The Sustainable Nanotechnologies Project shares its latest achievements

The results from the 3rd SUN annual meeting showed great advancement of the project. The meeting was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK on 4-5 October 2016 where the project partners presented the results obtained during the second reporting period of the project.

Bringing nano environmental health and safety assessment to the wider discussion on risk governance of key enabling technologies

The EU FP7 Sustainable Nanotechnologies (SUN) Project is coming to its end in March 2017. The project has designed its final events to serve as an effective platform to communicate the main results achieved in its course within the Nanosafety community and bridge them to a wider audience addressing the emerging risks of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs).

Artificial muscles show more flex

Artificial muscles made significant gains when a literal twist in the development approach uncovered the tensile or stretchy abilities of polymer fibers once they were twisted and coiled into a spring-like geometry. Now, researchers have improved these tensile properties even further by focusing on the thermal properties of the polymer fiber and the molecular structure that makes best use of the chiral configuration.

Nanobionic spinach plants can detect explosives

After sensing dangerous chemicals, the carbon-nanotube-enhanced plants send an alert.

Nanotechnology is making drugs more precise. But how?

If drugs could be targeted to exactly the right place in the body, we could probably do with significantly smaller doses - and consequently fewer side effects. To allow for such precise delivery, we need tiny nanocarriers and even smaller nanotrackers to monitor them. Researchers are working on both of these.

Breakthrough work advances path for nanoscale spin-wave majority gates

Scientists have presented breakthrough results supporting the building of technology-relevant majority gates based on spin waves.

Researchers nearly reached quantum limit with nanodrums

Extremely accurate measurements of microwave signals can potentially be used for data encryption based on quantum cryptography and other purposes.

Researchers surprised at the unexpected hardness of gallium nitride

A research team discovers that the widely used semiconducting material is almost as wear-resistant as diamonds.

New technique reveals powerful, 'patchy' approach to nanoparticle synthesis (w/video)

Scientists use 3D visualization to map striking and transformative nanoscale surface structures.

Electrical currents can be now be switched on and off at the atomic scale

Electrical currents can be now be switched on and off at the smallest conceivable scale enabling a new generation of 'green electronics' with the potential for great impact on the digital economy.

The search for disorder in order

A signature of an exotic state of matter that remains disordered even at very low temperatures has been experimentally identified.

New surfaces repel water in oil as well as oil in water

Researchers have developed new surface materials that are extremely difficult to wet both by water and oil. Because they don't need isolating air to stay trapped between the droplet and rough surface to prevent wetting, these surface materials work even when wet by another liquid.

Novel light sources made of two-dimensional materials

Physicists have designed a light source that emits photon pairs. Two-photon sources are particularly well suited for tap-proof data encryption. The experiment's key ingredients: a semiconductor crystal and some sticky tape.

Nanotechnology engineers design an infinitesimal computing device

Engineers have developed a design for a functional nanoscale computing device. The concept involves a dense, three-dimensional circuit operating on an unconventional type of logic that could, theoretically, be packed into a block no bigger than 50 nanometers on any side.

Introducing metallic ions within a DNA molecule will have many uses in bio- and nanotechnology

Scientists have proven, for the first time, that introducing slight chemical modifications in DNA molecules may allow to introduce metallic ions in it, keeping its double-stranded structure and molecular recognition properties (for other DNA molecules, enzymes, proteins, etc.).

Prototype device for measuring graphene-based electromagnetic radiation created

Physicists have studied carbon structures, obtained from the reduced graphene oxide. They the created a bolometer prototype on the basis of these structures.

Metamaterial device allows chameleon-like behavior in the infrared

An electric current will not only heat a hybrid metamaterial, but will also trigger it to change state and fade into the background like a chameleon in what may be the proof-of-concept of the first controllable metamaterial device, or metadevice, according to a team of engineers.

Controlling the properties of matter in two-dimensional crystals

By creating atomic chains in a two-dimensional crystal, researchers believe they have found a way to control the direction of materials properties in two and three dimensional crystals with implications in sensing, optoelectronics and next-generation electronics applications.

