May 06, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Finding reliable, eco-friendly power sources is crucial as our world grapples with increasing energy needs and the urgent call to combat climate change. Solar energy offers one solution, with scientists devising ever more efficient materials for capturing sunlight. Perovskite solar cells have emerged as a...
Groundbreaking microcapacitors could power chips of the future
May 06, 2024 (Nanowerk News) In the ongoing quest to make electronic devices ever smaller and more energy efficient, researchers want to bring energy storage directly onto microchips, reducing the losses incurred when power is transported between various device components. To be effective, on-chip energy storage must be able to...
Precision laser crystallization enables patterning of high-quality perovskite crystals (w/video)
May 06, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Crystalline materials with precisely engineered structures lie at the heart of virtually every advanced technology, from the silicon microchips powering our electronics to the catalysts driving our chemical industries. Crystallization, the phenomenon that transforms disordered atoms or molecules into ordered solid-state structures, is thus a...
In a first, researchers generate a direct measurement of the interaction between immune cells and cancer cells from a patient’s biopsy
May 06, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Bar-Ilan University have unveiled a technology that promises to improve cancer treatment decisions based on a patient's biopsy. The pioneering biological research and development measures changes in immune system cells adjacent to cancer cells, providing crucial insights into the patient's immune response and...
Surfaces on the move: dynamic liquefaction
May 06, 2024 (Nanowerk News) The boundary between solid metal and liquid metal can be much less ‘solid’ than we ever suspected. RMIT researchers have discovered that the liquid-solid boundary can fluctuate back and forth, with metallic atoms near the surface breaking free from their crystal lattice. Observing a metal-alloy...
High-performance artificial muscles made from pure conductive polymer fibers
May 04, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Artificial muscles hold the promise of revolutionizing fields ranging from robotics and prosthetics to biomedical devices. These lightweight, flexible materials can mimic the behavior of natural muscles, exhibiting high efficiency and rapid responsiveness. However, despite significant advancements in recent years, the widespread adoption of artificial...
New quantum sensing scheme could lead to enhanced high-precision nanoscopic techniques
May 04, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from the University of Portsmouth have unveiled a quantum sensing scheme that achieves the pinnacle of quantum sensitivity in measuring the transverse displacement between two interfering photons. This new technique has the potential to enhance superresolution imaging techniques that already employ single-photon sources as...
Variety in building block softness makes for softer amorphous materials
May 04, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a new model for disordered materials to study how amorphous materials resist stress. They treated groups of atoms and molecules as squishy spheres with varying softness. Putting their model under a load, they discovered unexpected disparities between harder...
Aligned peptide ‘noodles’ could enable lab-grown biological tissues
May 03, 2024 (Nanowerk News) A team of chemists and bioengineers at Rice University and the University of Houston have achieved a significant milestone in their work to create a biomaterial that can be used to grow biological tissues outside the human body. The development of a novel fabrication process...
Tweaking isotopes sheds light on promising approach to engineer semiconductors
May 03, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Research led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated that small changes in the isotopic content of thin semiconductor materials can influence their optical and electronic properties, possibly opening the way to new and advanced designs with the semiconductors....