Nanotechnology News - May 2009 Archives

First 'nanorust' field test slated in Mexico (5/30/2009)

Rice University researchers today announced that the first field tests of "nanorust," the University's revolutionary, low-cost technology for removing arsenic from drinking water, will begin later this year in Guanajuato, Mexico. In the tests, tiny particles of rust will be added to sand in large filters and used to remove arsenic from groundwater. ...> Full Article

New rotors could help develop nanoscale generators (5/29/2009)

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a molecular structure that could help create current-generating machines at the nanoscale. ...> Full Article

Evidence of macroscopic quantum tunneling detected in nanowires (5/28/2009)

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois has demonstrated that, counter to classical Newtonian mechanics, an entire collection of superconducting electrons in an ultrathin superconducting wire is able to "tunnel" as a pack from a state with a higher electrical current to one with a notably lower current, providing more evidence of the phenomenon of macroscopic quantum tunneling. ...> Full Article

Scientists create custom 3-dimensional structures with 'DNA origami' (5/22/2009)

By combining the art of origami with nanotechnology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have folded sheets of DNA into multilayered objects with dimensions thousands of times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. These tiny structures could be forerunners of custom-made biomedical nanodevices such as "smart" delivery vehicles that would sneak drugs into patients' cells, where they would dump their cargo on a specific molecular target. ...> Full Article

Novel approach estimates nanoparticles in environment (5/21/2009)

Without knowing how much of an industrial chemical is being produced, it is almost impossible for scientists to determine if it poses any threat to the environment or human health. Civil engineers at Duke University believe they have come up with a novel way of estimating how much of one such material -- titanium dioxide -- is being generated, laying the groundwork for future studies to assess any possible risks. ...> Full Article

New tool for next-generation cancer treatments using nanodiamonds (5/20/2009)

A research team at Northwestern University has demonstrated use of a Nanofountain Probe that can precisely deliver tiny doses of drug-carrying nanomaterials to individual cells. ...> Full Article

Enabling graphene-based technology via chemical functionalization (5/19/2009)

Graphene has attracted significant attention due to its potential use in high-performance electronics, sensors and alternative energy devices such as solar cells. While the physics of graphene has been thoroughly explored, chemical functionalization of graphene has proven to be elusive. Now Northwestern University researchers have identified conditions for chemically functionalizing graphene with the organic semiconductor perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride. The chemistry's stability and uniformity suggest that it can be used as a platform for many device applications. ...> Full Article

Discovery of non-blinking semiconductor nanocrystals advances their applications (5/18/2009)

Substantial advances for applications of nanocrystals in the fields requiring a continuous output of photons and high quantum efficiency may soon be realized due to discovery of non-blinking semiconductor nanocrystals. This discovery announced by scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory, University of Rochester, Cornell University and Eastman Kodak Company is an important step to the use of nanocrystals in various practical devices ranging from low-threshold lasers to the solar cells and biological imaging and tracking. ...> Full Article

Self-assembly now easier to control (5/17/2009)

Nature has long perfected the construction of nanomachines, but David Gonzalez and his fellow researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology and Utrecht University under the leadership of Spinoza Award winner Bert Meijer, have brought the construction of artificial supramolecular structures a step closer by. The researchers managed to carefully control the self-assembly of guanosine, one of the building blocks of our DNA. Their research results were published by Nature Chemistry on April 19. ...> Full Article

Controllable double quantum dots and Klein tunneling in nanotubes (5/16/2009)

Researchers from the Kavli Institute of NanoScience in Delft are the first to have successfully captured a single electron in a highly tunable carbon nanotube double quantum dot. This was made possible by a new approach for producing ultraclean nanotubes. Moreover, the team of researchers, under the leadership of Spinoza winner Leo Kouwenhoven, discovered a new sort of tunneling as a result of which electrons can fly straight through obstacles. The results of the research were published by Nature Nanotechnology on April 5, 2009. ...> Full Article

DNA gripped in nanopores (5/15/2009)

Researchers analyze forces on DNA in gel ...> Full Article

Graphene yields secrets to its extraordinary properties (5/15/2009)

Applying innovative measurement techniques, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have directly measured the unusual energy spectrum of graphene, a technologically promising, two-dimensional form of carbon that has tantalized and puzzled scientists since its discovery in 2004. ...> Full Article

New nanocrystals show potential for cheap lasers, new lighting (5/12/2009)

For more than a decade, scientists have been frustrated in their attempts to create continuously emitting light sources from individual molecules because of an optical quirk called "blinking," but now scientists at the University of Rochester have uncovered the basic physics behind the phenomenon, and along with researchers at the Eastman Kodak Company, created a nanocrystal that constantly emits light. ...> Full Article

New nanotube coating enables novel laser power meter (5/11/2009)

The US military can now calibrate high-power laser systems, such as those intended to defuse unexploded mines, more quickly and easily thanks to a novel nanotube-coated power measurement device developed at NIST. ...> Full Article

Faster computers, electronic devices possible after scientists create large-area graphene on copper (5/10/2009)

The creation of large-area graphene using copper may enable the manufacture of new graphene-based devices that meet the scaling requirements of the semiconductor industry, leading to faster computers and electronics, according to a team of scientists and engineers at the University of Texas at Austin. ...> Full Article

Physicists create world's smallest incandescent lamp (5/9/2009)

UCLA physicists have created the world's smallest incandescent lamp using a filament made from a single carbon nanotube only 100 atoms wide. Invisible to the untrained eye, the filament appears as a tiny point of light when the lamp is turned on. Even with the best optical microscope it is only just possible to resolve the nanotube's nonzero length. The team uses an electron microscope capable of atomic resolution to image the filament's true structure. ...> Full Article

Nano-sandwich triggers novel electron behavior (5/8/2009)

A lattice of vanadium dioxide molecules just six atoms thick in which electrons appear to be guided by conflicting laws of physics depending on their direction of travel has been modeled by a team of physicists at the University of California, Davis. Its unique properties could open up a new world of possibilities in the emerging field of spintronics technology, which takes advantage of the magnetic as well as the electric properties of electrons in the design of novel electronic devices. ...> Full Article

Scientists demonstrate effect of confining dielectrics on semiconductor nanowire conductivity (5/7/2009)

Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, have demonstrated, for the first time, that the activation energy of impurities in semiconductor nanowires is affected by the surrounding dielectric and can be modified by the choice of the nanowire embedding medium. ...> Full Article

Targeting tumors using tiny gold particles (5/6/2009)

Gold nanorods could detect, treat cancer ...> Full Article

Researchers construct carbon nanotube device that can detect colors of the rainbow (5/2/2009)

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light, a feat that could soon allow scientists to probe single molecule transformations, study how those molecules respond to light, observe how the molecules change shapes, and understand other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes. ...> Full Article

Nanophysicists find unexpected magnetic effect (5/1/2009)

Kondo effect noted in single-atom contacts of pure ferromagnets ...> Full Article