Jan 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Protective coatings are common for many things in daily life that see a lot of use: we coat wood floors with finish; apply Teflon to the paint on cars; even use diamond coatings on medical devices. Protective coatings are also essential in many demanding research...
Studying the Big Bang with artificial intelligence
Jan 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) It could hardly be more complicated: tiny particles whir around wildly with extremely high energy, countless interactions occur in the tangled mess of quantum particles, and this results in a state of matter known as "quark-gluon plasma". Immediately after the Big Bang, the entire universe...
Simulations shed significant light on janus nanoparticles
Jan 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Named for a Roman god, Janus particles refer to nanoparticles that possess surfaces with two or more distinct physical chemical properties. The special nanoparticles were introduced to the scientific community by 1991 Nobel Prize winner Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, who pointed out that "objects with two...
A soft, stretchable, self-powered thermometer (w/video)
Jan 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The next generation of soft robotics, smart clothing and biocompatible medical devices are going to need integrated soft sensors that can stretch and twist with the device or wearer. The challenge: most of the components used in traditional sensing are rigid. Now, researchers at the...
Asymmetry is key to creating more stable blue perovskite LEDs
Jan 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) From street and household lighting, to television and mobile displays, light emitting diodes (LEDs) play an essential role in modern life. Now, researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have developed blue LEDs based on a material called metal halide...
Getting hydrogen out of banana peels
Jan 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) As the world’s energy demands increase, so does our consumption of fossil fuels. The result is a massive rise in greenhouse gases emissions with severely adverse environmental effects. To address this, scientists have been searching for alternative, renewable sources of energy. A main candidate is...
Ion pairings change honeycomb crystal states
Jan 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Tohoku University researchers have observed a rare change in the structure of a mineral-like crystal that, if controlled, could lead to the development of new functional materials. The findings were reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society ("Cation Dimerization in a 3d1 honeycomb...