Apr 28, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Think about what you do with your hands when you’re home at night pushing buttons on your TV’s remote control, or at a restaurant using all kinds of cutlery and glassware. These skills are all based on touch, while you’re watching a TV program or...
New germanium-tin transistor as alternative to silicon
Apr 28, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Over the past 70 years, the number of transistors on a chip has doubled approximately every two years – according to Moore’s Law, which is still valid today. The circuits have become correspondingly smaller, but an end to this development appears to be in sight....
Perovskite solar cells’ instability must be addressed for global adoption
Apr 28, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Mass adoption of perovskite solar cells will never be commercially viable unless the technology overcomes several key challenges, according to researchers from the University of Surrey. Perovskite-based cells are widely believed to be the next evolution of solar energy and meet the growing demand for...
Dynamic 3D structure extraction from HS-AFM images
Apr 28, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Allowing the direct observation of biomolecules in dynamic action, high-speed AFM has opened a new avenue to dynamic structural biology. An enormous amount of successful applications within the last 15 years provide unique insights into essential biological processes at the nanoscale – visualizing, for example,...
How to improve iron oxide nanoparticles for medical applications
Apr 27, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Iron oxide nanoparticles are often used in medical technology – as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging or as transport agents for drugs in the bloodstream, for example in tumour therapy. For these applications, the nanoparticles have to be biocompatible and superparamagnetic. Thus, they must...
Molecular teamwork is key to efficient organic semiconductors
Apr 27, 2023 (Nanowerk News) This result may lead to more efficient smart watches, solar cells and other organic electronics of the future. Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have discovered a way to trigger cooperative behavior often found in...
Speedy robo-gripper reflexively organizes cluttered spaces
Apr 27, 2023 (Nanowerk News) When manipulating an arcade claw, a player can plan all she wants. But once she presses the joystick button, it’s a game of wait-and-see. If the claw misses its target, she’ll have to start from scratch for another chance at a prize. The slow and...
Engineers ‘grow’ atomically thin transistors on top of computer chips
Apr 27, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications, like chatbots that generate natural human language, demand denser, more powerful computer chips. But semiconductor chips are traditionally made with bulk materials, which are boxy 3D structures, so stacking multiple layers of transistors to create denser integrations is very difficult....