Researchers from the Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia's (ICN2 Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology) Nanobioelectronics and Biosensors Group led by the ICREA Research Prof Arben Merkoçi work
#New graphene framework bridges gap between traditional capacitors batteries Researchers at the California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA have set the stage for a watershed in mobile energy storage by using a special graphene material
"By focusing on the nanoelectronic connections between cells, we can do things no one has done before,
By using nanoelectronics, it could become possible for scientists to peer for the first time inside cells, see what's going wrong in real time
His team has made ultrathin nanowires that can monitor and influence what goes on inside cells.
Presenting their findings today 5 august 2014 in the journal Nanotechnology the researchers have demonstrated the material's superior performance compared to commercially available carbon graphene and carbon nanotubes.
Preparation of energy storage material derived from a used cigarette filter for a supercapacitor electrode Nanotechnology iopscience. iop. org/0957-4484/25/34/345601 5
#Nanoscale biodegradable drug-delivery method could provide a year or more of steady doses About one in four older adults suffers from chronic pain.
The method uses biodegradable nanoscale thin films laden with drug molecules that are absorbed into the body in an incremental process.
The film can be applied onto degradable nanoparticles for injection into local sites or used to coat permanent devices such as orthopedic implants.
#Nanoscale details of electrochemical reactions in electric vehicle battery materials Using a new method to track the electrochemical reactions in a common electric vehicle battery material under operating conditions,
"Our work was focused on developing a method to track structural and electrochemical changes at the nanoscale as the battery material was charging,
These methods lack the spatial resolution needed for chemical mapping or nanoscale imaging, and are likely to overlook possible small-scale effects and local differences within the sample,
the Brookhaven team used a combination of full-field, nanoscale-resolution transmission x-ray microscopy (TXM) and x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) at the National Synchrotron Light source (NSLS),
The scientists used these methods to analyze samples made up of multiple nanoscale particles in a real battery electrode under operating conditions (in operando.
"In addition, this work demonstrates the unique capability of applying nanoscale imaging and spectroscopic techniques in understanding battery materials with a complex mechanism in real battery operational conditions."
The team is comprised of researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of technology's Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems,
A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.""If you compare the diameter of the nanopropellers with a human blood cell,
But the openings are large enough for nanometer-sized objects to pass through. The scientists were able to control the motion of the propellers using a relatively weak rotating magnetic field.
#Existence of two-dimensional nanomaterial silicene questioned Sometimes scientific findings can shake the foundations of what was held once to be true causing us to step back
A recent study at the U s. Department of energy's Argonne National Laboratory has called into question the existence of silicene thought to be one of the world's newest and hottest two-dimensional nanomaterials.
Some of the bulk silicon platelets were more than one layer thick said Argonne scientist Nathan Guisinger of Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials.
Housed within the Center for Nanoscale Materials a DOE Office of Science User Facility the spectroscope allows researchers to use light to shift the position of one atom in a crystal lattice
Yung-Eun Sung is both a group leader at the Center for Nanoparticle Research at Institute for Basic Science*(IBS) and a professor at the Seoul National University.
Group leader Yung-Eun Sung of the Center for Nanoparticle Research at IBS, says,"We expect that our synthetic approach will be developed to produce doped carbon materials based on other elements (e g.,
into a silicon nanowire. With this new method of producing hybrid nanowires, very fast and multifunctional processing units can be accommodated on a single chip in the future.
The research results will be published in the journal Nano Research. Nano-optoelectronics are considered the cornerstone of future chip technology,
they integrated compound semiconductor crystals made of indium arsenide (Inas) into silicon nanowires, which are suited ideally for constructing increasingly compact chips.
This integration of crystals was the greatest obstacle for such"hetero-nanowires"until now: beyond the nanometer range, crystal lattice mismatch always led to numerous defects.
The researchers have managed now a near-perfect production and embedding of the Inas crystals into the nanowires for the first time.
Implanted atoms form crystals in the liquid-Phase in order to carry out this process, ion beam synthesis and heat treatment with xenon flash-lamps were used, two technologies in
"A silicon oxide shell, measuring merely fifteen-nanometers-thick, maintains the form of the liquid nanowire,
"explains HZDR scientist Dr. Slawomir Prucnal, "while the implanted atoms form the indium arsenide crystals.""Dr. Wolfgang Skorupa, the head of the research group adds:"
"In the next step, the scientists want to implement different compound semiconductors into Silicon nanowires and also optimize the size and distribution of the crystals a
Their findings are to be published Sunday, July 20, in the advanced online publication of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
who is also director of the Materials science Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and director of the National Science Foundation Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at UC Berkeley."
