Jul 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Successfully innovating optoelectronic semiconductor devices depends a lot on moving charges and excitons – electron-hole pairs – in specified directions for the purpose of creating fuels or electricity. In photosynthesis, pigment molecules absorb and transfer solar energy to a reaction center, where the energy is...
Unlocking the power of nanopores
Jul 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Transmembrane β-barrel pores (TMBs) are extensively used for single-molecule DNA and RNA sequencing. They enable the miniaturization of a wide array of sensing and sequencing applications into portable USB-size devices and point-of-care technologies. A team of Belgian and American researchers has now described a general...
OptoGPT for improving solar cells, smart windows, telescopes and more
Jul 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Solar cell, telescope and other optical component manufacturers may be able to design better devices more quickly with AI. OptoGPT, developed by University of Michigan engineers, harnesses the computer architecture underpinning ChatGPT to work backward from desired optical properties to the material structure that can...
Exoplanet-hunting telescope to begin search for another Earth in 2026
Jul 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Europe's next big space mission - a telescope that will hunt for Earth-like rocky planets outside of our solar system - is on course to launch at the end of 2026. PLATO, or PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, is being built to find nearby...
AI method radically speeds predictions of materials’ thermal properties
Jul 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) It is estimated that about 70 percent of the energy generated worldwide ends up as waste heat. If scientists could better predict how heat moves through semiconductors and insulators, they could design more efficient power generation systems. However, the thermal properties of materials can be...
Defect-engineered nanoparticles enable precise tracking and delivery of drugs in cells
Jul 18, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) The field of drug delivery has long been challenged by the need for precise, targeted methods to transport therapeutic agents within the body. Traditional approaches often struggle with issues like premature drug release, poor cellular uptake, and inadequate tracking of drug carriers. These limitations have...
Soft, stretchy ‘jelly batteries’ inspired by electric eels
Jul 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have developed soft, stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ that could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics, or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions such as epilepsy. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, took their inspiration from electric eels,...
Scientists develop new artificial intelligence method to create material ‘fingerprints’
Jul 17, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Like people, materials evolve over time. They also behave differently when they are stressed and relaxed. Scientists looking to measure the dynamics of how materials change have developed a new technique that leverages X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. This...
Revolutionary microfluidic sensors enable real-time detection of multiple heavy metals in water
Jul 17, 2024 (Nanowerk News) A group of researchers from Institute of Solid State Physics, the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, designed and developed advanced microfluidic sensor arrays that use fluorescent probes to simultaneously visualize and quantitatively detect multiple heavy metal ions in environmental...