'Nanobottles' offer blueprint for enhanced biological imaging

Researchers have developed a new technique to provide cellular 'blueprints' that could help scientists interpret the results of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping.

Food waste mixed with carbon nanotubes could store solar and wind energy

Some scientists have been exploring sugar alcohols as a possible material for making thermal storage work, but this direction has some limitations. One group of researchers wanted to investigate how mixing carbon nanotubes with sugar alcohols might affect their energy storage properties.

Where nanotechnology can learn from green chemistry

The intersection of nanotechnology and green chemistry presents an excellent opportunity to ensure that both fields can learn from each other.

Next-generation smartphone battery inspired by the gut

A new prototype of a lithium-sulphur battery - which could have five times the energy density of a typical lithium-ion battery - overcomes one of the key hurdles preventing their commercial development by mimicking the structure of the cells which allow us to absorb nutrients.

Using MOFs for solid capture of carbon dioxide

Researchers are developing porous solids called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for the selective removal of various gases from gas mixtures.

Two-dimensional anodes for advanced sodium ion batteries

The mechanism of sodium ion storage in an important two-dimensional material could be a simpler and less toxic route to cheaper batteries, a team researchers discovered.

Imaging where cancer drugs go in the body could improve treatment

Scientists report a new step toward seeing where certain cancer drugs accumulate in the body in order to better treat patients. They tested their drug-carrying, lipid-based nanoparticles in animals.

Neuro chip records brain cell activity

In order to understand how the brain controls functions, such as simple reflexes or learning and memory, we must be able to record the activity of large networks and groups of neurons. Conventional methods have allowed scientists to record the activity of neurons for minutes, but a new technology, known as a bionic hybrid neuro chip, is able to record activity in animal brain cells for weeks at a much higher resolution.

Improved water splitting advances renewable energy conversion

Researchers have found a way to more efficiently create hydrogen from water -- an important key in making renewable energy production and storage viable.

Controlling ultrasound with 3D printed carbon nanotube coated devices

A new device harnesses ultrasound for surgery and manipulating small objects like particles and biological cells.

Supersonic phenomena, the key to extremely low heat loss nanoelectronics

Supersonic solitary waves in nano-electronics crystals show potentials for electric charge or matter transport and energy storage with extremely low heat dissipation.

Nanoscale image reveals new details about formation of marine shells

Oceanographers have used modern tools to provide an atomic-scale look at how that shell first forms.

A complete waste of energy

Engineers develop process for electronic devices that stops wasteful power leakage.

How often do quantum systems violate the second law of thermodynamics?

In two papers, published this week, scientists determined a more precise version of a basic law of physics - which says that disorder tends to increase with time unless acted on by an outside force - and applied it to the smallest quantum systems.

Pioneering germ trap technology moves forward with first commercial application

Facemasks incorporating an innovative new technology will be able to comprehensively trap and kill over 99 percent of all flu viruses.

Towards better metallic glasses

Researchers have used state-of-the-art computer simulation to test a theory from the 1950s that when atoms organise themselves into 3D pentagons they supress crystallisation.

Counterintuitive metamaterial may enable heat-resistant circuit boards (w/video)

Engineers have manufactured tiny, star-shaped structures out of interconnected beams, or trusses. The structures, each about the size of a sugar cube, quickly shrink when heated to about 282 degrees C.

Electric current at record speed

By using ultrafast laser flashes, scientists have generated the fastest electric current that has ever been measured inside a solid material.

Flexible optical design method for superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

This research paves a way for realizing a high detection efficiency with an ultralow noise.

Nanofiber coating prevents infections of prosthetic joints

In a proof-of-concept study with mice, scientists show that a novel coating they made with antibiotic-releasing nanofibers has the potential to better prevent at least some serious bacterial infections related to total joint replacement surgery.

Hybrid nanostructures hold hydrogen well

Scientists say boron nitride-graphene hybrid may be right for next-gen green cars.

