scientists at DOE's Joint Center for Energy storage Research (JCESR) designed and implemented a small device, known as an operando electrochemical stage.
This could have implications for making new types of bioelectronic devices and even growing"living"semi-artificial squid skin n
The report is online at Scientific Reports("Graphene quantum dots Interfaced with Single Bacterial Spore for Bio-Electromechanical devices:
A Graphene Cytobot"."""We've taken a spore from a bacteria, and put graphene quantum dots on its surface
--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."
#Desalination with nanoporous graphene membrane Less than 1 percent of Earth's water is drinkable. Removing salt and other minerals from our biggest available source of water--seawater--may help satisfy a growing global population thirsty for fresh water for drinking, farming, transportation, heating, cooling and industry.
Now, a team of experimentalists led by the Department of energy's Oak ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated an energy-efficient desalination technology that uses a porous membrane made of strong, slim graphene--a carbon honeycomb one atom thick.
The results are published in the March 23 advance online issue of Nature Nanotechnology("Water Desalination Using Nanoporous Single-layer graphene"."
porous graphene,"said Shannon Mark Mahurin of ORNL's Chemical sciences Division, who co-led the study with Ivan Vlassiouk in ORNL's Energy and Transportation Science Division."
"said Vlassiouk, pointing out a wealth of water travels through the porous graphene membrane.""The flux through the current graphene membranes was at least an order of magnitude higher than that through state-of-the-art reverse osmosis polymeric membranes."
"Current methods for purifying water include distillation and reverse osmosis. Distillation, or heating a mixture to extract volatile components that condense,
Making pores in the graphene is key. Without these holes, water cannot travel from one side of the membrane to the other.
The water molecules are simply too big to fit through graphene's fine mesh. But poke holes in the mesh that are just the right size
"Graphene to the rescue Graphene is only one-atom thick, yet flexible and strong. Its mechanical and chemical stabilities make it promising in membranes for separations.
A porous graphene membrane could be more permeable than a polymer membrane, so separated water would drive faster through the membrane under the same conditions, the scientists reasoned."
"If we can use this single layer of graphene, we could then increase the flux
To make graphene for the membrane, the researchers flowed methane through a tube furnace at 1,
The researchers transferred the graphene membrane to a silicon nitride support with a micrometer-sized hole.
Then the team exposed the graphene to an oxygen plasma that knocked carbon atoms out of the graphene's nanoscale chicken wire lattice to create pores.
The longer the graphene membrane was exposed to the plasma, the bigger the pores that formed,
The silicon nitride chip held the graphene membrane in place while water flowed through it from one chamber to the other.
allowed for atom-resolution imaging of graphene, which the scientists used to correlate the porosity of the graphene membrane with transport properties.
They determined the optimum pore size for effective desalination was 0. 5 to 1 nanometers,
Vlassiouk said making the porous graphene membranes used in the experiment is viable on an industrial scale,
#Next important step toward quantum computer with quantum dots Physicists at the Universities of Bonn and Cambridge have succeeded in linking two completely different quantum systems to one another.
In doing so, they have taken an important step forward on the way to a quantum computer. To accomplish their feat the researchers used a method that seems to function as well in the quantum world as it does for us people:
just as quickly too quickly to be of any real use in a quantum computer. In contrast, charged atoms, called ions, have an excellent memory:
Absentminded qdots qdots are considered the great hopes in the development of quantum computers. In principle, they are miniaturized extremely electron storage units. qdots can be produced using the same techniques as normal computer chips.
This success is an important step on the still long and rocky road to a quantum computer.
However, a quantum computer displays its talents only for such special tasks: For normal types of basic computations, it is pitifully slow w
In an experiment, recently published in Science("Probing Johnson noise and ballistic transport in normal metals with a single-spin qubit),
Like atomic systems, the NV centers can be used as a qubit. In this experiment, physicists harness the sensitivity of these isolated quantum systems to characterize electron motion.
Los angeles (UCLA), have discovered a new resonance phenomenon in a dielectric elastomer rotary joint that can make the artificial joint bend up and down,
while they are interested in seeing how the artificial joint react to an alternating or periodically changing voltage."
"explains Dr. Charron, Director of the Molecular biology of Neural development research unit at the IRCM. Over the past few decades, the scientific community has struggled to understand why more than one guidance cue would be necessary for axons to reach the proper target.
The end result is a polycarbonate 3d printed streamlined skeleton which had no moving parts (Fig. 1) and no energy storage device other than a thin elastic outer membrane.
