Aug 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Georgia Institute of Technology have 3D printed a dual-phase, nanostructured high-entropy alloy that exceeds the strength and ductility of other state-of-the-art additively manufactured materials, which could lead to higher-performance components for applications in aerospace, medicine, energy...
2D materials with diversely behaving layers in a single bulk material
Aug 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists from The University of Manchester have developed a novel yet simple method for producing vertical stacks of alternating superconductor and insulator layers of tantalum disulphide (TaS2). The findings, from a team led by Professor Rahul Nair, could speed up the process of manufacturing such...
Researchers studying materials whose traits resemble those of the human brain
Aug 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) In its heyday, UIUC’s Blue Waters was one of the world’s top supercomputers. Anyone who was curious could drop by its 30,000-square-foot machine room for a tour, and spend half an hour strolling among the 288 huge black cabinets, supported by a 24-megawatt power supply,...
Enhancing solar efficiency with upconversion
Aug 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Solar cell technologies have been improving incrementally over the decades, but energy conversion has remained less than optimal. Now, researchers at Kyoto University have developed a novel wafer bonding technology using an optical upconversion material that transforms sunlight to shorter-wavelengths. This new semiconductor process utilizes...
Ditching the toothbrush for hydrogels to get whiter teeth, fewer cavities (w/video)
Aug 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The first thing people notice when they meet you is your smile. To be more confident when giving wide-mouthed, eye-crinkling smiles, people want healthy, pearly white teeth. But toothpastes only remove surface stains, and whitening treatments can harm enamel, leading to cavities and discoloration. Now,...
Smart lighting system based on quantum dots more accurately reproduces daylight
Aug 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have designed smart, colour-controllable white light devices from quantum dots, which are more efficient and have better colour saturation than standard LEDs, and can dynamically reproduce daylight conditions in a single light. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, designed the next-generation smart lighting...
Understanding a critical defect affecting silicon wafers in many solar cells
Aug 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A University of New South Wales (UNSW) solar PV research team has demonstrated for the first time that this detrimental “boron oxygen complex” in silicon wafers arises from two distinct and directly measured “traps” (H375 and H400 traps) (IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, "Electronic Properties of...
Researchers improve cement with shrimp shell nanoparticles
Aug 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Putting nanoparticles from shrimp shells into cement paste made the material significantly stronger — an innovation that could lead to reduced seafood waste and lower carbon emissions from concrete production. Reporting in the journal Cement and Concrete Composites ("Insights into setting time, rheological and mechanical...
Manipulating chromosomes in living cells reveals that they are fluid
Aug 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) For the first time, scientists from CNRS, Institut Curie and Sorbonne Université have been able to act physically on chromosomes in living cells. By subjecting the chromosomes to different forces using magnets, they discovered that chromosomes are in fact very fluid – almost liquid –...
Researchers create biosensor by turning spider silk into optical fiber
Aug 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have harnessed the light-guiding properties of spider silk to develop a sensor that can detect and measure small changes in the refractive index of a biological solution, including glucose and other types of sugar solutions. The new light-based sensor might one day be useful...