Technology Update

The record efficiency and low-cost production of perovskite solar cells has attracted a great deal of interest in the past few years. Now researchers in the US have developed a solution-processing technique that produces perovskite crystals with millimetre grain sizes – several orders of magnitude larger than the nano- and submicron-crystalline materials produced previously. Larger […]

The organic semiconducting molecule pentacene assumes a rarely observed crystal structure when it grows on a graphene substrate. This new result, from researchers at Stanford University in the US and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, could be important for making devices such as flexible transistors and sensors in the […]

Researchers at Rice University in the US have developed a new type of “nanoantenna” that pushes the sensitivity of a spectroscopy technique called SEIRA to levels never before seen in the lab. The fan-shaped nanostructure could help in the development of systems capable of detecting single molecules using infrared light and so improve the efficiency […]

Solar cells that have pyramid-shaped electrodes absorb much more incoming sunlight than those with traditional, flat electrodes. This is the new result from a team of researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada who have made thin-film “hierarchically structured” devices that boast a power conversion efficiency of 9.2%. The new cells could find use […]

Researchers have used a technique called X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with C60+ sputtering to determine how lithium ions are distributed in nanostructured block polymer electrolyte thin films. These ion-conducting materials are routinely used in a variety of applications including battery and fuel cell membranes, and nanolithography templates…… http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/59824 Making lamellar PS-POEM lithium-doped thin films

A new nanosensor that can identify cancer drug mechanisms in a matter of just minutes has been unveiled by a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US. Determining such mechanisms is usually laborious and can take weeks or even months using conventional assays. The new technique will allow for rapid […]

Researchers know that boron nitride (BN) films are a very good substrate for graphene (a sheet of carbon atoms just one atom thick). This is because graphene and BN have very similar structures – the carbon atoms in graphene are arranged in a hexagonal lattice as are the boron and nitride atoms in a BN […]

Researchers in California and Texas have used an infrared microscope to probe electron and hole transport in ambipolar organic field effect transistors for the first time. The technique will help to improve real working devices made from semiconducting polymers – which are turning out to be attractive alternatives to conventional silicon-based materials for electronics…… http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/59748 […]

Stretchy copper patch provides pain relief Many of us are already familiar with heated patches that can help alleviate the pain caused by a sprained muscle or other minor injury. Although most welcome and more or less comforting depending on how intense the pain is, these patches are nevertheless relatively expensive, only work for a […]

Stretchable silicon nanoribbons make artificial skin Researchers in Korea have made a new type of “smart” artificial skin from silicon nanoribbons that can sense strain, pressure, temperature and humidity. The skin, which contains stretchable multi-electrode arrays, might be used in prosthetics and in robotics applications….. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/59613 Artificial skin on prosthetic hand

Controlling the temperature of nanopore sensors Locally controlling temperature on the nanoscale can be exceptionally challenging but researchers at Imperial College London in the UK say that they are now able to do just this inside plasmonic nanostructures made from nanopores and “bulls-eye” nanoantennas. The structures are made from gold and silicon nitride and can […]

Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Northeastern University, both in the US, say they have succeed in synthesizing pure selenium quantum dots and nanoparticles by simply blasting a sample of selenium powder in a glass of water with a laser beam. The nanostructures might be used in two very different applications: […]

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, have developed a technique called RESOLFT and used it to image live cells at high resolution. The technique, which does not photodamage biological samples (that are often fragile), is now free of chromatic errors too…… http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/59536 RESOLFT imaging inside living brain tissue

Using a technique called atomic layer lithography, researchers in the US and Italy have succeeded in creating nanometre-wide gaps in metal films. Such gaps are normally made by etching or milling a narrow strip of metal in the film, but it is difficult to make gaps smaller than 10 nm across in this way. The gaps, […]

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (a new class of technologically important 2D materials) might be ideal in a host of future electronic, optoelectronic and even spintronic devices thanks to the fact that they have very different physical properties from their 3D counterparts. However, although the materials can be easily doped with electrons (known as n-type doping), […]