Jul 23, 2024 (Nanowerk News) A supercrystal formation previously unobserved in a metal-insulating material was discovered by a Cornell-led research team, potentially unlocking new ways to engineer materials and devices with tunable electronic properties. The researchers showed that the atomic structure in the thin-film Mott insulator Ca2RuO4 – part of...
New 3D reconstruction method aids analysis of property-defining defects
Jul 23, 2024 (Nanowerk News) An international research collaboration, including a group from Cornell Engineering, has applied a new X-ray-based reconstruction technique to observe, for the first time, topological defects in a nanoscale self-assembly-based cubic network structure of a polymer-metal composite material imaged over a relatively large sample volume. In...
Researchers examine nanotechnological methods for improving agriculture
Jul 23, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Nanoparticles could potentially help address agricultural and environmental sustainability issues on a global scale. Those issues include rising food demand, increasing greenhouse gas emissions generated by agricultural activities, climbing costs of agrochemicals, reducing crop yields induced by climate change, and degrading soil quality. A class...
Light emission from nanostructures, revealed using 3D printing method
Jul 23, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Dr. Jaeyeon Pyo’s team at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) has become the first in the world to reveal light emission patterns from 3D-printed nanowires, which has been published as a cover article in the prestigious scientific journal ACS Nano ("Emission Directionality of 3D-Printed...
Nanoscale high-entropy liquid metal alloys promise advancements in catalysis and materials science
Jul 23, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Liquid metals have long fascinated materials scientists due to their unique properties that bridge the gap between solid and liquid states of matter. These materials, which remain fluid at or near room temperature, offer a wealth of potential applications across various scientific domains. In recent...
Ultra-low threshold lasing in organic polymer blend microspheres with the highest Q factor
Jul 22, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Dielectric optical microresonators confine and concentrate light in a tiny circular path due to multiple near total internal reflections at the curved dielectric-air interface, where light interferes constructively for certain wavelengths. These microresonators offer the possibility to achieve control of light confinement and propagation through...
Reducing electronic waste with biodegradable luminescent polymers
Jul 22, 2024 (Nanowerk News) From your car’s navigation display to the screen you are reading this on, luminescent polymers — a class of flexible materials that contain light-emitting molecules — are used in a variety of today’s electronics. Luminescent polymers stand out for their light-emitting capability, coupled with their...
3D Printing of light-activated hydrogel actuators
Jul 22, 2024 (Nanowerk News) An international team of researchers has embedded gold nanorods in hydrogels that can be processed through 3D printing to create structures that contract when exposed to light – and expand again when the light is removed. Because this expansion and contraction can be performed repeatedly,...