Aug 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The dynamics of how liquids behave when confined in a nanoscale-sized space such as nanochannels, nanotubes or nanopores, is key to understanding a wealth of processes including lubrication, filtration and even energy storage. The dynamics of liquids at nanoscales are different to behaviour in confinement...
Researchers design nanoengineered inks for 3D-printable wearable bioelectronics
Aug 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Flexible electronics have enabled the design of sensors, actuators, microfluidics and electronics on flexible, conformal and/or stretchable sublayers for wearable, implantable or ingestible applications. However, these devices have very different mechanical and biological properties when compared to human tissue and thus cannot be integrated with...
Microrobots could unblock medical devices in the body
Aug 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Swarms of microrobots injected into the human body could unblock internal medical devices and avoid the need for further surgery, according to new research from the University of Essex. The study is the first-time scientists have developed magnetic microrobotics to remove deposits in shunts –...
Climate-friendly metal production – why is it difficult?
Aug 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Most people know that metals are made from ore, but how do we make gold from gravel? That’s the process we must understand to be able to make the metal industry climate friendly. Here are some alternatives for CO2-free metal production. To achieve “the green...
An engineered DNA crystal actuator system
Aug 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The design of macroscopic material with desired chemical, physical, and mechanical properties from the molecular level up is an ongoing challenge for self-assembly and nanotechnology. Due to its unparalleled programmability and biocompatibility, structural DNA nanotechnology has proved to be a potent approach to such designs,...
Versatile in-situ method to prepare plasmonic nanoparticles arrays
Aug 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Plasmonic nanoparticles prepared by colloidal chemistry have advantageous electronic, optical and magnetic properties, but their implementation into functional devices remains limited by time-consuming and hard-to-scale steps like ligand exchange, purification and self-assembly. In this work, researchers from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB,...
A self-charging, ultra-thin device that generates electricity from air moisture
Aug 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Imagine being able to generate electricity by harnessing moisture in the air around you with just everyday items like sea salt and a piece of fabric, or even powering everyday electronics with a non-toxic battery that is as thin as paper. A team of researchers...
Phase boundaries of 2D materials could create piezoelectricity
Aug 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) There’s still plenty of room at the bottom to generate piezoelectricity. Engineers at Rice University and their colleagues are showing the way. A new study describes the discovery of piezoelectricity — the phenomenon by which mechanical energy turns into electrical energy — across phase boundaries...
Premiere for superconducting diode in trilayer graphene without external magnetic field
Aug 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) One speaks of a superconducting diode effect when a material behaves like a superconductor in one direction of current flow and like a resistor in the other. In contrast to a conventional diode, such a superconducting diode exhibits a completely vanishing resistance and thus no...
Superatomic magnetic cluster opens the door to new nanomaterials
Aug 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Industry uses magnetic materials in applications ranging from data storage and cell phones to motors and sensors. Researchers are always looking for new magnetic particles as the technology moves to smaller and smaller scales. In this study (Journal of the American Chemical Society, "High-Spin Superatom...