the speed of light is reduced. This will greatly enhance the optical nonlinearity.
At a slightly different frequency, the bandgap will completely inhibit (or suppress) the optical nonlinearity.
On-chip optical research is a thriving and competitive area because of its importance to manipulating classical
Using this stage inside a state-of-the-art aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope they can take nanoscale-resolution pictures of lithium ions as they are deposited on or dissolve off of an electrode while the battery runs("Observation and Quantification of Nanoscale Processes in Lithium batteries
and test new pairings of electrodes and electrolytes (see Battery 101). The new stage will help quickly sort through options for longer lasting, safer batteries.
In lithium-air and other designs, interactions at the electrode-electrolyte interfaces affect the battery's performance and safety.
Using it in an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, scientists can now chemically image the interface between the platinum anode and the electrolyte during the battery operation.
This new imaging tool opens up possibilities to rapidly visualize and test electrode/electrolyte pairings for new battery systems.
and has been used widely in electronics industry, but also most importantly, silicon is an indirect bandgap semiconductor material with both high index of refraction and low optical absorption in the visible spectrum.
The combination of high index of refraction and low absorption enables strong optical wave interference inside ultra-thin silicon films
The new technology may hold promise for many applications such as for jewelry, automotive interior trim, aviation, signage, colored keypads, electronics and wearable displays s
A semiconductor chip controls the relative motions of the SMA wires allowing precise movements to be carried out.
And the system does need not sensors. The material from which wires are made has sensor properties.
The controller unit is able to interpret electric resistance measurement data so that it knows the exact position of the wires at any one time,
and exploiting the sensor properties of SMA wire e
#Switchable adhesion principle enables damage-free handling of sensitive devices even in vacuum Components with highly sensitive surfaces are used in automotive, semiconductor and display technologies as well as for complex optical lens systems.
During the production, these parts often have to be handled many times by pick -and-place processes.
UIC researchers created an electromechanical device--a humidity sensor--on a bacterial spore. They call it NERD, for Nano-Electro-Robotic Device.
--and then attached two electrodes on either side of the spore,"said Vikas Berry, UIC associate professor of chemical engineering and principal investigator on the study."
as measured by the electrodes.""We get a very clean response--a very sharp change the moment we change humidity,
than a sensor made with the most advanced man-made water-absorbing polymers. There was also better sensitivity in extreme low-pressure, low-humidity situations."
Currently available sensors increase in sensitivity as humidity rises, Berry said. NERD's sensitivity is actually higher at low humidity."
We've made the sensor on the surface of these spores, with the spore a very active complement to this device.
The so called DNA chip card employs electrochemical DNA chips and overcomes the complicated procedures associated with genetic testing of conventional methods.
The DNA chip card is expected to find applications in hygiene management in food manufacture, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics.
The so-called automatic abbreviated DNA detection technology DNA chip card was developed by Toshiba Ltd and in a collaboration with Kawasaki City Institute for Public health, used to simultaneously detect 14 different types of foodborne pathogens in less than 90 minutes.
the DNA chip card only requires the operator to inject nucleic acid, thereby making the procedure easier to use and without specialized operating skills.
Examples of pathogens associated with food poisoning that were tested with the DNA chip card d
#Chemists make new silicon-based nanomaterials In a paper published in the journal Nano Letters("A Silicon-Based Two-dimensional Chalcogenide:
p-type semiconductors (positive charge carriers) that could be used in a variety of electronic and optical devices. Their layered structure can take up lithium and magnesium,
meaning it could also be used to make electrodes in those types of batteries. Chemists from Brown University have come up with a way to make new nanomaterials from a silicon-based compound.
Koski lab/Brown University)" Silicon-based compounds are the backbone of modern electronics processing, "said Kristie Koski, assistant professor of chemistry at Brown,
to change the material from a p-type semiconductor (one with positive charge carriers) to an n-type (one with negative charge carriers).
"We think this is a good candidate for bringing the properties of 2-D materials into the realm of electronics,
and flexible, making it a good candidate for many applications, such as high-performance, flexible electronics. Such a thin semiconducting material,
With enhanced light emission properties, Mos2 could be a good candidate for light emitting diode technologies.
