Nano News: January 2015

Best practice guide for the safe handling and use of nanoparticles in packaging industries

A novel “Best Practice Guide for the Safe Handling and Use of Nanoparticles in Packaging Industries” is now available to support those working with nanomaterials at all stages in the development of packaging products. The Best Practice Guide is the final output of NanoSafePack, a 36 month project funded under the European Union’s Seventh Framework...

DNA nanoswitches reveal how life's molecules connect (w/video)

A complex interplay of molecular components governs almost all aspects of biological sciences — healthy organism development, disease progression, and drug efficacy are all dependent on the way life's molecules interact in the body. Understanding these bio–molecular interactions is critical for the...

Pinholes are pitfalls for high performance solar cells

The most popular next-generation solar cells under development may have a problem – the top layer is full of tiny pinholes, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Japan have found. The majority of high-performance solar cells under development use a combination of materials including perovskite and spiro-MeOTAD....

DIADEMS - finding the sensor behind the sparkle

Diamonds – highly desirable lumps of carbon. But while their use to jewellers is well known, their hidden secrets are being revealed by the DIADEMS project. By modifying the structure of a diamond crystal, the project creates a new material that could be used in applications, from the creation of smart medicines to the next generation computers. The...

Paper-based nanoparticle test kit detects dengue antibodies from saliva

Finding out whether you have been infected with dengue may soon be as easy as spitting into a rapid test kit. The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of A*STAR has developed a paper-based disposable device that will allow dengue-specific antibodies to be detected easily from saliva within 20 minutes. This device is currently undergoing...

The nanomedicines of the future will build on quantum chemistry

Quantum chemical calculations have been used to solve big mysteries in space. Soon the same calculations may be used to produce tomorrow’s cancer drugs. Some years ago research scientists at the University of Oslo in Norway were able to show that the chemical bonding in the magnetic fields of small, compact stars, so-called white dwarf stars, is different...

Holes in valence bands of nanodiamonds discovered

Nanodiamonds are tiny crystals only a few nanometres in size. While they possess the crystalline structure of diamonds, their properties diverge considerably from those of their big brothers, because their surfaces play a dominant role in comparison to their extremely small volumes. Suspended in aqueous solutions, they could function as taxis for active...

Nanoscale mirrored cavities amplify, connect quantum memories

The idea of computing systems based on controlling atomic spins just got a boost from new research performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory. By constructing tiny "mirrors" to trap light around impurity atoms in diamond crystals, the team dramatically increased...

Building a graphene-based future for Europe

Graphene is the strongest, most impermeable and conductive material known to man. Graphene sheets are just one atom thick, but 200 times stronger than steel. The European Union is investing heavily in the exploitation of graphene's unique properties through a number of research initiatives such as the...

Carbon nanoballs can greatly contribute to sustainable energy supply

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have discovered that the insulation plastic used in high-voltage cables can withstand a 26 per cent higher voltage if nanometer-sized carbon balls are added. This could result in enormous efficiency gains in the power grids of the future, which are needed...

'Bulletproof' battery: Kevlar membrane for safer, thinner lithium rechargeables

New battery technology from the University of Michigan should be able to prevent the kind of fires that grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 2013. The innovation is an advanced barrier between the electrodes in a lithium-ion battery. Made with nanofibers extracted from Kevlar, the tough material in bulletproof...

Peptide nanoparticle delivery of oligonucleotide drugs into cells

Therapeutic oligonucleotide analogs represent a new and promising family of drugs that act on nucleic acid targets such as RNA or DNA; however, their effectiveness has been limited due to difficulty crossing the cell membrane. A new delivery approach based on cell-penetrating peptide nanoparticles can...

Detecting cancer at the atomic level

As a young physicist in the former Soviet Union, Igor Sokolov studied the biggest of the big—the entire universe. Now, as a professor of mechanical engineering at Tufts, he’s focused on the tiny, the nano. By zooming in—way, way in—Sokolov and his colleagues study everything from bacteria to beetles down to the nanoscale level. Now he’s turned a fresh...

Chromium-centered cycloparaphenylene rings for making functionalized nanocarbons

Professor Kenichiro Itami, Yasutomo Segawa and Natsumi Kubota of the JST-ERATO Itami Molecular Nanocarbon Project and the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM), Nagoya University have synthesized novel cycloparaphenylene (CPP) chromium complexes and demonstrated their utility in obtaining monofunctionalized CPPs, which could become useful...

Graphene enables electrical control of energy flow from light emitters

Lasers, computer displays and similar devices emit photons, and modulation of these light particles is critical in optoelectronic applications. Moreover, electrical control of light emission pathways makes possible devices based on active plasmonics, in which information transfer in nanoscale structures exploits electron oscillations at the interfaces...

Nanotechnology changes behavior of materials used in solar cells

One of the reasons solar cells are not used more widely is cost — the materials used to make them most efficient are expensive. Engineers are exploring ways to print solar cells from inks, but the devices don’t work as well. Elijah Thimsen, PhD, assistant professor of energy, environmental & chemical...

New technique helps probe performance of organic solar cell materials

A research team led by North Carolina State University has developed a new technique for determining the role that a material’s structure has on the efficiency of organic solar cells, which are candidates for low-cost, next generation solar power. The researchers have used the technique to determine that materials with a highly organized structure...

Scientists 'bend' elastic waves with new metamaterials that could have commercial applications

Sound waves passing through the air, objects that break a body of water and cause ripples, or shockwaves from earthquakes all are considered "elastic" waves. These waves travel at the surface or through a material without causing any permanent changes to the substance's makeup. Now, engineering researchers at the University of Missouri have developed...

Graphene-boron nitride heterostructures propagate light at the nanoscale

International research undertaken by scientists from ICFO and CIC nanoGUNE, amongst other centres, has enabled compressing light into small devices and controlling their flow of electricity, thanks to the union of graphene and boron nitride (a good bidimensional insulator). Such a promising heterostructure...

Stable long term operation of graphene devices achieved

Graphene based devices have shown outstanding electrical and optical performances. However, the properties of graphene devices are extremely sensitive to environmental factors, such as humidity or gas composition, making a reproducible operation in normal atmosphere impossible so far. Researchers from AMO GmbH and Graphenea SE have now demonstrated...

Graphene nanosensor determines caffeine and other componets in tea

Researchers from University of Tehran used a simple, cost-effective and eco-friendly method to produce a sensor based on graphene nano-sheets with high sensitivity and simultaneously measure useful components of tea (, "Simultaneous determination of theophylline, theobromine and caffeine in different...

Nano-beaker offers insight Into the condensation of atoms

An international team of physicists has succeeded in mapping the condensation of individual atoms, or rather their transition from a gaseous state to another state, using a new method. Led by the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the Department of Physics at the University of Basel, the team was able to monitor for the first time how xenon atoms condensate...

Self-assembled nanotextures create antireflective surface on silicon solar cells

Reducing the amount of sunlight that bounces off the surface of solar cells helps maximize the conversion of the sun's rays to electricity, so manufacturers use coatings to cut down on reflections. Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory show that etching a nanoscale texture onto the silicon material itself...

Nanoplasmonics - making a tiny rainbow

A scheme for greatly increasing the number of colors that can be produced by arrays of tiny aluminum nanodisks has been demonstrated by A*STAR scientists ("Plasmonic Color Palettes for Photorealistic Printing with Aluminum Nanostructures"). Three strategies for producing colors of pixels containing four aluminum nanodisks. Row 1: varying the nanodisk...