Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Quantum sensor's advantages survive entanglement breakdown

Preserving the fragile quantum property known as entanglement isn't necessary to reap benefits.

Mar 9th, 2015

3-year US-Ireland research initiative to develop ultra-efficient electronic materials

A three-year US-Ireland collaborative scientific project aims to reduce power consumption and increase battery life in mobile devices. Researchers will explore new semiconducting materials in the miniaturisation of transistors which are essential to all portable devices.

Mar 9th, 2015

Freeze! Watching alloys change from liquid to solid could lead to better metals

If you put a camera in the ice machine and watched water turn into ice, the process would look simple. But the mechanism behind liquids turning to solids is actually quite complex, and understanding it better could improve design and production of metals.

Mar 8th, 2015

Squeezing out new science from material interfaces

By applying extreme pressure in a diamond anvil cell to metal films on diamond, researchers have now determined the physical process dominating this unexplained heat flow, which has implications for understanding and improving heat flow between any two materials.

Mar 6th, 2015

Electron spins controlled using sound waves

Applied physicists have demonstrated an unprecedented method of control over electron spins using extremely high-frequency sound waves.

Mar 6th, 2015

New nanomaterials will boost renewable energy

Using carbon composites with a porous structure to increase surface area and nanotubes to enhance conductivity, research demonstrates that these nanomaterials are able to catalyse oxygen reduction as efficiently as the state-of-the-art non-precious metal catalysts - and with a longer stability.

Mar 6th, 2015

Heat in graphene propagates as a wave

Researchers have shed new light on the mechanisms of thermal conductivity in graphene and other two-dimensional materials. They have demonstrated that heat propagates in the form of a wave, just like sound in air.

Mar 6th, 2015

Scientists capture nanoscale images of lithium dendrite structures degrading lithium-ion batteries

Researchers studied dendrite formation by using a miniature electrochemical cell that mimics the liquid conditions inside a lithium-ion battery. Placing the liquid cell in a scanning transmission electron microscope and applying voltage to the cell allowed the researchers to watch as lithium deposits grew into dendritic structures.

Mar 6th, 2015

Magnetic memory promises faster and more energy efficient information storage

A developing form of computer memory has the potential to store information more quickly and more cheaply, while using less energy, than what's used today by the semiconductor industry, NYU Physics Professor Andrew Kent concludes.

Mar 6th, 2015

Temperature behaves in strange and unexpected ways in graphene

A collaboration of physicists and chemists has discovered that temperature behaves in strange and unexpected ways in graphene, a material that has scientists sizzling with excitement about its potential for new technological devices ranging from computing to medicine.

Mar 6th, 2015

Simulations provide new insight into emerging nanoelectronic device (w/video)

Researchers have used an advanced model to simulate in unprecedented detail the workings of 'resistance-switching cells' that might replace conventional memory for electronics applications, with the potential to bring faster and higher capacity computer memory while consuming less energy.