The results have now been published in Physical Review Letters("Direct Photonic Coupling of a Semiconductor Quantum dot and a Trapped Ion".
In principle, they are miniaturized extremely electron storage units. qdots can be produced using the same techniques as normal computer chips.
it is only necessary to miniaturize the structures on the chips until they hold just one single electron (in a conventional PC it is 10 to 100 electrons.
#A quantum sensor for nanoscale electron transport The word defect doesnt usually have a good connotation--often indicating failure.
Graphic depiction of NV center sensors (red glowing spheres) used to probe electron motion in a conductor.
Here, each NV center is used as a sensor that can be thought of as switching between two states
1 and 0. The sensor can be calibrated in the presence of a constant magnetic field such that it is in state 1
. If the sensor experiences an oscillating magnetic field, the sensor switches to state 0. There is one more important component to this sensor--it can detect magnetic field strength as well.
For weak magnetic field fluctuations, the NV sensor will slowly decay to state 0; for stronger fluctuations, it will decay much faster from 1 to 0. By detecting different decay times,
physicists can precisely measure the fluctuating magnetic fields, which tells them about the electron behavior at a very small length scale.
Like any good sensor, the NV centers are almost completely non-invasivetheir read-out with laser light does not disturb the sample they are sensing.
#Extremely sensitive temperature sensor developed with plant nanobionic materials Humans have been inspired by nature since the beginning of time.
in order to develop an extremely sensitive temperature sensor they took a close look at temperature-sensitive plants. However, they did not mimic the properties of the plants;
The scientists were able to develop by far the most sensitive temperature sensor: an electronic module that changes its conductivity as a function of temperature."
"No other sensor can respond to such small temperature fluctuations with such large changes in conductivity.
Our sensor reacts with a responsivity at least 100 times higher compared to the best existing sensors,
In doing so, plants are better than any man-made sensor so far. Di Giacomo experimented with tobacco cells in a cell culture."
the cyberwood sensor can identify warm bodies even at distance; for example, a hand approaching the sensor from a distance of a few dozen centimetres.
The sensor's conductivity depends directly on the hand's distance from the sensor. According to the scientists, cyberwood could be used in a wide range of applications;
for instance, in the development of a'touchless touchscreen'that reacts to gestures, with the gestures recorded by multiple sensors.
Equally conceivable might be heat-sensitive cameras or night-vision devices. Thickening agent pectin in a starring role The ETH scientists, together with a collaborator at the University of Salerno, Italy,
The scientists submitted a patent application for their sensor. In ongoing work, they are now further developing it such that it functions without plant cells, essentially with only pectin and ions.
Their goal is to create a flexible, transparent and even biocompatible sensor with the same ultrahigh temperature sensitivity.
Such a sensor could be moulded into arbitrary shapes and produced at extremely low cost. This will open the door to new applications for thermal sensors in biomedical devices
consumer products and low cost thermal cameras s
#Soft, energy-efficient robotic wings Dielectric elastomers are novel materials for making actuators or motors with soft and lightweight properties that can undergo large active deformations with high-energy conversion efficiencies.
Made by sandwiching a soft insulating elastomer film between two compliant electrodes, dielectric elastomers can be squeezed
when a voltage is applied between electrodes. In contrast to actuators based on rigid materials such as silicon, dielectric elastomers can reach a very large extent of stretch, often exceeding 100 percent elongation while not breaking,
In 2014, researchers in South korea at IBS Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics along with Samsung Advanced Institute of technology, the Department of Nano Applied Engineering at Kangwon National University, the Department of energy Science
as electrical vehicles and personal electronic devices become more ubiquitous in our daily lives, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have more efficient systems for localized electrical power generation and effective cooling mechanisms.
onl prweb About PI PI is a leading manufacturer of precision motion control equipment, piezo motors, air bearing stages and hexapod parallel-kinematics for semiconductor applications, photonics, bio-nano-technology and medical engineering.
#Micro-magnetometer Nanowerk News) MIT researchers have developed a new, ultrasensitive magnetic-field detector that is 1, 000 times more energy-efficient than its predecessors.
