Ribbons of graphene push the material’s potential

Aug 11, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Think you know everything about a material? Try giving it a twist – literally. That’s the main idea of an emerging field in condensed matter physics called twistronics, which has researchers drastically changing the properties of 2D materials, like graphene, with subtle changes – as...

Researchers use enzymes to develop a new class of materials for biocatalytic processes

Aug 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Industrial biocatalysis is mainly used for the production of pharmaceuticals and special chemicals. To advance this process, researchers are working on new process technologies. In biocatalysis, enzymes accelerate the reactions instead of chemical catalysts. This saves resources and energy. Current work is aimed at continuously...

Technology advance could expand the reach of 3D nanoprinting

Aug 09, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have developed an easy-to-build, low-cost 3D nanoprinting system that can create arbitrary 3D structures with extremely fine features. The new 3D nanoprinting technique is precise enough to print metamaterials as well as a variety of optical devices and components such as microlenses, micro-optical devices...

Revolutionary self-sensing electric artificial muscles

Aug 08, 2023 (Nanowerk News) In a study published recently in Advanced Intelligent Systems("An Electric Self-Sensing and Variable-Stiffness Artificial Muscle"), researchers from Queen Mary University of London have made significant advancements in the field of bionics with the development of a new type of electric variable-stiffness artificial muscle that possesses...

Parenting a 3-year-old robot (w/video)

Aug 08, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Humans are social creatures and learn from each other, even from a young age. Infants keenly observe their parents, siblings or caregivers. They watch, imitate and replay what they see to learn skills and behaviors. The way babies learn and explore their surroundings inspired researchers...