Technology Update
Magnonics (the study of excitations in a magnetic material) may well replace electronics as the basis of modern computing. This would drastically increase energy efficiency and provide devices that can be miniaturized beyond the limit of current technology. However, the control of magnetic textures in nano-sized magnets is not straightforward to achieve. A team of […]
Researchers in France have created an artificial synapse based on ferroelectric tunnel junctions that can autonomously learn to recognize patterns. They have also succeeded in modelling the synapse’s plasticity by looking at how its resistance varies with varying applied voltage. The device, also known as a memristor, might be used to make intelligent artificial neural […]
As the scale of integrated circuits (ICs) continues to shrink, the lack of practical methods for imaging their complex internal structure has hampered feedback for quality control and product development. A collaboration led by Mirko Holler at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland has published work in Nature that shows how X-rays can be used […]
Cleaning up viscous, or heavy, crude oil after a spill is difficult and new techniques to do this are sorely needed. Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei have now developed a new graphene-wrapped sponge that when heated can rapidly suck up oil from water into its pores…… http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/68441 Graphene-wrapped […]
Leukosomes are a promising new type of nanoparticle for use in targeted drug and gene delivery. Preloaded with leukocyte proteins, the particles cloak themselves in a shroud of host protein. Researchers from the Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas have investigated this coating to find out how they evade the host immune system…… http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/68448 Leukosomes […]
Fabricating materials with strengths that approach theoretically predicted values is no easy task, and most techniques to make stronger materials rely on controlling defects so that dislocations can no longer move as freely. Industrial single-phase nanocrystalline alloys and single-phase metallic glasses, for example, can be very strong, but they usually soften at relatively low strains […]
The self-assembly of macromolecules into organized, hierarchical structures is one of the most characteristic features of biological systems, but mimicking this process in the lab with artificial materials is no easy task. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has succeeded in self-assembling such superstructures by simply mixing together proteins […]
A new 2D material just one atom thick has been made by an international team of researchers led by Axel Enders. Dubbed hexangonal boron–carbon–nitrogen (h-BCN), the material could offer many of the benefits of graphene, which is a hexagonal lattice made of just carbon. But unlike graphene, h-BCN has a direct electronic band gap, which […]
Tooth enamel is both hard and resistant to impact, which makes it an extremely durable material that lasts a lifetime. A team of researchers at the University of Michigan in the US have now succeeded in making the first faithful replica of this enamel, which not only matches its structure but also its properties. The […]
Silicon carbide is a promising single-photon source and a good material out of which to make quantum bits (qubits) and nanoscale sensors based on individual “colour centres” (luminescing crystal defects that can emit individual photons)…. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/68052
The potential to treat disease by blocking and stimulating nerves directly, rather than through the administration of drugs, is attracting mounting interest. The approach may be effective for a range of non-infectious non-cancerous conditions including asthma, heart conditions, diabetes, obesity and irritable bowel syndrome. nanotechweb.org caught up with some of the speakers at innoLAE 2017 […]
Flash Nano brings you news in brief on the latest need-to-know developments from the global nanotechnology community selected by nanotechweb.org. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/68061 Golden design: DNA glues gold nanoparticles into clathrate crystals structure
Windows that can efficiently collect solar energy and convert it into power have come one step closer to reality
Magnetic particle imaging is a new, up-and-coming, safe and highly sensitive tracer imaging technique that works by detecting superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with high image contrast (that is, no background tissue signal). The technique, which does not use any ionizing radiation, can be used to image anywhere inside the body, which means that it could […]
Graphene (a sheet of carbon just one atom thick) could be used to coat smart contact lenses and help protect eyes from electromagnetic radiation and dehydration, according to new work by researchers at Seoul National University, Graphene Square Inc and Interojo Inc. The contact lenses could be used in various healthcare and wearable technologies in […]
Copper-based interconnects are widely employed in integrated circuits in a variety of semiconductor technologies and applications but they are fast reaching their limits. This is because their resistivity increases and current-carrying capacity decreases as they are made smaller. A team of researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara has now shown that intercalation-doped […]
The pesky poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) residues left from transferring graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) have remained a challenge for maximising this potentially scalable approach to high-quality graphene production. Now researchers at West Virginia University have demonstrated a simple electrolytic cleaning method for removing PMMA residues that greatly reduces impairments to the electronic properties […]
Thanks to density functional theory-based calculations, researchers at the Chungnam National University in Korea and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US have been able to test
Magnetic skyrmions (quasiparticle magnetic spin configurations with a whirling vortex-like structure) could be used in future spintronics applications, such as racetrack memories and logic devices. Now, a team of researchers from Germany, the US and Japan have observed the “skyrmion Hall effect” in a magnetic material at room temperature for the first time. The skyrmions […]
Researchers at the University of Michigan in the US have designed novel vaccine nanodiscs that could be used to treat cancer. The lipoprotein-mimicking nanostructures coupled with antigen peptides and adjuvants efficiently deliver vaccine components to lymphoid tissues and so are significantly better than conventional vaccines in this context. They could herald a new era of […]
Physicists at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Microsoft’s Station Q Copenhagen laboratory have produced and detected Majorana “zero modes” with unprecedented clarity in a quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire system. These modes, which are formed by delocalized states of electrons with topological properties might be used as qubits in fault-tolerant quantum […]
