Light-powered delivery of silver nanowires by photofluidic movement can offer rapid, noninvasive, repetitive, and on-demand healing of electrical conductors, investigators report.

A key achievement in shrinking photonic devices below the diffraction limit — a necessary step on the road to making photonic circuits competitive with today’s technology — has been revealed by scientists.

A full description of nanoscale thermal transport has defied understanding for decades. In a new study, researchers uncovered a regime of thermal transport near nanoscale structures, where counterintuitively, nanoscale hot spots cool more quickly when placed close together than when they are widely separated. The results suggest new approaches for addressing the significant challenge of heat management in nanosystems, with design implications for integrated circuits and other uses.

A new implantable drug-delivery system has been developed using nanowires that can be wirelessly controlled. The nanowires respond to an electromagnetic field generated by a separate device, which can be used to control the release of a preloaded drug. The system was tested in mice with spinal cord injuries.

LEDs made from nanowires will use less energy and provide better light, scientists suggest. The researchers studied nanowires using X-ray microscopy and with this method they can pinpoint exactly how the nanowire should be designed to give the best properties.

A team of Korean scientists has discovered a new class of solitons, which they named chiral solitons.

Using computational and experimental methods, researchers have developed a technique for creating so-called protein-DNA nanowires — a hybrid biomaterial that could have important applications.

A transparent electrode with high electrical conductivity has been developed for solar cells and other optoelectronic components — that uses minimal amounts of material. It consists of a random network of silver nanowires that is coated with aluminium-doped zinc oxide. The novel electrode requires about 70 times less silver than conventional silver grid electrodes, but possesses comparable electrical conductivity.

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.

Researchers have found that nanoscale wires (nanowires) made of common semiconductor materials have a pronounced anelasticity — meaning that the wires, when bent, return slowly to their original shape rather than snapping back quickly.