Underwater'robot'with 3d printed hull and elastic membrane demonstrates ultra-fast escape inspired from Octopus.
hile 3d printing is considered an innovative manufacturing technology, it cannot be used for mass-production of microscopic products.
This research is part of a programme of work aimed at developing the next generation of biofuels.
This study provides new insight and understanding of the development of next-generation biofuels. In this latest study, published in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels("A microbial platform for renewable propane synthesis based on a fermentative butanol pathway"),scientists at the Universitys Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB
working with colleagues at Imperial College and University of Turku, have created a synthetic pathway for biosynthesis of the gas propane.
It also expands the metabolic toolbox for renewable propane production, providing new insight and understanding of the development of next-generation biofuels
#Electrical control of quantum bits in silicon paves the way to large quantum computers (Nanowerk News) A University of New south wales (UNSW)- led research team has encoded quantum information in silicon using simple electrical pulses for the first time,
bringing the construction of affordable large-scale quantum computers one step closer to reality. Lead researcher, UNSW Associate professor Andrea Morello from the School of Electrical engineering and Telecommunications, said his team had realised successfully a new control method for future quantum computers.
The findings were published today in the open-access journal Science Advances("Electrically controlling single-spin qubits in a continuous microwave field".
"This is an electron wave in a phosphorus atom, distorted by a local electric field. Unlike conventional computers that store data on transistors and hard drives, quantum computers encode data in the quantum states of microscopic objects called qubits.
The UNSW team, which is affiliated with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology, was first in the world to demonstrate single-atom spin qubits in silicon,
reported in Nature in 2012 and 2013. The team has improved already the control of these qubits to an accuracy of above 99%and established the world record for how long quantum information can be stored in the solid state
as published in Nature Nanotechnology in 2014. It has demonstrated now a key step that had remained elusive since 1998."
"We demonstrated that a highly coherent qubit, like the spin of a single phosphorus atom in isotopically enriched silicon,
"Therefore, we can selectively choose which qubit to operate. It's a bit like selecting which radio station we tune to,
"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.
Moreover, this specific type of quantum bit can be manufactured using a similar technology to that employed for the production of everyday computers,
Key to the success of this electrical control method is the placement of the qubits inside a thin layer of specially purified silicon
does not disturb the quantum bit, "Associate professor Morello said. The purified silicon was provided through collaboration with Professor Kohei Itoh from Keio University in Japan n
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.
Among the most important is space solar power, an emerging critical technology that can significantly help to address energy shortages.
with plans to begin harvesting solar power from space by 2030.""Our research enables significantly higher energy absorption than classical antennas,
#Graphene pushes the speed limit of light-to-electricity conversion (Nanowerk News) The efficient conversion of light into electricity plays a crucial role in many technologies,
Graphene is an excellent material for ultrafast conversion of light to electrical signals, but so far it was known not how fast graphene responds to ultrashort flashes of light.
ICFO researchers Klaas-Jan Tielrooij Lukasz Piatkowski, Mathieu Massicotte and Achim Woessner led by ICFO Prof.
have demonstrated now that a graphene-based photodetector converts absorbed light into an electrical voltage at an extremely high speed.
The study, entitled"Generation of photovoltage in graphene on a femtosecond timescale through efficient carrier heating",has recently been published in Nature Nanotechnology("Generation of photovoltage in graphene on a femtosecond timescale through efficient carrier heating".
As Klaas-Jan Tielrooij comments,"the experiment uniquely combined the ultrafast pulse shaping expertise obtained from single molecule ultrafast photonics with the expertise in graphene electronics.
Facilitated by graphene's nonlinear photo-thermoelectric response, these elements enabled the observation of femtosecond photodetection response times."
"The ultrafast creation of a photovoltage in graphene is possible due to the extremely fast and efficient interaction between all conduction band carriers in graphene.
Next, the electron heat is converted into a voltage at the interface of two graphene regions with different doping.
"it is amazing how graphene allows direct nonlinear detecting of ultrafast femtosecond (fs) pulses"."The results obtained from the findings of this work,
which has been funded partially by the EC Graphene Flagship, open a new pathway towards ultra-fast optoelectronic conversion.
