Jun 26, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Aside from being an essential building block for life, carbon is being actively researched due to its versatility as an engineering material. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), in particular, have demonstrated tremendous potential for aerospace, semiconductor, and medical applications, mostly owing to their high strength and low...
Revealing the dynamic choreography inside multilayer vesicles
Jun 26, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Our cells and the machinery inside them are engaged in a constant dance. This dance involves some surprisingly complicated choreography within the lipid bilayers that comprise cell membranes and vesicles — structures that transport waste or food within cells. In a recent ACS Nano paper...
Microrobot-packed pill shows promise for treating inflammatory bowel disease in mice
Jun 26, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a pill that releases microscopic robots, or microrobots, into the colon to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The experimental treatment, given orally, has shown success in mice. It significantly reduced IBD symptoms and promoted the...
Graphene boosts UV-C LED efficiency for sterilization
Jun 26, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Ultraviolet light has long been recognized as a powerful tool for disinfection and sterilization. Its ability to neutralize harmful microorganisms has made it invaluable in applications ranging from water purification to medical equipment sterilization. Traditionally, this ultraviolet light has been produced by mercury vapor lamps,...
Gold nanomembrane coaxes secrets out of surfaces
Jun 25, 2024 (Nanowerk News) “Surfaces were invented by the devil” - this quote is attributed to the theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who taught at ETH Zurich for many years and in 1945 received the Nobel Prize in physics for his contributions to quantum mechanics. Researchers do, indeed, struggle with...
New catalyst grows 30 cm-long carbon nanotube arrays
Jun 25, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have long been hailed as a revolutionary material with the potential to transform industries ranging from electronics to aerospace. These cylindrical structures of carbon atoms, just nanometers in diameter, possess extraordinary properties including exceptional strength, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity. However, realizing...
Polymer fibers revolutionize long-term medication delivery
Jun 25, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Treating a wound or an inflammation directly where it occurs has clear advantages: The active ingredient reaches its target immediately, and there are no negative side effects on uninvolved parts of the body. However, conventional local administration methods reach their limits when it comes to...
Harvesting unused micro-vibration to generate electricity
Jun 25, 2024 (Nanowerk News) The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has developed a metamaterial that traps and amplifies micro-vibrations in small areas. This innovation is expected to increase the power output of energy harvesting, which converts wasted vibration energy into electricity, and accelerate its commercialization. The...
Innovative 3D printing method streamlines multi-materials manufacturing
Jun 24, 2024 (Nanowerk News) University of Missouri researchers have developed a way to create complex devices with multiple materials — including plastics, metals and semiconductors – all with a single machine. The research, which was recently published in Nature Communications ("Programmed multimaterial assembly by synergized 3D printing and freeform...
Star clusters observed within a galaxy in the early Universe for the first time
Jun 24, 2024 (Nanowerk News) The history of how stars and galaxies came to be and evolved into the present day remains among the most challenging astrophysical questions to solve yet, but new research brings us closer to understanding it. In a new study by an international team led by...