Nano News: 02/23/15

Uncovering the personality of wonder ultrathin materials

A micron-scale optical microgram showing a characteristically triangular molybdenum disulphide ultrathin film grown in York. Following the discovery of graphene, an ultra-thin wonder material made of a carbon sheet of only one atom thickness, a number of other ultra-thin membranes have become the focus of study by nanotechnologists. These ultra-thin...

Unlikely pairs

In the rational world of science, everything can be explained by cause and effect. Sometimes when the cause is known, the ensuing effects can be predicted. But more often scientists try to measure something that “should be there”, or else they discover new phenomena that have no apparent reason or cause. Indeed, most scientific research arises from...

Chromium-centered cycloparaphenylene rings as new tools 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...