Feb 13, 2025 (Nanowerk News) Light-sensitive nanoparticles promise a wide range of applications, for example in the field of sensor technology or energy generation. However, these require knowledge and control of the processes taking place within them. Plasmons, collective electron movements in the nanoparticle which transport energy, are essential in...
Scientists develop innovative DNA hydrogels for sustained drug release (w/video)
Feb 13, 2025 (Nanowerk News) Hydrogels are polymeric materials with three-dimensional network structures containing large amounts of water. They serve as sustained-release drug delivery systems as they can encapsulate various bioactive substances, including drugs, antigens, and even cells. Hydrogels are better drug delivery alternatives than conventional systems, as they are...
Astronomers announce largest collection of exocomets found
Feb 12, 2025 (Nanowerk News) For the first time, astronomers have imaged dozens of belts around nearby stars where comets and tiny pebbles within them are orbiting. A paper describing these results appeared in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal ("REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars (REASONS): A population...
Negative refraction of light using atoms instead of metamaterials
Feb 12, 2025 (Nanowerk News) For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that negative refraction can be achieved using atomic arrays - without the need for artificially manufactured metamaterials. Scientists have long sought to control light in ways that appear to defy the laws of Nature. Negative refraction - a...
Researchers develop safety evaluation technology for nanoparticles used in sunscreen
Feb 12, 2025 (Nanowerk News) The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has developed a safety evaluation technology for nanoparticles used in UV-blocking cosmetics and has listed it as an international standard. The ‘acute nanoparticle phototoxicity (a phenomenon in which a specific substance causes a toxic reaction in...
New polymer crystal conducts electricity like a metal
Feb 12, 2025 (Nanowerk News) An international research team, including scientists from the TUD Dresden University of Technology, has developed a breakthrough two-dimensional conducting polymer - a special, ordered form of polyaniline (2DPANI) that demonstrates exceptional electrical conductivity and metallic charge transport behavior. The discovery is a fundamental breakthrough in...
Electron-donable heterojunctions for inflammatory mandible defects treatment
Feb 12, 2025 (Nanowerk Spotlight) The maxillofacial bone defects after the trauma, deformity, tumor, or infection may cause severe dysfunctions and dramatically decrease the life quality of patients. According to clinical data, there are about 2 million patients suffer from maxillofacial bone defects worldwide. The clinical treatments of maxillofacial bone...
AI speeds up nanoparticle research
Feb 12, 2025 (Nanowerk News) A team of researchers at the University of Konstanz has succeeded in adapting an artificial intelligence (AI) system to reliably assist with making nanoparticle measurements which speeds up the research process significantly. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports ("Pre-trained artificial intelligence-aided analysis of...
Researchers uncover performance sweet spot for relaxor nanomaterial
Feb 12, 2025 (Nanowerk News) A new study led by Rice University materials scientist Lane Martin sheds light on how the extreme miniaturization of thin films affects the behavior of relaxor ferroelectrics — materials with noteworthy energy-conversion properties used in sensors, actuators and nanoelectronics. The findings reveal that as the...
New insights into the structure of atomic nuclei
Feb 12, 2025 (Nanowerk News) When world-leading teams join forces, new findings are bound to be made. This is what happened when quantum physicists from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg combined atomic and nuclear physics with unprecedented accuracy using two...