Magnetic-field detectors, or magnetometers, are used already for all those applications. But existing technologies have drawbacks:
A diamond chip about one-twentieth the size of a thumbnail could contain trillions of nitrogen vacancies,
The MIT researchers report their new device in the latest issue of Nature Physics("roadband Magnetometry and Temperature Sensing with a Light Trapping Diamond Waveguide".
Theye joined by Englund students Matthew Trusheim and Carson Teale (who also at Lincoln Lab) and by Tim Schröder, a postdoc in MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics y
the second hardest, using a state-of-the-art super-high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope and first-principles calculation. a and b) HAADF STEM images of c-BN/diamond interface viewed in direction parallel to 1-10 zone axis,(a) coherent area without defects,(b) area with defects,
3-D images of nanoscale objects (w/video)( Nanowerk News) To design the next generation of optical devices, ranging from efficient solar panels to LEDS to optical transistors,
they first imaged it using a modified scanning electron microscope. As the focused electron beam passed through the object
"For instance, it could be used in manufacturing LEDS to optimize the way light is emitted, or in solar panels to improve the absorption of light by the active materials."
especially in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Conventional photolithography relied on photomasks which protected certain regions of the substrate from the input UV LIGHT.
The research team separated the hard-to-kill stem cells from the general glioblastoma population by attracting the stem cells to a microchip coated with antibodies.
Unlike conventional computers that store data on transistors and hard drives, quantum computers encode data in the quantum states of microscopic objects called qubits.
Here, the'knob'is applied the voltage to a small electrode placed above the atom.""The findings suggest that it would be possible to locally control individual qubits with electric fields in a large-scale quantum computer using only inexpensive voltage generators, rather than the expensive high-frequency microwave sources.
#Performance and durability combine in liquid crystal transistors (Nanowerk News) Crystalline organic semiconductors have attracted a lot of interest for convenient low-cost fabrication by printed electronics.
Now researchers at Tokyo Institute of technology and the Japan Science and Technology Agency have designed a liquid crystal molecule that produces high-performance organic field effect transistors (FETS) with good temperature resilience and relatively low device
resulting from the phase transition from a monolayer to a bilayer crystal structure in mono-alkylated liquid crystalline molecules may lead to the possibility of designing new materials for the burgeoning field of printed electronics."
Background Small-molecule versus polymer FETS The main issues around organic semiconductor FETS with small molecules are the low thermal durability.
as well as control of crystallinity and the molecular orientations towards both the substrate surface and the electrodes.
The phase transition Studies of the field effect transistors before and after mild annealing revealed an improvement in carrier mobility by over an order of magnitude.
the researchers concluded that crystal-to-crystal phase change from a monolayer to a bilayer structure was improved responsible for the transistor performance in annealed devices s
Jilin University (China) and the University of Nottingham (UK) have developed a method that significantly prolongs the lives of charges in organic electronic devices("Organic Electronics:
Engineering Ultra Long Charge Carrier Lifetimes in Organic Electronic devices at Room temperature"."Silicon based chips and transistors have been at the heart of all electronic devices since the 1950s.
Driven by economic and environmental factors, and by the need for renewable energy resources, there is currently an enormous scientific and technological interest in transitioning away from silicon based electronics to new organic electronic devices.
Just like living organisms, organic electronics use carbon in complex molecules as their key functional component.
These new organic electronic devices are less expensive, more environmentally friendly and better recyclable than the older ones.
Today the most commercially successful organic electronic devices are OLEDS (organic light emitting diodes) found in smart phone displays.
Other promising devices include very inexpensive solar cells for low-cost and low-carbon electricity generation and ultra-efficient building lighting which could substantially lower electricity consumption.
) The team was able to design an organic electronic device in which charge generated by light lived approximately 10,000 times longer than was thought previously possible.
This opens up the possibility of creating entirely new classes of organic electronic devices such as ultra-sensitive photo detectors to image distant stars,
or flexible memory elements which could be used in wearable computers s
#'Parachuting'boron on benzene rings (Nanowerk News) Tuning the para position of benzene moieties is significant for creating biologically active compounds and optoelectronic materials.