Koppens comments,"Graphene photodetectors keep showing fascinating performances addressing a wide range of applications
#Lanthanide-organic framework nanothermometers prepared by spray-drying A work in Advanced Functional Materials shows how spray-drying prepared MOF nanoparticles containing lanthanide metals may be used as nanothermometers operative over a wide range of temperatures
#Researchers create first whispering gallery for graphene electrons (Nanowerk News) An international research group led by scientists at the U s. Commerce departments National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) has developed a technique for creating nanoscale whispering galleries for electrons in graphene. The development opens the way to building devices that focus
issue of Science("Creating and probing electron whispering-gallery modes in graphene")."An international research group led by scientists at NIST has developed a technique for creating nanoscale whispering galleries for electrons in graphene.
The researchers used the voltage from a scanning tunneling microscope (right) to push graphene electrons out of a nanoscale area to create the whispering gallery (represented by the protuberances on the left),
which is like a circular wall of mirrors to the electron. Image: Jon Wyrick, CNST/NIST) In some structures,
Ever since graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, was created first in 2004,
However, early studies of the behavior of electrons in graphene were hampered by defects in the material.
As the manufacture of clean and near-perfect graphene becomes more routine, scientists are beginning to uncover its full potential.
Due to the light-like properties of graphene electrons, they can pass through unimpededno matter how high the barrierif they hit the barrier head on.
This tendency to tunnel makes it hard to steer electrons in graphene. Enter the graphene electron whispering gallery.
To create a whispering gallery in graphene the team first enriched the graphene with electrons from a conductive plate mounted below it.
With the graphene now crackling with electrons, the research team used the voltage from a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to push some of them out of a nanoscale-sized area.
This created the whispering gallery, which is like a circular wall of mirrors to the electron.
An electron that hits the step head-on can tunnel straight through it, said NIST researcher Nikolai Zhitenev.
A team of theoretical physicists from the Massachusetts institute of technology developed the theory describing whispering gallery modes in graphene.
Graphene-based quantum electronic resonators and lenses have as yet untold potential but if conventional optics is any guide,
#Biofuels: plant the right crop in the right place (Nanowerk News) Corn, wheat and rapeseed can be used to produce biofuels, such as bioethanol and biodiesel.
According to recent findings by environmental scientists at Radboud University, the location of the agricultural lands used to grow these biofuel crops has a major impact on the greenhouse gas emission they ultimately produce.
The study that arrived at this conclusion is due to be published By nature Climate change("Greenhouse gas payback times for crop-based biofuels".
"This figure shows the duration of the payback times for greenhouse gases produced by corn-based bioethanol per intensively farmed crop location,
i e. where fertilizers and irrigation are used. While intensive crop farming results in greater greenhouse gas emission, it also increases the yields of crops used to produce biofuels and,
ultimately, reduces emission levels. To increase production of biofuels from crops, such as corn and wheat,
natural areas need to make way for agricultural land. The initial result of this is an increase in greenhouse gas emission.
Pieter Elshout and fellow environmental scientists at Radboud University have demonstrated how long it takes for the advantages that biofuels offer over fossil fuels to earn a return on this initial emission On the global scale,
This figure shows the duration of the payback times for greenhouse gases produced by corn-based bioethanol,
it also yields smaller crops for producing biofuels. From Western europe to the tropics Elshout, a Phd candidate at Radboud University, explains:
The model demonstrates that the location of biofuel crops has a significant impact on greenhouse gas emission more so than does the type of crop
spatially-explicit overview of biogenic gas emission resulting from crops used to produce biofuels. In developing this model,
our calculations of the durations of payback times took account of the entire production chain for fossil fuels and biofuels with the accompanying greenhouse emissions.
This global model is applicable to first-generation biofuels. These include bioethanol from corn, wheat and sugar cane,
as well as biodiesel from soybeans and rapeseed. Food for discussion These results will contribute an angle of nuance to the current debate on biofuels in The netherlands.
In a follow-up study on biofuel crop farming Elshout and his colleagues hope to investigate the payback times related to the impact on biodiversity y
#Controlling swarms of robots with light and a single finger (w/video)( Nanowerk News) Using a smart tablet and a red beam of light,
Georgia Institute of technology researchers have created a system that allows people to control a fleet of robots with the swipe of a finger.
#Combining graphene and nanotubes to make digital switches Graphene has been called a wonder material, capable of performing great and unusual material acrobatics.
As a conductor, graphene lets electrons zip too fasthere no controlling or stopping themhile boron nitride nanotubes are
Yoke Khin Yap, a professor of physics at Michigan Technological University, has worked with a research team that created these digital switches by combining graphene and boron nitride nanotubes.