Researchers are upgrading an element by stretching it

In a project, researchers are exploring if there is a way to fine-tune germanium's physical properties, and thus improve its optoelectronic characteristics (how well it interfaces between electronics and light).

Disrupting the research process: changing materials science with robotics, AI and autonomy

The AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate's Autonomous Research System, or ARES, can design, conduct and evaluate experimental data without human intervention, revolutionizing the materials research process as it is today.

Measuring the forces of biology

Biology, at the nitty-gritty level of motor proteins, DNA, and microtubules, takes its cue from physics. While much is known about the biological components that form the mitotic spindle, researchers are only beginning to explore the physical forces between those components.

Nano-decoy lures human Influenza A virus to Its doom

To infect its victims, influenza A heads for the lungs, where it latches onto sialic acid on the surface of cells. So researchers created the perfect decoy: A carefully constructed spherical nanoparticle coated in sialic acid lures the influenza A virus to its doom. When misted into the lungs, the nanoparticle traps influenza A, holding it until the virus self-destructs.

Creeping gel

Photosensitive self-oscillating gel to model biological crawling motions.

The quantum sniffer dog

A laser and detector in one: a microscopic sensor has been developed by researchers, which can be used to identify different gases simultaneously.

Quantum-dot solar windows evolve with 'doctor-blade' spreading

A research team demonstrates an important step in taking quantum dot, solar-powered windows from the laboratory to the construction site.

How to peel a bug: Engineering fast and effective antimicrobial killers

Scientists have engineered a new way to kill bacteria, and subsequently visualised in real time how the bacteria under attack were stripped of their protective membranes and died. These findings could provide a physical basis for designing more-effective antibiotics.

Talking speckles

The amount of light, passing through an opaque layer, can be enhanced using smart techniques. At the same time, the amount of reflected light diminishes, researchers now show. It's as if light speckles have a conversation of their own.

New tri-layer structure increases energy density in lithium batteries

Novel technique may lead to longer battery life in portable electronics and electrical vehicles.

New materials with photonic crystals that filter radiation

Researchers have proposed various designs of materials of a photonic crystal type that can be used to filter radiation. Specifically, the focus has been to develop a coating comprising dielectric spheres which if applied to a window, for example, would prevent the outside heat entering in the summer and the indoor heat from escaping in winter.

New nanomedicine approach aims to improve HIV drug therapies

New research aims to improve the administration and availability of drug therapies to HIV patients through the use of nanotechnology.

When quantum scale affects the way atoms emit and absorb particles of light

Exact simulation lifts the 80-year-old mystery of the degree to which atoms can be dressed with photons.

A new class of materials could realize quantum computers

Scientists have discovered a new class of materials that can prove ideal for the implementation of spintronics.

Nanoantenna lighting-rod effect produces fast optical switches

Scientists have produced a fast nanoscale optical transistor using gold nanoantenna assisted phase transition.

Nanotechnology: Genes on the rack

Physicists have developed a novel nanotool that provides a facile means of characterizing the mechanical properties of biomolecules.

Non-metal catalyst splits hydrogen molecule

Boron compounds extend range of possible chemical synthesis applications.

Physicists use lasers to capture first snapshots of rapid chemical bonds breaking

Lasers have successfully recorded a chemical reaction that happens as fast as a quadrillionth of a second, which could help scientists understand and control chemical reactions.

New antireflective coating reduces stray light and reflections

Researchers are exhibiting a new type of antireflective coating that significantly reduces stray light and reflections from plastic lenses. Not only does this improve the performance of cameras and headlights, it's also good news for virtual reality technologies and Industrie 4.0.

Researchers find way to tune thermal conductivity of 2-D materials

Researchers have found an unexpected way to control the thermal conductivity of two-dimensional materials, which will allow electronics designers to dissipate heat in electronic devices that use these materials.

The nanostructured cloak of invisibility

Scientists manipulate surfaces in such a manner that they hardly reflect any light and practically become invisible.