Sep 10, 2024 (Nanowerk News) In conjunction with research staff from the Charles University of Prague and the CFM (CSIC-UPV/EHU) center in San Sebastian, CIC nanoGUNE’s Nanodevices group has designed a new complex material with emerging properties in the field of spintronics. This discovery, published in the journal Nature Materials...
Molecular level changes translate to big efficiency gains for organic solar cells
Sep 10, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Organic solar cells (OSCs) – promising alternatives to traditional inorganic solar cells – have many features that make them key players in a greener future. One of these features is tunable chemistry, which allows scientists to precisely adjust or modify the properties of chemical systems...
Exploring chaos in quantum systems with simple diffusion models
Sep 09, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Although systems consisting of many interacting small particles can be highly complex and chaotic, some can nonetheless be described using simple theories. Does this also pertain to the world of quantum physics? A research team led by Professor Monika Aidelsburger and Professor Immanuel Bloch from...
Metamaterial e-skin brings advanced multisensory capabilities to robotics and wearables
Sep 09, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Creating technology that mimics human skin—a flexible, sensitive, and self-healing organ—has remained a significant challenge in material science and robotics. Electronic skin, or e-skin, offers a pathway to giving machines and humans enhanced sensory feedback, but early attempts to develop e-skin systems have encountered persistent...
Electrically modulated nanoantenna points the way to faster computer chips
Sep 09, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Today's computers reach their physical limits when it comes to speed. Semiconductor components usually operate at a maximum usable frequency of a few gigahertz – which corresponds to several billion computing operations per second. As a result, modern systems rely on several chips to divide...
Iron-doped carbon nanoparticles boost cancer treatment with enhanced precision and safety
Sep 09, 2024 (Nanowerk News) A collaborative research team, led by Prof. WANG Hui and Prof. QIAN Junchao from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has successfully developed catalytically active, photoresponsive Fe-doped carbon nanoparticles (FDCN) using the Stable High Magnetic Field Facility. These nanoparticles...
Atoms on the edge
Sep 09, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Typically, electrons are free agents that can move through most metals in any direction. When they encounter an obstacle, the charged particles experience friction and scatter randomly like colliding billiard balls. But in certain exotic materials, electrons can appear to flow with single-minded purpose. In...
New molecular engineering technique allows for complex organoids
Sep 09, 2024 (Nanowerk News) A new molecular engineering technique can precisely influence the development of organoids. Microbeads made of specifically folded DNA are used to release growth factors or other signal molecules inside the tissue structures. This gives rise to considerably more complex organoids that imitate the respective tissues...
Artificial muscles propel a robotic leg to walk and jump
Sep 09, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Inventors and researchers have been developing robots for almost 70 years. To date, all the machines they have built – whether for factories or elsewhere – have had one thing in common: they are powered by motors, a technology that is already 200 years old....
Streamlining materials research with STM automation
Sep 09, 2024 (Nanowerk News) A new open-source software package developed by Monash University researcher Julian Ceddia aims to significantly streamline the study of materials using Scanning Tunnelling Microscopes (STMs). The software, named Scanbot, automates the time-consuming probe optimisation and data acquisition processes essential for STM experiments, helping to accelerate...