Sep 19, 2023 (Nanowerk News) In the incredibly small world of molecules, the elementary building blocks – the atoms – join together in a very regular pattern. In contrast, in the macroscopic world with its larger particles, there is much greater disorder when particles connect. A research team at the...
Time turns Roman archaeological glass artifacts into photonic crystals
Sep 19, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Some 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome, glass vessels carrying wine or water, or perhaps an exotic perfumes, tumble from a table in a marketplace, and shatter to pieces on the street. As centuries passed, the fragments were covered by layers of dust and soil...
Urban sewage can be used to generate household electricity
Sep 19, 2023 (Nanowerk News) “Entire regions and their industries must start adopting circularity by exchanging their materials and energy”. So says researcher Richard Heyn at SINTEF. An ‘industrial symbiosis’ is established when different industries operating within a given society exchange energy, materials or waste with the aim of achieving...
Electrons take flight at the nanoscale
Sep 19, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A study showing how electrons flow around sharp bends, such as those found in integrated circuits, has the potential to improve how these circuits, commonly used in electronic and optoelectronic devices, are designed. It has been known theoretically for about 80 years that when electrons...
Researchers advance perovskite solar cells with innovative phase-layering technique
Sep 19, 2023 (Nanowerk Spotlight) With the urgent need to decarbonize the global energy system, researchers around the world are racing to develop next-generation solar technologies that are ultra-low cost yet highly efficient. An especially promising candidate is perovskite solar cells - lightweight thin-film devices made from inexpensive earth-abundant materials....
New findings suggest Moon may have less water than previously thought
Sep 18, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A team including Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Raluca Rufu recently calculated that most of the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) are at most around 3.4 billion years old and can contain relatively young deposits of water ice. Water resources are considered key for sustainable exploration...
Atomic layer deposition route to scalable, electronic-grade van der Waals Te thin films
Sep 18, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A research team, led by Professor Joonki Suh in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Graduate School of Semiconductor Materials and Devices Engineering at UNIST, has made a significant breakthrough in thin film deposition technology. By employing an innovative atomic layer deposition...
Research identifies new potential hurdle for nano-based therapies
Sep 18, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that certain nano-based cancer therapies may be less effective in younger patients, highlighting the need for further investigation into the impact of aging on the body’s ability to respond to treatment. The researchers...
Copper-doped tungstic acid nanocrystals transform infrared light conversion
Sep 18, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Sunlight is an inexhaustible source of energy, and utilizing sunlight to generate electricity is one of the cornerstones of renewable energy. More than 40% of the sunlight that falls on earth is in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet spectra; however, current solar technology utilizes primarily...
New quasi-particle bridges microwave and optical domains
Sep 18, 2023 (Nanowerk News) In a paper published in Nature Communications ("Microcavity phonoritons – a coherent optical-to-microwave interface."), researchers from the Paul-Drude-Institut in Berlin, Germany, and the Instituto Balseiro in Bariloche, Argentina, demonstrated that the mixing of confined quantum fluids of light and GHz sound leads to the emergence...