Dec 05, 2023 (Nanowerk News) As astrophysics technology and research continue to advance, one question persists: is there life elsewhere in the universe? The Milky Way galaxy alone has hundreds of billions of celestial bodies, but scientists often look for three crucial elements in their ongoing search: water, energy and...
Harvesting water from air with solar power
Dec 05, 2023 (Nanowerk News) More than 2.2 billion people currently live in water-stressed countries, and the United Nations estimates that 3.5 million die every year from water-related diseases. Because the areas most in need of improved drinking water are also located in some of the sunniest places in the...
Chemists create organic molecules in a rainbow of colors
Dec 06, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Chains of fused carbon-containing rings have unique optoelectronic properties that make them useful as semiconductors. These chains, known as acenes, can also be tuned to emit different colors of light, which makes them good candidates for use in organic light-emitting diodes. Key Takeaways MIT chemists...
In search of the perfect mirror at mid-infrared wavelengths
Dec 06, 2023 (Nanowerk News) An international team of researchers from the United States, Austria, and Switzerland has demonstrated the first true supermirrors in the mid-infrared spectral region. These mirrors are key for many applications, such as optical spectroscopy for environmental sensing, as well as laser cutting and welding for...
Wood materials make for reliable organic solar cells
Dec 06, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Sunlight currently seems to be one of the main sustainable energy sources. Traditional solar cells made from silicon are efficient but have an energy demanding and complicated manufacturing process which may lead to hazardous chemical spills. Organic solar cells have therefore become a hot research...
3D Electrochemically active nanostructures advance responsive material design
Dec 06, 2023 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Scientists have long worked to develop responsive materials capable of reshaping themselves in controlled ways, aiming to enable applications from soft robotics to camouflage. However, previous efforts confronted barriers including limitations in scalable manufacturing, complexity of achievable shape change, reversibility across repeated actuation cycles, and...
Precise control of colloids through magnetism possible
Dec 06, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Bayreuth researchers have found ways to control tiny particles in liquids using magnetic patterns. The research results have now been published in Nature Communications ("Simultaneous and independent topological control of identical microparticles in non-periodic energy landscapes"). Overall, the simultaneous and independent transport of colloidal particles...
Nanomaterial with ‘light switch’ kills Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteria
Dec 05, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Healthcare-associated infections are a common problem in suppurating wound care, as is the rise in multi-drug resistant bacteria. In order to effectively and selectively combat bacterial infections, a team of researchers have developed a bactericidal nanomaterial equipped with a photochemical “light switch” that can be...
Atomically precise assembly of 2D materials paves way for next-generation electronics (w/video)
Dec 05, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at the University of Manchester have made a breakthrough in the transfer of 2D crystals, paving the way for their commercialization in next-generation electronics. This ground-breaking technique, detailed in Nature Electronics ("Clean assembly of van der Waals heterostructures using silicon nitride membranes"), utilizes a...
Tracking undetectable space junk
Dec 05, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Satellite and spacecraft operators may finally be able to detect small pieces of debris orbiting Earth using an approach proposed by researchers from the University of Michigan. "Right now, we detect space debris by looking for objects that reflect light or radar signals," said Nilton...