Yet, attaching a functional handle specifically at the para position of benzene has been challenging due to multiple reactive sites on the ring.
as well as optoelectronic materials. Nonetheless, few reports have existed in obtaining para-selective benzene derivatives directly from mono-substituted benzene rings.
classical dipole patch antennas have been used.""Now, our technology introduces'metasurfaces'that are much better energy collectors than classical antennas,
"explained Omar M. Ramahi, professor of electrical and computer engineering. Metasurfaces are formed by etching the surface of a material with an elegant pattern of periodic shapes.
"Conventional antennas can channel electromagnetic energy to a load --but at much lower energy absorption efficiency levels,"said Ramahi."
"Our research enables significantly higher energy absorption than classical antennas, "Ramahi said.""This results in a significant reduction of the energy harvesting surface footprint.
open a new pathway towards ultra-fast optoelectronic conversion. As Prof. Koppens comments,"Graphene photodetectors keep showing fascinating performances addressing a wide range of applications
However, the measurements based on a single f transition may be affected much by the variation of the sensor concentration and the drift of the optoelectronic systems
namely, the excitation sources and detectors. Recently, authors reported self-reference nanothermometers based on the intensity ratio of two f transitions that overcome the drawbacks of temperature determination with a single transition.
portable sensor that can detect gases emitted by rotting meat, allowing consumers to determine whether the meat in their grocery store or refrigerator is safe to eat.
The sensor, which consists of chemically modified carbon nanotubes, could be deployed in"smart packaging"that would offer much more accurate safety information than the expiration date on the package,
who is the senior author of a paper describing the new sensor this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie("Single-Walled carbon nanotube/Metalloporphyrin Composites for the Chemiresistive Detection of Amines and Meat Spoilage").
The sensor is similar to other carbon nanotube devices that Swager's lab has developed in recent years,
For this sensor, the researchers used a metalloporphyrin with cobalt at its center. Metalloporphyrins are very good at binding to nitrogen-containing compounds called amines.
In this study, the researchers tested the sensor on four types of meat: pork, chicken, cod, and salmon.
There are other sensors that can detect the signs of decaying meat, but they are usually large and expensive instruments that require expertise to operate."
easiest-to-manufacture sensors, "Swager says. The new device also requires very little power and could be incorporated into a wireless platform Swager's lab recently developed that allows a regular smartphone to read output from carbon nanotube sensors such as this one.
"The detector and light source was the same as on light microscopes found at any hospital, but my colleague Tom Vosch has optimized the microscope to the point where everything is almost beyond the possible.
#Bio-inspired eye stabilizes robot's flight without need for an accelerometer Biorobotics researchers at the Institut des Sciences du Mouvement-Etienne-Jules Marey (CNRS/Aix-Marseille
Universit) have developed the first aerial robot able to fly over uneven terrain that is stabilized visually without an accelerometer.
and avoids obstacles thanks to optic flow sensors inspired by insect vision. It can fly along a tunnel with uneven, moving walls without measuring either speed or altitude.
& Biomimetics("Flying over uneven moving terrain based on optic-flow cues without any need for reference frames or accelerometers").
including accelerometers. This allows these aircraft to stabilize their roll and pitch with respect to the horizon or rather with respect to its perpendicular:
An accelerometer measures all the accelerations of the aircraft including gravity, which is directed always toward the center of the Earth.
and follow terrain with no accelerometer and without measuring speed or altitude. With a weight of 80 grams and a length of 47 centimeters
Beerotor can thus avoid very steeply sloping obstacles (see video) with no accelerometer and without measuring speed or altitude.
biologically plausible hypothesis to explain how insects can fly without an accelerometer: winged insects may use cues from optic flow to remain stable,
Accelerometers, and therefore the inertial reference systems3 that contain them, are too heavy and bulky for very small robots.
Without necessarily replacing accelerometers optic flow sensors could be used as an ultra-light backup system in the event of failure on a space mission4.
Notes (1) The robot, which has 3 degrees of freedom (pitch, altitude, forward) flies around an axis to
Sub-optimal Lunar Landing GNC using Non-gimbaled Bio-inspired Optic Flow Sensors, G. Sabiron, T. Raharijaona, L. Burlion, E. Kervendal, E
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