Chemical engineers have developed a new approach that will have a huge impact in future materials design, they say. The findings reveal a unique model that enables fast and accurate prediction of novel alloy materials for efficient chemical conversions.

A new technique has been developed to observe, in real time, how individual blood components interact and modify advanced nanoparticle therapeutics. The method helps guide the design of future nanoparticles to interact in concert with human blood components, thus avoiding unwanted side effects.

New research shows how individual atoms move in trillionths of a second to form wrinkles on a three-atom-thick material. Revealed by a brand new ‘electron camera,’ one of the world’s speediest, this unprecedented level of detail could guide researchers in the development of efficient solar cells, fast and flexible electronics and high-performance chemical catalysts.

A cut or tear in a material is typically a sign of weakness. Now researchers have created complex 3-D micro- and nanostructures out of silicon and other materials using an assembly method that uses cuts to advantage. The technique can create closed-form 3-D shapes from 2-D material in an instant, like a pop-up children’s book. The work borrows ideas from Kirigami, the ancient Japanese technique for forming paper structures by folding and cutting.

Many semiconductor devices in modern technology are based on nanostructures. Producing arrays of regular nanostructures usually requires substantial effort. If they were self-organized, the production of such devices would be considerably faster and the costs would therefore sink. Researchers have now demonstrated a method for self-organization of nanostructured arrays via broad ion beam irradiation.

hysicists have experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of designing an optical analog of a transistor based on a single silicon nanoparticle. Because transistors are some of the most fundamental components of computing circuits, the results of the study have crucial importance for the development of optical computers, where transistors must be very small and ultrafast at the same time.

Scientists have developed a new way to study nanoparticles one at a time, and have discovered that individual particles that may seem identical in fact can have very different properties. The results may prove to be important when developing new materials or applications such as hydrogen sensors for fuel cell cars.

An international team of scientists has developed a one-step process for making seamless carbon-based nanomaterials that possess superior thermal, electrical and mechanical properties in three dimensions.

If two-dimensional boron can be made at all, the material’s substrate will have a significant impact on its final form, according to scientists.

The medium is the message. Scientists have now given new meaning to this maxim: An innovative method they have now demonstrated for getting nanoparticles to self-assemble focuses on the medium in which the particles are suspended; these assemblies can be used, among other things, for reversibly writing information.