The journal Scientific Reports recently published their work("Switching Behaviors of Graphene-Boron nitride nanotube Heterojunctions"."he question is:
Nanoscale Tweaks Graphene is a molecule-thick sheet of carbon atoms; the nanotubes are made like straws of boron and nitrogen.
Yap and his team exfoliate graphene and modify the material surface with tiny pinholes. Then they can grow the nanotubes up and through the pinholes.
graphene flat sheet conducts electricity quickly, and the atomic structure in the nanotubes halts electric currents.
and off is several orders of magnitude greater than current graphene switches. In turn, this speed could eventually quicken the pace of electronics and computing.
the use of graphene and nanotubes bypasses those problems. In addition, the graphene and boron nitride nanotubes have the same atomic arrangement pattern,
or lattice matching. With their aligned atoms, the graphene-nanotube digital switches could avoid the issues of electron scattering. ou want to control the direction of the electrons,
Yap explains, comparing the challenge to a pinball machine that traps, slows down and redirects electrons. his is difficult in high speed environments,
or change the pinball setup of graphene to minimize electron scattering. And one day all their tweaks could make for faster computersnd digital pinball gamesor the rest of us t
and help get rid of the bottlenecks in data centers. The current publication presents an MZM only 12.5 micrometers long
Rodriguez says. ny applications where you have limitations in terms of payload or cost or complexity, areas like manufacturing,
#Using lasers to tailor the properties of graphene Carbon nanomaterials display extraordinary physical properties, outstanding among any other substance available,
and Graphene has grown as the most promising material for brand-new electronic circuitry, sensors and optical communications devices.
Graphene is a single atomic-thick sheet of honeycomb carbon lattice, with unique electronic and optical properties,
But two problems hinder graphene's uptake in real world electronics. There is no large-scale technology to control the properties,
and the traditional technology used for silicon-based processors (solid state) is not suitable for graphene processing (molecular material).
The researchers from Technological Center AIMEN explore the use of ultrafast lasers as tool for graphene processing.
used to tailor the properties of graphene films in finely defined areas, to produce distinct behaviors useful for producing devices.
For this timescale, researches demonstrated that they can pattern graphene lattice by cutting adding external molecules or binding compounds (functional groups like oxygen or hydroxyl.
direct writing of devices on graphene can be done with high precision, producing nanodevices with minimal footprint and maximum efficiency.
As recently published in AIP Applied Physics Letters("Patterned graphene ablation and two-photon functionalization by picosecond laser pulses in ambient conditions),
"the work of AIMEN researches demonstrated laser based large scale patterning of graphene at high speed and resolution, opening new possibilities for device making.
and atmosphere molecules, resulting in new optical properties in graphene. The potential of the altered optical properties (like spectral transmission) of functionalized graphene are just starting to be recognized,
and the full industrial potential of this technology needs to be tackled. This research work lays a foundation for deep understanding of the chemical and physical processes for industrially feasible graphene patterning,
as well as tests in real device application for future electronics. About AIMEN Located in Northwestern Spain
and controlling light in this way also could lead to improvement in the efficiency of solar energy cells,
Applying voltage to a 250-nanometer-thick sandwich of graphene, tantalum, nanoporous tantalum oxide and platinum creates addressable bits where the layers meet.
A schematic shows the layered structure of tantalum oxide, multilayer graphene and platinum used for a new type of memory developed at Rice university.
"The layered structure consists of tantalum, nanoporous tantalum oxide and multilayer graphene between two platinum electrodes.
The voltage-controlled movement of oxygen vacancies shifts the boundary from the tantalum/tantalum oxide interface to the tantalum oxide/graphene interface."
The graphene does double duty as a barrier that keeps platinum from migrating into the tantalum oxide and causing a short circuit.
"Big data to Knowledge""This study is an example of what's called a'Big data to Knowledge'study,"added Palsson."
"We are demonstrating that we can take large data sets, integrate them together and analyze them to generate knowledge.
In this case, we have used large amounts of experimental data and integrated them in the form of a computational model to arrive at our systems biology definition of the paleome
#Black phosphorus surges ahead of graphene A Korean team of scientists tune BP's band gap to form a superior conductor,
a layered form of carbon atoms constructed to resemble honeycomb, called graphene. Graphene was heralded globally as a wonder-material thanks to the work of two British scientists who won the Nobel prize for Physics for their research on it.
