Technology Update

Researchers at the universities of Oxford and Warwick in the UK have used a DNA nanomachine to control a set of chemical reactions in a sort of nanoscale manufacturing line that they have dubbed a molecular assembler. The reactions in question normally occur very slowly, but the DNA molecules help to bring the reactants closer […]

A high-quality, flexible transistor, made entirely from colloidal nanocrystals, has been developed by a team in the US. By sequentially depositing their components in the form of nanocrystal “inks,” the researchers could make transistors using standard industrial methods, without the need for high-temperature, high-vacuum specialist equipment. The work can be scaled up, so it could […]

Physicists in the US are the first to use a combination of light and sound to control the state of a diamond-based quantum bit (qubit) of information. The team used a laser pulse and a sound wave to modify the energy state of an electron in a nitrogen vacancy (NV) centre in diamond. According to […]

Researchers at Korea University are reporting on a new way to make nano-trenches less than 5 nm deep with a technique called atomic-layer deposition (ALD), and single-walled carbon nanotubes as templates. The structures produced could be used to make high-density resistive components for a wide range of nanoelectronics devices…. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/64707 Making SiO2 nano-trenches

Lithium is a promising anode candidate for future high-energy-density batteries thanks to its light weight and the fact that it has the highest theoretical capacity (of 3860 mAh/g) and the lowest electrochemical potential of all metals. However, it does suffer from several serious problems, one of which is that its volume drastically changes during battery […]

While two-dimensional crystalline materials have been courting huge interest for flexible next-generation electronics devices, for the past two decades in the US research into crystal growth has been in decline. This gap in the research landscape now looks set to be filled with the multimillion award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to Penn State […]

Researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada and Stanford University in the US say they have made the best oxygen-evolving reaction (OER) catalysts to date. The new catalysts, which are made from gelled multimetal oxy-hydroxides, have nanoporous structures and large specific surface areas containing lots of active sites for electrolytic reactions like the OER. […]

“Plateau–Rayleigh” crystal growth is a technique that can be used to synthesize 1D materials. Here, periodic shells develop along a nanowire core to form nanostructures whose diameters can be modulated. A team of researchers at Harvard University has now extended this concept by making heterostructures in which one semiconductor (germanium or silicon) is deposited on […]

Water absorbed on the surface of ferroelectric thin films can alter the properties of these materials, so it would be good if we could understand and better control the effect of such adsorbates. A team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Nebraska is now reporting on a new […]

Fuel cells are just one of many applications that may benefit from solvent processes to remove intercalated water, according to results from a collaboration of US researchers. Their study of the electrocatalytic activity of functionalized, stacked graphene oxide sheets following different solvent processes reveals properties sufficiently enhanced for the structures to function well as catalysts, […]

The rate of non-radiative energy transfer from semiconductor nanocrystals (or quantum dots) to 2D materials can vary greatly depending on the thickness of these materials. Researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University have now found that the rate of energy transfer increases with increasing thicknesses of adjacent graphene layers, but decreases with increasing thicknesses of […]

Inorganic nanoparticles can self-assemble into structures that are nearly as complex as biological objects like viruses. So say researchers from the US, China and South Korea, who have made helical supraparticles from chiral cadmium telluride nanoparticles coated with L- or D-cysteine. The work proves that nanoscale semiconducting particles can be biomimetic and could be used, […]

Origami structures can act as atoms and combine according to pre-defined rules to form functional molecules, according to new work by researchers at the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The structures could not only be used as the reactive building blocks for a variety of chemical reactions, such as […]

An important property of Majorana quasiparticles has been measured for the first time by physicists at the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark. They found evidence that electrons in tiny nanowires form entangled states that are highly isolated from noise and other external stimuli. Because they are protected from outside influences, these Majorana “zero modes” could […]

Researchers in the US, Italy and Spain have developed a new technique to write fully reconfigurable magnetic nanopatterns in continuous multilayer films in which the magnetization can be oriented at will. The method allows magnetism to be controlled at the nanoscale in a way that was not possible before, and could be used to fabricate […]

Tunable, flexible electronic and photovoltaic devices place some tough requirements on component materials. Recent reports of successful synthesis and characterization have suggested tungsten chalcogenides such as WS2(1–x)S2x could fit the bill, but to harness the properties of these materials in practical devices, stability is key. Now researchers have not only demonstrated tunable p-type electrical transport […]

A team of physicists in the US, Japan and Belgium say they have discovered a new way to control and guide electrons in graphene by removing a single carbon atom from its perfect honeycombed lattice. The vacancy produced can host a local charge and this charge can be built up gradually by applying voltage pulses […]