A new fabrication technique that produces platinum hollow nanocages with ultra-thin walls could dramatically reduce the amount of the costly metal needed to provide catalytic activity in such applications as fuel cells.

Although the domestic solar-energy industry grew by 34 percent in 2014, fundamental technical breakthroughs are needed if the U.S. is to meet its national goal of reducing the cost of solar electricity to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. New research could make it easier for engineers to harness the power of light-capturing nanomaterials to boost the efficiency and reduce the costs of photovoltaic solar cells.

Researchers have for the first time observed the growth of free nanoparticles in helium gas in a process similar to the decaffeination of coffee, providing new insights into the structure of nanoparticles.

Two new advancements in electrochromic materials — a highly selective cool mode and a warm mode — not thought possible several years ago have been developed by engineers. The researchers are one step closer to delivering smart windows with a new level of energy efficiency.

For the first time, researchers have combined a novel synthesis process with commercial electron-beam lithography techniques to produce arrays of semiconductor junctions in arbitrary patterns within a single, nanometer-thick semiconductor crystal. The process transforms patterned regions of one existing, single-layer crystal into another. The two semiconductor crystals formed sharp junctions, the desired building blocks of electronics.

Scientists used the Mira supercomputer to identify and improve a new mechanism for eliminating friction, which fed into the development of a hybrid material that exhibited superlubricity at the macroscale for the first time. Researchers helped enable the groundbreaking simulations by overcoming a performance bottleneck that doubled the speed of the team’s code.

BPA’s popularity soared after the 1950s, but evidence suggests that even low doses might be harmful to human and environmental health. Many manufacturers are now phasing out BPA, but it doesn’t break down easily, making safe disposal difficult. Now, researchers have developed a hybrid photocatalyst that can break down BPA using visible light. Their findings could eventually be used to treat water supplies and to more safely dispose of BPA and materials like it.

Believe it or not: X-ray works a lot better on rocks than on paper. This has been a problem for conservators trying to save historical books and letters. They frankly did not know what they were up against once fungi started to spot the surface of their documents. Now an imaging specialist has managed to get a first look at how fungus goes about infesting paper.

Scientists have worked for many years to refine the technique of DNA origami. His aim is to compose new sets of design rules, vastly expanding the range of nanoscale architectures generated by the method. In new research, a variety of innovative nanoforms are described, each displaying unprecedented design control.

Researchers have developed a very promising prototype of a new solar celll. The material gallium phosphide enables their solar cell to produce the clean fuel hydrogen gas from liquid water. Processing the gallium phosphide in the form of very small nanowires is novel and helps to boost the yield by a factor of ten. And does so using ten thousand times less precious material.