Unstable and hungry for electrons The nanoscale plasmon sensor used in the lab experiments is much smaller than other explosive detectors on the market.
For example we've been working with Columbia experimentalists who use a technique called'nanoindentation'to experimentally measure some of
One of the most promising developments involves layering anti-reflective nanostructures on top of an anti-glare surface.
#Self-assembling nanoparticle could improve MRI scanning for cancer diagnosis Scientists have designed a new self-assembling nanoparticle that targets tumours,
The new nanoparticle, developed by researchers at Imperial College London, boosts the effectiveness of Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning by specifically seeking out receptors that are found in cancerous cells.
The nanoparticle is coated with a special protein, which looks for specific signals given off by tumours,
causing the nanoparticle to self-assemble into a much larger particle so that it is more visible on the scan.
used cancer cells and mouse models to compare the effects of the self-assembling nanoparticle in MRI scanning against commonly used imaging agents
and found that the nanoparticle produced a more powerful signal and created a clearer MRI image of the tumour.
The scientists say the nanoparticle increases the sensitivity of MRI scanning and will ultimately improve doctor's ability to detect cancerous cells at much earlier stages of development.
The newly designed nanoparticle provides a tool to improve the sensitivity of MRI scanning, and the scientists are now working to enhance its effectiveness.
so that the nanoparticle would light up with a luminescent probe once it had found its target,
"Before testing and injecting the nontoxic nanoparticle into mice, the scientists had to make sure that it would not become so big
They injected the nanoparticle into a saline solution inside a petri dish and monitored its growth over a four hour period.
The nanoparticle grew from 100 to 800 nanometres still small enough to not cause any harm.
The scientists are now improving the nanoparticle and hope to test their design in a human trial within the next three to five years.
"We're now looking at fine tuning the size of the final nanoparticle so that it is even smaller
By using CARS in conjunction with a light amplifier made of four tiny gold nanodiscs,
The gap in the center of the four discs is about 15 nanometers wide. Owing to an optical effect called a"Fano resonance,
"A 15-nanometer gap may sound small, but the gap in most competing devices is on the order of 1 nanometer,
"Zhang said.""Our design is much more robust because even the smallest defect in a one-nanometer device can have significant effects.
Moreover, the larger gap also results in a larger target area, the area where measurements take place.
The target area in our device is hundreds of times larger than the target area in a one-nanometer device,
#Surrey Nanosystems has super black material (Phys. org) A British company says it has scored a breakthrough in the world's darkest material.
Surrey Nanosystems describes its development as not just a black material but super-black. They are calling it Vantablack
The manufacture of`super-black`carbon nanotube-based materials has required traditionally high temperatures preventing their direct application to sensitive electronics or materials with relatively low melting points.
which period Surrey Nanosystems successfully transferred its low-temperature manufacturing process from silicon to aluminum structures and pyroelectric sensors.
Vantablack is a major breakthrough by UK industry in the application of nanotechnology to optical instrumentation.
Recently, there has been a lot of interest in fabricating metal-based nanotextured surfaces that are preprogrammed to alter the properties of light in a specific way after incoming light interacts with it,
how they want their nanostructure to modify light.""The researchers developed a novel, metal, pillar-bowtie nanoantenna (p-BNA) array template on 500-nanometer tall glass pillars (or posts.
In doing so, they demonstrated that the gap size for either individual or multiple p-BNAS can be tuned down to approx. 5 nm (approx. 4x smaller than
"On a fundamental level, our work demonstrates electron-beam based manipulation of nanoparticles an order of magnitude larger than previously possible,
which give rise to nanonewton-magnitude gradient forces on the constituent metal particles.""The interdisiciplinary research teamhat included Abdul Bhuiya (MS student in ECE student), Xin Yu (ECE post-grad),
and Nanotechnology Laboratory) lso demonstrated that the gap size for either individual or multiple p-BNAS can be tuned down to approximately 5 nm (roughly 4x smaller than
or groups of p-BNAS within a sub-array with velocities as large as 60 nanometers per second.
It enables tuning of the optical (plasmonic) response of the nanoantennas, down to the level of a single nanoantenna (approximately 250 nanometers across;
and thermal phenomena in a nanoscale system. The team believes that the relatively high aspect ratio (pillar height-to-thickness) of 4. 2 for the p-BNAS,
Based on the observed experiments, the gradient force is estimated to be on the order of nanonewtons.""Our fabrication process shows for the first time an innovative way of fabricating plasmonic nanoantenna structures under the SEM,
Researchers are focused now on using silicon at the nanoscale, or billionths of a meter, level as a replacement for graphite.