Graphene is extremely thin and has remarkable attributes. It is stronger than steel yet many times lighter
more conductive than copper and more flexible than rubber. All these properties combined make it a tremendous conductor of heat and electricity.
graphene has no band gap. Stepping stones to a Unique State A material's band gap is fundamental to determining its electrical conductivity.
Graphene has a band gap of zero in its natural state, however, and so acts like a conductor;
Like graphene, BP is a semiconductor and also cheap to mass produce. The one big difference between the two is BP's natural band gap
"Graphene is a Dirac semimetal. It's more efficient in its natural state than black phosphorus
therefore we tuned BP's band gap to resemble the natural state of graphene, a unique state of matter that is different from conventional semiconductors."
#New optical chip lights up the race for quantum computer The microprocessor inside a computer is a single multipurpose chip that has revolutionised people's life,
It's a major step forward in creating a quantum computer to solve problems such as designing new drugs
A major barrier in testing new theories for quantum science and quantum computing is the time and resources needed to build new experiments,
if we are to realise our vision for a quantum computer.""The University of Bristol's pioneering'Quantum in the Cloud'is the first and only service to make a quantum processor publicly accessible
#Engineers'sandwich'atomic layers to make new materials for energy storage The scientists whose job it is to test the limits of what nature--specifically chemistry--will allow to exist, just set up shop on some new real estate on the Periodic table.
Drexel University researchers are testing an array of new combinations that may vastly expand the options available to create faster, smaller, more efficient energy storage, advanced electronics and wear-resistant materials.
or more, of these new materials will exhibit energy storage and durability properties so disproportional to its size that it could revolutionize technology in the future."
"As far as energy storage materials go, MXENES were a revelation. Prior to their discovery, graphene,
which is a single sheet of carbon atoms, was the first two-dimensional material to be touted for its potential energy storage capabilities.
graphene was difficult to modify in form and therefore had limited energy storage capabilities. The new MXENES have surfaces that can store more energy.
An Elemental Impasse Four years later, the researchers have worked their way through the section of the Periodic table with elements called"transition metals"
while testing their energy storage properties. Anasori's discovery comes at a time when the group has encountered an obstacle on its progress through the table of elements."
which could unearth a vein of new physical properties that support energy storage and other applications.""This level of structural complexity,
and could ultimately be used to produce key components of future quantum computers. The novel phenomenon occurs at the boundary between a ferromagnet
and lock new magnetic order near the interface. his could be a building block of quantum computers,
The solar energy industry in the United states is soaring with the number of photovoltaic installations having grown from generating 1. 2 gigawatts of electricity in 2008 to generating 20-plus gigawatts today, according to the U s. Department of energy (DOE). Still,
Low-cost alternatives to todays photovoltaic solar panels are needed for the immense advantages of solar power to be realized fully.
the solar energy hitting the cell is concentrated highly. With a sufficient concentration factor, only small amounts of expensive III-V photovoltaic materials are needed to collect light from an inexpensive luminescent waveguide.
The success of this Cdse/Cds nanoparticle-based LSC system led to a partnership between Berkeley Lab, the University of Illinois, Caltech and the National Renewable energy Lab (NREL) on a new solar
#Biodiesel made easier and cleaner with waste-recycling catalyst Researchers at Cardiff University have devised a way of increasing the yield of biodiesel by using the waste left over from its production process.
when biodiesel is formed from vegetable oil, and convert this into an ingredient to produce even more biodiesel.
It is believed this new process will have significant environmental benefits by improving the yield of biodiesel in a sustainable way that doesn't require the use of additional fossil fuels
and could potentially reduce the costs of the biodiesel production process. The results have been published today, 14 september, in the journal Nature Chemistry.
By 2020, the EU aims to have 10 per cent of the transport fuel of every EU country come from renewable sources such as biofuels.
Fuel suppliers are required also to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the EU fuel mix by 6 per cent by 2020 in comparison to 2010.
At present, biodiesel is produced by combining fats and oils with methanol, which is derived usually from fossil fuels.
which could then be used as a starting reactant to create more biodiesel. To achieve this, the researchers reacted glycerol with water,
the researchers estimate up to a 10 per cent increase in biodiesel production, which they claim would be very helpful to industry at this point in time.
"Biodiesel manufacture is a growing part of the EU fuel pool, with statutory amounts being required to be added to diesel that is derived from fossil fuels."
"We've provided unprecedented chemistry that highlights the potential to manufacture biodiesel in a much more environmentally friendly,
"This paper shows how fundamental catalysis research can develop new mild processes to enhance the sustainability of biodiesel.
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