Nov 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Asphaltenes, a byproduct of crude oil production, are a waste material with potential. Rice University scientists are determined to find it by converting the carbon-rich resource into useful graphene. Muhammad Rahman, an assistant research professor of materials science and nanoengineering, is employing Rice’s unique flash Joule...
‘Butterfly bot’ is fastest swimming soft robot yet (w/video)
Nov 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Inspired by the biomechanics of the manta ray, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed an energy-efficient soft robot that can swim more than four times faster than previous swimming soft robots. The robots are called “butterfly bots,” because their swimming motion resembles the...
How 2D materials expand
Nov 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Two-dimensional materials, which consist of just a single layer of atoms, can be packed together more densely than conventional materials, so they could be used to make transistors, solar cells, LEDs, and other devices that run faster and perform better. One issue holding back these...
Turning wastewater into fertilizer is feasible and could help to make agriculture more sustainable
Nov 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The wastewater draining from massive pools of sewage sludge has the potential to play a role in more sustainable agriculture, according to environmental engineering researchers at Drexel University. A new study, looking at a process of removing ammonia from wastewater and converting it into fertilizer,...
Black holes in eccentric orbit
Nov 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A research team from Jena (Germany) and Turin (Italy) has reconstructed the origin of an unusual gravitational wave signal. As the researchers write in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy ("GW190521 as a dynamical capture of two nonspinning black holes"), the signal GW190521 may result from...
New model describes the boiling process with much greater precision
Nov 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) When a liquid boils in a vessel, tiny vapor bubbles form at the bottom and rise, transferring heat in the process. How these small bubbles grow and eventually detach was previously not known in any great detail. A German-Chinese research team under the leadership of...
Quantum dot islands could reveal secrets for powerful technologies
Nov 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created grids of tiny clumps of atoms known as quantum dots and studied what happens when electrons dive into these archipelagos of atomic islands. Measuring the behavior of electrons in these relatively simple setups...
A chip to replace animal testing
Nov 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) New drugs made from nanoparticles that can easily penetrate any interface within our bodies are a great hope in medicine. For such hopefuls to reach the market, their safety must be ensured. In this context, it must also be clarified what happens if a substance...
An on-chip time-lens generates ultrafast pulses
Nov 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Femtosecond pulsed lasers — which emit light in ultrafast bursts lasting a millionth of a billionth of a second — are powerful tools used in a range of applications from medicine and manufacturing, to sensing and precision measurements of space and time. Today, these lasers...
High-power electrostatic actuators to realize artificial muscles
Nov 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Electrostatic actuators are simple and lightweight devices that emulate human muscles. However, their usage has primarily been restricted to moving small devices since they need high voltages to generate significant forces. Now, however, it may be possible to use electrostatic actuators in artificial muscles thanks...