The problem with nanoscale silicon is that it degrades quickly and is hard to produce in large quantities.
and milled it down to the nanometer scale, followed by a series of purification steps changing its color from brown to bright white, similar in color and texture to powdered sugar.
"said Wolkow, the icore Chair in Nanoscale Information and Communications technology in the Faculty of science.""We are approaching some fundamental limits that will stop the 30-yearlong drive to make things faster, cheaper, better and smaller;
"Wolkow and his team in the U of A's physics department and the National Institute for Nanotechnology are working to engineer atomically precise technologies that have practical, real-world applications.
when they created the smallest-ever quantum dots single atom of silicon measuring less than one nanometre widesing a technique that will be awarded a U s. patent later this month.
and being able to record the magnitude of resistance paves the way to design superior nanoelectronic devices,
nanotechnologists and biomedical researchers with the aim of developing a so-called plasmonic nanobiosensor for the detection of proteins.
It consisted of nanoantennas, tiny gold rods about 100 to 200 nanometres long and 60 to 80 nm wide.
If these molecules are close to nanoparticles, the plasmons in the nanoparticles enhance the Raman signal coming from the molecules that have to be detected with several orders of magnitude.
The nanoantennas developed in this project only enhance the emitted Raman signal if the biomolecules are close to the hot spots Therefore,
"says Alexandre Brolo, professor of chemistry specialised in nanotechnology research, who has been developing plasmonic biosensors at the University of Victoria, British columbia, Canada.
"says Maria Carmen Estévez, a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Bellaterra, Spain.
One possibility is to use hybrid solar cells that combine silicon nanowires with low-cost, photoresponsive polymers. The high surface area and confined nature of nanowires allows them to trap significant amounts of light for solar cell operations.
Unfortunately, these thin, needle-like structures are very fragile and tend to stick together when the wires become too long.
Now, findings by Xincai Wang from the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology and co-workers from Nanyang Technological University could turn the tables on silicon nanowires by improving the manufacturing of silicon'nanoholes'arrow cavities carved into silicon wafers
Nanoholes are particularly effective at capturing light because photons can ricochet many times inside these openings until absorption occurs.
One significant problem, notes Wang, is control of the initial stages of nanohole formation crucial period that can often induce defects into the solar cell.
'maskless'approach to producing nanoholes using silver nanoparticles. First, they deposited a nanometer-thin layer of silver onto a silicon wafer
which they toughened by annealing it using a rapid-burst ultraviolet laser. Careful optimization of this procedure yielded regular arrays of silver nanospheres on top of the silicon surface,
with sphere size and distribution controlled by the laser annealing conditions. Next, the nanosphereilicon complex was immersed into a solution of hydrogen peroxide and hydrofluoric acid mixture that eats away at silicon atoms directly underneath the catalytic silver nanospheres.
Subsequent removal of the silver particles with acid produced the final, nanohole-infused silicon surface (see image).
The team analyzed the solar cell activity of their nanohole interfaces by coating them with a semiconducting polymer and metal electrodes.
Their experiments revealed a remarkable dependence on nanohole depth: cavities deeper than one micrometer showed sharp drops in power conversion efficiency from a maximum of 8. 3 per cent due to light scattering off of rougher surfaces and higher series resistance effects."
"Our simple process for making hybrid silicon nanohole devices can successfully reduce the fabrication costs
which impede the solar cell industry, "says Wang.""In addition, this approach can be transferred easily to silicon thin films to develop thin-film siliconolymer hybrid solar cells with even higher efficiency. e
In recognition of the innovative approach the research was introduced on the cover of Nanoscale a high impacting peer-reviewed journal in the field of nano science.
along with Dr. Seok-In Na at Chonbuk National University and Dr. Byoung Gak Kim at KRICT synthesized carbon nanosheets similar to graphene using polymer
The research outcome was introduced in Nanoscale a journal of Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK under the title of One-step Synthesis of Carbon Nanosheets Converted from a Polycylic Compound
The research team developed carbon nanosheet in a two-step process which consists of coating the substrate with a plymer solution and heating.
The carbon nanosheet can be mass-produced in a simpler process while having high quality since the new process bypasses the steps that are prone to formation of defects such as elimination of the metal substrate or transfer of graphene to another board.
#Shrinky Dinks close the gap for nanowires How do you put a puzzle together when the pieces are too tiny to pick up?
to close the gap between nanowires in an array to make them useful for high-performance electronics applications.
Nanowires are extremely fast, efficient semiconductors, but to be useful for electronics applications, they need to be packed together in dense arrays.
