Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Graphene improves oil exploration

Graphene holds potential for diverse applications, including battery materials, electrodes, high-speed electronics, water filtration, and solar energy harvesting.Little media attention, however, has been paid to a young and exciting application of graphene - oil exploration.

Dec 17th, 2013

Atoms in a nanocrystal cooperate, much like in biomolecules

Researchers have long thought that biological molecules and synthetic nanocrystals were similar only in size. Now, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign chemists have found that they can add reactivity to the list of shared traits. Atoms in a nanocrystal can cooperate with each other to facilitate binding or switching, a phenomenon widely found in biological molecules.

Dec 17th, 2013

New graphene treatment could unleash new uses

Research team develops simple, inexpensive method that could help realize material's promise for electronics, solar power, and sensors.

Dec 16th, 2013

Researchers devise recipe to fine-tune diameter of silica nanorods

By controlling the temperature of silica rods as they grow, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be setting the stage for advances in anti-reflective solar cells, computer monitors, TV screens, eye glasses and more.

Dec 16th, 2013

Researchers create first soluble 2D supramolecular organic frameworks

Researchers have unveiled the first two-dimensional SOFs that self-assemble in solution, an important breakthrough that holds implications for sensing and separation technologies, energy sciences, and, perhaps most importantly, biomimetics.

Dec 16th, 2013

Cellulose nanocrystals possible 'green' wonder material

The same tiny cellulose crystals that give trees and plants their high strength, light weight and resilience, have now been shown to have the stiffness of steel. The nanocrystals might be used to create a new class of biomaterials with wide-ranging applications, such as strengthening construction materials and automotive components.

Dec 16th, 2013

Small size enhances charge transfer in quantum dots

Single-particle study identifies possible path to improved conversion of sunlight to electricity in photovoltaic devices.

Dec 16th, 2013

Golden trap: Highly sensitive system to detect individual molecules

Researchers have come up with a new method of molecular detection, which has allowed them to notice the presence of only 17 dye molecules. The highly sensitive method might one day be used to scan a tiny drop of blood for potential diseases.

Dec 16th, 2013

Alzheimer substance may be the nanomaterial of tomorrow

Amyloid protein causes diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. But amyloid also carries unique characteristics that may lead to the development of new composite materials for the nano processors and data storage of tomorrow, and even make objects invisible.

Dec 16th, 2013

Graphene nanoribbons an ice-melting coat for radar (w/video)

New nanotechnology discovery is cheaper, lighter and more effective than current de-icers.

Dec 16th, 2013

Timing is everything in new nanotechnology for medicine, security and research

A team of researchers from Purdue University and Macquarie University in Sydney has created a way to control the length of time light from a luminescent nanocrystal lingers, adding a new dimension of time to color and brightness in optical detection technology.

Dec 16th, 2013

Researchers split water into hydrogen, oxygen using light, nanoparticles

Researchers from the University of Houston have found a catalyst that can quickly generate hydrogen from water using sunlight, potentially creating a clean and renewable source of energy. Their research involved the use of cobalt oxide nanoparticles to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Dec 15th, 2013