Researchers have struggled to find a way to put large numbers of nanowires together so that they are aligned in the same direction and only one layer thick."
"Chemists have done already a brilliant job in making nanowires exhibit very high performance. We just don't have a way to put them into a material that we can handle,
people can make nanowires and nanotubes using any method they like and use the shrinking action to compact them into a higher density."
"The researchers place the nanowires on the Shrinky Dinks plastic as they would for any other substrate,
but then shrink it to bring the wires much closer together. This allows them to create very dense arrays of nanowires in a simple, flexible and very controllable way.
The shrinking method has added the bonus of bringing the nanowires into alignment as they increase in density.
Nam's group demonstrated how even wires more than 30 degrees off-kilter can be brought into perfect alignment with their neighbors after shrinking."
Nam first had the idea for using Shrinky Dinks plastic to assemble nanomaterials after seeing a microfluidics device that used channels made of shrinking plastic.
and the low cost of plastic could have a huge impact on nanowire assembly and processing for applications."
"I'm interested in this concept of synthesizing new materials that are assembled from nanoscale building blocks, "Nam said."
For example, experiments have shown that film made of packed nanowires has properties that differ quite a bit from a crystal thin film."
made of densely packed nanowires, that could harvest energy from light much more efficiently than traditional thin-film solar cells s
Lots of pores for sulfur The chemists Professor Thomas Bein (LMU), Coordinator of the Energy conversion Division of the Nanosystems Initiative Munich, Professor Linda Nazar (University of Waterloo, Waterloo Institute
of Nanotechology) and their colleagues have succeeded now in producing a novel type of nanofiber whose highly ordered and porous structure gives it an extraordinarily high surface-to-volume ratio.
#Chirality-controlled growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes Recently, Professor Li Yan's research team developed a novel strategy to produce single-walled carbon nanotubes with specific chirality by applying a new family of catalysts,
who also serves the president of Fullerene, Carbon nanotubes, and Graphene research Society of Japan. Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT
which can be considered as a seamlesscylinder formed by rolling a piece of graphene, may be either metallic
SWNTS has shown great potential in various fields such as nanoelectronics. In 2009, the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) selected carbon-based nanoelectronics to include carbon nanotubes
and graphene for additional resources and detailed road mapping for ITRS as promising technologies targeting commercial demonstration in the next 10-15 year horizon.
As stated by Dr. Avouris in his review article published in Nature Nanotechnology (V. 2 P. 605"
the main hurdle (of carbon-based electronics) is our current inability to produce large amounts of identical nanostructureshere is no reliable way to directly produce a single CNT type such as will be needed in a large integrated system."
The catalysts, tungsten-based bimetallic alloy nanoparticles of non-cubic symmetry, have high melting points and consequently are able to maintain their crystal structure during the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process,
Experimental evidence and theoretical simulation reveal that the good structural match between the carbon atom arrangement around the nanotube circumference
and the arrangement of the atoms in one of the planes of the nanocrystal catalyst facilitates the (n,
This method is also valid for other tungsten-based alloy nanocatalysts to grow SWNTS of various designed chirality."
"Employing tungsten-based alloy nanocrystals with unique structure as catalysts paves a way for the ultimate chirality control in SWNT growth.
carbon-based nanoelectronics",said Li. The work was evaluated highly by Professor Jie Liu at Duke university,
"The chirality-specific growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes is the most challenging and important issue in the field,
especially nanoelectronics. c
#Lab unzips nanotubes into ribbons by shooting them at a target (Phys. org) Carbon nanotubes unzipped into graphene nanoribbons by a chemical process invented at Rice university are finding use in all kinds of projects
but Rice scientists have now found a chemical-free way to unzip them. The Rice lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan discovered that nanotubes that hit a target end first turn into mostly ragged clumps of atoms.
But nanotubes that happen to broadside the target unzip into handy ribbons that can be used in composite materials for strength
and applications that take advantage of their desirable electrical properties. The Rice researchers led by graduate student Sehmus Ozden reported their finding in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.
The researchers fired pellets of randomly oriented multiwalled carbon nanotubes from a light gas gun built by the Rice lab of materials scientist Enrique Barrera with funding from NASA.
When they inspected the resulting carbon rubble they found nanotubes that smashed into the target end first
or at a sharp angle simply deformed into a crumpled nanotube. But tubes that hit lengthwise actually split into ribbons with ragged edges.
Single-wall nanotubes do just the opposite; when the tube flattens the bottom wall hits the inside of the top wall
Ozden explained that the even distribution of stress along the belly-flopping nanotube which is many times longer than it is wide breaks carbon bonds in a line nearly simultaneously.
The researchers said 70 to 80 percent of the nanotubes in a pellet unzip to one degree or another.
Ozden said the process eliminates the need to clean chemical residues from nanoribbons produced through current techniques.
#Diamond plates create nanostructures through pressure not chemistry You wouldn't think that mechanical forcehe simple kind used to eject unruly patrons from bars,
or emboss the raised numerals on credit cardsould process nanoparticles more subtly than the most advanced chemistry.
and original method uses simple pressure kind of high-tech embossingo produce finer and cleaner results in forming silver nanostructures than do chemical methods,
when applied to nanoparticle arrays, forms new nanostructures with tunable properties.""There is a great potential market for this technology,
The pressure, delivered by two diamond plates tightened by four screws to any controlled setting, shepherds silver nanospheres into any desired volume.
Propinquity creates conditions that produce nanorods, nanowires and nanosheets at chosen thicknesses and lengths rather than the one-size-fits-all output of a chemical process, with no environmentally harmful residues.
While experiments reported in the paper were performed with silverhe most desirable metal because it is the most conductive,
platinum and other metallic nanoparticles Clem said the researchers are now starting to work with semiconductors.
A coating of nanoparticles that can build into another structure has a certain functionality we don't have right now.
For example, under pressure, the dimensions of ordered three-dimensional nanoparticle arrays shrink. By fabricating a structure in
the nanoparticle array will remain at a constant state, able to transmit light and electricity with specific characteristics.
At even higher pressures, nanoparticles are forced to sinter, or bond, forming new classes of chemically
and mechanically stable nanostructures that no longer need restraining surfaces. These cannot be manufactured using current chemical methods.
composition and phase orientation of the initial nanoparticle arrays, a variety of nanostructures or nanocomposites and 3-D interconnected networks are achievable.
#Eco-friendly versatile nanocapsules developed The Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has announced that the Centre for Self-assembly
and Complexity have succeeded in developing a new technology that introduces metal nanoparticles on the surface of polymer nanocapsules made of cucurbit 6 uril.
The researchers have found that using polymer nanocapsules made of cucurbit 6 uril and metal salts can serve as a versatile platform where equal sized metal nanoparticles can be distributed evenly on the surface of the polymer nanocapsules.
Cucurbit 6 uril has properties which strongly and selectively recognize organic and inorganic chemical species. This makes it possible to use it as a protecting agent
which can stabilize metal nanoparticles by preventing them from clustering together. The metal nanoparticle-decorated polymer nanocapsules exhibit the following properties in water:
high stability for up to 6 months; high dispersibility; excellent catalytic activity; and reusability in carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen bond-forming reactions with 100%conversion efficiency.
Even though metal nanoparticles are used variously in industrial, pharmaceutical and agricultural (fertilizer) applications as a catalyst, toxic liquids such as toluene and hexane are used usually as solvents in the carbon-carbon
However, this new technology is able to replace those toxic liquids as it allows carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen bond-formation with the use of metal nanoparticles as a catalyst
and reusability in water, which other existing metal nanoparticles on solid supports have not been able to do,
"It is important as it presents new possible applications in green solvents or bioimaging and nanomedicine fields
#Scientists develop a'nanosubmarine'that delivers complementary molecules inside cells With the continuing need for very small devices in therapeutic applications there is a growing demand for the development of nanoparticles that can transport
Recently researchers created nanoparticles that under the right conditions self-assemble trapping complementary guest molecules within their structure.
Like tiny submarines these versatile nanocarriers can navigate in the watery environment surrounding cells and transport their guest molecules through the membrane of living cells to sequentially deliver their cargo.
Although the transport of molecules inside cells with nanoparticles has been achieved previously using various methods researchers have developed nanoparticles capable of delivering
For practical applications these nanocarriers are highly desirable explains Francisco Raymo professor of chemistry in the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences and lead investigator of this project.
The new nanocarriers are15 nanometers in diameter. They are made supramolecular constructs up of building blocks called amphiphilic polymers.
These nanocarriers hold the guest molecules within the confines of their water-insoluble interior and use their water-soluble exterior to travel through an aqueous environment.
As a result these nanovehicles are ideal for transferring molecules that would otherwise be insoluble in water across a liquid environment.
if the nanoparticles can actually travel through the bloodstream. That would be the dream but we have no evidence that they can actually do so Raymo says.
The size of these nanoparticles their dynamic character and the fact that the reactions take place under normal biological conditions (at ambient temperature
and neutral environment) makes these nanoparticles an ideal vehicle for the controlled activation of therapeutics directly inside the cells Raymo says.
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